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

"It's not me! You've arrested the wrong person! It has nothing to do with me, you should arrest that old geezer inside!"

Zhang Xiaolin, who was being held down by the two men, was making a fuss.

"Whether it was you or not, we'll talk about it when we get to the yamen."

Liu Zi was annoyed by Zhang Xiaolin's nagging and said irritably.

Unfortunately, Zhang Xiaolin refused to shut up and continued to accuse others, "You surnamed Xu, you broke your promise, Mother! Please save me! I'm your own son... Old woman, if you don't help me, your family line will end!"

Seeing that Zhang Chenshi did not come out, Zhang Xiaolin began to hurl insults.

The current situation was somewhat unexpected for Xu Wenjie.

He was indeed negligent. When the three young men went to report the case, they all believed that Zhang Xiaolin was the one who did it.

He just didn't expect that when these two officials arrived at their destination and encountered other problems, they would arrest people without even asking any questions, which was really arbitrary.

Fortunately, no innocent person was wronged, which saved him from stirring up trouble in the yamen hall.

At this moment, no matter how much Zhang Xiaolin struggled, the two constables remained unmoved.

Also, because Zhang Xiaolin was too noisy, Liu Zi, annoyed by his snotty voice, casually took off Zhang Xiaolin's smelly socks and stuffed them into his own mouth, sealing it completely.

Zhang Xiaolin's eyes were watering from the smell of his own socks, and he couldn't utter a single word.

Just as she had calmed down, Zhang Chenshi sat in the room in a daze. Hearing the noise, she immediately ran over.

He grabbed Zhao Pang's leg and dragged him away, saying, "Officers, don't arrest my son, arrest me instead! I hid the things, it was me, it has nothing to do with my son!"

She cried and shouted, and soon a crowd gathered at the courtyard gate, all craning their necks to look into the courtyard, and some of them felt sorry for her.

Zhang Xiaolin couldn't make a sound; his eyes blinked, and he kept making muffled noises in his throat.

Looking into his mother's eyes, he saw the arrogance of the past gone, replaced by a look of terror and pleading for help. He was truly afraid.

The audience found it somewhat unusual to watch.

Even Zhang Xiaolin, who fears neither heaven nor earth, has moments like this.

Looking at Zhang Chenshi at his feet, Liu Zi felt a little pity, but Zhao Pang didn't care about that. He was thinking about dealing with the flower matter as soon as possible before Hu Da returned, otherwise he would definitely be the one in trouble.

Seeing his agitated expression, his sparse eyebrows furrowed together, and a hint of malice appearing in his narrow eyes squeezed out from his fleshy face.

not good!

Xu Wenjie immediately sensed something was wrong, "Sir..."

Before he could finish speaking.

Zhao Pang suddenly raised his foot and kicked Zhang Chenshi hard, but by sheer coincidence, the kick landed squarely on Zhang Chenshi's stomach.

The elderly woman was already frail, and she could hardly withstand a kick from a strong man. Zhang Chenshi left a trail in the snow in the yard as she struggled to support herself on the ground with her hands.

"Bah! You old bastard, how dare you touch your official position! It's the parents' fault if their son is not taught properly, and you, his mother, are no better. You've delayed my important business; can you take responsibility for that?"

As Zhao Pang spoke, he stepped forward menacingly, seemingly unwilling to let Zhang Chenshi go.

Zhang Chenshi groaned a few times after being kicked down, but ultimately failed to get up and collapsed to the ground.

The onlookers were shocked. They hadn't expected these two officers to be so ruthless, unlike any other officers they had ever encountered. They couldn't help but scatter.

Seeing this, Xu Wenjie quickly stepped forward to stop her, "Sir, Granny Zhang is just distressed for her son, please have mercy."

Realizing what was happening, Li Quanfu quickly chimed in, "Yes, gentlemen, we shouldn't let official business be delayed."

The villagers nearby couldn't bear it either. Apart from not knowing how to raise her son, Zhang Chenshi hadn't done anything to harm them in any substantial way. The villagers weren't so heartless as to say such kind words to her.

Even Liu Zi was stunned. He really didn't expect that Fatty Zhao would go so far this time. He also felt it was unnecessary and quickly advised, "Fatty, that's enough. We've caught everyone. Let's hurry back and report!"

Zhao Pang was stunned for a moment, and his eyes, which had been blinded by anger, cleared up in time, and he stopped in his tracks.

Taking the opportunity, Liu Zi changed the subject and asked Li Quanfu, "Where are the stolen goods now?"

Li Quanfu took off the bundle he always carried with him and carefully handed it to Liu Zi.

Liu Zi quickly opened the box, which was wrapped in layers of cloth, and handed it to Zhao Pang.

Zhao Pang looked at it carefully, met Liu Zi's gaze, and nodded seriously.

The flowers hadn't been picked for very long, so they matched the two that the government office had thrown away.

After the examination, the two men said no more, tied Zhang Xiaolin up tightly, and took him to town. No one dared to plead for him anymore.

As for the person who reported the incident or any witnesses, these two wouldn't have thought that far ahead...

Xu Wenjie also lamented that the case was handled too hastily, and wondered where Hu Da had gone.

