Chapter 200

Guo Tongzhi had extreme trust in Li Qingzhi.

If it weren’t for Li Qingzhi, how would he have had the opportunity to leap from a county magistrate to a deputy magistrate?

He wanted to smoothly advance to become a prefect, and it was best to follow Li Qingzhi’s lead.

Previously, that woman had pestered him, but he simply ignored her. As a result, his wife accused him and they argued…

At that time, Guo Tongzhi actually felt a bit rebellious and even thought about bringing that woman home — after all, wasn’t his wife accusing him of having an affair with that woman? He might as well make it true!

If his wife hadn’t been pregnant, he might have done it already!

Fortunately, Li Qingzhi advised him in time, and he didn’t fall into the woman’s trap.

He was wary of that woman; she could have easily harmed his arm with a knife. If he had taken her home as a concubine, and she attacked him with a knife to the chest… would he still be alive?

The thought terrified Guo Tongzhi, and he became even more grateful to Li Qingzhi.

As a result, when he received Li Qingzhi’s letter and learned about Fang Zijian’s whereabouts, he immediately had people round up everyone in that shop selling northern goods and began interrogating them.

During the interrogation… the person who attempted to assassinate him was indeed among them!

Li Qingzhi was truly extraordinary; he had been searching for the mastermind for so long, but Li Qingzhi found them in just a few days!

However… these people were under the Prince of Jin’s command. Xu Yuandong, their leader, was not only a confidant of the Prince of Jin, but his sister was also the Prince’s woman… how should he handle this?

Without stopping, Guo Tongzhi immediately went to Chongcheng County again.

“I didn’t touch Xu Yuandong. I interrogated Fang Zijian and the others severely. Indeed, it was them who attempted to assassinate me…” Guo Tongzhi detailed what Hong Hui and Fang Zijian had been up to over the past year.

After Hong Hui couldn’t get by in Chongcheng County, he went to help an official who had resigned and returned to his hometown do some clandestine activities. Later on, Fang Zijian joined him.

When Fang Zijian left Chongcheng County, he actually left with his mother, but later they ran out of money and couldn’t even afford to eat. His mother, wanting to live in peace back in Chongcheng County, and the two of them kept arguing.

Fang Zijian felt it was not good for his mother to wander with him, so he found a good home for her and married her off.

Of course, that was his version of events, but in reality…

He had “sold” his own mother.

Guo Tongzhi was amazed by Fang Zijian’s actions.

Although his mother hadn’t treated his two sisters well, she had treated him, her son, very well. And yet… he treated his own mother like this?

His mother was not young anymore and couldn’t bear any more children. If someone married her, they would probably make her work. Her later years would definitely not be good.

“I didn’t expect Fang Zijian to be capable of such a thing!” Guo Tongzhi sighed.

Li Qingzhi said, “If he can sell his sisters, naturally he can sell his own mother.” Fang Zijian had always lived a life where his mother treated him as superior to everyone else in the family. In front of Fang Zijian, his two sisters were not even considered human, so Fang Zijian naturally didn’t care about the people around him, including his mother.

“That’s true,” Guo Tongzhi continued.

After selling his own mother, Fang Zijian began following Hong Hui and helping him with his tasks, and then he followed Xu Yuandong together with Hong Hui, planning against Guo Tongzhi.

Xu Yuandong was only targeting Guo Tongzhi, but Hong Hui and Fang Zijian were targeting Li Qingzhi.

They both failed, and then someone took a risk and attempted to assassinate Guo Tongzhi.

Guo Tongzhi felt a bit aggrieved. “Mr. Li, what should I do now? Xu Yuandong is a confidant of the King of Jin, and when you hit a dog, you have to look at its owner…”

Guo Tongzhi worried that if he killed Xu Yuandong, the Prince of Jin would continue to cause trouble for him.

The King of Jin was a bit crazy now, and he didn’t want to die! After listening, Li Qingzhi said, “My lord, why not divert the trouble elsewhere?”

Guo Tongzhi looked curious.

Li Qingzhi continued, “My lord, I know quite a few people, and I’ve learned some news. Xu Yuandong is the King of Jin’s man, but he also has people from the King of Yan under his command.”

Li Qingzhi explained the relationship between the Prince of Yan and the Prince of Jin, and then said, “The Prince of Jin indeed wants to cause you trouble, but he probably doesn’t want to kill you. The Prince of Yan’s people, however, are different.” The people of the Prince of Yan would be delighted if Xu Yuandong killed Guo Tongzhi. In this way, the Prince of Jin would again bear the blame for the assassination of an imperial official.

