Chapter 330: Chapter 330

"Master Cao, we've received so much money from you. If we knew, we would definitely tell you, but we really don't know." The bandits spoke honestly. At this moment, they could understand Master Cao's feelings and wouldn't be angry about it.

"What do you mean? Are you saying that the people who had you do this didn't tell you about my son's whereabouts? Then what's the point of having me give you money? Just to make me spend money without being able to save my son?" Master Cao asked in succession. He had also thought about this matter—this might be the other party's method to drain his financial resources, not coming for money.

Although the Cao family's foundation meant a hundred thousand taels wouldn't hurt the fundamentals, they no longer had operating capital. If operated well, it could collapse the Cao family's business. Master Cao had thought of this long ago.

Those families who didn't know about this matter had also thought of it. Even though it had nothing to do with them, they were prepared to take advantage of the situation, using this opportunity to squeeze out some of the Cao family's businesses.

Perhaps the Cao family had made too many enemies. This incident severely damaged the Cao family's vitality. Too many people were eyeing this opportunity, and they wouldn't be merciful, ruthlessly grabbing what they could.

Regarding this matter, Xiaoyao had never considered it, because that was something the Cao family had to deal with. For him, the Cao family's mission was already complete. What would happen next was their own business—mind your own business and hang high.

If Master Cao knew about this, he would probably be angered to death. Such a "big shot" like himself was being played around by a kid, and the person was too lazy to even look at him. Follow current novels on Nove1Fire.net

However, he didn't know about this now. He only knew he needed to ask about his son's whereabouts from these Black Wind Stronghold people. Currently, he still felt this matter should be related to Black Wind Stronghold and wouldn't think that this matter actually had nothing to do with them—the person was looking for Black Wind Stronghold.

"Master Cao, let me tell you the truth about this matter. We also don't know the situation. We don't know who captured your son or what this matter is really about. We don't know anything about who wants to deal with you." The bandits spoke more clearly.

"What do you mean?" This was the third "what do you mean" Master Cao had asked, but this meaning seemed very different. The previous two were interrogative, while this one was puzzled.

"It means we also don't know. This matter has nothing to do with us. We didn't capture your son, and whoever captured your son has no connection with us either. He might just be using us as an excuse. I advise you to go back and consider how to deal with this person or these people." The bandits said.

"You mean you don't know about this matter, but you didn't say anything and wanted to swallow my money?" Master Cao wasn't stupid either and quickly understood what these bandits meant.

"That's right, exactly. Consider this as accumulating some good fortune for your son. You can go back now. Letting you come here already gives you face—we don't usually let ordinary people come." The bandits said with smiles, not caring at all about Master Cao's murderous glare.

If he could, Master Cao would want to cut all these people to pieces right now. This might eliminate the rage in his heart.

Swallowing a hundred thousand taels was already enough to make him want to kill people. What was even more infuriating was that they had concealed the matter and only said this now. How much of his time would this waste? At this time, time was life—his life, and even more so his son's life.

He also understood that perhaps the other party just wanted him to waste this time, and coming here was actually a correct decision. At least it saved him some time. If someone else had come, the news getting back might have taken even more time, and arranging things would have been even slower.

However, what should he arrange at this time?

Master Cao had absolutely no clue, because he didn't know anything about his enemies. He didn't know who the enemies were or what they wanted to do. How could he defend against this? It was very, very difficult.

He could only speculate that they might attack from the commercial aspect, because the Cao family had lost a hundred thousand taels of silver.

What he didn't know was that there were no enemies at all. Everything he was thinking was wrong. Perhaps it was because of this that he thought many things wrong and made many wrong decisions, causing the Cao family to quickly fall afterward.

If Xiaoyao knew about this—that the Cao family fell because of him—he wouldn't feel guilty about it. Not only because of the Cao family young master's evil deeds, but more because the Cao family itself represented the wealthy without benevolence. Having such an end was well-deserved.

The Cao family young master only understood later that what he had previously possessed wasn't actually permanent. The debts incurred back then would all have to be repaid later.

