"This is truly an eye-opener! I've never seen a concubine who doesn't even have a maid, and has to fetch water from the well herself! Bah!"

"Hey, what if he goes out with those guys every day, showing off? What if he runs into trouble one day and gets beaten up? What if he gets killed... ugh."

"Hehehe, there's no such thing as a free lunch. He's on good terms with the county magistrate, so who would dare to mess with him? But if that happens, then we sisters will be in luck, hahaha."

Shen Xingmian hid in the corner and listened to the group laughing and joking. She thought this kind of life was not bad. They were clearly competitors, but because of the men, they had actually formed a united front and become sisters.

Living in the same environment every day, I don't even need to prepare any complaints beforehand, so it's just too much fun.

Shen Xingmian stopped eavesdropping and instead knocked on the door. The laughter inside immediately stopped and became silent.

She pushed the door open and entered, intending to find out what this man had done. If his crimes didn't warrant death, she would spare his life.

But if he's a habitual offender who commits crimes, then we'll have no choice but to send him away.

The three people inside were huddled together, trembling. They knew very well how outrageous their words had been, and if they were reported, they might be sold off.

Then their "good days" are about to come to an end.

Although it's not a wealthy place, at least you're relatively free on a daily basis, and there are people to chat with. If you were sold off, who knows how miserable your life would be.

One of them mustered his courage and asked, "W-who are you? How did you get in?"

Shen Xingmian calmly replied, "You don't need to worry about that. The man you just mentioned is already in my hands. The 'what if' you mentioned has already happened."

"Come on, tell me honestly what heinous things this person has done." After saying that, Shen Xingmian pulled up a chair and sat down calmly.

The other one, though timid, spoke fluently. Hearing this, he took a deep breath, looked directly at Shen Xingmian, and asked, "How can you prove you're not one of his people, and not here to deceive us?"

"The people he took out are all lying in the courtyard right now. You can go see for yourselves," Shen Xingmian said nonchalantly, pointing towards the courtyard.

The mansion wasn't very big to begin with, and the rooms in the backyard were even smaller. It wouldn't take long for them to go back and forth. The other concubine, who was more agile, immediately lifted her skirt and ran out.

The person returned shortly afterward and nodded vigorously to the two people inside.

The one who spoke fluently immediately said, "He forcibly abducted women and treated human life like dirt. Although he bought us, he only gave us one or two taels of silver. Heh, even wild boars in the mountains don't get that much silver."

He used to be reluctant to spend money to hire so many people, but one time he only took two people out and they harassed someone's wife. They were beaten up by the man in the house. Enraged, he hired more people to settle the score and beat the man to death.

The woman felt she had brought this trouble upon herself, so she grabbed her infant child and jumped into the well, following the child's fate...

Hearing her mention this, the other two fell silent. Despite their frequent bickering and swearing, they dared not bring up this matter at all.

Just thinking about that family of three makes me so upset that I can't sleep at night. They've really done something terrible.

"Besides these three lives, has he harmed anyone else?" Although Shen Xingmian's tone remained calm, the anger in her heart was already burning.

"The other murder cases are over, but there are still many people who have been bullied by him, including those who run shops on the street. Which shop hasn't had its things taken away for free by him and his men?"

He was incredibly stingy; he even tried to squeeze money from others to pay for hiring people, refusing to spend a single copper coin of his own.

Shen Xingmian was a little puzzled, so she asked, "With his behavior, didn't he get beaten up with a sack over his head?"

She really couldn't understand why everyone in this town was so easy to talk to.

"Of course he did, that's why he hired those two people. Later, when he had more people, no one else could put the sacks on him anymore, sigh."

From that sigh, Shen Xingmian could truly sense a great deal of regret; it seemed that he really had no feelings at all.

That would make things much easier.

"Alright, you two just stay in the backyard today. We should have results by tomorrow. Don't panic."

After saying that, he left the backyard and went to meet up with the others.

After learning about the family of three, Shen Xingmian felt that this person could not be allowed to live. She originally thought he was just a smart aleck, but she did not expect him to have done such a despicable thing.

If it were truly just a disagreement with their family, Shen Xingmian wouldn't feel comfortable taking action, feeling that killing them outright would be too cruel.

The more power one has to decide the life or death of others, the more cautious one must be when making decisions, otherwise it is very likely to develop into a habit of indiscriminate killing.

She wants to do everything she can to avoid this possibility from the very beginning.

After telling his family what had happened, they were also deeply saddened. They had thought this person was just stingy and immoral, but they never expected that he had a murder on his hands.

If we didn't know, that would be fine, but now that we do, we have no choice but to rid the people of this scourge.

"Gao has only been a concubine for a short time, yet this man dares to act so recklessly because of her. After we treated him like this, if we leave and he survives, his resentment will have nowhere to go, and someone else will definitely suffer."

We still need to take care of him before we leave.

Luo Qi'an was usually a man of few words, but once he opened his mouth, no one in the family would disobey him. Hearing him say this now, they all made up their minds as well.

"Sweetie, go with your older brothers and sisters to buy some food. We adults will take care of this person."

Hmm, we don't actually need her. That's fine too. She can just be a kid and a mobile warehouse.

"Then I'll bring my sister along too!" After saying that, she grabbed Xiao Yanyue, called her cousins, and ran towards the gate.

This house is not far from the main street, so it is very convenient to buy things. There is a pastry shop right outside the alley. Shen Xingmian asked about the price, tasted a little and thought it was pretty good, so he ordered two catties of each.

After packing it up, I handed it to my cousin to carry, and then continued my stroll.

Every time she came to the market, she felt a sense of satisfaction. It turned out that she didn't need to use the gold and silver mountains in her space; she could buy whatever she wanted to eat and use with just some loose silver.

It's so comfortable to live without financial pressure.

This was the first time she had come out with the children, and her feelings were very different from when she was frantically hoarding supplies alone.

Strolling leisurely down the street, buying whatever catches your eye, especially food—you can never have too much ready-made stuff.

She reorganized the space, moving the gold and silver chests to the side of the floor, which freed up some room again.

"Little sister, look over there!"