An elderly man, about sixty years old, with white hair and beard, dressed in a grayish-white Confucian robe, was seen waving his hand while running over, panting heavily.

“Old Parker, you’re finally here! Ethan Grant and his wife are plotting to murder me!”

As soon as Paul Miller saw the old man arrive, he hurried over, speaking excitedly.

“Ah—what did you say?”

This man called Old Parker seemed a bit hard of hearing. He turned his ear and shouted, asking.

“I said someone wants to kill me.”

Paul Miller practically roared, his chubby face flushed bright red.

“What? Someone wants to kill you? Who would dare do such a thing, committing violence in broad daylight? Outrageous!”

Old Parker was spitting as he spoke, full of righteous indignation, as if he were the very embodiment of justice.

“It’s Ethan Grant and his wife.”

“Ethan Grant? How is that possible?”

When Old Parker heard Ethan Grant’s name, he immediately shook his head in disbelief. Indeed, the old Ethan Grant was weak and timid, unable to even kill a chicken, let alone a person. Who would believe such a thing?

“If you don’t believe me, look—the knife—where’s the knife?”

When Paul Miller turned around, the hatchet on the wooden post was already gone. Looking toward the door, he saw Ethan Grant sitting at the entrance, bracing himself with both hands behind him, gasping for breath.

The fierce woman from earlier was now covering her face and crying at the door. “Wuwuwu, my life is so bitter!” With a miserable wail, she rushed into the house.

It was as if everything that had just happened was an illusion.

Damn! Are you kidding me? You just left like that? What am I supposed to do now? You caused this mess, and now I have to take the fall alone? We agreed to do this together—how could you be so disloyal? Ethan Grant rolled his eyes, fuming, but he was so exhausted he didn’t have the energy to dwell on it.

Old Parker glanced outside the door, then looked at Paul Miller with a confused expression.

“Why are you looking at me? They really tried to kill me with a knife just now.”

Paul Miller, exasperated, pointed at the villagers. “These lowly peasants all saw it.”

The villagers looked up at the sky or down at the ground—none of them stepped forward to speak. I can’t afford to offend you, but I can at least avoid you, right?

“You all—”

Seeing this, Paul Miller was furious, thinking to himself, Fine, you dare go against me? You’ll regret it later. He shouted, “I’ll settle this with you all later. Old Parker, please uphold justice and make the Han family pay me back.”

“Yes, yes, yes.”

Old Parker nodded repeatedly, slowly making his way toward the Han family.

Since Ethan Grant no longer had a knife and Old Parker was present, Paul Miller was no longer afraid. He raised his chubby face, put his hands on his hips, and strutted forward arrogantly, as if afraid others wouldn’t notice how overbearing he was.

“Greetings, Old Parker!”

When the villagers saw Old Parker approaching, they all stepped forward and greeted him respectfully.

This Old Parker’s full name was Walter Parker, a local of Mei Village and a scholar. In these times, scholars were extremely rare, so even though Old Parker had failed the imperial exams for decades, the villagers still respected him, calling him Old Parker. Whenever there was a dispute in the village, he was asked to mediate, and his words carried great weight. After all, he was a learned man, highly respected, and even somewhat famous in the surrounding area. He was basically the village chief of Mei Village.

Before Ethan Grant could speak, William Clark became agitated. “Old Parker, you’ve come at just the right time! Brother Han’s body is barely cold, and Young Miller is already here to seize his family. This is just too much bullying. You must stand up for Mei Village!”

“You lowly peasants—have you ever read a book? Paying back debts is only right and proper. If you can’t pay, you use people to settle the debt. How is that seizing?”

Paul Miller raised his nose to the sky, full of arrogance.

William Clark snorted, “We’ve lived in the same village as Brother Han for decades and never once saw him borrow a single coin from anyone, not even heard of it. How could he possibly owe you money?”

“You’ll have to ask him!”

Paul Miller glared, then pulled out a piece of white cloth covered in writing from his chest. “Look, look, this is the IOU for the money Han Dashan borrowed. It has Han Dashan’s handprint, and Old Parker was the witness.”

The villagers were shocked and all looked at Old Parker.

Old Parker nodded and said, “Fellow villagers, it’s true, it’s true. Half a month ago, Dashan did borrow seven hundred wen from the Wang family and promised to repay one string of coins after the autumn harvest.”

The villagers then looked at Ethan Grant.

Damn, can I even trust these memories? Ethan Grant was still sitting on the ground, wiping his sweat, and said awkwardly, “It seems that’s what happened!”

Chapter 5: Who Dares to Be More Miserable Than Me!

As soon as Ethan Grant said this, there was no doubt about the matter.

“Ah—!”

Immediately, many villagers cried out in surprise.

Because Han Dashan had always been helpful and never took advantage of others—if anything, he was always the one being taken advantage of. He would never ask to borrow money, which would put others in a difficult position. So when Paul Miller first came to collect the debt, everyone thought he was making it up, just to snatch away the beautiful widow. Who would have thought it was actually true? They were all especially shocked.