Magistrate Li waved his hand and said:

"Ning Qi! The evidence and witnesses are all there, what else do you want to say?!"

Upon seeing this, Aunt Ning's eyes lit up and she burst into tears.

"Waaah, sir, please spare our lives! We didn't do it on purpose. We were just desperate and had no other choice but to do this! Waaah, I'll return all the silver to Jiang Yuwei, please don't kill me!"

Ning Qi looked at his mother, who was weeping uncontrollably, and gritted his teeth, saying:

"My lord, this matter has nothing to do with my mother. She knows nothing about it. It was all my doing. I made a mistake in a moment of confusion and that's why I did such a thing."

Jiang Yuwei snorted coldly and said:

"I don't think your mother was unaware of it; it seems more like she instructed you to do it."

Upon hearing this, Ning Qi hurriedly replied:

“Reporting to the magistrate, she really didn’t know anything about it. She had told me before that she had been mistreated at Jiang Yuwei’s house, so I couldn’t stand it and wanted to avenge my mother, so I did this without telling her.”

Upon hearing this, Magistrate Li nodded and said:

"The theft was indeed committed by you alone. Since you have confessed, sign and affix your fingerprint to the confession. Guards, lock Ning Qi up."

After saying this, two constables took Ning Qi away. Magistrate Li then handed the silver to Jiang Yuwei and said:

"Jiang Yuwei, come and count the amount of silver you lost, is that correct?"

Jiang Yuwei stepped forward and took the silver, just as Steward Zhang said urgently:

"Um, there's also, there's my five taels of silver in there."

Jiang Yuwei naturally wouldn't covet Manager Zhang's money. She first counted all the silver, and seeing that the amount was correct, she took out five taels of silver and handed it to Manager Zhang. In this way, the matter was considered settled.

Jiang Yuwei, driving the oxcart with Manager Li, was about to head towards North Street when she saw Aunt Ning glaring at her with hatred as soon as they left the yamen. So Jiang Yuwei stepped forward and said:

"Third Aunt Ning, I didn't send you to jail this time because I appreciate Ning Qi's filial piety and also because I care about our fellow villagers. If you still don't repent after this incident and try to do something wicked again, I will definitely not let you off easily!"

After saying that, Jiang Yuwei got on the oxcart without looking back and headed towards North Street. Once there, she first dropped off Manager Li at the entrance of Taihe Bookstore.

"I must thank Manager Li for speaking up for me today. Let's leave the past behind and not mention it again. If Manager Li needs paper in the future, he can come to our Moxiangzhai."

Seeing that Jiang Yuwei had spoken, Manager Li quickly cupped his hands in a respectful bow and said:

"Okay, okay, I'll definitely go to Moxianzhai."

After saying their goodbyes, Jiang Yuwei handed the silver to Uncle Ning Wu for him to deposit. Seeing that there were no more customers in front, Jiang Yuwei asked Ning Zhao to take Ning Wan and the fool to the backyard to clean up the courtyard and the small house.

Jiang Yuwei went to check on Xiao Hei again and saw that the bleeding had stopped and the wound had been bandaged by Doctor Lin. She was relieved and took a bucket of spiritual spring water to feed Xiao Hei. To her surprise, Xiao Hei, who had been listless, started jumping around after drinking the spiritual spring water and happily circled around Jiang Yuwei.

Seeing this, Jiang Yuwei quickly instructed the simpleton:

"Fool, if you want Xiao Hei to get better faster, feed it more water from this bucket every day, understand?"

Seeing that Xiao Hei was indeed much more lively after drinking water, the fool nodded in agreement.

Jiang Yuwei thought that the Dragon Boat Festival was coming up tomorrow, and the store should hold some activities. So she went straight to the general store and bought some embroidery threads of various colors and thicknesses, intending to keep them at home to make five-colored ropes. She would give a five-colored rope to every customer who made a purchase in the store on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival.

Jiang Yuwei thought she would make more zongzi to share with everyone when she got home tonight, so she went straight to the grain store and bought some glutinous rice, millet, and various beans. She also went to the butcher shop and bought some pork belly. Jiang Yuwei planned to make some meat zongzi and some sweet zongzi to eat.

When she returned to Moxiangzhai, it was already evening. Jiang Yuwei saw that the backyard had been cleaned up, so she asked the simpleton to stay and watch the shop. She also took all the silver from the counter before closing the shop with peace of mind.

Having learned her lesson, Jiang Yuwei dared not leave any silver in the shop anymore. From then on, she would take all the silver away every day when the shop closed, and then take out some more when the shop opened in the morning for Uncle Ning to keep for change.

The group quickly returned to Ningjia Village. As soon as Jiang Yuwei got back to the courtyard, she soaked glutinous rice and millet. Then she went to the backyard to teach Liu Shi and the others how to braid colorful ropes. Jiang Yuwei had been braiding bracelets since she was a child, so braiding colorful ropes was something she could easily do.

Jiang Yuwei taught Liu and the others how to tie simple knots like snake knots and diamond knots. She herself combined several rope-making techniques to make some complicated and beautiful bracelets. Everyone learned quickly, so a hundred bracelets were quickly made. Jiang Yuwei also made an extra one for each person in the paper mill so they could wear it the next morning.

After the ropes were braided and the rice was soaked, Jiang Yuwei started a fire and washed and boiled all the bamboo leaves she had picked at the foot of the mountain. Then she called everyone to wrap the rice dumplings together. Soon, they had wrapped four large pots full of rice dumplings. Jiang Yuwei also washed a lot of eggs and put them in the pot to cook with the rice dumplings.

Ning Wu, Tie Zhu, Zhang Guang, and Tian He each tended a pot and a fire, while Jiang Yuwei took the time to prepare two cold dishes. Jiang Yuwei planned to have everyone eat zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), eggs, and cold dishes tonight, so they could finish eating early and go back to sleep.

Tomorrow is the Dragon Boat Festival. I'll cook a nice meal and invite Xiaoyun, Uncle Zhang, Uncle Youcai, and Gou Dan to the courtyard for dinner. We can all get together and have a lively time.

Soon the zongzi were cooked. Jiang Yuwei first took out a pot to share with everyone. After everyone had eaten their fill, she took out another pot of zongzi and distributed some to each family. The remaining two pots were to be kept for tomorrow and taken to North Street to give away.

next day

Jiang Yuwei got up early and put five-colored ropes on Ning Zhao and Ning Wan. After putting one on herself, she wanted to put one on Ning Huaizhi as well. Ning Huaizhi frowned and said:

"These are all things for little kids, so I don't need them..."

Jiang Yuwei, not allowing any refusal, directly pulled Ning Huaizhi's hand and bent down to put the bracelet on his wrist. Ning Huaizhi, feeling a little embarrassed by Jiang Yuwei holding his hand, lowered his head and whispered:

"Today is the Dragon Boat Festival. Ping'an Town will be holding a dragon boat race on the Ping'an River. Honey, would you like to go and watch?"

Before Jiang Yuwei could speak, Ning Wan said happily:

"Wan'er wants to go to the dragon boat races, so Mother and Father will take Wan'er there!"

Jiang Yuwei patted Ning Wan's head and smiled:

"Okay, let's go shopping when we have some free time, and I'll take you and your brother with us."

Upon hearing this, Ning Huaizhi's lips curled into a barely perceptible smile.

Jiang Yuwei then took his hand and looked at the black and blue bracelet she had specially prepared for him, and smiled:

"Look how beautiful it is!"