Zheng Li, the chief registrar of the Warden Department of Yanzhou Prefecture, was a fifth-rank civil servant of the Tang Dynasty.
Generally speaking, this official position is an official in charge of Yanzhou Prefecture's prison.
Although he was a fifth-grade local official, Zheng Li was famously a poor official in the entire Yanzhou Prefecture.
Zheng Li was born in a humble family with no money or power. He studied hard for fifteen years and was admitted to the Ming Jing Ke Jinshi. However, he was not lucky. He did not stay in the capital as an official like other classmates, but was directly assigned When he arrived, he became the county magistrate.
But Zheng Li never complained. From the first day he became an official, he worked conscientiously to govern the land and bring peace to the people.
With no money, no power, and no support from the top, he just relied on his political performance to go from being a seventh-rank county magistrate to the fifth-rank warden of Yanzhou Prefecture in thirteen years.
Although Zheng Li is now nearly forty years old, for an official, he is still in the prime of life.
In particular, Dou Xiaozhi, the current governor of Yanzhou Prefecture, thinks highly of him, and he has a bright future.
Not only that, Zheng Li's official reputation is also very good. He is an honest official, puts the people first in everything, never takes bribes, bends the law, harms the public and enriches his own interests. When handling all cases, he never fears the identity of the other party.
For example, when Zheng Li was the magistrate of Yanzhou County, Dou Shu, the son of Dou Xiaozhi, the prefect of Yanzhou, got into a fight and caused serious injuries. Zheng Li directly sent people to arrest Dou Shu and put him in jail after trial.
Facing the people from the Dou family who came to ask for help, Zheng Li also argued hard and never gave in.
Later, when Dou Xiaozhi learned about this incident, he immediately recalled his family members and greatly praised Zheng Li. Moreover, Dou Xiaozhi personally came forward and added three years to his son's sentence.
In the end, Dou Shu was directly sentenced to five years in prison. Everyone originally thought that if Dou Xiaozhi did not cause trouble for Zheng Li now, he would definitely take revenge on Zheng Li in the future.
But just one year later, Dou Xiaozhi directly promoted Zheng Li from the sixth rank to the fifth rank, and was very polite to Zheng Li, always calling him 'sir'.
Even whenever Dou Xiaozhi heard that Zheng Li's family was in difficulty, he would use his own family funds to help Zheng Li.
Zheng Li was an honest official. Apart from his salary from the court, he had no other income. Even his wife often had to weave and sell cloth to make a living.
Therefore, in this case, there will definitely be times of difficulty, and Dou Xiaozhi will often help Zheng Li.
But every time Zheng Li received a donation from Dou Xiaozhi, he would write an IOU to the person who came to give the money to Dou Mansion. If Dou Mansion did not accept the IOU, then Zheng Li would not accept the money.
Therefore, in Dou Xiaozhi's hands, Zheng Li already had an IOU of more than one hundred taels of silver. Although Zheng Li would repay some as soon as he had money, it would take more than ten years to pay back just based on his small salary.
However, Dou Xiaozhi didn't care. More than a hundred taels of silver could not even buy a vase in his house.
But somehow these IOUs were leaked out, so the entire Tang Dynasty soon knew that Yanzhou Prefecture had a gentleman who was fair and selfless, cherished talents and cherished talents, and also had a stern warden who was not afraid of power and was famous for his integrity. Chief Secretary.
Through these things, Dou Xiaozhi not only gained great popularity in the entire Yanzhou Prefecture, but also gained an excellent official reputation within the Tang Dynasty court, and even received praise from Yu Jiang, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty.
However, regardless of Dou Xiaozhi's reputation and official reputation, among the officials in the Yanzhou Prefecture of the entire Tang Dynasty, only Zheng Li was awarded the Remote Honor Award from Taixuan Capital Province, which seemed to prove a lot of things.
It was getting late, and Zheng Li walked back home from the Yamen of the Prefecture.
His wife, Yunshi, was sitting in front of the machine wearing a simple cloth. She stood up quickly when her husband came back.
After Zheng Li entered the door, he took off his coat, and his wife, Yunshi, took out the food from the pot in the kitchen and placed it on the table in the main room.
"You came back late. You didn't agree when I told you to cook when you came back. You didn't agree when I went to the Yamen to deliver food to you. How can you eat leftovers every day?" Yun said as she put the food on the table.
Zheng Li smiled and said: "What are you going to do? We are an old married couple. If I come back late, you can just eat by yourself first. Our home is far from the Yamen. You should wait for at least half an hour every time you come back. With this Time is better spent weaving a few more pieces of cloth.”
"Besides, what's wrong with leftovers?" Zheng Li said, immediately taking a mouthful of warm leftovers in the bowl, and then said: "When I was a child, I attended classes in the village school. If I went home late at night, my mother would Take out the leftover rice from the pot
Give it to me. She was afraid that the leftover rice would get cold, so a small fire kept going on at the bottom of the pot. When the food was brought out, it was still steaming inside and there was still moisture on the edge of the bowl. "
Speaking of this, Zheng Li sighed slightly. His mother had passed away for five or six years.
Yun couldn't help but smile tenderly when he heard Zheng Li's words. He and Zheng Li also had a son, but he was studying in Chang'an at this time and was not in Yanzhou.
"I'm a little tired today. I'll take a nap after dinner." Zheng Li said to his wife.
