"I... I really don't know who my father-in-law's employer is. He just said it was a woman and didn't tell me anything else. Woo woo woo... my father-in-law did everything by himself. He just told me not to run around under the bridge."
Zhang Mazi squatted on the ground and begged pitifully, "Please forgive me. I have an 80-year-old mother and a 3-year-old child at home. Can't I take you to the bridge hole to wait for him?"
After beating and kicking him for a while, several people realized that they could not get anything out of him, so they decided to take Zhang Mazi to find the bridge hole where he was hiding, leave two people to guard nearby, and the rest of them would take him to the yamen.
Jiang Erlang followed the others with his niece in his arms. When he saw a donkey cart following them, he couldn't help but ask, "Bao'er, what's wrong with that donkey cart? Is it the one who saved you?"
Yingbao then remembered that she had forgotten about Sister Yanru, and hurriedly said, "It was Uncle Wu who saved me. He went to work, and the one following behind was the niece of the innkeeper. She is taking care of me temporarily. Baoer will go and tell her to go back now."
"Okay, I'll go and thank them too."
So Jiang Erlang walked to the donkey cart and said to Yan Ru on the cart: "Thank you for taking care of my niece. I will go to the inn to thank Wu Langjun later. Now we are sending someone to the government office. If you have anything to do, please go back."
Yan Ru lifted a corner of the curtain, revealing half of her pretty face, and said softly, "I don't deserve your thanks, my lord. I have nothing else to do. Today I am only responsible for taking good care of the young lady. If I go back now, I am afraid my aunt will blame me. If my lord doesn't mind, I have a car here. I can wait for you to finish your business and then take you back to the inn together."
"This..." Jiang Erlang was somewhat helpless, so he could only say: "Then I'm sorry to trouble you, my lady. I'm afraid we will be delayed for quite a while along the way."
"It's okay. I don't have anything else to do. I have a donkey cart to get around, so I won't be tired."
Yan Ru stole a glance at Jiang Erlang and whispered, "Sir, why don't you put me in the carriage? I'll follow behind and won't delay your work."
Yingbao glanced at her second uncle who looked troubled, then looked at her sister Yanru, and quickly said, "Then I'll take the donkey cart."
"Okay." Jiang Erlang readily followed suit and put his little niece in the car.
He had to take a few brothers to identify the bridge hole and also to send Zhang Mazi away, so it was indeed a bit inconvenient to hold his niece.
So Yingbao returned to the donkey cart.
The donkey cart slowly followed behind Jiang Erlang and his group. Yan Ru held Ying Bao in her arms and asked gently, "Xiao Bao, is that your second uncle?"
Yingbao stretched her head and looked outside the car: "Yeah."
After a pause, Yan Ru asked again: "Has your second aunt also come to the county town?"
Yingbao turned her head and glanced at Yanru, and said truthfully: "There is no second aunt."
Yan Ru curved her eyebrows and asked, "Does your second uncle have any children?"
Yingbao was confused by the question and nodded: "Second uncle has two children, the older one is nine years old and the younger one is almost five years old." If Yanru had any evil ideas, this alone would be enough to scare her off.
Unexpectedly, Yan Ru looked even happier, and asked shyly, "Then why don't you have a second aunt?"
Yingbao was speechless, and after thinking for a while she said, "Second aunt passed away." I'm sorry, second uncle, I'll first label you as a wife-killer to prevent anyone from targeting you.
Yan Ru really didn't say anything else.
Several people came to an arch bridge. Zhang Mazi pointed under the bridge and said, "We will sleep here tonight."
Jiang Erlang ran down first, and after checking it out, he came up again and said, "There is indeed a grass nest and a grass mat down there. It looks like someone has lived there. Wang Ke, please stay nearby with Dashi. I'll take Zhang Mazi to the government office and will be back soon."
"Okay, go ahead." Wang Ke said.
"You promised not to send me to the government office, you guys are not keeping your word..." Zhang Mazi shouted angrily, "You are not trustworthy!"
The villagers sneered, stuffed a rag into his mouth, and kicked him: "What trust can we have with you!"
The remaining two people grabbed Zhang Mazi and dragged him to the county government office.
Jiang Erlang and his two companions arrived at the gate of the county government office and met Jiang Sanlang, Chunniang, and the old man Jiang and his wife.
Yingbao jumped off the donkey cart and threw herself into Chunniang's arms in surprise.
Chunniang hugged her daughter tightly, tears streaming down her face, "My precious, are you hurt?"
"No, no." Yingbao hugged A Niang and touched Chun Niang's face, "A Niang has lost weight."
Chunniang had indeed lost a lot of weight and had deep dark circles around her eyes, making her look several years older than before.
Jiang Sanlang also came over and hugged his daughter and wife. His eyes were red, but he couldn't speak.
Jiang Liu wiped her tears and said with a smile: "That's good now. Baoer is finally back. We are all relieved."
Jiang Sanlang swallowed his anger and gritted his teeth and said, "That's great. We don't have to worry about anything. I will never give up unless I catch Chen Ergou and his employer."
Originally, he was worried that pushing too hard would anger the other party, causing them to kill to silence them, so he didn't dare to take extreme action. Now that Baoer is back safely, he doesn't have to worry about anything.
"Baoer, tell Dad, who took you away?" Jiang Sanlang asked.
Yingbao: "I am the sister of Han, the wife of Chen Changping from Xichen Village. Little Han brought me to Zhouhe County and handed me over to her eldest uncle's family."
"Okay!" Jiang Sanlang touched his daughter's head and said with a firm face: "Let's go and beat the drum to appeal for justice! In court, Baoer will tell you everything."
"Yes!" Yingbao nodded heavily.
…
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The drum at the entrance of the People's Hall of the county government office was struck. The drum sounded for a long time, startling the county magistrate who was sorting files in the government office.
"Who is beating the drum?" asked the magistrate of Mei County with a frown.
He was already handing over the resignation procedures, so why were the yamen runners so ignorant that they allowed people to beat the drums at random
An aide said quickly, "Mingshou, I'll go outside and take a look."
Mei County Magistrate waved his hand and said, "Go quickly and come back soon."
I still have a pile of documents to deal with, and without an aide to help me, I don’t know how long it will take me to sort them out.
After a while, the aide came back to report: "A farmer's family outside sued a fellow villager for hiring a bandit to kidnap a child. Now the whole family is outside and has caught a kidnapper, attracting crowds of onlookers."
The Mei County Magistrate was furious when he heard this and cursed: "What kind of rules are these? If you have a grievance, why don't you file a complaint first? Instead, you come to the crowd to get attention and beat the drum? Let them beat him with 20 sticks first, and then come in to answer!"
Another staff member said quickly, "Mingshou, this cannot be done. The successor has already arrived. We should be patient and not be impeached for such a small matter. It would be more trouble than gain."
"Yes, Mr. Ming, we are all about to leave office, why bother with such trivial matters, why not ask clearly first."
Mei County Magistrate frowned and said, "Then one of you will handle it. If it really doesn't work, just hand it over to that person."
Anyway, my own procedures have been almost handed over, so I'll hand this case over to him.
"Mr. Liao, please go out and take a look." An aide came out.
Mei County Magistrate nodded: "Okay, I'll have to trouble Brother Liao then."