I’m the Farmgirl You Can’t Mess With
Chapter 766 - Chapter 766 Seizing the Opportunity

Chapter 766: Seizing the Opportunity Chapter 766: Seizing the Opportunity Editor: Atlas Studios In a mess, the fourth branch of the Shu family did not notice when Shu Qingniang left.

By the time the doctor announced that there was nothing they could do to save her, Madam Shu-Fang remembered to settle the score with Shu Qingniang, but she could no longer be found.

Madam Shu-Fang fell to the ground and instructed with a pale face, “Send someone to stop them at the city gate.

You must ‘invite’ Third Sister-in-law back.” Frightened by Madam Shu-Fang’s ferocious appearance, the servant didn’t dare to delay and immediately scrambled out.

However, the moment Shu Qingniang left the Shu family, she got into the carriage and asked her men to speed up.

By the time the Shu family caught up to the city gate, Shu Qingniang had already traveled some distance away.

As she lifted the curtain and looked at the retreating trees outside, she laughed nervously until she could not breathe.

The servants and coachman in the same carriage lowered their heads in fear and pretended not to hear her.

The coachman was fine, but Shu Qingniang’s nanny was so frightened that her hands and feet turned cold.

She had only been ordered to stop the Shu family’s servants.

She really did not expect Madam to be so ruthless as to anger her legitimate stepmother to death.

She carefully glanced at Shu Qingniang from the corner of her eye.

Thinking of how Madam had lived all these years, she felt that it was understandable.

She was a servant of the Zhou family, but she had been serving Shu Qingniang ever since she married into the Zhou family.

Outsiders felt that since Shu Qingniang married into the Zhou family, even if she didn’t have power, she would still have a lot of money.

As the family head’s wife, she likely lived well.

However, nobody knew that Master and Old Madam were extremely dissatisfied with Madam.

Reason being, Madam didn’t speak up for the Zhou family in front of the Shu family while the Shu family kept exploiting the Zhou family.

Not only did Old Madam constantly find opportunities to torture her, but Master also frequently beat and scolded her.

In the first ten years after Madam entered the family, she had miscarried four times.

It was not easy for her to finally give birth to Eldest Young Master and Third Young Miss.

However, Eldest Young Master was brought to Old Madam the moment he was born.

Other than Third Young Miss, no one in the residence would talk to Madam.

The nanny sighed.

However, because of what happened five years ago, Master took out his anger on Third Young Miss and casually married her to a 30-year-old merchant to be his second wife.

It was only because Madam couldn’t bear to let Third Young Miss suffer from the hardships of traveling between south to north that she took out her own money for her son-in-law to do business.

In addition, at the risk of incurring Master’s wrath, she also used the Zhou family’s connections to let this son-in-law stay by her side to manage the business, just so that she wouldn’t have to be apart from her daughter.

However, even so, Madam was becoming more and more terrifying.

She often sneered and did not speak.

Even when Eldest Young Master and Third Young Miss came to pay their respects, it was useless.

The nanny subconsciously moved further away from Shu Qingniang, afraid that she would be implicated if she went crazy.

Regardless, Shu Qingniang returned to the Zhou family’s farm in the suburbs of the capital in a good mood.

Her eyes lit up as she said to Master Zhou, “Old Madam is dead.” “What?” Master Zhou looked at her in shock.

Shu Qingniang smiled happily and shared with him, “Old Madam is dead.

The fourth branch of the Shu family should be busy with the funeral now.” Master Zhou perked up.

He gave Shu Qingniang a dark look and waved for the nanny who went to the Shu Residence with her.

He didn’t care how Old Madam Shu died, he just wanted to know if this matter was true.

The nanny pondered for a moment and said, “I was guarding the door at that time.

When I heard the commotion inside, I rushed in.

At that time, Old Madam Shu’s eyes were wide open, and she was indeed not breathing anymore.” The nanny said vaguely, “I heard Madam Shu ask someone to call for a doctor.

Perhaps the doctor would have the ability to reverse the situation.” Shu Qingniang sat at the side and took a sip of tea.

Smiling faintly, she said, “There won’t be any reversal of the situation.

