The chaos within the Feng family was not something Jing Zhe had anticipated; he had only intended to annoy Feng Mubai.

Of course, Jing Zhe doesn't have the time to worry about these things right now.

At this time, Jing Zhe had already gone to a small fishing village outside Jiangling City early in the morning, as instructed by Lin Changjun, and met Zhou Hongtao, who had now settled down and started a family.

When Zhou Hongtao first met Jing Zhe, he was still wary of him, even though he had changed his surname to Lin. Only after Jing Zhe explained his purpose and mentioned Lin Changjun's name did Zhou Hongtao believe him.

After the fire more than ten years ago, no one except Lin Changjun knew that he was the only surviving child of the Zhou family. Over the years, thanks to Lin Changjun's support, he was able to survive, get married, have children, and live a normal life.

But no matter how normal his life seemed, he could never forget that night many years ago when he got up in the middle of the night to escape a raging fire. He knew perfectly well who had set the fire.

Because in the period leading up to the fire, Magistrate Xu and the Feng family visited his father almost every day, trying to persuade him to sell the restaurant to them.

If it were a serious business deal, his father might have agreed long ago after their persistent persuasion and the prefect's status. However, the conditions offered by the Feng family were extremely harsh, almost outright robbery, so he refused to agree no matter what.

This also brought trouble upon the Zhou family.

After the fire, Zhou Family Restaurant became Feng Family Restaurant. The Feng family even produced the agreement they had signed with the Zhou family, but the signature of his father on it was fake. If the agreement had been signed, how could his father have been burned to death?

However, the Zhou family mansion was burned down, and all the Zhou family members perished in the fire. All of Zhou's father's calligraphy was also burned, and no one could recognize his handwriting anymore. Therefore, the agreement was genuine, and the change of ownership of the Zhou family restaurant was perfectly normal in the eyes of the common people, and no one doubted it.

When Zhou Hongtao learned that Jing Zhe was going to stand up for him and clear the Zhou family's name, he could hardly believe it, because he did not know Jing Zhe or his identity. When Jing Zhe introduced himself, Zhou Hongtao was moved to tears and extremely excited.

Afterwards, Jing Zhe and Zhou Hongtao rode in a horse-drawn carriage into the city.

...

By the time we got back to the city, it was almost noon.

Jing Zhe went directly to the yamen (government office).

"President Jing, I was just about to come find you!"

After leaving the Feng family, Magistrate Xu went straight to the Lin family, eager to hand over the house deed to Jing Zhe in exchange for the evidence in his possession. Unfortunately, Jing Zhe was not at home.

Now that he heard Jing Zhe was coming, he ran out excitedly.

"People are in high spirits when they have good news. Judging from how happy Magistrate Xu is, he must have already obtained the house deed?"

"As expected of President Jing, he is indeed a brilliant strategist!"

Magistrate Xu gave a small compliment, then took out the house deed. Just as Jing Zhe was about to reach out to take it, he withdrew his hand.

Jing Zhe frowned and asked, "What does Prefect Xu mean by this?"

"President Jing, don't be in such a hurry. I can give you the land deed, but you also need to give me the guarantee and the adultery agreement you have, right? After all, we agreed on this beforehand."

Magistrate Xu held the land deed in his hand, full of confidence.

Jing Zhe glanced at him, took his hand back, and said with some displeasure, "I hate it when people threaten me. If I say I'll give you something, I will, but it's me giving it to you, and you can't take it."

"..."

Magistrate Xu was somewhat bewildered: "Can't we negotiate properly? I don't know what to do with you like this!"

Jing Zhe said again, "Since you don't trust me, then you don't need to give me the deed. We... have broken up."

With that, Jing Zhe turned to leave.

"President Jing, wait a minute, wait a minute!"

Magistrate Xu panicked and quickly stopped Jing Zhe, saying, "I don't trust anyone, but I can't distrust Chief Jing!"

He handed the property deed to Jing Zhe. He had made up his mind: you can't catch a wolf without risking your cub. Now that things had come to this point, he didn't believe that Jing Zhe could be so shameless as to renege on the agreement after taking the property deed.

Jing Zhe took the deed and snorted coldly, "That's more like it!"

However, after Jing Zhe put away the house deed, and after waiting for a while, Prefect Xu became extremely anxious, because Jing Zhe had no intention of giving him the guarantee or the adultery agreement!

"President Jing, the guarantee and the adultery agreement..."

"Prefect Xu, you're not that old, how come you seem to have dementia and have no memory at all?"

Jing Zhe sneered: "I just made it clear to you, if I say I'll give it to you, I definitely will, but you can't take it!"

"..."

Magistrate Xu was so angry he wanted to curse. "I don't want it, so why would you give it to me?"

Just as Magistrate Xu was pondering how to ask Jing Zhe for more, Jing Zhe suddenly produced a guarantee: "Now that the deal is done, the deed is for me, and the guarantee is for Magistrate Xu. That's perfectly reasonable. But things should be done properly from beginning to end. Now that the transaction is complete, Magistrate Xu just needs to sign it."

He then laid out the guarantee in front of Magistrate Xu.

At this point, Magistrate Xu finally breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Jing Zhe was not so shameless after all. After acquiring the restaurant, he didn't care about anything else and was ready to sign the agreement immediately, indicating that Jing Zhe had legally purchased the Feng family restaurant for 15,000 taels of silver.

However, just as he was about to put pen to paper, Jing Zhe stopped him again.

“Prefect Xu, before you sign, add one more line: write that this 15,000 taels of silver is paid by you on my behalf.”

"..."

Magistrate Xu was taken aback for a moment, thinking to himself that Jing Zhe was really cunning. He probably wanted to avoid future disputes over the 15,000 taels of silver and wrote it down in advance. However, he didn't care. He would just put the guarantee away after it was written.

So without thinking, I wrote it down, signed it, and finished it in one go. I was just waiting for the ink to dry before putting it away.

"President Jing, everything has been done according to your requirements. Can I now receive the adultery letter?"

Jing Zhe didn't even want a guarantee, so Magistrate Xu figured he wouldn't make things difficult for himself over a mere adultery document.

But Jing Zhe's next move completely outshone him.

Not to mention the letter of adultery, even the guarantee that Prefect Xu hadn't had time to put away was taken back by Jing Zhe.

"President Jing, what are you doing?"

Seeing this scene, Prefect Xu was extremely shocked, and at the same time, a bad premonition arose within him.

"Can't Magistrate Xu tell what I'm doing?"

Jing Zhe glanced at him and sneered, "Naturally, we'll put all this evidence away."

"..."

Magistrate Xu was completely exasperated. He should have known better than to wait for the ink to dry. Now, Jing Zhe had taken the guarantee away again. Judging from his state, he was planning to renege on the debt and not give it to him.

If even a guarantee is like this, then there's no point in even thinking about a letter of adultery. Magistrate Xu was trembling with rage.

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