Chapter 599: Chapter 599: The Little Mouse Knows the Inside Story

"What? The Princess and the Crown Prince?!" Lord Ma’s eyes went wide, unable to believe what he was hearing.

The surrounding townspeople, along with Manager Wen and Wen Xiaoman, were all stunned.

The Ping City garrison commander bowed low, utterly deferential toward Mo Lingwei and Shen Ningning.

Wiping the sweat beading on his forehead, he said with a fawning smile, "Your Highness the Crown Prince, you moved so quickly that I almost couldn’t keep up. Thankfully, I arrived in time. Her Highness the Princess hasn’t been wronged, has she?"

Seeing his uncle-in-law’s attitude, Lord Ma finally realized this was no act.

’He’d actually gotten on the wrong side of a princess!’

’In the entire Cangyun Country, who else could it be but Princess Funing?’

Lord Ma’s knees went weak, and he fell to the ground with a THUD. The magistrate scrambled to kneel beside him, both of them trembling in terror.

Mo Lingwei’s lips thinned into a hard line. "If we hadn’t arrived when we did," he said, his voice severe, "this wretched official was about to start caning people without getting the facts straight. Did you intend to beat a confession out of him before the matter was even investigated?"

Shen Ningning stared at the magistrate. "Your talent for calling a deer a horse was truly an eye-opener," she said coldly. "To insist my fine, white flour was the old, stale stuff from Lord Ma’s house... that’s just blatant lying. I won’t even bother questioning you. It’s clear you’re incapable of delivering justice!"

With that, the girl stepped forward, a sack of flour in each hand. She walked to the entrance of the government office and held them up for the crowd to see.

"Take a look. Is this the same flour?"

The townspeople craned their necks, and they all saw clearly.

"Definitely not!"

"Manager Wen’s flour is much finer."

"That’s high-grade flour. It’s far more expensive than anything Lord Ma has stored at his home. How could it possibly have been stolen from him?"

The crowd’s comments made the kneeling magistrate and Lord Ma’s scalps tingle with fear.

But the most terrified of all was the Ping City garrison commander.

Seeing Mo Lingwei’s terrifyingly dark expression, he darted over to Lord Ma and kicked him to the ground.

"You absolute scoundrel! How dare you arrest people without a proper investigation? And colluding with the magistrate to stir up this mess! I’ve warned you to be discreet and careful, to not throw your weight around and bully people!"

Mo Lingwei shot him a look. "Enough. Don’t be in such a hurry to distance yourself from him. The only reason he’s so arrogant and domineering, with even the magistrate protecting him, is because he’s gotten used to running wild in Ping City, relying on you, his uncle-in-law."

The garrison commander dropped to his knees in terror. "Your Highness the Crown Prince, I would never dare to shield him! I am swamped with official duties; I see him only a handful of times a month. If I had known he was such a scoundrel, I would have dragged him to prison and beaten him severely myself, long before Your Highness and the Princess had to intervene."

With that, he turned and barked at Lord Ma, "Hurry up and apologize to Her Highness the Princess!"

Lord Ma’s face was ashen. He shuffled forward on his knees until he was in front of Shen Ningning and slapped himself hard on both cheeks. "Your Highness, please forgive me! This lowly one was blind and failed to recognize your greatness! I stirred up trouble right before your eyes. This lowly one knows he was wrong!"

Shen Ningning remained silent, her charming face an icy mask.

Mo Lingwei, who knew her best, gave a cold laugh on her behalf. "Offending the Princess is a crime punishable by death. But your true crime was falsely accusing Manager Wen of theft."

Lord Ma took the hint. He scrambled over to Manager Wen, crying and kowtowing as he grabbed the man’s sleeves.

"Manager Wen, we’ve known each other for years! You’re not going to hold a grudge over a little thing like this, are you? Besides, it was one of your own inn’s employees who told me you stole my things! It’s not like I accused you for no reason! Please, just forgive me this one time, and put in a good word for me with the Princess!"

Manager Wen, being soft-hearted, began to waver at the man’s incessant pleading. "Well..."

Wen Xiaoman took two steps forward and yanked her father’s sleeve from Lord Ma’s grasp.

"No! This can’t end so quickly. They’re only admitting fault because the Princess and Crown Prince showed up. The moment Their Highnesses leave, they’ll go right back to their old ways! Father, he has to be taught a lesson!"

’Lord Ma has bullied Father for so long. It’s time he was taught a lesson.’

Shen Ningning gave Wen Xiaoman a subtle nod. She thought the same thing.

The magistrate was even quicker to absolve himself of blame.

"Your Highness the Crown Prince, Your Highness the Princess, this matter isn’t entirely my fault. When Manager Wen was first brought here, I interrogated him. I asked him to account for the origin of all that food. He said it was a gift from a friend, a Miss Shen. But that much rice and flour, not to mention the chickens, ducks, and fish in the courtyard, and all that cured and smoked meat... to buy and deliver all of that overnight is practically impossible."

"That’s why I suspected he was lying. I was planning to question him more carefully, but I never imagined he was actually telling the truth."

Shen Ningning pursed her pink lips, glancing guiltily at Mo Lingwei.

’Of course, she’d gotten all of it from the Immortal Realm. But when explaining it to others, she had to find a plausible excuse.’

’But the magistrate’s suspicion wasn’t unfounded. That much food, plus the neatly stacked firewood... it was enough to have bought out half of the rice and flour in Ping City.’

’The only other explanation was that someone had it delivered overnight from another city, but that was no easy feat.’

Shen Ningning fiddled with the corner of her sleeve, feeling a little awkward.

Mo Lingwei noticed her small, fidgety movements. He calmly reached out and enveloped her fingers in his palm.

He looked at the magistrate, his voice perfectly steady. "When she settled here, she wrote to me, telling me that an innkeeper had helped her a great deal but was being bullied. She asked me to send some food as a token of her gratitude. Therefore, I was the one who sent it. Do you have any further doubts?"

The magistrate was speechless. He waved his hands frantically. "This official wouldn’t dare."

’If the Crown Prince was the one who sent it, then everything made sense.’

’This was the Crown Prince, the future ruler of Cangyun Country. A single word from him was worth more than a hundred from anyone else.’

’Let alone commanding such a large delivery of food to Manager Wen’s home overnight.’

Manager Wen and the others finally understood. No wonder Miss Shen had been so hesitant when explaining where the food came from—she didn’t want to reveal that it was a gift from the Crown Prince.

Thus, under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Shen Ningning and Mo Lingwei cleared Manager Wen’s name.

Lord Ma apologized to Manager Wen and paid compensation. For his crimes of slander and false accusation, he was sentenced to twenty strokes of the cane, and the magistrate was demoted.

Just as the matter was seemingly concluded, Shen Ningning noticed a small mouse peeking out from a corner.

When it saw Shen Ningning’s gaze turn toward it, the little mouse scurried in three anxious circles. It even stood on its hind legs and waved its tiny paws, as if it had something to say.

Shen Ningning pressed her lips together. "Wait. Don’t close the case just yet."

’Could it be that the mice know something more?’

She walked over and squatted down. The crowd could only see Princess Funing speaking to an empty corner, and they were immediately filled with awe.

Legend had it that Princess Funing could communicate with heaven and earth and understand the language of all beasts. Now, it seemed, those legends were true.

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