Transmigrated as a Stepmother: Time to Bring the Family to Prosper!-Chapter 361: Evil Ghost Lady

The County Magistrate and the Prison Chief exchanged glances, full of suspicion, and followed the Steward to the back hall.

Upon entering, one of Song Zhang’s trusted followers brought up a wooden tray containing a dozen pages filled with dense writing and numbers, with no cover, as if they were part of a larger book torn out.

Inexplicably, the County Magistrate and the Prison Chief felt a sense of foreboding.

The Prison Chief frowned and looked at the Steward, "What is this?"

The Steward, who was just smiling, suddenly retracted his smile, his expression darkening, and shouted, "Why don’t you just look for yourselves, sirs?!"

The Prison Chief’s face turned dark instantly, glaring at him, but ultimately couldn’t resist his curiosity and reached out to take the items from the tray.

Seeing this, his hands started to tremble uncontrollably.

After quickly flipping through two pages, he dared not look further, swallowed hard, and looked up at the Steward, his gaze changed from displeasure to an attempt to curry favor.

"This account book, may I ask where you got it from, Steward?"

The Steward didn’t answer, as Song Zhang’s follower poured him a cup of hot tea, which he sipped slowly.

The County Magistrate suspiciously looked at the Steward, and then at the panicked Prison Chief, snatched the pages from his hand, and read through them all.

The more he read, the paler his face became, but he was much calmer than the Prison Chief, as his name only appeared twice in this account book.

The rest were all about the Prison Chief, covering a full eighteen pages from last year to this year, each page featuring the Prison Chief’s name.

It recorded instances of a certain year, month, day, and hour, indicating how much silver, cloth, tea, liquor, and even expenses at Beauty Pan’s establishment were given to the Prison Chief, meticulously listing every detail, even the cost of half a cup of tea in a teahouse.

The County Magistrate looked at the now trembling Prison Chief in shock, "You wouldn’t even pay for half a cup of tea yourself?"

The Prison Chief, ashamed and indignant, retorted, "Didn’t you even charge a meal to the Jin Family Manager? How dare you criticize me? I thought you were incorruptible, but it turns out you’ve also taken benefits from the Jin Family behind closed doors! You used to always act all high and mighty towards me!"

The County Magistrate sighed, aware that the County Magistrate’s people were still present, and now was not the time to argue over such trivial matters with the Prison Chief.

The Prison Chief reacted even faster than him, dropping to his knees, claiming he was forced, with elderly parents and a wife, children, and younger siblings to support. The government salary was too low, forcing him to ’unwillingly’ do Jin Chan Chu a favor.

The Steward’s lips twitched, You keep making up stories, try telling me that again and I’ll be a fool to believe it!

The County Magistrate’s focus differed from the Prison Chief’s; since the Lord County Magistrate had the Steward show them the account book alone, it didn’t seem like they intended to completely break with them. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Though somewhat flustered, the County Magistrate remained calm and asked again the question the Prison Chief had asked earlier: "May I ask the Steward, where did this account book come from?"

Even if the pages were torn out, destroying them on the spot would be useless, as the original was still with the County Magistrate, who could easily manipulate them at will.

Only then did the Steward set down his pretentious teacup, stood up, and said, "It suddenly appeared outside my Lord’s door last night, perhaps the wicked have done too much evil and this time they stumbled upon a hard wall, good deeds being rewarded."

The Prison Chief glared, You’re kidding!

Could Jin Chan Chu’s account book really have just fallen from the sky, landing perfectly at Song Zhang’s doorstep?

The Steward shrugged, knowing they wouldn’t believe it, but he had no choice—that was the truth.

The account book did indeed suddenly appear outside his Lord’s door!

Of course, he wouldn’t rule out someone delivering the account book while his Lord slept deeply, so deeply that he didn’t notice anything.

The Steward silently wished the kind person who brought it all the best and a peaceful life.

There wasn’t much else to say; Song Zhang’s intention wasn’t to clean out the government office just yet.

Having the account book in hand, his heart went cold halfway through.

The whole government office, from minor officers to the County Magistrate and the Prison Chief, none were left out.

The connections ran too deep; if he really dealt with this group, the entire governmental system of Kaiyang County would collapse, leaving no one useful.

So, Song Zhang only wanted to use the account book to have those who were wise to align themselves properly, while removing a few insignificant ones as an example.

Soon, the County Magistrate and the Prison Chief returned from the back hall; facing the suggesting and coercive gazes of the Jin Family, the two didn’t waver, walking straight to their positions, clasping their fists, and saying in unison:

"We leave all actions to the decision of Lord County Magistrate!"

The Steward nodded toward Song Zhang, indicating that the matter had been settled.

Thus, a page of the account was sent to the Jin Family, asking whether it was the handwriting of the Jin Family Manager.

The eldest son of the Jin Family instinctively responded, "How did our account book end up in your hands?"

Song Zhang: Good, very smart, saves trouble.

Four government officers rushed at Chief Yu, pinning him down on the ground in the hall.

Chief Yu looked towards the County Magistrate in terror, unaware of what was happening.

The County Magistrate read out coldly, with lowered eyes, the charges of abuse of power, accepting Jin Chan Chu’s bribes, unlawfully imprisoning innocent people and freeing guilty ones over many years.

The Prison Chief stared at the County Magistrate in horror, astonished at the rapid list of charges compiled in such a short time.

Meanwhile.

At Wang Family Manor.

With a similar account book in hand, Wang Mawu and the summoned Beauty Pan exchanged uneasy glances, sweating and enraged.

This was the account book of an escort agency, but the agency closed down shortly after bandits were eradicated in Kaiyang County.

The existence of this escort agency was a shared secret among the Three Evils. The bandits would first rob the escorts, and then the agency would charge merchants high protection fees to ’risk’ escorting the goods, always successfully, as bandits gained nothing from them.

Finally, the profits were equally divided among the four families, maintaining a balance of benefits.

At least, that’s how Wang Mawu and Beauty Pan saw it.

The bandits were already dealt with, and they didn’t care if the bandit leader felt it was fair or not.

But now, the mother-child account book they held revealed otherwise—the supposed balance, with the pawnshop gaining an extra twenty percent.

They felt furious, and the consequences were severe.

But now, with this mother-child account book in hand, they trembled even more.

Wang Mawu sighed, "I’ve always said, that’s the real evil ghost, but Jin Chan Chu wouldn’t listen, and now look, the Three Evils turn into Two Evils, and in some time, won’t you and I disappear too?"

Beauty Pan, who never had the chance to encounter the ’Evil Ghost’ Wang Mawu spoke of, secretly felt relieved. Luckily, what she liked didn’t clash with her interests, otherwise, she might be the next Jin Chan Chu.

At that, Beauty Pan touched her face in terror, thankful her face was still intact.

Only...

"What’s the meaning behind giving us this account book? Is she preparing to target us?"

Wang Mawu rolled his eyes at her, "We haven’t provoked her; why would she eliminate us? She’s not doing it for fun."

Glancing at the account book, Wang Mawu already had a plan, "Weren’t you eyeing the Jin Family’s pawnshop? Here’s the perfect opportunity handed to you, aren’t you going to do something about it? The Jin Family took two percent of our profits; I can’t swallow this anger!"

Beauty Pan raised an eyebrow, suggesting they present a pledge to the ’Evil Ghost Lady’ to express their goodwill.

Kaiyang County still appeared peaceful and calm as always.

But people had a feeling that something had changed somewhere...