Chapter 57

Fifty-seven, Sweet Talk and Let Go?

"Eat your meal, don't stare at my face. You guys pick up the vegetables."

Luming Street, county office back house, by a patio in a main hall, Ouyang Rong, Xie Lingjiang, and Yan Liulang, who hadn't seen each other for many days, gathered at the table to eat.

Ouyang Rong couldn't help but put down his bowl, raised his head, and said.

Xie Lingjiang and Yan Liulang immediately lowered their heads and continued to eat, very tacitly.

The young magistrate sighed... Xiao Shimei eating my face is fine, Liulang, you don't eat your meal and eat my face too?

He set a pair of bowls and chopsticks for Liu Ashan at the table next to him.

This morning, Ouyang Rong was busy with the large sand table for simulated water control in the county office back house. Xie Lingjiang and Yan Liulang came to him to discuss matters. When it was almost noon, Weilai and Banxi came to deliver food to them together.

Ouyang Rong didn't let the two little girls serve the meal, and let Liu Ashan send them back to Meilu Garden, mainly because a certain silver-haired maid was a bit too clingy, and Xiao Shimei and Liulang were both there, so he was embarrassed.

Ouyang Rong looked at the huge sand table in the courtyard. Although it was noon, the sky outside the eaves was a bit dim, as if a storm was coming.

"Is there anything hotly discussed in the county recently?"

He picked up his bowl again and asked casually while picking vegetables.

Xie Lingjiang and Yan Liulang couldn't help but look at him again. Did he really not know about the things that the people in the county had been talking about these past two days?

Yan Liulang was the first to say: "Recently, the people have been hotly discussing the Magistrate."

"Me? What's there to hotly discuss about me?" The young magistrate who was eating stopped.

"Thanks to the Magistrate's daily opening of the granary to release cheap grain at fixed times, the rice price in the Longcheng market is about to collapse. No one is stupid enough to buy high-priced grain anymore, all waiting for the 'five-coin grain' in the morning. Those foreign grain merchants and local grain merchants have all started to rush to sell grain. At the moment, the rice price in Longcheng doesn't exceed nine coins per dou at the highest."

Yan Liulang finally vented his anger and pointed:

"Before, when the Magistrate lifted the grain limit to attract grain merchants, didn't some people say that the Magistrate's family was secretly selling grain? Now these people have all shut up. The people who bought cheap grain are all happy, saying the Magistrate is a good official, with the legacy of Master Di who controlled the floods and disaster relief back then."

Xie Lingjiang smiled mockingly:

"And the matter of Senior Brother taking office alone without a wife or concubine has also been hotly discussed on the street, plus the fact that Senior Brother went to the Horse Trading Row to buy a maid the day before yesterday, but brought back a white-haired girl...

"The common people say that Ru Shixiong is a truly clean official, incorruptible and dedicated, with a compassionate heart. These things have spread to several neighboring counties... Which of the magistrates in the neighboring counties doesn't have several wives and concubines? Only Ru Shixiong is the least close to women."

A certain young magistrate's mouth twitched.

Why does he feel that he can't be happy at all after being praised by the people like this? Hmm, single dog is also praised, right?

Ouyang Rong is not bad at color.

On the contrary, he is an old scumbag.

It's just that he only wants to engage in his career at the moment. After disaster relief and water control, he feels more like a passerby than a returnee. What ties should he leave? Unless he can't go back.

And he has always been wearing this identity of a gentleman, he is afraid that he can't suppress his inner self, especially the sisters like Xiao Shimei, Ye Weilai, and Banxi who don't guard against him at all.

"Let's not talk about these irrelevant things." Ouyang Rong shook his head and asked instead: "How are the grain merchants doing now?"

Yan Liulang smiled:

"Following the Magistrate's arrangements, we have been dragging out the cases of Shopkeeper Ma and Shopkeeper Li these days, and the clearing of grain warehouses at the wharf has also been suspended. These big and small grain merchants were very anxious in the first few days, and came to urge us for progress every day, especially Shopkeeper Ma and Shopkeeper Li.

"However, every time they urged, I told them once, saying that the Magistrate ordered that we can stop investigating the case and continue clearing the grain warehouses, but after hearing this, the two hesitated again, probably because they were afraid. I have been dragging it like this... By the way, for the past two days, I don't know why, they haven't come to find us again. I don't know if they noticed anything."

