Yu Qing smiled and said, "I'm from town. I heard that the goddess is very cute and beautiful, so I came to see her. I happen to have a son. To be honest, I'd like to arrange a marriage between our families. Fellow villager, can you help me out?"

Two more silver ingots were handed over, and Liu Da's eyes turned red with envy. He thought to himself that his reason was reasonable. If he had a son, he would also have to go and marry into the goddess's family.

"Goddess, that's our village's lucky star, named Sisi, the youngest daughter of the Zhou family. Her abilities go far beyond just summoning rain; she also has a bird that breathes fire. When the locusts came recently, it was that bird that burned them to death, saving our village's grain."

He poured it all out without warning, and Yu Qing gratefully gave him some loose silver coins and asked him to point the way before quietly sneaking to the Zhou family's residence.

Seeing through the crack in the door that there was only Zhou Sisi, a little girl, in the yard, he was so excited he almost jumped up.

Great, the goddess is still here.

He needed to send someone to deliver the letter of recommendation to the capital immediately!

Just to be on the safe side, Yu Qing also sent out his precious carrier pigeons. Luckily, a friend of his was in the capital, so it was just in case.

Unfortunately, Xu Zhen actually managed to shoot the pigeon, and upon seeing the letter, he immediately gave it to the city lord, Sun Changjing.

“Such an important matter cannot be handled with just one carrier pigeon. Zhenzhen, this concerns Sisi, so we cannot be careless. Send people to chase after the remaining carrier pigeons and search for suspicious people at the border. I’m going to Peach Blossom Village!”

Xu Zhenzhen cupped his hands in greeting, "Yes."

"Something terrible has happened! Dawei, the Qin family, something catastrophic has occurred, something life-threatening has happened!"

As soon as the village chief pushed open the gate of the Zhou family's courtyard, he collapsed to the ground and burst into tears, "That heartless grain shop owner, that shameless bastard, he's going to kill us!"

Qin panicked, "What exactly happened? Tell me clearly, stop wailing and screaming!"

"It's the grain shop owner. He said he signed a contract with the owner in Wuzhou City, and this batch of grain was supposed to be transported to Wuzhou City, but it was robbed by bandits on the way. Now he's trying to renege on his promise that we didn't deliver the grain and is demanding compensation from us, or else we'll have to pay for the grain."

"Damn it, how can this guy be so shameless? He clearly failed to protect the grain, what does it have to do with us? Why should we be responsible?"

The old woman asked, "Isn't the grain shop owner your relative? Village chief, you seemed reliable, that's why we believed you and gave you the grain."

"I never knew he would do something like this!" the village chief cried, on the verge of tears. "What can we do? He's already taken the case to the county government."

"What?"

Zhou Dawei clenched his fists. "Turning the tables? The magistrate isn't stupid. He'll clear our names. We're not afraid even if we end up in the county office."

"The problem is, they would sign contracts when they delivered grain, but we didn't understand them and didn't sign anything at the time."

The old lady glared at her, "Isn't that your fault?"

The village chief gave a wry smile, "I...I don't know...It's no use talking about this now, we need to come up with a solution quickly."

Qin snorted, "He's going to sue, isn't he? Let him sue. Our whole village will go to the county government. I don't believe the magistrate will believe just one person and not all of us!"

The grain shop owner sued the entire Peach Blossom Village in the yamen. The magistrate originally said he would send a few representatives, but the whole village ended up crowding in.

Looking at the crumbling main hall of the county government office, he felt a headache coming on. "Who is standing here, and what is the matter you are reporting?"

The grain shop owner, Zhou Fei, cried and complained, “Sir, you must do justice for me! The villagers of Peach Blossom Village are bullying me, a small merchant. They clearly didn’t give me the grain, but they insist that they did. I’ve already paid them, and they promised to give me the grain, but now they’re not giving it to me.”

The magistrate looked at the village chief, "Village chief of Peach Blossom Village, is what he said true?"

"Sir, he's lying. He only pays us when we deliver the grain to him. He failed to protect the grain and it was stolen by bandits, so he's trying to frame us."

Zhou Fei cursed, "You're talking nonsense! You didn't give me any food, and you call me a bandit? I haven't seen a bandit in years! Don't blame everything on bandits!"

The village chief kowtowed deeply. "My lord, everything I have said is true. If I have lied, may I be struck by lightning. The entire village can testify to this!"

The villagers all knelt down.

“We can testify that we sold our grain to this boss. He encountered robbers and lost his grain, so he falsely accused us of not delivering the grain and is now demanding that we pay back the money!”

"My lord, he's shameless! He said he would agree to something and then went back on his word. Heaven will surely punish such a person; he will be struck dead by lightning!"

"Sir, we can all testify! Please, sir, give us justice! He is the evil one!"

Zhou Fei curled his lip in disdain. If God were so all-seeing, there wouldn't be so many bad people in the world. Why would He want to be struck by lightning? He wasn't afraid at all. Whoever was afraid was a coward!

Achoo!

A small sneeze interrupted his thoughts. Zhou Fei looked over and saw Sisi grinning at him. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck him at his feet.

Zhou Fei wet his pants.

"My God, he's really going to be struck by lightning."

"Thank God, he must be a bad person. He's despicable. He clearly lost the grain himself but accused the people of Peach Blossom Village of stealing it."

"In my opinion, if he lies again, the lightning won't just strike his feet, it'll strike his head."

The people outside were chattering.

The magistrate, furious, asked, "Zhou Fei, is what you said true or false?"

Zhou Fei dared not lie anymore. He scrambled to his feet, kowtowing and crying, "Sir, Heaven God, I lied! I was foul-mouthed! I was spouting nonsense! The grain for Peach Blossom Village has already been delivered, but it was stolen by bandits! I was afraid the master would blame me for not delivering the grain, so I slandered them! It's all my fault!"

"You audacious Zhou Fei, spewing slander at others! Take him to jail and give him thirty strokes of the cane!" With a single order from the magistrate, the bailiffs dragged Zhou Fei away from the main hall.

The villagers kowtowed repeatedly, exclaiming, "Your Excellency is wise!"

The county magistrate didn't take this small matter to heart. What interested him more was that in previous years, the grain harvest was usually in the sixth or seventh month, and it was only May, not to mention that there had been a locust attack not long ago.

Does Peach Blossom Village have some ingenious method to deal with locusts? If so, and he were to obtain it and report it to his superiors, it would be a great achievement.

"People from Peach Blossom Village, not long ago, locusts attacked and ate all the wheat in the surrounding villages. Why is your village's grain still intact?"

The village chief was in high spirits and blurted out without thinking, his face full of pride, "Of course it's because our village has a goddess and a divine bird."

"What?" The magistrate's face turned grave.

Qin glared at the village chief. "Sir, don't listen to his nonsense. We just used some old methods and got lucky."

The magistrate had naturally heard about the goddess who was causing a stir in the town, and he could tell that Qin was trying to cover it up.

"I clearly heard him mention goddesses and divine birds. What exactly is going on? Tell me immediately!"