After transmigrating, he supported his family by working at a garbage dump.

The opportunity for promotion vanished into thin air. Under Wang Xiucai's reassurance, Constable Chen said he didn't mind, but he didn't really think so.

He thought it was a cooked duck, but the duck hadn't even been plucked. He was slapped several times by the duck's wings, losing face completely. Naturally, he wasn't going to get over it so quickly.

Now, after listening to the three young people and figuring things out, I realized it might be another flower, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

The heart that had been in my throat just moments before settled back down, but then, the anger that had been building up inside me for almost half a month suddenly surged up again.

Last time, when they tried to frame the dumpling seller, the flowers in Old Lady Wang's bag suddenly and mysteriously disappeared, causing the whole plan to fail.

Grandma Wang said she didn't know what was going on, which caused him to miss a good opportunity.

He and Zhang Xiaolin had never really crossed paths before. The last time they met was only twice by Wang Xiucai, who introduced them to each other.

He didn't even know what Zhang Xiaolin did, let alone understand his personality.

Although he wasn't a good person either, at least he could tell good from evil.

And he could tell at a glance that Zhang Xiaolin was no gentleman.

Sure enough, upon hearing the statements of the men, Officer Chen's not-so-bright mind came up with some illogical clues, and he secretly made a guess.

Could it be that Zhang Xiaolin coveted the flower's medicinal properties and wanted to keep it for himself to do business with?

He became even angrier and slapped his hand angrily!

When Wang Xiucai asked him for help, he promised to get rid of Hu Da, this stumbling block.

Who knew that after so much time had passed, Hu Da still hadn't solved the problem, and even the idea he finally came up with failed.

Looking back now, the idea at the time was not wrong. The reason why the plan failed must be due to the ignorance of Zhang Xiaolin!

Thinking about this, he couldn't help but wonder why Wang Xiucai insisted on helping Zhang Xiaolin, which ruined the plan. He was really stupid. It seemed that this Wang fellow wasn't a smart person either.

Come to think of it, otherwise why would he have fallen for his great-uncle's daughter?

Officer Chen shuddered at the thought of the second young lady and couldn't help but shiver.

Officer Chen's thoughts slowly drifted off course. His two subordinates noticed his sudden silence.

His face turned red and green alternately, his eyebrows rising and falling. The two exchanged a glance and both understood.

That's how their boss thinks, though what he comes up with is never anything reliable.

Zhao Pang is just as fat as Constable Chen, but a head taller. He looks dull and simple-minded on the surface, but he is actually a very opinionated person.

He tentatively asked, "Boss, what do we do now?"

The day his boss picked the flower was Zhao Pang's shift guarding the area. If the investigation had started right then and there, he would definitely have been implicated.

Although Hu Da is not here now, he will definitely start investigating when he returns, and he will not be able to escape being implicated.

Although their leader had repeatedly promised to cover for him, protect him, and prevent anyone from finding out.

However, he also knew what kind of person his boss was, so this sounded a bit dubious.

Now, whenever people talk about this flower, Zhao Pang becomes like a frightened bird, unable to control his fear.

At this moment, Officer Chen, who was immersed in his own "reasonable" speculation, finally came to his senses.

His eyes widened, his pupils contracted, and with a stern expression, he grabbed a token from the bamboo tube and slammed it down onto the ground below.

"Zhao Pang, Liu Zi, I hereby order you two to immediately arrest the criminal Zhang Xiaolin and bring him to justice!"

These words were spoken with a certain air of authority, but unfortunately, the air was not upright.

The five men knelt down in response, bowing their heads and agreeing. The two subordinates were cooperating, but the other three below were genuinely afraid.

Without further ado, it was just past noon, and the group immediately set off.

The other two men who were patrolling the streets had not yet returned, leaving Constable Chen to guard the yamen alone.

Led by three young men from Laoya Village, Zhao Pang and Liu Zi hurried to Laoya Village and arrived before 3:45 PM.

Looking ahead at the misty village nestled in the valley, Liu Zi pursed his lips. Although there was an official road, it was quite rugged, with ups and downs, and it was snowing, so the road was not easy to travel.

He was panting heavily, his ears were red from the cold, and his pale lips were terribly dry. He had grown up in the town and had the respectable identity of a constable in the yamen. His patrol duties were to deal with trivial matters in the town. He had never experienced such hardship before.

