The target was a young boy, dressed in luxurious clothes, holding a folding fan with a few words written on it, waving it around with a carefree attitude. Gu Jun couldn’t recognize the words on the fan, but he heard the boy’s arrogant voice as he said to Lin Yue, “You’re blocking the way, move aside!” His voice was loud enough to be heard from a distance.
Lin Yue collected his thoughts and replied with a smile, “I’m here to find you.”
The boy raised an eyebrow, looked Lin Yue up and down, and asked, “What do you want?”
Lin Yue leaned in and whispered something.
The boy’s expression changed, looking at Lin Yue with suspicion and uncertainty, and asked, “Can you really do it?” Lin Yue replied, “Wanna try?”
The boy said, “Let’s try then.”
Lin Yue gave Gu Jun a signal, and the three of them headed to a nearby bookstore.
The boy asked for paper, ink, and other writing materials, stood in front of the desk, thought for a moment, and then started writing. He managed to write a few words that were barely neat.
He looked around, seemed satisfied, tossed the pen aside, and slightly raised his chin, saying, “Your turn.”
The boy had written “Thunder and Rain.”
Lin Yue stepped forward, observed for a few moments, picked up the pen, carefully dipped it in ink, and started writing on the right side of the paper.
The pen tip touched the paper like a bamboo branch breaking through, with a bit of sharpness. After the pen formed the shape, the ink marks seemed to ripple like wind over water, smoothly connecting the strokes.
After a few strokes, the pen stopped, and the boy exclaimed, “Good writing!”
On the paper, there was only the word “Thunder,” written with fluidity and grace, with a hint of carefree elegance between the strokes, and hidden sharpness in the corners.
A kind of sharpness almost breaking through the paper hit the heart, making one feel a jolt.
“But…” the boy raised an eyebrow, “it doesn’t look like my writing. You said you could do my homework, but if the writing doesn’t match, how can you do it?”
Lin Yue didn’t respond, picked up the pen again.
The second word “Rain” had slightly different strokes, almost no sharpness, and by the third word, it resembled the boy’s writing by seventy percent, and the fourth word was completely identical.
Lin Yue wrote the phrase “Thunder and Rain” again, right below the boy’s writing.
This time, even the boy couldn’t tell which was his own writing and which was Lin Yue’s.
The boy was satisfied, but still not entirely convinced, and asked, “Can you really do my homework?”
Lin Yue maintained his smile and said, “Young master, as I said, give me your current and past homework, and I’ll write it for you. Whether I can do it or not will be clear at a glance.”
The boy tapped the table with his fan and said, “How do you talk like that?”
Lin Yue cupped his hands and said, “I apologize for my poor words, I hope the young master can forgive me.”
The boy said, “I’ll have my book boy send it to you when I get back. By the way, where do you live?”
Lin Yue said, “Outside the city.”
The boy made a sound of acknowledgment and said, “Then tomorrow morning.”
His family was wealthy, so even during curfew, they could move freely outside, but they couldn’t leave the county town since the gates would be closed during curfew. However, if they really wanted to leave, there were ways, but it would come at a significant cost.
Lin Yue said, “We have to be early.” He had to work.
The boy clicked his tongue.
Lin Yue arranged to meet him at the same time tomorrow. The boy told him his surname was Bi, and he was the third in his family.
Lin Yue bid farewell to Bi Laosan and left the bookstore, noticing Gu Jun squatting by the bridge opposite the bookstore, talking to someone selling umbrellas.
The two were discussing how to make their business prosper, but the conversation wasn’t smooth. One couldn’t speak well, and the other seemed very introverted, taking a long time to say a word.
Lin Yue stood there for a while, listening to make sure Gu Jun wasn’t lying about his identity.
Gu Jun spoke about business-related matters with great clarity.
Lin Yue walked over, and Gu Jun stopped chatting with the umbrella seller, stood up, and asked happily, “All done?”
Lin Yue nodded.
Gu Jun’s expression froze for a moment, but the oddity passed so quickly that no one could notice.
“That’s great.”
Gu Jun said it was great, but he didn’t think so in his heart.
He was thinking, if Lin Yue could now ghostwrite homework for others, did that mean he had recovered some of his memory? Besides knowledge, what else was in that part of the memory?
Gu Jun stood at the bookstore entrance, having overheard Lin Yue’s conversation with Bi Laosan, though not very clearly.
Hearing the successful transaction, he started chatting with the umbrella seller to ease his anxiety.
He suddenly realized that the other party had recovered some memory, feeling as if his hands and feet were bound by invisible ropes, extremely worried that their current life would vanish.
