Idle courtiers

Chapter 52 The scary thing about rumors is that you can't explain them
On this day, Zhou Nan ate the unpalatable breakfast cooked by Xiao Lan as usual and went to work in the Yamen.

Today is the day for the yamen to release cards. Recently, it is the busy summer harvest season, and it is also a period of high incidence of civil lawsuits. It is conceivable that many people should go to the county yamen to file a lawsuit today, asking Lord Qingtian to make decisions for themselves and give him justice.

This is also understandable. It is okay on weekdays, and everyone is in peace.When the harvest season comes, those inexplicable contradictions in the village will suddenly erupt.For example: when a child from another family was picking ears, he accidentally strangled your millet; for example: when cutting rice, the sickle turned and cut off several nests of other family's millet; another example: when new rice came out, The daughter-in-law was greedy and slapped her mother-in-law twice after eating two extra bowls of dry rice.

There are so many things, trivial things, the matter is not big, but it has to be solved. It is difficult for an upright official to solve family affairs, let alone the muddled Shizhi County. not!
However, these things have nothing to do with Zhou Nan.He is finally free now, entering the yamen today is nothing more than a cup of tea and a mansion newspaper for a long time.In order to pass the time, he even pinned this Ming Dynasty's country yellow article "Drunken Awakening Stone" on his sleeve, not afraid of the hard time.

As soon as he entered the Yimen Gate, he saw two yamen servants coming out to stand guard.Seeing Zhou Nan, they all cupped their hands at the same time, and said with a smile: "Morning Zhou Dian, the county lord has not yet washed up. The fourth master looks energetic, admirable, admirable!"

Zhou Nan was a little puzzled: "What do you two admire about me?"

"It's admiration anyway."

Just as he was talking, Catcher Li happened to bring someone out. When he saw Zhou Nan, he was taken aback, and then his face turned into a flowery smile, and he said loudly, "Oh, Mr. Zhou is here, give me the post. "

"What post?"

"Master, you still pretend to be a wedding invitation! Don't worry, I don't want to eat your wine for nothing. I still have to bring a portion of the gift money." He winked his eyes as he spoke.He has a weird look, a look you know.

Several people around laughed softly.

Zhou Nan: "I'm already married, and I don't take a concubine. Where does the happiness come from? What the team leader said is so weird that people can't understand it."

"Pretend, keep pretending. Haha, haha!" Li Ban let out a hearty laugh: "That's right, it's still early, at least seven or eight months away. Don't worry, our brothers will definitely join us when the time comes."

A group of people walked out of the yamen with a smile, leaving Zhou Nan alone at the door Zhang Erjingang was puzzled.

After sitting in the commissioning room for a while, Lin Ada hurried in, put a red envelope on the table, and smiled shyly: "The fourth master is overjoyed, this is a little thought from our brother. Although it is a bit early, but it is estimated that the next The fourth master wants to send money, we brothers will follow this share first, in case the master needs it in case of emergencies."

Brothers Lin Ada and Lin Aer have become his confidantes since they worked with Zhou Nan that day, and they have lived a comfortable life recently, so they naturally want to follow Master Zhou, a big celebrity in the yamen.

Zhou Nan picked up the red envelope and weighed it. It was about a tael of silver, and then threw it back, saying: "It's just that the Chinese New Year is not a festival, and my family has nothing to do. It doesn't make sense for you to send the red envelope."

Lin Ada saw that Zhou Nan would not accept him, and he was very anxious: "Fourth Master, this is our brother's change of mind. If you don't accept it, you will treat us as outsiders and chill our hearts. Such a big happy event, such a big Happy event!"

Everyone congratulated Zhou Nan when they saw the yamen today, and they all looked strange.Zhou Nan immediately raised his vigilance, and shouted: "It's really inexplicable, what kind of happy event, where does the joy come from, Lin Ada, you have to explain it clearly."

"It turns out that the master doesn't know anything." Lin Ada patted his forehead: "That's right, I forgot to tell the fourth master about this. It is said that the young mistress of the Mei family is pregnant. According to the calculation of the date, it should be the master's seed. This matter , Not only the Yamen, but the whole Anton might spread the word."

"What!" Zhou Nan yelled, stood up abruptly, and then sat down dejectedly.

Lin Ada said in a low voice: "Master, according to outside rumors, the young mistress of the Mei family has vomited all day long and likes to eat hot and sour food. The Mei family thought she had a bad stomach from eating, so they asked the doctor for his pulse. Knowing that the body is broken. The Mei family felt ashamed and ordered that the family members not be allowed to spread it. However, where there is an impenetrable wall in the world, this paper cannot cover the fire. Fourth master, you only slept with Mrs. Mei once , so I left my own seed. It was Li Guang, the parachutist, who hit the target, how could he be so accurate? Fourth master, have you worshiped the Guanyin in any temple, so it is so effective?"

"This..." Zhou Nan was completely speechless, with sweat dripping down his forehead.After I traveled to the Ming Dynasty, apart from Yunniang, I only met Su Jie once.How did you get pregnant? This is a big trouble: "Is this true?"

