The old shopkeeper stopped in his tracks, curious, ready to see what kind of trick they were up to.

The bronze statue was moved down, and Xiao Youran laid it down, then touched around under the base of the Buddha statue.

Suddenly, with a slight cracking sound, the outer shell of the bronze statue cracked.

Then Xiao Youran looked up, enjoying the shocked expressions on the faces of Jiang Youchen, Shen Zhangyu, and the eldest brother of the Shen family.

Just then, Sister-in-law Shen came out carrying a bowl. Seeing the three people surrounding a bronze statue, she curiously walked over.

So shocked was he that he dropped the small bowl of wontons he was holding onto the ground.

Hot soup splashed onto her shoes. She gasped and jumped aside to avoid the hot soup.

The eldest brother of the Shen family was so shocked that he forgot about his wife and stared intently at the bronze statue.

The old shopkeeper also sensed something was wrong. He quickly took two steps across the threshold, peeked out, and exclaimed in surprise, "What?!"

The sudden sound snapped Jiang Youchen out of her shock. She immediately hugged the bronze statue and said warily, "Shopkeeper, this thing is ours now. Don't even think about it anymore!"

The old shopkeeper stared intently at them, then suddenly his eyes flashed with a fierce light. "You...you all knew all along that this bronze statue contained a jade carving! Did you? You dare to try and swindle me?!"

The eldest brother of the Shen family angrily retorted, "You were the one who wanted to transfer this restaurant to us, and you even stated that everything inside would be transferred together. How can it be that we're the ones trying to cheat you?"

The old shopkeeper was now filled with regret. Such a large jade carving... Moreover, judging from the quality revealed through the crack in the copper skin, it was probably worth tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Good heavens, when did I find such a treasure? I didn't even realize it before!

No wonder this little girl insisted on buying the restaurant and everything inside.

But look at the eldest of these people, the eldest brother of the Shen family, who looks to be only fifteen or sixteen years old. Shen Zhangyu is ten years old, and this rich young master of the Jiang family is only seven years old. The other two girls can be ignored.

The old shopkeeper, his mind filled with malice, pulled out a stack of silver notes from his pocket, slammed them on the table, and said viciously, "You cheated me first, this deal is null and void. Here are the silver notes, give the restaurant back to me!"

Jiang Youchen said angrily, "You old thief, you are shameless! You were the one who offered a high price to sell the restaurant to us."

"At that time, I didn't know that there was such a treasure among my collection, so this deal is invalid." The old shopkeeper looked greedily at the bronze statue that Jiang Youchen was holding.

Shen Zhangyu laughed in anger, "Shopkeeper, you don't know because you also think it's a fake. You packaged these fakes together and sold them to us for a thousand taels. Doesn't that seem like fraud?"

Xiao Youran looked at the group of teenagers around her, her brows furrowed tightly.

She didn't want to use that little accounting notebook unless absolutely necessary.

So she warned, "Grandpa shopkeeper, you must be honest. If you keep your word like this, you might bring bad luck upon yourself."

The words were clearly a warning, but when spoken by four-year-old You Ran, they sounded childish and innocent to the old shopkeeper, filling him with a strange feeling. For a moment, he almost believed that if he really did something like this today—going back on his word—he might actually suffer bad luck.

But then I thought again, isn't she just a four-year-old toddler?

Her tone hardened again, "I don't know what's inside it, so that doesn't count!"

Then the old man pointed at Xiao Youran's nose and cursed, "What kind of thing are you, you little brat? How dare you curse me to bring bad luck?"

Jiang Youchen exploded upon hearing this, jumped up and shoved the old man away, yelling, "And who do you think you are? How dare you insult my sister?"

Although the old man was old, he was still an adult. He grabbed Jiang Youran by the collar, lifted him up, and threw him over the threshold.

Shen Zhangyu quickly came over and helped Jiang Youchen up. The eldest brother of the Shen family took the initiative to take over the protection of the jade Buddha statue on the table and shielded it with his body.

Xiao Youran's face darkened, she hissed, and then stared intently at the old man, saying each word clearly, "If you dare to hit my brother, your whole family will be doomed!"

This sentence was successfully written down in the little blue notebook.

The old man turned around and chuckled at Xiao Youran, "You little swindlers, you dare to try and fool me?"

"Who's lying? There's no liar here!" A voice came from the other end. It was a few soldiers from the Five Cities Garrison who happened to be passing by. They came over when they heard the voice.

The old man immediately bowed and scraped to the leader, saying, "Sir, it was these little brats who tricked me into signing a contract and bought my shop's treasures at an extremely low price. Sir, you must do me justice!"

The official shouted towards the door, "Who dares to cheat people under the emperor's nose? They've got some nerve!"

Xiao Youran stepped out the door, and when her small figure appeared in the sunlight, the leading soldier was stunned upon seeing her. "Miss Jiang? What are you doing here?"

Xiao Youran was also stunned, not expecting that the little blue notebook would have such an immediate effect.

She smiled sweetly at the soldier, "Officer, it's me! And my brother too!"

She pulled Jiang Youchen over.

Jiang Youchen then recognized him and quickly bowed, saying, "So it's Brother Wang Wu."

This Wang Wu is the soldier that Commander Lu sent yesterday to take the mother and her two children to the Fuyue Inn.

Wang Wu's expression immediately darkened as he looked at the old man. "Are you referring to these two siblings as the swindlers?"

The old man's face also changed color, and he pointed a trembling finger at the Shen couple and Shen Zhangyu, saying, "And, and the three of them..."

Xiao Youran smiled sweetly at Wang Wu and said, "Brother Wang Wu, this is what happened..."

She then proceeded to explain the whole story.

The old man hurriedly defended himself, "Sir, you can't just listen to her side of the story. They clearly took a liking to that ornament upstairs first, and then tricked me into selling the restaurant and all those things to them. They were clearly trying to swindle me."

Wang Wu stepped across the threshold, and Brother Shen stepped aside to protect the jade carving beneath him.

Wang Wu examined it carefully before asking the old man, "Is this a treasure in your shop?"

The old man was overjoyed and nodded quickly, saying, "Yes, yes, yes."

"Since it's a treasure from your store, why didn't you notice it before?"

The old man was taken aback. "This... I'm so blind. I mistook a pearl for a fish eye."

How much did you pay for this?

The old man thought for a moment and said, "It seems to be... twenty taels of silver?"

“It makes sense that something bought for twenty taels of silver would be a priceless treasure,” Wang Wu nodded.