Chapter 193: A Large Offering

The Jianghuai marshes were quiet, the moonlight dim.

A piece of "driftwood" floated on the river, moving slowly with the current.

Suddenly, a giant wave rolled up, sinking the "driftwood" into the water.

The Fat Catfish held its white belly, swaying, bubbles constantly spitting from its mouth, its long whiskers drifting to both sides with the current.

Bu Neng Dong rolled once in the water along the current, regained its balance, and silently stared at the Fat Catfish.

After a while, the Fat Catfish felt the solo act was boring, its ink-like fins gesturing along with its long whiskers.

Bu Neng Dong understood, turned, and arrived at the lotus root field, summoning Yuan Tou and Quan Tou.

The four beasts gathered, heads touching, each with their own movements, occasionally rising bubbles, finally separating. The Fat Catfish ran to the Old Giant Clam and gestured for a while.

"I shall guard the lotus roots carefully; there is no need for worry."

Receiving the reply, the Fat Catfish shook its head and took the lead. Bu Neng Dong pulled its limbs together and followed closely, with Quan Tou and Yuan Tou following in succession.

The Old Giant Clam had no hands; otherwise, it would have touched its shell.

"Strange. I have never seen such intelligent beasts."

The longer it spent with Liang Qu's water beasts, the more amazed the Old Giant Clam became at the intelligence they displayed—completely beyond what their current strength should possess.

One would be one thing, but for every single one to be like this could not be explained by coincidence.

Ancient remnants that could be enlightened?

The Old Giant Clam felt its understanding of this world was still too little.

How it regretted not reading more when it was young!

The Fat Catfish braked first, and the three beasts stopped one after another.

Quan Tou didn't brake in time, bumped into Bu Neng Dong's butt, and was kicked.

The Fat Catfish pointed ahead, and the three beasts all lay flat on the ground, moving bit by bit, passing through the dense water grass forest.

Crawling out of a certain range, the Fat Catfish took the three beasts and poked their heads out slightly.

In the distance, a monster larger than anyone present was lying in the water grass, dozing.

Its body was covered in large crimson scales, with four feet, a long tail, and thorny long fins on its back. Muscles bulged under the armor of scales, its posture extremely sturdy and imposing. With every breath, the water surged, and the water grass bowed.

The Fat Catfish pointed its fin at the crimson water beast and patted its own white belly.

Bu Neng Dong shook its head, its claws pointing at its own scales, then reaching toward the crimson water beast.

Yuan Tou looked left and right, choosing to withdraw from the argument.

Sturdy, cute, fat.

Liang Qu's new order to the three beasts was to find water beasts that met the criteria, with strength preferably one level higher than theirs.

He worried the four beasts wouldn't understand the meaning of these three adjectives, so he indicated that things like the crocodile Bu Neng Dong represented "sturdy"; things like the finless porpoise Yuan Tou represented "cute"; and things like the Fat Catfish represented "fat."

Every judgment required the four beasts to gather and decide.

The two beasts were arguing whether the water beast in front of them looked more like Bu Neng Dong or more like the Fat Catfish.

Clearly, the Fat Catfish had misunderstood something.

The argument was endless.

The two beasts decided to shelve the dispute for now and wait for the Heavenly God to decide.

The Fat Catfish moved a stone and pressed it under the water grass as a mark, withdrawing from the crimson water beast's territory.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Copper gongs clamored, and birds flew in a dance.

"Summer taxes are being collected! Summer taxes are being collected! Hand over grain at the pier! Hand over grain at the pier!"

"Summer taxes are being collected! Summer taxes are being collected!"

The harsh sound of gongs came in waves, loud enough to make one's head ache.

Liang Qu, in his sleep, opened his eyes and sat up abruptly upon hearing the shouts.

"Tax collection? Terrible, I forgot to buy grain!"

Liang Qu lifted the thin quilt and put on his pants. Just as he was about to tie his belt, he suddenly fell back down.

"I was muddled by sleep. I'm an official now; I don't need to pay taxes."

Liang Qu supported his head.

A false alarm.

He had returned too late yesterday and had used the Mirage Insect to train for an hour. He hadn't expected to sleep until the hour of the Dragon (7-9 AM).

Although 8 or 9 AM wasn't late, ordinary people rose at the crowing of the rooster. Sleeping until the hour of the Dragon was truly something only a spendthrift would do.

Suddenly awake, with no more sleepiness, Liang Qu got up and suddenly received a message from the Fat Catfish.

"Found a suitable offering?"

Liang Qu's expression brightened; he hadn't expected to see good news upon waking up.

The River God Festival would start soon; the matter of the offering had to be settled as soon as possible.

He immediately put on his clothes, washed up, took Fu Bo and Tie Mao, and stepped out, seeing Chen Qingjiang and his father Chen Renxing pushing a cart, about to pay taxes.