"They are all thousand-year-old foxes, naturally they can understand the Strange Tales of Liaozhai." Ouyang Rong smiled.

"Strange Tales of Liaozhai?" Xie Lingjiang was curious.

Ouyang Rong didn't explain, and asked her: "Have any grain merchants come to find me?"

Xiao Shimei said crisply:

"Ru Shixiong has been busy with the sand table in the back house these two days. Wang Caozhi and some other grain merchants have come to find you privately, but according to your previous instructions, I have found excuses to send them all away."

Ouyang Rong asked one more question, "What excuse did Xiao Shimei find?"

Xie Lingjiang glanced at him, "The serious injury from falling into the water last time, not yet fully recovered, the root of the disease left behind."

Ouyang Rong nodded, turned his head, and asked: "How much 'five-coin grain' have we released from the righteous granary, and how much is left?"

Yan Liulang seemed to be prepared, dipped his finger in water and drew on the table, raised his head and said:

"Including the grain exchanged for silver donated by thirteen gentry families like Liu Ziwen before the Dragon Boat Festival, plus the grain we secretly raised the rice price to collect before, minus the consumption of work-for-relief these days... At the moment, the county office's righteous granary has sold over sixteen thousand shi, with fifteen thousand shi of grain remaining."

Ouyang Rong said directly:

"Keep ten thousand shi as a bottom line, and the remaining five thousand shi must be sold within three days."

And ordered Xie Lingjiang: "Three days later, if anyone comes again, bring them in."

"Okay, just say Ru Shixiong is recovered."

Yan Liulang's expression was serious, reminding: "Magistrate, five thousand shi of grain, I'm afraid it can't completely collapse the grain price at once."

The young magistrate was curious: "Who said I wanted to collapse the Longcheng grain price?"

This time it was Xie Lingjiang and Yan Liulang's turn to be confused: "Otherwise, how can we make them sell grain at a low price?"

"Why do we have to make them sell grain at a low price?"

Xie Lingjiang and Yan Liulang looked at each other and blurted out:

"That goes without saying, we can buy their grain cheaply, and then we won't be short of grain anymore."

Ouyang Rong shook his head with a laugh, and suddenly joked:

"Xiao Shimei, it's a pity that Wang Caozhi is your cousin. Every time he sees you, he calls you sister affectionately. I didn't expect you to be so eager for him to lose his fortune and lose his bottom line."

Xie Lingjiang wrinkled her delicate nose, "I already said I'm not familiar with him, besides, unscrupulous merchants deserve it."

Pausing, seeing Ru Shixiong smiling without saying a word, she suddenly turned her head, her gaze toward the courtyard a bit wandering, softly:

"I already said he was shouting blindly, Ru Shixiong... could it be because his mouth is sweet, you want to let him go."

Ouyang Rong was stunned for a moment before reacting that Xiao Shimei was referring to the last time Wang Caozhi called him "brother-in-law." He shook his head, "That's not it."

"Oh."

A certain Xiao Shimei poked a few grains of soft rice in her bowl with her chopsticks.

Ouyang Rong didn't sell it anymore, and said directly to Xie and Yan:

"I don't have time to fight to the death with them, and I guess Liu Ziwen won't watch me eat meat in vain. Besides, I said on the first day that I only came to Longcheng to do one thing."

Xie Lingjiang's eyes were bright and spirited, looking at the calm Ru Shixiong in front of the table, and replaced: "Disaster relief, water control, justice."

Ouyang Rong nodded: "Do as I just ordered."

"Yes."

Xie Lingjiang and Yan Liulang responded in unison.

Rumble~

It was clearly noon but a bit dim in the main hall. First, a flash of lightning, then the thunder came late, and then the drizzle came late.

The ancient fragrance in the hall, the plum rain outside the hall, had a taste of Jiang Nan... Oh, forgot, this is a Jiang Nan ancient town.

Ouyang Rong stood up, walked to the mossy eaves, reached out to catch a raindrop, and lowered his head to examine it carefully.

Behind him came Yan Liulang's happy voice:

"Great, Magistrate, it's plum rain. The grain piled up in the wharf warehouse is easier to get moldy, the grain merchants are going to be anxious!"

The young magistrate shook his head and stated softly:

"The great flood of Yunmeng Marsh is also coming soon."

He stared at the sand table in the rain.

Here it comes! Ahem, are the brothers going to school... (Fog)

(End of chapter)