Chapter 136: Promotion 3/4

She was just instructing Chang Duan when someone came in from outside. “Shopkeeper Mu, we’ve caught the person you asked for! That kid looks sickly, but he’s quite good at escaping…”

Before this person could finish speaking, two others came in, led by Feng Da.

Shopkeeper Mu, smiled at Chang Duan. “Duan Jin, is this the person who came with you to the capital?”

Shopkeeper Mu, quite liked the name “Duan Jin.”

Duan Jin, Duan Jin, breaking the Jin’s ambitions?

Chang Duan glanced at Feng Da. “Yes, he’s the one who came with me, Ma Er.” 

“That’s good. Have someone tidy up the books he’s holding and send them to Master Qiantose. Master Qiantose needs books now.”

“I’ll have someone send the books to King Jin right away,” Chang Duan immediately said.

Shopkeeper Mu didn’t delay, she smiled and left, her people also released Feng Da.

Feng Da was a bit bewildered. “Old Duan, what’s going on?”

Yesterday afternoon, Feng Da noticed someone seemed to be looking for him. He was startled and didn’t dare to wander around, so he carefully hid.

But today… he was still caught.

He thought the ones who caught him were King Jin’s people and he even planned to assassinate him when he saw King Jin… but he was brought in front of Chang Duan instead.

That wasn’t all, Chang Duan now looked quite impressive.

“I’m now King Jin’s man. King Jin handed this restaurant over to me to manage. From now on, I’ll get thirty percent of the money this restaurant earns,” Chang Duan explained.

Feng Da: “???” They had only been apart for two days, and Chang Duan had become so powerful?

Chang Duan continued, “Feng Da, we’re not going back to Linhu County. We’ll stay in the capital from now on!”

If he wanted revenge against King Jin, he had to stay in the capital.

Sooner or later, Li Qingzhi would come to the capital to participate in the imperial examination. He and Feng Da could help him gain fame in the capital and earn more money for him.

After looking at Chang Duan’s expression, Feng Da immediately agreed, “Alright!”

With their decision made, Chang Duan asked Feng Da, “How many books do you have left? King Jin has arranged for some storytellers to come to the restaurant to read stories, but we’re short on books.”

It turned out those storytellers were arranged by Lu Qingxi… Feng Da replied, “I still have seven hundred sets of books, over three thousand volumes.”

That was quite a lot of books, enough to send to King Jin right away!

Shopkeeper Mu left someone with Chang Duan, and he immediately had them move the books and send them to Lu Qingxi.

Then… there were more “storytellers” in the capital.

At this moment, Lu Qingxi was proudly boasting to the Emperor about his ingenious plan. “Your Majesty, I’ve already figured out how to save Zhang Zhiru. I’ll tell His Majesty that I discovered something amiss in Linhu County, and I staged a play with Zhang Zhiru. We sent Zhang Zhiru to Hexing Mansion. Before he left, I even pestered you for a secret decree!”

Lu Qingxi had a smug look on his face. “Your Majesty, Zhang Zhiru insulted me in the past, but in the future… everyone will think he’s on my side! Just thinking about it makes me happy, hehe!”

The Emperor couldn’t help but laugh, imagining King Jin’s expression.

Lu Qingxi continued, “Your Majesty, you don’t know this, but the person who brought the books to the capital, I’ve already captured him. He bowed to me and said he admired me, wanting to do things for me… So I’m going to tell people outside that I printed those books!”

The Emperor was amused and exasperated. “Are you threatening him?”

Lu Qingxi replied, “Not at all! But I did exaggerate a bit. He doesn’t really admire me… This man owes a debt to Zhang Zhiru and came to the capital to save him. I told him that if he wants to save Zhang Zhiru, he must work for me. Now, Zhang Zhiru’s men are also mine!”

Lu Qingxi looked very pleased with himself, and the Emperor, after listening to his plan, felt pleased too. “Let it be as you say.”

“You truly are my benevolent Emperor!” Lu Qingxi went over and gave the Emperor a massage. “Your Majesty, without you, what would I do? There’s no one who favors me more than you!”

