C13 Suffering a Loss

Tao Xiaotu struggled to break free from the Prefect and glared at him. Just as the Prefect was about to step forward again, Tao Xiaotu deliberately tripped him.

The Prefect almost fell down.

With her free hands and feet, Tao Xiaotou's fighter jet soared. Chen Mingxi was no match for her at all.

Seeing that the two of them were locked in a fierce fight, the prefectural magistrate slapped the wood with all his might, "Impudent! But what kind of place do you think this is?"

"Stop, stop!"

Neither of them was willing to let go first. Tao Xiaozui looked at Chen Mingxi, "Let go together."

"Let go first before I let go."

Tao Xiaosui opened her eyes wide and looked at the Prefect, panting, "Did the Prefect hear that? She didn't want to let go."

"Chen Mingxi, I order you to let go!"

Only then did Chen Mingxi and Tao Xiaosui let go, their heads a mess.

"Lord Prefect is upholding justice for our Chen Family. Tao Xiaosui is willing to do anything to steal our business. This is truly infuriating. Now that we have evidence, please uphold justice, Lord Prefect."

The State Magistrate nodded his head as if he was taking things seriously. He slammed the wooden block in his hand and was about to give the order to punish Tao Xiaozui when Tao Xiaozui suddenly questioned Chen Mingxi.

"Miss Chen said that I stole your formula. Since you are sure that the contents of the formula belong to your Chen family, you don't need the formula to know how to make the Han Baobao."

Seeing that something was not right, not knowing if Chen Mingxi had done his homework beforehand, the Prefect was somewhat flustered.

Chen Mingxi frowned, not knowing what to say. Tao Xiaosui took advantage of the situation and asked again, "Miss Chen, why don't you tell us the contents of the recipe to convince us?"

"Formula... Our Chen Family's formula is not something that can be casually revealed."

Tao Xiaosui sneered and said to the Prefect: "Lord Prefect, she can't tell you the contents of the recipe, so it proves that she framed me for stealing the recipe. Then, in order to make things difficult for me, she started a rumor saying that the Han Baos and fries we made were bad."

"She said that someone ate, puked, and had diarrhea, but those who haven't had any problems yet came to me for compensation."

The Prefect was helpless. He could only see Chen Mingxi's reaction.

"Chen Mingxi, what else is there to say?"

Chen Mingxi refused to let go, insisting that Tao Xiaozui's words were unreasonable.

"If the food in your shop is bad, then there must be a problem with the recipe. You even shirked responsibility in court."

Ye Yuan invited two people to stand in the crowd and stir up the crowd, deliberately raising their voices: "I see now that Miss Chen can't get the formula herself and is putting on a show here. We've all been fooled by her."

"That's right. I thought the things Miss Tao made weren't clean. It turns out that we were all deceived."

"How could Miss Chen do such a thing? Even a lady from a noble family would do such a shameless thing."

More and more voices came from the crowd. They were all belittling Chen Mingxi for Tao Xiaosui.

Chen Mingxi's face was ashen as he tried his best to signal the Prefect. The Prefect wanted to stabilize the situation, but to no avail.

"Silence, silence!"

A few constables were about to drive the crowd away with sticks in their hands when someone in the crowd shouted, "The prefectural magistrate is helping Miss Chen like this. Could it be that he has received some benefits from her?"

"There's such a thing?"

"No wonder he tried so hard to sentence Miss Tao!"

In order to protect himself, the Prefect could only ignore Chen Mingxi, "This official is impartial and has never received any benefits! How can this official handle a case with so much noise?"

At this moment, no one was listening to what the Prefect had to say. They all threw vegetable leaves at Chen Mingxi, and the situation became chaotic once again.

Ye Yuan, who had temporarily left, invited the imperial inspector who was patrolling the county. Seeing the chaos, the imperial inspector walked into the court and reprimanded the Prefect, "If you can't even handle such a small matter, then you are unworthy of being a parent."

Following that, the imperial inspector sat in the court and spoke with dignity, "Which one of you is the plaintiff and which one is the defendant?"

Chen Mingxi did not know that the imperial inspector was one of Ye Yuan's people and immediately took the initiative to speak up for injustice.

Tao Xiaozui didn't want to fall behind either. She finally understood that children who cried everywhere had milk to drink.

They were both girls. Chen Mingxi could cry, and so could Tao Xiaozui!

"The imperial inspector is finally here. This humble woman sincerely wants to do her own business, and Miss Chen saw that this humble woman's business was good, so she came to buy this humble woman's formula. This humble woman did not want to buy it, but she colluded with the prefectural magistrate to kill this humble woman."

The imperial inspector asked about the entire matter, and even brought a group of witnesses. Finally, he had Tao Xiaozui and Chen Mingxi go to the kitchen and make Han Bao and French fries for the crowd to eat.

This way, the things that Chen Mingxi forced himself to make were revealed.

The sky gradually darkened, and the results were clear. The imperial inspector looked at Chen Mingxi and asked, "Chen Mingxi, do you still insist that the recipe is yours?"

Chen Mingxi could only lower his head and remain silent.

The imperial envoy closed the case: "Chen Mingxi falsely accused Tao Xiaozui, causing the Tao Family's snack shop's reputation to be damaged. In addition, he created rumors and caused trouble. He is sentenced to thirty years in prison for a month."

"In addition, the Tao family's snack shop's reputation will be able to open once the seal is lifted."

Tao Xiaosui kowtowed to thank him: "The imperial inspector is wise, thank you for your judgment."

Tao Xiaosu was overjoyed to see Chen Mingxi being beaten. She turned to look at Ye Yuan and smiled.

Having dealt with the problem in her heart, Tao Xiaozui and Ye Yuan went to the two shop assistants' houses to hire people to work in the shop the next day.

After returning home, Tao Xiaosu, who was in a good mood, told the good news to Third Brother Tao the moment she returned home.

"Dad, dad..."

"Let me tell you some good news. Our shop will be open for business tomorrow."

Tao Laosan walked out of the house and grinned happily: "Really? That's great."

"I made you a steamed bun at home just now, and I've also cut the meat for you. See how you want to do it."

Tao Xiaozui went back into the kitchen. Just as she was seasoning, she saw Tao Laosan making a sesame seed cake.

"Dad, are you making a sesame seed cake?"

"I haven't made a sesame seed cake for many years. Come and try it."

Third Brother Tao's cooking skills had always been good. The fragrance of the sesame seed cake tempted Tao Xiaosui's stomach.

"Just by smelling it, you know it's delicious. Why don't you sell it with the meat buns tomorrow? Business will definitely rise again."

At night, Third Brother Tao went to sleep early. When Ye Yuan was half-asleep, he felt someone sneak into the room.

Ye Yuan instantly lost all his sleepiness, but he still pretended to be asleep and attracted people to take the bait.

As expected, when the man in black reached Ye Yuan's bed and was about to do something to him, Ye Yuan suddenly stopped him.

"Who is it?"

The man turned around and looked at Ye Yuan. A cold light flashed in his eyes, "I am here to collect a debt from you!"

Ye Yuan pulled down his mask and was slightly surprised, "Mingfeng?"

"You killed my beloved horse. I want you to pay me back with your life."

After saying that, Mingfeng cleverly avoided Ye Yuan's hand. The two of them fought in close combat, but Ye Yuan was at a disadvantage because of his injuries.