Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside

Old Ni, along with the other servants of the Wan Family, was to be conscripted as an official slave and soon to be sent to the government for sale.

As for Ni Ruiniang, since she did not marry Wan Lifang, she was not exiled with the others, and after interrogation, was released on the spot.

However, County Magistrate Xu gave her a stern rebuke: "This time you have escaped a calamity. From now on, you should behave properly. If you fail to respect yourself and commit evil deeds again, you will be severely punished!"

If it weren't for Ni Ruiniang being detained in Wan Lifang's courtyard by Yang Laoda and others for several days, and ultimately denouncing Wan Lifang at the last moment, she would have been charged for harboring a bandit.

After hearing this, Ni Ruiniang was immensely grateful, crying and kowtowing to thank County Magistrate Xu: "The girl will remember this, and thanks the Lord for not punishing me."

The family of Ni Ruiniang was watching from outside the court hall, and upon hearing this, they were not pleased but instead became extremely anxious.

Aunt Ni whispered to Uncle Ni, clutching his arm, "Head of the household, if the Wan family really has been sentenced to exile, won't our family suffer a huge loss?"

Over the years, the Ni family managed to get by thanks to Ms. Ni siphoning wealth from the Wan family to subsidize their own, yet Aunt Ni did not feel indebted to the Wan family. She even thought the Wan family wronged her own and that they had suffered a terrible loss.

"Were it not for our Ni family, could Wan Songwen have enjoyed such a comfortable life teaching without farming? Now, not only is his family sentenced to exile, but he has also implicated our Ruiniang, turning a good maiden into a ruined woman… and one who can't have children in the future. Our family has suffered a huge loss indeed."

Aunt Ni was heartbroken and cried bitterly, deeply resenting that the Wan family hadn't handled matters well. Even if you were to assist scoundrels in abducting the Gu Family girls, you should have done it properly! Now, with the matter botched, the entire family is in ruin.

"No, we must take advantage of the Wan family's property before it's sold off by the government. We should sneak into the Wan household and take some things back, otherwise we'll be at an even greater loss," Aunt Ni reminded of the sealed wealth of the Wan family.

Uncle Ni also felt that his family had suffered a great loss. Spurred by Aunt Ni's words, his thieving resolve strengthened, and he nodded: "Alright, let's hurry home and grab what we can from the Wan's property first."

The couple reached immediate agreement, and without even considering their daughter Ni Ruiniang, they rushed off in haste.

After Ni Ruiniang was released, she saw no one from her family and stood on the street like an orphan, crying bitterly before heading home by herself.

Having adjudicated these two cases, it was already past noon. County Magistrate Xu had not had a bite of food before he stood up with Ming Shaoqing and went to the gate of the government office, addressing the onlookers: "The day after tomorrow, the government will hold a hearing for the case of Zou Youlian trafficking enforced labor males. If anyone's family members were sold during their service, you may come to the government office to observe the trial."

This was a major case involving the entire Tianfu County. The people of Tianfu County could hardly wait, and upon hearing the announcement, they were ecstatic, bombarding the government office gate with many questions. However, with the crowd's diverse and bizarre inquiries, County Magistrate Xu did not know where to begin answering.

Eventually, he could only say: "If you have any questions, think them over well tonight, and you may come and ask when the court session commences the day after tomorrow."

He added: "Zou Youlian committed such vile acts; the government office will certainly not let him off. Rest assured that the property confiscated from the Zou family will be partly distributed as compensation to the suffering households."

Originally, the county government office had no authority to make such a decision, but with Ming Shaoqing's agreement, County Magistrate Xu dared to make this statement.

After hearing this, the people left satisfied… For those households that had lost their men, life was hard, and getting some compensation, even if the people couldn't be brought back, was good.

After County Magistrate Xu dispersed the crowd gathered at the government gate, he said to County Captain Jiang: "Lord Jiang, dispatch all the government officials and county soldiers immediately to notify the village chiefs in all villages, and ask them to bring people to the county government the day after tomorrow."

