"Clan Chief Lin, what a boastful tone! You truly are worthy of being Lin Tanhua's paternal grandfather!"
Village Chief Zhou has arrived! He's brought the men of his Zhou clan with him!
The Lin clan members were shocked to see Village Chief Zhou arrive with so many people. Could it be that the Zhou family was going to confront the Lin family head-on for Yang Cui's sake?
Yang Cui was also shocked, not expecting so many people from the Zhou family to come. The people of Anjia Village felt that the Zhou family was kind and righteous. Although the Zhou family had formed a marriage alliance with An Dafu, their kinship with Yang Cui was quite distant. It was truly rare for the Zhou family to stand up for such a distant relative.
The people of Anjia Village secretly decided that they would consider the Zhou family for marriage in the future, because who wouldn't want their in-laws to be kind and righteous?
"Zhou Daqing, you brought so many people here, are you trying to oppose my Lin clan? Hmm?" the Lin clan chief asked in a deep voice.
“We wouldn’t dare mess with you. Your Lin clan is always killing people, and our Zhou family is terrified of death,” said Village Chief Zhou. “However, Yang Cui is now my Xiao Tao’s future cousin, and she is also a relative of the Zhou family. We won’t tolerate you bullying her like this!”
Fan was so angry she jumped up and down: "We're going to kill this bitch today! If you meddle in our business, we'll take care of you too!"
Chief Lin shouted sternly, "Mingfa, Changfeng, Ergou, arrest this slut!"
"Let's see who dares to come closer!" Yang Cuishi brandished the scissors wildly again, and the Lin family men did not dare to come over easily, for fear of being stabbed.
The Zhou family also shielded Yang Cui behind them and directly confronted the Lin family.
Enraged, Fan and Lin Niu rushed forward and started fighting with the Zhou family. When the Lin clan saw them start fighting, they immediately joined in. Naturally, the Zhou family wouldn't stand idly by, and the two sides began to fight.
An Dafu and several of An's cousins rushed over to help, except for his second cousin, An Gousheng.
An Gousheng wanted to help, but his wife Zhang Chuntao held him back tightly.
The two sides fought fiercely, seemingly venting years of pent-up resentment.
The people of Anjia Village didn't dare to step forward to break up the fight; they just stood by and kept saying, "Don't fight! Don't fight!"
Yang Cui roared, "Stop fighting! Lin Rongguang, tomorrow the whole city will know that your Lin family, out of guilt, resorted to desperate measures to harm the Yang family in an attempt to cover up your evil deeds! You should know the consequences without me having to tell you."
Chief Lin was stunned, and the fight between the two sides temporarily stopped.
"Let me tell you the truth, if anything happens to me, someone will immediately go to Pingjiang Prefecture to file a complaint. You probably don't know that the Pingjiang Prefect Zan Wenhao has a grudge against Lin Shikang's new in-laws, so once the Pingjiang Prefect receives the news, he will definitely deal with Lin Shikang and bring him down!"
"Who are you trying to scare?" Madam Fan didn't believe it at all.
The purpose of going to Pingjiang Prefecture to file a complaint was naturally to scare the Lin family, but Zan Wenhao did indeed have a grudge against the Wang family. In the original story, the Zan family did indeed plot against Lin Shikang in order to deal with the Wang family, but Lin Shikang's protagonist aura was strong, and he narrowly won, and the Zan family lost.
"You've got some serious skills, Yang! You've gathered a crowd to beat up the relatives of an official, spread rumors to slander him, and now you're even threatening Lin Tanhua's family!"
Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw Lin Mingcai leading a man of similar age through the crowd to Yang Cui. It was Lin Mingcai who had spoken earlier!
Four constables from the yamen followed behind them. When they saw the officials, who had come with Lin Mingcai, the Zhou family and the An family members who had helped fight began to feel afraid.
Lin Mingcai said, "Young Master Sun, you see! It's not that our Lin family wants to do anything to the Yang family, it's just that... the Yang family is ruining the reputation of our Lin family everywhere. It's not easy for our entire family to support a third-place scholar."
