I traveled back to ancient times, but I was able to lie down and relax.

"Oh, what method is it?"

The village head was very curious, and he really didn't want to escalate the situation to the point of searching more than a dozen people over a small bracelet.

"It's actually very simple, just have everyone wash their hands. The bracelets are of poor quality and have some dye, so after touching them, your hands will get some color on them, which is not easy to wash off. Now, everyone's hands are dusty from working, so after washing them off, whoever has the color on their hands is the one who will be ...

Liu Nanjia said.

Liu Anhe and Liu Song, who were standing nearby, were initially very nervous when they heard that they were going to be searched. But when they heard Liu Nanjia say to wash their hands, they relaxed, since there was no color on the things they were carrying.

At the same time, they didn't understand what Liu Nanjia was trying to do. Didn't she just hint at money?

Because they didn't expect the village head to come, and because they were confident that Liu Nanjia and the others wouldn't dare to actually search so many people on the spot, they insisted on not handing it over earlier. Once they got home, it would be theirs, and no one would have any evidence to say that they stole it.

Could it be that such a bracelet was actually taken by someone else?

While the father and son were still wondering, Liu Yanxi and Song Chen arrived, each carrying a wooden basin.

Uncle Wang went first, saying, "I'll wash first. We haven't done anything wrong, so even a body search is fine."

After washing, Liu Yanxi pretended to check Uncle Wang's hands and said, "Uncle Wang is fine."

Seeing that Wang Dahe, the foreman, was so cooperative, and since they hadn't actually brought anything, the others readily washed their hands and were then inspected.

At this moment, Song Chen went to Liu Anhe and asked him to wash his hands.

Although Liu Anhe knew he had no ink on his hands, he was still flustered because he had done something wrong, and he hesitated to wash them.

Song Chen urged, "Please don't take up everyone's time, everyone needs to wash."

The village head also noticed this and said in a deep voice, "If you don't want to wash your hands, we'll search you. Nan Jia has already considered your feelings by proposing this method. Why are you still dragging your feet? Do you have something to hide?"

Liu Song quickly smoothed things over: "No, no, how could that be? Anhe, you don't have any paint on you, what are you afraid of?"

"Yes Yes."

Liu Anhe then went to wash his hands. After washing them, he checked himself and, finding nothing unusual, breathed a sigh of relief.

But before he could relax, he saw that Song Chen, instead of checking his hands like he would check others, was staring at the basin of water in front of him.

Then Song Chen said, "It was him who took the things."

Upon hearing this, everyone else turned to look.

Liu Song also got anxious and pointed at Song Chen, saying, "What are you saying, brat? What did my Anhe take? He didn't have anything! Speaking of which, you're the outsider here, a kid of unknown origin. What right do you have to spout nonsense!"

Liu Nanjia and the village head also arrived. Liu Nanjia retorted directly, "Uncle, what are you saying? This is our family. Whether we're outsiders or not is for us to decide. Besides, Song Chen, as our distant cousin, even with a leg injury, managed to snatch my little sister back from human traffickers. And what about you, Uncle? We're such close relatives, yet Auntie could so heartlessly sell Sirou to human traffickers. What does it matter whether we're outsiders or not?"

Liu Song was speechless after being rebuked, and cursed Fang Shi in his heart for being such an idiot. She couldn't even get things done properly. If she had succeeded that time, they wouldn't be here now.

But we can't just back down: "You said you wanted to see who had the color on their hands, but Anhe didn't have any. So why do you say he took it?"

“Yes, yes, my hands aren’t red at all,” Liu Anhe said, his face also flushed.

Song Chen also spoke up, "It's not that there's color on your hands, it's the water you used to wash them."

So everyone looked into the basin. At first, they didn't see anything unusual. Then Liu Yanxi brought over a basin of water that others had used to wash their hands. When they compared the water, they noticed that there seemed to be a layer of something floating on the water that Liu Anhe had used to wash his hands.

"What is this?" someone asked, puzzled.

“It’s oil,” Liu Nanjia explained. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell the truth earlier. What I lost wasn’t actually a bracelet, but silver.”

"Silver?" The others started to discuss.

"Why didn't you say so earlier? You made us search for the bracelet for so long," someone complained.

"So I apologize to everyone now. Actually, we saw who took it a long time ago, but we just wanted to save face for him, so we said it was a bracelet. I also hinted several times that if he would come and return it to me when everyone was looking for it, we would not pursue the matter further. It's just a pity that we didn't get to." Liu Nanjia shrugged.

“We’re in the fried chicken business, and we’re always frying chicken in oil. So the money we receive will naturally get greasy. If you touch the money and then wash your hands, the water will also be greasy. Look, it’s like this basin of water.”

"Moreover, oil stains cannot be washed off with just water." Song Chen grabbed Liu Anhe, who was trying to shrink back behind the others, and raised his hand. "His hands still have oil on them, which is different from those that haven't been touched by oil."

The village head went over, took his hand, and touched it; it did indeed feel a little sticky.

"Hand over the silver right now! You're such a grown man, yet you steal, especially your own younger siblings' silver. What a disgrace!" The village head's voice was filled with anger. There wasn't a single member of the Liu family's eldest branch who was easy to deal with.

"I...I didn't," Liu Anhe stammered, terrified.

"Cousin, you don't have any now, but you've already given the money to Uncle, haven't you?" Liu Nanjia chuckled. "Uncle, are you going to just take it out now, or do you want to wash your hands and let everyone see?"

Liu Song clutched the silver in his pocket, his face contorted with bravado, and said, "Liu Nanjia, is this how you talk to your elders?"

Liu Nanjia rolled her eyes. This uncle of hers always stayed in the background and never stepped forward. His fighting ability was not even as good as Fang's. All he knew was to use his seniority to intimidate people.

The village head shouted, "Hurry up and hand it over! If Nan Jia can't talk, I can talk, right? Do you want us to search you?"

Liu Song still tried to argue: "I have money on me, it's my own! What, you're allowed to have it, but no one else can?"

"It seems Uncle didn't understand what I just said. There's oil on our silver. Does Uncle's silver have oil on it too? That can't be right. When we were at Uncle's house, we didn't use much oil when cooking. How could the silver have oil stains?"

"Yes, Nan Jia uses so much oil because he's doing business. We ordinary families wouldn't dare to use it, let alone have money in our pockets. Who among us doesn't carefully hide their money? We wouldn't leave it in the kitchen," Uncle Wang chimed in.

The village headman lost his patience and gave a wink to the other workers, telling them to hold Liu Song down. He then went over himself and took out a silver coin worth a little over two qian from Liu Song's pocket. The coin was shiny with oil.