Chapter 130: The Capital 2/2

They stayed busy until noon, and Li Qingzhi stayed here for lunch.

The lunch here was similar to what he had when he crossed over, almost like what Jin Xiaoye made.

Cowpeas, eggplant, and rice were cooked together in a pot, resulting in very dry porridge, supplemented with salted fish, making it a meal.

The salted fish was made from small miscellaneous fish, obviously not using good salt, with a hint of bitterness.

However, no one minded, not even Li Qingzhi.

Chang Duan admired Li Qingzhi even more.

Li Qingzhi, a magistrate with boundless prospects, was actually willing to eat such food…

After eating, everyone continued to be busy.

In the capital.

Lü Qingxi has been in a good mood these past few days.

Since he received the report sent to the capital by Magistrate Zhang, detailing how the King of Jin sent people to dig stones at Lihu Lake, and even harmed the common people, he mocked the King of Jin in court.

The Emperor also rebuked King Jin for his lax governance, docked King Jin’s salary, and ordered King Jin to reflect in seclusion for a month.

In theory, without a clear investigation, it wouldn’t be so quick to punish King Jin. However, the matter of King Jin’s business dealings at Lihu Lake wasn’t a secret. Some officials in the capital, and even the maternal family of a consort in the emperor’s harem, bought Lihu Lake stones from King Jin when they were building houses!

There wasn’t much to investigate in this matter, and King Jin directly admitted his guilt. However, he defended himself, claiming ignorance of harming the common people, and was only labeled as “lax governance”.

This punishment wasn’t severe, but due to Lü Qingxi’s jumping around and spreading the word about what King Jin had done at Lihu Lake, King Jin’s reputation suffered greatly.

Recently, the people of the capital had been saying that King Jin was heartless for causing deaths just to make money.

“This little rascal deserves it! He used to slander me a lot!” Lü Qingxi cursed King Jin in front of his confidants.

He wasn’t a good person himself. In order to secure the emperor’s power, after the old Jin King died, he helped the emperor clean up many officials from King Jin’s faction, many of whom were innocent.

He had also done his fair share of purging dissidents. If someone kept targeting him, he would surely retaliate.

But he felt that what he did was nowhere near as immoral as what King Jin did. At least he didn’t cause the deaths of over a thousand people just for profit.

His bad reputation was all because of King Jin!

Over the years, any bad thing he did, even the tiniest bit, King Jin would exaggerate and propagate!

Plus, being an eunuch, he wasn’t likable… The scholars of the capital didn’t like him at all.

“Zhenzhu, you’ve handled this well. In the future, if King Jin does anything bad, we’ll also help spread the word about it!” Lü Qingxi looked at the innkeeper, whose name was Yanran, with a satisfied smile.

Shopkeeper Mu smiled sweetly, “Don’t worry, Mr. Qiansui, from now on, Yanran will make sure King Jin can’t clean his own reputation.”

“Good! Good!” Lü Qingxi was very satisfied with this fellow countryman of his!

At first, when his subordinates introduced Mu Zhenzu to him, he thought the person was going to offer him women.

Mu Zhenzu was indeed very beautiful, and he… even though he had no descendants, was still a man, and there were always people offering him women.

As a result, Mu Zhenzu said she could do business… Since he wasn’t interested in women, he let her try.

Over the years, Mu Zhenzu not only did well in business but also connected with some people from all walks of life who could help him inquire about news in the capital and spread rumors about King Jin.

Truly capable! He even thought about recognizing her as his daughter!

After chatting with his confidants, Lü Qingxi went to the palace.

He still had many memorials to handle.

After entering the palace, one of Lü Qingxi’s attendants said, “Master, Zhang Magistrate from Hexing Prefecture has sent another memorial.”

“He sent another memorial? Bring it to me quickly,” Lü Qingxi said with particular delight, “He knows what’s good for him. I might as well promote him…”

As he spoke, Lü Qingxi opened the memorial in his hand.

After reading a few lines, Lü Qingxi became even more delighted.

At the beginning of this memorial, Magistrate Zhang said that the magistrate of Linhu County colluded with King Jin’s uncle’s family, making life unbearable for the people of Linhu County!

Sending Zhang Magistrate to Hexing Prefecture was indeed the right decision!

“Zhang Zhiru’s literary talent is truly outstanding, he portrays the Lou family as extremely despicable! The people of Linhu County are truly pitiful!” Lü Qingxi said this, but there was no sympathy on his face, only joy.

