The tea shop is really ordinary. There are a few tables in the hall. There are two cubicles in the northeast corner near the kitchen separated by a cloth curtain. The cloth curtain only covers the upper half of the doorway. A middle-aged man in a long gown and two
The green-clothed guard walked into one of the rooms. The curtain was opened, and the people sitting inside also looked out.
Liang Zuoren, the magistrate of Shiliang County, was in his forties, with a white face and a slight beard, and was wearing a civilian uniform. He was wondering who was making noise outside, when he saw Lin Fu walking in. He was slightly startled, and it was too late to turn around. Lin
Fu stood outside the curtain and already bowed his hands and saluted: "I'm still barking like two guard dogs. I didn't expect that the magistrate is really here. The students are so polite."
Lin Fu's words were harsh and harsh. Liang Zuoren looked embarrassed and couldn't let go of his anger even though he was angry in his heart.
When Lin Fu was delivering greetings to the county government, Liang Zuoren was inviting his long-time friends to come here for dinner. Liang Zuoren knew the details of this newly elected official who had been resurrected in the Baisha County robbery. His writing skills were average, but he was just better than others.
With a little more luck, even the children of the Lin family were obedient and were not taken seriously by the Lin family. Naturally, he could not afford Lin Fu. Afraid of delaying the reunion with his friends, Liang Zuoren just found an excuse to reject Lin Fu's offer.
Asking for a meeting, who would have thought that they would meet here again by chance, but the guard of their friend blocked them from the door and rushed into them?
"Well..." Liang Zuoren responded with a gloomy face and said, "No need to be polite, you can go and have a meal too."
Lin Fu wanted to see who else was sitting in the private room, but the curtain had already been lowered from inside.
Lin Fu and the others found a square table in the corner and sat down. Zhao Hu was familiar with this place. He stood there and greeted the young and beautiful Madam Xiao and said, "Madam Xiao, do you still remember the dishes I ate in the store?
Bring us another piece of cold-cut beef." Mrs. Xiao's soft and waxy voice was really nice, and she responded clearly: "Remember, do you want to warm up a pot of Linghu Huang?"
Zhao Hu sat down with his sword closed, put his head close to Lin Fu's ear, and whispered: "Your return this time is very different from before."
"Liang Zuoren is the official of Shiliang County, shouldn't I provoke him?" Lin Fu asked.
Zhao Hu felt that Lin Fu was very different from before. Although he felt very happy just now, he also thought that if the cautious Lin Jingchang was present, he would probably be panicked, and he didn't know whether Lin Fu should be there or not.
Lin Fu laughed and said in a low voice: "'Be cautious when you are in a humble position, and be arrogant when you are in power'. This is the mentality of a mediocre person. I was able to survive this trip in Baisha County, and I realized a truth. If I want to
If you are not bullied by others when you are in poverty, and if you are not envied by others when you are prosperous and prosperous, you must have a mediocre mentality. Liang Zuoren, if I don’t shame him, he will look down on me in the end; if I can take advantage of him and shame him this time, he will
Even if you hold a grudge, you also know that I am not a character that can be easily offended... Showing your fangs regardless of your humble position is different from causing trouble."
"Okay, Mr. Qin can't explain what you are saying..." Zhou Pu lowered his voice, but made an exaggerated movement of slamming the table with his left hand, grinning at the corner of his mouth, and felt more and more how Lin Fu felt about him:
Decisive, responsible, and not sloppy in doing things. He may appear to act boldly, but in his heart he is careless about others.
Zhao Hu couldn't understand what Lin Fu said for a while. He was thinking that Lin Fu had to live and die twice in Baisha County, so he should be different from before, and he shouldn't look at him in the old light.
*****************
In the private room separated by a curtain, the middle-aged man in a long gown who had just appeared at the door of the store and two guards in Tsing Yi were standing aside to serve him. They were both guards. Sitting opposite Liang Zuoren was a handsome young man in his early twenties, who was sitting behind the curtain.
