Thoughts

Although Mu Yangling did not mention this matter again and did not punish Chen Ming's wife, she called Spring over and said, "Take Chen Ming's wife down a notch and make sure she takes the rules to heart."

"Fourth Madam, why don't we detain her at home?"

"No, although we don't interact much with the villagers, we can't cut off our contact with them entirely." A distant relative was inferior to a close neighbor. Even if Mu Yangling wasn't counting on the villagers to help them in the future, she wouldn't want them to add insult to injury should anything happen. And Chen Ming and Chen Ming's wife were the link between them and those villagers.

Spring understood and went down to take Chen Ming's wife down a notch.

After the seventh day of the New Year, the excitement in the village subsided a little. Guard One came back excitedly and reported, "Fourth Madam, good news. West Xia retreated."

"How did it happen so quickly?"