Jiang Ling's words made Old Lady Lu feel a little guilty. Her shrewd little eyes darted around, and she didn't say anything for a long time.

Old Mrs. Lu thought that she could get away with this by throwing a tantrum, but Jiang Ling kept looking at her with that cold gaze.

At that moment, she felt incredibly empty inside.

"Village Chief..." Old Lady Lu looked at the village chief with pleading eyes.

The village chief felt a "buzz" in his brain, as if struck by a blow to the head, and his vision went black for a few seconds. How could he not know what Jiang Ling had said while shoveling snow? Jiang Ling had specifically reminded him every day not to take that thing back without permission. Now, looking at Old Lady Lu's pleading eyes, the village chief's last hope was completely extinguished.

He glared at Old Lady Lu with exasperation and scolded her fiercely, "Speak up if you have something to say, don't mess around with these petty things. Do you really think the magistrate is blind?"

Seeing that her plea for help had failed and her eyes were still darting around, Old Lady Lu finally decided to take a gamble.

In her eyes, Jiang Ling was always all bark and no bite; maybe this little hussy didn't have anything at all and was just trying to trick her.

Thinking of this, Old Lady Lu immediately reverted to her previous demeanor. She closed her eyes slightly, rubbed her temples, and said in a somewhat weak voice, "Enough, enough, this is clearly a group of people ganging up on this old woman!"

"I have neither the power nor the money, so I can only let you bully me. Take it or leave it, whatever makes you happy!"

Hearing Old Lady Lu's extremely "wronged" words, Jiang Ling wanted nothing more than to kick her. Why did this old hag like to twist the truth so much? She rolled her eyes and tried her best to suppress her anger, saying, "Village Chief, to ensure fairness, I don't mind bringing all the salt from the village to test!"

"It's not that bad. I'll go find some people to get some salt. Please wait a moment! Sister Lu, you can come with me too!" The village chief said, glancing at Old Lady Lu, who was still sitting on the ground groaning.

Upon hearing this, Old Lady Lu quickly got up from the ground and followed behind the village chief.

"Aren't you afraid she'll run away if you let her go?" Xie Changsan said worriedly from the side. At present, it seems that only that shrew can clear his name.

"It's alright, Lu Family Village is only so big, where can she run to?" Jiang Ling said with a half-smile.

Magistrate Duan stood aside without saying a word. As the magistrate, he couldn't afford to give anyone cause for gossip. In any case, he had a strange trust in Jiang Ling.

On the way to borrow salt.

"Did you actually take the snow-melting agent and sell it as salt?" The village chief squatted down, pretending to pick up his shoes, and only asked angrily after making sure no one was behind him.

"They just sprinkled snow on perfectly good salt, and that little whore only made a couple of cents! Is it really worth wasting things like that?"

Although Old Lady Lu did not answer the village chief's question, her words were enough to prove the village chief's guess.

The village chief scolded in disappointment, "Foolish! How could you be so foolish! This stuff can kill people! Don't you know that? Besides, selling salt is a capital offense!"

Old Mrs. Lu shrank her neck and said with a wronged expression, "I... I had no idea that thing could eat people! I... I was just trying to supplement our income, wasn't I? That little prostitute is making a fortune running a factory in the village, while my family? Village chief, look at us, we're almost starving! And why is that little prostitute's son so lucky to marry a rich family's daughter! Why can our family only marry a widow!"

Old Mrs. Lu grew angrier and angrier as she spoke, until finally her eyes widened and her face turned completely red!

After hearing what she said, the village chief was speechless. It's not that there aren't any unreasonable people in Lu Family Village, but if Old Lady Lu admits to being the second most unreasonable person, no one would dare to admit to being the first.

Thinking of this, the village chief sighed helplessly and said to Old Lady Lu, "Alright, you can handle your own problem!"

Hearing the village chief's words, Old Lady Lu became frightened and retreated, whispering, "Village...Village chief, that...that little harlot really has something in her hand?"

The village chief stopped, turned around, glared at Old Lady Lu, and said irritably, "I don't know!"

He then turned and continued walking towards the other people's houses.

At that moment, Old Lady Lu's heart was pounding. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head, and she ran off towards her home as fast as she could.

When the village chief turned around, he secretly cried out in alarm. He never expected that Old Lady Lu had actually run away.

The Lu family.

Widow Wang had just put her child to sleep and was planning to rest a bit when suddenly someone pushed open her front door with a loud bang.

The child, who had just fallen asleep, started crying loudly again.

Widow Wang frowned and spat towards the door, then quickly picked up the child again and patiently coaxed him.

With another loud bang, the door was pushed open with such force that it shook off a lot of dust from the walls.

The child, who had just calmed down, burst into tears again.

Seeing her child repeatedly startled, Widow Wang put on her shoes with a dark face and took the child to see which blind fool it was.

As soon as she opened her own door, she saw her mother-in-law running breathlessly toward her room.

"Mother...you...what is this?" Although Widow Wang didn't want to talk to Old Lady Lu, she was, after all, her mother-in-law. If she saw that she didn't greet her, she would probably get a scolding.

Old Mrs. Lu was startled to hear someone in the house call out "Mother." She frowned and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Xuanxuan is crying and fussing, so I'm here to comfort him!" Although Widow Wang was annoyed by the question, she could only answer truthfully.

Old Mrs. Lu didn't want to waste time with Widow Wang, so she waved her hand and said, "Alright, I understand. There's something I need to tell you. If anyone comes over and asks if I'm home, just say you didn't see me, understand?"

Before Widow Wang could answer, Old Lady Lu slammed the door shut again.

In just a few minutes, her child had cried three times from fright. Widow Wang was furious. Looking at the cold door, she spat out another curse under her breath: "You old hag! Why don't you just die already! What if you scare my son to death!"

Widow Wang's scolding didn't quell her anger, but she still felt sorry for her son, so she quickly took him back and began to patiently comfort him.

The entrance to Lujia Village.

With a dark expression, the village chief brought over some salt he had borrowed from other villagers and said angrily, "Magistrate Duan, if you want to punish someone, punish me! I wasn't paying attention, and she...she ran away!"

Magistrate Duan shook his head and said, "It's alright, she's still in your village, she can't go anywhere!"

"Let's begin!" he said, his gaze falling on Jiang Ling.