Because of the blockage, he couldn't see Lin Fu and others, and asked Liang Zuoren: "Master Liang, who was that person just now? He was so arrogant and domineering in front of you, a parent official?"
"He is a descendant of the Lin family..." Liang Zuoren said with a frown.
The young man had just listened to Liang Zuoren complaining that the Lin family controlled the place based on the title of the powerful Shixun family. At this time, he heard Liang Zuoren say that such a thing was a descendant of the Lin family. He said angrily: "This is too arrogant!
Why would Mr. Liang tolerate such a arrogant villain? He was dragged to the county government and beaten to death by thirty people to let him know what it means to disrespect an officer."
Liang Zuoren shook his head and smiled, showing a somewhat helpless smile. He did not answer the young man's words. He turned to a middle-aged scribe sitting on his left and said: "You have also seen my situation today. Even a descendant of the Lin family cannot do anything."
Take me, a small county magistrate, seriously." Liang Zuoren said this, but felt a little strange in his heart: They say that this Lin Fu is meek and ineffective, but just now he was so sharp?
"The powerful local wealthy families are always a big hidden danger..." The middle-aged scribe who had been sitting silently sighed softly at this time, "I met Governor Li this time, and I want to ask him why.
Do you want to be soft-hearted towards the She family and make powerful people everywhere have delusions?"
Liang Zuoren had lived in the same place for a long time and was unaware of the trends in the court. He did not dare to discuss the She family's surrender. From his old friends' mouths, it was known that he was very dissatisfied with the court's acceptance of the She family's surrender.
***************
Lin Fu and others sat around the table, waiting for the food to be served. Occasionally, they would pay attention to the private room behind the curtain. The unpleasantness at the door of the store just now was dissipated by the aroma of the steaming food.
Four vulgar men were sitting around the table next to them. They were the four people who entered the tea shop before Lin Fu and the others. They wore patched robes, tied around their waists with straw ropes as belts, and wore square-cornered leather jackets on their heads.
They were wearing melon hats and four long bamboo poles were leaning against the wall. They looked like porters who came to the city to get work. It seemed that their bodies were too strong. The four porters looked at the young lady of the Xiao family who was busy in the hall with unscrupulous eyes.
, drinking and joking there: "There are two most famous widows in Shiliang County. One is the Xiao family. The Xiao family has a silk shop in the west end of the city. They are one of the few wealthy families in Shiliang County. Unfortunately, their son is a
He was suffering from tuberculosis and was terminally ill. It was said that he was marrying the Xiao family's young lady to the house. Within ten days, the Xiao family's short-lived son died. The Xiao family blamed the Xiao family's young lady for killing their son.
They were about to come out. The little lady from the Xiao family took over the management of this tea shop from her parents and was able to make a living. This little lady from the Xiao family was so pretty that even the big girls and daughters-in-law in the city couldn't match her beauty; however,
That's not what she's famous for."
"Then what is the Xiao family's most famous place?" A person next to her interjected obscenely.
"Think about it, that tuberculosis man died after not being able to hold on for ten days after marriage. He must not have the ability to be humane after marriage. Everyone is wondering whether the little lady of the Xiao family has not lost her red pill..." The man spoke.
It seemed that he was deliberately teasing the owner of the Xiao family. The whispers could be heard by half of the diners in the hall. Others just smiled maliciously. The Xiao family's face turned red and her bright eyes were full of laughter.
There was some resentment in the person's beautiful eyes, but they could not drive the guests away, and they also added a more alluring temperament. Lin Fu, Zhao Hu and others were also listening and laughing nearby, but they did not have any extra sense of justice to stand up and fight against injustice.
Just teasing the little widow verbally is not really a big deal to the people in the city.
"Who is the other famous widow in Shiliang County? Is it because she is famous because she has not lost her red pill?" Another person interjected and asked.
"I don't know if this red pill has been lost or not," the man became more and more proud and his voice became louder, "I wonder if you have ever heard of the Seventh Lady in Shiliang County?"
