Expelled from the Duke's mansion, the fake heiress is richer than a country.

Wu Jian, accompanied by Yan Cheng'an, greeted the Huangshan County magistrate who had personally come upon hearing the news. The three of them had a long talk beside the carriage, which had been burned to ashes. No one knew what they were saying; the magistrate, however, was all solemn and obsequious.

Since the incident occurred within his jurisdiction, he was inevitably implicated.

Finally, the escort team decided to return to the magistrate's office that night to rest before heading to the capital. Yu Wanran and the other two naturally accompanied them.

This time they didn't have to ride on top of the mule cart anymore; the magistrate brought several horse-drawn carts, enough to carry both the living and the dead.

Before leaving, a young bodyguard secretly approached Yu Wanran; it was Cai Tao. He took out more than ten taels of silver and a gold hairpin wrapped in a handkerchief.

He originally planned to take it home to make his wife happy. Now, he's offering it to Yu Wanran as a way of thanking her for not telling Wu Jian what happened before.

If Wu Jian and others knew that Yu Wanran had given prior warning, but he and the dead bodyguard didn't take it seriously and even insulted Yu Wanran.

He will not only lose his job at the security escort agency, but he may even be severely punished by the agency!

Keep in mind that this resulted in the loss of dozens of lives! The enraged families of the victims would tear him apart alive.

Yu Wanran's decision not to expose him can be considered a great favor to him. For this, Cai Tao was deeply grateful and did not hesitate to give all the money he had to express his gratitude.

Yu Wanran didn't take his money, but coldly said, "You should use this money to comfort the families of the dead and injured. Everyone makes mistakes. I hope you won't be so blindly confident and judge people by their appearance in the future!"

Cai Tao was filled with shame.

“Miss Yu’s advice is absolutely right! I will certainly be more careful with my words and actions in the future…”

Yu Wanran ignored him and turned to get into the car with her family.

Cai Tao, his heart heavy, put the silver and gold hairpin back in his pocket, when a slap flew from his back, nearly knocking his soul out of his body.

One of the bodyguards looked at Yu Wanran's back with a strange expression, then patted Cai Tao's shoulder heavily.

"Xiao Cai, the chief镖师 (bodyguard/escort) is calling us to assemble. What are you dawdling about?"

He said with a half-smile, "You have a fiancée, don't get any ideas you shouldn't have! Even if she's a fallen phoenix, it's not up to us uncouth folks to covet her."

Besides, that Miss Yu is now a person respected by all the bodyguards in the escort agency!

Cai Tao's face turned pale as he suppressed his inner panic: "Brother Ma, what nonsense are you talking about..."

Looking back at the rumbling departing vehicles, he dragged his heavy steps and followed behind the bodyguard.

Inside the car, the three members of the Yu family and the two people from Ruicaotang looked at each other in bewilderment.

Yan Cheng'an, his hand on his waist, had been slumped against Xiao Ze, looking half-dead a moment ago; but the next moment, as the Yu family father and daughter boarded the car, he immediately straightened his back and maintained his elegant demeanor.

Xiao Ze rolled his eyes inwardly.

His second son is the kind of person who's so concerned with saving face that he'd rather suffer than admit it!

Yu Wanran looked at the master and servant with a puzzled expression.

The other party is clearly of high status and is the most important person in this escort mission, so why did the magistrate arrange for them to be in the same carriage? Could it be... that Wu Jian said something, and the magistrate intentionally asked her to protect the other party along the way?

Yu Man and Yu Wenbin felt awkward and unsure of what to do in front of the dashing and refined Young Master Yan. The sleeves and trouser legs they tore off to cover their dark wrists and ankles were covered in mud and blood.

Although Young Master Yan's clothes didn't seem very clean, it was their first time riding in a carriage with a powerful and wealthy person, and they felt extremely awkward.

After a while, the carriage started moving.

Yan Cheng'an had Xiao Ze lower a partition against the window wall to create a small table between the two sides, and then placed the large blue cloth bag from the seat on it.

