C42

After a night of rain, the sun had risen. The haze that had accumulated over the past few days had been swept away by the sun and the air was extremely fresh.

At the window, a delicate flower bloomed in a blue pot. On the dark green leaves, the stem had marks of having been pruned, appearing much shorter. But on the other side of the flower, another capsule bulged with a brilliant green.

"White cloth, do you think it's beautiful?" A man was standing by the window, staring at the flower in a daze.

Hearing his question, a young girl behind him frowned. She pouted her small mouth and muttered, "It's the ugliest one here, the poppy is too poisonous!"

She was the jewel of the Bai family, the white cloth; and the poppy she spoke of was the flower her father was admiring.

"Hahaha …" Hearing this, Bai Yi's father smiled, his smile full of meaning. Finally, he turned around and looked at his daughter lovingly, and said, "You can leave for now. Father still has things to do!"

Bai Bu knew that what her father wanted to do was to burn incense — every morning and night, the White College Rite would burn incense on the eleven memorial tablets in her room. Bai Bu did not know whether these people who died on the memorial tablets were his own Bai Clan's ancestors, but he knew that these people held a very high position in his father's heart and held a very high weight!

Therefore, he nodded his head and left the room lightly.

After his daughter left, Bai Xuanli straightened himself in front of the mirror, looking very much like a soldier. Then he slowly walked to the table with the ancestral tablets, his face solemn.

"Brothers, it's time to drink some tea again!" "I will first fill up everyone's bowl for free!"

He was talking about tea, but what he poured was good wine. There was a full bowl below the ancestral tablets, so there wasn't a need for a cup.

"How many years has it been? Or maybe it's the end of the year! " After filling the cup, Bai Xuanyi looked at the names on the tablet with a sigh of relief, and then sighed, "That bastard, Old Zhao San, probably won't be able to make it. Fortunately, there's a pretty good east wind this year! I've learned the etiquette for nothing, and vow to avenge my brothers' deaths this year! "

As he spoke, Bai Xuanyi solemnly pulled open the drawer next to him. He took out a tablet that he had prepared a long time ago and placed it on it, before joining the ranks of the offerings.

What was engraved on the tablet was the name of a PLA unit. Finally, it said "Saber Company's soldiers — Huang Zhongyi".

"It's hard to say. This time, I'm going to meet everyone. Hehehehe …" It's just that there's one thing that I don't know if I should tell everyone now. "

As he continued to talk to himself, Bai Yu Li's expression seemed to age even more amidst the solemnness he gave off. Finally, he bowed deeply towards all the tablets, and said with a cold glint in his eyes, "If I survive …" After my revenge, I will be the new uncrowned king of northern Maine! "

The poppy was truly beautiful! The leaves were dark green, and the flowers were mostly of a variety of white, red, or purple. The leaves were of a variety of purple, and the leaves of the flowers were of a variety of green, red, and purple.

At this moment, they had walked through countless villages day and night. Luo Liang, along with Song Shimeng and more than a dozen soldiers from the Special Administrative Region, had already seen patches of opium poppy fields. The cultivation areas of these poppy fields were all very remote. Even if it was on the two sides of a narrow alleyway, one would not be able to see any opium poppy.

However, in the regions covered by the forests, there would be patches of seemingly scattered but actually connected growing areas filled with beautiful plants. But it would guarantee that no one would be able to observe their growth from any path, and even from the plane it would be difficult to spot the tall trees and the camouflaged plants on the steep rocky slopes.

"Is this opium poppy? It's beautiful! "

Although he had seen it many times, Luo Liang was still used to asking such questions. In his memories, he had never seen a flower as beautiful as a poppy.

"Is it beautiful? Will it be more beautiful than this? " Next to him, Song Shi Xie, who was smoking, smiled. He grabbed a bunch of cigarettes from the pocket of a horse and mule on the side, in his hand were pieces of pimples.

Luo Liang already knew that it was opium – if he used his knife to cut open the premature fruit of the opium poppy, a white liquid would flow out. After it solidified and scraped off the poppy, it would dry up, turning into a pimpled film.

Along the way, Song Shi bought a lot of these things from the grower for a considerable amount of Maine coins. Sometimes, he didn't even need to spend money. Instead, he would use two hundred packets of things to trade for items. Instead, he would give away more opium to the grower.

