I survived the famine by scavenging and supported my family.

As soon as Ning Ma finished speaking, she rushed in from behind the crowd and, with that momentum, slapped Granny Qian to the ground.

Granny Qian sat on the ground, her hands digging directly into the broken porcelain shards, causing her to cry out in pain.

"Ningning, are you alright?" Ning's mother pulled her daughter back, gave her a quick check, and only after seeing that she was all right did she take her into her arms.

"I'm fine. We just argued for a bit and waited for you to come back." When Zhao Ningning saw that Cao Niangzi from the stall next to her was gone, she knew that Cao Niangzi had run off to find Ning Ma. So she wasn't worried at all and could only try her best to stall Granny Qian and wait for the adults to come back.

"It's good that you're alright." Ning's mother patted her head.

"You heartless bastard! How dare you push your mother-in-law! Ouch... my hand... ouch... it hurts so much!" Granny Qian cried, her old face wrinkled like a walnut. With each opening and closing of her walnut-shaped face, low curses continued to escape.

Ning's mother: Be patient. You can't hit an old person on the street.

Sun squatted down to help Granny Qian up, then turned and accused, "Zhou, how could you push our mother?!"

"Our mother is getting on in years. What if you push her and she falls and hurts herself!"

Ning's mother looked at her like she was a fool: "Was the spanking on your hands too light or what?"

Rolling up her sleeves, Ning's mother said, "Are you still hungry and want a slap to teach you a lesson?!"

Ning Ma couldn't hit her old woman, but she had no qualms about fighting with her sisters-in-law of the same generation. Too lazy to listen to Sun Shi's nagging, Ning Ma slapped her directly. "The first time, you tricked my daughter into going up the mountain to kidnap her. My daughter rolled down the slope and broke her head trying to escape you. You thought she was dead and rushed home."

"The second time, when she went up the mountain alone, you tied her up and hid her in a basket, making the villagers who went to find her almost believe your nonsense. If Ningning hadn't been smart, you would have succeeded in your scheme long ago."

"This time, you've come to the stall to arrest people again." After beating her, Ning Ma grabbed Sun's clothes by the front and pulled them up, causing Sun's feet to leave the ground. She looked at her second daughter-in-law in horror.

"No, it wasn't me..." Sun said in horror.

She remembered—Zhou was a madwoman! A madwoman who would hit people at the drop of a hat!

"Once, twice, and you want to do it a third time?!" Ning's mother raised her right hand, reaching out to slap Sun's face.

"What's going on!"

Three constables arrived from the outer perimeter.

When the common people saw the policeman with a knife coming, they all made way for him. When Ning Ma saw this, she let go of his hand, and Sun Shi collapsed to the ground like a broken sack, falling hard on her buttocks.

Cao Niangzi, who was trailing at the back of the yamen runners, took the opportunity to grab the food that Zhou had bought, quietly bypassed the crowd, and returned to her stall.

"What's going on here?!" A constable stood in front of the stall. "Who's the stall owner?!"

"Sir, I am the owner of this stall." Ning Ma took out a wooden sign from her bosom and showed it to the yamen runner opposite her.

"What's going on at your stall? Why is there such a commotion?" The constables, who were responsible for maintaining order in the East Market after receiving money, glanced at the things on the ground and looked at Sun.

"Here's what happened," Ning's mother said, pointing at Granny Qian. "I just went to buy lunch, and when I came back, I found this family causing trouble at the stall, trying to steal our recipe." "They even tried to kidnap my daughter!"

"Officers, don't let this family get away with this! She's abducted someone's daughter twice already!" A braver passerby held up three fingers. "Today is the third time!"

"Trafficking!?" The constable frowned. The Great Zhou Dynasty did not prohibit the private buying and selling of people, but it prohibited the trafficking of other people's children.

"My lord! My lord! Don't listen to their nonsense!" Granny Qian tried to grab the official's clothes, but as soon as she reached out, the sharp-eyed official noticed the blood on her hands and quickly dodged away in disgust.

"Go away! Speak properly, don't get our official uniforms dirty!" The yamen runner took a few steps back and said impatiently, "Stand still!"

Granny Qian stretched out her hands, glanced back at Zhao Ningning and the other two, then turned back to the bailiffs and complained, "It's them!"

"They're the ones who are unfilial!"

"We are a family. I was worried about my second son's injury. There are only three of them, so they can't do much work. That's why I dragged my old bones over here, thinking of helping them set up their stall."

Granny Qian spoke with heartfelt sincerity, tears welling in her eyes: "Who knew that this little wretch... my granddaughter, not only was she ungrateful, but she also spread rumors about us in the street! It has truly broken my heart!"

"Uncle Officer!" Zhao Ningning broke free from her mother's arms and said, "We've already separated our households and signed a separation agreement!"

