My whole family sucked my blood; after being reborn, the little cook went on a killing spree.

Lin Jiabao saw it too, but he quickly composed himself and secretly pinched Li Shi, "Mother, how can you say that about my cousin? She must be in the Li family for Father's sake! She and Miss Xu are so close; she could easily get Steward Feng to return those seventy taels of silver with just a word!"

"Yes, yes, yes! You should quickly have Miss Xu go find Manager Feng!"

Coming to her senses, Madam Li quickly said, "As long as Steward Feng stops pursuing your father's responsibility and gives us the money, we can return Master Xiong's money. You certainly won't abandon your aunt and uncle, right?"

With just a few words, Su Wanning was put on a pedestal.

"After spending a few years in the palace, her heart has become wild"—this was almost the same line as in her previous life, except that it was Lin Mao who said it back then, in order to frame her for stealing and selling the secret recipe.

At this moment, it was Li's turn to speak.

If she agrees, they can earn back the seventy taels of compensation; if she refuses, she will be branded as unfilial, which is as vicious as ever.

Unfortunately, they misjudged the situation. Miss Xu was not someone they could easily control.

"How could you... how could you..."

Su Wan Ning didn't need to say anything more; she just pretended to be shocked.

Qingfang walked around her from behind, raised her arm, and slapped Lin Jiabao hard.

"Snapped!"

Her voice was cold and sharp, "Who do you think you are?"

"puff!"

Lin Jiabao had been observing Su Wanning when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his cheek, causing him to fall halfway onto the bed and spit out a mouthful of blood.

Li was so frightened that her lips trembled. "Why are you hitting people?"

"You, you dare hit me?"

Lin Jiabao was completely bewildered.

"Hitting you would be doing you a favor!"

Qingfang glanced at him sideways and raised her voice, "Your father did wrong and should be punished. Your Lin family has houses and land, yet you're unwilling to sell a single piece. Instead, you're borrowing money from loan sharks. So you're after Madam Su and our young lady. You're truly insatiable!"

Xu Lingxi added, "What about the money that Madam Su sent back all these years?"

The gate to the Lin family's courtyard was open.

Many people came to watch the spectacle.

Su Wanning caught a glimpse of Wang Chunxiu out of the corner of her eye and immediately said softly, "Lingxi, forget it. That money was just a token of my filial piety."

Wang Chunxiu was displeased with this concession. "The child has had it so hard in the palace. All the money we saved went to you, and you just squandered it every day. Now that something's happened, you expect the child to clean up your mess? How dare you!"

Within a day, the whole village had heard the story of Lin Mao's accident.

Some people, eyeing the Lin family's land, grinned and said, "Yeah, you have so much land, how about selling it cheaply? I'd be happy to help you."

Li hugged Lin Jiabao and wailed, "My son, they're bullying us with their power! They're trying to drive us to our deaths!"

"Auntie, that's not right."

Su Wanning immediately retorted, "You're just accusing Miss Xu of favoritism. Wouldn't that ruin her reputation? If the matriarch finds out, even if she knows she wouldn't do that, she'll still blame her for misjudging people and getting entangled with a greedy and calculating family like ours. Not only will she be punished, but our whole family will be unable to survive here! It might even implicate the entire village, and they won't come to Shili Village to recruit workers anymore."

These words implicated the entire village in one person's mistake.

Lin Jiabao quickly explained, "Cousin, I didn't mean that! I was just talking nonsense."

He then repeatedly apologized to Xu Lingxi, "I was confused. Miss Xu, you are so magnanimous, please don't hold it against me!"

Xu Lingxi couldn't be bothered to pay him any attention.

Looking only at Su Wan Ning, he said, "You kindly came back to see your uncle, but I can tell they don't welcome you at all. They're always trying to leech off you. What's the point of having any contact with these relatives? You should come back to the estate with me."

Su Wan Ning smiled at her.

Just as he was about to speak, several people entered from outside.

The one leading the group was a tall woman. She was Wan Fang, a bodyguard in Zhao's escort team.

She went straight to Su Wanning. "Madam Su, I'd like to ask you something, is that a convenient time?"

"Master Wan, you speak."

Su Wanning glanced at Lin Jiabao and went out to greet him.

Lin Jiabao hurriedly lowered his head, his body visibly tense.

"Why don't we go inside and talk?" Wanfang asked again, seeing that there were villagers all around.

"fine."

Su Wanning didn't mind.

The matter of Chief Zhao will have to be resolved sooner or later, and it will be more beneficial for her to bring it into the open.

"Chief镖师 Zhao has gone missing."

Wan Fang carefully observed Su Wan Ning's expression. Seeing that her surprise seemed genuine, she asked again, "After you checked into the inn that day, did you see him again?"

Su Wanning nodded and recounted in detail what Zhao, the镖头 (bodyguard), had done that evening. She also mentioned that she had spent the entire night preparing food for the post station and hadn't heard anything unusual.

Wan Fang couldn't help but feel somewhat disappointed. She had already asked around at the post station and found no new clues. Where had that person gone?

She couldn't help but press, "And then? You left early, did you see him on the street?"

"no."

Su Wan Ning pretended to think for a moment before answering her, "Our carriage hardly stopped at all. You can ask around along the way."

Wanfang had no choice but to take her leave.

After seeing her off, Su Wan Ning turned around and saw Li Shi staring at her. "Aunt, what's wrong?"

"What exactly happened? You, Chief Escort Zhao, and this arm of yours..."

Li had become shrewd; she only asked half the question.

Wang Chunxiu also came over.

Su Wan Ning raised her arm. "I also want to ask my aunt, why were you so certain that my arm was broken the moment you saw me?"

"Is that even a question? I've seen far too many of these underhanded tactics!"

Xu Lingxi couldn't admit that she had overheard these things, so she treated them as guesses and blurted them out, questioning, "Tell me, did you instruct Chief Escort Zhao to cut off Wan Ning's arm? Did you just not expect Chief Escort Zhao to disappear, and thus mistook the ointment on Wan Ning's hand for blood? Why did you want to ruin Wan Ning?"

The surrounding villagers were all shocked. Was this something a human would do? Why?

"Ouch!"

Wang Chunxiu pieced everything together. No wonder Wan Ning cried that night when she asked about her arm while eating wontons. She must have guessed what was going on and was heartbroken!

She was furious. "What a bunch of beasts! No wonder Chief Escort Zhao disappeared; it must be divine intervention. Seeing he was about to do something bad, it threw him into the wolf pack to be fed!"

Li's face turned pale and then red, and her lips trembled for a long time.

Everyone was staring at her. Especially Su Wan Ning, whose eyes were like those of a demon, almost as if she wanted to devour her alive. But she didn't understand how things had turned out this way.

Li simply covered her face and cried, "I've never even met Chief Escort Zhao, how could I order him around? I was just too concerned about Wan Ning, sob sob sob."

"mother!"

Lin Jiabao stood in front of Li Shi, saying, "If you keep talking nonsense, I'll take you to the authorities and sue you!"

He looked utterly wronged. "Sister, how could you let them slander my mother? She even said she'd have the village doctor check your arm, but you refused. Why did you deliberately make her misunderstand?"

They actually grasped the key point and threw the problem back at them.