In fact, Lin Yue hadn’t recovered any memory.
He had just seen the account book of the employer who paid him.
Those crooked, not very neat words forced their way into his mind, and he naturally understood what those words practiced and how to write them beautifully. It was something ingrained in his bones over the years.
He thought of using this to expand his income, like copying books at bookstores to earn money.
He had always been thinking about how to expand his income, as he was well aware of the family’s financial situation, which was not enough to make ends meet.
However, copying books at bookstores required purchasing writing materials, and with the little money they had, even buying paper was difficult, so he had to give up and instead ghostwrite homework for county school students.
Lin Yue wasn’t sure if he could write the county school students’ homework, but given his identity and the level of the students who needed him to ghostwrite, this business could continue.
After finishing three jobs, he would have some savings, no longer worrying about living expenses, and could switch to a more relaxed job.
Then, he could tidy up, get a new household registration, buy books, and participate in the imperial examination.
During this time, he discovered that Zhuyang County was already rotten from top to bottom. After asking others at the construction site, they said other places were even worse than Zhuyang County.
From this, he inferred that the world would become very chaotic in the future.
What about the current emperor?
This place was too far from the capital, and as ordinary people, they didn’t know.
But judging from the situation everywhere, the current emperor was either a foolish ruler causing chaos everywhere or a figurehead in the ancestral temple, long gone.
To live a stable and happy life, one must become an official, the higher the better, ideally reaching the top ranks.
If the official rank was too low, life would still be unstable, unless the emperor passed away soon, and the crown prince who inherited the throne was a wise ruler.
Lin Yue heard people say that last year, the emperor appointed a crown prince.
Again, being too far away, ordinary people knew nothing, only that a crown prince was appointed.
Who the crown prince was, what his character and conduct were like, and what he looked like, they didn’t know.
Without much discussion, the two walked home under the last rays of the setting sun.
There was still some water left in the bamboo tube, and as they walked, the now warm water sloshed around inside, making a muffled clattering sound.
.
Feng’s House.
Feng Laotou finished his shift in the afternoon, waited for the county magistrate to be free, and snatched the job of serving tea from an attendant to see the county magistrate about the matter of substituting one thing for another.
The county magistrate was not young, with hair and beard mixed with white, very fat, wearing a blue robe, sitting in front of the public case, absentmindedly handling cases.
Feng Laotou offered the tea, immediately knelt down, and cried with snot and tears, “I was foolish, for a bit of money, I made such a mistake, I deserve to die!”
The county magistrate said, “You do deserve to die!”
Feng Laotou cried even more miserably, “I have sincerely repented, please spare me this time. I am wholeheartedly loyal to you, accepting bribes was to prepare a birthday gift for Master Huang in a few days.
“I’m just a small official, with a meager income, barely supporting my family, really can’t spare extra money to give Master Huang a gift, but if I don’t give a gift… my lord!”
The county magistrate said nothing.
Feng Laotou said, “My lord, please keep me to guard the prison for you.”
The county magistrate said, “I heard you were promoted to head jailer by Master Huang?”
Feng Laotou: “Yes, I gave Master Huang many gifts, and he promoted me.”
The county magistrate chuckled.
Feng Laotou took out a small account book from his pocket and handed it to the county magistrate, “After I joined the yamen, every time I gave Master Huang a gift, my family recorded it in this account book.”
The county magistrate took the account book, flipped through it, the handwriting was neat, and the accounts were clear.
Feng Laotou said, “I also helped Master Huang with some things outside…”
After hearing this, the county magistrate looked satisfied and said, “How long have you been in the position of head jailer? It’s been too long, it’s time to move.”
Feng Laotou, who had been sweating coldly, relaxed completely, feeling immense joy.
Just as his mind was about to be overwhelmed, he remembered Lin Yue’s words and suddenly woke up.
He kowtowed, respectfully saying, “Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it, I won’t slack off, but I’m still lacking a bit, only fit for the head jailer’s job.”
The county magistrate said, “Considering it’s your first offense, bring the person back, work well in the future, and redeem yourself, and I won’t pursue it. If there’s a second time, don’t blame me for being ruthless and beating you to death in the courtroom!”
Feng Laotou kowtowed repeatedly, “Thank you, my lord!”
Feng Laotou left and returned to the Feng family. By this time, it was already dark, and as soon as he got back, he asked Madam Feng to gather money.
Madam Feng was shocked by the amount and said, “Why so much?”
Feng Laotou said, “To save myself, it has to be this much!”
He had embezzled from the prison, and the county magistrate hadn’t asked him to return what he embezzled, but he had to voluntarily return it, sending it to the county magistrate’s residence early the next morning.