The Emperor laughed, thinking he needed to take care of his health. Otherwise, what would happen to his beloved consort and Lu Qingxi?

Not to mention his two troublesome daughters…

With Feng Da captured, Lu Qingxi suddenly had a lot more books. 

These books were distributed by Shopkeeper Mu, so now more people in the capital knew what the Lou family had done!

Li Qingzhi didn’t dare to offend King Jin, and he also feared the books might be banned. So when he wrote the books, he didn’t mention King Jin at all.

But Lu Qingxi had no such concerns. He instructed the storytellers to mention King Jin more often.

He knew he had already offended King Jin.

The Emperor hoped he could reconcile with King Jin and even wanted King Jin to spare him after ascending the throne… but that was impossible.

After the old King Jin passed away, Lu Qingxi had targeted the people loyal to King Jin, revoking all the privileges King Jin had enjoyed. The way King Jin looked at him back then was as if he had been poisoned.

After all these years, Lu Qingxi knew how cunning King Jin was.

King Jin would never let him go, even if he begged for mercy!

The Emperor wanted him to reconcile with King Jin, but both he and King Jin knew that was impossible.

“Who would have thought the Lou family was like this!”

“King Jin actually said the Lou family is innocent, he’s obviously favoring his uncle’s family!”

“The Lou family got what they deserved!”

“Magistrate Yan should also die!”

“The people in this book are really miserable. What about the Lou family? They are all delicate and tender!”

“They even slandered Mr. Zhang before!”

“A few days ago, people all over the capital were talking bad about Mr. Zhang. It must have been at the command of King Jin!”

“I heard before that King Jin was banned because of the quarry incident… I only knew that many people died in the quarry, but now I realize how hard those laborers worked.”

“Offend the Lou family and you’ll be taken to dig stones… truly lawless!”

…

Not only that, under Shopkeeper Mu’s manipulation, some of the things King Jin had done in the past were also brought up. “King Jin has done such things before.”

“Before, King Jin even embezzled relief funds for disaster victims.”

“Are you daring to say that? Stop talking, or you’ll be caught and killed by people from King Jin’s mansion!”

“I won’t say anymore, I’m leaving now!”

“Speaking of King Jin… King Jin has often given women to the court officials. My master’s family even keeps two women sent by King Jin, supposedly raised in Jiangnan and sent over.”

“King Jin really hasn’t done anything good!”

…

The “Record of Injustice” written by Li Qingzhi had no reading threshold at all.

At this time, the common people generally couldn’t read, and those books in the bookstore… Even if literate people read them, the common people wouldn’t understand.

But this book he wrote was completely different… Everyone could understand the stories inside!

And when he wrote the book, Li Qingzhi took the perspective of ordinary people and wrote from their standpoint.

The book not only depicted the misery of the common people but also detailed many aspects of their lives. It portrayed how ordinary government officers oppressed the people and how minor officials distorted the truth.

For ordinary people, a small incident could tear a family apart…

All of this resonated with the people of the capital.

Previously, they only heard rumors, so naturally, some believed that Mr. Zhang was seeking personal revenge. But now, after hearing this story, they woke up.

“If Mr. Zhang really sought revenge, why would he spare the Lou family’s women and children?”

“Mr. Zhang must have been too angry to do this, right?”

“I heard that many people are petitioning now, asking His Majesty to execute Mr. Zhang… Mr. Zhang is in a terrible situation!”

“I hope Mr. Zhang will be all right.”

…

The people of the capital all hoped that Mr. Zhang would be all right, and even the officials of the capital had this thought.

But these officials had more thoughts, deeper thoughts than the ordinary people: “Those books… seem to have been brought out by Lu Qingxi?”

“Lu Qingxi is truly cunning!”

“Did Lu Qingxi orchestrate this against King Jin?”

“Even if Lu Qingxi orchestrated it against King Jin, the incident in Linhu County is still real.”

“King Jin has really gone too far in recent years.”