Guo Tongzhi hadn’t expected so much to be going on behind the scenes. “Then what should I do… try to make Xu Yuandong hate the Prince of Yan?”

“Yes, my lord. You can arrange a play, tell Xu Yuandong about what the Prince of Yan has done, and then find a way to let Xu Yuandong go.” Li Qingzhi said.

He was about to participate in the provincial exam, and he had many secrets. He didn’t want any unexpected troubles. Moreover, whether it was the Prince of Jin or the Prince of Yan, they were not good people. Letting them fight each other was actually the best outcome. And with someone like Lu Qingxi in the capital next, things were bound to get chaotic, and those people wouldn’t pay attention to him.

As for the specifics of how to make Xu Yuandong believe… let Guo Tongzhi handle it. He believed Guo Tongzhi could handle it well.

“Mr. Li, how do you know so much?” Guo Tongzhi asked Li Qingzhi.

Li Qingzhi said, “I have always been in correspondence with Governor Zhang.”

Guo Tongzhi looked at Li Qingzhi with envy.

He also knew Governor Zhang, but Governor Zhang never corresponded with him or told him about these things. However, Li Qingzhi was quite capable, and it was natural for Governor Zhang to value him.

Li Qingzhi talked to Gou Tongzhi and told him what he had learned from Qian Fugui about the Prince of Yan. He even told Gou Tongzhi the truth about the missing disaster relief silver seven years ago: “The Prince of Yan has been hiding in the dark to target the Prince of Jin. If Xu Yuandong knew about this, he would definitely not bother to harm you again.”

Gou Tongzhi talked with Li Qingzhi and immediately returned to the city.

While he was on the road, he had already thought about how to let Xu Yuandong go and let Xu Yuandong know what Prince Yan had done. As soon as he arrived at the provincial capital, he immediately made arrangements.

When everything was done, Gou Tongzhi breathed a sigh of relief.

After relaxing and thinking about what Prince Jin and Prince Yan had done, Gou Tongzhi suddenly understood why Governor Zhang followed Lu Qingxi!

Eunuch Lu was not as crazy as Prince of Jin and Prince of Yan. In the past, he dealt with Prince of Jin’s party. On weekdays, the most he did was to demote officials he disliked.

When Gou Tongzhi returned home after finishing his work, he saw his wife looking at him with a wronged expression and red eyes.

His wife gave birth to a daughter not long ago, and since then, he doesn’t know what’s wrong with her, she’s always been unhappy.

Gou Tongzhi had never liked his wife’s behavior, but today he liked her more and more.

No matter what, his wife would never use a knife on him!

Li Qingzhi has always been paying attention to the affairs of the capital city.

Gou Tongzhi released Xu Yuandong, but did not let others go. Hong Hui, Fang Zijian and others were suspected of assassinating court officials and were all sentenced to death.

The people of Chongcheng County also talked about this matter after dinner.

“Everyone used to say how good Hong Hui was… Now, what’s so good about him?”

“Then there is no good person in the Hong family.”

“What a good person Gou Tongzhi is! He actually assassinated Gou Tongzhi!”

“That Fang Zijian is even worse. I heard he sold his mother.”

“He wanted to sell his sister before, so it’s normal for him to sell his mother now.”…

Although Gou Tongzhi has left Chongcheng County, the people of Chongcheng County still miss this good official.

They hated the person who assassinated Gou Tongzhi.

But soon, everyone was talking about no longer Hong Hui and Fang Zijian, but the upcoming provincial examination.

The provincial examination, also known as the autumn examination, is held once every three years.

The provincial examination is presided over by the provincial educational authorities, but the county examination is hosted by officials appointed by the court. As for the examination venue, it is still in the provincial capital.

To participate in the county examination, one needs to register a month in advance. Therefore, Li Qingzhi planned to go to the provincial capital in early July, and by then, Jin Xiaoye, Li Damao, Li Ermao, and others would go with him.

In passing, he also wanted to see if Jin Ye Embroidery Workshop and the school could operate normally in their absence.

As for Juwei Pavilion… Li Qingzhi believed Chang Zhan could handle it well. In fact, Juwei Pavilion should have belonged to Chang Zhan from the beginning.