Yun nodded and said, "Okay." Then she stood up and placed a cup of tea in front of Zheng Li.
This is a habit of Zheng Li. Every time he comes back from the Yamen, Zheng Li likes to drink a cup of cold tea, and he likes to drink hot tea in the morning.
After finishing his meal, Zheng Li sat there and drank a cup of cold tea, and then sat there to rest for a while. A sudden feeling of fatigue arose, and he suddenly yawned.
"Go to bed when you are tired." Yun said softly while weaving.
Zheng Li nodded and said, "It's a little strange today. I keep feeling sleepy. I don't know why."
"Maybe he's tired." Yun smiled.
Zheng Li returned to the bedroom, took off his clothes and got on the bed and fell asleep. He fell asleep in just a moment.
After falling asleep, Zheng Li's soul suddenly separated from his physical body. His soul was surrounded by a layer of golden light. It was the golden light of heaven's protector, which could protect his soul from evil and external forces.
Zheng Li's soul wore the official palace, and his thoughts floated out of the house in confusion, then flew into the sky, and woke up after being blown by the breeze.
"Huh? Like this again?" Zheng Li was not surprised when he saw himself floating in the sky, because he had had this kind of 'dream' more than once, and he had had this kind of dream several times before.
"Interesting." Zheng Li was very curious about this kind of strange dream, because he could always encounter some strange and mysterious things in such strange dreams, and after waking up from the dream, his body would become very comfortable and full of vitality. .
Soon, Zheng Li floated to a place and stopped. He lowered his head and looked down, and couldn't help but wonder: "Huh? Isn't this Daliuzhuang?"
As a local official of Yanzhou Prefecture, he has visited and inspected the villages around the prefecture one by one, so he can recognize Daliuzhuang at a glance, especially the big willow tree at the entrance of the village.
As the blue clouds fell below his feet, Zheng Li was instantly taken outside the Daliuzhuang Earth Temple by the cloud light.
When his soul fell into the open space in front of the Earth Temple, he realized that several people were already standing here.
The one at the front was naturally Su Yan, the land god of Daliuzhuang. Fang Jian stood aside and watched, and then the female snake demon and Liu Daye stood side by side. At the same time, Liu Daye's face was full of fear.
Obviously, in addition to Su Yan, Fang Jian, and the female snake demon, Zheng Li and Liu Daye came here with their souls out of their bodies.
"Su Yan, the land god of Daliuzhuang, pays homage to Mr. Zheng." Su Yan stepped forward and saluted immediately.
When Zheng Li saw this, he immediately returned the courtesy and said, "Zheng Li has met the Earth God."
Naturally, the Earth God did not dare to neglect his future boss, so after saluting, he immediately reported the situation of the female snake demon and Liu Daye.
After listening to the Earth God's report, Zheng Li understood everything. It seemed that this was just like the previous dreams, and he needed to make a decision by himself.
So Zheng Li said to the female demon: "You want to sue Liu Daye, a citizen of Daliuzhuang?"
The succubus immediately stepped forward and said, "Jiang Lan, a monk from Xuyin Cave in Mount Lunsu, is suing Liu Daye, a citizen of Daliuzhuang, for killing my son. Please seek justice for me."
Zheng Li said: "Where are your son's body and soul?"
After all, this was not the first time he had 'dreamed'. Zheng Li was now very experienced in facing this kind of situation.
Jiang Lan immediately held her son's body in her hands and brought it forward. At the same time, Su Yan on the side also pinched the magic formula and recited a spell.
The next moment, a gloomy fog gate appeared next to the Earth Temple in Daliuzhuang, and two ghost guards were seen escorting the soul of a mortal child of about ten years old in front of everyone.
However, this child was covered in emerald green, his eyes were orange, and snake messages would come out of his mouth from time to time.
Even though he knew it was a dream, and even though he had had this kind of dream more than once, Zheng Li couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart the moment the little snake demon appeared.
"My son!" Jiang Lan saw her son's soul and immediately rushed forward desperately.
When the two ghosts saw Jiang Lan, they rushed forward and immediately raised the ghost-killing sticks in their hands, "Snake demon, don't come forward again!"
When Jiang Lan saw this, she was afraid that the two ghosts would hit her son, so she quickly stopped and said: "Two ghosts, if I don't come up, you must not hit him until I come up..." As he said, Jiang Lan Tears suddenly flowed from Lan's eyes.
When Jiang Lan's son's soul saw his mother right in front of him, he immediately cried: "Mother, mother, save me, save me. It's so scary there. I'm scared in there alone. I couldn't find my mother when I looked for her. Woohoo."
The little snake demon cried loudly, and by 'there' it meant the underworld.
Jiang Lan was heartbroken when she heard her son's cries. Tears welled up all over her body, and she cried heartbreakingly.
Liu Daye from the back also had tears in his eyes when he saw this scene. He also had a son. Originally, it would be nothing if it was just a snake, but when he saw that the soul of this snake was just a child, with parents and a family. , just like a living person, he still felt a deep sense of guilt in his heart.
"Alas." Zheng Li sighed, "Monsters also have feelings, let alone humans? It can be seen that blood and family ties are innate to all living beings in the world and are not unique to humans."
Hearing Zheng Li's words, Jiang Lan immediately turned around and said to Zheng Bai with blurred eyes: "Please seek justice for my mother and son!" After saying that, Jiang Lan directly bowed down.
