Chapter 1109: Mighty Little Bear

Knowing that Prince Rong and Princess Consort Rong must be suspicious, Zhu De left the courtyard with sweat all over his forehead. If they asked, he could still defend himself. What made him most uneasy was that they didn’t ask a single question.

“Father, what should we do? His Highness must have seen Jiaoniang just now.” Zhu Quan was so flustered that his face turned green.

“Shut up. I told you to restrain your concubines a long time ago, but you refused to listen. Now that you have the time, hurry up and chase them out. Back then, His Majesty only left us to guard the house. Even if the number of family members increased, there won’t be so many. Quickly get them to leave through the back door!” Zhu De only wanted to salvage the situation as much as possible and stop Prince Rong from finding out more. As for scheming against the magistrate, he temporarily put it aside.

However, Qi Haoran’s guards had already patrolled the entire General’s Residence when they entered. After confirming that there were no safety risks, they closed the extra doors and only left two corner doors open. The keys were currently in the hands of the guards.

Zhu De was furious, but couldn’t refute since it was done for Prince Rong’s safety. Moreover, since these guards had checked everywhere, they definitely had an impression of the number of people in the residence. Before he could think of a countermeasure, an aggressive young man kicked the door open with three people and entered the residence. He was about to fly into a rage when he looked up and saw the young man’s appearance. The anger instantly got stuck in his chest.

This good-natured guy looked like the 12 or 13-year-old Prince Rong when he was angry. One look and one could tell his identity. Zhu De knelt on the ground again. “Prince? Greetings, Your Highness.”

Little Bear waved his hand. Seeing that he was wearing gray clothes, he directly ignored him and looked at the well-dressed servant at the side. “Let me ask you, where’s the chief steward of the residence?”

The servant secretly looked up at Zhu De. The latter couldn’t help but wipe his sweat and reply softly, “Your Highness, I’m the chief steward.”

“You?” Little Bear circled him twice in confusion and flipped open his outerwear. When he saw the innerwear made of fine silk, he immediately sneered. “I was wondering why your son-in-law is so arrogant outside when you dress so simply. So it’s different inside and out. Men, arrest him!”

“Spare me, Your Highness. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have accepted my subordinates’ token of appreciation. Please forgive me on account that I’ve served His Majesty and His Highness before.”

Zhu Quan’s eyes flickered as he knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly. “We’re guilty. Your Highness, please forgive us this time on account of His Majesty and His Highness. We won’t dare to do it again in the future.”

However, Little Bear did not buy this. With a sneer, he said, “Let’s not talk about my Royal Uncle, but my Father King hates people like you the most. There are many people in the world who have served my Royal Uncle and Father King. Don’t tell me that they don’t need to be punished even if they committed murder and arson? Not to mention that you’re just servants of my Qi family, even ordinary civilians don’t dare to use my Qi family’s power to do such illegal things. Men, tie them up, demolish their rooms, and bring them to the government office tomorrow to be handed over to the magistrate. Have them punished according to the law.”

Xiao Lou quickly tied them up with two guards.

Zhu De’s family really knew how to enjoy themselves; it was as if they completely regarded themselves as the masters of this residence. In the entire General’s Residence, only the main house, the study room, and the two houses where Qi Haoran and Fan Zijin lived back then, were left untouched. The other rooms had been assigned other uses.

As a servant, Zhu De already had two concubines, let alone Zhu Quan. Including the servants who had been bought to serve them and the descendants born during these ten months, there were a total of 48 people.

It was almost comparable to a medium-sized wealthy family.

When Qi Haoran returned and saw that his son had ordered Zhu De and Zhu Quan to be tied up, his eyes lit up. Although he did not say anything, he was obviously very pleased.

When he found out that his son was going to send the Zhus to the government office, he waved his hand and said, “Don’t send them to the government office, lest you lose face. Just deal with this in private. If you decide not to kill them, just send them to the farmstead to do manual labor.”

“No.” The mother and son objected in unison.

Mu Yangling said, “It’s better to lose face in this instance.”

Little Bear also nodded repeatedly. “Father King, since you and Royal Uncle have so many servants, how can you possibly make sure every one of them toes the line? Who knows who else might take advantage of your power to lord over others? You should take this opportunity to express your attitude and let all officials know that even if it’s the servants of the royal family, they still have to be dealt with accordingly after breaking the law. If we deal with them in private, although they are punished, the officials in the world would still feel that we have the intention to protect our servants.”

Mu Yangling nodded repeatedly. That was her sentiments exactly.

“In my opinion, not only should we lose face over this matter, but we should lose face massively. Mother, get your newspaper to report this matter. As for the magistrate, although he didn’t take the initiative to help Zhu De and the others do wicked things, he indulged them. Since he’s not an upright official, I think it’s already good enough if he can get a lower-middle grade in this year’s governance assessment.”

Little Bear followed the shop owner to the government office today. Although the magistrate didn’t help Wang Ping occupy the shop owner’s eatery, he didn’t help the shop owner uphold justice either. This indulgent attitude made Wang Ping even more arrogant.

Although he was afraid of offending Zhu De and being seeked revenge upon, his inaction was wrong. If all officials were like him, why would the commoners need officials?

Little Bear and Mu Yangling were determined to hand them over to the authorities to deal with. Since it was two to one, they successfully suppressed Qi Haoran’s opinion.

At the thought that they would stay here for a day, Qi Haoran agreed without hesitation.

Little Bear excitedly escorted them to the government office and even posted an announcement. Anyone who had had their wealth taken away by the Zhu family could report it to the government office, and the government office would look into the cases. After taking down the magistrate a notch, they returned happily.

Zhu De, who had prepared a lot to say, was sent to jail without even seeing Qi Haoran.

After being lectured by Little Bear, the magistrate knelt respectfully to the south and kowtowed in gratitude. When he stood up again, his face was solemn. Being of timid nature, he had repeatedly tolerated the Zhu family; at the same time, he didn’t dare to cooperate with them. However, now that he saw the attitude of the royal family from the young Prince, what was there to be afraid of?

In any case, his evaluation this year would definitely suffer. Since he would probably be demoted or sent home next year, he might as well be tough for a while so that he could have a clear conscience.

Hence, the Zhu family received a ‘warm greeting’ from the magistrate.

Meanwhile, in the General’s Residence, Mu Yangling was preparing dinner for Qi Haoran in the kitchen.

The servants in the residence had all been brought to the government office by Little Bear for interrogation. Even boiling water was done by the guards themselves. The food the guards ate could be ordered directly from the restaurant, but the medicinal cuisine that Qi Haoran ate could only be personally prepared by Mu Yangling.

After Qi Haoran ate the food that his wife had personally cooked, he said, “Actually, we can stay for two more days.”

“No, we’ll go back tomorrow. My father has already taken up his position in Taiyuan Prefecture, and my mother will probably bring the family over after the autumn harvest. If we delay any longer, we won’t have time to interact with my mother.”