The thief mustered his courage, lit a tinderbox, and looked up, only to be terrified.

"Ah..." With a scream, she threw down the tinderbox in her hand and scrambled towards the gate.

Thieves always have a habit of jumping over the wall and leaving through the gate, so after entering the yard, the thief went to unbolt the gate.

This also makes it easier for thieves to escape.

With such a commotion, the family would naturally get up and come out to investigate. Seeing the door wide open, they knew a thief had broken in.

When a thief breaks in, the girl's mother naturally has to check what's missing. She first goes to the kitchen and finds that half a bag of grain is missing, at which point she starts yelling and cursing.

After grumbling and cursing, he came out of the kitchen and remembered that there was still a two-pound piece of cured meat in the woodshed.

Sure enough, the door to the woodshed was open, and the old woman cursed even more fiercely.

Looking inside, they exclaimed, "Ah, Da Bao, old man, quick, water, water, the woodshed is on fire!"

This is terrible! The woodshed is on fire, we'll have to put it out.

The girl's older brother quickly brought out foot-washing water from his own house, intending to go in and put out the fire directly.

He was so focused on watching the fire that he poured a basin of water on it and put it out before realizing something was wrong. He thought he had bumped into something when he came in.

You can't see it clearly from the outside looking in, but you can see it clearly from the inside looking out. You can see something hanging from the low beam.

He walked forward shakily, reached out and pushed, but it didn't feel right. With a scream, the girl's older brother also rushed out with a pained cry.

Seeing her son wailing and howling, the old woman quickly asked what was wrong.

The boy was so frightened that he couldn't speak, and he just closed his eyes, pointed at the woodshed, and remained silent.

The old woman quickly told her daughter-in-law to bring the candles. After lighting the candles, she looked into the woodshed and let out a loud scream.

The candle in my hand almost flew out of my hand.

The family quickly and efficiently got the person down from the roof beam.

Reaching out to check for breath, I found not only no breath at all, but also that the body was already stiff.

This girl's name is Jiang Erni. She also has a daughter named Da Ni. Years ago, she was sold to an old widower in order to find a wife for her son, Jiang Dabao. The old widower was even 10 years older than Jiang.

Now that she saw her second daughter was already aroused, Old Lady Jiang cried her heart out.

She wasn't crying because she thought her daughter was alive or dead, but because her daughter was now worthless.

If we were to get a wife for our youngest son, we'd have to use up their savings for their funerals. How could that be acceptable?

In the end, it was Old Man Jiang who stopped his wife's crying and fussing.

"Alright, stop wailing. He was a money-loser. He's gone, so what? Why are you crying?"

Didn't someone just enter our yard? Da Bao, go report it to the authorities.

If we can catch that thief, maybe we can get some money.

Alright, that's how it was. That very night, Jiang Dabao reported it to the authorities and even sent constables to arrest the petty thief.

Although the thief was so frightened that he screamed and ran out of the Jiang family's house, it was already late at night, and no one saw him.

After shouting for a while, the little thief regained his senses and returned home, never to go out again.

The government office investigated for several days, but found absolutely nothing.

After examination by the coroner, it was determined that the Jiang family's daughter committed suicide, not murder. Therefore, this murder case should not be confused with theft.

Moreover, the Jiang family did not lose any valuables.

This is what Jiang Jiada Bao said when he reported the case.

“A thief broke into my house. The thief saw that my sister was pretty and wanted to do something immoral to her.”

My sister resisted, and I strangled her to death.

In cases involving murder, the government naturally takes them seriously. From investigating the scene to conducting an autopsy, the final conclusions all proved that the Jiang family was lying.

Magistrate Qiu originally intended to let it go, out of pity for the family who had just lost their daughter, and not pursue the matter of filing a false report.

As a result, in order to get some compensation, Old Woman Jiang insisted on carrying Jiang Erni's body outside the county government office and making a scene, saying that the county magistrate was not doing his job.

Harboring criminals and disregarding human life, etc.

Magistrate Qiu was indeed a good official, but that doesn't mean he had no temper.

The entire Jiang family, from eldest to youngest, was arrested and imprisoned, tried separately, and their neighbors were also interviewed.

In the end, the case was closed, and it was determined that Jiang Erni's death was entirely caused by the Jiang family themselves.

However, he falsely accused the county government, and the family tragically lost their loved ones. Apart from the child in his arms, no one else in the family escaped being flogged.

Especially Old Mrs. Jiang and Old Mr. Jiang, each received 20 lashes.

After this incident, the youngest son of the Jiang family could no longer find a wife, let alone ask a matchmaker to arrange a marriage. Matchmakers would avoid him altogether.

"So what if she's a matchmaker? Matchmakers also care about their reputation."

Your family dares to slander even the county magistrate. With such a scoundrel family, no girl who marries into your family will have a good life in the future.

I would never do such a terrible thing.

This is what the tenth matchmaker the Jiang family sought said.

Because of Jiang Erni's situation, Magistrate Qiu sent his officers to visit the homes of the rescued girls.

Naturally, none of them dared to wear the yamen runner's uniform, for fear of arousing criticism from their neighbors.

Families who valued their daughters either moved away or sent them to live with relatives. Of course, there were also those families who did nothing right.

To prevent another Jiang Erni from emerging, Magistrate Qiu instructed his officials to reveal that the Zhao family had taken in a suffering girl.

Within a few days, Zhao's Snack Shop received seven or eight girls who came seeking help.

After investigation and confirmation by the county government, these girls were found to be the unfortunate victims and were first placed in an orphanage.

Besides helping to take care of the orphans in the orphanage every day, these girls also learned skills at the orphanage.

We taught them cooking, needlework, and other skills—whatever the girls were interested in, we taught them in that direction.

There was no fear of learning the recipe or leaking it.

After all, having learned the Zhao family's craft, one would naturally have to sign an agreement to work for the Zhao family in the future.

Therefore, in addition to the soap workshop, the Zhao family also opened a sauce workshop, a calligraphy brush workshop, a general store, and two more branches of the Zhao Family Snack Shop.

Naturally, Huang and her two daughters-in-law handled all these business matters.

Time passed amidst everyone's busyness, and Zhang Cuicui's twins had already turned one month old.

On this day, the Zhao family held a full moon celebration.

Besides the Zhao family members from Zhao Village, Magistrate Qiu, the owner of Wangyuelou Restaurant, the Wang Huaijing family, and the Wang Guangzong family also came to offer their congratulations. The headmaster of the county school and several teachers and students also came.

Some of the students at the county school actually had rather mixed feelings about the students from the Zhao family.

Some people think that their family has no serious business, how can four generations of them study together? It's a disgrace to scholars.

Others believe that the men in the Zhao family are all educated, leaving the burden of supporting the family to the women in the household, making them prime examples of men who live off women.