Chapter 158: New County Magistrate 2/2

When the boat was steady, Li Qingzhi was the first to disembark. Then he saw a familiar face. “Brother Du?”

Li Qingzhi didn’t expect to see Du Yongning in Chongcheng County. Du Yongning also didn’t expect to see Li Qingzhi disembark from the boat that had been following his.

“Brother Li,” Du Yongning’s expression was unpleasant. In this imperial examination, he ranked eleventh. Li Qingzhi would definitely mock him…

Li Qingzhi hadn’t even looked at the list, so naturally, he didn’t know Du Yongning’s rank. But he felt Du Yongning’s rejection towards him. He was eager to go home and didn’t want to talk to Du Yongning. “What a coincidence. Brother Du, I have something to attend to. I’ll be on my way.”

Du Yongning didn’t know that Li Qingzhi was in a hurry to go home. Seeing that Li Qingzhi didn’t even smile at him, he thought that Li Qingzhi looked down on him and didn’t want to talk to him. His expression became even uglier, and he couldn’t help but say, “Brother Li, you got a top score in the imperial examination, you don’t even want to talk to people.”

This was a case of hitting back after being hit, clearly Du Yongning had a worse attitude! Li Qingzhi was speechless. “You’re the one with the sour face. How can you blame others for not talking to you?”

“It’s you… You obviously look down on me!” Du Yongning was angry.

Even when he was angry, he maintained his dignity, but today… His rank in the examination was so low that it made him very uncomfortable!

What made him even more uncomfortable was what he heard others saying about him. He didn’t expect others to see him like that!

Did Li Qingzhi also think he was arrogant and incompetent?

“When did I ever look down on you?” Li Qingzhi was helpless.

“Right now! Li Zixiao, there must be something wrong with the ranking in this examination. There’s no way I could be eleventh…”

“You’re eleventh?” Li Qingzhi was somewhat surprised.

“Didn’t you know?” Du Yongning realized something was wrong.

“I didn’t go to check the list,” Li Qingzhi said.

“I went to check, but when I saw that you were first, I left. I didn’t bother to look further down,” Zhu Xunmiao said.

He wasn’t familiar with Du Yongning, and Du Yongning hadn’t invited him to his book club meetings before, so he naturally wouldn’t specifically go to see Du Yongning’s rank.

Xu Qifei had read through the entire list, but he had been studying in seclusion recently and didn’t know Du Yongning.

Du Yongning and Li Qingzhi looked at each other, feeling embarrassed.

They didn’t even know his rank, didn’t intend to make fun of him, and yet he was making a scene here.

Coincidentally, at that moment, another boat arrived, and Zhu Qian was standing at the bow.

Zhu Qian was surprised to see them. “Nephew Li, Xunmiao, why are you back today?”

He was thinking about going to the provincial capital tomorrow to pick someone up, but his son had come back?

“Dad! I passed the exam for scholar! Li brother also passed the exam for the top scholar!” Zhu Xunmiao exclaimed excitedly.

Zhu Qian was even more excited. “You passed the exam for scholar? This is truly a blessing from heaven for our Zhu family. We actually have a scholar in our family!”

“Dad, I also think it’s a blessing from heaven. If I had done a little worse, I wouldn’t have passed!” Zhu Xunmiao was very proud. “I got the last place!”

Zhu Xunmiao didn’t think it was shameful to be last. His voice was particularly loud.

“You’re so lucky! When we get back, I’ll definitely light some incense for the Bodhisattva and pay respects to our Zhu family’s ancestors.” Zhu Qian was also excited. He felt that passing was enough, and the ranking didn’t matter!

The father and son were very happy, and Du Yongning was dumbfounded.

He had liked to compete for first place since he was a child…

“Shopkeeper Zhu, congratulations!” At this time, a man in his thirties with a long beard walked onto the bow of the boat.

He first congratulated Zhu Qian, then looked at Li Qingzhi. “You must be Li Zixiao. Congratulations on getting another top score in the examination!”

This man spoke in official language, and as soon as he finished speaking, Zhu Qian introduced him to Li Qingzhi. “Nephew, this is the new Prefect Wang of Chongcheng County.”

After County Magistrate Gou was promoted to Deputy Magistrate, the capital arranged for a new county magistrate in Chongcheng County.

Apart from Chongcheng County, Linhu County also had a new county magistrate.

And these two new county magistrates were all recommended by Lu Qingxi.

Lu Qingxi publicly claimed that Governor Zhang was his person, and after promoting Deputy Magistrate Gou, many officials began to align themselves with him.

Of course, the reason these officials aligned with Lu Qingxi was because… the emperor had brought back a royal baby!

It seemed that the emperor didn’t intend to let the King of Jin succeed the throne… naturally, some people bet on that baby.

Prefect Wang didn’t have much background and his family was poor.

He and Deputy Magistrate Gou actually passed the imperial examination together. Deputy Magistrate Gou used his connections to become the county magistrate of Chongcheng County, but he remained in the capital and became a minor official, unable to support his family.

There were many officials in the capital, and he had to give gifts from time to time. His life became even more difficult.

That was not

 all, he also offended an official from the King of Jin’s faction… He was one of the first to align with Lu Qingxi, so Lu Qingxi sent him to be the county magistrate of Chongcheng County.

Prefect Wang used to be a proud son of heaven, after all, in their small county, there were few Jinshi candidates, let alone someone like him!

But after passing the imperial examination, he spent several years sitting on a cold bench in the capital, and he saw the reality clearly.

Seeing Guo Tongzhi, he felt no jealousy at all. Instead, he used the fact that they were both successful candidates on the same list to establish a relationship.