The people of Linhu County might be miserable, but wasn’t he miserable? Wasn’t his family miserable?

He didn’t have that much sympathy for others.

Lü Qingxi stood up and continued to read, looking for the emperor.

With King Jin doing such things, His Majesty would surely punish him severely!

And this Lou family and Magistrate Yan… when the time comes, he would send an inspector to punish them properly!

Thinking about how to deal with King Jin, Lü Qingxi continued reading.

Before seeing the emperor, he had to finish reading the memorial so that he could have something to say to the emperor.

Then… Lü Qingxi stumbled, almost tripping.

“Nine Thousand Years Old?” Two young eunuchs hurried to support him.

Lü Qingxi took a deep breath, steadied himself, and continued to read. After finishing, he was dumbfounded.

Was Zhang Zhiru insane? He actually killed Magistrate Yan and most of the Lou family!

Heavens, a normal person couldn’t do such a thing!

When reading the memorial, Lü Qingxi already knew that Magistrate Yan was in big trouble, but the Lou family might not necessarily have any trouble.

As long as the blame was shifted to the servants, to Magistrate Yan, the Lou family wouldn’t have any problems in the end.

That’s the King of Jin’s family after all.

As for Magistrate Zhang, he’s probably going to earn the King of Jin’s resentment. Once things calm down, the King of Jin will definitely find a way to deal with Magistrate Zhang.

At that moment, he was still thinking he could help Magistrate Zhang. But then… Magistrate Zhang actually had the Lou family members and even Magistrate Yan from Yan County killed?

With that, he’d have an irreconcilable feud with the King of Jin!

A magistrate killing a county magistrate, it’s even more audacious!

This matter… he can’t let it slide!

Lu Qingxi’s mood was complex, and when he came before the Emperor, he didn’t rush to speak.

“Old Lu, what’s the matter with you?” the Emperor asked.

Lu Qingxi cried with a mournful face, “Your Majesty, Zhang Zhiru has gotten into big trouble!”

“What happened to him?” the Emperor asked.

“Your Majesty, he killed a county magistrate from Hexing Prefecture!” Lu Qingxi recounted everything Magistrate Zhang had done as written in the memorial.

The Emperor was astonished.

The two of them studied the memorial together, and Lu Qingxi asked, “Your Majesty, what should we do about this? This old servant can’t make up his mind!”

The Emperor sighed, “The Lou family must have truly committed numerous atrocities to drive him to such an act, but now…”

“Your Majesty, King of Jin’s faction will surely demand severe punishment for Zhang Zhiru in court, and they might even slander him…” Lu Qingxi said, “I’ve never liked him, but the thought of him losing his life because of this still feels unbearable…”

Lu Qingxi has calmed down by now.

Then he realized that this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Handled properly, it could definitely tarnish the reputation of the King of Jin once again!

It’s just a pity about Zhang Zhiru, the man.

The Emperor sighed, “The way he handled this matter, it’s indefensible… Have someone dispatched to Hexing Prefecture with all haste to investigate. As for this memorial… let’s set it aside for now. Oh yes, the weather has been changing abruptly these days, I’m feeling unwell, so I won’t be attending court for a while.”

The Emperor had seen Zhang Zhiru in his youth, full of vigor and spirit.

Later, Zhang Zhiru offended the old King of Jin and was exiled, his wife and children all dead… The Emperor felt sympathy for Zhang Zhiru.

After the old King of Jin’s sudden death, he reinstated Zhang Zhiru.

After being in exile for several years, Zhang Zhiru had become much more stable. But for some reason, he started causing trouble for Lu Qingxi.

The Emperor was also in a dilemma. Between the two, he favored Lu Qingxi more. So, following Lu Qingxi’s suggestion, he appointed Zhang Zhiru as the magistrate of Jiangnan.

He didn’t expect Zhang Zhiru’s temper to be so bad, killing so many people.

The Emperor couldn’t think of a solution, so he could only send someone to investigate first and, in the meantime, use the excuse of illness to temporarily shelve the matter.

“Your Majesty is benevolent!” Lu Qingxi said.

The Emperor smiled, feeling that Lu Qingxi was very kind—Lu Qingxi clearly had a grudge against Magistrate Zhang, yet he didn’t take the opportunity to undermine him.