Before Jiang Bai could speak, a woman who lived near Diao Yi's house stepped forward and said timidly, "This bottle of oil was clearly borrowed from my house by Chunhua. She said she needed it urgently and would return it to me after the peanut harvest next month."
Who would have thought it would end up in Jiang Bai's hands?
Li Chunhua stammered, "You...you're talking nonsense..."
"I'm not making this up. My second son broke the bottle cap. You can go and see for yourselves if you don't believe me." The woman straightened her back and spoke with increasing confidence and fluency.
The village chief took the oil bottle, glanced at the cap, and immediately looked at Li Chunhua with disapproval.
Everyone immediately understood that the evidence was conclusive.
Li Chunhua instinctively tried to distance herself from the situation: "I borrowed the oil and left it in the kitchen. I didn't know Diao Yi secretly took it for that little bitch to use..."
“You’re lying,” the man the woman had just mentioned stepped forward. “Last night I went to your house to get the oil back and overheard Uncle Diao discussing with you how to better burn down Sister Jiang Bai’s house.”
The second son, around four or five years old, already showed remarkable intelligence. He could recognize characters at three and compose poems at five, making him a little prodigy praised by everyone in the village.
His father was good at making money and sent him to study at the academy at a young age. Now he was home on his day off and happened to witness this.
The villagers all held this future county magistrate in high esteem, and upon hearing this, they said, "If even the second young master says so, then what Jiang Bai said must be true."
"I never imagined that the Diao couple could be so vicious."
"I could tell Diao Yi was right, but I didn't expect Li Chunhua to be too..."
"What do you know? You can't have two kinds of people sleeping in the same bed," a respected old man said solemnly.
The crowd repeated the phrase several times, nodding in agreement.
Seeing that everything had settled down, the village chief stroked his beard and scolded Diao Yi and Li Chunhua: "You two went too far this time. If you have such malicious thoughts again, the village will definitely not forgive you."
Aunt Wang said from the side, "If anything happens to Jiang Bai and Ping An Xi Le in the future, it will be because of you."
This prevents Diao Yi from resorting to any more malicious tricks.
Jiang Bai pressed further, "Then, village chief, how are they going to be punished this time?"
The village chief felt a pang of pity for the couple who were weeping uncontrollably.
He looked at Jiang Bai and lectured, "Young man, don't be so ruthless. We're all from the same village, we'll run into each other all the time. Otherwise, just let it go."
"So they did something wrong, and they don't have to pay any price?" Jiang Bai was not very satisfied.
"You haven't suffered any losses this time either, so it's best to be forgiving."
Seeing the village chief's attitude, Jiang Bai knew that there was no point in continuing to argue.
She glanced at Diao Yi and Li Chunhua, pursed her lips, and then smiled at the village chief: "Since the village chief has said so, I will listen to you."
The village chief nodded in satisfaction.
Jiang Bai looked down at the couple and said, "I just hope that my good intentions won't become a reason for you to act recklessly in the future."
After saying that, she turned to leave.
The village chief waved his hand: "Everyone, disperse."
Li Chunhua called out to Jiang Bai, "Wait, you need to untie the ropes binding Diao Yi."
“I don’t care,” Jiang Bai turned around and said coolly, “Also, you’d better move the people out right now. If I see the two of you still in my house in a quarter of an hour, I’ll report you to the authorities for trespassing.”
Li Chunhua pleaded for help from the crowd.
At this point, even those who were close to her avoided her; everyone wanted to distance themselves from the person who had almost become the arsonist and murderer.
Li Chunhua gritted her teeth and pushed Diao Yi up, carrying him little by little towards the door.
Afterwards, the woman returned home and, still shaken, clutched her chest.
A male voice came from behind: "What, scared?"
This man was one of Zhao Yi's trusted subordinates.
His subordinate was named Tan Ji, and the woman was his wife, Xu Yuanqing.
When Xu Yuanqing saw her husband, she smiled slightly and leaned over to whisper, "I didn't want to get involved, but the Diao family is not someone to be trifled with."
Tanji went out to do business, and she had to be careful while raising her three children alone.
Tan Ji reached out and put his arm around her: "The boss's wife is innocent, it's only right to clear things up for her."
"It was Chief Zhao who told you to do this," Xu Yuanqing whispered in the man's ear, her eyes wide with curiosity. "Isn't he a little dissatisfied with Jiang Bai?"
So when Jiang Bai was bullied before, his family didn't stand up for him.
"Who says I don't like her? Don't be a woman and make wild guesses." Tan Ji's words carried a hint of scolding, but his tone was gentle. He hadn't seen his wife for so long, and he couldn't bear to lecture her.
Xu Yuanqing understood immediately that Boss Zhao was taking Jiang Bai seriously.
Tan Ji thought to himself, "Zhao Yi's old house is on fire, he's even given up his business and is now focused on staying in the village to keep an eye on his wife."
The key is that they're being monitored, but they don't even dare to show their faces, which prevents him from coming out. The two of them secretly stayed in the village for half a month. Zhao Yi didn't want Jiang Bai to see him, but Tan Ji missed his wife terribly and even wanted to secretly shed a few tears in the middle of the night.
He's not Yu the Great; he couldn't pass by his home three times without entering!
Looking at it this way, he should thank Diao Yi and Li Chunhua.
As soon as Diao Yi entered the Zhao family's residence, the guards who had been keeping watch over him rushed back to warn him.
Throughout the entire night, Zhao Yi and he watched from the shadows. If Jiang Bai were truly in danger, Zhao Yi would likely step in immediately to her rescue.
However, Jiang Bai handled it very well.
His two children, young and old, were quite shrewd. After seeing him and Zhao Yi, they didn't say anything but quietly told him about Li Chunhua borrowing oil.
It was only at Zhao Yi's prompting that Xu Yuanqing stepped forward to explain the truth.
Tan Ji put his arm around Xu Yuanqing and sat him on his lap, sighing, "The atmosphere in the village isn't very good."
The village chief is old and senile, so some evil spirits have emerged.
“Once we save up some more money, we’ll buy a house in the county town. You and Da Ni can live there, and the second son can come home for meals so you can see your son every day.”
Hearing this, Xu Yuanqing's nose tingled with emotion.
She gave birth to two children for Tanji: an obedient and sensible eldest daughter and a mischievous and clever youngest son, and her husband was also capable of supporting her.
Tan Ji earned a lot of money with Zhao Yi, but the family was poor mainly because of the second son. After he started attending the private school, he spent money like water. The tuition fee he paid to the teacher alone was five taels of silver a month, not counting the cost of writing materials.
Tan Ji never makes empty promises, so if he says this, it must mean that there's some progress on the move to the county town.
Thinking about how her life was getting better and better, she felt extremely satisfied.
Xu Yuanqing's voice was so soft it almost overflowed. She tugged at the man's collar and pulled it tighter, saying, "Then don't overwork yourself. Your health is the most important thing."
"I know." Tanji couldn't help but give his wife a big kiss on the cheek.
He thought to himself: With such a beautiful woman in my arms, I am much happier than the man in charge.
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