After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

"These people are truly vicious!" Liu Ying stomped her foot angrily. "A pile of charcoal produces smoke, and a pile of charcoal is poisonous. They don't want these soldiers to live in peace."

“Smoke is also poisonous,” Lu Zhiyuan corrected, “especially the smoke from burning charcoal that has been soaked in water.”

Imagine, in the dead of winter, with heavy snow blocking the roads, the soldiers are all huddled in their tents or cabins. To ward off the cold, they light charcoal, but soon they feel dizzy and lightheaded.

They suspected they were cold, sleepy, or sick, but they didn't suspect there was something wrong with the charcoal in front of them.

At this moment, a group of assassins emerged from the snow. They infiltrated the camp, killing each soldier with a single blow. In just one hour, they could send all the soldiers to their deaths.

Liu Ying shuddered: "Should we tell the general about this? If all this charcoal is replaced, it might alert the thieves."

Lu Zhiyuan paced back and forth: "No need. Mark these problematic charcoal pieces. They must not be used after winter. The general will be informed."

He stopped and looked at Manager Xie: "How much charcoal does the Xie family have in their warehouse? Can it be used to replace these problematic ones?"

Manager Xie did the math in his head: "No, we're still short over a thousand catties."

"What if we include the city's residents?"

"It should be at least 10,000 jin, and that's a conservative estimate."

"Transfer it from several surrounding states. Don't say it's for buying charcoal, just say it's for transporting goods. It will be sold to the north next spring. Don't put the charcoal into the charcoal shops. Let them each clear out a warehouse. There's no need to unpack it, just put it in directly. Winter is coming soon, so it doesn't matter whether you unpack it or not."

Manager Xie was somewhat embarrassed: "I can handle the buying and transporting of charcoal, but I'm afraid I can't do it for other shops. I only manage the charcoal shops; I can't make decisions for other managers."

"Liu Ying, take my token and come with me." Lu Zhiyuan took out the token and handed it to Liu Ying: "Whoever keeps masturbating, beat whoever doesn't obey, and whoever dares to leak the secret, bury him upside down in the pit."

Looking at the warehouse, a cold sweat broke out on my back.

As expected of the Xie family, the shopkeeper can kill or bury people at will.

After leaving the military camp, Manager Xie accompanied Han Ting to various prefectures. Before the matter was clarified, it was inconvenient to disturb the officials of each prefecture. Manager Xie had his own channels and could access the charcoal warehouses through the officials in each prefecture. Problems would be handed over to His Highness the Crown Prince; otherwise, it would be as if the matter had never happened.

Lu Zhiyuan and Liu Ying traveled by carriage to the Liu family's old residence. The driver was a young shop assistant, a trusted confidant whom Manager Xie had personally promoted. The assistant had followed Manager Xie around the streets and alleys since childhood and knew Ganzhou and its surrounding areas very well. He knew Manager Liu, and having him accompany them made things much easier.

It took an hour to get from Ganzhou to the Liu family's old house. It wasn't that the road was far, but that the road leading to the Liu family's old house was difficult to travel.

Shopkeeper Liu lived in Liu Family Village, a remote village where most villagers made a living by chopping firewood, raising pigs, and farming. Shopkeeper Liu's ancestors were charcoal sellers, the kind who pushed a cart and sold broken charcoal in baskets along the streets. Half of their charcoal was good charcoal bought from charcoal shops, and the other half was charcoal they made themselves from wood from the mountains. They would crush the charcoal they had made and mix it with the purchased charcoal to create the broken charcoal they sold.

More than 20 years ago, there were many vendors selling this kind of charcoal in Ganzhou City.

The Liu family has had a tough time. Three generations of hard work have brought them to where they are today, but the fire has severely damaged their health.

After parking the car on the side of the road, the waiter pointed to the narrow alley on the right and said that the Liu family's old house was at the end of the alley.

The path was narrow, with stones and weeds on both sides. The young man explained as they walked: "About four or five years ago, Liu Family Village was hit by a wildfire that destroyed some of the houses. Manager Liu contributed money and labor to help them build new houses on the south side of the village so that those who were homeless could live there. It was a good deed, but it drew criticism from the villagers, who said he was being unfair. Those whose houses hadn't been destroyed were jealous of the other villagers living in new houses and demanded that Manager Liu build one for them as well. When Manager Liu refused, they set fire to Manager Liu's old house, dug up his ancestral graves, and even left his ancestors' remains to be exposed to the sun."

"These villagers are going too far! They're repaying kindness with enmity!" Liu Ying kicked a pebble to the side of the road.

"Who can argue with that? Manager Liu reported it to the authorities, and the officials came to the village and arrested the man. The question then became how to resolve the matter. People can be arrested and sentenced, but what happens after that? Will Manager Liu's family be able to return? Will they still have their ancestral graves and ancestral home? In the end, it was our manager who stepped forward and helped the remaining villagers to build houses together in the south."

“Even if the houses are repaired, the villagers will not be grateful to Manager Liu, and may even resent him.”

“Miss is right, that’s exactly how it is,” the waiter said. “They live in the house that Manager Liu paid for to build, but they don’t appreciate Manager Liu’s kindness at all. Instead, they spread rumors and speak ill of him. After that wildfire, Liu Family Village was divided in two. The villagers live in the south, and Manager Liu’s family lives in the north. This road used to be wide, but Manager Liu is away from home all year round, and the villagers deliberately made it like this, which is what you and Miss Liu Ying saw.”

At this time of year, the village is quiet, with only a yellow dog lying dozing under the dilapidated eaves. Although four or five years have passed, traces of the wildfire the young man mentioned can still be seen as you approach the village. The Liu family's old house is grand, but its overly dark colors, set against the backdrop of the wildfire marks, make it look somewhat like a ghostly dwelling devoid of human presence.

The young waiter stood at the door and knocked gently, but there was no answer. He knocked again, this time with more force, but still no response. A little embarrassed, the waiter mustered his strength and pushed hard; the door opened.

Not far behind the door, a broom lay across the ground, with fallen leaves in front of it, some of which had bloodstains on them.

“There are drag marks. Is it Lu Yun?” Liu Ying asked, pointing to the two drag marks under the fallen leaves. “That shouldn’t be the case. Lu Yun isn’t such an impulsive person. Madam, something might have happened to the Liu family.”

“It’s not a possibility, something has already happened.” Lu Zhiyuan looked at the bloodstains on the fallen leaves: “The pile of leaves was swept yesterday, and the leaves over there have been falling since last night. The bloodstains have dried, and most of them are buried under the leaves. The servant who was sweeping was suddenly knocked down. When he fell, his heel scraped against this pile of leaves, forming the small gash we see here. He was injured, but not seriously. He was scratched by the broom when he fainted. The blood is the servant’s. The servant was dragged away, dragged into the house over there.”

Following Lu Zhiyuan's gaze, she saw a storage room with an ajar door and flies buzzing around it. Liu Ying hurried over and covered her nose when she was two or three steps away from the door: "There's a dead body. It was a servant, and his right hand was injured."

The young shop assistant followed and recognized the servant in the storeroom as the shop assistant who had worked for Manager Liu. After the shop caught fire, he and Manager Liu came to the Liu family's old residence.

"cause of death?"

"He must have died from excessive blood loss!" Liu Ying stepped forward, covering her nose. "There was a shadow around his mouth and nose. His throat had been slashed, and the wound was extremely deep and turned outwards. It was a fatal blow; it was a veteran."