County Magistrate Duan, accompanied by Xie Changsan, rushed to Lujia Village without stopping. When they arrived at the village chief's house, they were quite startled.
The village chief immediately knelt down, and Magistrate Duan repeatedly gestured that there was no need for such formalities. He then glanced at Xie Changsan beside him and said, "Xie Changsan, this is the village chief of Lujia Village. Describe what the old woman looks like to the village chief!"
Xie Changsan immediately repeated what Old Lady Lu looked like. The village chief almost collapsed to the ground upon hearing it. His voice trembled as he asked, "Lord Duan...Lord Duan, what's wrong?"
Magistrate Duan didn't rush to reveal his thoughts, but simply said, "Oh, this Mr. Xie is here to look for someone. A few days ago, someone left something at his restaurant!"
The village chief was puzzled by this flimsy excuse, but he couldn't say anything because of the other party's status. Just as he was at a loss, he suddenly remembered Jiang Ling and quickly said to Magistrate Duan, "Sir...should we call Madam An over as well?"
Magistrate Duan originally didn't want to disturb Jiang Ling, but the thought of Jiang Ling's gentle smile made his heart skip a beat. He quickly glanced around to make sure no one was looking at him, then coughed lightly and said, "Alright, let Madam An come along too!"
Upon hearing this, the village chief was overjoyed, as if he had been granted a pardon. Despite being over fifty years old, he ran with incredible speed and didn't even break a sweat.
"Village... Village Chief? You... How did you get here?" Jiang Ling asked, puzzled, when she saw the village chief covered in sweat.
"Run! Something's wrong! Run!" The village chief was already somewhat incoherent. He pointed in the direction of his house and disappeared in a flash.
Jiang Ling rarely saw the village chief so flustered, and she couldn't help but quicken her pace, following closely behind him.
Before even reaching the village chief's house, the sharp-eyed Jiang Ling spotted Magistrate Duan, and her heart skipped a beat.
"Magistrate Duan? Is there something you need today?" Jiang Ling asked tentatively, looking at Magistrate Duan.
Magistrate Duan sighed helplessly and gave Zhao Liu a look. Zhao Liu quickly pulled Jiang Ling aside and whispered, "Auntie, have you ever seen this before?"
As he spoke, he took out the cloth bag that Xie Changshan had used to store salt.
Upon opening it, the person with the white object frowned and asked, "What is this?"
"It's salt..." These two simple words made Jiang Ling's heart skip a beat again, and an extremely bad premonition spread throughout her body.
"What happened?" Jiang Ling asked, frowning.
Zhao Liu recounted the whole story to Jiang Ling. The more Jiang Ling listened, the more her eyebrows furrowed. Before she even finished hearing the end, Jiang Ling had already made up her mind that it must have been Lu Youren and his wife who did this.
Jiang Ling shook her head helplessly and said, "Years ago, our village also had a heavy snowfall. My grandmother knew an ancient method for melting snow. The stuff looked like salt and tasted salty, so we called it coarse salt. Actually, it was highly poisonous and completely different from the salt we usually eat! Moreover, this salt looked like it had been reprocessed later. The particles in the snow-melting agent were about the size of a little fingernail!"
As she spoke, Jiang Ling even gestured to Zhao Liu.
Zhao Liu nodded and said nothing more. The two then walked over to Magistrate Duan. The village chief was very curious about what Jiang Ling and Zhao Liu had talked about, but he could only leave it at that because the magistrate was still there.
"Village chief, please invite Lu Youren's mother over. I'd like this boss to identify her!" Magistrate Duan said.
The village chief shook his head helplessly. What was meant to happen couldn't be avoided. He sighed and could only pray that Old Lady Lu's troubles would be less severe this time, otherwise the entire Lu family village might be implicated.
Soon after, a flustered old woman named Lu appeared before the crowd.
Before she could react, Xie Changsan yelled and jumped up, pointing at Old Lady Lu, "It's her! It's her! This is the old woman who sold me the salt!"
Old Mrs. Lu glanced at the angry village chief, the furious Jiang Ling, and Xie Changsan, whose emotions seemed a bit off. Her eyes darted around for a moment, then she immediately put on a blank expression and looked at Xie Changsan, saying, "Sir, who are you?"
Xie Changsan almost vomited blood from anger when he saw Old Lady Lu's somewhat dazed gaze. How could this country bumpkin be so cunning?
He knelt down before Magistrate Duan with a thud and said, "It's her! Your Honor, I'm willing to swear on my life that it was she who sold me the salt!"
Even though Old Lady Lu was usually reckless, she knew the consequences of buying salt without permission. She cried out in pain and wailed to Xie Changsan, "Sir, I don't know what I, an old woman, have done to offend you that you would slander me like this!"
"Even if I don't understand anything, I would never do such a thing!"
Xie Changsan witnessed firsthand Lu's ability to distort the truth. He was only spared because Magistrate Duan was present; otherwise, he would have jumped up and taught her a lesson.
Everyone remained silent, watching with varying expressions as Old Lady Lu threw a tantrum and acted shamelessly.
The village chief knew Old Lady Lu's character well, and Xie Changsan's words were definitely true. But then he thought that Old Lady Lu was, after all, one of his own villagers, so he could only pretend not to know.
Jiang Ling frowned and looked at Old Lady Lu, saying rudely, "Didn't I tell you that stuff is a snow-melting agent? How dare you bring it home? Don't you know that stuff is poisonous and can kill people if you eat it!"
Jiang Ling's words sounded very sharp. After hearing them, Old Lady Lu trembled all over, but she still stubbornly argued, "Jiang, don't think that just because you're a wife now you can easily renege on my promises! What evidence do you have to prove that this stuff is your snow-melting agent?"
Seeing that Old Lady Lu showed no remorse whatsoever, Jiang Ling was furious.
She took advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention and bought some phenolphthalein powder from the mall. Then she said to Magistrate Duan, "Sir, I have a packet of powder in my hand. This powder was passed down from my grandmother. She made it because she was afraid that we would mix up the de-icing agent and the salt."
"When salt or de-icing agent comes into contact with these powders in water, the salt will not change color, but the de-icing agent will turn purplish-red! Lord Duan, you can test this yourself to see if what I'm saying is true!"
Upon hearing Jiang Ling's words, Old Lady Lu inwardly cried out in alarm. She immediately threw a tantrum, saying, "No, no! Who knows if you've tampered with this powder? We already have a falling out, so it would be easy for you to frame me!"
Jiang Ling had anticipated that Old Lady Lu would make such a pretext. She smiled coldly and said, "That's easy. Have the yamen runners fetch salt from my house, the village chief's house, and your house. We'll see if it changes color. If you're worried that I'm colluding with the village chief, you can just order any family to go and borrow some salt in front of you!"
"What do you think, Old Lady Lu?"
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