Jiang Yimian's voice was devoid of any emotion, and her fair face was stained with blood from the fight, making her look rather chilling.
Zhou Shiwen squinted at her, his gaze falling on Zhou Ling's face, which was contorted with fear. After a while, he sneered, "You think you can threaten me? Those people inside are about to die."
"I'll kill them, then kill you to avenge my son. With so many people buried with him, he won't be alone on his journey."
He spoke casually, as if discussing something mundane, seemingly showing no affection whatsoever for his son.
Jiang Yimian merely raised an eyebrow and said, "Really? Your young master seems quite frightened?"
As soon as she finished speaking, her grip on Zhou Ling's collar tightened instantly.
The bunched-up collar constricted Zhou Ling's neck, making it hard for her to breathe, and her cheeks gradually turned a liverish color due to the difficulty in breathing.
He could only force out a few words from his throat and cry out, "Father, Father, save me, save me."
Zhou Shiwen's eyes widened suddenly, and his fists clenched involuntarily, but he still said, word by word, "If you have the guts, then kill him. My son, Zhou Shiwen's son, has never been a coward."
But you'd better pray you manage to escape after killing my son, otherwise, I'll search every inch of Qingnan to kill you and avenge my son.
He didn't believe this man would actually dare to make a move. Right now, he had only robbed the King of Chu's supplies. If he was in a good mood, he could spare these people's lives. But if he really killed his son, he would make these people wish they were dead.
Jiang Yimian simply smiled and replied, "Alright, then I'll kill your son right now. With your son by my side, it'll be worth dying for us."
As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly thrust the dagger in his hand with all his might, aiming it fiercely at Zhou Ling's neck.
The dagger instantly left a bloody gash on his neck, and bright red blood slowly dripped from the tip of the blade onto the ground.
Zhou Ling cried out in pain, his body trembling like a leaf, and cried out, "Father, save me, save me! This woman really wants to kill me!"
Zhou Shiwen was clearly startled as well. He clenched his fists, and cracks appeared on his wrinkled face. After a while, he gritted his teeth and said to the people in the courtyard, "Stop it, all of you."
The guards who were fighting immediately stopped upon hearing this, but they did not let their guard down at all.
Wang San and the others quickly gathered together, watching the crowd warily.
Zhou Shiwen then coldly shouted, "Hurry up and let go of my son!"
Jiang Yimian raised an eyebrow. "Does Your Excellency think I'm stupid?"
"If I let go, what if the master immediately orders his men to attack again? Wouldn't all my efforts have been wasted?"
Zhou Shiwen immediately frowned, a hint of murderous intent creeping into his wrinkled face. "Then what do you want?"
As he spoke, he glanced at the people in the shadows.
His glance was so subtle that no one noticed it.
Jiang Yimian just looked at him and smiled, "Naturally, we'll be allowed to leave, and all the supplies we've transported will be made public."
As long as the supplies are made public, this person can't possibly tamper with them.
She would never allow anyone to embezzle it.
Zhou Shiwen scoffed, his voice laced with gritted teeth, "You're dreaming."
Even if the King of Chu didn't receive any of those supplies, he would never have revealed the imperial supplies to the common people.
Those inferior people don't deserve it at all.
Jiang Yimian raised an eyebrow and said calmly, "Since you are unwilling, then I have no choice but to take action. It would be worth it to take your son's life before I die."
As soon as he finished speaking, he thrust the curved dagger in his hand straight at Zhou Ling.
However, the next second, a person suddenly rushed out in front of her, wielding a large knife and attacking her, while she also felt a chill behind her.
She quickly dodged the attack from the person in front of her, and then saw several plum blossom-shaped hidden weapons shot out from nowhere and heading straight for her face.
She had no choice but to throw the person in her hand to block the hidden weapon that was being shot at her, and then turned around to fight the person in front of her.
Zhou Shiwen was furious when he saw his son being used as a shield. His eyes turned red with rage, and he roared, "Men, kill this bitch!"
How dare she throw her son out to block a hidden weapon? This bitch really doesn't want to live.
As soon as she finished speaking, Liu'er was suddenly thrown out of the courtyard and crashed straight into another wave of flying projectiles.
A dense barrage of hidden weapons flew towards Liu'er.
The other party was unconscious at the moment, with faint traces of blood on his body, clearly indicating that he had been injured. If he were to take another hit from those hidden weapons, he would probably die on the spot.
Jiang Yimian frowned. Seeing that the plum blossom-shaped hidden weapon was about to penetrate Liu'er's body, she had no choice but to step forward, catch Liu'er, and use her curved dagger to deflect the hidden weapon.
However, her back was wide open to the enemy after she knocked down the hidden weapon, and the man with a large knife slashed at Jiang Yimian.
She had nowhere to avoid it and was about to grit her teeth and take the blow when she heard a "bang".
The expected pain did not come.
A silver knife deflected the large sword and plunged straight into the man's neck. The person who had been throwing the hidden weapon from the shadows also fell to the ground instantly, revealing his figure.
Jiang Yimian was startled. She looked up and saw a familiar, tall figure standing in front of her, and felt a sense of relief.
Lu Cijian looked closely at Jiang Yimian, and only after confirming that she was not injured did his trembling hands return to normal.
Fortunately, he wasn't too late.
Lu Cijian looked coldly at Zhou Shiwen, her voice as if it had fallen into an ice cellar.
"What does Lord Zhou mean by this? The floods in Qingnan are severe. Instead of properly treating the victims, you're killing people in the yamen."
Zhao Jie, the Ministry of Works official who followed Lu Cijian in, frowned as he looked at the tense situation between the two sides. "Lord Zhou, you must know how serious the flood in Qingnan is. The riverbed we came from had already been washed away, and there were several landslides on the official road as well."
Instead of thinking about how to resolve these disasters, you're causing trouble here. Such dereliction of duty will lead to your punishment once Lord Lu reports this to the Emperor.
He has always disliked people who disregard the overall situation for their own selfish desires, especially given the severity of the floods in Qingnan. Instead of thinking about how to manage the floods, this guy is causing trouble in the government offices. He simply can't distinguish between what's important and what's urgent.
It took Zhou Shiwen a while to recover from his anger. His gaze fell on Zhou Ling, who was lying on the ground not far away, and he glared at Jiang Yimian before suppressing his anger and respectfully saying to Lu Cijian, "Lord Lu, you may not know this, but the yamen's supplies were exhausted half a month ago."
These past few days, I have been deeply concerned about the disaster victims and have been unable to sleep peacefully.
They had planned to rush to treat the disaster victims once the relief funds and supplies arrived from above, but unexpectedly, they discovered that Supervisor Zhang and Lord Lin had concealed the imperial funds and brought unidentified people into Qingnan.
"My actions were entirely for the benefit of the people of Qingnan. I humbly request Your Excellency's understanding."
Jiang Yimian raised an eyebrow upon hearing this.
These officials who have been in office for many years are different; with just these words, they extricated themselves from the charge of dereliction of duty.
She also reported Zhang Duyun and Lin Yan'an, pinning all the blame on her, saying that everything she did was for the people of Qingnan—a truly touching monologue.
If the people of Qingnan heard these words, they would probably be extremely grateful to this official.
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