The execution ground in Chang'an City.
Wang Shilin's crime and sentence were announced, all the evil deeds he had done were exposed, and he was eventually beheaded in the street. Various relatives were also directly beheaded in public. The ending was very satisfying.
The people watching applauded and applauded.
Many people at the scene cursed Wang Shilin.
A short and thin man stood in the crowd, watching Wang Shilin die on the spot, and watching his family being severely executed.
He let out a pitiful lament, and sighed in a low voice: "Mr. Wu'an's punishment is harsh. Even Wang Shilin ended up like this. The punishment is ruthless. I'm afraid I won't get a good result either."
The short and thin man returned home, chose to say goodbye to his relatives and friends, and finally headed to the Zhao family's residence resolutely.
The Zhao family's residence is naturally the Wu'an Jun's residence.
He stood in front of the door, looking hesitantly at the Wu'an Lord's Mansion in front of him, with a look of self-mockery and despair on his face.
Finally, knock on the courtyard door.
…
Zhao Xuanqi was still immersed in the news of Wang Shilin's death. He stood in the yard with his thoughts swirling and could not recover for a long time.
"Dong dong dong..."
Unexpectedly, someone knocked on the courtyard door.
Don't wait for the servants to open the door.
"Who else will come to me at this time?"
He was confused and took the initiative to open the door and take a look. There was a short and thin man standing in front of the room.
This man was about 40 years old, with a thin build and dark skin, obviously tanned. The skin on his body also looked rough, giving him a feeling of poverty.
Even the clothes he was wearing were the most common blue robes found at roadside stalls. The cloth was cheap, and he seemed to be a poor person.
Although he has been dressed in poverty all his life, his body gives off a clean, neat and refreshing aura, without any trace of filthiness.
Zhao Xuanqi frowned.
He didn't know who the person in front of him was.
Don't know him at all.
What would happen if this person found me?
The guard beside him answered Zhao Xuanqi's doubts: "This man's name is Ouyang Fugui. He is a senior official in the North. He was promoted from the north to the capital a year ago..."
Ouyang is rich!
Zhao Xuanqi seemed to have a flash of thunder in his mind, and he was stunned in place for an instant.
He looked at the thin man in front of him and said in surprise: "Are you really Ouyang Fugui? That little fat guy from Qingyun Library?"
The short and thin man nodded awkwardly: "Brother Zhao Xuanqi, you are well. In the blink of an eye, we have not seen each other for more than ten years. Everything seems like yesterday."
Listening to this familiar voice, this familiar tone of voice, including this familiar title, Zhao Xuanqi was completely sure that the person in front of him was Ouyang Fugui.
Ouyang Fugui and Wang Shilin together are a fat and thin fairy boy. In Qingyun Library, the three of them studied together and were also Jinshi in high school!
In my impression, Ouyang Fugui was short and fat, very fat, dirty, and had a lot of runny nose.
I like to wipe my nose when I have nothing to do. I always carry a handkerchief with me. I wipe my nose once, put it into my sleeve for a while, and then take it out and wipe it again next time.
When they first met, Zhao Xuanqi was disgusted.
Later, when Ouyang Fugui was in the library, he often hid aside and looked at erotic pictures. He dug out all kinds of erotic pictures. He was addicted to erotic pictures and never returned, and even led Wang Shilin to death.
At the beginning, if Zhao Xuanqi hadn't scolded them to wake them up, it might not be certain whether the two of them would be Jinshi in high school!
Unexpectedly, just after Wang Shilin was sent away, Ouyang Fugui took the initiative to come to the door!
Zhao Xuanqi patted Ouyang Fugui on the shoulder and immediately invited him into his home.
He also asked:
"You have changed so much. I don't even recognize you anymore. I remember you were a big fat man. How could you change so much!"
The fat man who was obviously short, fat, and dirty has now become so skinny, spotless, and extremely clean.
What a change!
Time spares no one!
Ouyang Fugui did not answer this question.
Instead, he said with melancholy eyes: "I'm looking for you this time because I have something important to tell you."
Zhao Xuanqi took him to the room, and the two sat on the bed, facing each other.
He clapped his hands, and a servant brought a small table. The small table was placed between the two of them, with fruits and vegetables on it.
Then he asked doubtfully: "What important matter do you have to come to me for?"
Ouyang Fugui's face was dull and he said shockingly:
"I'm here to surrender. I have embezzled too much money over the years, too many to count. The death penalty is my final outcome..."
