Ye Zhinan slept restlessly at night. When she woke up in the morning, her back was drenched in cold sweat.
She hurriedly changed her clothes. Without bothering to have breakfast, she just said hello to Han Xiangmei and rushed straight to the fields.
It had been three whole days since she last visited, and she wondered how her greenhouses were doing.
"You're really something. You've grown much taller than the others," she said as she stroked the newly grown branches. Looking at the sickly crops outside, a look of pride spread across her face.
She wandered around the fields for a while. After walking a few steps, she noticed a dense cluster of greenhouses not far away.
It seemed that some people couldn't sit still anymore.
Ye Zhinan curled her lips with interest and lay on a greenhouse to peek inside.
Even inside the greenhouse, the crops were still puny, hardly any different from those outside.
"Who are you?" came a scolding voice from behind. Ye Zhinan wasn't flustered. She calmly turned around and showed a fake smile.
"I'm from the neighboring village. I saw your greenhouses and came here specially to learn some tips. I'm really worried because my crops aren't growing well," she said, deliberately acting pitiful in an attempt to make the woman in front of her let down her guard.
The woman looked at Ye Zhinan sympathetically and let out a deep sigh.
"Life is tough for every family. If you really want to learn, go to the Zhao family in the village. You can learn it for just fifty wen. There's no need to be so sneaky," the woman said.
Ye Zhinan nodded gratefully with tears in her eyes. She grabbed the woman's hand and thanked her repeatedly.
She said a whole bunch of nice things, which left the woman dazed.
It wasn't until the woman left that Ye Zhinan wiped her eyes forcefully.
The look of gratitude from before was nowhere to be seen.
"The Zhao family must be crazy about money. Fifty wen could be used to build more than a dozen greenhouses!"
Ye Zhinan returned home and sat at the table to pour herself a glass of water.
After drinking the cold water, she managed to calm her anger.
"They haven't learned everything. Why are you in such a hurry?" Han Xiangmei popped her head out and winked at Ye Zhinan mockingly.
Ye Zhinan wasn't worried about the technology leaking out. She just felt sorry for the common people.
"Fifty wen is the monthly allowance for a whole family for several months. They'll end up selling everything they have to buy these things, only to find they're useless. Wouldn't that make their lives even harder?"
She had a soft heart. If the villagers hadn't been so pushy, she wouldn't have completely given up on them.
Ye Shenyan was chopping wood. He glanced at Ye Zhinan who was sitting at the table looking worried and couldn't help smiling.
"Everyone has to go through difficulties. The key is who's causing the trouble. Maybe the Zhao family felt guilty and decided to take the blame for you," he said.
Ye Zhinan looked up at him and burst out laughing. She glared at him playfully.
"Father, next time you try to comfort someone, you can come up with a more outrageous excuse."
She could tell that her father was just trying to make her happy.
The Zhao family definitely didn't feel guilty. They were clearly just taking advantage of the villagers.
However, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing if someone could wake the villagers up.
Only by falling can they truly understand.
Even if they didn't believe her, they would be more cautious in the future.
After thinking it through, Ye Zhinan felt much more at ease. She even ate two more bowls of rice.
After finishing the housework, she went to the fields to tend to the crops.
It was time to fertilize again, and she couldn't afford to be careless.
The fields gradually became lively. The women gathered together to gossip, and the topic was still the Ye family.
Ye Zhinan was inside the greenhouse and couldn't hear very clearly.
She didn't even want to hear it.
The truth would eventually come out. Such a big thing had happened, and the villagers couldn't have been unaware.
"Your mentality has improved a lot these days," Han Xiangmei said approvingly, looking at her with a sense of pride as if her daughter had finally grown up.
Ye Zhinan wiped the sweat off her forehead and looked up at her mother.
"They're just saying some harmless things. If they slander me, I won't let them get away with it," she said.
The mother and daughter looked at each other and smiled, then continued with their work.
When she walked out, she caught a glimpse of Wei Shiqi standing in the crowd. There were a few bamboo poles beside him, and a tarpaulin was placed at his feet.
He looked imposing and rather dashing.
As soon as Ye Zhinan walked out of the greenhouse, the crowd that had been chatting animatedly fell silent.
"I thought it was something really great. Turns out it was achieved through underhanded means," someone said.
Ye Zhinan turned around, her eyes cold.
Wei Shiqi's face changed slightly. He took a few steps back but still stuck out his neck and continued.
"Why are you looking at me? You know your own methods best," he said.
Ye Zhinan didn't say a word. It wasn't because she was scared but because she was thinking about something else.
Wei Shiqi was still causing trouble, which probably meant that he didn't know about the county magistrate's situation yet, or the county magistrate was still okay.
So what were they talking about...
She sneered and glanced at their things disdainfully.
"You're just copying others. Take my advice and go back to the Zhao family to return these useless things quickly," she said.
After saying that, Ye Zhinan ignored the pointing and whispering behind her and left the fields directly.
She was smart and could easily guess what they were talking about.
Since the county magistrate was okay, they were probably talking about her methods.
Seeing Wei Shiqi's look of anticipation, her face darkened instantly.
If they wanted to slander her, they'd better wait and see.
She spent the afternoon working in the greenhouse again while the idle gossip outside continued.
When she got home and saw Ye Shenyan sitting in the yard, she immediately asked the question that had been bothering her all day.
"Hasn't the county magistrate been punished yet?"
Ye Shenyan looked up in surprise. He had only received the news in the afternoon. How did she know?
He couldn't bear to lie to her, so he just nodded.
"Yes. There's still evidence of him raising private troops, but there's no proof for the charges of corruption and colluding with the enemy country," he said.
The people from the Supreme Court of Judicature had come but left empty-handed.
Shen Beiting was also afraid that insufficient evidence would implicate the Ye family, so he told them to go back first.
Looking at it now, it seemed to be the right decision.
"He had weapons and countless treasures in his house. Why can't they find out?"
"Not only that, the jade pendant that proved his connection with the enemy country has also disappeared without a trace."
Disappeared without a trace?
How could that be?
"Have they checked all his other properties and the people he contacted?"
Ye Shenyan frowned and let out a long sigh.
"They've checked everything. The spies planted by Inspector Qin only said that the things were transported out, but no one knows where they went."
Ye Yingfeng was so anxious that he paced around the yard. He also added,
"We've searched the entire county, but we still haven't found the stolen goods."
It was really strange. The county magistrate had committed heinous crimes, and his close associates must have known about it.
They might even be implicated.
Most of them wouldn't take such a risk at this critical moment.
If they really entrusted someone to hide the things, they would only choose someone stupid and unaware.
Stupid...
Wei Shiqi!
"Please ask big brother to go to Inspector Qin and tell them to search the Wei family. Maybe they'll find something," Ye Zhinan said.
"The Wei family?" Ye Yingfeng's face changed. "I'm not sure if it's a good idea. The Wei family has nothing to do with the county magistrate. Searching their house without any solid evidence might cause some controversy."
Ye Zhinan blinked her eyes, full of shrewdness.