I know for certain that she’s dead.” Master Zhou waved his hand to dismiss the nanny, then turned around and said to Shu Qingniang, “You’d better be telling the truth.

If the Zhou family can escape from Jinhua, for Dalang’s sake, you’ll still be my first wife.” Shu Qingniang smiled, not really caring about this.

Master Zhou was unlucky in that his first few children were all girls.

It wasn’t until Shu Qingniang gave birth to their young daughter and miscarried twice that she finally gave birth to his eldest son.

Meanwhile, his concubine gave birth to five daughters for him in a row before giving birth to a son.

Though, that boy was many years younger than Shu Qingniang’s son and was extremely stupid.

Now that her son had already begun to take over the family business and his status was stable, she didn’t have to worry at all.

Her daughter was also pampered by her son-in-law.

Although her status was low and she had little family assets, she lived quite comfortably.

Other than being dissatisfied with Shu Wanniang being above her, there was nothing else in this world that was worthy of her longing.

Hence, if Master Zhou was good to her, she would live.

If not, at most, she would bring him along and have her peace.

Master Zhou didn’t know what Shu Qingniang was thinking and was busy setting things up.

If Old Madam Shu really died, the Shu family would definitely be busy and the Zhou family could take this opportunity to leave.

Leaving required a road pass.

Furthermore, they still had to migrate their household registration.

Most importantly, their Zhou family’s assets was being monitored by the Shu family’s fourth branch.

Once they discovered any signs of them leaving, they would inform the officials of Jinhua County to obstruct them.

They would use the excuse that the Zhou family’s taxes were unclear or find some hooligans to bother them under the excuse that there was a dispute that needed to be judged.

Since officials tended to shield each other, the Zhou family had been stuck in Jinhua for two years.

That was, unless he was willing to cut off his tail and give up most of his assets.

However, the Zhou family had taken three generations to accumulate all this.

How could he bear to?

But now, there was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

As soon as Master Zhou returned to Jinhua County, he quickly took the money he had prepared to visit the officials in Jinhua County.

He hinted that Old Madam Shu had passed away and that Shu Mingxiang would have to observe three years of filial piety.

He asked if they wished to cooperate with Shu Mingxiang, who might not even be able to get back into office three years later, or with a merchant who could give them a large sum of money right now.

Things changed rapidly in the bureaucracy.

Those who weren’t stupid certainly would not choose to wait for Shu Mingxiang.

However, the officials of Jinhua County weren’t easy to deal with either.

The few of them conspired to covet nearly half of the Zhou family’s assets.

Other than the newly appointed county magistrate, the lower-ranking officials were each allocated some.

The main officials received the most, almost more than the money their family had accumulated for three generations.

Though overwhelmed with greed, fortunately, they still had some rationality.

They were afraid that they would force the Zhou family to fight to the death, so they regretfully let the Zhou family leave.

Although Master Zhou’s heart ached, he had no choice but to compromise and give up nearly half of his family assets.

It was better than being implicated to death by the Shu family or being conspired against to have more than half of his family assets be taken away, right?

The Zhou family hurriedly packed their luggage and hired the people from the escort agency to help escort them.

The family set off south.

Even his third son-in-law brought his third daughter with them, planning to go to Fujian to settle down.

By the time Shu Qing and Shu Mingxiang came to settle scores with Shu Qingniang after taking care of Old Madam Shu’s funeral, the Zhou family had already fled.

When Shu Qing thought of how the barrier he had set up for two years had been broken, he couldn’t breathe.

Shu Mingxiang looked expressionlessly at his father, who was carried back by the manservant.

He knew that he was doomed.

As long as the Empress and the Mu family were around, his chances of returning to office were close to zero.

At this moment, the Emperor was closing a memorial, sneering as he said, “It’s time to tidy up the officialdom of Jinhua.” He had not made a move because as the Emperor, it was not appropriate for him to use his official position for personal gain.

However, that did not mean that he would let go of what happened back then easily.

If they did not court death, he naturally could not do anything to them.

However, if they screwed up, he understood how to seize the opportunity.

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