The Lucky Farmgirl-Chapter 2011 - 1986: Stabbing You

Bai Shan continued, "I’ve seen it; two quarters of an hour ago, there were a total of four blocked intersections ahead. Someone fell, and I suspect someone might be seriously injured. I’ve already sent someone to call Jishi Hall and Hundred Herbs Hall, but since tonight is the Mid-Autumn Festival, there are probably only doctors on duty."

Tang He then asked, "What about Zhou Man?"

Bai Shan’s face turned even grimmer, "She’s inside."

He paused for a moment and then lowered his voice, saying, "Princess Mingda and Princess Changyu are also inside."

Tang He was stunned, glanced at Bai Shan, then turned his head to summon a subordinate, saying, "Go ask Lord Yin to send the imperial guards."

Tang He had a thousand words in his mind at that moment, so much so that he couldn’t utter a single sentence. Just as he was about to discuss with Bai Shan how to handle other matters, he heard the sound of a gong, followed by a loud voice from above, "The human trafficker has been caught..."

He looked up and saw one of his men cautiously walking over the rooftop.

Tang He: ...

Bai Shan said, "The family who lost their child is very anxious, and it seems there are quite a number of family members inside, making it very chaotic, so I sent him to calm them down."

Tang He glanced at him. Is it just to calm them down?

He looked up at the constable on the roof and asked, "Approximately how many of you are there? Can you see a stampede? Is the situation controlled so people aren’t moving this way past the five intersections ahead?"

Tang He learned about the situation on the other side from Constable Yi, feeling that Bai Shan’s approach was too slow, he turned his head and ordered another, "Pass on the drum order, stop people moving from Yi Ping Street, Eryang Lane, and Sanshi Street towards the third, fourth, and fifth intersections, and have those stationed at each intersection disperse people coming out from the main street."

He saw several injured people sitting or lying in nearby shops and said, "All injured people who have retreated should first be settled nearby."

"Yes!" The constable accepted the order and left.

Having arranged everything, Tang He saw the constable standing on the roof shouting but hardly anyone was listening, so he simply ran upstairs himself, flipped onto the roof, directly banged the gong, and shouted loudly, "This county is the magistrate of Chang’an County. If you don’t want to die, quiet down for this county. It’s a beautiful night festival; do you want to leave walking or have your family arrange a funeral for you when you go back lying down?"

The chaotic, noisy, and anxious crowd quieted down for a moment, so Manbao, who was squeezed in the crowd along with Changyu, finally heard the voice, only to hear Tang He’s voice coming from a distance, "...everyone listen, stop moving, this county orders you to stop for fifteen breaths, now, everyone pass the message by word of mouth, tell the people around you to stop."

Soon, someone next to Manbao shouted in her ear, "The magistrate orders to stop for fifteen breaths—"

The person who had been pulling Manbao was a bit panicked, trying to drag her out, but Manbao grabbed her and smiled, "Auntie, the magistrate wants us to stop for a moment, let’s stop for a while."

The person next to them hurriedly said, "Yes, yes, we must stop."

How could she be willing to stop? In such a situation, the more chaos, the better, so she opened her mouth to shout, hoping everyone would panic. The thought just crossed her mind when Zhou Man, whom she had been holding onto, suddenly let go of the tightly grasped Changyu and raised her hand accurately towards her neck amid the crowd. She felt a sharp pain in the neck, and the words she was about to shout were stuck in her throat, rendering her speechless...

She looked at Zhou Man in horror, but Manbao, taking advantage of the crowd’s inability to see clearly, took out a short needle from her space and stuck it into the back of her neck. She suddenly couldn’t muster any strength with her hands, and her grip on Zhou Man loosened...

Timidly, she wanted to turn and leave, but her neck seemed to touch something sharp, and she dared not move.

Manbao removed the long needle from her hand, waved it in front of her eyes, then returned it to her neck, softly laughing, "Auntie, don’t move randomly. My hand is not steady, and if I accidentally hit a vital point, it might really be fatal."

It’s a lie; hitting a vital point won’t result in immediate death, but there’s always a way to die slowly.

She dared not move.

When Manbao released her hand after grazing her palm, Changyu tightly grasped her clothes, clinging to her body. Watching her unblinkingly stick the needle into the clearly malicious old woman, she was delighted.

"Manbao, you’re amazing."

Manbao proudly raised her head, "Of course, I always thought about what to do if I encountered such a situation and rehearsed countless times in my mind."

Princess Changyu was dumbfounded, asking, "Why would you think of... such an incident?" She swallowed the words "human trafficker," fearing that saying it would cause panic.

Manbao said, "There’s no choice. I grew up listening to stories of kidnappers. The adults in our village, and my family, they loved talking about kidnappers the most."

When the village children went out, from eighty-year-old grandmothers to older children two or three years older than those going out, their mantra was, "Be careful, or the kidnappers will take you away."

When they disobeyed, cried, or played in the mud or water, their scare tactic remained, "Be careful, or the kidnappers will take you away."

Not only she, but Bai Shan and Bai Erlang also thought about what to do if they encountered a trafficker. When they were young, they even played kidnapper games with their village companions.

Manbao, being younger than her peers, was always the kidnapped child, which was particularly frustrating.

Living in the imperial palace, Changyu could not comprehend their games, but tonight she had broadened her horizons.

Tang He continued commanding the crowd to stop, first looking around to see if anyone had fallen, and if so, the people around made a space to help them up, supporting them out...

This time, Tang He gave them one hundred and twenty breaths. He beat the gong on the roof, one beat per breath, and also instructed people below to count along.

Thus, the semi-chaotic street gradually calmed down, with people counting along.

Finally, Tang He allowed them to move slowly to the sides, not too quickly. They must wait for those in front to move before proceeding, the speed slower the further back they were.

No one, for whatever reason, was allowed to move unnecessarily, disrupting the walking formation.

Tang He shouted loudly, "The human trafficker has been caught. The families who lost their children must not panic. If there is further chaos, think about who the blame will fall upon!"

Upon hearing this, the adults who wanted to push their way out to look for their children paused, then anxiously followed along, slowly moving out with everyone else.

Meanwhile, Manbao and Changyu listened to the voice and glanced at the middle-aged woman in front of them.

A while ago, just as the crowd started to become chaotic, as Manbao was about to drag Changyu to the intersection, a middle-aged woman grabbed her hand, and at the same time, Changyu was also grabbed. Then, Manbao was slapped, and the woman began shouting, "Why are you running around with your cousin? What if you get lost? Hurry and come home with me."

At that moment, Changyu was stunned, wanting to kick the person, but surrounded by people, she didn’t even have space to lift her foot. But that wasn’t the main issue. The main issue was that, after Manbao covered her slapped face, she grabbed Changyu and replied with an "Oh."

Then she followed the woman, who clearly looked like a trafficker, with Changyu in tow.