He knew, of course, that the Lord County Magistrate would look down on these items. But he absolutely could not offer money or valuables—not that he had any to give. The moment he set that precedent, that damn official would extort them by the same standard forevermore, whether or not Qingnan Village could afford it.
Sure enough, County Magistrate Li looked at the large pile of things and sneered inwardly. 'They think they can get the girl back with this junk? This Scholar Li's father is utterly clueless.'
He had come today specifically to extort money, and also to size up this "rich village" that Huang Yan'er had told him about. It wasn't his style to be too obvious, so he had deliberately let the families with married daughters off the hook. He was just using Yan's case as a pretext, waiting for Li Gengtian to take the bait. Who knew the man was such a complete skinflint.