After Guo Tongzhi introduced Zhu Qian to him, he also had a very good attitude towards Zhu Qian and came to Chongcheng County with Zhu Qian.

Now seeing Guo Tongzhi praise Li Qingzhi enthusiastically, he became even more enthusiastic.

Zhu Qian’s boat had already stopped, and he and Prefect Wang got off the boat together.

Prefect Wang smiled at Li Qingzhi and said, “Zixiao, you won the Minor Three Scholarships in one fell swoop. This is a great joy. Let me treat you to a meal?”

“Thank you, Prefect Wang, but I still have something to attend to at home…” Li Qingzhi politely declined. Prefect Wang might not necessarily be sincere in inviting him to dinner. After all, he had rushed to Chongcheng County and must be tired and wanting to rest.

“Then let’s do it another day.” Prefect Wang didn’t insist.

However, at this moment, someone from the nearby Miaoqian Village recognized Li Qingzhi and walked over to him. “Li Qingzhi, you’re back? That’s great!”

Li Qingzhi asked, “Uncle Li, what’s wrong?”

The man surnamed Li said, “Your wife’s aunt is involved in a murder case. Yao Zuming has been shouting that she killed someone. You’d better go back and take a look!”

Li Qingzhi was a bit slow to react — Aunt Jin killed someone? That couldn’t be possible, could it?

Aunt Jin was timid and wouldn’t dare to kill anyone!

Before Li Qingzhi could ask, the man said again, “Your wife almost got into a fight with someone.”

Li Qingzhi: “…I’ll go back immediately. Uncle Li, what exactly happened?” Aunt Jin getting into a fight with someone was possible. When he was in Miaoqian Village, he had heard about Aunt Jin’s “exploits”.

Li Laogen used to gamble and was beaten by Aunt Jin with a door latch.

What this man said was heard by everyone present. Prefect Wang immediately said, “Someone died? I’ll go and take a look too!”

In a county, a murder case was a big deal, and the county magistrate would definitely have to personally inquire about it.

Since Prefect Wang was going… Zhu Qian quickly said, “Let’s all take my boat over.”

Li Qingzhi had no objections and boarded the boat with the man surnamed Li.

Zhu Xunmiao and Xu Qifei also followed.

At first, Du Yongning felt very embarrassed, but after Zhu Xunmiao loudly declared that he was the last one, Du Yongning no longer felt embarrassed.

When he heard that Li Qingzhi’s wife’s aunt was involved in a murder case and Li Qingzhi’s wife had fought with someone… he immediately became excited.

He brought his servant and also boarded the boat, exchanging a few words with Prefect Wang.

The Du family had officials in the capital, so Du Yongning wasn’t afraid of Prefect Wang.

When Prefect Wang heard from Du Yongning that he had just passed the examination and became a scholar, he thought that Du Yongning was Li Qingzhi’s good friend, so naturally, he wouldn’t refuse to let Du Yongning come along.

As for Li Qingzhi, he had no time to care about Du Yongning anymore and was busy asking various questions to Uncle Li.

After Uncle Li boarded the boat, he saw the expensive decorations on the boat and couldn’t help but feel a little flustered. Fortunately, he was able to explain the situation clearly: “Your aunt certainly didn’t kill anyone. Yao Zuming’s father accidentally fell to his death while stealing things from someone else’s house. There was so much commotion last night that people nearby went to see.”

“He clearly accidentally killed himself while stealing things, but Yao Zuming said that your aunt deliberately placed a stone pedestal under the tree to scare his father, just to kill him.”

“It’s been a whole day of trouble. Yao Zuming even brought quite a few people with him.”

“Their family is really unreasonable. They even carried his father to the doorstep of the Jin family.”

…

As Uncle Li spoke, the teacher specially hired by Prefect Wang translated Uncle Li’s words for Prefect Wang, so Prefect Wang had a general idea.

As for the others present, they all understood the dialect spoken by Uncle Li.

Du Yongning couldn’t help but say, “That Yao Zuming is really causing trouble out of nothing. His father accidentally died while stealing things from someone else’s house. What does it have to do with that household

?”

He felt that Yao Zuming was really going too far.

But what he cared about most was not this: “You said that Brother Li’s wife got into a fight with someone…” If this was true, Li Qingzhi would lose face big time! He didn’t need to worry about Li Qingzhi mocking him anymore!

He came to Chongcheng County at the right time.

“Xiaoye… she has a feud with Yao Zuming. She even went to Yao’s house to cause trouble before.” Uncle Li didn’t know Prefect Wang’s identity, and he was a bit restrained at first when he boarded the boat, but now he relaxed.

“Why?” Du Yongning asked.

“Yao Zuming instigated her stepfather to gamble and even wanted their land! That Yao Zuming is not a good person, but Xiaoye can handle him.” Uncle Li said.

Du Yongning looked excitedly at Li Qingzhi, wanting to see Li Qingzhi’s embarrassed expression.

However, Li Qingzhi smiled and sighed, “Xiaoye is really amazing.”

“Yeah, she’s the most capable girl in our Miaoqian Village.” Uncle Li said.

Li Qingzhi looked proud.

Du Yongning: “…”

Li Qingzhi was actually proud? Then how should he tease Li Qingzhi?

At this time, Zhu Qian also said, “Boss Jin is indeed a heroine.” He had always admired Aunt Jin.

Du Yongning: “…”

Were these people a bit off?

Prefect Wang also fell silent.

He thought he could show off his ability to solve cases when he heard about a murder, but instead… it was just this case?

In short, this was just a case of unreasonable trouble in the countryside.