Walking the Path of a Workaholic in Cliché Novels (QT) Chapter 75

All the children had left, and the candies were not all given out. An Yinong stood up and brushed the dust off his hands. He stood there for a while, and another layer of dust appeared. It seemed that when making plans in the future, he needed to consider the issue of greening, such as planting some drought-resistant street trees.

Give up when faced with difficulties? No such thing. The whole world was his enemy. Hadn’t he seen enough of this before?

He and the county magistrate continued to move forward. He wanted to measure this “slum” of Dingsha County with his footsteps, see with his eyes, hear with his ears, and judge with his brain.

But right after he left, several fierce-looking men rushed out of the alley and surrounded the children and their families: “What did that man ask you just now?”

The adults were silent. They pushed their children and said, “They can’t even speak clearly. What can they say?”

“Pa!” The vicious man slapped a child and looked at him again, “I told you to speak.”

The child said something about eating and bathing in tears, and it sounded like he was just curious about what people here eat and why they don’t bathe.

“I can’t even afford to drink water, how can I have more water to take a shower?” These people said, “A pretty boy from the Central Plains.”

“Remember, if this person comes over again, you can only say good things and not bad things. If we find out what any of you said behind his back… hehe, then you’ll be in trouble!” These people left cursing, leaving behind crying children and adults with swollen faces.

“These people are all the same, poisonous snakes and scorpions.” The man holding the child looked at the people who were walking away, his teeth chattering.

All these things were reported to An Yinong by the little ghosts. He listened quietly without changing his expression. He just suddenly said to the county magistrate: “I heard that your grandson was just born? What a pity that I came late, otherwise I could have prepared a birthday gift.”

The county magistrate broke out in a cold sweat at that moment. He only had two sons in public, and few people knew that he had an illegitimate daughter with a restaurant owner, and this daughter had just given birth to a grandson a year ago. This was a threat, an undisguised threat.

The county magistrate’s lips trembled, and he lowered his voice: “Please rest assured, sir, I won’t say a word more than I should.”

An Yinong smiled and said, “You are a scholar. I always believe in scholars. They are reasonable.”

The county magistrate’s smile became even more forced: If you don’t listen, you are ignorant? There are a group of wolves and a tiger, and he couldn’t afford to offend anyone.

“By the way, does the wasteland outside Dingsha County have an owner?”

“Are you talking about the piece of land in the north?” The county magistrate thought for a moment and knew which piece of land An Yinong was talking about. “That piece of land belongs to the Bai family. They bought it for 180 coins per mu thirty years ago. There has been no movement since then.”

“One hundred and eighty coins per mu?” An Yinong laughed. “If he dares to offer this price, do you dare to sell it?”

The county magistrate lowered his head. He wanted to know why the new magistrate asked about this piece of land, but the other party did not ask any more questions, so he did not dare to speculate. At night, the Jin family found the county magistrate and brought gifts. They asked him half temptingly and half threateningly what the county magistrate had said and done during the day.

The county magistrate told most of the story and concealed his own guesses. The water in Dingsha County was gradually becoming turbid, so for a small fish like him, it was better to protect himself.

The people of the Jin family analyzed the intelligence they collected for a long time and finally came to the conclusion that the young man was inexperienced in the world and thought he was righteous would know what he could and could not do when he really encountered trouble.

“As long as he doesn’t come to provoke us, I’m willing to keep my distance from him.” The Dingsha Jin family was permanent, but the Dingsha county magistrate was a changing one. They didn’t take this ‘parent official’ seriously at all.

“Three years will pass by very quickly.”

Their secret discussion soon reached An Yinong’s ears. “There are too many people involved. Without a special order from above, it will be difficult for me to clean up the rotten meat cleanly.” An Yinong prepared for the worst. If his superiors did not cooperate, he might have to use some “illegal” means, or even put his career at risk.

“We have to speed up. A county magistrate’s term is three years, and time goes by very quickly.”