His gaze shifted from the vanished Zhang Xiaolin and his two companions to the courtyard of the neighboring Zhang Sanye and Zhang Siye. Despite the commotion, the gates of Zhang Sanye and Zhang Siye's courtyards remained tightly shut, and not a sound could be heard. It was clear that they had truly chickened out.

Well then, this matter is now considered closed.

Everyone rushed into the courtyard to check on Zhang Chenshi's condition. Zhang Chenshi's face was pale, but she was not spitting blood, so it was probably an internal injury.

Li Quanfu and Xu Wenjie worked together to carry Zhang Chenshi into the house.

Looking at the elderly couple who were unconscious, Li Quanfu was at a loss. He didn't know what to do. "Zhang Xiaolin has been arrested by the authorities, and there's no one to take care of the couple. What can we do?"

We can't just ignore them!

Xu Wenjie pondered for a moment and said in a deep voice, "The Zhang family doesn't only have Zhang Xiaolin. There are two other Zhang families next door. It's only right and proper that they should take care of him."

After saying that, he pointed towards the courtyards of the third and fourth masters of the Zhang family next door.

Li Quanfu initially thought the same way, but looking at the two brothers, who hadn't opened the courtyard gate since the officials arrived, Li Quanfu felt it was highly unlikely that they would be allowed to take care of the couple.

"Whether it succeeds or not, it's the Zhang family's business. Brother Li should at least tell the two brothers next door, otherwise if this matter is pinned on you, it will only cause more trouble later."

Upon hearing this, Li Quanfu immediately felt that it made sense, but given the Zhang family's ancestral tradition of being unreasonable and argumentative, he had no desire to get involved with them at all.

Thinking this, Li Quanfu made a decisive move. He went straight to knock on the doors of Zhang Sanye and Zhang Siye, gave them a few instructions, and without waiting for their opinions or whether they agreed, he grabbed Xu Wenjie and ran off without looking back, leaving the two bewildered brothers staring at each other.

Actually, there was also Zhang Xiaolin's wife, Wang, but Xu Wenjie was too lazy to mention it, since that was their family's business afterward.

……

Now let's talk about Li Quanfu's family.

Xu Zhuzhu and her brother were being roasted by Zhang He next to the fire pit.

The siblings' faces turned bright red from the roasting, but that wasn't enough, so Hu San Niang brought each of the mother and her two children a large bowl of ginger soup.

Xu An didn't need Zhang He's help, but Xu Zhuzhu refused to drink it. Zhang He fed her the ginger soup while repeatedly apologizing to Hu San Niang, "Second sister-in-law, I'm so sorry, this has gone to so much trouble for you."

Zhang He felt embarrassed. She and her two children had only been there for less than half a day, and Hu San Niang had been busy running around without stopping to rest.

Hearing this, Hu Sanniang pretended to frown and said, "What great deed have I done? He Niang, you've thanked me four or five times already. I finally stopped saying thank you, so why are you apologizing again? If you say it again, I'll really get angry!"

Despite saying that, Hu San Niang's hands never stopped moving.

Hu San Niang didn't know that the secret recipe was a lie, so she genuinely believed that Zhang He was having a hard time.

Knowing that the mother and her two children had spent the morning in the snow, and that their hearts were heavy with frustration and that the cold had seeped into their bodies, they knew that if they didn't get rid of the cold properly, their bodies would definitely not be able to take it, so they dared not be careless.

Ginger soup for internal use, radish water for foot baths—we'll get them all sorted out.

Zhang He occasionally cast grateful glances at her, but following Hu San Niang's advice, she refrained from saying any more words of apology or gratitude.

At this moment, the mother and her two children were sitting in the hall. Xu Zhuzhu didn't like ginger soup, finding the taste too strong and it made her throat feel hot. Although Hu Sanniang had added a lot of sugar, it still tasted both sweet and spicy, making it even more unpleasant to drink.

She pursed her lips, and Zhang He knew what she was thinking. She didn't indulge her and said angrily, "It's fine if you don't want to drink the medicine because it's bitter, but why won't you drink the ginger soup with sugar? If you keep acting up, I'll personally feed you the medicine when we get back."

The implication is that he was fed the drink with a bitter spoon.

Xu Zhuzhu was so frightened that she quickly opened her mouth.

Hu San Niang found it cute and covered her mouth, laughing.

Just then, a head popped out from the next room. The boy licked his lips and said with a grin, "Mom, I want some ginger soup too."

Hu Sanniang glared at her son and gave him a good whack on the head.

"Instead of studying properly, you're only thinking about food and drinks. Those are for your Aunt Xu and your younger siblings to ward off the cold. You're cooped up in bed all day, craving this. Have you been lacking food or drink all the time? Go back and study now!"

Xu Zhuzhu recognized him; she had run into him when she and her mother came to deliver dumplings last time, but she couldn't recall the little boy's name. She remembered her father saying something earlier.

She didn't want to drink it either, so she said, "Auntie, give Brother Li some of mine, I'm not craving it."

Hearing this, the boy became embarrassed, scratched his head, and chuckled, saying, "No, no, I was just saying. I'm going to study, I'm going to study..."

Then, the sound of someone reading aloud could be heard coming from inside the room...