Old Lady Lin and the others were making their own calculations. They thought Yun Ruochun was all brawn and no brains, and that she cared a lot about her reputation. They believed that once she got married, she would become a little quail that could be bullied by everyone.
They were wrong.
Yun Ruochun is not,
None of the women in the Yun family are like that!!!
Old Lady Yun knew exactly what these people were up to, so she didn't bother with pleasantries with these scoundrels and bluntly pointed out their ulterior motives.
"Don't think I don't know what you're up to. It's just that Chun'er became a yamen runner. You think it'll be easier to get things done if you have connections in the county government, so you've been saying all sorts of nice things, thinking you can marry her first and then find other ways to do evil later..."
Those present gasped, and were about to explain when...
Old Lady Yun continued, "But your plans are about to fall through. Our Chun'er has someone who likes her and loves her. That family treats her like a treasure, unlike you heartless people who treat people like pigs and dogs, like animals. Chun'er is already engaged."
The faces of Old Lady Lin, Old Lady Wu, and the other women burned with embarrassment, but they had not forgotten the purpose of their visit. Even if they could not form a marriage alliance with the Yun family, they could not afford to antagonize them as before. Otherwise, if a label were attached to them, they would surely suffer the consequences.
So everyone smiled and offered what they had on their hands.
“Hua Ge’er’s mother, we are so happy that Chun Jie’er has found a good family. These are my congratulatory gifts for Chun Jie’er.”
"These are the same for me. My husband and I spent a long time choosing them. We wanted to watch Chun Jie grow up, and no matter what, we wanted to give her the best."
"I...I have a lot of things here too, but I can't carry them all with both hands. I'll go home and have my husband bring them over."
"..."
Old Lady Yun glanced at them and was truly impressed by how thick-skinned these people were. These were the very things they had come to demand from their home, yet now they were returning them as if they were superiors giving gifts. How shameless!
Yun Ling, being quick-witted, spoke up before her mother could:
"Oh dear, aren't these the ones you used to complain about being poor and demand that we, the wealthy families, contribute copper coins to help you get married?"
Grandma Yun gave Yun Ling a "sensible" look, and immediately replied:
"No, I thought these people were dissatisfied with what we bought and were going to hold us accountable, and were even planning to take us to the county government."
Old Lady Lin quickly replied:
"No, no, we are very satisfied. We really made a good purchase and have excellent taste."
"Grandma Lin is admitting that these belong to us."
When Lin Laoniang faced Yunling, she felt a little flustered for some reason. Although this brat was young, she was full of bad intentions and no one knew what evil scheme she was up to. However, since she wanted to befriend her, she could only let them do as they pleased.
"Yes, these are naturally yours. We don't need so many, so we thought we'd return some of them. As people, we shouldn't be too greedy."
Yunling nodded and smiled:
"Grandma Fan and Auntie heard about it too. They didn't need that much at home, so they returned it. We didn't force them."
Old Lady Fan and Lady Bing were embroidering at home when they heard the commotion outside. They opened the door to watch the performance and, being witnesses, answered in unison:
“We heard that.”
Yunling and her mother-in-law, without any hesitation, took the things from these people and brought them into their house, where Zhang carried them back inside.
"Thank you, grandmas and aunties. Our family has received your blessings. You can send your gifts when I get married. We will remember them."
Old Lady Lin and the others felt a sense of frustration. They had originally planned to use these free items to build relationships, but now that they were gone, they had been tricked instead. How could they be happy about that?
But they weren't happy. What did that have to do with Yunling and her mother? Yunling even kindly gave them a few words of advice:
"You won't forget this, you'll definitely come with gifts, right? After all, you watched my aunt grow up, so the gifts will definitely be valuable, like gold, hairpins, bracelets, jade, or other precious stones, won't they?"
Upon hearing this, Old Lady Lin choked on her saliva in her haste and coughed violently. Old Lady Wu quickly helped her up, asking, "Are you alright?" and "Do you want to go to Ren'an Hall in the city to take a look?", thus easing the situation.
Seeing that the two leaders remained silent, and knowing that they couldn't cause any trouble, the others naturally followed suit and left.
Everyone had left, and Granny Yun was overjoyed. She poked Yun Ling's forehead and praised her:
"Not bad, you lazybones, you pushed people back like you're doing Tai Chi."
"Of course, they want to use our things to curry favor with us so they can use this to blackmail us later. I won't fall for it."
When Old Lady Yun saw Yun Ling, she was reminded of Yun Ruochun and couldn't help but sigh.
"These people used to despise Chun Jie like dirt in the mud. Now that she's finally got a chance to work in the county government, they've given her all this dirty and wicked thinking. I wonder if she'll be used to working in the government office, or if she'll be bullied?"
Whether Yun Ruochun would be bullied, even Yun Ruochun herself didn't know.
Upon arriving at the county government office today, before she could even speak with the other constables and get to know them, she was summoned to the opposite cell by Constable Huang, who said he was going to interrogate a female prisoner.
She was a little confused. Today was only her first day here, so why were they interrogating prisoners so soon? But she was never one to ask too many questions; she just did what others told her to do.
Yun Ruochun then walked towards the prison. To be honest, this prison was much larger than the three-section compound of their yamen runners, and it was divided into the Prison God Temple, the outer prison, the women's prison, and the death row.
Yun Ruochun walked towards the women's prison. The female prisoner she needed to interrogate had already been taken out of the cell and was sitting on a tiger bench with her hands tied to the frame, her whole body at a right angle.
This must be the kind of "tiger bench" that Old Yu was talking about. According to him, as long as a prisoner sits on this tiger bench, even the most stubborn person will spill all their words under the weight of three bricks.
Yun Ruochun smelled the blood in the cell and seemed to hear screams of agony. She was immediately horrified.
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