The aroma of cooking filled the house: I sent my eldest brother to become the Grand Secretary.

Inside the Xin'an County government office...

Aunt Li and the troublemakers knelt on the ground trembling, while the bailiffs stood imposingly on either side, holding water and fire sticks.

The county magistrate, dressed in his official robes, sat in the hall.

The magistrate looked at the kneeling crowd below and slammed his gavel down.

The crisp, resounding sound of the gavel made them all tremble.

Old Wang and his group were from the same village. The men lowered their heads in fear and silently discussed what to do.

We looked at each other, both wondering how to get out of this mess.

Suddenly, the county magistrate's questioning voice came from above them, "Did you all hear what Miss Shen Cao just said?"

The group cautiously looked up. "We commoners heard you all," they said, their voices trembling with a hint of guilt.

What the girl said was completely different from what they had heard. What they had heard was that if they went to the docks to set up a food stall, they would have to pay "protection money" every day.

Moreover, the protection fee is collected by the Tiger Head Gang. Would they dare not pay it?

They also heard that the protection fee was one hundred coins a day, and they could only earn less than one hundred coins a day at most. This did not include their capital. After paying the protection fee, the remaining money was barely enough to break even.

This doesn't mean that a day's work was wasted.

Each of them has elderly parents and young children to support; their entire family depends on them to earn money for food and a living.

They hadn't planned to cause trouble today, but someone said that the girl had managed to get close to the county magistrate because of her looks.

They came up with this idea to collect their money.

They grew angrier the more they thought about it, and just then they saw the girl chatting and laughing with someone. They couldn't stand it, and that's how that thing happened.

But they didn't throw the stone; they just wanted to get an explanation from her for doing such a thing.

You have to understand, that girl has the county magistrate as her backer; they wouldn't dare do that even if they had a lot of guts.

Moreover, they have elderly parents and young children to support; they cannot afford the consequences of doing such a thing.

Later, they heard that the girl was the young manager of Shen's restaurant.

They knew Shen's Restaurant all too well; the food there was not only delicious but also very affordable.

Some of them had even eaten there, and at the time they thought that if they had that skill, they would never have trouble making money.

Every time someone comes to buy food from my stall, they complain that the food is not good. If it weren't for the fact that Shen's restaurant is too crowded, they would definitely eat there.

After hearing what that girl said today, several of them were eager to try it out.

But now that something like this has happened, I don't know if they'll even let me go.

"Did you understand what Miss Shen Cao said?"

The group looked at each other, paused for a moment, and then nodded.

"Now that you understand, then today's events are just a misunderstanding."

"This is your fault, do you have any objections?"

"We commoners dare not object!"

"Very well!" The magistrate slammed his gavel again. "Since you have no objections, then I ask you, was there someone behind today's events instigated?"

This question startled them. Was it a provocation?

Thinking about it carefully, they were doing well with their stall today, and it seems that some people started coming to their stall to chat.

As they chatted, the conversation drifted to the docks, with them subtly implying that they would be charged rent in the future and that the docks would be deprived of their livelihood.

The implication was that the girl was the culprit behind the whole thing.

They looked at each other, then their gaze finally settled on Aunt Li.

It seems that it was this aunt who started gossiping about them.

Aunt Li felt a pang of panic when she saw everyone staring at her, but then she remembered that their words were unsubstantiated, so she pretended to calm down.

However, the county magistrate sitting above saw their interaction clearly, and he looked at the person who had been hiding behind others from the beginning.

"You! Raise your head."

Aunt Li was startled when she saw the county magistrate pointing at her. She didn't want to look up, but she had no choice.

The magistrate stared at the woman, feeling that her appearance was somewhat familiar, but he couldn't quite place her.

The advisor beside him gave him a few words of advice.

“Magistrate, this is the mother of your former fourth concubine. They even invited you to Stone Village before.”

The magistrate looked at her carefully and remembered that it was this old woman.

It was because of their instigation that he almost offended the Shen family.

He didn't expect this old woman to dare to cause trouble.

He couldn't help but feel that divorcing his fourth concubine was a wise move.

"So it was you!" The county magistrate said through gritted teeth.

"Was it you, old woman, who stirred up trouble today?"

Upon hearing this, Aunt Li trembled with fear, stammering, "This woman...this woman is innocent!" She could barely speak.

She vehemently denied it.

The others seemed to have remembered. "Reporting to you, sir, it was her. She came to my stall and insisted on saying those things to me. I listened to her and that's why I wanted to go and ask Miss Shen for an explanation."

"Yes, it's her. She said she saw the Shen family girl chatting and laughing with someone, and she dragged us to find her."

The group started talking all at once, sharing what they could remember.

Aunt Li was so frightened that she lay on the ground, her face pale. "My...my lord, please investigate! How could I dare?" She couldn't admit it; if she did, she would be finished.

Just then, someone walked in and said that they had found evidence.

The magistrate ordered his men to bring up the evidence.

When Aunt Li saw the evidence on the tray, her heart nearly jumped into her throat.

But she would never admit it.

However, the man had no intention of letting her go. "Reporting to my lord, this is the murder weapon used to attack Miss Shen earlier."

"If you look closely, you can see that there is still flour stuck to the stone."

"I believe that by carefully examining the hands and pockets of these people, we can surely find out who threw the stone."

The county magistrate nodded and ordered, "You, go and check it out."

The constables quickly checked on Aunt Li, and at that moment, her anxiety completely died.

Because the constables found flour in her hands and pockets.

The others were punished with five strokes of the cane and released on the spot for causing a disturbance.

Aunt Li was punished with ten strokes of the cane for throwing stones at people and was then imprisoned.

Shen Cao sat quietly in the chair, listening intently to the clerk's retelling.

As the words from the advisor's mouth continued to flow, her expression gradually became complicated, sometimes surprised, sometimes regretful, and finally turned into a soft sigh.

It turns out that Aunt Li was the one who did it!

When she recalled the details of the recent events, she felt that everything seemed to have a pattern.

Thinking about Aunt Li's current predicament, it's entirely her own fault. Everyone has to be responsible for their own actions, especially when that person wanted her dead.

After the advisor left, Shen Cao was still immersed in the news she had just heard, her mind filled with thoughts.

"Come with me," Ji Lingfeng said softly, then pulled Shen Cao towards the study without further ado.

Shen Cao obediently followed him, secretly wondering about Ji Lingfeng's intentions.