The peasant girl has a private space, and her husband is handsome.

Gong Yu went out of the city to take care of some business, and upon his return, he received the evidence delivered by Mo Xiaobei.

"What Miss Su asked me to bring is all the evidence of Deputy Commander Yang's crimes. Half an hour ago, Deputy Commander Yang bullied Miss Su in the street..."

Upon hearing that someone had bullied his future wife, Gong Yu could not tolerate it and immediately led his men to capture Deputy Commander Yang, who was trying to escape, at the city gate.

That day, they gathered even more evidence and arrested five members of Deputy Commander Yang's clan, all of whom were imprisoned in the same cell as Deputy Commander Yang.

One of the Yang clan members had already risen to the position of Assistant Minister of Personnel, and his future was limitless.

When Deputy Commander Yang saw that his clansmen had also been imprisoned, he asked with curiosity, "How did you all end up here?"

The clansmen hated Deputy Commander Yang to death.

"It's all because of you. You offended Miss Su, and Prince Gong found out our crimes in order to avenge Miss Su."

In this world, no one in power can withstand close scrutiny.

But they had always lived peacefully. If it weren't for Deputy Commander Yang provoking Miss Su, they certainly wouldn't have been targeted. If they hadn't been targeted, no one would have ever known about their crimes.

Deputy Commander Yang also regretted it.

He regretted his words to Miss Su, and regretted grabbing those beggars, ruining his future for such a trivial matter.

"If God gave me another chance, I would definitely avoid Miss Su from afar in the future."

The clansmen gritted their teeth and said, "It's too late. You can only go to the underworld and cry to Yama, the King of Hell."

Deputy Commander Yang was terrified as the tribesmen approached with menacing expressions. "W-what do you want to do?"

"What do you want? Of course I want to beat you up! You idiot, of all people to mess with, you had to go and provoke Miss Su. You've ruined us all."

Because they hated Deputy Commander Yang, the five clansmen beat him half to death that very night.

Deputy Commander Yang was imprisoned in Dali Temple.

So early the next morning, the officials of the Dali Temple learned that Deputy Commander Yang had been beaten to the point of near death, his ears were deafened, one eye was blinded, and both arms were broken.

That's terrifying.

The officials gathered together and discussed—

"So, never offend Miss Su, or the Prince of Gong could wipe out your entire family."

"Even the young master Gong is reasonable enough to provide evidence when he arrests someone. But Marquis Guiping is much more difficult to deal with. As soon as he hears someone say something bad about Miss Su, he goes up and beats her, regardless of whether he is right or wrong. If he is beaten to death, he has nowhere to seek justice."

The next day, the Guose Tianxiang clothing store was surrounded by soldiers.

Upon receiving the news, Su Qianqian immediately rode her horse and rushed over.

This time, the people surrounding the shop were minor officials from the Ministry of Revenue.

Originally, the Ministry of Revenue was not qualified to manage shops, but now Emperor Qi Jing has entrusted the preparatory work for welcoming the distinguished guests from Western Xia to Minister Lin of the Ministry of Revenue.

Therefore, the minor official of the Ministry of Revenue, under the orders of Lord Lin, shut down all shops with the characters "Xi" and "Xia" on their signs, forbidding them from continuing to do business.

The reason is that these two words would offend the Queen of Western Xia.

If it weren't for the fact that several officials' wives were selecting clothes in the shop, the shop would have been shut down by the minor official long ago.

Su Qianqian stood outside the shop, listening to the clerk's eloquent words, and felt it was utterly absurd.

In this era, ordinary people could not use words related to the emperor's name, otherwise it would be considered disrespectful.

However, there are too many words to avoid. Emperors have their given names, courtesy names, reign titles, and posthumous titles.

To offend any of these words is a grave offense of disrespect.

The shop sign for "Guose Tianxiang" does not contain the characters "Xixia," but the sign at the entrance reads "New Arrivals for Early Summer," which contains the character "Xia" (夏), thus violating a taboo.

The leading clerk, surnamed Zhao, recognized Miss Su and had also heard about Deputy Commander Yang's affair, so he was quite afraid of offending her and slapped himself in the face.

He didn't dare look Su in the eye, and explained while keeping his eyes on the ground, "Miss Su, I'm sorry, we are acting on Lord Lin's orders."

Su Qianqian smiled and said to Manager Zuo, "Let's close for a few days. Since we opened, you and your staff have been busy from morning till night without a break. Now that we're closed, you can finally get some rest."

"Late spring and early summer is a perfect time of year, neither too hot nor too cold. I have many cattle and sheep raised at the Prince's estate in the suburbs of the capital. You can go there for a few days. Milk and goat milk are free, and you can also have a barbecue at the estate."

Manager Zuo sighed. Since she started working with Miss Su, she had never seen anyone make things difficult for her.

Anyone who made things difficult for Miss Su later suffered terrible misfortune. This time, it's unknown whether the unlucky one will be the petty official in front of us or that Lord Lin from the Ministry of Revenue.

Manager Zuo was leading his employees to put up the shop doors when Madam Lin arrived.

Madam Lin also brought several other ladies she was close to, intending to pick out clothes together.

"Hey, why is it closed?"

Su Qianqian smiled and said, "Madam Lin, it was your Lord Lin who ordered people to come and seal up the shop, all because of the word 'Xia'. Your Lord Lin is really something."

Madam Lin looked embarrassed. She had wanted to ask Miss Su for her skincare cream, but how did her husband offend Miss Lin?

Mrs. Lin suggested, "Why don't we just change the character 'Xia'?"

The clerk nodded. He didn't dare offend Miss Su or let her shop close down. If Miss Su could change the character "Xia," that would be even better.

But Miss Su rejected the suggestion, saying, "Our shop is currently stocking new summer clothes, that's a fact, there's no need to change it, if anyone should make changes, it should be Lord Lin."

Upon hearing this, Madam Lin felt a chill run down her spine and sensed an intense, invisible pressure.

Who would have thought that this sense of oppression would come from a fifteen-year-old girl?

Of all people to offend, why did her husband have to offend Miss Su? She must give him a good talking-to tonight.

As Su Qianqian looked back on her way to the teahouse, she noticed that all the trees in the city were covered with colorful silks and decorated with leaves made of gold and silver.

"absurd!"

Su Qianqian returned to the backyard of the teahouse, and Hu Pingfan came over.

He told Miss Su about all the absurd things he had seen on the street.

"There was an old man on the next street with poor eyesight. He took a closer look at the golden leaves and was beheaded on the street for stealing golden leaves."

"All the artisans who knew how to make lanterns were arrested and locked in dark rooms, making them work day and night. All this was so that the lanterns could be hung on the trees and made into a dazzling display of lights before the Western Xia Queen arrived in three days."

"Lord Lin of the Ministry of Revenue even branded the arms of the maids who were to serve the guests from the Western Xia with the character 'Xia' using red-hot irons, because all the maids used by the Queen of the Western Xia had the character 'Xia' branded on their arms."