As Su Qingluan finished speaking, the air in the room seemed to freeze and become heavy and suffocating, with an inexplicable sense of oppression - of course, this sense of oppression was only directed at Aunt Zhang and Butler Xie.

The series of names that Su Qingluan just read out were not made up by her, but were the series of people that Song Bo had told her were planning to go to the Su family and do something inappropriate last night.

Of course, these people are not professional thugs or scoundrels who do dirty work. They are just a bunch of lazy thugs and street rogues who steal to make a living.

There are about ten of these people. They occasionally steal chickens and dogs, rob the elderly, the young, the sick and the disabled, and sometimes beg on the streets. Anyway, even if they have healthy limbs, they don't do any serious work.

Kaiyang hardly spent any effort in interrogating these ruffians. They confessed everything before they were even whipped. They were practically begging for mercy from everyone - after all, these scoundrels would even sell their own mothers for money, so what credit or integrity could you talk to them about?

Su Qingluan had no idea who the person who hired these people was, based on their description of their appearance in their confession. However, she was certain that the person was definitely not Aunt Zhang or Manager Xie.

However, this is also easy to understand: whether it is Aunt Zhang or Manager Xie, although they are subordinates in the eyes of the masters of the Xie Mansion, they are more like "upper-level management personnel" within the overall servants. As the saying goes, "Even servants are divided into different levels."

Arresting the Su family and threatening Su Qingluan was a very unethical act, and both Aunt Zhang and Steward Xie were well aware of it. However, they were wealthy and powerful, and the Xie family stood behind them. Again, Xie Xuanfan asked them to get the job done, but he wouldn't care about the means used in the process.

What's more, no one cares whether the Su family has been wronged or suffered any losses.

All they want is the result of "cooperation" itself.

As long as the contract is signed successfully, no matter how many grievances the Su family has, the facts are clear as day, and the Su family can only swallow their anger, otherwise the Xie family can continue to sue them.

However, even if you are in a favorable position, hiring someone to do illegal work is risky in itself, and you may be blackmailed if you are not careful.

However, Aunt Zhang or Manager Xie would never do this kind of work that could cause trouble and offend people if they are not careful.

So this matter was handed over to the people below.

However, whether it was Aunt Zhang, Manager Xie, or the people working under them, they all obviously underestimated the specific situation of the Su family - this was no wonder, as no one could have imagined that this seemingly ordinary farm family of five had someone secretly protecting them.

Although the contract between Mu Xingzhi and Su Qingluan, in exchange for personal safety, had not been fully implemented on paper, he was unwilling to speak carelessly on such matters. He might be reserved in his words, but he would definitely fulfill his promises.

So when Su Qingluan discovered that there were unfamiliar thugs wandering around her home, the person responsible for "keeping an eye" on the Su family also discovered it and reported it to Song Bo.

So all these people fell on Kaiyang, who happened to come to Huaxi Village to report other matters to Mu Xingzhi.

Originally, Manager Xie and his team thought that to deal with the five members of the Su family - two of whom were still young children - hiring a few local thugs would be more than enough.

After all, they didn't really want to kill the Su family to silence them. At most, they wanted to tie up Su Qingluan's family, threaten her to re-sign the contract according to their wishes, and then let "Su Ji" become a money-making machine for the Xie family.

However, he never expected that Mu Xingzhi would intervene, so this "threat plan" failed from the very first step. Not only that, Su Qingluan also got hold of the evidence, and he was completely passive.

In fact, Su Qingluan had considered cooperating directly with Mu Xingzhi. At least it was much better than a rubbish partner like the Xie Mansion who used shady tactics.

But it was clear that Mu Xingzhi was still in a dormant phase and couldn't be so conspicuous. And from what Mu Xingzhi said, he seemed to be using the Xie Mansion to do something. So, even though she felt uncomfortable, Su Qingluan still had to hold her nose and sign the contract with them for the time being. Fortunately, this wasn't a drudgery with no end in sight, and since she was unhappy about signing the contract, she could naturally find some unhappiness for the other party.

Although she was extremely curious, as the saying goes, "curiosity kills the cat", Su Qingluan decisively chose not to ask any unnecessary questions. As for the Xie Mansion, Su Qingluan could only silently say: It was just the same stupid Party A as countless other Party A's.

Anyway, she has secretly decided that the contract with the Xie family should be signed for two years. After the two-year period, she has the right to look for other partners.

After comforting herself like this, Su Qingluan felt much better. She put on a devilish smile again and asked knowingly, "Hey, Housekeeper Xie, what's wrong with you two, Aunt Zhang? You both look a little unhappy. Isn't it a happy occasion for us to sign a contract today?"

As he spoke, he waved the small piece of paper with names written on it in front of the two of them.

One of the two men opposite him looked increasingly pale, as if he was about to faint at the next moment, and the other's original Maitreya Buddha-like smile disappeared, leaving only his two plump cheeks shaking uncontrollably due to the extreme atmosphere and fear.

It has to be said that when Su Qingluan saw the reactions of the other two people, the depressed feeling of being stabbed in the back dissipated a lot.

But this was not enough. Su Qingluan slowly and methodically brought in the confessions of those people, contacted them, paid them wages, and asked them to describe in detail the appearance of the people who had kidnapped all five members of the Su family.

With each additional characteristic described, the two men's expressions grew uglier. Su Qingluan's speech was slow and measured, like a blunt knife cutting through flesh, and she refused to give the two people across from her a single straightforward word.

That's right, Su Qingluan did it on purpose. Because according to the existing evidence, Su Qingluan could guess with her heels that the two real masterminds on the opposite side would definitely shift all the responsibility to their subordinates, while she played innocent on the side.

Su Qingluan also knew that if she wanted to continue cooperating with the Xie family—even if this cooperation was temporary—she couldn't completely break off relations today.

But when Su Qingluan thought about the fear and pain her family might suffer because of this, she felt angry.

So she wanted to vent her anger for herself and her family without making the situation too awkward.

Su Qingluan then sighed sarcastically, "Ah, I clearly wanted to cooperate with you sincerely, but you acted so despicable. Such behavior, worse than pigs and dogs, really makes me sad. It seems that you don't really want to do business together, right? If that's the case, then I don't really have to hang myself on a tree - let alone a crooked tree."