"I do things secretly, so Jin Yiwei has not discovered my crime yet, but I believe in Jin Yiwei's ability that sooner or later I will be arrested and brought to justice."
"Instead of dying in embarrassment, it is better to die calmly. Meeting your close friend before death can satisfy my last wish and I can die peacefully."
His tone was calm, as if he was telling the most ordinary things, and he didn't take his death penalty seriously at all.
Just like death,
If you die, you will die, no big deal.
As Ouyang Fugui spoke, he stretched out his hand, grabbed the fruits in front of him, and ate them generously.
Zhao Xuanqi looked at the skinny Ouyang Fugui, who was dressed in poor clothes, and an incredible expression appeared on his face.
Ouyang Fugui is also corrupt?
He who was so fat before has become so thin now.
He was dark, thin, and impoverished.
At first glance, he looks like an upright official.
How could it be possible that he had also committed corruption?
And he claims to be a corrupt official?
The fat man has become so thin, you don’t look like a corrupt official!
Zhao Xuanqi was a little in disbelief.
Open your mouth and want to say something.
But he couldn't say anything.
The feeling in my heart is so complicated that I no longer know how to describe it.
Unexpectedly, when we meet again, we will be on opposite sides!
He finally said: "Wang Shilin is like this, and so are you. Why did you end up like this!"
"You are my close friends. I have always kept your grand ideals in my mind. I really can't bear to see you end up like this..."
When old friends meet, they are not as happy as they imagined, but they are filled with desolation and lamentations of despair.
Ouyang Fugui lowered his head, peeled an orange in his hand, threw the peel away casually, then broke open the orange and handed half of it to Zhao Xuanqi.
The other half was slowly peeled open and he ate it by himself.
After hearing Zhao Xuanqi's words, Ouyang Fugui's expression remained calm, but his eyes became dim:
"Over the past few years, I have felt like a rat in a dark ditch. I dare not tell the truth. I hide in hiding, hide my head and hide my tail, and hide myself from others."
"Now, only when I face you, a true friend like you, can I reveal my heart."
Ouyang Fugui spoke slowly and slowly told Zhao Xuanqi what he had experienced over the years.
"After leaving Chang'an, I became a local official. I thought that was the beginning of my new life, but unexpectedly it was the origin of my fall."
"You know who I am. I have a stupid mouth and don't know much about the ways of the world. In addition, I come from a humble background, so I am not taken seriously by the superiors and cannot be reused."
"I'm often ostracized and disliked by everyone. They think I'm dirty and have a lot of runny nose..."
"I'm not willing to give in."
"After all, I am also a dignified Jinshi. I am also well-known on the Jinshi list, ranking relatively high."
"In the end, I was just a minor official in the local area. I was still unable to get promoted. I hesitated for many years. People with lower status than me were able to sit on my head and shit..."
"I want to be an official, I want to be a high official, and I want everyone who looks down on me to die!"
"In order to be reused, I can only change myself, give up my former ideals, give up my former hobbies, improve myself, cater to the superior officials, plunder the people's wealth and favors, and please the superior officials. In the end, I can only become a corrupt official, trying my best to please the senior officials. "
"I became a big corrupt official..."
When Ouyang Fugui said this, there was a deep sense of powerlessness in his eyes, and the orange in his hand was crushed into a ball, with juice splashing everywhere.
His eyes were fixed on Zhao Xuanqi, and he said in an almost painful tone:
"I think the reason why I can't be a high-ranking official or be promoted is because I don't have enough money!"
"It's all because I come from a humble background. I'm too poor. I don't have the money to please the superiors. I'm short of money!"
"So I worked hard to make money."
"But how much money can you make through legitimate means?"
"In order to make money, I have unknowingly put aside countless sins, opened a casino, specifically defrauded gamblers, opened a brothel, forced others to sell their wives and daughters, forced people to pick up customers to make money, secretly established a gang to overcharge taxes, embezzled disaster relief food, and demanded all kinds of Favorable fees, sheltering major criminals, colluding with powerful landlords to steal people's farmland..."
“As long as it’s a way to make money, then I’ll do it!”
"As long as you can make money, as long as you give me money, everything will be easy!"
"I took advantage of my rights and desperately searched for money. In just a few years, I earned money that I could not earn in my previous 100 lifetimes. No matter how much future generations squander, they will never be able to spend all the money. …”
"Using this large amount of money, I curried favor with the superior officials and got through all the high-level nodes in the county and city, so I became a high-ranking official as I wished."