Whether the county magistrate would accept it, who knows? Could he guess the county magistrate’s thoughts?
But Lin Yue was right.
This time, because of the matter of the envoy coming here, the yamen was being reorganized, not just to reorganize the yamen, but also to eliminate dissidents.
Although Master Huang was a staff member brought by the county magistrate, he was very capable and handled the core affairs of the yamen.
The county magistrate was not only incompetent in practical matters but also not very capable. He had been sitting in this place for four years, and Master Huang had been sitting with him for four years, during which Master Huang’s power had overshadowed the county magistrate.
The county magistrate, perhaps guided by some expert or having a moment of clarity, wanted to find something to hold Master Huang accountable, to use him while also holding the power himself.
These words came from Lin Yue, who had heard about various internal affairs of the yamen in the morning.
Feng Laotou couldn’t see much, but to him, both Master Huang and the county magistrate were big figures.
Lin Yue told him that the county magistrate had pulled him out but hadn’t dealt with him on the spot because he was Master Huang’s man.
In that prison, it wasn’t just him squeezing money from the families of prisoners.
As long as he betrayed Master Huang, he could live.
Although he didn’t know much about Master Huang’s affairs, he was just following Master Huang for a good life.
What a situation, gods fighting, mortals suffering!
Feng Laotou cursed and swore, and after cursing, he remembered what Lin Yue said, that the county magistrate wanted Master Huang to work for him, slapped his thigh, and asked his wife to take out the ginseng from the box, as he wanted to see Master Huang.
He would still see Master Huang in the yamen in the future, what if the other party targeted him because of this?
The ginseng was found and placed in his hand.
He was troubled again, having already betrayed, going to please Master Huang might be useless.
What should he do?
In a daze, he saw his concubine serving tea and water, felt a desire, and pulled her into his arms.
As for Master Huang’s matter, leave it for tomorrow, let Lin Yue solve it.
Once this matter was resolved, the money, well, add a bit more.
In the room, the fire was burning, and just as things were getting heated, a noise like firecrackers came from the courtyard gate.
“What’s going on?” Feng Laotou put on his clothes and left the room, displeased.
In front of him was a disheveled woman, holding a dagger to her neck, walking towards the courtyard.
The servant responsible for guarding the gate at night was trying hard to stop her, and seeing Feng Laotou, the servant said, “This woman kept knocking on the door, I thought she was an acquaintance of yours with urgent business, so I opened the door, but who knew it was her. I asked her what she wanted, she didn’t answer, just said she wanted to see you. When I tried to drive her away, she pulled out a knife from her sleeve and put it to her neck…”
Feng Laotou understood the situation and his face darkened even more.
“If she wants to die, let her die! How could you let her hold you hostage!”
The servant’s eyes turned fierce, and he was about to drive her out at all costs.
But the woman slipped past him like a fish and knelt in front of Feng Laotou with a thud.
“Officer Feng, my husband Zhao Shuilai came to see you a few days ago, may I ask what he wanted? I heard him say at home that he would soon get rich, probably related to this matter, and now he’s missing. I don’t care about getting rich, I just want to find him, I can’t live without my husband, and the child can’t live without a father!”
Madam Zhao cried, choking with sobs.
Feng Laotou was surprised, “He’s missing?”
Madam Zhao said, “Yes! Please tell me what he came to see you for?”
Feng Laotou thought to himself, Zhao Shuilai’s disappearance might be related to Lin Yue and his wife, as far as he knew, Zhao Shuilai and Lin Yue had a grudge.
But he had something to ask of Lin Yue, so he couldn’t tell Madam Zhao this information, and besides, if Lin Yue or his wife had done something to him, what did it matter?
Feng Laotou said, “Many people come to me for business, I don’t even remember what your husband Zhao Shuilai looks like, how would I remember what he wanted? Alright, go home, your husband might be enjoying himself somewhere and will be back in a few days.”
Madam Zhao said, “I beg you, please think carefully…”
Feng Laotou glanced at his concubine.
The concubine stepped forward, putting on airs, and said, “Throw her out! What stray dog dares to make a scene here!”
Madam Zhao, with red eyes, put the knife to her neck again and said, “I’ll die here!”
Madam Feng, who had gone to bed early, was also woken up by the noise, looked into the courtyard, and whispered to Feng Laotou:
“A death at home is not good, just coax her, say you’ll help her find him. If she reports to the authorities, though she probably won’t, reporting means twenty strokes first, not afraid of pain, but wants face, but if she does report…”
The Feng household was in chaos, but the bridge hole was particularly quiet.