Grace Carter widened his eyes, thinking to himself that although ten taels of silver was a considerable sum in any era, the silver ingot they had just given that doctor must have been worth several taels already. Looking at the decor of this room, it was clearly the home of a wealthy family.

Even in such dire straits, they wouldn’t even give him ten taels of silver?

“There is both witness and evidence!” He hugged the embroidered ball tightly to his chest and said solemnly, “I’m telling you, this matter today cannot be settled without ten taels of silver! If you don’t give it to me, I’ll go to the county office to file a complaint…”

Grace Carter noticed that after he said this, their expressions all became a bit strange.

Could it be that he had scared them?

“Who wants to go to the county office to file a complaint?” A deep voice came from outside the door.

A middle-aged man walked in from outside, looked at Grace Carter, and asked, “You want to file a complaint?”

Grace Carter nodded firmly.

The middle-aged man looked at him and asked, “What grievance do you have?”

Grace Carter probed, “And you are?”

The middle-aged man replied indifferently, “I am the county magistrate here.”

He hadn’t expected that this matter would even alarm the county magistrate. Grace Carter still didn’t want to make a big scene and planned to try settling things privately with The Walker Family first.

He looked at the elegant young woman. The young woman glanced back at the middle-aged man and shook her head slightly, “Father…”

Grace Carter looked at her, then at the man who claimed to be the county magistrate, opened his mouth, and said in disbelief, “Father?”

“No need to change how you address me so soon.” The middle-aged man glanced at him and waved to the two yamen runners behind him. “The son-in-law is injured, take him back to his room to rest first…”

Chapter Three: Dog-Blooded Plot

Grace Carter hadn’t expected that his cheap father-in-law would turn out to be the county magistrate. Now, neither witnesses nor evidence would be of any use. Even though he still hadn’t figured out where this place was, it was an age-old truth that commoners should not contend with officials. As a newcomer, he dared not take that risk.

Sitting in the room, after calming down, he finally realized something.

He had really been too impulsive just now—he truly couldn’t leave.

Not to mention the matter with Miss Walker, in this world, he really was like someone with amnesia: he didn’t know who he was, where his home was, what dynasty or place this was—at the very least, before figuring these things out, he couldn’t leave.

This was the most prudent and safest choice.

“Son-in-law…” A young girl walked in and placed a quilt on the bed.

The girl looked about fourteen or fifteen, with an oval face, dressed in plain clothes, looking cute and innocent. Grace Carter had seen her in the room earlier.

Girls of this age in modern times would probably still be in middle school. Grace Carter looked at her, gave a kind smile, and asked, “Little girl, what’s your name?”

He felt that, at this moment, he really resembled a bad uncle trying to lure an innocent girl.

But there was no other way. The girl before him was the quickest person he could reach out to, someone who could help him understand this world and the things around him.

“Son-in-law can just call me Sophie.” The girl said softly.

Grace Carter sat at the square table in the room, smiled at her, and waved, saying, “Sophie, come here, I have some questions I’d like to ask you…”

……

A moment later, the girl stood up and said, “Son-in-law, Miss still has things to attend to. I’ll go over there first.”

“Go ahead.” Grace Carter nodded. The time was short, and what he learned from Sophie was limited, but at least he now had a basic understanding of the world he was in.

The place he was in now was called Lingzhou City, the capital of Lingzhou Prefecture, which was made up of Yong’an County and Yi’an County. His cheap father-in-law was the magistrate of Yong’an County.

Lingzhou belonged to the state of Chen. Grace Carter didn’t know which Chen this was in history, and the little maid herself seemed rather clueless about history as well. He could figure this out slowly later; there was no rush.

What he learned more from Sophie was about The Walker Family and the matter of Miss Walker just now.

Logically, his cheap father-in-law, as the county magistrate, should be the top official. But unfortunately, Yong’an County was not a remote rural county; it was located in the prefectural capital of Lingzhou, and above him were the prefectural governor and a whole slew of officials who could easily suppress him.

This was also the reason why Miss Walker held the embroidered ball-throwing marriage selection today.

The story was actually quite melodramatic. The son of the Lingzhou prefect’s family had taken a fancy to Miss Walker and exerted pressure from all sides. The arm could not twist the thigh; the county magistrate could not outmatch the prefect. That prefect’s son was notorious in Lingzhou for being a complete scoundrel. Miss Walker would rather throw the embroidered ball to choose a husband than submit to him. Unfortunately, the prefect’s son had already sent people to guard the embroidery tower and driven away the onlookers. Only he, clueless, had barged in, and so—so he ended up here.

No wonder those people had fought so desperately for his embroidered ball today. After waiting so long for the peach to ripen, only to have someone else pick it, who wouldn’t be upset?

Such a melodramatic plot—even that web novelist Grace Carter knew of, named Rong Xiaorong, famous for writing melodramatic stories, wouldn’t dare write something like this.

Yet it had happened.

Footsteps sounded at the door, someone knocked, and then two figures walked in.

One of them was his nominal wife, Emily Walker—a very pleasant name.