“I keep getting promoted!”
"In addition, my status as a Jinshi scholar is already high, and I am worthy of being cultivated by others. Some people are deliberately cultivating me, so my official position keeps getting bigger and higher!"
Having said this, Ouyang Fugui's eyes flashed green, and his originally normal expression became very ferocious at this moment.
He said in an almost greedy tone: "I am making more and more money, so much that I can't even store it in my house."
"I buried the money in the fields, hid it under the house, put it in a coffin and buried it in the ancestor's grave. The money I earned doubled rapidly!"
"Finally, a year ago, I got my wish and entered the capital and became a famous official in the capital."
"Without any background, I can only rely on money to get promoted!"
Zhao Xuanqi listened to Ouyang Fugui's promotion process and said in a complicated tone: "What will happen if you have more money? If you don't bring it with you when you are alive, you won't take it with you when you die. Just enough is enough."
"If you use money to get promoted, you are just pushing yourself into a dead end."
"If you still retain your original innocent heart and your original sentiment of punishing all corruption, how can we be on opposite sides now?"
Ouyang Fugui shook his head, with bitterness on his face:
"Once you collect some money, you will never be able to stop. Once you stop, you will be in dire straits without paying!"
"I thought that when I got a high official position, I could change all of this. I could wash my hands in a golden basin and become a good official. Only by standing at a high place could I wipe out this decadent officialdom and restore a bright future to the world."
"It's a pity. When I walked into this court, I didn't know when I couldn't escape. I realized that I had become a part of this rotten world."
"A sinful person like me has entered the game and can no longer get out, so how can we bring peace to the world? No matter how hard I wash my hands in the golden basin, I can't wash away my sins. It's just my words that numb myself. , Only by killing people like me can the imperial court be in a prosperous state..."
"No matter what my original ideals were, I can't change the fact that I am now a corrupt official."
Ouyang Fugui's face was lonely.
No one starts out as a bad person.
You must know that many evil people do not think about committing crimes at the beginning. At the beginning, they just want to do a great and upright career.
Listening to these words, Zhao Xuanqi also knew in his heart the difficulty of being an official, and couldn't help but sigh that it was difficult to be an official.
The government of more than ten years ago was too chaotic. There were countless wealthy families, and they almost all introduced the nine-level Zhongzheng system to completely monopolize everything.
Zhao Xuanqi was originally the number one scholar and had done many things that benefited the people's livelihood, but he wasted a full ten years in the local government!
Without the protection of Emperor Jingming, it would have been impossible for Zhao Xuanqi to be promoted, and he might even have died for a long time because he offended the interests of some wealthy families.
But even if Emperor Jingming was so partial to Zhao Xuanqi, Zhao Xuanqi could still only serve as a local official, and could not even enter the capital to serve as an official. He was excluded by the major wealthy families.
This is true for a figure like Zhao Xuanqi who was born in the top 100, let alone Ouyang Fugui and others?
For promotion.
In order to make a career.
They can only push past their own moral bottom line.
Finally fell into this web of decay and darkness and became one of them.
No matter how lofty the ideals were before, they could only be shattered into worthless pieces in the face of this reality.
Join or perish.
Almost all those who survived chose to join this darkness and decay, without exception.
For people at the bottom, any progress they make must pay a price comparable to death.
"I am so lucky!"
Zhao Xuanqi sighed in his heart. Looking at Ouyang Fugui in such a miserable state, he couldn't help but said: "Why didn't you come to me at that time? You can ask me to help you!"
Ouyang Fugui showed embarrassment on his face, and slowly explained: "Actually, I have also thought about reaching out to you, but because of my face and my arrogance when I was young, I was embarrassed to ask you for help."
"I have a connection with Wang Shilin. We both want to make a name for ourselves with our own abilities, become famous officials, do great things that are earth-shattering, and then stand in front of you proudly and say that we have not fallen behind you. Unexpectedly, he was dazzled by the colorful world and became the corrupt official we hated most before."
"If you enter the game, you will never be able to get out. How can I have the nerve to come to you again?"
"Compared to you, how can we face you?"
After saying so much.
Ouyang Fugui was already heartbroken, his face was lifeless, and he had no idea of speaking.
With trembling hands, he slowly took out a notebook from his arms.
