"This Jin Yiwei you brought, he, he..."
After swallowing his saliva, Li Kuan held Zhou Li's hand tightly. For the first time, this county magistrate, who had always been calm and impeccable in his work, showed a "fearful" look on his face:
"He is sick, he is sick!"
Li Kuan himself is not greedy, but it does not mean that he does not understand the ways of the world. So when he learned that the two royal guards were heading to his house, he took six taels of silver and prepared to hand it over to them to show his sincerity. Standing at the gate of the government office, Li Kuan looked at the young man and the middle-aged Jin Yiwei, and greeted them with a smile.
Then···
"You are a dignified county magistrate, but you still have patches on your body. How do you behave?"
Looking at Li Kuan, who was sewing patches on the hem of his robe in front of him, Qianhu frowned and scolded: "The county magistrate is a ninth-grade official conferred by the imperial court and enjoys the aura of dragon and tiger. Why do you lower your eyebrows and bend your knees when you see me? Where is your majesty?" "
What about your mother?
Li Kuan almost didn't stop himself from swearing before he burst out.
I, a ninth-grade sesame official, am trying to show off my authority with you, a thousand households of Jinyiwei? Why don't you ask Emperor Laodeng to come over and kowtow to me? Anyway, it’s the fault of killing my whole family, so I might as well have some fun before I die.
"Master Qianhu is joking. I am only a ninth-grade county magistrate. I have an eighty-year-old mother and a three-year-old child. The household expenses are quite large, and my salary is barely enough, so I don't care much about these trivial matters."
Li Kuan's words are watertight, and he can be said to be the best among men. Then, under Li Kuan's shocked gaze, Qianhu took out ten taels of silver.
"Then you should dress up properly. Don't let other people think that I, a Ming official, wear patchwork clothes, which undermines your majesty."
After tremblingly taking out ten taels of silver, Li Kuan looked at Zhou Li and said with tears in his eyes:
"Brother Zhou Li, this is the first time in my life that I have received money from Jinyiwei. I am still a member of a thousand households. I am afraid. The money is all here and I don't dare to spend it. I don't dare to spend a single copper."
Zhou Li was silent, Tang Wan scratched his cheek, and Tao Yao looked a little weird, as if she was holding back a smile.
Then, Li Kuan burst into tears and recounted all the extremely weird behaviors of those thousands of households. What about "I see there are some deficiencies in your county government office. I will carry two pieces of wood and repair it." "The legs of your chair are a little loose. Let me tighten them for you." "I will buy a bucket of paint and paint the walls well so that the people will not see your majesty." "I'll teach you how to write notices and announce them to the people." "Stupid, don't you know how to grind? I'll do it!"
This is no longer scary.
This is torture.
It's psychological pressure.
You know, what a normal Jin Yiwei would say is, "We can use two more beds in your ancestral grave." "Your legs are a bit stiff. Let me see if I can get a discount." "I'll buy some gold juice and pour it into your mouth. Look. "Can you explain?" "I will teach you if one hundred and eighty acupuncture points on the human body are shocked with electricity, will the person become incontinent and die?"
Who knows if what these thousand households are talking about is slander. Li Kuan is afraid that after doing all this, the smiling Jin Yiwei will chop himself to death with a knife, and then hang his head on the newly built beam, using his own The blood stained the county government office again, and finally he was publicly listed on the notice as "if guilty".
My life is at an end!
Seeing Li Kuan's frightened expression and thinking about Qian Hu's behavior, Zhou Li shuddered directly, while Tang Wan couldn't even eat, squatting aside with a pale face, wanting to vomit but stopping.
Tao Yao had already turned her back to Zhou Li and others, her shoulders trembled slightly, and her laughter as thin and sweet as a silver bell flowed out from between her fingers.
"this···"
Zhou Li didn't know how to comfort him for a while. After a short silence, he sighed and said to Li Kuan, who was looking forward to it:
"Let's go, I'll go with you."
"Well, well, well, well, well."
Li Kuan nodded his head like garlic, and hurriedly praised him, wishing he could run back to the county government office with Zhou Li on his back.
Tang Wan on the side had put away the bowls and chopsticks and soaked them in water. Just as she was about to ask, she heard Zhou Li say to her:
"You come with me."