"The stranger was right, she kidnapped me twice! Both times I almost died trying to escape, and just now too... If you hadn't arrived in time, I would have been captured!"

Zhao Ningning reached into her pocket and pulled out several sheets of paper. "This is our document severing ties with our family!"

The yamen runner was very interested in this and was about to reach for it when Granny Qian pounced over, snatched the paper from Zhao Ningning's hand, and tore it to shreds in no time.

"Sir, don't listen to her nonsense! That whole family is lazy and greedy, with a terrible reputation in the village. If they hadn't brought their family recipes out to sell at a stall, they would have starved to death long ago!" Granny Qian tore up the paper, thinking everything was fine, and continued:

"What they did broke my heart! Today I just want to take this business back and not give it to them anymore."

—Heartbroken?

Zhao Ningning scoffed, "Who hurt whose heart here? You really don't know how powerful the law is until you study it. Not to mention that the divorce papers are in triplicate, with one copy kept as a backup by the village head, what she just pulled out was nothing more than scrap paper that Ning's mother used to practice her handwriting when keeping accounts."

"Stop distorting the truth here," Ning's mother said. "Everyone on this street knows that I was the first to start this food business. Countless snack stalls in Fengning County have tried to imitate me but couldn't quite get it right. You say this recipe belongs to your Zhao family? Then let me ask you..."

Ning's mother lifted the wooden bucket up. "How is the ice jelly in here made?"

Yesterday, I heard from the third brother that the thing in the bowl was soft and bouncy with a bit of white color. It was obviously the kind of cold jelly that people in the countryside often eat in the summer. Zhao Ningning just added some toppings to the cold jelly. What's so difficult about that?

Granny Qian knew a thing or two about how to make pea jelly: "It's just made from the juice of peas that are common in the countryside, dried into powder!"

If that were the case, other people in the county would have already copied it. Pea jelly and ice jelly taste completely different.

Among the constables, Yang Liu, who was following behind, glanced at the wife at the pancake stall, then at the leader, and whispered, "Boss, I've eaten this ice jelly before. The texture is different from cold jelly. Ice jelly is soft."

Hearing someone speak up for her family, Zhao Ningning cleverly took out clean bowls and spoons from the wooden bucket, scooped out three bowls of ice jelly, and Zhao Qi helped her carry them.

After serving the three bowls, Zhao Ningning and Zhao Qi brought them to the front and said, "Uncle officers, all our condiments have been spilled, but the ice jelly in the bucket is fine. You'll know once you try it; ice jelly is not the same as cold jelly."

The official reached out and took the spoon, examining it closely. Up close, the ice jelly was completely transparent, but from a distance, it appeared white. This was because it contained tiny, dense air bubbles, which made it look white.

He took a bite, and the ice jelly had a soft, smooth texture, unlike the chewy jelly he usually ate.

Setting down the bowl, the constable's face darkened, and he said with a hint of anger, "Well, you dare to try to confuse us and deceive us! You're incredibly audacious! Do you think we're so easily fooled?"

"Take them away!"

"No! No!" Granny Qian cried, her hands raised, her face deathly pale. "Sir, it's them! It's all their fault!"

As for what was wrong, Granny Qian couldn't give a clear answer. Ding Hong waved his hand impatiently, and two constables came up and took the man away.

As the aggrieved party, Zhao Ningning and the others naturally had to accompany her. When Ning's mother saw that Cao Niangzi had also returned to her stall, she smiled gratefully at her and said, "Cao Niangzi, I'll have to trouble you to watch the stall for me again."

"Go on," Madam Cao said, pulling Ning's mother back and whispering, "The last man to walk is my husband."

Ning Ma's furrowed brows, which had been furrowed with worry, relaxed, and her face lit up with joy. No wonder the constables from the East Market were able to arrive so quickly; it turned out that Madam Cao had just gone to inform her family.

Being yamen runners, they could easily get things done faster than usual by calling for others. This wasn't the time to talk, so Ning Ma smiled gratefully at her, "Thank you so much for today!"

Before leaving, Madam Cao handed back the steamed buns that Aunt Ning had bought to her. Aunt Ning, with her two children, hurriedly followed the yamen runners toward the county government office.

On the way, Zhao Ningning and Zhao Qi were each stuffed with a steamed bun by their mother. After eating, their stomachs, which had been aching from the hunger after the argument, felt a little better.

The county magistrate had just finished eating and was taking a nap when he was interrupted and woken up. He was already displeased, so he hurriedly put on his official robes and rushed over. When his subordinates reported that the commotion was caused by a food recipe, he felt a surge of anger and irritation rush from his stomach to the top of his head.

After settling down, he first took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his forehead before slamming the gavel down heavily.

The previously noisy crowd quieted down, and only then did the county magistrate speak.

