Zhu Da was flattered by the praise, but said, "I am not particularly wise and powerful. I am just more knowledgeable than someone like Luo Xi."

"However, even though I know she's bragging, it's true that she's stealing our people."

“She tricked me last time, and I haven’t settled the score with her yet. This time, I must teach her a lesson.”

Zhu Da strode to the table, exaggerated the information he had gathered by more than double, wrote it down, and had it sent to Prefect Du Hong.

To put it dramatically, given the prefect's suspicious nature, he would definitely send people to investigate, and might even suspect that Luo Xi had some ulterior motives, and might even send troops to besiege him.

He was quite confident when it came to understanding people's hearts.

By the time Du Hong received the letter, the message had changed to this: as long as you join Chaoyang Manor, you can eat as much meat as you want and rice as you want, and you don't have to do anything. You can earn 100 taels of silver a month. The seeds made by Luo Xi are so delicious that they grow taller than a person if you throw them on a rock.

Du Hong's knuckles were visibly white as he held the letter, his face was flushed red, and his chest was heaving violently. He couldn't utter a single word for a long time.

It's clear that he was extremely angry.

"Sir, are you alright?" the constable asked in a low voice.

The messenger who delivered the message said there was big news and he might even get a reward, but looking at him now, it seemed more likely he'd get a beating.

Du Hong, furious, laughed: "Good, what a fine local official, very good indeed."

"They even provide meat to fill your stomach, and seeds planted on rocks grow taller than a person. Does a county magistrate have no ability to distinguish right from wrong? He actually believes such rumors?"

"What a useless piece of trash." He crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it at the yamen runner's forehead: "You, go and keep an eye on Zhu Da, and tell him to work with that good-for-nothing Rong Bai to wipe out Chaoyang Manor."

"Otherwise, Zhu Da will no longer be able to serve as the county magistrate, and you should never come back."

He had never taken a woman's thatched hut seriously, but after Zhu Da exaggerated it like this, he subconsciously felt that Luo Xi was just trying to attract attention, and he lost even the last bit of desire to have someone verify it.

When the yamen runner came out with the crumpled paper, he almost hated Zhu Da and the other yamen runner to death.

They even said they could get a reward, but now they've almost lost their jobs. They thought it was so easy to get a job in the prefect's office, that there were plenty of people vying for it.

"I want to see what this Zhu Da guy actually wrote."

But after just one glance, he felt like slapping himself twice.

"What kind of nonsense is this? Even a three-year-old wouldn't believe such a thing. How dare that idiot Zhu Da send it to adults?"

The constable was furious and decided to keep a close eye on Zhu Da so that he could make amends; otherwise, he might not be able to return to the prefect's mansion.

Zhu Da was dumbfounded. He hadn't expected that he would guess wrong this time and end up having to destroy Chaoyang Manor with Rong Bai.

"Then, then... what about the army? What about the supplies?" he asked with a mournful face.

Return the army and provisions? The yamen runners of the prefectural governor's office really wanted to cut open his head to see if it was full of tofu dregs.

“Lord Zhu, do you even understand that the Prefect is giving you a chance to make a contribution?”

"It's because you did something stupid and angered the adults. If you don't do this task well, you'll lose your official position, and you'll even drag me down with you."

When he said his last sentence, it sounded like he was about to devour Zhu Da.

Zhu Da panicked completely. He was in danger of losing his official position. That wouldn't do.

Without this official position, who will offer him tributes, and who will still treat him with utmost respect?

No, no, absolutely not!

"Don't worry, yamen runner, Zhu Da will do his utmost to ensure that such a thing does not happen."

He clenched his fist and hurriedly headed towards Tongning County.

As for the army's provisions, isn't there room for maneuver?

The Rong family is the richest family in the county. How could they be short of these things? Besides, these are bandits from their Tongning County. Why should they ask him to contribute money and effort? It's already a great favor for Rong Bai to just be a military supervisor.

When Rong Bai heard him say this, he immediately laughed: "So, Lord Zhu has angered the Prefect himself, but he doesn't want to do anything and just waits for me to clean up his mess."

He clicked his tongue and looked at Li Jin beside him: "Uncle Li, I remember I'm not married yet, when did I get such a big son?"

"Is he a son who only knows how to run to his father when he does something wrong?"

"Rong Bai, watch your mouth." Zhu Da's face turned pale: "Who's your son?"

As expected of a spoiled brat from a merchant family, he keeps spouting nonsense... Pshaw, pshaw, pshaw.

Rong Bai gave him a cool sidelong glance: "Of course it's you, Lord Zhu. Otherwise, why do you take it so seriously that I should do things for you for free?"

"What do you mean by 'helping this official'?" Zhu Da said, "These are bandits under the jurisdiction of your Tongning County. Isn't it only right that you provide money and manpower?"

“If this matter is not handled well, the prefect will still remove your official hat.”

"That's perfect." Rong Bai sat up straight with a "whoosh," his eyes shining. "When will the Prefect pick them, now?"

As he spoke, he actually took off his official hat and handed it to Zhu Da: "Then I'll trouble Lord Zhu to give it to the Prefect."

"Oh, right, there's also the corvée labor in this county. I'll assign that task to you as well. The people of Tongning County have all gone to Chaoyang Manor to become outlaws. I'm not very capable and can't gather enough people. I'm sure the brilliant Lord Zhu will have a solution."

Zhu Da: "..."

I've never seen such a shameless person.

He was caught in a dilemma: whether to accept the answer or not.

In the end, he had no choice but to stand up and leave in anger. If he stayed any longer, he would probably be driven to his death by Rong Bai's anger.

"My lord, what should we do now?" the steward asked worriedly. "If we had known, we wouldn't have written that letter to the prefect."

Now look what's happened! Not only have I annoyed people, but I've also been given this inexplicable assignment.

With Magistrate Rong being so difficult to deal with, they definitely won't be able to get this job done.

Zhu Da was still puzzled: "Who knows what the Prefect is thinking this time? Didn't he used to like to personally investigate and verify everything?"

"Forget it, things have already come to this, let's try to come up with a solution from Rong Bai's perspective."

Zhu Da snorted: "I don't believe he really doesn't care about his official position, otherwise why would he have spent so much money to buy it in the first place?"

He started trying to figure out people's thoughts again.

"Just wait and see who can outlast whom."

Anyway, he is determined not to compromise. If you want to get anything or money from him, dream on.

He had only just begun accumulating treasure after the last theft, and hadn't even had a chance to enjoy it yet.

After Zhu Da left, Rong Bai turned around and went to the villa to tell Luo Xi about it.

"These government dogs... well, they all want to take advantage of me, it's outrageous!" he said angrily.

He spoke as if he were no longer an official of the imperial court. Luo Xi glanced at him.

This guy is getting more and more comfortable around her now; he even knows to grab the snacks on the table and eat them.

She didn't seem to care, and said in a nonchalant tone, "That's easy. When the time is right, we'll put on a couple more shows together, and then we can still get a lot out of him."

"However, let's give him some space for now. In these matters, whoever is more hasty will be at a disadvantage."