As the stunningly cold beauty Sister Xiang said, after Meng Chuyue met their "Miss," Mrs. Song, she indeed gained absolute personal freedom.
It was laughable, but indeed, absolute personal freedom.
Mrs. Song had said this to her.
It was a little after nine in the morning the next day.
They met in the living room of a small villa on a farmstead.
Mrs. Song, who was not very beautiful but still retained her charm, said to Meng Chuyue with a dignified and commanding presence, "Miss Meng, I believe Xiangxiang has already told you the reason we invited you here. Now, I won’t bother with idle chatter.
Let me tell you directly what I require of you.
You need to procure or cultivate saplings of the high-quality fruit your Fruit Store once sold within two months; any kind will do, and you don’t need many—a single one that can survive counts.
If you can’t manage this, staying here for a year, ensuring a year’s supply of fruit for my husband and nephew, will also suffice.
Of course, you have absolute personal freedom at all times; however, if you look behind you, there are more than a hundred people, all assistants I’ve given you. Miss Meng, they are now your people, their lives are tied to yours. If you disappear without a reason before the task is completed, I will kill one a day."
This person is really twisted.
Heh, is this their idea of absolute freedom? It’s clearly a joke.
But, actually, what she said worked on her.
Because among these hundred-odd people, there were quite a few young children.
The youngest boy appeared to be perhaps not even a year old.
Meaning, these children must be the families of the laborers.
If these hundred-odd people were all adults, she could have suspected they were with Sister Xiang.
Could only be innocent.
So, she had no choice but to accept this trap for now.
Fortunately, there was still plenty of time, and their demands weren’t very high.
Cultivating a small number of saplings, even just one, or providing a year’s supply of "high-quality fruit" was not difficult.
So, she decided to first find out more about these people.
After Mrs. Song said these words to her, she left with solemnity and gravity.
Taking the young girl with her, she left Xiangxiang behind for Meng Chuyue, saying that she could turn to Xiangxiang for anything in the future, and instructed Xiangxiang to meet her every reasonable request.
Meng Chuyue followed Xiangxiang to her lodging, asking along the way, "Can you now tell me where this is, and who your miss is?"
Sister Xiang nodded, "This is the Song Family’s Medicinal Garden in the suburban area of the Imperial. Our miss is the wife of Song Ting, who belongs to the Song Family, an aristocratic family of medical tradition in the Imperial."
What a twist of fate.
She asked with some excitement, "What illness has Patriarch Song contracted?"
"He’s been poisoned. It’s not life-threatening, but his body is very weak."
"And what about your young nephew? What’s the matter with him?"
"He has had a heart condition since he was a child."
"Is their home far from here? I have some medical skills, why don’t I take a look and see if I can help them? If I can cure them, that simplifies things."
Sister Xiang looked at Meng Chuyue with surprise for a long while before responding lightly, "They have been living here for years, but for you to treat them... I need to ask our Miss first."
It wasn’t long before Sister Xiang led Meng Chuyue to a small building.
It was over two hundred meters away from the little villa where she met with Mrs. Song.
After entering, she didn’t see a single man.
Looking at the prime-aged women, she curiously asked Xiangxiang, "Is this your women workers’ building?"
"Then there must be a men workers’ building too, right?"
"Of course, the men workers’ building is on the other side of the villa, and the family building is behind the villa."