"Bring them up!" Two servants brought in an old woman and a young woman, a fat woman and a thin woman, who were tied up.

Little Fu Bao chuckled and said:

"Just now, when I passed through Niushan Town, I asked two servants to buy some fruit for me. The two women selling the fruit ran away as soon as they saw them." "Manager Feng, tell me, why did they run away?"

The two women, one old and one young, were his daughter-in-law and his wife.

"This is fruit that we planted at home. My wife was afraid that the young lady and the two young men would misunderstand if they saw it," Steward Feng said matter-of-factly.

Manager Feng's wife's surname was Lai. Upon hearing her husband's words, Madam Lai angrily tried to break free from the servant holding her, shouting:

"Why are you arresting me? These are our own crops, we grew them ourselves, can't we even sell them?"

Little Fu Bao chuckled softly, then said:

"Manager Feng, how many years have you worked here? And how many years have you worked for our family?"

“Thirteen years, and I worked for your family for four years,” Manager Feng said.

"Four years! That's a really long time, so long that Manager Feng forgot about the renewal agreement." "Article 12 of the twenty-six articles in the agreement states that gardeners are not allowed to plant fruit trees privately."

"Furthermore, our family will provide the steward with a monthly allowance of two strings of cash and the gardener with a monthly allowance of one string of cash under this agreement."

"As for compensation, no one in Niushan County can offer more than ours," "Pear saplings, though in demand," "are not something everyone can afford," "I'll take you to the yamen and have a good talk with you."

Little Fu Bao then added:

"Besides Steward Feng, there are you all too." "We're providing you with perfectly good food, and you're still not satisfied, insisting on stealing food from the garden."

At this point, some people couldn't hold back anymore. One of the thin gardeners immediately knelt down and cried out:

"Please, young lady, have mercy and don't send us away!"

"Please, young lady, have mercy!"

"You eat our food as if it were your own home, and take our things as if they were from your own pockets." "Have you ever thought about how much our family has lost because of this?"

Immediately, a cacophony of voices arose below, with everyone looking flustered and some even ashamed.

"Didn't Manager Feng tell you that even if you lose these fruits, it's just fruits, and our family won't do anything to you?"

Little Lucky Baby said.

Everyone was secretly shocked: How did the girl know about what was said in private?

Manager Feng and his wife also looked embarrassed.

Little Fu Bao's stern face softened slightly, and she said:

"However, our family is not heartless. As long as you can prove how much Steward Feng stole and are willing to admit your mistake, I will give you a lenient punishment."

“Otherwise,” Xiao Fubao’s expression turned slightly cold, “I have plenty of ways to deal with you. When it comes to pay, among gardeners, there are few families in the entire Jiangzhou that pay more than mine.”

"If you don't tell the truth, I'd rather kill a hundred innocent people than let one guilty person go free."

For a moment, the dozen or so gardeners below had different expressions.

“My testimony is that Manager Feng abused his power by not only stealing fruit from the orchard, but also picking three or four baskets of fruit every day to sell in different villages,” said one of the gardeners, Wang’er. “Moreover, he also blackmailed us.”

"If any of us does not eat fruit from the garden, he will make things difficult for us in our daily work." "The younger ones were greedy, so...so they ate a few."

"How many? How many are there exactly?" Little Fu Bao asked.

"Let me say it for you, at least four a day."

Wang'er was so frightened that she fell to her knees with a thud, slapping herself repeatedly in the face: "I'll teach you to be greedy, I'll teach you to be weak, I'll teach you to go along with the crowd!"

Then he presented a notebook, saying, "I've been waiting for this day for a long time. I've specifically recorded the quantity and weight of the fruit that Steward Feng stole."

"You'll be fined three months' wages and a lump sum of silver and rice." "Considering you're the first to confess, you won't be punished with caning."

Wang'er quickly kowtowed in gratitude.

Then, the gardeners pointed out various crimes committed by Steward Feng, such as using his position to solicit bribes from others.

Even gardeners need two assistants in addition to the person in charge, and the assistants' income and benefits are higher than those of other gardeners.

“Young lady, I only eat two a day, is it really necessary to punish me so severely?” a lean old man said.

"Talent? Fine, what talent! I'm afraid I can't accommodate you here, nor can I afford to support you." Little Fu Bao ordered his men to take the old man away. "Someone just reported you for bribery."

"I'm going to send you and Steward Feng to the yamen and have a proper talk with them."

The thin old man was so frightened that he immediately knelt down on the ground.

"Manager Feng, do you think that just because fruit isn't gold or silver, you can't be charged with theft? Tuanyuan, you should really do the math with me."

"How much would the fruit he stole be worth in monetary terms?"

Tuanyuan took the accounts that Wang'er had just handed over and carefully calculated them:

"Young lady, that's a total of 672 strings of cash and 14 copper coins. You'll probably be spending the rest of your life in jail."

"Send him to the government office."

"Wang'er, you little brat, how dare you scheme against me?" Manager Feng shouted, his voice fading into the distance.

Little Fu Bao got off the chair and said:

"Wang'er, your accounts are well done! This garden can't function without someone in charge."

