957 Quarrel
The lady boss assumed that Jiang Ming had already been punished.
“What are you doing here?” she asked coldly. “Are you here to apologize to us?”
Sikong Wuyuan smiled.
“Should we get the county magistrate to come over and see who should apologize to who?”
“The county magistrate here has always been impartial unless you are the king of the Xiaguo Kingdom,” the lady boss said in a deep voice.
“How can you be exempted from punishment by the county magistrate? Are you here to cause trouble again?”
Then, she threw a bell in front of Jiang Ming.
“This bell is worth thousands of gold coins. Consider this our apology. You must be in pain after the punishment. How pitiful.”
She obviously looked down on Jiang Ming.
“How can this little bell be worth thousands of gold coins?”
Sikong Wuyuan lifted his leg without hesitation and crushed the bell into pieces.
“What a pity, your money is gone.”
“As expected, beggars are beggars. They have no taste at all.”
The lady boss snorted coldly and turned to look at the chef’s wound, ignoring Jiang Ming.
Jiang Ming was not someone to be trifled with. He sat down directly.
“We are not here to quarrel with you today. Hand over the prime minister, and we will not hold it against you. Otherwise, things will not be as simple as it is now.”
“We don’t know where the prime minister is,” the chef said to Jiang Ming. “Even if we knew where he was and hid him, we wouldn’t tell you.”
“That’s right. We’d rather die than tell you,” the lady boss said.
Jiang Ming frowned and felt that these two people were very impudent.
“What’s wrong with you two?” Sikong Wuyuan asked angrily. “Do you know who this is? Are you still in the Xiaguo Kingdom?”
“We can operate our restaurant wherever we want. With the county magistrate on our side, who do you think you are?”
The lady boss retorted rudely.
“Where is the county magistrate? Where is the county magistrate? Hurry up and find him. He’s too arrogant.”
The chef was restless and asked the servants to go and call him.
After a while, the county magistrate came over.
Under the expectant gazes of the lady boss and the chef, he lowered his voice and said to Jiang Ming, “Your Majesty, what’s the matter? Did these two give you trouble? I’ll punish them now.”
The lady boss was instantly frightened.
“Your Majesty? How can you be the current king?”
In fact, she knew Jiang Ming was the king, but in front of the magistrate, she still had to pretend.
Jiang Ming rolled his eyes.
Why did he feel that the lady boss actually knew who he was?
The chef also pretended to be frightened and was about to kneel down in panic.
“Your Majesty, we thought that you were a foreigner. We won’t be like this anymore.”
“Please let me go. I really don’t know the prime minister.” The lady boss also wiped her tears. “I’m just a restaurant owner. How can I know so many high-ranking officials?”
The county magistrate was immediately moved by their tears. He looked at Jiang Ming and said, “Your Majesty, they probably don’t know the prime minister. Besides, the prime minister is dead now. What else can they do?”
The lady boss started to act pitiful with tears and snot running down her face.
“I was born in the countryside and was very poor. How could I know any high-ranking officials? I had to borrow money from others to open this restaurant as well.”
Sikong Wuyuan became irritated. He looked at the county magistrate and said, “This has nothing to do with you. You can leave first. We will take care of it.”
“These two are my good friends. It’s not good for you to do this, right?” the county magistrate asked worriedly.
“It’s alright,” the chef hurriedly said. “Magistrate, you should leave. Since the king wants to make things difficult for us, we have no other choice.”
Jiang Ming was speechless.
Those who did not know better would think that they were bullying the people.
The lady boss started to put on an act. She supported the chef and said, “Since the king doesn’t want us to live well, then let’s go outside and pray. I hope you can let us go, Your Majesty.”
Sikong Wuyuan was also speechless.
The county magistrate quickly tried to persuade the chef and the lady boss.
“This is not a conflict. We are doing this for the king.”
The lady boss smiled, but Jiang Ming saw a hint of mockery in it. Then, he said, “Let her go. Don’t stop her. I want to see what the lady boss wants to do.”
The lady boss was still smiling, but her heart was cold.
Even if she had to die, she would make sure the king ended up with a terrible reputation.
Outside the door, the lady boss knelt on the ground and pulled the chef to kneel as well.
“Your Majesty, everything is our fault. We lowly commoners should not have served you bad food. We thought our meticulous cooking would appease you, but our food is nothing compared to what is made in the royal kitchens. Now that the restaurant has been destroyed, please let us go. You have also crippled my younger brother. Please forgive us.”
Her words attracted everyone’s attention. The onlookers began talking.
“What’s going on? That new king seems to be bullying the people.”
“This lady boss seems to have been tortured very badly. I know her. She’s kind and helps the poor. Why is the king like this? To think that I thought he was a good person.”
“Isn’t that so? How can such a person ascend to the throne?”
Everyone started to change their opinion of Jiang Ming. These words were heard by Jiang Ming and Sikong Wuyuan.
Sikong Wuyuan frowned.
So, this was what the lady boss was thinking.
Jiang Ming was expressionless.
He had guessed what the lady boss wanted to do, but he did not expect her to have the courage to implement it.
When they saw Jiang Ming, the onlookers’ eyes were all on him. Their eyes were filled with fear and sizing him up.
“Didn’t I say that I wanted to cure you?” Jiang Ming pretended to be troubled. “Now, you insist on asking me for silver. Ten million silver is a little too much. You know that the national treasury has been empty recently and needs to be restocked. How can the Xiaguo Kingdom have so much silver? Now that you’re acting pitiful and insisting that I give you the silver, what about the other commoners? Aren’t they going to starve?”
Hearing this, the commoners began to reprimand the lady boss, their eyes filled with disgust.
