A face covered in bruises and swelling appeared before everyone's eyes, causing them to tremble involuntarily. When they came to their senses, they all started cursing.
"This person is shameless. She hit people and overturned stalls. She still has the nerve to say that she is her niece. I spit on her."
"Indeed, sirs, you must do justice for this young lady! They've been running this tofu stall here for a long time, we all know them. Widow Cheng isn't crazy, she's usually very kind, it's just that these people are going too far, so she only scared them a little, she didn't actually lay a hand on them."
Jiang Yimian frowned as she looked at the injuries on Xu Xiaotao's face.
The last time she met her in the mountain village, she thought the girl was resilient, as she hadn't been assimilated even in a place like the village. Little did she know that she would experience so much after leaving the village.
Hearing the crowd's curses, Xu Yongfeng's face turned black with anger. He quickly retorted, "Sir, they're talking nonsense! Widow Cheng clearly intended to kill me, but she missed. My shoulder is definitely injured. You can't just listen to their side of the story!"
Ma Ming frowned. Although he had pieced together what had happened from everyone's words, he still looked at Xu Yongfeng and asked, "She really did stab you with a knife. Where are you hurt? Where's the knife?"
If it's just a verbal argument, that's one thing, but if someone actually pulls out a knife and injures someone in the street, that's no small matter.
He couldn't let the widow and her companions go just because he felt sorry for them; he figured he'd have to take them all back to the magistrate for him to deal with.
Widow Cheng will have to stay inside for a few days.
Xu Yongfeng immediately became somewhat smug, pointing to the knife on the ground and saying, "Sir, this is the evidence that Widow Cheng attacked someone. Take her away quickly."
After saying that, he glared fiercely at Widow Cheng a few more times. This guy is going to jail. He dared to take a knife and slash people in the street. He should at least go in for three days and get a beating.
Three days later, Xu Xiaotao and the old widower had already consummated their relationship, and there was no way to back out now.
Just as he was feeling smug, he heard Ma Ming's strange voice, "Are you saying that Widow Cheng was trying to kill you with this knife?"
Xu Yongfeng nodded immediately and said proudly, "It's this kitchen knife."
As soon as he finished speaking, he felt something was wrong with the cleaver. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that the once intact cleaver had a large oval-shaped nick at some point, almost completely chipping away the part that had been opened.
Let alone chop someone up, it's impossible for him to even cut vegetables.
He immediately widened his eyes and hurriedly said, "No, no, it was fine just now, it's not like this, it must have broken off when it was cut into me, yes, yes, it must have, the knife cut into my shoulder just now, no, no, it must have broken off into my flesh, oh, sir, my, my shoulder hurts, please call a doctor quickly."
Xu Yongfeng immediately lay down on the ground and began to groan, looking extremely pained.
Ma Ming frowned as he looked at Xu Yongfeng's perfectly intact clothes on his shoulder, speechless for a moment. "You mean this cleaver didn't even cut your clothes, but it did cut your flesh?"
Xu Yongfeng knew that the constables wouldn't side with him, so he started throwing a tantrum on the ground, groaning, "Ouch, she did cut me! Sir, you can't not stand up for me! That crazy woman really tried to kill me!"
Ma Ming was getting a headache from the noise and gave a wink to the two constables beside him.
The two men immediately understood, took a few steps forward, and pulled open Xu Yongfeng's shirt.
There wasn't a single wound on the shoulder, not even a mark from a kitchen knife. It was obvious that the person who attacked hadn't used any force, leaving no mark on the other person at all.
Now it's clear that Xu Yongfeng and his gang were indeed going too far. Widow Cheng was just threatening people with the knife; she didn't actually intend to kill anyone.
He immediately sneered, "If you continue to cause trouble, all of you will come with me to the government office to pay for the losses at this tofu stall and then leave immediately. If there is a next time, you will be severely punished."
Widow Cheng breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this, staring at the chipped knife on the ground without saying a word.
Xu Yongfeng, however, refused to back down. He stopped pretending to be in pain, got up from the ground, and said, "Why should I pay for the loss of this tofu stall? This isn't over yet. My niece was kidnapped by this woman, and I came to rescue her. What's wrong with that? I won't pay for the tofu stall. I'm taking my niece with me."
As he spoke, he reached out to pull Xu Xiaotao away, but before he could take more than a few steps, two constables grabbed him.
Ma Ming said coldly, "If you don't want to pay, then come with me to the government office. You'll get a beating, and you'll probably spend a few days in jail."
As soon as he finished speaking, the other constables rushed forward to restrain the other men who had come with Xu Yongfeng to cause trouble.
Seeing that Ma Ming was serious, Xu Yongfeng hurriedly said, "I, I'll compensate you, sir, sir, please let us go, I'll compensate you, but Xu Xiaotao is my niece, what's wrong with her coming back with me?"
The matter has already escalated. If he can't take Xu Xiaotao away today, it will be even more difficult in the future. He has already accepted three taels of silver!
That's enough for their whole family to eat and drink for a whole year.
Ma Ming only looked at Xu Xiaotao, "What is your relationship with him? Do you want to go back?"
Xu Xiaotao quickly said, "Sir, I don't want to go back. Although this man is my second uncle, the eldest branch of the Xu family has long since separated from the second branch. We are not family anymore."
When they fled the famine, Xu Yongfeng didn't want to take her and her mother with her, so she separated from the family. She and her mother hid in the cellar of their house, but were discovered by bandits, who accidentally killed her mother.
She was taken to a mountain stronghold, and she thought that her time there would be the hardest. But after she came out, she realized that her relatives were the real bastards.
Like those bandits, they were all scoundrels. Not only did they steal the grain and seeds that the government had given her, they also drove her out of Xujia Village.
She had no choice but to seek out her mother's close friends, but these same people came looking for her again, this time for money.
She's being driven to her death.
Xu Yongfeng was furious upon hearing this and was about to argue again when Ma Ming said, "If you say another word of nonsense, I will take you back to the government office immediately."
If it weren't for the fact that the government was currently busy with many matters, and that these people were relatives of Xu Xiaotao and hadn't caused any particularly bad influence, he would have taken them directly back to the government office without wasting any time here.
Xu Yongfeng shrank back, dropped his money bag, and ran away with the others.
Seeing that everyone had left, Ma Ming frowned and looked at the onlookers. "Everyone, disperse, disperse. Don't crowd here. It's no longer exciting. Go do whatever you need to do."
The onlookers were quickly driven away by the police. Ma Ming saw that Jiang Yimian and the others were somewhat stunned, and said helplessly, "The excitement is over, why aren't you leaving? Is there something you need me for?"
He had seen a few people as soon as he entered the crowd, and he thought they were also there to watch the excitement, but now he realized that they didn't seem to be.
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