No matter how much Zhao Qingyan complained inwardly, the food before the exam still had to be taken from her spatial storage. For one thing, the pork from the market just didn't taste right.

And then there are the chickens. If she had to kill chickens every day, Zhao Qingyan would be driven crazy.

Killing a chicken is easy, plucking its feathers is troublesome, especially the smell; she wouldn't bother with it even if she hadn't eaten chicken for a hundred years.

In the days leading up to the exam, candidates don't have to do anything; they can focus all their energy on studying.

Early that morning, Zhao Qingyan got up 15 minutes earlier than others as usual, and put the food for breakfast in a steamer to heat it up.

As for soy milk and such, that naturally refers to what was purchased.

"Breakfast is ready!" Zhao Qingyan's shout rang out in the Zhao family's courtyard as always, like an alarm clock.

The students rushed out of their rooms as if they were gathering, quickly fetched water to wash up, and then gathered in the living room for dinner.

The moment Zhao Qingyan saw Zhao Qianci, she burst out laughing.

"Grandpa, what happened to your forehead?"

I got bumped on the way home and got a bump, wasn't it already healed? How come I have two more bumps today, they look like horns.

Zhao Qianci reached up and touched his forehead.

"Oh, don't even mention it. The mosquito net was tucked in so tightly, and there was even mosquito coil burning inside, how did I still get bitten by mosquitoes?"

Zhao Qingyan frowned, unsure whether the bite was from a mosquito or something else.

After dinner, I went over and inspected Zhao Qianci and Huang's bedroom.

They then thoroughly inspected all the bedding and other supplies belonging to the elderly couple.

In the end, nothing was found.

This was the most worrying thing, so Zhao Qingyan took out insecticide for the first time in the other world and sprayed every corner, including the roof beams where things were most likely to be hidden.

Then the doors and windows were closed tightly, and an hour later the door was opened for inspection.

To everyone's surprise, two spider corpses were found lying under the bed.

Lifting the wooden bed frame revealed a spider's nest underneath.

He pulled out the insecticide and quickly took down the entire spider swarm.

They used a shovel to dig up the spider's nest, swept it into a spade, took it to the yard, dug a pit, and burned it.

Zhao Qingyan also moved the bed that the elderly couple used to sleep in to the woodshed.

If this didn't belong to the landlord, she would have burned the whole bed.

After checking the room inside and out again and wiping the floor once more, a wooden bed was finally taken out of the space.

She temporarily put away the bedding the elderly couple had used and brought them new bedding and pillows.

At the same time, the mosquito nets were replaced with ones that looked like yurts.

After finishing all that, I pulled the mosquito net shut tightly to make sure no insects would crawl in.

With the alcohol and ointment in hand, I went to find Zhao Qianci, disinfected his forehead, and then applied the ointment.

Spider bites are the easiest way to get infected.

If it's not treated promptly, it might become infected and leave an unsightly scar.

In particular, Zhao Qianci still wanted to participate in the imperial examination.

To ensure that Zhao Qianci was not harmed by insects recently, Zhao Qingyan and Huang Shi worked together to nail screen windows to the windows of the two elders' room.

A magnetic curtain door was installed.

These were all handmade by the grandfather and grandson.

Ancient doors and windows differ greatly in size from those of later generations; otherwise, Zhao Qingyan wouldn't have needed to go through all that trouble and could have simply used a few glue sticks to finish the job.

We can only find the materials and sew what needs to be sewn and nail what needs to be nailed. Although we know it might affect studying in the study, there's no other way.

Of course, to say that it affected the test takers would be to seriously underestimate them; they were oblivious to everything else and focused solely on their studies.

This refers to the group of people reading in the Zhao family's living room.

After tidying up the old couple's room, Zhao Qingyan, along with Huang Shi, inspected all the other rooms.

Finally, screens were installed on the windows of the other rooms as well.

As for the door, just keep it closed.

A window for ventilation is sufficient.

Why would an elderly couple need an extra screen door in their room? It's obvious – for added security.

After getting everything done, I checked the time and realized it was past lunchtime. Surprisingly, not a single person complained of being hungry.

Zhao Qingyan quickly went to the kitchen and took out a lot of cooked food from her spatial storage. The grandmother and granddaughter chopped and made cold dishes together.

Fifteen minutes later, a refreshing, nutritious, and delicious lunch appeared.

Since the Wang family father and son appeared, Zhao Family Village has increased patrols, and things have been peaceful.

At midnight that night, the sound of a gong rang out in the village.

The men in the village quickly dressed, grabbed their tools, and ran toward the sound of the gong.

The Zhao family was no exception; although all the men of the Zhao family had gone out,

However, the Zhao family still has many guards, and there are also pig farms and workshops down the mountain, all of which have men.

Upon arriving at the scene, they saw the patrol team fighting with more than a dozen men in black.

It seems that the men in black are all skilled in martial arts.

The Zhao family workshop, pig farm, and guards from Qingshan Xiaozhu all made their appearance.

With the addition of these martial arts experts, the men in black surrendered without resistance.

They were all tied up like rice dumplings. "Tell me, where did you all come from, and who assigned you?"

Before questioning them, Zhao Jinfa first took a shoe sole from each of the dozen or so men in black before starting the questioning.

After doing so many bad things over the years, this is the first time I've ever been hit by a shoe sole.

The Black people were very indignant, feeling greatly insulted, and their strongest reaction was to stick their necks out and remain silent.

That old man Zhao Jinfa is quite interesting.

"You're not going to talk, are you? Since you're not going to talk, then there's no need to talk at all. Take off their socks and stuff them into their mouths."

Then they hung them one by one on the big tree at the village entrance.

I really don't believe it. Is it your words that are hard, or the fists of us Zhao Family Villagers that are hard?

Let's hang them up for one night first, without giving them water; they'll die of thirst.

If we report to the authorities again in the afternoon, it will be at least the day after tomorrow before the officials can bring them to the county government.

After being hung up for two days and one night, they would inevitably be subjected to further severe torture at the county government office.

Haha, the county magistrate is different from the one in my little village. I heard that he has a special place for executions, and there are all kinds of torture instruments in there.

The simplest method is to use a branding iron. You heat a piece of iron in a charcoal fire until it's red-hot, and then burn it onto the bad guy's body.

With a sizzling sound, the smell of burning filled the air.

You guys have never had barbecue before, have you?

It smells a bit bad at first, but the taste gets better and better, becoming a fragrant, caramelized aroma.

Dipping a leather whip in salt water is too simple.

I've heard of another kind, the ironwood comb, which is said to cause the skin and flesh to fall off piece by piece when combed on a prisoner's body.

That was incredibly even! I've never seen how a living person is tortured before.

I've heard that pork treated with that stuff is incredibly tender and smooth when cooked directly.