After the officials from the county government came out, the people began to ask all sorts of questions loudly.

Times have changed. In the past, even if people had a lot of dissatisfaction with local officials and disliked them, they could only endure it.

It's highly likely that they wouldn't dare, and couldn't possibly, question things at such close range, and it even has a hint of causing trouble.

After all, back then, local officials were truly powerful figures, able to act lawlessly and recklessly in their territories.

Most of these people could only endure it and had no other choice. Those were dark times, but things are different now.

Since the Crown Prince Zhu Yunwen formulated one set of regulations after another, local officials have hardly dared to do bad things openly.

It wasn't just because of these regulations, nor just because the court was strict, but also because Zhu Yunwen intentionally made the status of officials less high than before.

The established set of regulations makes it difficult for officials to easily punish the people.

This means that unless the people have actually committed some serious crime, the officials usually can't do anything about them.

In key areas, local officials must also be subject to public oversight, and the public has many ways to report officials.

With transportation so advanced nowadays, officials are naturally very afraid. So, despite being in a very passive position, this matter has escalated to this point.

Yet he could only smile and endure the people's doubts.

They tried various ways to appease them, even though they had actually done bad things, they had to put on such a show.

At the same time, they were indeed afraid that if they could not effectively appease the public, and if someone went to the higher authorities to file a complaint about these matters, it would very likely expose the whole thing.

Getting back to the main point, at this moment, the county magistrate raised his hand to signal everyone present to be quiet.

Then he spoke:

"Gentlemen, please allow me to understand the whole story before we proceed, shall we?"

Everyone gradually quieted down, and then the magistrate looked at Zhu Yunwen.

Sometimes, you can't hide the look in someone's eyes when they want to kill them. Just like the county magistrate at this moment, he was wondering why these men in black hadn't managed to kill Zhu Yunwen.

If he had killed him, none of this would have happened. But he didn't know that the man in front of him, who looked somewhat handsome but also rather ordinary, was the current Crown Prince.

If he were actually killed, the consequences would only be more severe.

The magistrate, regaining his senses, asked:

"Young man, what's the deal with these four men in black? Tell everyone what happened in front of you."

Zhu Yunwen glanced calmly at the magistrate, and then recounted in detail how the four men in black had climbed in through his window that night to kill him.

After he finished speaking, the magistrate nodded and then said:

"But this matter may not necessarily be related to Gui Xie kidnapping the girl, right? Therefore, the fact that these men in black wanted to kill you cannot be determined to be related to Gui Xie, nor can it be denied that Gui Xie existed before, right?"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yunwen smiled and said:

"Sir, aren't you being a bit too hasty? I didn't say that this matter was related to the previous ghost and evil incident, nor did I say that these people were impersonating ghosts and evil spirits. Why are you in such a hurry to explain?"

As an official, how come he's starting to set the stage for things?

Upon hearing this, the magistrate immediately realized that he had indeed been somewhat prejudiced and had projected himself into the situation.

He coughed lightly to cover up his guilty conscience.

But the people witnessed this scene.

Someone immediately said:

“Your Excellency, since you yourself have said so, I’m afraid these men in black really are related to the so-called demons and monsters in supernatural events, right?”

Even if it's unrelated, I still ask the magistrate to investigate thoroughly: what's the deal with this man in black? How could two similar incidents have happened to the same person?

Are these two similar incidents really not the work of the same group of people? We hope the magistrate will give this young master a reasonable explanation, so that the people of Nanjiang County can feel at ease.

People these days aren't fools. This man's words directly addressed the issue, posing it to the county magistrate.

The magistrate really didn't know how to answer.

Indeed, these questions don't make sense. If, in the beginning, Zhu Yunwen and Zhao Qingzhu were targeted by the legendary evil spirits...

The waiter was killed by the evil spirits because he got involved in this matter. So how come four men in black have appeared now and are attacking Zhu Yunwen and Zhao Qingzhu again?

If the previous incident was the work of ghosts or evil spirits, then why wasn't the second time something similar happened to the same person a ghost?

The magistrate thought for a while before saying:

"Is it possible that what this young master and his wife encountered the first time wasn't a ghost? If so, then both of these incidents were done by humans, and naturally have no connection to ghosts?"

He thought his explanation made sense and was indeed convincing, fooling some people with limited thinking.

I think that's a possibility.

But then Zhu Yunwen sneered and said:

"My lord, you mean that the four men in black that my wife and I encountered this time are definitely human, and the ones we encountered the first time were probably also human, and not the work of those ghosts and monsters, right?"

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!