Magistrate Wang smiled and said, "I advise Madam Ma to calm down. There are some people you can't afford to offend. Taking a step back in everything won't do any harm."
"Very well, Magistrate Wang, you are very good... I will have Lord Ma speak with you personally later."
Madam Ma spoke threatening words, but dared not make any other moves. She could see that Magistrate Wang would rather offend Minister Ma than offend this ugly monster in front of him.
Could this ugly monster be a member of the royal family?
She boarded the carriage and said to the chubby boy and the others, "Let's go back to the manor first."
Magistrate Wang, we'll see!
This pent-up anger will be served sooner or later; neither Magistrate Wang nor the masked man will have a good end.
Wang Can said to Yin Jin'an, "It was my fault. I should have asked you and Jiutian to stay in the county government office."
"It's alright, I'll just rest for one day and leave tomorrow."
“The Ma family is powerful, and I am wary of them.”
Wang Can was a subordinate of Prefect Luo, and Minister Ma was a relative by marriage to the Luo family; neither of them dared to offend him.
Yin Jin'an smiled and said, "Someone will take care of them."
Magistrate Wang was puzzled and had a headache. The Ma family had gotten into trouble locally, and as the magistrate, he couldn't escape responsibility.
He cupped his hands and said, "Brother Jin, when you're traveling, it's better to avoid trouble. The Ma family has the backing of Prefect Luo and connections in the capital, so you should be extra careful."
Both the landlord and the magistrate were shrewd men. When Jiutian blurted out, "My second uncle is called Xiao Jin'an," the magistrate took note of it.
Xiao is the imperial surname.
When he entered officialdom, Empress Wei had already passed away, and the name "Xiao Jin'an" was a taboo in the Xia Kingdom, rarely mentioned by anyone. Otherwise, he would have immediately thought that he was the current Crown Prince.
He and Landlord Wang secretly inquired and, based on the surname, appearance, and age, came to a bold guess: Jin Yi might be the eldest son of the late Empress.
Furthermore, considering that Cui Shilang's eldest son had secretly sent him to this small place near the border and chained him up, intending to starve him to death in secret, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that the man in brocade robes was the eldest prince.
It is said that Empress Chu Hanhua was particularly wary of the eldest prince, and Prime Minister Chu also wished he could kill him.
He was left to fend for himself in Longmen Town. It was unclear whether it was the Empress's doing, the Prime Minister's doing, or His Majesty's idea.
He secretly told Landlord Wang his guess. Landlord Wang pondered for a long time and said, "Jiutian and Jinyi have done our Wang family a favor. Let's keep their identities a secret."
Since Yin Jin'an didn't reveal his identity, they pretended not to know and treated him as a "young master in fine clothes," neither humble nor arrogant, thus forging a good relationship.
The Wang family was merely a landlord family, and in the eyes of the royal family, they were nothing more than ants.
Although the news that Yin Jin'an in Longmen Town was the eldest prince had not yet reached Wang Can's ears, Wang Can was convinced that he must be Xiao Jin'an.
***
That night, Yin Jin'an continued her research on martial arts techniques at the inn. After a long day, she fell into a deep sleep.
After returning home, Madam Ma couldn't swallow her anger. She went to her daughter-in-law's courtyard and complained that the Fourth Miss had been bullied by a lecherous man, but Magistrate Wang was protecting him.
She wanted to know the man's identity. As long as he wasn't a prince or the son of the Prime Minister of Chu, the Ma family could fight him.
Miss Luo is the eldest daughter-in-law of the Ma family, the young mistress of the first branch of the Minister's Mansion, and she lives in her father, Prefect Luo's, territory. Naturally, she has to make sure her parents-in-law have enough face.
They sent a letter to Prefect Luo overnight, pleading with him to arrest Deng Tu Zi in Ganzhou, otherwise the Ma family would be bullied and humiliated in the area.
The place was more than a hundred miles from the prefectural government office, so they rode at full speed through the night to deliver the letter to the city of Ganzhou.
After reading the letter, Prefect Luo handed it over to his eldest son to handle.
Minister Ma was a high-ranking official of the second rank in the imperial court, and also the Minister of Personnel. He had extensive connections and a complex web of relationships, so Prefect Luo naturally wanted to vent his anger on behalf of his mother-in-law.
The Western Xia system was quite different from that of the Yulong Kingdom. In the Yulong Kingdom, the military and the government were separated. The local military commander was the chief administrator, and the local officials were the prefects. The two checked and balanced each other and were responsible to the imperial court respectively.
In contrast, the Western Xia dynasty combined military and political power. The rank of prefectural governor could reach the fourth or third grade, while the military commanders and supervisors of each prefecture were subordinate to the prefectural governor.
Therefore, the prefect had great power.
Ganzhou is the territory of Prefect Luo. Outsiders must be treated with deference, whether they are dragons or tigers.
Young Master Luo is Miss Luo's own brother, so he naturally took her request for help very seriously.
He personally went to the military headquarters in Ganzhou, mustered five hundred men, and was accompanied by a general. They marched swiftly and aggressively toward the neighboring county.
At the hour of Yin (3-5 AM), a group of people were making a racket outside the inn, accompanied by the clanging of swords and spears, which sounded particularly out of place in the winter night.
Outside the inn, on the ground lay the madman Chu, who was still under the effects of the poison.
The group saw Madman Chu first, found him disgusting, and tried to kill him with a knife, but were stopped by Yin Jin'an, who was practicing martial arts early in the morning.
The leader was about to yell "meddlesome" when he looked up and saw Yin Jin'an's signature mask, and his expression immediately changed.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com