Wen Mingtang’s guess was right. Bai Zhu put on a smile and nodded in agreement with the sullen mother and son who were crying and shouting, “The Chang family doesn’t know how to educate their daughter, and she eloped with someone, they really lost face.” Such blatant bias made everyone in the Chang family look very unhappy, and they wanted to say something but stopped themselves several times.

Such a reaction made the mother and son of the Yang family even more delighted. After crying and hinting for a long time, “Miss Chang might have become a fallen woman, and we will have to endure it”, the mother and son of the Yang family left with satisfaction when Bai Zhu looked at them and said, “I understand”.

After sending the Yang family mother and son away, Bai Zhu turned to the Chang family members, who all looked very unhappy, and asked, “Did you see it?”

Chang’s father and mother murmured and lowered their heads: “It’s us who don’t know how to teach our daughter!”

“You really didn’t teach her!” Bai Zhu was not polite and nodded, “Raising a daughter is not just about making sure she has enough food and clothing, but also about teaching her the right principles and the things of the world! Those girls who got lost during the Mid-Autumn Festival were innocent, but your girl foolishly fell into the trap and was deceived by this villain!”

Chang’s father and mother were very annoyed, but they still nodded with their heads down.

Bai Zhu said, “Also, even if the rice shop is busy, you should have noticed that your daughter’s behavior was different from the past few days! She has been packing up her gold and silver jewelry for several days. If you were more careful, wouldn’t you have noticed it? She is not a powerful villain who is used to hiding things. If you look carefully, your daughter’s ability to hide things is not enough to deceive you.”

Chang’s father and mother nodded again to admit their mistakes.

Bai Zhu’s tone softened at this point, and he said, “Now that things have come to this, blaming and fretting are useless; the key is how to resolve the problem!” After a brief pause, he continued, “Let me ask the two of you, do you truly believe that the Yang family mother and son sincerely wish to marry your daughter?”

Father Chang and Mother Chang shook their heads, while the Chang family’s young man, who was already a parent himself, couldn’t help but say, “It would be strange if they truly wanted to marry her. The way they acted before was just treating us like a moneybag! Now, they’re just trying to take advantage of my sister’s mistake to extort some money!”

Except for Miss Chang, no one here was really stupid.

Bai Zhu nodded and said, “Yes, I think so too. Now let’s check whether Mother Yang has found a good daughter-in-law for her son.”

Father Chang, Mother Chang, and the young master of the Chang family nodded in agreement and received two words of scolding from Bai Zhu. When they were about to leave, they heard Bai Zhu suddenly call them.

“I heard from the prefect of Jingzhao that although your young lady is naive and silly, she is not the type to go out all the time. And the mother and son of the Yang family often come to your shop to ‘sit’…” Bai Zhu said here, “Huh”, and said, “If I were an outsider who didn’t know the situation, and saw that the young master of the Yang family looked good, I would probably think that Miss Chang might be in love with the young master of the Yang family, so…”

Bai Zhu frowned: If he was a criminal if he really wanted to put his efforts into this, he should put his efforts into the young lady who had no love for her fiance. If he insists on putting his efforts into the young lady who had love for her fiance, then all his plans might be in vain.

If that was the case, how did those villains know that the young lady from the Chang family didn’t like the young man from the Yang family?

“Apart from your family, do the neighbors know the inside story about your young lady and the young master of the Yang family?” Bai Zhu asked.

When these words came out, Father Chang, Mother Chang, and Young Master Chang were all stunned. When they came to their senses, Young Master Chang’s face changed and he immediately said, “Since you ask me this, I don’t think they know.”

When it came to matters like “love between children and kids” or “love between husband and wife”, most people in the world tended to encourage reconciliation rather than separation.

The neighbors naturally knew that the mother and son of the Yang family came to his shop. However, thinking about the reactions of the neighbors, they all seemed to be “persuading peace”, especially the Yang family’s son who had a handsome appearance. In the eyes of the neighbors, they often advised the Chang family to “negotiate it carefully” and treat it as recruiting a son-in-law, so as not to humiliate Miss Chang.

Since the neighbors didn’t know about it, how could the bad guys know what the young couple was thinking?

Bai Zhu’s mind shuddered, and he immediately reacted, sneering: “What a powerful criminal, just like the worm in Miss Chang’s stomach!”

Before the Chang family members could react, Bai Zhu shook his head and refused to say anything more. He only told them to “go back to normal”. They should remain the same as they were before, worrying about Miss Chang and the mother and son of the Yang family. Don’t make any changes.

……

……

Although he was left in the Dali Temple to review the files, Bai Zhu did not come to the public kitchen to eat lunch until after noon because of the trouble caused by the Chang family.

Tangyuan and Ah Bing had been curious about the Chang family for a long time. When Bai Zhu came to the front of the stage to receive his lunch, they could not help but be curious and asked Bai Zhu in a low voice: “Bai Sicheng, what about the Chang family…”

Without waiting for the two to finish, Bai Zhu said, “Let’s go back!” Then he glanced at the two curious faces in front of him, and before the two opened their mouths to ask again, he asked about today’s lunch hidden in the casserole with a lid: “What is today’s lunch?”

Being interrupted like this, the two of them immediately forgot about what they were doing earlier and said hurriedly, “We are having duòjiāo yútóu dòufǔ bāo today!”

In the past two days, the fish ponds on the farm had started to collect nets one after another. Every time at this time, there were the most fish. Today, before daybreak, several baskets of silver carp were delivered.

It happened that the extra tofu from yesterday was sent to the ice cellar and frozen overnight, making it perfect for making soup. Wen Mingtang simply separated the silver carp and used only the fish head for lunch to make the soup.

Bai Zhu nodded, smiled at the two of them, took the food, and went to find an empty table to sit down and eat lunch.

Wen Mingtang watched Bai Zhu calmly draw Tangyuan and Ah Bing’s attention elsewhere, and couldn’t help but want to laugh: The personalities of the several temple secretaries of the Dali Temple were really different! Liu Yuan was straightforward and couldn’t hide things, but his enthusiasm was something the other two didn’t have; Wei Fu was older and acted more conservatively than Liu Yuan, but being conservative also had its advantages, he was steady and did things more prudently; Bai Zhu was placed between the two, more straightforward than Wei Fu, but more prudent than Liu Yuan. Although these people had different personalities, they really complemented each other when they worked together!

Of course, the most powerful among them was Lin Fei. Putting aside his official rank, his method of handling cases and punishing criminals was truly impressive. She wondered if he had gained anything from his trip outside today!

Just as she was thinking this, she saw Zhao You running in with a lunch box in his hand. He handed the lunch box to her and said, “I’m here to get our Lin Shaoqing’s lunch for today!”

People could work outside, but unless absolutely necessary, they still had to eat lunch in the public kitchen.

(End of this chapter)

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