Under the watchful eyes of the people in Dingsha County, An Yinong continued to play the piano and flute, write poems and paint during the day, and work with a lamp at night. On the other hand, he also began to get familiar with the people in the county government and the daily affairs of Dingsha County.

He even started learning the local dialect. In this language environment, he learned quickly and could already understand many daily conversations. Merchants from the county also came to visit him, bringing valuable gifts.

He naturally declined all the offers and only accepted some worthless local specialties. Ordinary people in Dingsha County had no feelings for the new magistrate. His arrival did not make their lives better, but of course, it did not make them worse either.

The Jin and Bai families were still watching and testing, while An Yinong was waiting for his east wind. Finally, the empress’s special decree arrived with the sound of horse hooves, but the result was not what An Yinong expected.

Emperor Qi did grant him special permission to use half of the confiscated gold and silver as military pay and mobilize the local garrison. Of course, this was only once. However, the punishment for the people involved was beyond An Yinong’s imagination.

An Yinong held the letter that decided the life and death of countless people in his hand, but frowned. “Once found guilty of treason, the crime will be executed immediately and all three generations of the clan will be exterminated.”

After all, he was the founding emperor and had a murderous nature. An Yinong did not expect that Emperor Qi would make such a decision. This was much more serious than he expected. Although one often hears the phrase “kill the nine clans”, in fact, killing the nine clans only meant killing nine generations of the father’s family. Anyway, it was just his family that was wiped out, and it had nothing to do with other people.

But the execution of three clans was different. The three clans were the father’s clan, the mother’s clan, and the wife’s clan. The three generations above and below the offender’s father, the three generations above and below the mother, and the three generations above and below the wife’s family will all be included in the list of three clans to be executed.

As soon as An Yinong’s letter came out, more than a thousand relatives of the Jin and Bai families would die. Some of them deserved to die, but there were also innocent people who were affected.

“The scope of casualties is too large.” An Yinong did not move for a long time.

“What are you going to do?” Gu Zhengzhong asked. If An Yinong decided to take down these two companies, he could now take the letter to find the nearby garrisons.

An Yinong himself couldn’t make up his mind. If he went, hundreds or even thousands of people would die in Dingsha County. If he didn’t go, it would be against the imperial edict, and he had asked for it. The best outcome would be being despised, which was very bad for his plan.

What should he do?

“Dong, dong, dong!” An Yinong walked out of the house. “Who’s beating the drum to complain?”

He hurriedly changed into his official uniform, and by the time he walked into the main hall, the yamen runners on both sides had already lined up, with three of them kneeling and two standing.

“Sir, one of them is a relative of the Jin family, and the other is a local hunter.” Guard Tian said in a low voice.

An Yinong raised his eyebrows slightly: “Go and ask what happened. It would be best if you can find a few witnesses.”

After Guard Tian left, An Yinong looked at the man who was standing there shaking his head and not taking him seriously: “Do you have any achievements?”

“Achievements?” The man responded, smiled at him, and said, “Your Excellency may not know me, I am the cousin of the Jin family, Wu Yang.”

“I don’t want to know who your relative is. This is the government office. Without the title of scholar, how dare you stand and speak, and show contempt for the court?”

“Master, Master.” A servant followed the man who claimed to be a relative of the Jin family. He was pulling at his clothes and whispered, “Kneel down quickly.”

“Why are you so serious?” The man named Wu Yang continued to smile, but seeing An Yinong’s bad face, he knelt down anyway, kneeling crookedly. The servant behind him also knelt down.

Only then did An Yinong have time to look at the person on the other side.

They looked like a family of three, a man dressed as a hunter, a woman of foreign descent, and a beautiful girl. The girl’s clothes were torn, and now she was wearing a sheepskin coat, and she was lowering her head to secretly wipe her tears.

