C79

The next day at dawn, the people sent by the Jushang Yard arrived. This time, the person who delivered the letter was Zhuang Feifei's personal maid, the Red Luan. She looked to be about one or two years older than An Zheng. Her skin was very white, and her eyes were big. He was a little shy when he was talking to strangers.

"This is for you, Elder Mister told me to send it over."

The Red Luan stuffed a small bundle into An Zheng's hands, then lowered her head to look at her toes and spoke. "Elder Mister said that there are some things that you don't need to pay too much attention to. Since I have already done it, Jushang Yard will never sit still and wait for death, moreover ? It's not as serious as you think. Elder Mister wants me to tell you something ? Jushang Yard has more power than you think. "

An Zheng nodded, "Go back and tell Elder Mister that I thank her."

The Red Luan replied. It raised its head, glanced at An Zheng, then quickly lowered its head again, "Elder Mister also said that he still owes you a favor because it's too big."

An Zheng could not help but ask: "Just what kind of favor is it."

The Red Luan did not expect An Zheng to ask such a question. But perhaps she felt that since An Zheng had a deep relationship with both the Jushang Yard and the Elder Mister, so she spoke a few more sentences, "Our Owner suffered a serious injury a few years ago during the competition. At that time, we did everything we could think of, and we could only barely let the Owner live. Because the person who injured my Owner is too powerful, if we cannot find the right medicinal ingredients to refine, my Owner will not be able to hold on for long. "

"In these past few years, Jushang Yard gave his all to maintain Owner's life, but he could not find any medicine. It was only when Elder Mister returned from Mount Cangman that he found the last few medicines. Although Owner was still unconscious, he was already showing signs of improvement, so he was especially happy. Owner and Elder Mister were very fond of each other, and the two of them never left each other. Now that the Owner was about to recover, its bitter days were about to come to an end. All these years, Jushang Yard relied on her to endure.

Seemingly sensing that she spoke too much, Hong Luan hurriedly took her leave.

An Zheng was a little emotional. Zhuang Feifei looked like a hot and seductive person, but deep down, he was so loyal. Her love for Jushang Yard was the truest and truest kind.

An Zheng opened the package and saw two names inside.

The first was the geniuses among the Grand Autumn Ceremony that deserved An Zheng's attention. An Zheng discovered that the one ranked first was the of the Great Cauldron Academy, the second was the Feng Xiuyang of the Uppermost Tao Field, and the third was the Nie Qing of the Ministry of War. There were at least a hundred more names at the back. It seemed that Zhuang Feifei did not have much confidence in An Zheng's cultivation level, so his list of people was very long. And the last time Chen Shaobai came, he reminded An Zheng to only pay attention to three people.

But on the list, An Zheng could not find Chen Shaobai's name.

An Zheng walked towards the courtyard, while looking through the second list.

The first was Minister of War Hao Pingan, the second was Assistant Secretary of the Ministry of War Chen Zaiyan, and there were also a lot of Ministry of War officials. But what An Zheng found strange was that the name of the great general Tie Liuhuo was also not on the list. However, there was the Fang Daozhi that An Zheng had met once. This person's identity was that of an assistant general Tie Liuhuo, and also a General Ying Yang with positive fourth rank.

An Zheng flipped through the list until he found a list of Ministry of Rites s, and one of their names entered An Zheng's field of vision.

He was not some great personage, he was Li Yannian, a teacher in the Department for Purging Officials of the Ministry of Rites.

The Ministry of Rites was divided into four divisions, of which the Main Guest, the Department for Purging Officials, was responsible for the reception of foreign guests. The main guest was a teacher in the Department for Purging Officials. Although his position was not very high, he held actual power, and it was an official position that was extremely avaricious. All the debts needed to receive the guests had to be allocated to him. This person had already been an official in the Yan Kingdom for more than ten years, so when King Xixi, Chen Zhongqi, came to the Yan Kingdom, all the welcoming arrangements were made by Li Yannian.

An Zheng returned the list to his room, then sat down and thought carefully for a while.

An important official of the Yan Kingdom must have known about what happened back then. This heavy weight of an important official also signified that it was not easy for An Zheng to find out the truth at that time. Relatively speaking, making contact with Li Yannian was the best choice.

An Zheng packed up the necessary things and instructed Du Shoushou and the others to continue cultivating. Then, he left the sect by himself.

Passing through the crowd, passing through the streets and alleys, An Zheng appeared outside a restaurant. Opposite them was the home of the main guest, the official Li Yannian, a servant of the Department for Purging Officials. No matter how rich he was, he did not dare to be impudent. The size of the courtyard was about the same as that of an ordinary rich family. Even though there were two courtyards in front of and behind the courtyard, the space it occupied was truly limited.

An Zheng entered the restaurant and immediately found a table near the window on the third floor to sit down. He ordered a pot of wine and a few side dishes, then leaned on the window and watched outside.

Right now, it was the morning assembly. Today was the Grand Examination, so all the capital officials above fifth rank were required to attend. Ordinary officials of the Assembly's fifth rank were not qualified to participate in it. They would report to the yamen where they worked early in the morning. An Zheng was not only waiting for Li Yannian, he also wanted to clearly observe the environment of the Li Family.

Not far from An Zheng, two men were also seated near the window drinking wine. Yan People was born with a straightforward disposition, so drinking wine was never divided into two hours. In other places, restaurants do not open in the morning, but in Yan Kingdom, restaurants do not close for almost 24 hours.