As for the glass jewelry, Jin Xiaoye had entrusted them to the jewelry workshop and craftsmen. When it was time, they would just go and collect the goods.

Those workshops might steal some glass or even imitate the jewelry designs of Li Qingzhi, but since glass wasn’t valuable and jewelry styles would eventually be copied, they both could accept it.

It was said that the wood shopkeeper in the capital had found many embroiderers to imitate Jin Ye Embroidery Workshop’s things and made a lot of profit. Before going to the provincial capital, Li Qingzhi and Jin Xiaoye went to Miaoqian Village.

“Mr. Li, are you going to participate in the county examination?”

“Mr. Li, after you pass this examination, will you become a Jinshi?”

“Mr. Li…”

Some of the older people in the village curiously asked, while the younger ones didn’t dare to approach.

Li Qingzhi chatted with the elders in the village, while Jin Xiaoye chatted with Jin Xiaoshu and others.

Now that it was hot, Jin’s parents were worried that if they took too much braised food, they wouldn’t be able to sell it all and it would spoil. The braised food they got from Juwei Pavilion was relatively small, and it was basically sold out in the afternoon.

Today, they returned home early.

Hearing that Jin Xiaoye was going to follow Li Qingzhi to the provincial capital and might go to the capital in the future, Jin’s parents nodded repeatedly, but they didn’t know what to say and just repeatedly reminded her, “Take good care of Damao and Ermao.”

“I will, you should take care of yourselves too,” Jin Xiaoye said.

Jin’s parents nodded repeatedly again.

After chatting with Jin’s parents, Jin Xiaoye went to find Fang Jinniang. “Jinniang, are you planning to visit your mother?”

After Fang’s mother and Fang Zijian spent all their money, Fang Zijian married her mother to a middle-aged man whose wife had died.

When Guo Tongzhi interrogated Fang Zijian, he asked about Fang’s mother’s whereabouts and told Fang Jinniang about it.

Fang Jinniang said, “I’m not going. I’m quite busy now, and since my mother has remarried, she’s someone else’s now and has nothing to do with me.”

If her mother hadn’t remarried and returned to Chongcheng County, as her daughter, she might have been under pressure.

But didn’t her mother remarry?

She could completely ignore her in the future.

She was living quite well now, so she might as well pretend that person didn’t exist!

“That’s good!” Jin Xiaoye agreed. Fang’s mother treated Fang Jinniang so poorly, it would be quite awkward if Fang Jinniang still went to see her eagerly.

Jin Xiaoye then talked about Jin Ye Embroidery Workshop with Fang Jinniang.

Fang Jinniang could read, and she had been with Jin Xiaoye for the past two years… a workshop like this, she could handle it.

As for Jin Xiaoshu, he ran a boat business, which he had started from scratch on his own, so Jin Xiaoye didn’t need to worry about him.

After having a meal at Jin’s home, Li Qingzhi and Jin Xiaoye left Chongcheng County together the next day and headed to the provincial capital.

When Li Qingzhi went to the provincial capital last year, he traveled with Zhu Xunmiao, but this time, he didn’t travel with others who were participating in the county examination.

Li Qingzhi was only somewhat familiar with Li Xiucai and Zhu Xunmiao among the scholars in Chongcheng County. Li Xiucai had long given up on becoming a Jinshi, and as for Zhu Xunmiao, he knew he wouldn’t pass the examination, so he didn’t plan to take it. Instead, he intended to study at the Chongwen Academy for a few years before participating in the county examination.

However, Li Qingzhi still stayed at Zhu’s former house.

Zhu had actively offered to lend him the house, and he had agreed.

Since they were planning to take Lao Gen to the capital, Li Qingzhi also took him with them this time, along with Zhao Xiaodou.

Zhao Xiaodou was young, and Li Qingzhi was afraid he wouldn’t be used to traveling far, so he specifically asked him if he wanted to go with them to the provincial capital. Since he wanted to go, Zhao Laosan agreed, so Li Qingzhi brought him along.

In fact, bringing Zhao Xiaodou along wasn’t a big deal. What made Li Qingzhi helpless was that Li Damao and Li Ermao wanted to bring the chickens they raised with them.

As Li Qingzhi sat on the boat to the provincial capital, sipping tea and enjoying the breeze, at his feet, Li Damao, Li Ermao, and Zhao Xiaodou’s chickens were being carried in cages, making “cluck cluck” sounds.

After going to the provincial capital, these three chickens might follow them to the capital as well.