“Who is kneeling in the hall? Why are you beating the drum? What’s the grievance?” An Yinong asked in a businesslike manner in the local dialect he had just learned.

As soon as this awkward local dialect was uttered, the yamen runners around were startled. The county magistrate who was taking notes nearby also looked at An Yinong frequently, wondering what he was thinking.

“To answer your question, sir, it is the common people who are beating the drum to protest their grievances.” The man dressed as a hunter spoke.

“What is it?”

“Yes, that’s him!” Wu Yang was still jumping up and down. “He’s making a fuss over such a small matter. Isn’t this a waste of our time? Give him a good beating, old fool.”

In the government office, in front of so many people, this man dared to be so arrogant and domineering, which showed what kind of character he usually had. An Yinong narrowed his eyes and said, “When did I ask you to speak? Are you the county magistrate or am I the county magistrate?”

Wu Yang snorted disapprovingly.

The hunter took a deep breath, suppressed the anger that was growing in his heart, and turned to answer An Yinong’s previous question: “Sir, I am a hunter from Dingsha County. Today I brought my wife and daughter to the city, hoping to exchange furs for some household expenses. This little beast!”

He pointed at Wu Yang, barely able to suppress his anger: “This little bastard flirted with my child in the street. I couldn’t stand it any longer, so I pushed him away. I didn’t expect him to call a few people over to take my child away. I had no choice but to beat the drum to protest.”

An Yinong nodded, and then he looked at the relative of the Jin family: “Do you agree with what he said?”

“Hey hey!” He stood up, but was pulled back by the servant. The servant looked miserable: This magistrate was obviously not the one who didn’t care about things before, why can’t this guy see clearly, were his eyes blind?

“What do you mean by robbing? This little lady saw that I was handsome and wealthy, and wanted to live a good life, so she had to rely on me. I was kind-hearted and wanted to take her in out of pity, but I ended up getting slapped. Ouch, my waist…”

He snorted a few times in a pretentious manner: “He must have been beaten just now. I’m going to sue him for assault and make him pay for the medical expenses.”

“You mean, they had nothing to do and came to you to let you flirt with them? Many people saw this, so you’d better think carefully before answering.” An Yinong asked expressionlessly.

“That’s right!”

An Yinong laughed angrily: “Don’t they have brains? They came here to be bullied by you for nothing?”

“Who knows what this family is up to?

An Yinong could no longer bear it. He turned his head and asked the county magistrate, “If it were you, would you be willing to bring your daughter to the presence of this young master of the Wu family?”

The county magistrate shrank himself even more, and he laughed awkwardly: “I… don’t have a daughter.”

“Oh,” An Yinong turned his head and looked at Wu Yang in the hall, “I have heard of your reputation. You are a lustful devil. Even a female mosquito dares not pass by you. They can’t even avoid you, so how could they come to my door?”

Wu Yang didn’t expect this reaction. He was about to speak when An Yinong opened his mouth and choked him again: “Handsome? I am not blind. I can tell what is beautiful and what is ugly. This girl is neither blind nor idiot. How could she like your face?

“Tell me the truth about what happened. If you refuse to tell me after I have investigated the matter, your crime will be even more serious.”

This young cousin of the Jin family was lustful for beauty. Whenever he saw a woman who looked slightly good on the street, he would go up to her and tease her. He even forced someone to death once. But the previous county magistrate did nothing, so he became more and more daring. This time he even made a scene near the county government office and tried to snatch someone else’s daughter?

Wu Yang finally realized that the magistrate in front of him was a little difficult to deal with. He stared at An Yinong’s fair face that was popular with women: “You want to offend the Jin family? You don’t want to do this anymore?”

The servant was so scared that he crawled over and tried to cover his mouth, but was kicked away.

“Let me see, which bastard dares to point out me?” Wu Yang stood up and laughed triumphantly.

“Sir.” Guard Tian came in at this moment.

An Yinong looked behind him, but there was no one there.