Huo Yanqing then replied to her, "You're right, the eggplant tastes very good."
Then he lowered his head and continued eating.
"That's wonderful." He Zhilan breathed a sigh of relief, a happy smile playing on her lips. She turned to Lin Qixia and said, "Xia'er, you should eat more too~"
Lin Qixia responded softly, glanced at Huo Yanqing beside her, and then pouted.
This guy is actually quite good to his sister-in-law, so he's only angry with himself.
Lin Qixia ignored him and finished her meal with a slurping sound.
She ate quickly, and after she was completely full, she stood up, stretched, and said, "I'm done eating."
"I'll clean up, you go upstairs and rest," He Zhilan said to her, and began to clear the dishes.
Huo Yanqing was still eating silently when Lin Qixia snatched his bowl and chopsticks away. "I just finished eating and don't want to sleep yet. Let me help you clean up, sister-in-law."
Huo Yanqing, who was sitting to the side, froze.
He Zhilan also scolded Lin Qixia helplessly, "Xia'er, how could you—"
"Sister-in-law, you can go upstairs and rest!" Lin Qixia changed the subject and nudged He Zhilan to urge her to leave.
He Zhilan, however, did not listen to her.
The two pushed and shoved each other, then simply left the front hall together and went to the kitchen in the backyard.
Huo Yanqing remained seated for a moment, then stood up, turned around, and silently followed them out.
In the kitchen, taking advantage of the fact that no one else was around, He Zhilan asked Lin Qixia, "What exactly happened today? Why did you suddenly choose to close the shop? Is there something you're planning to do during this time?"
"Or is something big about to happen?"
It has to be said that He Zhilan's intuition is quite accurate; the questions she asked were all quite crucial.
Lin Qixia busied herself washing the dishes, while pondering He Zhilan's question for a moment, before deciding to be honest with her.
She said, "Actually, things aren't that complicated. The reason the officials from the yamen made things difficult for us earlier was because our county magistrate is a corrupt official, he—"
Shh! You can't say that!
Lin Qixia's words startled He Zhilan, who quickly stopped her and even tried to cover her mouth, saying, "No matter what, he is an official appointed by the imperial court. It's not appropriate for us ordinary people to talk about him like this."
These past two days, "Xiahe Manor" has also hired two people, one to do odd jobs and the other to guard the house at night, who live in the backyard of the manor.
She was afraid that someone might overhear them and spread the word, which would be bad for them.
Lin Qixia patted her hand helplessly and said to her, "Don't worry, it doesn't matter if someone hears us. This is my attitude, Lin Qixia!"
"I not only dare to say it, I also dare to sue him directly!"
He Zhilan's eyes widened. "You're going to sue the county magistrate?"
She was almost stunned by Lin Qixia's words; her sister-in-law was really saying more and more outrageous things.
She understood Lin Qixia's actions less and less.
“If we had really offended the people in the county government before, wouldn’t doing this make things even worse?” He Zhilan asked her.
Lin Qixia said leisurely, "To tell you the truth, I stole our county magistrate's 'business' before, so if I don't bring him down, I will never be able to do business in Lichong County again."
As she spoke, Lin Qixia recounted the "secrets" of Feng Changchao that she had previously discovered at the Feng residence.
This includes his embezzlement of grain taxes and his buying and selling of them.
"Even the disaster relief grain issued by the imperial court before, which was said to have been distributed to the people, were actually from the areas in the Beiling mountain villages that we encountered earlier."
"If they had received the disaster relief supplies, we might not have been robbed in the first place."
Upon hearing this, He Zhilan's expression gradually became serious. "So that's how it is."
"So," Lin Qixia continued, "since I've already offended him, I can only try to bring him down and eliminate this threat so that my business can continue to operate smoothly."
This is also why she has to close the store temporarily.
The three days were almost up, and it was clear that she couldn't possibly get the business license from Feng Changchao in such a short time.
Rather than waiting for his people to come and force her to close the shop in front of the people of Lichong County, it would be better for her to close the shop voluntarily and reduce the impact on public opinion.
He Zhilan now understood why Lin Qixia had done this, and she absentmindedly busied herself cleaning the stove.
Then he asked her, "Have you figured out exactly what to do?"
"What should we do?" Lin Qixia asked. "I have already gathered some evidence and know that the governor from the capital, Tong Xuewei, is currently in Lichong County."
"My next task is naturally to hand over all the evidence to Governor Tong."
As she spoke, her expression was very confident, indicating that she was already quite certain of her outcome.
He Zhilan's calm eyes were now fixed on Lin Qixia's profile. Whenever she looked so confident, she usually did things very well.
A moment later, she smiled gently and said to Lin Qixia, "In that case, I support you in doing so."
"Sister-in-law!" Lin Qixia was pleasantly surprised by He Zhilan's quick change of attitude and quickly grabbed her hand. "With your support, this matter will be much easier!"
He Zhilan smiled sheepishly, "Alright, the kitchen is almost cleaned up. You go and rest, I'll finish up the rest."
"Okay." Lin Qixia didn't refuse this time; she was already very tired.
I simply went to get some water to wash up and then went to sleep.
The next day, which was already the third day.
The two constables, Zhang Zhong and Zhao Hu, swaggered through the bustling Hongfang Street. When they arrived at the entrance of "Xiahezhuang" on Hongfang Street, ready to make things difficult for the people in the shop, they found the door tightly closed.
It was completely deserted, and the surroundings were so quiet that apart from passersby, there wasn't a single customer.
"That's strange. Does the owner of 'Xiahe Manor' not plan to do business anymore?"
"They actually closed the store on their own initiative? That's really strange."
The two constables stood there, swords drawn, looking around blankly, feeling a sense of loss.
"Something might have delayed the shop opening, let's wait a bit!" Zhao Hu said in a deep voice.
Zhang Zhong, standing next to him, nodded earnestly, "You're right!"
Lord Feng from his family had already instructed them that they must curb Lin Qixia's arrogance today!
After that, the two of them stood guard at the door like door gods, just waiting.
Time passed by, and Zhao Hu was so sleepy that his head was bobbing forward.
"Snap!"
Suddenly something fell from the sky and hit him on the head.
"Who! Who threw the fruit peel?" Zhao Hu instantly woke up, but when he looked around, there was no one there, and he couldn't see who had thrown it at him.
Zhao Hu continued to stand there, cursing and swearing.
Above him, Lin Jiudong, who had been hiding behind the window, sneered mercilessly: "Heh, you two idiots, it's no use even if you stay here until dark!"
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