Several Hidden Guards immediately appeared and seized a dozen young men.

"Prince, spare our lives! We beg the Prince for mercy!" The crowd incessantly kowtowed and pleaded, both resenting Xiong Lizheng for involving them and fearing Yang Mengchen, who, with an innocent and harmless appearance, harbored such a cruel heart, even more terrifying than a demon.

Just then, Jiang Quan entered respectfully and said to Yang Mengchen, "Miss, Great-grandfather Shen and Madam Shen Li have arrived with some people."

Standing up, Yang Mengchen also waved her right hand, and Xiong Wang's eyes closed as he fainted.

It wasn't long before the Shen family rushed into the living room with anxious expressions, followed by two uncles carrying the old and infirm, seventy-plus-year-old Seventh Great-Uncle, the Clan Leader of Huangsha Village, and three Elders, with thirty-some villagers who had a good relationship with the Shen family trailing behind.

Grasping Yang Mengchen's hand, Madam Shen Li asked with full-faced concern and urgency, "Jiujiu, are you all right?"

The Shen family members all looked at Yang Mengchen with concern.

Shen Yuzhe hurriedly apologized, "I'm sorry, cousin, we didn't know the Lizheng and the others would come to make trouble, so we arrived late, I'm sorry!"

As her maternal family and fellow villagers, they felt deeply responsible and ashamed that people from the same village had come to cause trouble at the Yang family.

"I'm fine, the Prince has already handled it," said Yang Mengchen with a reassuring smile.

The Prince?

Apart from the Shen family, the merest mention of the title shifted the faces of the others, who quickly knelt down and kowtowed to Long Xuanmo. Even the Seventh Great-Uncle struggled to get up from his chair, but Yang Mengchen promptly reached out to dissuade him.

Long Xuanmo raised his hand for the people to stand up.

Once up, everyone moved to the side, each with their head down, trembling and hardly daring to breathe.

"Seventh Great-Uncle, save us, we don't want to die!" With the Seventh Great-Uncle highly respected, the dozen young men all turned to him for help.

"Silence!" The Seventh Great-Uncle bellowed sternly, then turned to look at Yang Mengchen, "Jiujiu, it's my fault for not disciplining these youngsters properly, causing them to behave outrageously. Jiujiu, could you please forgive them this once on account of this old man? Rest assured, Jiujiu, I will strictly discipline them when we return home."

If not for the sake of sharing a village, if not for concern over Jiujiu, he wouldn't have wanted to make this trip at all.

The Clan Leader and three Elders also nodded repeatedly, their faces red with shame.

The Shen family sat silently to one side, furious upon learning that these people had come to coerce Jiujiu, and naturally, they would not intervene now.

The Seventh Great-Uncle had lost his spouse early and had no children. He cherished the original host like his own granddaughter. This was the first time he had so humbly begged Yang Mengchen, and naturally, she didn't want to lose the face of the Seventh Great-Uncle, but keeping Xiong Lizheng and these men would lead to endless trouble.

Yang Mengchen gave the Seventh Great-Uncle a bow and said with a troubled face, "Seventh Great-Uncle, it's not that I don't want to give you face, but the Prince has already made a decision on this matter, and I cannot defy the Prince's will, right?"

Long Xuanmo immediately put on a stern face, radiating an aura of chill severity.

Frightened, everyone shuddered, each silent as if chilled to the bone.

The Seventh Great-Uncle too felt a shock of fear but, considering the Lizheng and the youngsters were in the Prince's hands facing certain death, he could not help but feel some compassion. Thus, he steeled himself to plead on their behalf, "Jiujiu, the Lizheng did something foolish in the hope of bettering the lives of the villagers.

Could you possibly be lenient, to warn them with a lesser punishment but instruct them with a serious one?" He was an old cunning man who could tell that the Prince seemed to care a great deal about Jiujiu. If Jiujiu relented, he believed that the Prince would likely not pursue the matter further.

"Seventh Great-Uncle, do you really think the Lizheng did all this for the people of Huangsha Village?" Yang Mengchen countered with a question instead of an answer.

The Seventh Great-Uncle appeared astonished, "Jiujiu?" The Shen family members and the other villagers also looked up in surprise and doubt at Yang Mengchen.

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