He gave a greeting.

The two, heads down pushing the cart, only then noticed Liang Qu.

"A-Shui! Going out?"

"Yes."

Liang Qu stepped forward to help with the handle.

His strength was great; with one hand, he made the small cart loaded with four shi of grain and six hundred jin of rice move steadily, leaving nothing for Chen Qingjiang and Chen Renxing to do.

"No need, no need, it's not very heavy, the two of us are enough."

Chen Renxing hurriedly tried to pull Liang Qu's wrist, but he couldn't pull it at all; it was truly like an old tree rooted in the ground.

"It's fine. I'm going to the pier anyway. Uncle Chen, when did you buy a cart?"

"Bought it two days ago. Thinking that taxes are due soon, right? Previously, we had to carry the grain ourselves. Buying a cart is handy. I'm even planning to buy a donkey! In the future, when paying taxes, I'll pull the donkey, and I'll be enough by myself; no need for my dad to come out!"

Chen Qingjiang's face was full of joy.

"Good thing. If there's nothing to do, you can rent it out to people for grinding or pulling carts. That's also an income."

Chen Renxing and Chen Qingjiang nodded repeatedly.

With Liang Qu's bait helping, the two Chen families and the Li family, three families in total, had a daily income of over a tael of silver just from fish catches. Divided up, it was several qian per family. Life was booming, and they had added many items and furniture to their homes.

As for taxes, the thing they had started worrying about months ago was now nothing at all.

Chen Qingjiang had prepared a full four shi of rice this time, not afraid of the official making things difficult; it was more than enough.

Sending the two to the pier, there were many unfamiliar faces of village elders behind the table. Chen Zhaoan asked everyone to separate into queues and line up one by one.

Liang Qu also saw the families of Chen Jiecang and Li Libo. Although they were river officials, they were not ranked and still had to pay taxes.

Seeing Liang Qu's figure from afar, several small officials hurriedly stepped forward to greet him.

"Master Liang."

Officials come and go, but the clerks remain. They were all locals; how could they not recognize Liang Qu, this "local snake"?

Liang Qu looked around and didn't see the clerk who had collected his silver during the autumn tax. He guessed he didn't dare to come.

He turned and pointed to Chen Qingjiang, Chen Jiecang, Li Libo, and others in the crowd.

"Let these few pay first. The loss of one shi and one dou is about enough. Beyond that, whatever it should be, let it be. Don't make it too hard for the fellow villagers."

Be strange but not different, seek clarity but not agitation.

Previously, Xu Yuelong had told Liang Qu in Fengbu County not to do things too cleanly. He only understood later that there weren't so many messy reasons.

There was only one: there are few saints in the world and many ordinary people. If you make everything spotless, next time no one will play with you.

So Liang Qu didn't make it too hard for the clerks. The loss was the loss, but don't go too far and break up families.

"Yes, yes, yes."

Several clerks hurriedly agreed.

"Everyone, thank you for your hard work."

Liang Qu bowed.

"Master Liang, thank you for your hard work, Master Liang, thank you for your hard work."

The clerks bowed repeatedly, watching Liang Qu untie the boat rope and drift away. They flipped open the household register and turned to shout loudly.

"Next, Chen Qingjiang."

"Coming, coming."

Chen Qingjiang didn't know why it was his turn so early, but he didn't dare to delay, hurriedly pushing through the crowd and pushing the cart forward.

Pouring out the grain, it was only two shi and six dou when he was stopped by the clerk.

"Enough."

Chen Qingjiang was stunned, quite hesitant.

Not to mention that he hadn't even kicked it with his foot, even counting Little Shunzi's three dou, if done by the rules, it wasn't enough.

But seeing the clerk tick the register, Chen Qingjiang knew that more trouble was worse than less, so he hurriedly turned and left.

"Hey, hey, hey, this official, official."

Liang Guangtian pushed and shoved, squeezing past a few people around him, and brushed past Chen Qingjiang.

The clerk didn't even lift his head, his voice muffled.

"What is it?"

"Officials, that one just now is my nephew. Look, can this..."

The clerk closed the household register and looked at Liang Guangtian with a smile that wasn't a smile.

"Yo, who do I think it is? So it's you, old thing. Don't think I'm an outsider and don't know your relationship with Master Liang?"

Liang Guangtian was startled and hurriedly said: "That's a thing of the past. Every family has its own troubles. Which family doesn't have some conflicts? Even biological brothers fight. We uncle and nephew actually made up long ago."

The clerk hesitated slightly.

Liang Guangtian's words made sense, but...

He didn't dare to ask Liang Qu if it was really like that.

Chen Qingjiang was stunned and turned around: "When did you make up with A-Shui? How come I don't know?"

The clerk's face changed instantly.

"Old thing, get to the back! If you dare to cut in line again, watch out, I'll whip you!" ===== CHAPTER 194 =====