Transmigrated into a seven-year-old child, my fate is in my own hands, not in the heavens.

"Grandmother, please don't plead for them. Who told them to do such a thing? They won't learn their lesson if they aren't taught a lesson."

Zhao Lian smiled slyly, then went around behind them and changed the knot of the rope into a slipknot, warning them, "Don't move around, the more you move, the tighter the knot I tied will be."

"Waaah, please let us go, grandma!" The lewd man, too afraid to move, started to cry.

I never imagined that this pretty girl could be so cruel.

"Who gave you permission to plot against us? We'll teach you a lesson you won't learn!" Jia Ye mimicked Zhao Lian's tone, righteously rebuking the men.

"Hehe~"

Zhao Lian smiled and said, "Alright, family business, let's go!" Zhao Lian dusted herself off and ignored the wailing of the group, then started walking forward.

"Hey~ come back quickly, come back! Waaaaah~"

As Zhao Lian and her group walked further and further away, the lewd man was filled with despair. The July sun was so scorching; they would either starve to death or be burned to death.

"Stop arguing, let's think of a way to untie this rope." The bearded man was calmer than the lewd man.

"It's all your fault. If you hadn't come up with this terrible idea, we wouldn't be tied up here right now," the lewd man began to complain.

"Try saying that again, or I'll slap you!" The stubble-faced man glared at her.

Another man kindly advised, "You two stop arguing. What's the point of arguing at a time like this? Brother is right, let's figure out how to untie the rope." As he spoke, the man closest to the knot tried to bend his hand to reach the knot.

He had already tried it last night, but it didn't work at all. He's going to try again now that it's getting light.

The lewd man panicked: "Hey~ don't move! The more you move, the tighter the rope will become. Let's wait for someone to come and help us untie it."

The bearded man rolled his eyes: "Are you stupid? We've run out of food. If they start treating us like food, we'll be like meat on a chopping block, completely at their mercy. We'd better pray that no one sees us."

"No way, bro, don't scare me." The lewd man was immediately frightened and looked around.

He was slightly relieved to find that the tree that had tied them up was at the foot of the mountain, not near the roadside, and that he would not have noticed it if he hadn't come this far.

The bearded man glared at him coldly: "Better safe than sorry. Stop yelling and shut your mouth."

The lewd man thought it made sense; they had nothing to eat right now, and they didn't want to be targeted for food. So he immediately shut up.

They didn't know how much time had passed, but the sun began to rise higher and higher, making their vision blurry and their throats parched.

The lewd man kept swallowing, until he felt like he had no saliva left. He tried for a long time, but his hand just couldn't reach the knot.

"Looks like we're going to be dried out like shriveled leaves, waaaaah~ I don't want to die." The lewd man began to despair.

The bearded man realized that the rope wasn't getting tighter the more he moved it, as Zhao Lian had said, and immediately calmed down: "Let's wait a little longer. Everyone shut up. That girl is right. Once we lose some weight from hunger, the rope will naturally loosen."

The men were on the verge of tears. How long would this sunbathing take? They might end up dried up like mummies.

Another hour passed, and the sun was so intense that their heads felt like they were about to explode. The bearded man started to lose his patience and told the two men to keep reaching for the knot to see if they could untie it.

"Brother, you look like you've really lost weight after being in the sun for so long; this rope has actually loosened a bit."

To the sleazy man's surprise, after sunbathing for an hour or two, they really did seem to have lost weight. Their hands were no longer tied as tightly as before, and they could reach the knot.

Overjoyed at this discovery, he burst into tears: "Brother, I can reach the knot now!"

The bearded man nodded. "That's good. You'd better be careful and see how the knot is tied. Don't let it get tighter and tighter later."

"Brother, the knot wasn't even tied tight! That brat tricked us!" The lewd man cried tears of joy.

Recalling Zhao Lian's actions of going around to the back of the tree, the stubble-faced man understood: "It seems that the little girl loosened our knots and left us a way out."

Once the rope was completely untied, the men collapsed limply to the ground.

The feeling of being on the verge of death was terrifying. Now that I've been brought back to life, I feel like I'm alive again.

"Waaaaah~ I don't have to die anymore!" The lewd man burst into tears.

The bearded man glared at him: "Look at you, shut your mouth, it's annoying to hear you."

"Brother, don't curse me. I don't believe you weren't scared just now," the sleazy man retorted.

The bearded man was also scared, but he refused to admit it. To cover up his guilty conscience, he put on a straight face and said to his godfather, "Alright, let's rest for a while and see if we can find something to eat so we can continue our journey."

After resting for a while, the group finally regained some strength and helped each other to their feet.

……

Zhao Lian and her group didn't know how long they had been walking, but the sun was getting stronger and stronger, making everyone's heads buzz.

Luo Xiu couldn't help but worry about the men tied to the tree, and immediately asked Zhao Lian, "Third Miss, with such a bright sun, won't those men be dried into mummies?"

Zhao Di chimed in from the side, "They deserve to be dried up like mummies. Who told them to have designs on us?"

Zhao Lian's lips curled up. These men weren't fools. If she guessed correctly, they should have untied their ropes by now.

Seeing Zhao Lian's expression, Qiao Feng couldn't help but ask, "Zhao Lian, I know you won't be heartless and let them continue to be exposed to the sun like this, right? To be honest, did you do something behind the tree just now?"

Seeing everyone's puzzled expressions, Zhao Lian didn't keep them in suspense and smiled slyly: "Oh, alright, alright, I won't hide it from you. Actually, I just changed that knot into a slipknot. If they're not too stupid, they've probably already untied it by now."

Upon hearing this, Yan Guihua was immediately relieved: "That's good! Actually, these people are quite pitiful. They're just trying to make a living and have no other choice. If they weren't desperate, they wouldn't have ended up like this."

Li Chunhua had already lost one hundred taels of silver, and it felt like her heart was being torn apart.

Now that he heard what they said, he was naturally unhappy and immediately exploded: "You two are all so kind-hearted, we didn't steal your things, of course you're going to say nice things!"

Yan Guihua stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at Li Chunhua: "Alright, Li Chunhua, didn't Zhaolian bring this back for you? You didn't even say thank you, and you're still giving me that sullen look!"

As she spoke, Yan Guihua turned to look at Qiao Tai with a half-smile on her face: "Mr. Qiao, I don't know if you like to hear stories, but I have a story to tell. I wonder if you would be interested in hearing it?"

Yan Guihua was furious. She had put up with Li Chunhua for so long, but Li Chunhua really thought this was the Qiao family mansion and everyone had to be subservient to her.