The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 694 - 683 Be Cautious

Chapter 694: Chapter 683 Be Cautious

County Magistrate Tang stepped out of the prison cell, looked back at Ying Wenhai sitting in the cell sulking, and smiled faintly. He beckoned the prison head over and said, "From now on, when the Ying Family sends anything over, inspect everything thoroughly. Any items with writing or medicine are strictly forbidden. As for the food, supervise it yourselves. Starting today, I want him free from illness and calamity. If he gets sick, whether it’s diarrhea or a fever, I’ll hold you responsible."

The prison head’s entire face crumpled in misery, "My lord, this...this is too difficult. That young master is not cooperative at all and often refuses to eat."

"Don’t worry, after today he won’t be refusing to eat," County Magistrate Tang said with a smile: "It’s as if he enjoys starving himself."

The prison head was still unhappy. After all, the Ying Family’s status was no small matter, to say nothing of the Prince of Yizhou’s mansion above them.

He lowered his voice and murmured, "What if someone from the Prince of Yizhou’s mansion comes personally..."

County Magistrate Tang gave him a glance and said, "The same way you’ve handled things before, you’ll handle them now. What, were you able to stop them before but not now?"

The prison head forced a smile, but wasn’t this a different situation?

County Magistrate Tang walked away with his hands behind his back, "Rest assured, I won’t make you take the risk for nothing. Whatever the Ying Family sends, regardless of the amount, you can divide it among yourselves. Just push all the responsibility onto me. All you have to do is guard this gate well."

The prison head then bowed and accepted the order.

Indeed, before evening mealtime, the Ying Family came with another food box. However, just like the previous days, they couldn’t enter and had to entrust the box to the bailiff to bring inside.

Manager Ying was quite pissed off and inquired, "Weren’t we allowed in this noon? Why can’t we see him now?"

With a pained expression, the prison head explained, "Manager Ying, that was because County Magistrate Tang was here, and he allowed you to go in. I suggest you visit the County Governmental Office first and get a written permit from County Magistrate Tang. Rest assured, as long as Lord Tang agrees, I’ll immediately open the gate for you."

Manager Ying was left speechless. If they could obtain a written decree from County Magistrate Tang, would they need to waste words with him?

They would simply take their young master home.

Manager Ying took a deep breath, forcibly smiled, and stepping forward, grasped the prison head’s hand. Without drawing attention, he slipped a pouch of money into his palm and murmured, "Please make an exception for me. I just want to say a couple of words with our young master and won’t take up much time. If you don’t speak of it and neither do I, who would know?"

The prison head pushed back the pouch and whispered, "Others might not know, but don’t you know our County Magistrate Tang? Even if a spider silk falls on the ground, one glance from him and he knows whether it’s from a male or female spider, where it came from, and where it’s going. Even if you gave me a hundred guts, I wouldn’t dare to fool around under his watch."

Manager Ying was left speechless.

With a low voice, the prison head said, "I can’t let you in, but sending things in isn’t difficult. Give me whatever you have; I’ll bring it in. And if you have any messages, just tell me, and I’ll pass them along for you."

Manager Ying looked at him skeptically.

He really wanted to believe him, but he was an underling of County Magistrate Tang, and that official...

After much internal deliberation, Manager Ying finally smiled and said, "There’s nothing much, just that the old lady at home is worried about the young master and insisted we bring him some food. She won’t be at ease until she is sure the young master has eaten."

The prison head instantly smiled and said, "That’s easy. Just give me the food box. I’ll take it in and watch him eat for you, how about that?"

What else could he do? With the conversation gone this far, could he even say no?

Manager Ying forced a smile and handed over the food box. The prison head reassured him with a smile, "Don’t worry, I’ll make sure the food gets to him."

Smiling, the prison head watched Manager Ying leave and then took the food box back to the cell block. The prison was his domain. He called over a couple of his trusted men, and together they took out the food from the box, meticulously searching it until they found a note inside a bun.

The prison head put the torn-up bun to the side, without looking at the note, and stuffed it in his waistband. Then, looking at the spread of dishes, he sighed, "Life as a prison head used to be so good. Anyone who came in, no matter what they did, had to behave themselves. We may not have been the boss, but we certainly were second in command. Now, those inside are our ancestors, and the visitors are nobles. We have to curry favor with everyone. Sigh..."

"Eldest, there are perks too. Look at this food; when do we ever get to eat like this?"

The prison head watched them tear off a big chicken leg from an entire bird and clucked his tongue, "Eat up, eat up. We don’t eat it, and if we give such greasy food to our ancestors inside, they’ll have upset stomachs by midnight."

The confidants were curious. As they gnawed on the chicken leg, one of them asked, "Eldest, what’s the Ying Family trying to do here, harm their own young master?"

"Harm what harm. They’re trying to harm us," the prison head slapped him. "If the ancestor in there falls ill, just wait and see. The Ying Family will come running demanding their person, and then when Lord Tang asks whose fault it is..."

The two confidants immediately divided up the chicken, saying, "Eldest, you can rest assured; we’ll eat up everything on this table without leaving any leftovers."

"If we can’t finish, we can take the rest home to our wives and kids. We certainly won’t let a single grain of rice inside."

The prison head rolled his eyes at them and then picked up a piece of chicken and began to eat. As he ate, he grew hesitant, "Say, do you think the Ying Family might have poisoned this food?"

One of the confidants nearly choked, looking at the half chicken they had already consumed and hesitated, "No, they wouldn’t, right? After all, he’s their own young master, isn’t he?"

At the same time, County Magistrate Tang was also having dinner, but he was in Manbao’s small courtyard.

He was there to collect testimony. The secretary sat quietly by his side, finished his meal, and then continued to sort out the testimonies, finally handing two pieces of paper to County Magistrate Tang.

Upon reviewing them, County Magistrate Tang passed them to Bai Shan and Manbao and smiled, "You may affix your seals."

They looked over and saw no issues, but they still handed them to Mr. Zhuang for his approval before signing and sealing them themselves.

Manbao was curious, "Lord Tang, why did you ask us about Ji Hao’s wounds? It’s already been a month."

County Magistrate Tang smiled, "What do you think?"

Bai Shan pressed his thumbprint onto the document and said, "Because you want to get to the root cause?"

Looking down at his own testimony, he continued, "Was the injury caused by Ying Wenhai? That’s really quite cunning and ruthless. If the act of hitting the horse is regarded as a reaction out of extreme anger, considered an accident, then what should be made of the dirty substance smeared on the silver hairpin to harm someone?"

County Magistrate Tang laughed and said, "In judging cases, we cannot just consider one aspect. You only know what you’ve seen, and since you haven’t questioned Ying Wenhai, how can you be sure that what you’ve seen is true?"

He continued, "If what you saw isn’t true, then naturally the conclusion you’ve drawn is also incorrect."

Bai Shan perked up and asked, "So, is Ying Wenhai innocent?"

County Magistrate Tang shook his head, laughing, "You see, based on just my word you’re ready to overturn your previous conviction. That’s also presumptive, improper, indeed very improper."

Bai Shan fell into thought.