"Next, Chang Dong. Go stand over there."
Jiang Nuan called them over one by one.
Although no one understood why, they obediently went over out of respect for the magistrate.
Then they noticed that Jiang Nuan seemed to have divided them into four groups.
Jiang Nuan had done this deliberately.
The first group consisted of people of poor character who had already committed misdeeds. She intended to let Magistrate Pan investigate them himself.
The second group consisted of people who had yet to commit any misdeeds but would do so in the future. Naturally, they could not be punished, since they had not done anything yet, but they still needed to be watched.
The third group consisted of ordinary people with neither merits nor faults. Jiang Nuan paid little attention to them.
As for the last group, they were the main focus of the day: people with both integrity and talent, who needed only the right opportunity to soar into the sky.
Jiang Nuan pointed at the third group and said,
"You can go back now."
The people in the third group scratched their heads and obediently left.
Then Jiang Nuan pointed at the first group and said to Magistrate Pan,
"These people are quite something. Lining their own pockets, forcing commoners to sell their farmland—they're capable of all that. You'd better investigate them thoroughly, Magistrate."
Looking at the first group, which accounted for nearly a third of everyone present, Magistrate Pan's face could not have darkened any further.
So many people under his command had actually been doing such unconscionable things. The shock this whole crowd dealt him was far greater than Peng Penghua alone had given him yesterday.
And to think he had believed that under his administration, every official in Rong County should have been honest