Most of their luggage, along with the carriage, was burned. This bag of dry rations was specially sent by the county magistrate.

Yan Cheng'an personally unpacked the package and found several boxes of exquisite pastries and two water sacs inside.

He pushed out the two best-looking boxes and presented them to the Yu family father and daughter with genuine politeness.

"Uncle Yu, Brother Yu, Miss Yu, you must be hungry! Here, have some snacks to tide you over!"

The three, who had just finished eating rough flatbread, glanced at the various flower-shaped pastries and small buns topped with red plum petals in the box. They were all round, chubby, and short, like an army being inspected, and their stomachs were rumbling with hunger again.

"No, you're welcome!"

Yu Man hurriedly waved his hand: "Young Master Yan, you can eat by yourselves. We just ate."

I got a ride in their car and even ate their snacks. How could I possibly accept that?

Yan Cheng'an smiled gently as he looked at Yu Wanran: "It's alright, this was sent by the magistrate of Huangshan County. He's being a good host, so we might as well eat it."

As he spoke, he took the box of pastries that Yu Man had pushed back and sent it to the Yu family again.

The carriage was silent for a moment.

The three members of the Yu family stared wide-eyed at Yan Cheng'an, who appeared well-mannered but whose words were completely unrelated to the image of a noble young master.

For a moment, Yu Man and his son felt a sense of closeness to each other.

When Yan Cheng'an placed the paper-wrapped pastries into their hands, Yu Man happily accepted them, finding this young master Yan to be truly approachable.

Yu Wanran and Yu Wenbin both accepted the snacks the other brought. With food and drinks, conversation naturally began at the dinner table.

Xiaoze sighed, "It's been quite a while since I've had any honey cloud cake from the capital! The ones from this small town are still not quite up to par."

Yan Cheng'an secretly rubbed his waist.

"You're a boy, yet you like sweets like a girl, it's shameful!"

Xiao Ze glanced at him sideways: "Every time I buy it, I've never seen you eat less, young master?"

Listening to the two of them expose each other's shortcomings, Yu Man laughed until his face was full of wrinkles. It turned out that even noblemen were just like them, human beings.

"It's normal to like something sweet! Who doesn't like to drink it? In our village, we only serve a bowl of brown sugar water during festivals or when distinguished guests come to visit."

So the conversation drifted off-topic. Yan Cheng'an asked Yu Man about his life in the countryside, and about taxes and corvée labor.

Yu Wanran felt that this Young Master Yan seemed to be on an incognito visit.

Fortunately, Yu Man hadn't completely lost his mind. He didn't utter a single word about slandering the Duke's mansion or local officials.

Living a hard life burdened by heavy taxes is one thing. But offending the powerful and wealthy can risk the extermination of your entire family.

We ate a whole bunch of snacks and miscellaneous dishes, and the conversation was almost dead when the carriage finally arrived in Huangshan County.

Yan Cheng'an and Xiao Ze were respectfully welcomed into the inner office by the magistrate of Huangshan County and were given heavy guard protection. The Yu family and the escort agency personnel were arranged to stay at a nearby inn.

Before leaving, Wu Jian cupped his hands to Yu Wanran and said, "Miss Yu, our escort agency needs to reorganize and arrange manpower. We apologize for the inconvenience of waiting for you at the inn for another day."

Yu Wanran nodded. It was remarkable that the escort agency could continue its journey just one day after such a major incident and so many deaths.

However, they had nothing to do for the next few hours, and they couldn't leave the inn because the gate was guarded by the yamen runners, which made it a bit tough.

Yu Man, worried about her belongings, asked, "Ranran, our things have been sealed up by the government. Can we return them before we leave the day after tomorrow?"

Although the inn provided free food and lodging, I still felt uneasy having nothing in my hands. Luckily, I kept my money hidden close to my body; otherwise, I would have been worried to death!

In the eyes of the villagers, the officials were more ferocious than tigers.