An Jing cast a meaningful glance at her aloof husband before asking with a smile, "Why were all of them thrown into prison all of a sudden?"
Wang Youbao explained, "On the surface, He Ba had no relationship with Sun Beiwei, but in reality, he was one of Sun Beiwei’s men and worked for him, committing numerous evils in the town over the years with Sun Beiwei’s support from behind. Sun Beiwei, relying on the power of his brother-in-law, Official Zhao, had nearly absolute control over the Sixteen Town, even causing several deaths. Official Zhao was corrupt and abused the law, serving those who offered him benefits and arbitrarily sending those who crossed him to prison, covering up the murder cases caused by Sun Beiwei. Some cases that couldn’t be suppressed, he would just find a scapegoat to protect Sun Beiwei. And all this, the County Magistrate was unaware of. Somehow, the provincial official personally came down to investigate, and if the County Magistrate had not been just and honest all along, he definitely would have been implicated by Zhao and the others."
Pausing for a moment, Wang Youbao added, "No matter why the provincial official suddenly came to investigate, fortunately, the outcome was positive, as he completely uprooted all of Official Zhao’s influence, even capturing all the small thugs under He Ba."
After another pause, he said, "I hope from now on we won’t see another official registrar like Zhao in Hecheng County."
As he spoke, Wang Youbao remembered something and laughed to himself, "The two of you dealing with He Ba and his underlings has already spread throughout the Sixteen Town. I’ve also heard about it. You probably don’t know yet, but the eight thugs you left hanging between two trees caused quite a stir at the County Government. More than ten government officials arrived, and despite trying many methods, they couldn’t get the thugs down from between the trees. In the end, they had to saw down the trees to get them out."
"However, they were taken out, but they were also taken by the government officials back to the County Government to be locked up. Moreover, the County Magistrate has spoken; from now on, officials will patrol the towns regularly to prevent the likes of He Ba from bullying the citizens in the towns of Hecheng County."
In her heart, An Jingxin thought, This County Magistrate is quite commendable.
"You also owe thanks to the provincial official," Wang Youbao continued, "If he hadn’t come down to investigate suddenly, how you dealt with He Ba and those thugs would surely have caused Sun Beiwei to make Zhao create trouble for you. Zhao might have randomly accused you of crimes and locked you up... It was really close, but fortunately now, they are all arrested. Those who should be imprisoned will be imprisoned, those who should be exiled will be exiled, and those who should be beheaded will be beheaded. Sun Beiwei and the others truly got what they deserved, and the Sixteen Town should be peaceful in the future."
In the Xiyun Kingdom, a provincial official is equivalent to a modern-day mayor. Her husband hadn’t had to say a word, and that provincial official personally took down Sun Beiwei so swiftly. Her husband’s background...
An Jing cast another extremely meaningful glance at her aloof husband before smiling at Wang Youbao, "Yes, we owe thanks to the provincial official’s grace."
After a pause, she sincerely expressed her gratitude, "Young Master Wang, thank you for coming all this way to inform us of these matters; otherwise, we would still be in the dark."
Wang Youbao immediately said, "Oh, it’s nothing, just a trip, not worth your thanks."
An Jing knew in her heart that Wang Youbao considered them friends since he had personally come over several times to inform them of everything. She thus took the opportunity to say with a smile, "Young Master Wang, you are too modest. We’ve known each other for such a long time now, and we are friends after all. From now on, you shouldn’t be so formal with us."