After being jilted, the entire neighboring village was filled with deep regret.

Chapter 44 Reaping the consequences
Upon seeing the people, Su Changxi began to complain aggrievedly, "Officers! You must stand up for us! That Sang Yong, relying on being the head of Fufeng Township and the brother-in-law of the wealthy Ma family in town, doesn't take us ordinary people seriously at all."

Everyone says that a woman's dowry is something she owns for a lifetime. My daughter isn't even married yet, and the Sang family is already scheming about her dowry! That's fine, we haven't even had the wedding ceremony yet, we can just not marry her off. But do you know how outrageous the Sang family is?

My daughter's dowry included a large wardrobe and a large dressing table, and they're all gone! Gone! The Sang family even turned around and accused us of emptying their house.

What a joke! Such a big and heavy object, how many people would be watching it? Yesterday we practically ran away from Sangjia Village. If we were really carrying those things, how could we not be discovered?

Go ask around and see who saw us stealing from the Sang family. If they can identify anyone, we'll accept whatever punishment they face! If they can't, they must compensate us for our losses!

"I can't let my daughter's reputation be ruined and her dowry be lost too! Waaah!"

The two constables exchanged glances and quickly reassured him, "Village Chief Su, please don't get agitated. We're here today mainly to understand the details of yesterday. You're saying you didn't touch anything belonging to the Sang family?"

"I swear! We absolutely did not touch anything from the Sang family!" Su Changxi said sincerely, as if he wanted to swear on his life.

Su Chunlin stepped forward, greeted the two constables, and said in a polite tone, "Gentlemen, putting aside everything else, just look at that cabinet and dressing table. Can it be lifted by two strong men? Even if two strong men could lift it, it wouldn't go far! We would have to use an oxcart to pull it! Yesterday, we walked all the way there and back."

There's only one road leading out of Sangjia Village. We can find out from the villagers whether we took anything from the Sang family. I bet Sang Yong, after failing to get his daughter-in-law's dowry, is holding a grudge and is now plotting against us to steal it!

“Yes! That’s it!” The other villagers echoed in agreement.

The constables also agreed with this explanation; otherwise, the whole thing just wouldn't make sense.

Seeing that the two men were biased towards them, Su Chunlin immediately brought out wine and dishes, and let the two constables eat before leaving.

After the constables left, the villagers and the Han family continued to berate the Sang family for a while before helping to clean up.

Shen Yi glanced at the sky and bid farewell to Su Tai and her family. "I've been here for two days and should head back now. I'll definitely send the grain seeds over before spring."

"Yes, yes, thank you so much!" Old Man Han held Shen Yi's hand, his eyes full of joy and anticipation.

Han went back into the house and got a wicker basket, which she filled with ten white flour buns and some coarse flour cakes. “Take these back and share some with your second aunt’s family. Just say it’s a small token of our appreciation.”

Shen Yi didn't stand on ceremony; he packed his things and quickly disappeared into the snowstorm.

As soon as Shen Yi left, the Han family also said goodbye, and Han's wife still packed some white flour steamed buns and flatbreads for them.

After all the guests left, Su Tai's family could finally catch their breath.

Despite the fierce wind and snow in the courtyard, the couple only closed the courtyard gate and left the door to the main room open. They sat in the main room, staring at the falling snow in the courtyard for a long time, occasionally smiling.

Su Zhan got goosebumps all over his body when he heard this. "Father, Mother, are you alright?"

"What could possibly have happened!" Madam Han laughed and scolded, then exclaimed, "Mother just feels that all of this is too unreal! Just think, at the beginning of the year, our family was worried about grain seeds, and we didn't have the mind to think about anything else. But by the end of the year, we not only built a big house, but also saved enough grain, and we made our relatives proud. Today, our family is truly proud and can hold our heads high!"

“Your mother is right! Dad is happy, let’s have another drink!” Su Chunlin poured wine for Su Zhan.

Han muttered a couple of things but didn't stop them; she even got them some snacks to go with their drinks. Two days later, Su Changfu suddenly came to their door to talk about the Sang family.

"The magistrate is handling official business impartially. He ordered the yamen runners to question our Dongmen Village and their Sangjia Village. Our village is honest and tells the truth. Sangjia Village is different. Sang Yong asked the villagers to lie and give false testimony. Unfortunately, Sangjia Village is not as united as he thought, and the yamen runners are not so easy to fool."

After several interrogations, some villagers couldn't hold back and gave themselves away. The county magistrate was furious and ordered his men to arrest Sang Yong and his family and bring them to the county office for questioning. He also gave Sang Yong ten lashes and removed him from his position as township head.

If it weren't for Master Ma spending money to bribe officials, Sang Yong's family would probably still be in jail for a while.

Su Chunlin felt extremely relieved upon hearing this. "Serves them right! This is their retribution! But we can't let our losses go unpunished! We have to get back the cabinet and dressing table that Su Yan brought with her as part of her dowry."

Su Changfu agreed wholeheartedly, “I certainly won’t let them get away with this. It’s just that we haven’t found the item yet, and we’ve already had the beating. Sang Yong insists that he doesn’t know where the item went. The constables have searched the village but found nothing. However, they are convinced that the item is still in Sangjia Village, so they’re making the Sang family pay us money.”

Changxi's idea was that the cabinet and dressing table were originally part of her dowry, and since Yan'er couldn't get married, bringing them back would only bring bad luck. It was better to exchange them for silver, so he agreed.

"That's good too." Su Chunlin said happily.

After overhearing their conversation, Su Tai, who was staying in the back room, secretly ran back to her room.

The items she brought in from the Sang family are still at the transit station. She didn't dare to deal with them immediately for fear of causing unforeseen complications, but now she can sell them.

These large items, such as cabinets and dressing tables, are all made of solid wood and use mortise and tenon joints. The craftsmanship is exquisite, and they are sturdy and durable, so they are definitely valuable.

She first took the contents out and then used a medium tool to scan them on the automated trading platform.

Soon, item information and prices appeared on the screen.

The cabinets and dressing table that Su Yan brought as part of her dowry were brand new, but the wood was of average quality, and the price was 6000 coins.

However, the price of the Sang family's somewhat old furniture, which was priced as high as 18000 coins, really surprised Su Tai.

Besides these large items, there were also fifty taels of silver that the Sang family had hidden in the cabinet and bed board, which she didn't touch for the time being. She sold all the remaining clothes, quilts, and jewelry worn by Sang Shi, and got 2580 coins.

Finally, there's the Sang family's grain, totaling 1,800 jin. She rented an automatic flour mill, which produced 1,440 jin of wheat flour and 360 jin of wheat bran. She'll save these for later, so they can be used as feed for the chickens she raises next year.

With so much white flour, Su Tai no longer wanted to suffer.

Since the house is so big now, and Han has set up a separate warehouse to store the grain, she no longer has to guard these things day and night. She has plenty of opportunities to fish in troubled waters.

So she found an opportunity to sneak into the storeroom, mixed a lot of white flour into the coarse flour, and then took the initiative to cook.

Even if Han found it strange, he wouldn't investigate further.

(End of this chapter)