Chapter 109

The attendant tried to think.

The attendant tried to respond.

The attendant……

Completely gave up.

This couple really doesn't follow the usual play; they can't keep up with the conversation—he really can't keep up.

However, fortunately, Heaven itself seemed unable to watch any longer.

In the next instant, the attendant heard a faint voice coming from behind this astonishingly spoken young lady:

"You just came back to life... If there's anything, just say it straight."

He said, "How could someone die in just one night!"

As expected, they weren't dead after all!

This couple is truly frightening!

When they argue, they hold nothing back!

The attendant, taking the opportunity to back down, hastily clasped his hands and said:

"No offense to you both, but it's actually still about yesterday's matter."

"Although you two only entered the city yesterday, along the way you must have seen the hardships of the people on the road. The Imperial Court imposes harsh taxes and levies, forcibly requisitioning grain; the crops in the fields have already been ruined beyond recognition, every household has no surplus grain, elders holding children crouch by the roadside, holding broken bowls to catch rainwater to drink… These things are now commonplace."

He paused there for a moment.

Outside the window, rain struck the tiles with a Shasha sound.

Du Shanü continued to eat her porridge, unhurried, her expression revealing nothing.

The attendant could discern nothing, so he could only continue speaking:

"Our magistrate may have come here as a donated official, but since taking office he hasn't had a single night of sound sleep. The south city set up a porridge kitchen, the north city opened a granary, refugees from the four surrounding districts streamed into the city, each receiving a day's dry rations. Saying these things is easy, but doing them requires money for every item. The little grain stored in the county treasury had already run out last month."

"He opened his private coffers, hauled out the gleaming silver, and exchanged it for cart after cart of grain from the surrounding cities, using it for disaster relief."

"The grain, once brought back, was piled in the county granary and the next day went into the porridge kitchen's big pot. The magistrate himself went daily to the porridge kitchen to check the thickness of the porridge and see whether the old people and children in line were being shoved."

As the attendant spoke these words, his tone was flat—not as if he were boasting, but as if he were stating something utterly ordinary.

Du Shanü's hand, which had been holding her porridge, suddenly stopped.

She set down her chopsticks and lifted her head.

The dim light from outside the window fell on her face, her eyes extremely bright, like a river frozen in winter:

"To have such a heart despite being a donated official is rare."

The attendant finally got a decent sentence in reply and immediately responded:

"What the lady says is true. The magistrate often says he didn't take this donated office for the sake of that black hat on his head. The capital is not lacking in idle donated officials, but this place lacks a magistrate who has grain."

Du Shanü heard this, and the corner of her mouth twitched slightly—like a smile, yet not quite a smile.

"A magistrate who has grain."

She slowly uttered those four words once, then turned to the attendant, her tone suddenly lightening, as if making casual conversation:

"You said you bought grain from the three neighboring counties—I'm curious. Along this journey we've seen the fields, and no household has any surplus grain. Where would those three neighboring counties get grain to sell to you?"

The attendant's mouth opened a little, then closed again.

This question is hard to answer, and cannot be answered.

After all, the source of that grain is indeed problematic.

The Imperial Court levies heavy taxes, the people have no grain in hand, but the people having no grain does not mean that officials in other cities lack grain……

But how could such scheming be spoken of to outsiders?

"Not to mention that they haven't even been pacified yet; even if they had been pacified smoothly, this matter would still have to be kept secret!"

The attendant drifted for a few breaths, his expression nearly giving himself away.

But after all these years serving under a noble, he does have adaptability.

The attendant then steadied himself, putting a smile back on his face:

"No offense to you, lady, but all these matters are personally handled by the magistrate...... the magistrate is quick-witted, deep-thinking, and has his own ways."

"He has his own ways."

Du Shanü repeated those four words once, then suddenly laughed.

She turned her head to look at Chinu, who was unusually silent and wan today, as if suddenly recalling something, and said with a smile:

"Liu Ge, listen—doesn't this sound very familiar?"

Chinu slowly set down his chopsticks; hearing this, his hand's motion paused.

Since the two of them argued last night, up to now they hadn't spoken a single word.

Now, after great difficulty, he opened his mouth......

But it was just some nonsensical Liu Ge.

She had never called him like that before.

Now speaking this way, it's as if the former 'Chinu,' 'A Nu,' and 'Hao Nu Nu' have all faded with the gentle tones, leaving only unfamiliarity and distance.

Chinu put down his chopsticks, his eyelashes drooping, refusing to speak.

Du Shanü was merely putting on an act; she hadn't even prepared to wait for his answer, and just went on speaking to herself:

"The other day, when we were escorting that convoy, the two people we met on the road—do you still remember them?"

"Exactly, those two also claimed the surname Ouyang."

The room fell silent for a moment.

Outside the window, the rain sound suddenly became very clear.

"One big, one small—the big one about thirty years old, the small one no more than around ten."

Du Shanü's brows and eyes curved, but her smile didn't reach her eyes, as if she were talking about something that had nothing to do with her.

"Both of them were covered in mud, their shoes worn out, toes sticking out. The older supported the younger, the younger helped the older, they walked over from that muddy road, and when they saw us from afar, they plopped down on their knees."

She laughed a little at this point. It wasn't the kind of laugh that finds something funny, but rather a laugh of absurdity.

"They said right away, as long as we're willing to save them, they'll repay us with a large sum of gold and silver."

"I asked them, you don't even have shoes to wear, what can you give as gold and silver? The older one said, they have their own way."

The last four words, she bit them extremely lightly.

The attendant's expression changed.

He didn't have time to examine whether these two were wanderers or escorts, nor did he have time to ponder how the woman opposite had just been asking about grain, and suddenly the topic shifted to the two people they'd met on the road.

His mind seized only one thing—

Ouyang.

The two people who called themselves Ouyang.

Their ages also happened to match.

Recently, the Eldest Young Master and the Nineteenth Young Master's escape has become common knowledge throughout An Nan!

Moreover, who would be more likely to claim the Ouyang surname than the people of the An Nan royal family?

I never expected, never expected, those two who were supposed to be household slaves for the Second Young Master, those bastard offspring…

Now, they actually happened to flee to this place, and then bumped into the Fifth Young Master!

Sweat seeped into his palm, and he called out in a hoarse voice:

"Madam."

That utterance, his voice was much lower than before.

The attendant's Adam's apple moved up and down, and he hesitated before speaking:

"Those two people—"

Du Shanü glanced at him, her eyes holding a hint of a smile that wasn't quite a smile:

"What, do you know them?"

"No, not."

The attendant hastily shook his head, then stopped again, as if he didn't know how to speak.

He took a deep breath, striving to make his voice sound somewhat normal:

"It's just rare to meet someone who shares the county magistrate's surname; hearing Madam say they've had a hard time, my heart inevitably feels some pity……"

"Madam, why don't you tell me the whereabouts of those two? When I go back I'll ask my family; perhaps they're some collateral branch of the county magistrate……"

The attendant twitched the corner of his mouth, and spoke word by word:

"We might as well help them."

?? came running, dragging a fresh-off-the-press manuscript, hurriedly put it down, let out a big sigh, then waddled away.