"The one who was talking just now, isn't she Shang Ruoyi's second - aunt?"

"Should be. Since she said so, I guess it's probably true."

"Could it be? But she's the Young Madam!"

"Humph, so what if she's the Young Madam? Let me tell you, the more high - ranking and wealthy a family is, the more devious they are. I used to work at Tianxiang Tower. Tsk tsk, I've seen all kinds of people."

The more those people talked, the more absurd it became. Zhang listened, feeling extremely proud.

Shang Ruoyi, if I can't kill you, I'll at least ruin your reputation. Then, being ostracized by others and despised by your in - laws, let's see if you still have the face to live. Little did she know that Shang Ruoyi simply didn't care about these things.

These idle rumors spread quickly. When the He family walked over, the way they looked at Shang Ruoyi was clearly filled with disdain. Some even spat in her direction.

He Jingheng's eyes turned fierce. Seeing this, that person quickly lowered his head.

Shang Ruoyi smiled and whispered in He Jingheng's ear, "It's okay. I have plenty of ways to deal with them."

She had excellent hearing. Zhang thought she was being discreet, but from the moment she said the first word, every word she said fell clearly into Shang Ruoyi's ears. It seemed that the poison from the mushrooms last time had been completely cured, and Zhang had the energy to stir up trouble again.

Zhang Hu and the others took the official documents and began to pack the provisions into the boxes.

Shang Ruoyi looked at the usual coarse - grain cakes and silently sighed.

"Zhang Hu," a post - station guard walked up. "It seems you'll be eating coarse - grain cakes all the way."

Zhang Hu asked in a deep voice, "Why?"

Those coarse - grain cakes, though called coarse - grain, were actually made by grinding rice husks and baking them with cornmeal. They were extremely hard to swallow. Usually, such coarse - grain cakes were given to prisoners, while the guards in charge of escorting ate steamed buns made of white flour and cornmeal.

What did it mean to make them all eat coarse - grain cakes now?

"I saw several baskets of steamed buns in the kitchen yesterday. Why can't we have them?"

The guard looked at the He family and said in a low voice, "Yesterday, the heir of the Xiao Wang Mansion was injured here. The princess of the Xiao Wang Mansion was furious, saying that we didn't protect him well. So, she took away all our food and deducted our salaries for a month."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Hu immediately understood what he meant.

It was simply because the heir of the Xiao Wang Mansion had suffered losses at the hands of the He family, and his secrets had been exposed. He was just venting his anger.

The other guards were extremely unhappy upon hearing this. When they looked at the He family, their eyes were filled with anger.

If it weren't for them, why would the heir of the Xiao Wang Mansion have come to the post station?

If the heir of the Xiao Wang Mansion hadn't come, none of these things would have happened.

Ultimately, it was their fault.

So, a guard walked up to the He family with a whip in hand. Just as he was about to strike, Zhang's voice came from the crowd, "Serves them right."

The guard got angry immediately. He turned around and walked towards her, raising the whip and lashing down without mercy. "Serves them right? Who do you think serves them right? Do you think I'm being too lenient with you?"

Zhang howled in pain. The guard looked at He Ning'an and the others beside her and shouted angrily, "You're also from the He family, right? Huh?" With that, he whipped all four of them.

Shang Ruoyi shook her head. The saying "One who asks for trouble will surely get it" was really fitting.

After venting his anger, the guard put away the whip and said to the four of the second - branch, "Watch your mouths, or don't blame me for being ruthless."

The four of them, with bloodstains on their bodies, nodded shiveringly.

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Zhang was whipped the hardest. Her clothes were torn in several places, and the flesh on her arm was exposed.

Although she was in her thirties, as a princess of a county, with servants taking care of her on weekdays and good maintenance, she looked only in her twenties. Her skin was very delicate, and the group of prisoners stared at her, their eyes wide open.

Zhang Hu took the provisions with a dark face. Seeing this, Shang Ruoyi stepped forward and quietly handed him a bag of broken silver. "Because of our He family's matter, you've been implicated. This is all my savings. Please accept it as an apology."

Zhang Hu weighed the bag of broken silver. The other guards saw it clearly, and they felt better.

"It's just some dry food. It doesn't really matter," the guards smiled. That bag of silver was enough to cover their regular salaries for three months. "Anyway, Miss Shang's cooking skills are excellent. We'll have to trouble you a lot with the food on this journey."

"You're too kind, sirs."

Zhang Hu looked at Shang Ruoyi's back and then touched the bracelet in his hand. When Shang Ruoyi gave him the bag of silver, she had quietly stuffed a gold bracelet into his hand. He couldn't help but sigh inwardly. Was this really just a concubine - born daughter?

Zhang and the others watched, their teeth itching with anger.

She had the silver but didn't take it out earlier. She waited until they were whipped before doing so. This was clearly on purpose.

He Ning'an endured the pain on his body and said angrily, "I told you to keep your mouth shut!"

He Jinghe also couldn't help complaining, "Mother, all the troubles on this journey were caused by you. Otherwise, we wouldn't have been treated differently, and today we took a beating for them for no reason."

Although Qiao Yanxin didn't say anything, the resentment in her eyes was obvious.

Zhang gritted her teeth and said nothing, but the resentment in her heart grew deeper, especially towards Qiao Yanxin. A girl from a common - family background dared to show her an attitude.

When passing through a town, Shang Ruoyi proposed to go shopping again, and the guards all agreed. After all, it wasn't their money being spent.

She went to the market and bought several large pots and cooking utensils. When passing by the meat stall, she bought a lot of meat. Since it could be kept fresh in the space, they could still have some meat dishes when they reached the place of exile.

After buying rice, flour, and other food items, Shang Ruoyi walked towards the city gate.

When passing by a booth, she suddenly stopped.

"Grandma, how much do these seedlings cost?"

She had actually seen fruit seedlings.

"To be honest with you, girl, this old woman doesn't know what kind of seedlings these are. They were given to me by my neighbor from the Western Regions before he left. I originally wanted to plant them and see, but not a single one survived. I thought I'd sell the remaining ones," the old woman said.

Shang Ruoyi nodded. "I'd like to give it a try. I'll take them all."

The old woman was overjoyed. "Thank you, girl."

Just as she finished speaking, a sharp - tongued voice came from the side. "I say, you old woman are always up to tricks. What Western - Regions neighbor? What didn't survive? These are clearly just weeds." The man sneered. "Little girl, don't listen to her nonsense. Come and take a look at my seeds. They're definitely a hundred times better than that old hag's!"

Shang Ruoyi gave him a cold glance. "I think most of your seeds are withered. They won't germinate at all if planted in the ground."

A woman who was just about to buy seeds heard Shang Ruoyi's words and turned away.

The man flew into a rage. "What are you talking nonsense about? Are you going to buy or not? If not, get out of here. Don't mess up my business."

Shang Ruoyi picked up the seedlings, turned to look at the man, and sneered. "I see that your forehead is dark. You're likely to have a bloody disaster today!"