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Lin Yuan’s eyes narrowed slightly, and she couldn’t help but smile at the corners of her mouth, "Hmm, it should be nothing else, just that he was alone and lonely, so I let him join us for the New Year’s celebration.

After all, New Year’s would definitely go on till late, and since it’s late, he might as well stay over at our house. "

Pfft.

Lin Yuan covered her mouth and giggled, nudging Mo Sanniang with her elbow, and asked somewhat evilly, "It seems like your parents really like this prospective son-in-law, huh?"

The corner of Mo Sanniang’s lips curled up, and even without speaking, the implication was self-evident.

Initially, Lin Yuan had been worried that Mo Sanniang’s parents wouldn’t like Meng Liangdong, given his somewhat pedantic nature and the fact that he didn’t have his own home, which would surely lead to many inconveniences once they were married.

However, Meng Liangdong did have his virtues, like being loyal and valuing relationships — unlike that Xie Zhiyuan, who had others waiting for him for years, yet didn’t take it to heart at all, a downright ungrateful wretch.

To get back to the main issue, ever since Rice Flower Fragrance had been burgled, Meng Liangdong had become even more vigilant.

He said nothing happened while he was there, so nothing happened.

Thus, it could be certain that the theft at the cloth store must have occurred during Meng Liangdong’s time at the Mo family for the festival, which was from New Year’s Eve to the second day of the new year.

Lin Yuan looked around the store again and noticed that the door panel didn’t have any signs of being smashed, nor were there any traces of the doors or windows being pried open.

In that case, how did the thief get in? The more she observed, the more it seemed like the thief had a key to the store and just walked in through the front door.

Lin Yuan blinked her eyes, "Sister Mo, let’s report it to the government. Don’t touch anything in the store for now; wait for the government officers to come and conduct a thorough inspection, to see if they can find any clues left by the thief."

"This, Yuanyuan, maybe we should just forget it. Nothing really valuable was stolen from the store, so let’s not report it, okay?

" Mo Sanniang started but was cut off when she saw Lin Yuan squinting and tilting her head to look at her. Mo Sanniang’s tongue twisted, and she nervously pursed her lips, "Yuanyuan, why are you looking at me like that? Is there something dirty on my face?"

"Sister Mo, stop pretending. If you are so reluctant to report it, could it be that you know something? Perhaps you know who the thief is, right?"

Mo Sanniang paused, her complexion paling slightly.

Meng Liangdong looked from Lin Yuan to Mo Sanniang, speaking excitedly, "Sanniang, you really do know who it is, don’t you?

That simplifies things. We should hurry to the Yamen and report it so that the government officer can arrest the culprit.

If they find our store’s cloth in that person’s house, they’ll have all the evidence needed to convict him. "

"Liangdong, we can’t report it!" Mo Sanniang, agitated, clutched Meng Liangdong’s arm tightly, fearing he might dash to the Yamen on a whim.

"Why can’t we go?"

Lin Yuan and Meng Liangdong exclaimed in unison.

Mo Sanniang was in a bind, "Please, don’t ask anymore. We only lost a few bolts of cloth and some silver pieces, which are basically worthless. Why should we bother over such a trifle..."

"Is it someone from the Xie family?" Lin Yuan suddenly interrupted, and the room fell silent.

Someone from the Xie family, could it be Xie Zhiyuan?

Meng Liangdong’s grip on Mo Sanniang’s hand loosened unconsciously, and he looked at the woman he favored most with a complicated expression.

Mo Sanniang bit her lip and hurriedly explained, "Yes, it’s them, but Liangdong, don’t get me wrong. My reluctance to report it isn’t because I still have feelings for Xie Zhiyuan, but rather, I simply cannot bear to see her, at her advanced age, thrown into jail to undergo such inhumane torture."

At her advanced age?

"So it was Lady Xie, but how do you know it was her and not Xie Zhiyuan?"

Lin Yuan’s question also voiced the doubts in Meng Liangdong’s heart.

Mo Sanniang sighed, speaking with a hint of helplessness, "The only people who have keys to this store, aside from me and Liangdong, are her. That was back when I was still in contact with Xie Zhiyuan. To win her favor and get her to accept my relationship with Xie Zhiyuan, I gave her a key to the store. I even told her she could come and pick any fabric she liked anytime she wanted. It’s just that after my fallout with Xie Zhiyuan, I forgot all about it.

If it weren’t for today, when I saw that the doors and windows were intact, I wouldn’t have remembered that such a thing ever happened. "

It was one thing to give away a key, but to also say you could take whatever you liked? Wasn’t that just openly inviting someone to take things as they pleased? With Mo Sanniang’s words, even if they pursued it to Lady Xie’s door, they couldn’t really do much to her.