To his surprise, when he turned to look at Fatty Zhao beside him, he didn't even seem to be out of breath or tired, which puzzled him greatly.

"Fatty, what's wrong with you today? You usually complain about being tired after just a few steps while patrolling the streets, but you haven't said a word today."

Fatty Zhao smiled sheepishly and didn't say anything.

When someone has something on their mind, they can't wait to fly to the Zhang family and arrest Zhang Xiaolin to clear their name. They don't care if they're tired or not.

"Thank you both for your hard work, we're almost there," a young man said, trying to reassure them.

Now only two of the three young men remain; the other one has been on his way back without stopping to inform the villagers.

On the other side, in front of Zhang Xiaolin's house, the crowd dispersed during mealtime.

At Li Quanfu's urging, Zhang He took her two children to his house for lunch.

After all, the Xu family had been in the village all morning, and their home was currently without any hot soup or food.

Li Quanfu also sent the two young men who were temporarily helping to watch over the house back to eat, leaving only himself and Xu Wenjie to guard the Zhang family's door.

Li Quanfu brought some more firewood from his house and started a fire right in front of Zhang Xiaolin's house. The fire burned brightly and provided some protection from the cold wind. Xu Wenjie's cotton-padded coat, which had just been wrapped around Xu Zhuzhu, was damp at the hem and was now being dried.

But in no time at all, a crowd of onlookers gathered in front of the door, eager to know what would happen next.

A group of people gathered around the fire and started chatting, mainly about Master Zhang and Zhang Xiaolin.

As they talked, the conversation somehow turned to Xu Wenjie.

At first, everyone was a little worried. Although they were poor, they were not completely ignorant. They knew that Xu Wenjie was a scholar, not a commoner, so they were cautious in their speech.

As they chatted, they discovered that Xu Wenjie was very approachable and not arrogant at all, and his tone of voice was not domineering.

They gradually lowered their guard and developed a good impression of each other.

Because of Zhang Xiaolin's matter, Old Lady Wang, who was stuck in the crowd, had a good impression of Xu Wenjie and praised him, saying, "Everyone says that scholars are very arrogant. There is an old man in my daughter-in-law's village who can read a few words. Every time he speaks, he starts with something about kites and kites. I don't know what he is talking about! He just sounds so sour. How much more so a scholar?"

"But today, after talking with Scholar Xu, I realized that there are scholars like him in the world. Not only do they speak reasonably, but they are also approachable. It's clear that there are different kinds of scholars!"

Everyone agreed and nodded in agreement.

Xu Wenjie humbly thanked her, saying, "Grandma Wang, you flatter me. I'm just young and know a few words. It's nothing to brag about. If anyone needs my help with reading or writing letters in the future, I will definitely do my best."

Everyone laughed and agreed. They then said to Xu Wenjie, "Now that you've settled down here, you're a member of Laoya Village. If anything happens in the future, just let us know. We're all from the same village, and we'll definitely help if we can."

"After all, a close neighbor is worse than a distant relative."

Xu Wenjie smiled gratefully.

Meanwhile, Li Quanfu was filled with doubts, but unfortunately there were too many people around and he knew it wasn't the time to speak, so he felt very uncomfortable holding it in.

Xu Wenjie saw through his thoughts and tried to entice him to talk about other things, such as whether Li Quanfu had accompanied Hu Sanniang back to her parents' home recently.

Did the two of them encounter Hu Da or anything like that?

Li Quanfu shook his head. In the heavy snow, everyone stayed indoors. Although his father-in-law's house was in the next village, the roads were difficult to travel in the snow, so he didn't let Hu Sanniang go back to her parents' home.

The couple had never met Hu Da, but his wife had mentioned him a few times, saying that the snow had stopped these past two days and she wanted to go back to her parents' home to visit.

Just then, Hu Sanniang came walking from the village alleyway, carrying a small basket that was covered up tightly. It was clear that she was there to bring the two of them food.

Li Quanfu quickly stepped forward and took the basket from Hu Sanniang.

Xu Wenjie also greeted him very warmly.

"It's really kind of you, Second Sister-in-law, to bring me food in this heavy snow."

Hu Sanniang waved her hand and smiled, then exclaimed in surprise, "What's the big deal? You're quite warm here with this fire!"