The man's face darkened: "This is utter nonsense! Don't you even know what time it is? You're always out there fooling around; you'll die from a woman's body sooner or later!"
"Send someone to find the Second Master. Have someone keep a close watch on him these next few days and try to keep him out of the house!"
"Yes, sir!"
Lin Licheng led his servants to the backyard, where Zhilan had just woken up in a side room.
A feeling of powerlessness washed over her. Zhilan tried to raise her hand, but found she had no strength.
All I could do was open my eyes and survey this unfamiliar environment.
She only remembered receiving a letter from her mistress last night, going to an inn, and smelling a strange fragrance as soon as she went up to the second floor. After that, she knew nothing more until now.
After realizing her current situation, Zhilan quickly calmed down.
Just as I was starting to think, the door to the room opened.
The glaring light made her squint, and when she saw who it was, she felt that the person looked somewhat familiar.
Zhilan pursed her lips, looking at the newcomer with a wary expression.
When the other person saw that she was awake, he smiled first, and then said politely, "I'm sorry, young lady, for inviting you here in this way. It was really unavoidable, please forgive me."
Zhilan sneered: "If you can resort to such underhanded methods, what's the point of talking about forgiveness? Don't be a wolf in sheep's clothing. Since you've already done such despicable things, just be direct. What is your purpose?"
Despite Zhilan's words, Lin Licheng maintained a polite smile, as if her words had no effect on him.
"Since you're so straightforward, young lady, then I won't keep you in suspense any longer. Are the people from Tianfu Inn from the capital? Is Consort Rong among them?"
Zhilan remained expressionless, but her heart skipped a beat: Who exactly is this person? Not only did they specifically ask for Miss's name, but they also knew about Miss's past identity?
"Who exactly are you? What is your purpose?"
Lin Licheng smiled dismissively: "Consort Rong took so many things from the Lin family without asking, which is theft. If she returns them all, the Lin family will not pursue the matter, and we can resolve this issue peacefully."
The Lin family? Which Lin family? The family of Consort Shu?
When did Miss take anything from the Lin family?
Could it be that the secret of that treasure has been discovered?
Knowing the seriousness of the matter, Zhilan kept quiet no matter how Lin Licheng questioned her.
Seeing her like this, Lin Licheng's eyes welled up with emotion, but he left without saying a word.
As Zhilan watched the door close, a wave of weakness washed over her again, and she closed her eyes.
After Lin Licheng left the room, he immediately became gloomy, a complete different person from his warm demeanor just moments before.
"If she won't listen to reason, she'll have to suffer the consequences! How dare a mere maid be so defiant? I'll see just how tough she is! When the Second Master returns, tell him to play around as he pleases, just don't kill her. I still have a use for her!"
The servant replied, "Yes, sir!"
"Furthermore, send men to keep a close watch on the people at Tianfu Inn and bring them all back! I want to see if they can escape my grasp in Nanjiang City!"
As soon as Lin Licheng stepped out of the backyard, the steward came to report: "Master, it's time to distribute porridge again. The porridge shed is asking why the food hasn't been delivered yet."
Upon hearing this news, Lin Licheng's face immediately darkened even further.
As the granary of the Yan Kingdom, Nanjiang City naturally had excellent grain storage.
After the influx of refugees into Nanjiang City, in order to establish his image and win the hearts of the people, he kept opening granaries and distributing porridge for half a year.
Originally, the capital city said they would provide support, but the final message they received was that Empress Zhang's faction was unwilling to take even a single grain of rice.
Consort Lin had no choice but to ask her family to step in and take this opportunity to gain a good reputation so as to stand up to Empress Zhang's faction.
The biggest disaster wasn't that the imperial court didn't intervene; the biggest disaster was that the Lin family's granary was emptied overnight, leaving them with problems even about food and clothing, let alone being able to support Nanjiang City and help Lin Shufei gain fame.
The Lin family initially believed that the Zhang family was behind it. However, after retreating to the palace and confronting the Zhang family, they learned that more than one family in the capital had been robbed, with the Lin and Zhang families being the most severely affected.
Because the Lin family head was more cunning, they were slightly better off than the Zhang family, who were truly left with nothing.
When they have a common enemy, they can be friends.
After discussing it, everyone realized that apart from Consort Rong and all the other concubines in the harem, and apart from the Duke of Zhenguo's family, all the other noble families who were supposed to enter the palace had already done so.
At this time, the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion and Consort Rong, who were not present, became the prime suspects.
Knowing that they would have to pass through Nanjiang City on their way south, the two families gave Lin Licheng and his brother advance notice, instructing them to capture Consort Rong and inquire about the whereabouts of the grain and supplies.
Lin Lixuan took on the task, confidently promising that he could complete it.
Who knew that he hadn't given his men a proper explanation? Based on his past preferences, his men assumed he had taken a fancy to someone's maid or young lady again, and they simply tied Zhilan up.
Lin Licheng was furious when he found out, but after learning that the woman was Ning Yao's personal maid, he decided to try to get Zhilan to talk first.
Who knew that Zhilan was so stubborn, and now the soup kitchen was asking for food again, which was like adding fuel to the fire and making him even more annoyed.
“Go to the warehouse and get it. We’ll only give half. The City Lord’s Mansion has done more than enough in the past six months. After this porridge distribution ends, we will announce that the porridge supply in Nanjiang City is running low and we have no choice but to stop distributing porridge!”
The steward's mind flashed to the storeroom, which was crammed full, and he bowed his head and replied, "This old servant understands."
Soon, cartloads of grain were transported out of the back gate of the city lord's mansion. Upon seeing this, the refugees on the street got up and followed the grain carts.
Shen Wei stood at the window upstairs, watching the grain carts passing by on the street below.
Ning Jin came in from outside and sat down: "I've inquired about it. Every now and then, some grain is taken from the City Lord's Mansion and sent to the soup kitchen in the north of the city. It's the City Lord's Mansion and the Governor's Mansion that are distributing soup, and they've been doing it since the drought started until now without stopping."
"Today's grain is only half of what it used to be. It is said that the granaries are running out of food. Once this batch of grain is used up, the porridge distribution will end."
Shen Wei nodded: "As expected, there is no prefect. Let's pack up and go straight to the prefect's residence."
"Would it be inappropriate to go to the prefect's residence at this time?"
"If I'm not mistaken, they definitely won't get anything out of Zhilan, so their next target will be the rest of us. For safety's sake, the Prefect's residence is the most suitable place."
The group immediately packed their bags and headed to the prefect's residence.
As soon as they left, the innkeeper immediately sent someone to the city lord's mansion.
Shen Wei took out a visiting card and asked Ning Lang to knock on the door.
At first, no one opened the door, and they waited outside for a long time.
Later, someone opened the door, and upon seeing the visiting card, immediately welcomed them inside.
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