"Yes," County Captain Jiang replied and departed on the task.

After attending to these matters, County Magistrate Xu finally had the opportunity to speak to Gu Dafu privately: "Your daughter died a wrongful death. The government will take a hundred taels of silver from the assets of the Wan family and Zou Hai to compensate your family. My condolences."

As for the Luo Huiniang Family, since she was unharmed, there was no silver to be compensated.

Gu Dafu did not want the silver: "My lord, my family does not want this silver."

County Magistrate Xu frowned and asked, "Why?"

For a farming family, a hundred taels of silver was a large sum of money, enough to build two houses with green bricks and large tiles.

Gu Dafu, with red-rimmed eyes, said, "If we accept it, what's the difference from selling my daughter? Sister Mei is my daughter, and I won't sell her. It's enough if the government office can give her justice. We don't want anything else."

Mrs. Chen did feel a great pain for losing a hundred taels of silver, but she did not object. If she took the silver home, spending it would be like consuming Sister Mei's flesh and blood; she really couldn't bring herself to use that money.

Third Grandpa, upon hearing this, also felt that Gu Dafu was doing the right thing. Now that the family had a share in the workshop's profits, there was no need for this hundred taels of silver.

Ming Shaoqing, upon hearing Gu Dafu's words, actually had a higher regard for him and said to County Magistrate Xu, "Since the victim is unwilling to take it, let's use this silver to compensate the families affected by the fire."

The large fire set by Zou Yuzhen had burnt many people, and those people were still lying in the Zhou Family's Clinic, between life and death, lacking silver for treatment.

Gu Dafu had no objections to this; it might also help accumulate virtue for Sister Mei, so that she could be reborn into a better life.

"Yes," replied County Magistrate Xu. After consoling Gu Dafu with a few words, he quickly departed with Ming Shaoqing.

Luo Wu saw Gu Dafu and his party off from the government office gate.

Gu Dashan was waiting not far from the government gate with a mule cart, and when he saw Gu Dafu and the others coming out, he quickly asked, "How did it go, were Zou Hai and Wan Family People all convicted?"

Third Grandpa nodded and relayed the fate of the Wan family and Zou Hai, adding, "Tomorrow, you will have to bring Da Fu's family to the county again. Wan Lifang will be executed, and Da Fu's family will surely want to witness it."

Gu Dashan, after asking about the time of the execution, said, "I understand, I will definitely bring Da Fu and his family to the county tomorrow."

Luo Wu then brought up Gu Jin'an's matter, "Good Brother An and Scholar Shang are still in Jinling Prefecture; he is now going in and out of the government office with the two noble young masters from the Zheng and Shangguan families, helping with some clerical work and has learned quite a lot. Once Ming Shaoqing returns to the Capital, Good Brother An will come back, you need not worry."

He then handed a letter to Gu Dashan, "This is a letter Good Brother An asked someone to bring back, take it."

Gu Dashan, upon hearing this, was overjoyed and eagerly took the letter and opened it to read.

Recently, he had been pushed to learn to read, and though he knew only a few characters, he was able to understand about half of the contents of the letter. Seeing that Good Brother An was really alright, he finally felt relieved.

He had always been worried about Good Brother An not faring well in the Jinling Prefecture. Even though he had the Zheng and Shangguan families for protection, his family was ultimately from farming stock, and he feared that Good Brother An would be looked down upon or bullied by the noble young masters of the prefecture's noble families.

Gu Dashan put away the letter and said to Luo Wu, "Brother Wu, you go on with your business, we will head back first."

He climbed onto the front bench of the mule cart, and after Gu Dafu, his family, Father Luo, and Third Grandpa boarded, he drove them back. Just upon their return to Qingfu Town, they learned that something had happened at the Wan Mansion.

Gu Dafu hurriedly asked Gu Dashan to drive over to take a look.

Just as the mule cart arrived at the alley behind the back door of the Wan Mansion, they saw Ni Ruiniang, Aunt Ni, and Uncle Ni in a fight.