Upon hearing these three words, everyone knelt down in fear and trepidation, bowing their heads and waiting for the man before them to read the imperial edict.
He glanced at the crowd and slowly recited, "By the grace of Heaven, the Emperor decrees: Lady Jiang, a ninth-rank lady from Lujia Village, is exceptionally intelligent and capable. She has repeatedly rendered outstanding service in managing snow disasters and pacifying displaced people, for which I am deeply gratified. Therefore, I hereby bestow upon Lady Jiang the title of eighth-rank lady, grant her a thousand taels of gold, and award her a thousand acres of land in Lujia Village. This is my decree!"
"Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor!" The voices of the crowd echoed across the sky.
Jiang Ling carefully accepted the imperial edict with both hands outstretched.
"Rise!"
Upon hearing this, everyone stood up in a flustered and respectful manner. Jiang Ling quickly took out a handful of silver melon seeds from her bosom and stuffed them into the father-in-law's hand, saying, "Esteemed father-in-law, what is your surname? You have traveled a long way and must be tired. This is just a small gift to express our respect!"
"Our family name is Yin, so please call me Eunuch Yin, madam!"
As she spoke, Jiang Ling quickly gestured for Jiang Yaojie and Nianci to go to the warehouse and get two bottles of shampoo. She then continued to say to Eunuch Yin, "This is a new shampoo that our family has developed. It's much better for washing hair than wood ash or algae beans! Eunuch Yin, please try it when you get back!"
Eunuch Yin accepted the shampoo with a smile. Just as he was about to say something, his gaze suddenly fell on Nianci. His smiling eyes immediately turned ruthless, but it vanished in an instant.
Jiang Ling noticed that her father-in-law was looking at Nianci strangely, so she quickly pulled Nianci behind her and said with a smile to her father-in-law, "Children from the countryside don't know any manners, please forgive them, Eunuch Yin!"
"No problem, no problem at all. This child is so adorable, we love him so much!" Eunuch Yin immediately put on his previous smiling expression and said to Jiang Ling.
Jiang Ling smiled and bowed to Eunuch Yin, saying, "Thank you for your kindness, Eunuch Yin. Yaojie, please take your younger brother and go to the side!" Jiang Ling then turned to Jiang Yaojie and said.
Although Jiang Yaojie didn't know why his mother would say that, he knew that there was a reason for everything his mother did. He quickly nodded and pulled the still somewhat bewildered Nianci aside.
"Eunuch Yin, I hope you will forgive me. I was unaware of your arrival and had not prepared any food or wine. It was truly my oversight. Why don't you rest here for a while? I will go and prepare the food right away!" Jiang Ling said.
Eunuch Yin shook his head and refused, saying, "It's alright, I'm just here to run an errand for His Majesty and I'll be going back now!"
After saying that, he was about to turn around and go back to the carriage. Seeing this, Jiang Ling quickly took out a silver note from her pocket and handed it over, saying, "Father-in-law, you must be tired from your journey. Please buy some of what you like to eat on the way back. Consider it a gift from me!"
Without any politeness or refusal, Eunuch Yin took the silver note and disappeared from the entrance of Lujia Village.
"Wow, a thousand taels of gold! So much!"
"Yes, yes, now Madam Jiang... no, I mean Madam! doesn't need to be afraid anymore!"
"Will the lady leave our Lu Family Village in the future?"
Various voices rushed in from all directions, and Jiang Ling, holding the imperial edict and the reward money, stood in the middle, feeling somewhat awkward.
"Everyone, disperse and get back to work! Stop dawdling here!" The village chief's words were a bit harsh, but they were very effective, and everyone immediately scattered upon hearing them.
"Don't flaunt your wealth, put it away quickly!" the village chief reminded Jiang Ling.
Jiang Ling hurriedly returned to her bedroom and dumped the thousand taels of reward money into the shop's virtual space. For Jiang Ling, this was the only truly safe place.
"Big sister, what happened?" Hu Yue'er asked anxiously as soon as Jiang Ling came out.
"It's nothing, everything's been resolved, don't worry!" Jiang Ling comforted her softly. In fact, even without the reward of one thousand taels of silver, Jiang Ling could afford to pay the penalty for breach of contract.
But to everyone's surprise, Hu Yue'er became obsessed with Jiang Ling, relentlessly asking what had happened.
Seeing that Jiang Ling still didn't intend to tell her, Hu Yue'er was getting anxious and was about to go to the shampoo factory when Jiang Ling grabbed her and said, "Where are you going!"
"Hmph, if you won't tell me, I'll go find Lightning Mother. If Lightning Mother won't tell me, I'll ask someone else. I'm determined to get an answer!" Hu Yue'er said, feigning anger.
Jiang Ling rubbed her forehead helplessly. She knew Hu Yue'er's temperament. If she didn't explain things clearly to her now, Hu Yue'er would probably keep making a fuss.
"It's nothing, it's just that someone forged the delivery order, and now that this batch of goods can't be delivered, we might have to pay ten times the amount in compensation as stipulated in the contract!" Jiang Ling said calmly.
"Ten times? That's all? My dear sister, does your family own a gold mine?" Hu Yue'er exclaimed in surprise, her eyes wide.
Jiang Ling patted Hu Yue'er's shoulder, pointed to Hu Yue'er's stomach, and said, "Didn't Doctor Zhu say that you can't get too emotional? I was afraid you would do that, so I didn't tell you!"
Hu Yue'er had heard some things from Zhou Daxia, but at that time she was feeling a bit uncomfortable in her lower abdomen, and Dr. Zhu said that she needed to rest for a few days. Hu Yue'er was not there when Mr. Zhang caused trouble.
"Um...yes, Doctor Zhu did tell me not to get emotional, but is this matter just going to be left like this, elder sister?" Hu Yue'er said indignantly, pouting.
Jiang Ling was worried that Hu Yue'er might get too excited and have health problems, so she sat down with Hu Yue'er on a chair next to her and comforted her, "Don't worry, things will always turn out better. It's just that this delivery note needs to be improved. Consider this a lesson learned!"
After hearing this, Hu Yue'er immediately rolled her eyes and looked at Jiang Ling, saying, "Sister, I heard about a method before. It is said that if you crush seashells and put them in ink, or add some other dyes to the ink, the words written with such ink will sparkle in the sun. I think even if those people are forging, they wouldn't go to the trouble of forging something so costly and difficult to detect!"
This gave Jiang Ling a lot of ideas. She smiled and patted Hu Yue'er on the shoulder, saying, "Thank you, Yue'er, your idea will definitely work!"
...
At the shampoo factory, Lightning Girl sat there with her head drooping and her brows furrowed, looking like it was the end of the world.
Before Jiang Ling could even speak, Lightning Girl, with red eyes, said to her, "I'm sorry..."
She sat down next to Lightning Girl and comforted her, "I already told you this has nothing to do with you. Do you still have that delivery receipt?"
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Here it is!" Lightning Girl took out a thick stack of delivery receipts, with the month carefully marked on them. At least from this point of view, Lightning Girl's work was very meticulous.
Finally, Lightning Girl found the forged delivery slip among the delivery slips marked "January".
"This is it, and this is the date the goods were picked up!" Lightning Girl said, taking out a ledger from the drawer next to her and pointing to a page on it.
Jiang Ling nodded and randomly picked up one of the many delivery slips to carefully compare.
Finally, Jiang Ling discovered something that was extremely difficult to notice.
Jiang Ling's lips curled into a cold smile.
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