This was truly a stroke of luck! Bai Nuo's affection for Li Jinyu has only grown stronger. If she hadn't spoken up about it, Lord Li might have simply dealt with the matter and then forgotten about it.
Convicting her is enough; as for when she can get her money back, that's not Lord Li's business.
After all, they've already proven that it wasn't your fault.
Originally, Bai Nuo also wanted to tell Lord Li about this, but she said that it was ultimately not as useful as what Li Jinyu said.
Li Jinyu is his daughter, and after this matter was brought up in front of everyone, Lord Li could not possibly ignore it.
Just as Bai Nuo had expected, Lord Li merely frowned at Li Jinyu's words, seemingly blaming Li Jinyu for meddling, but he didn't reprimand Li Jinyu for speaking recklessly, nor did he refuse Li Jinyu. Instead, he said, "These hundred-plus people are indeed difficult to handle. Since you're all here today, here's what we'll do: Officer Cheng, you take some men and go directly to their door to collect the money you've been defrauded of. If anyone refuses to pay, treat them as accomplices in the fraud!"
"Yes!" Constable Cheng clasped his hands in a fist salute and strode out with his men.
The women in the audience had never seen anything like this before. Apart from a few who knew beforehand, they only said a few words at the beginning, and then fell silent once things got out of control.
There were so many of them, and they were all being held together by just a few people. Now that they saw that none of them were saying anything, they immediately started crying and shouting, "Sir, we're innocent! We didn't know it was a scam! Someone paid us to do it, and we thought we could earn more money, so we went!"
How could they have imagined it would be so serious? And how could they have imagined that they would be implicated as well? If they had known it would be like this, they would never have gone to Duobaoge to return the goods.
Bai Nuo had no more doubts after hearing this. The people were acting on someone else's orders, and the goods were definitely provided by someone else. As for who was behind it all, Bai Nuo didn't expect them to know.
However, the fact that they were able to find so many people and produce such a large batch of goods to deal with her shows that they have considerable strength.
But who is it?
A thought flashed through Bai Nuo's mind, but it was so fleeting that she didn't even notice it herself.
"Regardless of whether you are innocent or not, the fact remains that you committed fraud, and you will still be punished!" Lord Li said in a deep voice.
It was much easier and faster for Constable Cheng to collect the money than to arrest people. This was because about 80% of these people's families had come to the government office to watch over them since their women had been arrested. So, he collected most of the money as soon as he left the office, and he collected the rest from the families who weren't there after visiting a few more.
"Sir, all the debts have been collected!" After more than half an hour, Constable Cheng handed Lord Li a package. "This contains all the money we obtained from their families."
At a glance, Magistrate Li knew exactly how much silver was inside. As a county official, he didn't care about such a small amount of money and said indifferently, "Send it to the aggrieved party!"
So he took the money and went to Bai Nuo, saying, "Manager Bai, this is the money you were cheated out of!"
Bai Nuo took the bundle with both hands. Although two or three hundred taels of silver was not particularly heavy, it still felt a bit heavy when Bai Nuo took it with both hands.
After receiving the silver, Bai Nuo had nothing more to do. Overjoyed, she thanked everyone profusely as she left the county office. As soon as she stepped outside, she saw Hu Mingmei and Lu Ying waiting for her.
"Is this the money they swindled out of?" Hu Mingmei asked, pointing to the bundle on Bai Nuo's back. Seeing that it was inconvenient for Bai Nuo to carry it, Lu Ying quickly went up and took the bundle off.
"That's right!" Bai Nuo nodded. Although it had been quite a hassle, there had been no losses. In fact, Duobao Pavilion's reputation had grown even more because of today's events, which made Bai Nuo quite happy.
There are some things that need to be put on the agenda as soon as possible.
Like Bai Nuo, Manager He was also unable to sleep. Of course, Bai Nuo couldn't sleep because she was happy, while Manager He couldn't sleep because she was worried.
Surprisingly, this incident didn't bring Bai Nuo down; instead, it improved Duobaoge's reputation. More people learned about Duobaoge, and even those who hadn't bought anything there had heard of it and were certainly curious about it.
It's only a matter of time before people go to the store to make purchases.
Manager He waited outside the county government office all night, not daring to be discovered by Bai Nuo and the others. As soon as the county government office closed, Manager He rushed to the place where the mysterious old man lived, without even waiting for the waiter.
Manager He was so nervous that he couldn't stop thinking about the matter and naturally forgot about being afraid.
After hearing the whole story, the old man wasn't as furious as the shopkeeper had expected. Instead, he seemed rather indifferent, his thoughts unreadable. However, even so, Shopkeeper He dared not fail to explain, and knelt on the ground with a bitter expression, "Master, please forgive me. It was my oversight. I didn't expect Bai Nuo to have such a trick up his sleeve!"
Fine, I'll just return the goods. But I never expected Bai Nuo to write it all down in detail, making it evidence. None of the people who wrote the receipts told him what happened on the day Duobaoge returned the goods.
"Alright, I know, you can leave now!" The old man was wearing a mask, completely covering his face except for his eyes. He was half-reclining in the chair, looking down at his hands with a somewhat languid expression. "You woke me up in the middle of the night just for this? Alright, get out!"
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