One of them should be from outside the city, constantly asking questions. The person who greeted him was most likely someone from Beijing, so the answer was quite detailed.

The one who asked most questions was a man with a full beard. He asked the middle-aged man sitting opposite to him, "I heard that there are many more officials than the commoners in the capital. I casually stepped on a person's foot while walking on the street, who knows which yamen's official it might be."

The middle-aged man smiled. Even though he looked gentle, the alcohol in his mouth made him seem more magnanimous, "This is a bit too much, but there are a lot of officials in the capital. Do you see that courtyard diagonally across from them? That is the residence of the Ministry of Rites's main guest, the Department for Purging Officials, which is currently located in the middle of Li Yannian's Lord Li. That courtyard is not much bigger compared to my house's courtyard. When the Lord Li goes out, he is only in plain clothes and never rides a carriage, so even if you walk on the street, you wouldn't be able to tell that he is an official from fifth rank. "

The man with a full beard said, "The principal guest is a teacher of the Department for Purging Officials? "That's a huge loss of money. Every year, a large amount of silver would be transferred into one's pocket. Just putting some into one's own pocket would make one extremely rich."

The middle-aged man put down his wine cup and said sternly: "You are not allowed to speak of Master Li Yannian like that. I have seen many officials before, but there are really too few people like him. My family is close to Lord Li's, and we have been neighbors for more than ten years. But in all these years, I have never seen anyone present a gift to the Lord Li. His family wore plain clothes, and unless there was an especially important guest, they would never enter a restaurant to eat. His Second Young Master is seven years old this year and all of the clothes she was wearing were the leftovers of Big Brother.

"Lord Li's clothes are also clean and tidy, but they have been worn for many years. Other people's backyard were all growing flowers and plants, while the Lord Li's backyard were all growing vegetables. Have you ever seen a person like this under the personal control of the Madam? I remember one time, someone came to Madame's house and invited Lord Li to a feast. At that time, the Second Young Master was only four or five years old, and it was when they were gluttonous. "But in the restaurant, you sit properly, and unless the lord says something, he will not dare to use his chopsticks."

"Later on, I heard from the Old Zheng in charge that the Second Young Master said several times that he still wanted to eat this family's lion head, but she had never bought one. That's right, the amount of money Lord Li had, I think, was terrifying. But he had not even taken a single copper. All these years, all the neighbors knew that Lord Li was famous for being pure and honest. The most important thing was ? As a Ministry of Rites, he must socialize a lot, so his salary was mostly used on this, to the point where his family members only ate plain food ? "If you think about it, you'll be depressed. A good official and a good official, yet you're living a life of clear hardship. What justice is there in this world?"

When An Zheng heard this, his heart stirred. In his heart, there was more respect towards this Li Yannian.

The officials of the Ministry of Rites did indeed communicate more with each other than the officials of the other departments, especially the officials of the Department for Purging Officials, who almost every day received all sorts of visitors.

The bearded man was stunned for a moment before he sighed and said, "This year, the corrupt officials are living a good life. The Qing officials are suffering, aiya ?"

The middle-aged man said, "Everyone says that if Lord Li was willing to give me some gifts, I could have been promoted a long time ago. However, because of his unwillingness, it has been with this person for over ten years and has not moved from the beginning. "

An Zheng put down the wine money and then left the restaurant.

Arriving at the main street, An Zheng stood at the side of the street for a while. Just as he was about to leave, he saw a man around fifty years old hesitated for a moment, then walked over and knocked on the door of Li Yannian's residence.

The side door opened and an old man walked out. "Mister Deng, why have you come?"

The person who was addressed as Mr. Deng wanted to speak but hesitated. It was obvious that he was hesitant for quite some time before he said, "It's like this ?" Last time when Young Master was ill, he didn't pay any medical fees ? I also know that I shouldn't have come knocking for this bit of money, but a few days ago, I lost quite a few medicinal herbs in my store, it was really ? I really can't. "

The old man was the manager of the Li Yannian family, Old Zheng. His face changed as he cupped his fists and bowed down: "Mister Deng ? I'm really sorry. I'll ask the Countess in a minute. Why don't you come to my room for a while... "Sigh!"

His long sigh contained endless desolation.

The doctor entered the room and sat in a daze. He had come to collect his debt, but his face was full of guilt.

Before long, An Tan saw a young maid rushing out of the yard, holding something in her hand. Anxiang followed her and found out that she had deliberately run two more streets to a pawnshop further away from Li Yanneng's home. Anti saw her hand over a hairpin, and then the man gave her a few taels of silver. That hairpin wasn't worth much, so the pawnshop didn't have too much of a heart for giving out large amounts of money.

An Zheng walked in and stopped the little maidservant from pressing down: "You dropped something."

He passed a silver note to the little maidservant and then walked over to the counter to redeem the hairpin.

The little maidservant looked at him blankly, then looked at the silver notes in her hands, shocked by the numbers on it.

An Zheng pulled her out the door: "In the past, Lord Li had helped me before. I had specially come to find Lord Li to repay your gratitude. However, he did not dare to rashly visit the mansion, as he had stayed outside for a few days already. Today, when he saw the doctor come to collect his debt, he felt really sad. It was the Lord Li who helped me back then when my family was in a dire situation. This silver, is only what I should repay. "

The maidservant refused to take it no matter what. Gritting his teeth, he returned back to the pawnshop with the hairpin in his hand and ran back while tightly grasping the few taels of scattered silver.

As she ran, tears began to fall.