Ye Shuang propped her chin up with one hand, trying hard not to fall asleep. She swore on her whole life that these few hours this afternoon were the most exhausting hours she had ever experienced.

Li Wenyi closed the last official document in his hand and happened to see Ye Shuang slumped over the table, half asleep but struggling to keep her eyes open. He smiled slightly, poured a glass of warm water and placed it beside Ye Shuang, touching her still relatively warm cheeks and hands, feeling a little relieved. Although the weather wasn't cold, the room was still a bit chilly because of the documents being stored there. "Shuang'er, are you bored? Shall I take you home?"

Ye Shuang perked up, shook her head, and said, "We'll go back together after you're done with your work, brother. Are you done yet?"

Li Wenyi nodded: "I'm done with my work, but I can't go home yet. However, I'll be going to inspect the streets. Shuang'er, would you like to come with me and see what the county under your jurisdiction looks like? What do you think of this arrangement?"

Ye Shuang glanced at Ma Rencai, who was still engrossed in his official documents but had a smile on his face, then looked at Li Wenyi and nodded: "Alright then."

Li Wenyi chuckled softly, picked up Ye Shuang, and turned to Ma Rencai, saying, "I've finished dealing with things here. The rest is up to you, Master Ma, is that alright?"

Ma Rencai looked up, his face still bearing a relaxed smile: "Don't worry, sir, all of this will be taken care of by tomorrow, and we guarantee it won't affect the Lantern Festival."

Li Wenyi, of course, trusted this man whose abilities were no less than his own. He nodded as a farewell, turned around, and left.

After walking quite a distance, Ye Shuang blinked and asked, "Brother, isn't it a bit inappropriate for us to leave Brother Ma behind and come out to play by ourselves?"

"How could that be?" Li Wenyi asked in confusion. "Besides, your brother didn't take you out to play. Your brother is inspecting the people's conditions. When your brother first took office, he often disguised himself as people of various identities in the city to inspect and found a lot of problems! It's just a pity that now more and more people have remembered your brother's face, so it's getting harder and harder to find problems during inspections!"

After saying that, Li Wenyi sighed regretfully.

Ye Shuang's lips twitched. Where did he learn this wicked sense of humor? Just imagine, someone about to do something bad, only to find the county magistrate standing right behind them—the scene was too wonderful to contemplate. "Then is patrolling even useful anymore?"

Li Wenyi nodded, not thinking that Ye Shuang was just a child and that he was just being perfunctory. Instead, he explained to her very seriously, "Of course it's useful. Before, it was to discover problems. Now it's to let those bad guys who want to do bad things know that I, the county magistrate, am not idle. Before they want to do bad things, they should first think carefully about whether I might be watching from some corner."

Upon hearing this, Ye Shuang instantly understood how much weight a witness's testimony carries when the county magistrate is the witness in a case. It would be almost impossible to overturn the case.

The sun had just set in the west, casting a golden glow on the ground. The streets were bustling with activity, as street vendors hawked their wares, the sounds of bargaining and footsteps created a noisy cacophony, and children cried occasionally, accompanied by their mothers' helpless scolding. All of this ordinary and mundane scene made up the scene before us.