"In this book, I record my accomplices and some deeply hidden corrupt officials. All of them are evidence of their corruption."
"With this evidence, Jin Yiwei will surely be able to bring them to justice quickly. No matter how deep they hide, they will be found out. I think I have made up for it."
"It also records that the gold and silver treasures I have hidden in various places over the years are all the money I got from embezzling the people. They are countless. Just ask people to dig out these gold and silver treasures and use them for the people..."
"The main reason I came here this time is to give you this list. After doing all this, I am already ashamed to live in this world!"
As he spoke, Ouyang Fugui suddenly stood up and slammed his head against the wall next to him!
"Boom!"
There was a crisp sound.
Blood spurted out in an instant.
His whole body fell to the ground weakly, his body trembling, becoming limp and paralyzed on the ground.
He actually chose to commit suicide!
In shame, he chose to commit suicide!
Over the years, Zhao Xuanqi has purged the government and the public, punished all corrupt officials, and done everything that is beneficial to the people's livelihood, and everything he does belongs to the great master Qingtian.
Ouyang Fugui and Wang Shilin once wanted to punish corrupt officials in the world, but in the end they became corrupt officials. That's why Ouyang Fugui is now so ashamed that he chooses to commit suicide!
Zhao Xuanqi closed his eyes.
I don't have the courage to look at this friend's body.
"Why is it so..."
Zhao Xuanqi knows.
There is another possibility.
Ouyang Fugui probably saw Wang Shilin's fate, saw his ruthlessness, and knew that it was impossible to forgive him, so he chose to surrender.
In addition to being truly ashamed, Ouyang Fugui probably also wanted to protect his family.
Ouyang Fugui wanted to use his own death, these evidences of corrupt officials, and the money collected over the years to make up for his previous sins.
I hope that Zhao Xuanqi, for the sake of his suicide and the former friendship, can spare his family's life and consider giving his family a lighter sentence.
It may seem like suicide is a desperate act, but sometimes there is another plan.
Two old friends were about to die in front of him on the same day, and in such a miserable way.
Zhao Xuanqi felt uncomfortable.
He tried his best to open his eyes, stepped forward, immediately picked up Ouyang Fugui who was lying on the ground, and held him tightly in his arms.
Ouyang Fugui's body continued to tremble, and a large hole had been opened on his head. Blood kept spraying out, and half of his body was stained with red blood.
It seems that there is air coming in but no air coming out.
Ouyang Fugui's eyes widened, and his consciousness began to fade away. When he was young, this scholar who was determined to become famous all over the world, to benefit the people of the world, and to punish all corrupt officials, tried hard to say in a hoarse voice when he was dying. :
"I once thought that by enduring hardship, I could become a master and create happiness with my own hands."
"hehe…"
"Later I found out..."
"In this world, you will always be nourished by what you eat, so you can't become a master by enduring hardship, you can only eat people..."
Finally, he looked at Zhao Xuanqi with his gradually dimming eyes, and said unconsciously with his last breath:
"Brother Zhao Xuanqi..."
"Do you know? I have embezzled so much money that I can't put it in the boxes at home, in the wardrobe, or under the bed. There are too many..."
"Do you know why I am still so skinny and poor? Do you know why my nose no longer has a runny nose and my body has become so clean?"
"This money is dirty..."
“I don’t dare to spend a penny of the money I earn!”
"I'm afraid... I'm afraid... once I'm discovered, I'll be arrested and beheaded. I'm afraid of death, I'm especially afraid of death, so I hid... very, very well..."
After saying that, he tilted his head and the skinny man completely died in Zhao Xuanqi's arms.
In order to cover up the crime of corruption,
He was once obese, but at the moment of his death he was extremely skinny and extremely poor. (In the eyes of the world, the so-called corrupt official must have a big belly, a shiny face, and a body full of fat. He is too worried about being suspected, and he becomes extremely thin due to the worry that he sleeps and sleeps day and night.
He was once covered in snot and dirty, but the moment before his death, he was clean and tidy, without a trace of filth. (The money was too dirty, and the sins on his body were too heavy. He tried his best to cover up the dirty sins with a clean body, and wanted to use a spotless body to cover up the sins.
All because of the word greed.
Greed changes one's appearance, distorts one's body, and pollutes one's soul.
When you are contaminated with greed, no matter how you cover it up or disguise it, you can't hide the sin in your heart.
In the end, he will end up dead!
(End of chapter)