"True, of course it is true. This story came from the servants of the Mei family, how could it be false?" Lin A Dao said: "Fourth Master, it is said that the wife of the member of Mei's family knew about this, and in a rage she went to the hospital again. Beat her daughter-in-law, it was a miserable beating..."

After speaking vividly, seeing Zhou Nan's pale face, Lin Ada said worriedly: "Fourth Master, you have to come up with a charter for this matter, and you have to find a way to win the Mei family's wife."

"I got it in my hand, what are you kidding, am I a bully or Ximen Qing?" Zhou Nan was furious. The fact that she was the wife of a former classmate was enough to give him a lifetime of infamy.

Besides, he didn't know Miss Su's identity at all that day, and it was purely a money transaction between the two.It can be said that there is no feeling at all, it is impossible for me to go home every time I sleep with a woman, right?

Lin Ada: "Fourth Master, the Mei family's daughter-in-law's stomach is your own flesh and blood after all? With the viciousness of the Mei family, there is no guarantee that this fetus will be aborted; Do you have the heart again?"

Zhou Nan was startled, and then murmured: "What can I do... Ada, you two brothers, go and inquire again, and report as soon as you have any news."

Zhou Nan spent the whole day in ignorance.He didn't know how he returned home after the yamen was gone, he just vaguely remembered that there were passers-by smiling at him all the way from the yamen to his house, and the smiles were all the same weird.

"Uncle is back, uncle is back!" Xiao Lan was washing clothes in the yard, this little girl has not learned well recently, she is twelve or thirteen years old, gossips and chatters with the mother-in-law and sister-in-law next door all day long.Recently, he even stole a penny from Zhou Nan to buy a lot of low-quality rouge and gouache, and painted a face as red as Guan Gong, the door god.

The weather was very hot, and after washing clothes for a long time, Guan Gong turned into Zhang Fei with a painted face after sweating, which is really disgusting.Zhou Nan had long wanted to get rid of this oil bottle, but what can you do if he just relies on it here.Besides, he was too busy to take care of it.

"Brother Nan is back." A voice came.

Looking up, it was his brother-in-law Yang Youtian who was drinking tea in the main room.

Yang Youtian and Zhou Nan had always been at odds, after what happened last time, the two were finally able to talk and they were not so estranged.

"It turned out to be uncle, why did he come to the city to play today?" Seeing him, Zhou Nan couldn't help but shudder.

Yang Youtian smiled rarely today, he took out a piece of silver from his sleeve and put it on the table: "My father gave it to you, knowing that you have no money at hand, and you are about to use the silver, so why don't you give me money?" Ask me to deliver it."

Xiaolan was bringing in tea for Zhou Nan, when she saw the money, she couldn't help but let out a low voice: "It's such a big silver ingot, it's an eye-opener."

This is half of an official ingot of 50 taels, which is worth at least [-] taels, which is worth all the wealth of an ordinary farmer.

"Money, what kind of money?" Zhou Nan's eyelids twitched, thinking he was talking about Sister Su.He was really sorry for Yunniang in this matter, as the party at fault, he inevitably felt guilty.However, on second thought.It is a feudal society now, and it is not against social ethics and morals for a man to have three wives and four concubines, so what am I afraid of?
He said: "I can solve this matter by myself, and I can talk to the yamen, so I'm not afraid of what will happen to them."

Yang Youtian said with a sneer: "Since it was given to you by daddy, just accept it. That's right, you can talk in the county yamen, but outside the county yamen, you still need to get through the joints in other places. You have to use it everywhere. Money, this money should be enough."

Zhou Nan blinked: "Didn't you talk about the Mei family?"

"What about the Mei family, where did the talk go?" Yang Youtian didn't talk nonsense, and said directly: "Daddy said, he wants to get some ships to transport salt. You are also a person with status walking around the scene, so it shouldn't be difficult. Do it, it will fall on you."

"Wait, Master Taishan means to transport the salt from the salt field?" Zhou Nan asked with a sigh of relief.

"Yes. You are the master of the yamen, and your father is the head of the yamen. We can be regarded as officials with status in the county. What this person does as an official is not to make money. As long as you talk to the people in Yandao, Let our family's two or three boats do this job, earning him dozens of taels of silver every year is nothing to worry about."

Zhou Nan was taken aback: "Are you kidding, I can't do this."

Yang Youtian continued to smile, with excitement on his face: "I have already found out that you have great power in the yamen, and you have been called the fourth master. It is not easy to send a few boats to transport salt. Could it be that the salt road You don’t even give you face. I found out that the governor of our county’s Yanke Transshipment Department only gave the product, which is equivalent to a boss. I guess it’s not as powerful as you, so it’s against him?”

"What fourth master, who said that I am very powerful, really think that I am a high-ranking official? Don't listen to rumors!" Zhou Nan explained for a long time, but Yang Youtian didn't believe it. Anyway, he was an official. He can do it.

Zhou Nan sighed for a while. The hateful thing about rumors is that others will preconceive them when they hear them. They only believe what they believe, and you have no way to explain it.

(End of this chapter)