Chapter 274: Chapter 274: Lost for Words
Indeed, this was also completely unbelievable to the old woman before her; she had no idea why he would trust her this much.
At this moment, she obediently swallowed the medicine.
Her original plan was to cause a commotion outside immediately after taking the medicine, claiming that Liu Zheng was a quack doctor, and now she was feeling even worse.
But unexpectedly, after she had taken the medicine and wanted to say thank you, she found she couldn’t utter a single word.
Not only that, but she also couldn’t move at all.
Facing such a situation, she indeed felt extremely astonished, clueless about what exactly was happening to her and what kind of medicine Liu Zheng had prescribed.
It seemed the only possibility was that he had tampered with the medicine; otherwise, such an outcome would not have been possible.
At this moment, the old woman’s eyes were as wide as copper bells.
She was truly unclear why such a situation had occurred all of a sudden.
She also had no idea what kind of medicine Liu Zheng had made her take.
Seeing her staring at him with such fury, Liu Zheng could only helplessly shake his head and speak.
"You can’t speak now, can you? Nor can you move."
"Yes, I did it. The fact that you came to me out of the blue was very strange; it’s not something an old woman like you would normally do. But there are indeed some unfavorable symptoms in your body. I prescribed you medicine, hoping you could get some relief."
"But at the same time, I also administered another drug to prevent you from speaking and seeing anything moving temporarily, lest you conjure up some mischief later on."
The reason Liu Zheng agreed to let her in and even to administer her medicine, taking her word for everything, was simply because he had been prepared from the beginning.
If she were to have any other behavior, this would allow him to be prepared.
The old woman hadn’t imagined Liu Zheng would be so cunning to consider even this.
This truly left her in a state of incredulity, completely unsure of what to do next.
The person who had arranged the plan must already be in place.
Yet, here she was, unable to go out and perform the act as planned.
What was she to do in such a case?
At this juncture, she was continuously calculating in her heart what she ought to do. If she didn’t appear soon, wouldn’t this spoil the whole plan?
What should she do then?
How could all this not be considered an extremely painful situation for her?
The money was almost in her pocket, and now this unexpected issue had arisen, leaving her completely at a loss for how to respond.
Watching her eyes darting around non-stop, Liu Zheng surmised she must be up to no good.
It looked like she was plotting something in her mind.
Fortunately, he had been prepared well in advance, otherwise he really would have been deceived, which would have been disastrous.
No matter what, he couldn’t easily trust anyone.
Especially not an old woman like her, whom he of course could not trust in the least.
If he were really fooled by her claims, it would be even worse.
Otherwise, he would never have bothered to help the old woman from the start, and would have simply acted as if no one was home.
By now, the people waiting outside were also growing impatient. They hadn’t seen the old woman emerge, which was completely different from what they had agreed upon at the start.
"What’s going on? Why hasn’t she come out after such a long time? It’s already been so long; she should have appeared by now."
After one of them spoke up, the others around also nodded and said,
"Yeah, are we still putting on the show? We have been waiting here half the day, and it’s not going according to what we discussed."
They were just temporary actors who had been sitting in a small shop nearby for half a day, yet had seen no progress.
This left them utterly mystified, completely uncertain as to what was happening.
If they continued to wait like this, they had no idea what might happen next.
Moreover, they didn’t know how to respond to the situation.
"Let’s wait a bit longer, just in case something has gone wrong inside."
"Yes, and we’ve had no instructions from above, so let’s wait a little longer and see if there’s any development or outcome."
Other than waiting, they really had no other options.
Meanwhile, the old woman was still rooted to the spot, her mind earnestly trying to figure out what she should do. However, she was unable to come up with anything even after a long time.
By the time it was nearly dark, the group was truly unable to wait any longer.
"My goodness, we must have been fooled by this old woman!"
"Yes, indeed, this is so strange. She didn’t follow our plan at all. She couldn’t really have tricked us!"
As they thought about it, they felt increasingly uneasy and irritated.
After all, they had been waiting there for so long.
They all wanted to resolve this quickly.
But the old woman kept stalling for time and didn’t proceed as they had expected.
This made them very angry.
If this continued, they had no idea what else might happen, so they couldn’t just keep waiting like this.
"Let’s just leave; maybe we really were played."
"Anyway, we’ve already got the money, and we’ve waited quite a while. It’s not our concern if she doesn’t show up."
"Did you just send a message to our contact? Is there any new directive from them?"
"Nope, I’ve got no reply yet."
"Then let’s go back. Even if we waited to perform, there’s no one to watch at this late hour."
"Right, everyone’s gone home, who would see it?"
It was getting dark, and it was unlikely that people would continue to wander outside.
So before long, they stopped waiting there and left one by one.
For them, they had done all they could, and naturally, they couldn’t afford to waste any more time.