Yang Cui immediately guessed that this must be Sun Dewen, Lin Shikang's classmate and the son of his advisor.
Madam Fan had met Sun Dewen before, and upon seeing him arrive, she immediately burst into tears, recounting Yang Cui's crimes: "Young Master Sun, you've finally come! If you had come any later, you wouldn't have seen me again. My life is so miserable..."
Yang Cui sneered: "Your Lin family is quite adept at distorting the truth."
"Officer Wang, Officer Zhang, why haven't you arrested this wicked woman yet! She's ruined Lin Tanhua's reputation. According to our laws, she deserves three months' imprisonment and fifty slaps!" Sun Dewen said. "And the others involved in the fight..."
Sun Dewen drawled out the last syllable, his gaze fixed on Yang Cui: "Do you think it's better for me to arrest them all and send them to jail, or to slap them here and punish them on the spot?"
Sun Dewen looked at Yang Cui with a half-smile, but Yang Cui sensed a threat in his eyes.
Yes, it's a threat!
He was threatening him, saying that if he didn't obediently surrender, the An and Zhou families would face imprisonment!
Upon hearing this, Madam Lin and Madam Fan immediately shouted from the side, "They should all be arrested and imprisoned! Slap them hard in the face and tell them they're talking nonsense! You bitch! You want to harm my Lin family! You should take a piss and see if you have the ability!"
Upon hearing that they were to be arrested and imprisoned, the An and Zhou families trembled with fear, while the villagers from Anjia Village who were watching the commotion backed away, saying, "It has nothing to do with us, I was just passing by."
"Yes, yes, it has nothing to do with us."
Then the villagers scattered like birds and beasts.
An's uncles and aunts were also scared and wanted to flee the scene immediately, but they were also a little embarrassed. After all, they had made a lot of money recently thanks to Yang Cui, and it would seem unkind to just run away like that.
Zhang Chuntao quickly shook her head and denied it: "This has nothing to do with us. Our Gousheng didn't lay a hand on us. If you want to arrest someone, arrest someone else, not us!"
After saying that, Zhang Chuntao grabbed her man's hand tightly and ran away.
“We were fighting amongst ourselves. Even if we were at fault, we shouldn’t be the only ones being arrested, Young Master Sun…” Before Village Chief Zhou could finish speaking, he was kicked to the ground by Sun Dewen’s henchman: “Old man, if our young master says it’s your fault, then it’s your fault!”
"Damn it, I'll fight you to the death!" Seeing his father being beaten, Zhou Hongda raised his fist and was about to rush over, but was held back by the village chief.
"Hongda, don't be impulsive!" Although Village Chief Zhou didn't know Sun Dewen's identity, he could tell from the man's attire and the respectful manner of the officials that he was someone he couldn't afford to offend. If his son hit him, things would likely get out of hand.
The entourage who had assaulted the man said arrogantly, "Our young master is the son of the clerk's family. Are you bunch of troublemakers tired of living?"
Although the advisor was not an official position, he was a staff member of the county magistrate, and ordinary people could not afford to offend him.
Upon hearing that Sun Dewen was the son of a clerk, everyone was terrified.
Lin Mingcai whispered a few words in Sun Dewen's ear, and then Sun Dewen said, "You're the village chief of Ji'an Village?"
Village Chief Zhou's heart skipped a beat; he knew something was wrong.
“You’re not doing a good job as village chief. You’re always helping people from other villages bully the people from your own village. How can you expect to be respected as a village chief?” Sun Dewen’s words plunged the Zhou family into an icy abyss.
"Clan Chief Lin, I see that your Lin clan is skilled at educating people, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to raise such an outstanding talent as Shi Kang. How about you become the village chief of Ji'an Village?"
Chief Lin hadn't expected happiness to come so suddenly, and repeatedly expressed his gratitude: "Thank you, Young Master Sun, thank you, Young Master Sun."
"Chief Lin, you're too kind. Once we get back to the yamen, I'll have Steward Chang take care of this matter."
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