"clear."
Mi Chong, who failed to wash the dishes, glanced at the dishes and chopsticks in the sink with regret, and then followed Zhou Li obediently. After greeting Tao Yao, several people left Nadutong together.
Looking at Zhou Li and others leaving, Tao Yao's eyes as warm as bright jade narrowed slightly, and a meaningful smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.
The county government office in Beiliang is located in the east of the city. The location is not remote, but it is not central either. Since Li Kuan didn't like luxury, the county government office had no decorations since the abacus case was cleared, leaving only an empty lobby.
However, in the county government office at this time, a man with a naked upper body and a bright red brocade coat tied around his waist like a belt was enthusiastically carrying wood and repairing various objects in the county government office. But on that resolute and generous face with Chinese characters, there are only the simple smiles and perseverance of the working people.
Looking at the eye-catching scene in front of her, Tang Wan's face turned pale. However, in order not to waste the delicious food she finally got, she swallowed her saliva and turned her head away, not wanting to watch anymore.
"Don't tell me, he's quite decent."
Seeing Qian Hu jumping up carrying a hundred kilograms of wood, casually split the wood in half and embedded it in the hole in the roof, Zhou Li said in wonder:
"This skill is really good."
"Brother Zhou Li, please help me quickly."
Li Kuan was like an ant on a hot pot and said hurriedly:
"The Jin Yiwei from other places helped me repair the county government. If word gets out, what will the people think of me? What will the Ministry of Revenue think of me? What will the prefect think of me? What if I really get promoted?"
In fact, Zhou Li could tell that what Li Kuan was afraid of was not that the other party would help him build the county government office. He was mainly afraid that after the county government office was built, the next person to build the county government office would be Li Kuan's tomb. After all, when the words "Jinyiwei" are used in official circles, it means digging trenches for dry latrines--sending one's death.
Uh-huh.
The corner of Zhou Li's mouth twitched. After feeling that Beiliang was really a place of outstanding people, Zhou Li stepped forward, patted Qian Hu on the shoulder, and said:
"Master Qianhu, are you repairing the house? Where is Guo Baihu?"
"Oh, little friend Zhou Li."
After seeing Zhou Li, Qianhu's smile became even brighter.
"I, Mr. Li Kuan, will help you repair this county government office. Alas, I also wrongly blamed Mr. Li Kuan. It's not that he didn't do anything, he just couldn't do it. The county government office in Beiliang City is really too poor. Even the notices sold by the imperial court I couldn’t even afford paper, and I thought it would undermine the majesty of the Ming Dynasty, so I gave Guo Baihu a few taels of silver and asked him to buy notice paper."
After finishing speaking, Qianhu patted the sawdust on his hands and smiled at Li Kuan beside him. Li Kuan looked at Zhou Li and Tang Guanxiang tremblingly, asking for help.
"That's just him."
Zhou Li patted Li Kuan's shoulder and comforted him:
"Please understand, Qianhu has the disease of the Holy Mother...the Holy Man. The main symptom of the disease is that he likes to help others and takes the oath of the Jin Yiwei seriously. There is no malice. There is really no malice."
Smiling bitterly, Li Kuan breathed a sigh of relief after learning that the Jin Yiwei didn't want to give him the last supper, and said helplessly to Zhou Li:
"Little brother Zhou Li, you surprised me by coming back suddenly, and you gave me such a surprise, you, you."
"Report to your lord."
Just after the misunderstanding was resolved, the familiar defenders suddenly rushed in. Li Kuan quickly supported the other party and asked:
"What's going on? Why are you so panicked?"
"At the city gate, there is another guard in royal robes."
After taking a breath, the soldier glanced at the curious Qian Hu with a strange expression. Then he looked at Li Kuan and said:
"The Jin Yiwei has pointy ears and monkey cheeks, and is thin in stature. He is shouting at the city gate to enter the city. He says he is a Jin Yiwei, but he does not have a waist card. It is very weird."
"Did you ask him his name?"
Facing Li Kuan's inquiry, the soldier took a deep breath, thought for a moment and said quickly: "Asked, asked, he said his surname was Hou, and his name was..."
"Hou Jue!"
