No one cared about Ma's thoughts. That morning, most of the men in Dingshui Village took a nap at home. It wasn't until the afternoon that the villagers started discussing what had happened the night before.

"You all stayed home last night and didn't dare to come out, did you?" Meng asked the people around her while sewing shoe soles under the big locust tree.

The one who answered was Liu, Li Dachui's third daughter-in-law, "Who would dare? Auntie, did you see that?"

"Hey, what am I looking at? It's my son, Tiger. That kid is really something else. He secretly ran out to watch his grandpa and his dad fight those Western Qiang people, and then he even followed them into the mountains!"

Meng was still shaken when she talked about it, patting her chest, "His grandfather came back last night, but he was dragged back by his father this morning. Can you believe how scary that was?"

“Your Tiger is really brave,” Liu said, who was also doing needlework. She smoothed the thread before threading the needle. “But what did Tiger see?”

Meng bit off the thread at the stitch, "What else could it be? When we got home, he was praising Uncle Zheng to the skies, and he kept pestering his father to make him a wooden sword."

"That's it?" Liu looked up. "Didn't you tell me what happened after last night?"

Aunt Qin also came over and asked, "I wanted to ask too. We only know that A-Zheng and the others won, but we don't know what happened after that."

“I heard from Hu Zi that the county magistrate led men up the mountain to meet them. The leader of the Western Qiang was captured down the mountain and seems to be at A Zheng’s house right now, being looked after by A Zheng’s wife,” Meng Shi said.

Her husband was at Lu Yanzheng's house at the moment, and her son was still asleep. Tiger was talking incoherently, so that's what she could tell.

Aunt Qin suddenly realized, "I was wondering why there were so many people guarding A-Zheng's house. Turns out they're keeping that leader of the Western Qiang here!"

Others were also quite interested in this and came over to ask Meng Shi for more information.

Ma was passing by the big locust tree when she overheard these words, but because the villagers didn't like her, she didn't dare to go over.

"Hmph, what's she so smug about? Is she trying to show off her abilities? Instead of putting her in jail, she insists on keeping her locked up at home. Who knows, she might be rescued in a couple of days." Madam Ma curled her lip and walked away quickly.

Meanwhile, Jiang Qinyu and Lu Yanzheng were also discussing where Jiang Chengyou and Liu Ruyi were going.

“We can’t keep these two locked up at home all the time. It will definitely affect our parents, and also Shufan and Pan’er.” Lu Yanzheng pondered, then looked at Jiang Qinyu and said, “Qinqin, what do you think we should do with them?”

Jiang Chengyou is the one she wants to keep; she must have her own thoughts on that, right? As for Liu Ruyi, he hates that woman and doesn't want to deal with anything related to her. He'd rather let his wife handle it!

Jiang Qinyu had indeed thought it through long ago. Upon hearing this, she said, "Jiang Chengyou cannot be killed, but he cannot be allowed to stay at home and eat for free. Let's just cripple his martial arts and send him to do hard labor!"

This is a dangerous person, and we absolutely cannot allow him to have any fighting skills, which is why Jiang Qinyu said that.

"Cripple his martial arts?" Lu Yanzheng thought for a moment before saying, "Then we can only break his dantian and sever his tendons in his hands and feet to ensure that he can work but cannot escape."

Moreover, this way, Jiang Chengyou would never be able to practice martial arts again, which could be considered as getting rid of a major threat to them.

Jiang Qinyu was taken aback. "Does it have to be this complicated?"

Isn't it something that can be done by simply tapping around him a few times? That's how it's always been portrayed in the TV dramas and movies she's watched!

Lu Yanzheng explained, "He definitely remembers all the martial arts moves. To cripple his martial arts, we can only start with his internal energy and his hands and feet..."

He spoke in great detail and with great professionalism, but Jiang Qinyu was completely bewildered.

Well, you really can't trust everything you see on TV!

“Liu Ruyi is a member of the imperial court. We can try to use her to negotiate with the court first, and then we’ll see how she holds a place in the emperor’s heart.” Jiang Qinyu curled her lips.

She remembered everything that happened when she saw Liu Ruyi this morning. Since Liu Ruyi claimed to be the emperor's person, let's see what value she has in the emperor's eyes!

“What if the court doesn’t care about her?” Lu Yanzheng felt that if he were the emperor, he would never give important positions to someone like Liu Ruyi.

He would feel it's not worth wasting any resources on someone like that, let alone come to save her.

Jiang Qinyu smiled faintly, "Then we can't easily waste her abilities."

"What abilities does she have?" Lu Yanzheng frowned, feeling absolutely no liking for that woman.

Jiang Qinyu raised an eyebrow. "Have you forgotten? She used to be a talented woman in the capital. It's said that she's also proficient in double-sided embroidery, an embroidery technique that's almost lost. If the court doesn't care about her, we can have her train a group of people skilled in double-sided embroidery. They can make a lot of money in the future!"

Some might ask why not just kill Liu Ruyi, but for Jiang Qinyu, killing is never the best option; the optimal solution is to completely extract all the value from a person.

Just think about it, Liu Ruyi hated her to death, but for the next few decades she had no choice but to train batch after batch of talents for her to make money. Just thinking about it makes her feel happy.

“Madam is still the best,” Lu Yanzheng gave Jiang Qinyu a thumbs up, then turned his gaze to her. “But since she is a talented woman, she must know a lot. As long as we don’t let her teach, we can let her try other things. Not to mention far ahead, even the people in the village can probably learn a lot from her.”

Once Lu Yanzheng figured out the key to it, he immediately understood and applied it to other situations, becoming even more exploitative than Jiang Qinyu.

Jiang Qinyu silently lit a candle for Liu Ruyi. She could already imagine how miserable Liu Ruyi's life would be in the future.

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