love on the turquoise land

Chapter 25

WARNING: this chapter contains scenes of gruesome murder. flashback is written in italic

The so-called farm was actually a village nestled in the mountains. The soil there was not suitable for growing crops but was ideal for cultivating Chinese herbal medicines. Some clever villagers began to plant medicinal herbs, and after a year, they found it quite profitable. Soon, other neighbors followed suit, and gradually, the village became well-known for its medicinal herbs. Many herbal medicine merchants and wholesalers would come regularly to purchase from there.

Yan Heshan was the first to see the business opportunity in this. He felt that the small-scale family-based production was too inefficient. With ambitious plans, he wanted to integrate the village's resources and transform the scattered self-sufficient villagers into employees working for him. He aimed to establish a Chinese herbal medicine company that not only procured externally but also had its own cultivation base.

Although the idea was good, the implementation was a long and arduous process. Firstly, his business already demanded a significant investment of time and effort. Secondly, there were numerous procedures, permits, and the need to seek the consent of the villagers. Thus, until his death, he never saw the company come into operation.

Later developments were mostly facilitated by Lin Xirou. By the time Lin Ling entered high school, the base had officially begun operations, and Lin Xirou was almost never at home, spending most of her time at the base.

During the summer vacation of the second year of high school, Lin Ling went to the farm to escape the heat, where Yan Tuo was also present, working to fulfill the "social practice" credits for graduation.

The base had a three-story building covering a vast area used for warehousing and pre-processing of medicinal herbs, such as washing, slicing, drying, etc. On her first day there, Lin Ling decided to walk up and down the stairs twenty times each day to lose weight.

As she began her stair-climbing routine, she noticed that the building had more than three floors. There was additional space underground, but the staircase leading down was locked by an iron gate. It was said that below were stored discarded and obsolete machinery and inferior quality medicinal herbs slated for destruction at the end of the year.

This reminded her of dark basements, cobweb-covered old appliances, and fast-scattering mice. Lin Ling had no interest in what lay beyond the iron gate.

One day, as she descended to the bottom floor, she found the iron gate unlocked with a crack open, and she could faintly hear Lin Xirou's voice coming from inside.

Lin Ling was pleasantly surprised. She hadn't seen Lin Xirou for quite some time, and she admired her "Aunt Lin" who was the gentlest and most caring person to her in the whole world.

She skipped over joyfully and entered through the large iron gate. Inside, it was like entering a different world from outside - dark, quiet, and messy, with abandoned furniture and machinery piled up everywhere. Through the slits in the door, dust floated in the rays of light.

Lin Ling doubted her ears. How could Lin Xirou's voice be here? She was a high-level executive, the big boss. Even if she were inspecting work, she wouldn't come to this ghostly place.

Feeling hesitant, Lin Ling turned to leave. Just then, from deep within, came a man's scream. It was sudden and lasted only a second or two, but it was particularly chilling. Lin Ling was terrified, her hair standing on end. But she was too frightened to speak loudly, so she whispered to herself, "Who's there?"

No one answered, but after a while, a low, faint voice, like a sob, emanated from somewhere. However, the volume was too low to be clearly heard. Lin Ling hesitated for a moment, then tiptoed in the direction of the sound.