"What happened?"

"Sir, this old woman—" Granny Qian thought she should hurry up and be the first to file a complaint so that the magistrate could punish the second son's family.

To her surprise, she was interrupted as soon as she opened her mouth.

"Who told you to speak!" The county magistrate pointed at Ning's mother, who was standing to the side. "The aggrieved party should speak first."

Ning's mother stepped forward and knelt down in the hall. "Your Honor, the man in my family is her second son. At the beginning of this month, she, as my wet nurse, tried to kidnap our daughter and sell her to someone in town as a child bride. Our two families quarreled and separated, and our kinship was severed."

Zhao Ningning promptly took out the real documents for dividing the family property and severing ties, and handed them to the yamen runner who had brought them there. After the runner checked them, he forwarded them to the county magistrate.

"My husband broke his leg and can't work. Our daughter is smart and came up with a food business idea. That's how she set up a stall to earn some money to help people get medical treatment."

As Ning's mother recounted what had happened during this period, each word seemed to strike a chord in everyone's hearts.

"Our family wasn't well-off, so my daughter thought she'd go up the mountain to find some wild vegetables and firewood. Little did she know that these two men saw her and, taking advantage of the fact that she got separated from her uncle, kidnapped her!"

The magistrate glanced around and saw a group of people kneeling below the court. Two of them had their heads buried in the ground, which must have been those two wicked women.

"When my mother and her men found them on the mountain, they hid my daughter and misled the villagers. I almost, almost never saw my daughter again!"

After Ning's mother finished speaking, she still felt a lingering fear in her heart. "Today, they came to our stall again under the guise of 'supporting' us, trying to put pressure on us and steal our food business."

After the aggrieved party finished speaking, the county magistrate closed the family's division documents and looked at another group of people kneeling to one side, "You lot, tell me what happened."

"My lord! My lord, don't listen to that old woman's nonsense!" Granny Qian seized the opportunity. "I'm Wuya's mother, how could I harm her!"

"I was just thinking that my family was so poor that we couldn't even afford to eat, so I thought of finding a good family for Wuya..." Granny Qian said, repeating her usual story. However, she was dressed in gold and silver, which angered the county magistrate, who slammed his gavel twice.

"How dare you spout nonsense! Tell me, what's the situation with the family you're looking for?"

Granny Qian choked up and said, "It's a family in town. They're well-off, so they wanted to buy a little girl to raise first, so they can arrange a marriage for the two children when they grow up."

"You're talking nonsense!" Zhao Ningning interrupted Granny Qian, kneeling below the hall. "That's a fool! A fifteen-year-old fool who's still picking up cow dung to eat!"

"Sir, what nonsense are you spouting, you little brat?" Granny Qian said, and was about to cover Zhao Ningning's mouth with her blood- and dirt-stained hands.

Zhao Ningning naturally wouldn't do as she wished. She knelt forward a few steps before saying, "Your Honor, please understand! Our family is the second branch of the Zhao family. If I were to become a child bride, that would be part of the marriage process. My marriage must be approved by my biological parents."

"Besides, she didn't sell me because her family was too poor to afford food; it was because she needed money to get a wife for her eldest grandson, and they ran out of money, so they decided to target me!"

The young girl looked quite young, but she spoke clearly and logically. The county magistrate nodded. "Mrs. Qian, what do you have to say?"

"That's a misunderstanding!" Granny Qian argued. "Besides, I'm your elder. Even your parents have to listen to me, let alone you!"

"Didn't we sever ties?" Zhao Ningning said, "You could say you were my elder the first time, but when you kidnapped me the second time, we were already separated. How can you still call yourself my elder?"

"Then I'm your grandmother too!" Granny Qian said, her eyes gleaming, and she reached out to grab Fifth Sister.

If you cover her mouth, she won't be able to talk nonsense!

"How dare you!" The magistrate stood up and walked around to the hall. "The Great Zhou Dynasty has a law that states that marriage must first be approved by the parents, then by the elders. If there are no direct elders, then other uncles and aunts may inquire."

"Other people's parents don't approve, why would they let you off the hook!"

Granny Qian trembled at his words. She hadn't expected that a maid could cause so much trouble. In the village, maids were often beaten and scolded at will.

"Sir, her father and I both agree!" Granny Qian stammered. "Her father always listens to me; whatever I say goes."

The past is the past, and the present is the present. The current Zhao Lao Er won't listen to his family anymore, and Granny Qian only dares to fool people here because they're not around.

"Since you say he listens to you, then dividing the family property must have been his idea?" the magistrate pressed.

"No, that wasn't his intention," said Granny Qian. "It was all his wife's doing, it was all her instigation!"

"Insolence!" The magistrate flicked his long sleeves, returned to his table, and tossed down a signed document. "Guards, give him thirty slaps!"