Old Mrs. Lu struggled incessantly, and seeing the farce spiraling out of control, Magistrate Duan frowned and shouted, "Stop it, all of you!"
Magistrate Duan had never been so angry. Everyone immediately knelt down in a group, while the village chief and Granny Lu stood there dumbfounded.
"Tie up this shrew!" Magistrate Duan said to the bailiffs beside him, pointing at Old Lady Lu.
"My lord, please don't! My mother is old and frail. Please have mercy!" Lu Youyi pleaded, kneeling beside him.
“Although I wish to show leniency, your mother has repeatedly humiliated Jiang Shi and even beat her in front of me. If I do not intervene, how will I establish myself in the future? How will I be a good local official?” Magistrate Duan said with a frown.
Lu Youyi was rendered speechless by Magistrate Duan's words. He slumped down like a deflated balloon and remained silent. Old Mrs. Lu panicked when she saw the burly, serious-looking yamen runner.
She immediately put on a pitiful expression, grabbed the village chief's arm, and pleaded, "Village...Village chief, save me!"
The village chief tried to plead for mercy, but Magistrate Duan gave him a cold look, which made him swallow his words. The village chief shook his head and broke free from Granny Lu's arm. Granny Lu was tied up by the yamen runners in front of everyone and temporarily left aside.
The farce temporarily ended, and Magistrate Duan continued to reward Jiang Ling. This time, Magistrate Duan personally handed the tray to Jiang Ling and said softly, "Quickly put it away!"
Jiang Ling nodded and immediately put the silver in her bosom.
About half an hour later, Magistrate Duan finally finished speaking, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief and left in twos and threes.
Inside the enormous ancestral hall, only Jiang Ling, the village chief, the three Lu brothers, and Old Lady Lu, who was bound hand and foot and whose face was covered in tears, remained.
Magistrate Duan gestured to the village head to close the ancestral hall door. He glared at Old Lady Lu, who was bound hand and foot beside him, and said, "According to the law, robbing a reward in broad daylight and beating someone without cause should be punished with fifty lashes..."
"What? Fifty...fifty? No, no! Son! Please beg the magistrate, village chief, I was wrong! Please plead for me! Jiang...Jiang Shi, I...I will never dare again, fifty lashes will surely kill me!" Before Magistrate Duan could finish speaking, Old Lady Lu was so frightened that she collapsed to the ground, writhing her bound body and pleading with the crowd.
Lu Youyi walked up to Jiang Ling with an apologetic expression and said to her, "Mrs. Jiang, I...I..."
"Are you trying to say that you're here to apologize to me on behalf of your mother?" Jiang Ling asked coldly, her eyebrows raised.
"Ah...you...I..." Startled by Jiang Ling's retort, Lu Youren stood there, his face flushed, at a loss for what to do.
"Jiang...I...I really know I was wrong, please, please forgive me! I will never dare to do it again!" Old Mrs. Lu said, weeping bitterly.
Jiang Ling looked at the old woman in front of her without any pity. Only she knew that this old woman was the real culprit who tortured the original owner to death, and only she knew the suffering the original owner had endured.
If she hadn't inexplicably transmigrated here, the original owner's children would probably be in grave danger right now.
Jiang Ling looked at Old Lady Lu expressionlessly and said nothing more.
“Old Lady Lu is immoral, but due to her advanced age, she shall be punished with ten lashes!” Magistrate Duan said, glancing at the crowd.
"Ah! No! Don't..." Upon hearing this result, Old Lady Lu's eyes rolled back and she fainted on the spot.
After thanking Magistrate Duan, Jiang Ling left the Lu Family Ancestral Hall with the silver in her pocket.
As soon as she got home, all four children ran over and surrounded Jiang Ling. Seeing their uneasy expressions, Jiang Ling quickly reassured them, "Don't worry, I'm fine!"
The four children breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this. Jiang Ling put the silver away and began to direct the children to get to work.
A short while later, Er Leng's wife and the village woman who had been working earlier knocked on Jiang Ling's door. Seeing that Jiang Ling's face was still a little red, Er Leng's wife asked with concern, "Jiang, are you alright?"
Jiang Ling shook her head and said, "It's okay, it's not the first time anyway, you guys go get to work!"
Er Leng's wife seemed to want to say something, but was stopped by a village woman next to her.
Jiang Ling smiled at everyone and went inside. She had used up all the beeswax she had previously used, so she planned to buy some more.
Looking at the fifty taels of silver in her arms, Jiang Ling was in a dilemma. Now everyone in Lujia Village knew that she had received a reward. If some of them had ulterior motives, she would not be able to handle it for a while.
"Sigh, if only I had a storage box!" Jiang Ling muttered to herself.
Just as Jiang Ling finished muttering, the mall page suddenly emitted a pale yellow halo. After the halo disappeared, a new button appeared in the mall, with three large characters written on it: "Storage Locker".
Jiang Ling clicked on it out of curiosity, and a series of square grids appeared in front of her.
[Beep: Activating the locker function requires 500 taels of silver]
As Jiang Ling tentatively picked up the teapot on the table to put it in the locker, a mechanical system voice sounded in her mind.
"What? Five hundred taels? This is... this is too much!" Jiang Ling's outstretched hand froze in mid-air.
All afternoon, Jiang Ling was preoccupied with the five hundred taels of silver. She was absent-minded in her work and almost burned Jiang Wenxi, who was hiding by the door, while melting beeswax.
"Mother, what's wrong?" As night fell, all three children were asleep, but Jiang Yaojie sat in the courtyard, enjoying the breeze and looking at the sky.
When he saw Jiang Ling come out, he couldn't help but ask her in a low voice.
"It's nothing. Didn't the magistrate give us fifty taels of silver? Mother thought the old house was too small and planned to buy a piece of land to rebuild a bigger house. But then Mother thought, you're all grown up now. In a few years, if you get married, how will we survive without even an acre of land? So Mother is thinking of buying some land, for you and for your younger siblings, to make plans early." Jiang Ling said, her words contradicting her true feelings.
"Mom, I'm not in a hurry to get married! I want to spend the rest of my life with you!" Jiang Yaojie said, blushing.
Seeing Jiang Yaojie's expression, Jiang Ling's heart skipped a beat. Jiang Yaojie's current behavior was a bit strange. Before, when Zhao Erleng's wife was going to introduce Jiang Yaojie to potential partners, Jiang Yaojie seemed very resistant. But now, when Jiang Ling talked about getting married, Jiang Yaojie actually blushed.
Thinking of this, a bad feeling crept into Jiang Ling's heart. She swallowed hard and tentatively asked, "Yaojie, do you have someone you like?"
"No...no...no, Mother..." Jiang Yaojie's face turned even redder, and he stammered somewhat flusteredly.
Looking at Jiang Yaojie's expression, Jiang Ling became even more certain of her thoughts, but she didn't expose him. Instead, she said softly, "Okay, if you don't have someone, you don't have to. But if you really meet someone you like, you have to tell your mother."
"Really?" Jiang Yaojie was secretly delighted, but his expression returned to normal the next second. Jiang Ling nodded silently. Then she changed the subject, "Yaojie, do you think we should build the house first, or buy the land first?"
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