Regarding the Cao family young master, Xiaoyao hadn't cut off his path to survival. Later, he had someone notify the Cao family of his location. However, when they found him, he was already barely alive and took a long time to recover to normal—in a wheelchair.

His legs were already crippled, and this wasn't because he had done something in the cellar or because he had starved his legs. These legs had already been crippled by Xiaoyao at the beginning—he just didn't know it then and thought Xiaoyao had only injured his legs.

In fact, even if he had known Xiaoyao crippled his legs at that time, he would have thought he could still find famous doctors for treatment and that his legs would recover. But he was wrong about this. Xiaoyao had already cut off the possibility of recovery. At least without a miracle, recovery was impossible, and this miracle would never be known to that Cao family young master in his lifetime.

Getting back to the point, after Master Cao learned that Black Wind Stronghold had swindled his hundred thousand taels, he didn't stay long and quickly went down the mountain to return, having people implement all the defensive measures he could think of and manage.

At this point, the Cao family exited Xiaoyao's play. Next, Xiaoyao would have to take the stage himself. He needed to find a way to get into Black Wind Stronghold to save people. This matter wasn't too difficult for him.

After arriving at Black Wind Stronghold, Xiaoyao observed for a while and replaced a small bandit, easily infiltrating this Black Wind Stronghold.

As said before, Black Wind Stronghold wasn't that kind of tight organization. Xiaoyao replacing an unnoticed small bandit was something no one would notice.

After infiltrating Black Wind Stronghold, Xiaoyao easily found those small mountain village people. They were really here, and that old man's daughter-in-law was also there.

He now understood why Black Wind Stronghold needed such middle-aged women. It was simply because they lacked people in their kitchen. A few months ago, someone had been killed by one of the leaders because the food they cooked wasn't to his taste.

Of course, this wasn't actually the real reason. If the taste weren't right, it would have been wrong long ago—it wouldn't have waited until then. However, no one delved into what the real reason was. Killing someone in a bandit den was nothing, especially when the original person was also captured.

Very coincidentally, Xiaoyao's current small bandit identity was also somewhat related to the kitchen. He was responsible for guarding the grain—originally just one person, which was also one of the reasons Xiaoyao chose this position.

Originally, such an important place as the granary should have been heavily guarded and wouldn't have just one person watching. But Black Wind Stronghold had been smooth sailing for so many years, and this granary was inside the stronghold. How would they give it special attention? Having one person watch was already quite good.

Originally, this person wasn't even there. Probably to give that small bandit something to do, they arranged him here. He didn't get a share of other benefits. One could imagine this small bandit wasn't doing very well.

Xiaoyao chose this granary for another reason—he wanted to poison them. Poisoning was the simplest way to deal with this group of bandits. The best places for poisoning were water sources and food. Water sources could be done anytime and didn't need consideration, so he needed to consider food.

For food, one option was the kitchen where food was prepared, another was the people who transported food, and another was the place that guarded the food source. The first two options would have too many people in contact. Even a very inconspicuous person might have been seen and noticed by others, so these could be ruled out.

The granary that guarded the food source only had one person, which was undoubtedly a very good choice for Xiaoyao.

At the same time, the first two places would have people checking to prevent tampering. Black Wind Stronghold still had this much vigilance. After all, many people in the kitchen were captured, and to prevent these people from having improper intentions, they watched quite strictly.

Also, people generally would pay attention to whether anyone poisoned the food after it was prepared, but not before cooking. This was a habit—anyway, they could inspect after it was done, so why bother before?

Therefore, Xiaoyao choosing this granary to tamper with would be much easier. Of course, this was just a backup option, to be used only when other simpler channels weren't available.

"Are you from the small mountain village?"

Xiaoyao found an opportunity to speak with the old man's daughter-in-law and mentioned the names of the old man and his son.

"What else do you want to do? My son is already in your hands. I'll work well." The old man's daughter-in-law said somewhat fearfully. She still thought Xiaoyao was one of these bandit mountain thieves. Since Xiaoyao knew her husband and father-in-law's names, he might want to harm them, which made her very worried and afraid.