It was noon, and the smoke from the village rose lazily. The snow on the chimneys was melted by the smoke, revealing the black chimneys.
Looking at the naughty kid who disappeared while howling, Zhu Ping'an smiled slightly and shook his head. Then he got off the horse, led the horse into the village, and his steps on the snow made a "crunching" sound.
This village is not as big as Xiahe Village, with only about 30 or 40 households. Zhu Ping'an led the horse along the narrow path of the village, found a house that had cleared the snow in front of its door, and knocked on the door.
"Who is it?"
There were footsteps in the yard, and a man's voice asked from the yard, his voice deep and rough.
Zhu Pingan patted the snow off his body and replied, "Excuse me, I'm a student passing by and I want to borrow a bowl of hot water to drink."
As soon as Zhu Ping'an finished speaking, the gate of the yard was opened, and a sturdy man with dark and rough skin appeared at the door. He was dressed in simple and shabby clothes, and his shoes were covered with mud.
"Sorry to bother you." Zhu Ping'an bowed slightly, with kindness on his face.
"No, nothing." The dark-skinned man was a little overwhelmed by Zhu Ping'an's gesture. He scratched his head and said, "If you don't mind, let's have a simple meal together. The child's mother just happened to have cooked the meal."
"Thank you, brother. Sorry for bothering you." Zhu Ping'an bowed again to express his gratitude.
The dark-skinned man, who was about thirty years old, helped Zhu Ping'an tie the horse to the cowshed, and then filled a broken basin with hay for the Shamatte black horse.
It can be seen that this is a simple and kind family.
However, this dark-skinned man seemed to have a disability in his left foot, and he walked with a limp. It was unclear whether it was a congenital disability or a recent injury to his leg. However, the man seemed to be very open about his leg, not hiding it at all, and his face was full of positive expressions.
The children in the family were curious about the guests who came to their house, so they quietly peeked out of the house to see what the guests looked like.
But as soon as the child saw Zhu Ping'an, he became sick, shivered, pointed at Zhu Ping'an and shouted, "The monster is coming."
"What are you talking about, kid?" A woman's voice came from the room, and then she pulled the child into the room and gave him a lesson. The naughty child screamed when he was beaten.
Well
What a coincidence! When Zhu Ping'an saw the child watching at the door just now, he recognized him as the leader of the "robbery" who had arrogantly blocked his horse at the village entrance.
"This kid is talking nonsense. Don't take it to heart. Go into the house." The dark-skinned man said to Zhu Ping'an a little embarrassedly, and invited Zhu Ping'an to go into the house.
The room was a little dark, and it took Zhu Ping'an two or three seconds to get used to the light. The furnishings in the room were very simple, but very clean. There was a hostess in the room who was busy cleaning the table. Although she was dressed simply, she still looked pretty. This dark-skinned man was quite blessed.
Although the hostess was a bit pretty, it was nothing to Zhu Ping'an, who was used to seeing evil girls like Li Shu, who were evil and dangerous.
The man who was observing Zhu Ping'an from the side instantly became more favorable towards him after seeing this.
"Sorry to trouble you, sister-in-law." Zhu Ping'an bowed slightly.
"It's no trouble." The hostess waved her hand nonchalantly.
"He's a bird demon."
The naughty kid on the side pointed at Zhu Ping'an and shouted, and was about to use his urine to kill the monster.
"Why are you so ignorant?" The hostess pulled the naughty child and was about to pull him onto her lap and slap him.
"Don't blame him. I said that when I was joking with them at the entrance of the village." Zhu Ping'an stopped him and explained.
Zhu Ping'an had his own way to deal with the naughty kid. He took out a handful of dried meat from his pocket and coaxed the naughty kid into calling him brother. As for the bird demon, he had forgotten all about it after eating a mouthful of dried meat.
The food in this family is very simple, the dish is home-made pickled radish, but the taste is good. Especially with the millet porridge, Zhu Pingan drank two large bowls.
When the meal was almost over, the door of the man's house was rudely kicked open, and about five or six people rushed in aggressively, shouting and cursing in the yard.
"Yang Dacheng, get out of here."
"Yang the Cripple, get out of here quickly. The county magistrate has assigned corvée labor according to the fish scale book. It's your turn to repair the Great Wall."
"Hahaha, if you don't want to go, that's fine. I heard your wife is pretty..."
The man who was eating in the room pressed his chopsticks on the table when he heard this, looked at Zhu Ping'an apologetically, and rushed out of the room angrily.
"Don't go too far!"
Yang Dacheng walked out of the house, grabbed the shovel in the corner, and glared.
"Hahaha, Cripple Yang still dares to take action. It seems that he didn't learn enough from the last lesson."
"Why, you don't want the other leg either?"
Yang Dacheng's actions not only failed to intimidate the men dressed as police officers in the yard, but instead made them laugh.
"Hey, what are you talking about? We are all here on official business. Don't be so rude. You should treat each other with courtesy. Do you understand? The old county magistrate has told you so many times."
A middle-aged man in the yard was lecturing several officers, saying that this man was well dressed, in a long robe, and seemed to be of a high status. However, he was not good-looking, with a moustache and a wretched look, like a weasel, and he was not a good person at first glance.
"Yes, yes, it's right that Huang Zan taught me a lesson."
Several officers bowed and nodded to this man, as if they were following Huang Zuandian's lead.
Cuandian is a position in the county government. It is not even an official, but it can be considered as a well-known one. Although the county government is inconspicuous, it has all the necessary organs. The county government has six offices for daily office work: Li, Hu, Li, Bing, Xing, and Gong. The six offices are county-affiliated organizations, attached to the left and right of the county hall. Each office has a Dianli, and its staff are called "Cuandian", "Shuli", "Shuban", "Shuyi", "Xuli", etc. The Hufang has one Dianli (also called "Hushu") and one Cuandian, who are in charge of collecting tax silver, paying grain and paying taxes for the whole county. In addition, the Hufang is also in charge of "fish scale map", money, grain and land list, etc., and distributes corvée labor, etc.
Although the county magistrate held great power and had the help of the registrar in handling official affairs, it was difficult for them to handle the affairs due to the small number of people and the large number of tasks. Therefore, the six clerks were responsible for the affairs of the yamen. They actually took over all the affairs and power of the yamen. Although there was no legal regulation on their staffing and their salaries were not paid from the national treasury, they actually became a fixed office in the county yamen and were recognized by the court. Since these people had no salary but held real power, they used their power in every possible way to levy heavy taxes, extort bribes, and embezzle money.
Huang Cuandian was a staff member in the Household Department. The reason why Huang Cuandian was able to get such a position was because he was a scholar. It was precisely because of his status as a scholar that he was the only one in the Household Department except the household clerk.
Most people who have read a lot of books by sages cannot become sages.
Ever since he got the lucrative job as the head of the household department, Huang Cuandian's life has become much more comfortable and his personal hobbies have been fully utilized.
In fact, Huang Zuandian doesn’t have many hobbies, just two. One is to help others keep money, and the other is to help others take care of female relatives.
It's not enough to refuse to help. Huang Zandian is very particular. You guys should not be polite to me, or I will be rude to you. (To be continued.)
ps: Happy National Day, I will try to make up for the chapters that I missed some time ago and update more. Happy National Day, I heard that the monthly tickets will be doubled during the National Day, if you have tickets, please vote for me.