The Mo Family was building houses where Hu Cong was in charge. Now that the foundations of the houses had taken shape, the busiest time had passed.
Although Hu Cong wanted to take care of these villagers as well, there was no shortage of manpower. If he used people from Xi Ling Village, others would lose the chance to work.
Therefore, Hu Cong was in a very difficult position.
How could Mo Jiuye let him be in such a difficult position?
The Mo Family's farms happened to need more workers too.
After discussing with the patriarchs of both families, 20 people from each family came to help with the work. The wages remained 30 wen per day.
With such high wages compared to building houses, the Zhao and Zhou families knew the Mo Family was taking care of them. Therefore, they would definitely work hard for the Mo Family.
As for the Cui Family, without Cui Wen's support, many people had entered the academy. Those remaining in the family were basically useless.
When they heard that the Zhao and Zhou families were helping the Mo Family farm, not only did they not have to leave the village, but could also earn high wages, they became very jealous.
Apart from the 30 wen they could earn per day, if not for the Mo Family, their backer, the Cui Family, would not have fallen either.
Anyone could see that the new County prefect had a good relationship with the Mo Family. If not for the Mo Family, he would not have driven the Cui Family to desperation.
Now, their backbone was gone, most of their good farmland had been sold, and all they had left was a small piece of land and a worthless courtyard.
This year had just begun, yet some of them were already going hungry.
The more the Cui Family people thought about it, the more upset they became. So they gathered to discuss how to make trouble for the Mo Family.
They were not stupid. They knew it was useless to ask the Mo Family for work. So they gave up on that idea.
But they could not swallow this anger.
After discussing back and forth, they finally decided on the best approach - they would stop at nothing to cause trouble for the Mo Family!
Humph! So what if the Mo Family was close with the County prefect?
So what if they had a catcher at home?
I will make sure the Mo Family can never recover this time...
The next day at noon, a Cui Family man who looked extremely honest mixed among the workers building houses for the Mo Family.
The Zhao and Zhou family members were helping the Mo Family farm. They did not recognize this person, so they would definitely think he was a newcomer.
Helping the Mo Family had another benefit - free lunch.
The Cui Family man sneaked to the temporarily erected stove and added a package of white powder into the pot when no one was paying attention.
He thought he was flawless, but was caught red-handed by Mo Jiuye who had not come to check the progress of the house construction for a long time.
Mo Jiuye had just come over when he saw someone sneaking behind those workers.
He originally came because he heard the flush toilet was installed and wanted to take a look. But he discovered something wrong instead.
Unfortunately, he was some distance away. Not wanting to reveal his lightness skill before these commoners, he could only quicken his steps like an ordinary person. So he was a step late in stopping it.
Even so, there was no way for the Cui Family poisoner to escape.
Seeing that man try to leave after doing the dirty deed, Mo Jiuye dashed forward and grabbed his collar.
"Who are you?"
The Cui Family man was afraid of getting caught. Being grabbed, his whole body shivered in fear.
He turned his head and saw Mo Jiuye's eyes as cold as frost, staring at him closely.
"Mo... Mo Jiu, what do you want to do?"
Mo Jiuye smiled instead of getting angry, "I want to ask what you wanted to do."
The Cui Family man would not admit that he came to poison them.
He struggled hard to break free, but how could his strength match Mo Jiuye's?
The more he struggled, the greater the strength on his collar. Eventually, he gave up.
"Don't get me wrong. We are from the same village. I just wanted to help since your family is building houses and pays such high wages. Who wouldn't be envious?"
Of course Mo Jiuye did not believe this lame excuse.
He probably did not even believe it himself.
Mo Jiuye was too lazy to quibble with this kind of person. Still holding onto his collar, he brought the Cui Family man to where there were more people.
Hu Cong had just finished arranging the tasks at hand when he saw Mo Jiuye bringing over an extremely unfamiliar man.
He went up and asked, "Young Master Mo Jiu, who is this?"
Mo Jiuye snorted coldly and threw the Cui Family man on the ground. "This man added something to the hot soup. I caught him red-handed."
Hu Cong was shocked to hear this. In Beijing, it was nothing unusual for powerful households to resort to poisoning.
But in such an infertile place like the Northwest, and looking at this man dressed like an ordinary farmer, how could he have such nasty thoughts?
There were over a hundred workers building houses here. If that was some potent poison, it would be over a hundred lives!
The more Hu Cong thought about it, even the usually gentle man could not help but kick the Cui Family man a few times.
"Speak! Who exactly are you? Why did you try to poison us?"
Seeing no way to escape, the Cui Family man could only try to defend himself.
"I did not poison anyone. I really just wanted to help. With the high wages your Mo Family pays, who wouldn't be envious?"
He had to admit, his words sounded quite reasonable. If Mo Jiuye did not catch him red-handed, some might actually believe him.
Mo Jiuye had no time to quibble with such a person. He called over some workers to bring the poisoned soup over, then told Hu Cong, "Big brother Hu, please arrange for the lunch to be remade. I'll bring this man to the yamen now."
For someone raised in an official's household since childhood, the first thought when encountering issues was to find the authorities to resolve it.
Especially since they wanted to live safely in the Northwest, they had to do things properly in front of outsiders.
Hu Cong acted decisively. Since such a big incident happened under his watch, he had to pay attention to it.
Soon, Mo Jiuye brought over the family carriage, together with Fifth Elder Brother.
Fifth Elder Brother used a small porcelain bottle to hold some of the poisoned soup, while Mo Jiuye tied up the Cui Family man and threw him onto the carriage.
He Zhi Ran also found out about the incident at home. Knowing Mo Jiuye could handle things properly at the yamen, she gave up on following along.
And even if she wanted to watch the excitement, her clingy husband who stared at her all day not to wander around would definitely not agree.
Many Cui Family members were poking their heads out at their doorways, looking towards the foot of the hill, wondering why the person they sent to poison had been gone for so long without returning - could something have happened unexpectedly?
Just as the Cui Family people were distracted, they saw the Mo Family carriage racing towards the village entrance.