Wang'er fully expected Xiao Fubao to promote him, but Xiao Fubao suddenly changed his tune and said:

"I appoint you as the temporary supervisor, and you as the prison warden."

It refers to two other people.

"However, given your previous mistakes, my family will not pay you a single penny for your temporary duties as supervisors and prison guards for these three months."

"You will only receive your probationary salary after you are officially hired. Do you accept that?"

The two people being referred to.

The temporary manager was called Jiang Ershen.

His nickname in the prison was "Short Legs Wang".

Jiang and Wang were overjoyed and nodded repeatedly, saying:

"Clothes"

"In addition, we'll bring in six or seven new gardeners," Xiao Fubao said. "Although our family will soon be moving to the capital, our hearts, ears, and minds will always be here. If you think you can fool us like Steward Feng, you'd better think twice before you try."

Everyone thought to themselves:

No wonder Boss Niu, a country bumpkin, made such a fortune. A seven-year-old girl, not even in school yet, was so ruthless and decisive.

It seems that the young lady and Boss Niu must be even more formidable; what we usually see is just the tip of the iceberg.

Xiao Fubao and Cuizhu reunited after leaving the fruit farm.

Reunion and Asking Questions:

"Girl, why don't you just get rid of them all at once? Why not sue them too?"

Little Fu Bao said:

"Even if we report them, the amount of fruit they stole is less than one ten-thousandth of Steward Feng's, and they'll only be in jail for a few days."

"Moreover, they are all veterans who have managed the orchards and have extensive experience in managing fruit trees. It would be inappropriate to find novices to take over completely after they have all retired."

"Secondly, why use a sledgehammer to crack a nut? Let them work hard for a few months for free, and then we can nurture and train new teachers before catching them all at once. Wouldn't that be better?"

"That's called making the most of resources," my older sister said.

Reunion said again:

"Just now, I saw the young lady praising Wang'er for his good accounting skills. I thought she was going to promote him to temporary manager."

Green Bamboo smiled and said:

"There's no child smarter than our girl." "Reunion, you just don't understand, do you? You think our girl will promote Wang'er, and Wang'er himself will definitely think the same."

"They secretly suspected that someone had tipped them off after what you said today, but little did they know that it was our young lady who had deduced it."

"Whoever is temporarily in charge, they will suspect; and as soon as they suspect someone, there will be infighting."

"For the sake of this monthly salary of four strings of cash, they would compete to perform well, train the new gardeners, and fight openly and secretly to oust the person above them."

"Once there's conflict, then we'll have a reason to drive them out."

The reunion was a blur of confusion.

Cui Zhu looked pleased.

"Our girl has grown up; she'll see who looks down on us country folk from now on."

Little Fu Bao said: But it's so tiring to hold it like this!

As soon as the little guy got home, he plopped down on the bed, then rolled over and wiggled like a little worm before crawling under the covers.

"Cuizhu, Tuanyuan, Xiang'er, I'm so tired! Being a young lady in a wealthy family is no job for an inhuman."

No one paid any attention to her for a long time.

The little one turned her head and saw a magnified face in front of her: "Big sister!"

The older sister took her little hand and asked her excitedly:

"Tell me quickly, how did you get that annoying hamster into jail?"

Manager Feng is called a hamster because he looks like a rat, and his speech is exactly like a rat eating.

Xiao Fubao recounted what happened.

Niu Cuihua laughed and said, "You have no idea, every time I go back to check on the estate, he always talks as if he wants to stick his tongue out at me. His bad breath makes me feel so nauseous."

"He has that obsequious, mercenary air about him again. I hate him so much. Maybe it's because my father and I have been so diligent in investigating him, but we haven't found a single fault with him in the past few years."

"He's a capable person, but unfortunately, he's dishonest and greedy, like a hamster."

Otherwise, he wouldn't have swallowed over two hundred strings of cash for fruit in one go.

Ordinary people wouldn't have that kind of courage.

"He speaks like a hamster. I often wonder if he was a rat spirit in his past life?"

"Ahem," Little Fu Bao cleared his throat and continued:

"Young lady, these are the account books. Please take a look."

Little Fubao's imitation of Steward Feng's speech and tone was so lifelike that Niu Cuihua burst into laughter, poking Little Fubao's head with one hand:

"You're getting more and more mischievous as you grow up!"

The little one proudly raised her face, looking incredibly smug. If she had a tail, it would be sticking up to the sky right now.

After laughing for a while, Niu Cuihua stopped laughing:

"My sisters and I grew up together. Tomorrow you'll all be leaving, leaving me all alone here."

Of all my younger sisters, you're the one I'll miss the most. Without you, the house is so much less fun.

"After this parting, who knows when we'll meet again?"

Little Fu Bao said:

“The college gives us holidays every year, so we can come back to see my sister. And when my sister has time, she can also come to Dingdu to visit me and the other sisters.”

Niu Cuihua stood up and walked to Xiao Fubao's wardrobe. "I've already packed your things. Take a look and see if there's anything else you need."

If you listen closely, you can hear a slight sob in her voice.