Sir Song, do you want to pledge yourself to me?

Xiaoliu finally realized that he had fallen into a trap and hurriedly explained to his three masters: "Young Master Lin Liu has not been seen for a long time, so I went downstairs to check what happened. Miss Lin Er's maid said that the eldest lady was looking for the young master at the East Street teahouse for an important matter. I was afraid that I would delay the eldest lady's important matter, so I took the initiative to take the eldest lady to see the young master." Thinking that he almost got the young master into trouble due to his momentary negligence, he was ashamed and could not help but lower his head.

The Qiu sisters exchanged glances and asked with concern, "Brother, are you okay?"

Qiu Shishen smiled slightly, his expression calm, "If it weren't for Miss Ji and the second young master Ji's timely help, I would have really encountered an accident." After that, he introduced Ji Nuan's brother and sister and Qiu Shili to each other.

Qiu Shili bowed and said gratefully, "Shili thanks Miss Ji and Second Master Ji for your help."

Ji Nuan quickly returned the greeting and said modestly, "Miss Qiu, you are so polite. Now that the matter has been resolved, my second brother and I have other things to do, so I'll take my leave now."

After leaving Xunwei Tower, Ji Nuan planned to return directly to Taohua Village. As soon as she stepped out of the South City Gate, she happened to run into Village Chief Meng and his wife.

Ji Nuan smiled sweetly and greeted warmly, "Uncle Village Chief, are you in the city on business? Auntie, I heard you've been ill for quite a while. You should be well now, right?"

The village chief chuckled and replied kindly, "Nuannuan, are you going home? The weather is getting colder, and Meng Ran is about to take the autumn exam, so he's too busy to go home and get some warm clothes. So, your aunt and I brought them to him."

The village chief looked kindly at his younger generation, but his wife's face looked unhappy.

Ever since witnessing Ji Nuan's engagement, she'd been feeling a pang of pain in her heart, hiding at home, afraid to leave, fearing she'd be accused of being blind. Today, she'd finally ventured out to deliver some clothes to Meng Ran, only to run into the person she least wanted to see. Already in a bad mood, Ji Nuan's caring greetings were a mockery of her narrow-mindedness, a vexation she couldn't tolerate.

She curled her lips and denied it, "Who said I was sick? Don't listen to nonsense! I was busy at home preparing clothes and shoes for Meng Ran. Look, everything in this bundle is new. It took me a lot of thought and effort."

As usual, Ji Nuan said something nice to her, "It's good that you're not sick. I think Meng Ran will study harder after seeing your motherly love, and he will definitely pass the autumn exam."

"Of course!" The village chief's wife raised her chin, her face full of pride, as if she had already seen the official coming to report the good news, making her proud.

The village chief glanced at his wife, feeling somewhat dissatisfied with her for making such a bold statement about something that hadn't even been finalized. He said, "Okay, let's not delay Nuannuan from returning home. Let's hurry up and leave. If we delay any longer, we'll miss the oxcart back home."

"Then uncle and aunt, please hurry to the academy. I'm going home." Ji Nuan said goodbye with a smile and left.

"Why are you pretending? It's just that she got lucky and got a good marriage. Look how capable she is!" The village chief's wife whispered to herself as she watched Ji Nuan's receding back.

The village chief said angrily, "You better stop talking! The chief official of a prefecture is responsible for marking the papers and taking the exam. I think you want to ruin your son's future!"

The village head's wife's greatest source of confidence came from her son. When she heard that her son's future would be affected, she immediately suppressed her jealous expression and said awkwardly, "I didn't say anything. Please don't make things so serious."

The village chief had been married to her for twenty years and knew her temperament well. If she could change, she would have done so long ago. He snorted helplessly and walked away.

Ji Nuan stepped into the house, expecting the kisses from her parents and greetings from her brother and sister-in-law, but she was greeted by Uncle Ji and his family crying in the house.

She sat down next to Ji's mother with a gloomy look on her face and asked in confusion, "What happened to uncle and the others? They all came to our house crying. What's going on?"

Mother Ji hugged Ji Nuan, rubbed her shoulders with regret, and sighed: "Alas... Ji He is gone, it's so pitiful."

Ji Nuan thought to herself, "As expected." Pretending to not care about the bad luck of the eldest family coming to their house to cry, she asked with empathy, "Wasn't she doing her labor service in Lin County? How could she be gone so suddenly? Is there a mistake? Have you found out? It's so sudden..."

Ji's father responded with a sigh: "The news is true. The yamen runners just came to inform your uncle." Although he no longer recognized Ji He, he was really sad to hear the news of Ji He's sudden death.

The eldest aunt was crying breathlessly. When she heard someone talking, she realized that it was Ji Nuan who had returned. She got up from the ground, rushed to Ji Nuan, grabbed her arm and asked, "Ji Nuan, explain to me clearly, what is going on? Didn't you say that if we don't contact Xiao He, Xiao He will be fine? You have to compensate my Xiao He, compensate my daughter!" After that, the eldest aunt burst into tears again.

Ji Feng also wiped his eyes. Although he disliked Ji He, he didn't want her to die at such a young age. He agreed, "Yeah, Nuannuan, we didn't ask you to rescue Xiao He, nor did we reveal her whereabouts. How did she still get into trouble?"

The eldest aunt stared at him with a pair of tear-swollen eyes, tugging at Ji Nuan's hand even harder, and yelled at the top of her lungs: "Ji Nuan, tell me, what is going on? Don't you want Xiao He to come back at all, so you deliberately frightened us like that? How can you be so cruel! You caused Xiao He to die tragically, and we didn't even get to see him for the last time!"

The other people in the first house also cast unfriendly looks at Ji Nuan, waiting for her to give an explanation.

Ji's mother originally felt sympathy for her aunt who had to lose her son, but when she saw that the whole family was putting the blame on her daughter, she immediately became unhappy.

She slapped away her aunt's hand that was holding Ji Nuan, looked at Uncle Ji and asked, "Brother, are you going to blame Nuan Nuan too? You know, Nuan Nuan said from the beginning that she had no power to influence the case decided by the government, and the most she could do was to get some information. What gave you the illusion that as long as you wanted to save Ji He, you could easily rescue her?"

Uncle Ji was choked by Ji's mother's question and couldn't utter a word for a long time.

The eldest aunt would not think it was her family's fault. She continued, "Isn't Ji Nuan the prefect's fiancée? How can she not do such a thing? Then she said that the person behind the scenes wanted to silence her. Was she deliberately trying to stop us from trying to save Xiao He?"

Ji's mother sarcastically said, "Still thinking of a solution? What solution can you have? Ji He had been locked up for quite some time, and there was no movement from you. How come, now that he's gone, you've thought of a solution?"

Everyone knew the situation in the eldest house, and their own family members had nothing to say, but the eldest aunt was relentless, "Don't worry about whether we had a way or not, it is a fact that Ji Nuan stopped us from rescuing Xiao He. Oh, my poor daughter, why did you go ahead of me!" As she said this, the eldest aunt thought about it and started crying sadly again.