In the process, Luo Liang gained knowledge too. He realized that there was still one more unit of weight on his side — Pah! One pull was three times the weight of the unit that Luo Liang had known before, which meant … Three pounds a tug.

In the villages where their residences were as simple as a sugar cane cutter's shed, Loulan was greeted by many black, skinny villagers who traded their harvest from a dustpan for Maine coins or pills. They were all overjoyed. At times, Song Shi was also very generous, even sending bottles of wine to each village's seemingly leader.

These villages could not be found on the map, so none of them had a village chief. They only had a leader! After stabilizing the leader, they also stabilized the location where they would receive their goods.

Of course, there were also village leaders who tried to increase the price and even said that someone offered a higher price. Song Shi would smile and invite the leader aside. He didn't know what benefits he had given or what threats he had made, but he had always been able to see the leader bring back a cold sweat. Then, he nodded and agreed to the price.

Seeing that Luo Liang didn't answer, Song Shi looked at the full moon in the night sky and smiled, "We can go to heaven before dawn!"

Heaven...

Hearing this, Luo Liang instinctively thought of Zhang Bao who was temporarily living next to the No.7 Flower Rod. He thought of Zhang Bao's body which might have already begun to deteriorate.

"What is heaven?" As he asked, Luo Liang frowned coldly.

"Money, woman, happy!" Song Shi's answer was very simple!

As they continued forward, the team grew bigger and bigger. Before dawn, Luo Liang counted the number of horses and mules, and there were more than twenty of them.

Then at daybreak, they arrived at a large entrance that was similar to a primeval forest.

The trees here were extremely tall, and their roots were intertwined closely together. Upon walking in, one would feel as if they covered the sky and the earth.

"Brothers, we're here! After we enter, let's hurry up and start work! " Standing at the front of the group, Song Shi was laughing maniacally with pride, "Do your job well, and everyone can come and receive your reward from me. It's enough to make you happy for a while, hahaha …"

"Alright!"

"Thank you, Boss Song!"

Immediately, cheers broke out.

As the merry crowd drove the horses and mules into the depths of the forest, Luo Liang saw simple, low, but firm wooden buildings. The tallest were two storeys, and between them was a wooden path.

Not far away, on top of a tall tree, there was a lookout from the sky. Whether it was light or dark, there were more than ten of them!

This, this was simply a base of operations!

"Brother Luo, thank you for your hard work!" Knowing that Luo Liang had been depressed by Zhang Bao's death, Song Shou walked up to him immediately and smiled, "Let's go. I'll take you to see some good stuff!"

The good thing he was talking about was nothing else. It was actually some good wine, simple electrical appliances, and a generator hidden in the basement of a wooden building!

"We come back here every year. These things are pretty good. Hahaha!"

Song Shi ordered his men to bring out the TV and video recorder to the largest wooden building, then he personally added diesel for the generator. He smiled and said, "There's cigarettes, alcohol, and the little devil's action movies. Brother, you can live in this room, hahaha …"

Without waiting for Luo Liang to nod or shake his head, Song Shi quickly walked to the door and shouted to the people outside, "Quickly cook everything for me in two days!"

This was not cooking raw rice into cooked rice. Instead, the raw opium would be boiled and fermented through various local processes. The mature opium would eventually become a poisonous substance that could already be directly ingested by humans.

With Song Shi's help, those people moved quickly. In just over a day's time, they had produced over a hundred pounds of black mud. Compared to the raw opium, the black mud was much smoother and did not have a sour urine smell.

As for Luo Liang, he remained silent! It was as if everything in the base had nothing to do with him.

"Is it legal? "In the end, he's still a dead man …"

This was his dilemma, his doubt, his sorrow: the truth he had heard from Little Four and Song Shi was that it was legal and reasonable for him to collect opium here — farmers had to live, so he helped them buy the opium they grew, just as he had helped farmers buy cabbages at home.

But now that Zhang Bao was dead, this placed a huge question mark on the word "lawful" in Luo Liang's mind.

"Also …" If it's legal, why not plant it in a convenient location? There aren't many people here, so why are you sneaking around? "

Dirty is dirty!

Father Luo had said those words!