Chapter 57: Public Opinion 2/3

But after all, the two families were relatives; they were the grandmother and uncle of his grandson.

If he didn’t choose someone from the Jin family this time, what would the Jin family think?

He hoped that his apprentice could assist his son and grandson, so it would be better to choose someone from the Jin family. Jin Liushu and Jin Zaoshu were lazy, but Jin Sangshu was okay. These past few days, Jin Liushu and Jin Zaoshu have brought him gifts and said a lot of flattering words, while Jin Sangshu… had helped with a lot of work.

“Alright.” Yao’s mother had no objections. She looked at the three brothers of Jin Moli, and Jin Sangshu was indeed a bit more hardworking.

The matter of Mr. Yao choosing an apprentice didn’t have much to do with Li Qingzhi.

At this moment, what he cared about the most was the situation in the county.

That evening, Li Qingzhi lit a lamp and began to write something with a flourish.

“What are you writing?” Jin Xiaoye asked. She recognized some of the words Li Qingzhi was writing, but some were unfamiliar to her, and coupled with Li Qingzhi’s sloppy handwriting, she found it a bit difficult to read.

“Some little stories,” Li Qingzhi smiled.

Jin Xiaoye asked again, “Ah Qing, did you really meet the county magistrate today?”

“I did.” Li Qingzhi thought for a moment and told Jin Xiaoye everything he had said and done after meeting Magistrate Gou today.

Jin Xiaoye listened thoughtfully.

Li Qingzhi was really good at flattery, and she wanted to learn that skill too.

The next day, they went to the county as usual.

The county… smelled worse than before.

Most households only had one chamber pot, and with so many people in the house, it couldn’t be emptied every few days, but they also didn’t want to spend money…

So last night, many people quietly emptied their chamber pots.

Jin Xiaoshu couldn’t help but say, “We can’t buy fish to eat these days!” Many of them were dumped into the river, and just thinking about it made him feel uncomfortable.

Li Qingzhi nodded in agreement and headed to the Zhu family as usual.

As soon as he entered the door, he met Zhu Qian, who asked, “Nephew, was it your idea for Magistrate Gou to deal with Zhang Chuqian?”

“It should be my idea,” Li Qingzhi replied.

Zhu Qian was at a loss for words, then said, “Magistrate Gou asked me to find someone to pour manure at Zhang’s house yesterday. I could only borrow a few reliable men from Uncle Ding…”

Li Qingzhi hadn’t expected this job to fall into Zhu Qian’s hands, feeling a bit embarrassed.

At this time, Zhu Qian continued, “Magistrate Gou asked us to go over early today.” He was specifically waiting here for Li Qingzhi.

“Then let’s go.” Li Qingzhi said, knowing that something would happen at the county yamen this morning.

On the other side, after Jin Xiaoye dropped Jin Xiaoye near Sister Wang’s house, he didn’t leave immediately, but kept looking around.

After waiting for a while, he saw Fang Jinniang.

The young man ran towards Fang Jinniang and threw a pouch filled with pumpkin seeds into her basket, saying as usual, “For you to eat!”

Without waiting for Fang Jinniang to say anything, he had already run far away.

Fang Jinniang: “…” Who exactly was this person giving her food?

Fang Jinniang found a pouch in her basket and put it into her own pocket, then walked towards Sister Wang’s house.

When Fang Jinniang arrived at Sister Wang’s house, Sister Wang, Mrs. Xu, Jin Xiaoye, and the two old ladies responsible for shoe repair were already there, chatting.

“I heard that someone poured manure at Zhang Chuqian’s doorstep!”

“I heard that too.”

“In the past, whenever someone offended him, he would pour manure on them. This time, he’s getting a taste of his own medicine!”

“There were a lot of people watching the commotion today. I heard he was really furious.”

…

As they talked, one old lady said, “Zhang Chuqian is really despicable. Isn’t the eldest son of the Wang family a bit slow? He used to wet his bed when he was ten or so… Zhang Chuqian’s men dragged him into gambling dens and encouraged him to borrow money to gamble… Later, they even took away the Wang family’s house.”

“The most pitiful one is Lao Suntou. His nephew is no good, spending his days eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling, borrowing money everywhere… Lao Suntou refused to lend him money, so they fell out. Unexpectedly, two years ago, his nephew became one of Zhang Chuqian’s thugs. His nephew found excuses to break Lao Suntou’s son’s legs and even poured manure at their house every day… Their neighbors didn’t dare to talk to them for fear of being implicated. Lao Suntou couldn’t bear it and jumped into the river.”

“And then there’s the Zhou family…”

Jin Xiaoye, not being from Chongcheng County, didn’t know about these things before. Now that she had heard them, she couldn’t help but gasp in shock.

Zhang Chuqian and his henchmen were truly despicable.

Thinking about what Li Qingzhi planned to do, Jin Xiaoye said, “It used to be free to empty chamber pots, but now it costs one penny. Will it be two or three pennies in the future? Zhang Chuqian is so arrogant, no one can control him. What are we going to do in the future?”

Sister Wang and the others shuddered at Jin Xiaoye’s words.

This really could happen, and if it did, what would they do?

At that moment, a woman who had come to find Jin Xiaoye for work said, “Oh, speaking of this… Yesterday, someone was caught red-handed while secretly emptying a chamber pot, and Zhang Chuqian’s men beat him up and even pressed him into the chamber pot…”

As they chatted, an elderly man climbed to the entrance of the county yamen to lodge a complaint against Zhang Chuqian.

The bailiff who had a good relationship with Zhang Chuqian wanted to drive the man away, but was stopped by Magistrate Gou’s people.

This old man used to be a night soil carrier, making a living by emptying chamber pots for people and then selling the fertilizer. This job didn’t pay much; maybe he would earn ten wen a day if he was busy, but this amount of money was enough for him to eat and survive.

In the past, many people in the county made a living this way.

But now Zhang Chuqian has ruined their livelihoods, not allowing them to collect and sell the fertilizer anymore.

The year before last, these people had a very hard time. The man who accused Zhang Chuqian had been seriously injured not long ago because he emptied chamber pots for people. He, an elderly man with no children, had his legs broken, making it almost impossible for him to survive. Because of this, when someone asked him to accuse Zhang Chuqian, he agreed without hesitation and crawled to the county yamen to lodge a complaint.

Magistrate Gou had seen this old man and sent someone to summon Zhang Chuqian.

Just based on this incident, Zhang Chuqian couldn’t be convicted. As expected, after arriving at the county yamen, Zhang Chuqian claimed he didn’t know anything about it and completely shifted all the blame away from himself.

Li Qingzhi glanced at Zhang Chuqian from a distance.

This is a middle-aged man of about forty, with a fierce face full of flesh, probably because his own house was splashed with feces, his complexion is very bad, and he has a bad temper when facing County Magistrate Gou.