Farm Tough Girl
Chapter 309 - 309 310 Drinking Water Without Eating Food_1

Chapter 309: Chapter 310 Drinking Water Without Eating Food_1 Chapter 309: Chapter 310 Drinking Water Without Eating Food_1 Muniang’s face darkened; indeed, she hadn’t expected such brazen fools to exist in the Daqian Dynasty!

The fat leader bellowed, “Men, seize this woman for me!”

“Yes!”

Several bandits received the order and charged at Muniang. Grinding her teeth, she could only take a gamble.

One bandit lunged at Muniang but was deftly dodged. She spun around and kicked another bandit, sending him flying a great distance. He looked at Muniang in horror. Was this even a woman?

The remaining bandits dared not take her lightly anymore and charged at Muniang with knives. But she behaved as if she wasn’t afraid of the blades, not caring if they would cut her. She was confident these despicable bandits wouldn’t dare to harm her—after all, she was Yu Ze’s woman.

And sure enough, even though the bandits wielded knives, they now had to take care not to injure Qiao Muniang, having been instructed by their leader that she had to be captured alive. More importantly, they didn’t have the guts to hurt her.

After a round of fighting, Muniang had knocked down several bandits and was still completely unscathed. Manager Qian was utterly astonished, having never seen such a fierce woman before. Indeed, she was a general’s woman and obviously extraordinary!

The leading fat man panicked, unsure of what to do. He had thought this would be an easy task, but now realized he was dealing with a difficult woman. How would he explain if he couldn’t capture her?

However, at that moment, two plain-looking bandits suddenly rushed forward. Attacking from both sides, they quickly subdued Muniang. Their skills were nowhere near those of the other bandits; they were clearly masters.

Muniang’s heart sank. How could there be such skilled experts among these bandits? They surely weren’t just simple bandits.

The lead fat man didn’t dare to command these two, instead smiling ingratiatingly, “Wow, such impressive skills! Lucky that we’ve captured her. Otherwise, we would have had trouble with—not good at robbing silver, I mean.”

He had barely stopped himself from saying “explaining” when he noticed the change in the masters’ expressions. Muniang became even more certain that this incident was no coincidence; they definitely wanted more than just extorting money.

The lead fat man then shouted to the other incompetents, “What are you waiting for? Tie her up and take her back to the stronghold!”

“Yes!”

By this time, Manager Qian had been beaten to the ground. Sitting there trembling, he received a kick from the leader, “You, scurry back and deliver the message. No matter what, I want a ransom of one million taels of silver. Be smart and bring it to me quickly! I know you, you are the shopkeeper of Dongxing Building; don’t think I don’t know how rich you are!”

Manager Qian immediately responded, “I’ll go back and relay the message, but you must ensure the hostage’s safety—”

Before he could finish, he received another kick. The leader, with a fierce look on his face, said, “I can’t guarantee her safety. If you dare to inform the officials or let any word slip, dragging your feet, I won’t show her any mercy.”

“Yes, yes, yes, I won’t let any word slip. I’ll definitely bring the silver to Lunming Mountain to redeem her,” Manager Qian was now wholly compliant. He knew well how concerned Wu Haoli was about Qiao Muniang, though he didn’t know why. Yet, since he cared, under no circumstances could he allow anything to happen to her!

The bandits then took Muniang away.

Manager Qian then hurried back to the Capital City to find Wu Haoli as quickly as possible.

Muniang, blindfolded by the bandits all the way, couldn’t clearly see what was happening but remained calm because she knew that resisting would be pointless at this time.

It wasn’t until she entered a wooden hut that the cloth covering Muniang’s eyes was finally removed. Initially overwhelmed by the brightness, she blinked furiously for quite some time before she could barely open her eyes.

One of the bandits, scowling, said, “Stay put!” and then turned and walked straight out.

Peering through the crack of the door, she could see that the entrance was tightly guarded by those two experts. Considering Muniang knew some martial arts, the bandits had even shackled one of her legs with a heavy iron chain, fixing it to a beam inside the room, restricting her mobility to just a few steps.

Muniang began to rapidly recall the bandits’ unusual actions. The appearance of those two experts meant this was not just an ordinary bandit act, but who was behind them? And what was their objective?

She suddenly remembered the bandits’ instructions to Manager Qian, seemingly deliberate in mentioning not to alert the military, only to raise money, and specifically pointed out that they knew Dongxing Building was wealthy.

What appeared to be normal statements now seemed riddled with loopholes upon reflection. If they kidnapped her, shouldn’t they have directly informed Yu Ze? Wouldn’t informing Yu Ze mean alerting the head of the military? But they seemed to intentionally lead Manager Qian towards Dongxing Building. Why?

Muniang was unaware of Wu Haoli’s arrival in the Capital City, so her speculations could only go so far, but she still armed herself with a lot of caution. This incident likely wasn’t simple.

It didn’t take long before a bandit suddenly brought in a meal, saying, “The Village Chief was afraid you might be hungry, eat.”

Muniang’s heart skipped a beat. A weasel paying a visit to a chicken for no good reason, up to no good. Her mind raced for a long time before she said, “I can’t swallow this slop meant for pigs. Bring me a bowl of water instead, make sure it’s clean. I really don’t know how anyone can live in such a place, just looking at it makes me nauseous. Do you know I am the Princess of Marquis Chen Mansion? You actually think to treat me with this kind of stuff, do you think I am as vulgar as you?”

As she spoke, she made a disgusted face and snorted coldly.

The bandit, with a scowl, said, “Hey! Acting all high and mighty like a princess!” clearly not pleased.

Another bandit immediately said, “Let it be, if she wants water give it to her, it’s not on us if she starves.” With that, he even winked and gestured towards the other bandit.

Muniang pretended not to notice; she was more certain now that there was something in the food. The bandits didn’t care if she ate; what mattered to them was whether she would swallow the drug. Whether it was in the water or the food didn’t matter.

What she could do now was to attempt to gain a sliver of initiative in a passive situation. She couldn’t even understand what drug they wanted to administer or what sneaky trick they were planning.

The bandit said impatiently, “Then give her water. If she starves to death, who cares!” Naturally, it was much easier to give a bowl of water than to force someone to eat—a fool would choose the latter.

The bandit took away the food and brought a bowl of water, indeed in a clean bowl, devoid of any impurity. He didn’t leave after bringing it but pretended to be unconcerned as he watched her, clearly intending to make sure she drank before he would be at ease.

Muniang slowly picked up the bowl of water, her every move exuding the elegance and dignity of a noble lady, and brought it to her lips to take a sip.