"The seventh lady who went to Lindu? Ah, Lin Tingxun, the head of the Lin family, is still alive. Why did the seventh lady become a widow again?"
"It doesn't matter that there are few people in Dongyang Mansion who can be more powerful than Lin Tingxun, but if you meet him once, you will know whether the seventh lady is living a widowhood - it is true that Lin Tingxun was still very active ten years ago, but just ten years ago that person
In the cold winter, four large boats from Hongzepu's water village came to rob Shanglindu. Lin Tingxun personally led the village camp to chase the bandits. During the water battle, he accidentally fell into the icy water. Although he survived, I heard that the thing was useless...
…”
"Didn't the leader of the Lin clan marry the daughter of the Gu family as the seventh wife after that? If his business was ruined, why would he still marry a concubine?" Someone asked in confusion.
"If others suspect you are worthless, why don't you find something to cover it up? Before Lin Tingxun fell into the water, he married the first wife and gave birth to a young son. After marrying the seventh lady, you can see what happened to the seventh lady's stomach in the past few years.
?" Seeing someone questioning him, the man's voice became louder and louder, "Besides, the six ladies of the Lin family all stay in the inner house, and only the seventh lady showed up to interfere in the Lin family's affairs. If Lin Tingxun didn't have something in his heart, he could
So indulgent of the Seventh Madam? Speaking of which, the Seventh Madam is really a pitiful person. Ten years ago, the Gu family was also a family of high-ranking officials, and the Seventh Madam was also the eldest daughter. It was only the Seventh Madam’s uncle who was an official in Beijing. Gu Wuchen, the second son of the Gu family, didn’t know what kind of crime he committed.
He was so crazy that he even wanted to review the case of the traitorous thief Su Hu, and almost had his head chopped off. The parents of the seventh lady were also implicated and sentenced to flee thousands of miles and died on the way. The Gu family has since declined, but the seventh lady still suffered injustice in order to save her uncle.
Marry Lin Tingxun. Do you think that the second son of the Gu family, a coward, would be so guilty that he would jump into a river if he knew that his niece married a wimp for him? The seventh lady has been a widow for ten years, which is strange to say. Last time I
From a distance, I saw that Mrs. Seven's face was moist, and she didn't look like she had been there for a long time. Then I looked at the men in the Lin family who seemed to be willing to be driven by her. It's not hard to figure out the reason..."
Zhao Hu's family has benefited a lot from the seventh lady, Gu Yingxiu, and Zhao Hu respects the seventh lady very much. When he heard this, he couldn't help himself and wanted to fight against the case and teach these madmen a lesson. Lin Fu caught him
With his wrist, he shook his head slightly to indicate that he should sit down, and glanced at Zhou Pu with a frown, wondering if he saw anything unusual.
In this era, the government is as fierce as a tiger in the eyes of ordinary people, and it is normal for people to be afraid of seeing officials. Just now, I came in and saluted Liang Zuoren to reveal his identity. Many diners in the store had eaten and left in a hurry, but the four people next door were...
The porters were not affected at all. They spoke these nonsense words more and more unscrupulously as if the magistrate did not exist. They were also talking nonsense about the powerful Lin family of Dongyang Mansion. They were really arrogant. Although the four porters were observing them while speaking,
But Lin Fu could tell that these four people were not coming towards them. Could it be that they were telling these jokes to the people in the private room?
Lin Fu thought to himself, besides the magistrate Liang Zuoren, who else was in the private room? What was the relationship with the seventh lady and the Gu family?
Zhou Pu lightly kicked Lin Fu on the table and asked him to look at the four bamboo poles leaning against the wall, indicating that there was something wrong with the four bamboo poles.
"That's enough. I've chewed my tongue to bits and here are you crazy idiots!" At this moment, the curtain was suddenly opened from the inside, and a tall and tall young man rushed to the next table with an angry face and scolded loudly.