After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 964 Land Purchase
Although Sun Yongping was dead, the Sun family's case progressed quickly.

The royal family, the cabinet, and the three departments all seemed to want to settle the matter as soon as possible, and did not want to drag the Sun family case until next year. The Sun faction's followers were eager to distance themselves from the Sun family as soon as possible, and some even took the initiative to testify, accusing the Sun family of corruption and abuse of power.

As long as they are not implicated, the Sun faction has long forgotten the prestige and achievements of Sun Ge Lao. They actively seek out important officials in the cabinet to make deals. As long as the other party can ensure their safe escape, whether it is wealth or power, they are willing to offer it with both hands. Anyway, if you keep the green mountains, you will not be afraid of running out of firewood. If they can get through this level smoothly, there will always be a day to make a comeback in the future. No matter how much they lose, they will get it back sooner or later.

The old students of Wumen were very dissatisfied with the behavior of this group of people. They wanted to uproot these Sun family running dogs in one fell swoop and restore peace to the court, but Lord Tao took the initiative to persuade them to stop.

The imperial court has gone through several upheavals, and now it is still important to maintain stability. First, the Sun family and their loyal allies should be cleaned up. The rest of the fence-sitters do not need to be killed. It is okay to keep them to listen to their words and observe their actions. If they know their mistakes and can correct them, the kind-hearted gentlemen can give them a chance. If they make mistakes again in the future, the imperial court will bring them to justice, and the impact will be relatively small. Otherwise, there will be too many people dismissed and prosecuted at the same time, not only will the cabinet be too busy, but there will also be too many vacancies in the court, and the various government offices will not be able to operate smoothly.

The old students of Wu Clan were very sensible and accepted the advice of Tao Gelao, temporarily not to argue with the Sun Clan's followers. The latter also breathed a sigh of relief and stepped up efforts to cut ties with the Sun Clan. At the same time, they also used various channels and methods to contact the Wu Clan's orphans, whether it was marriage, friendship, or gifts, in order to reconnect their old friendship with the Wu Clan. If the Wu Clan's orphans spoke for them, I think the old students of Wu Clan would be more sympathetic.

Wu Ke was quite troubled by this. He was living in the mansion of Marquis Cheng'en, and was worried about rebuilding the old residence of Wu Mansion that had just returned to him. How could he have the leisure to care about those so-called old family friends? When the Wu family was in trouble, did these so-called old friends ever say a fair word for the Wu family? When they, his brother and sister and their aunt Gui withdrew from the palace, did these old friends ever lend a helping hand? They were forced to leave Chang'an and lived under the roof of others for many years. Did the old friends ever send anyone to visit them?
Now that the Wu family has the hope of making a comeback and marrying into the royal family again, these so-called old friends have reappeared. Wu Ke could only sneer in his heart. Although he wanted to revive the family, he never thought of pinning his hopes on these fence-sitters.

Wu Ke casually threw aside the visiting card that the doorman of the Cheng'en Marquis's mansion handed to him, not wanting to pay any attention to it. As for the people he kept "running into" and "colliding with" when he occasionally went out, he had no intention of socializing with them. Instead, he apologized to the Cheng'en Marquis' family, saying that it was because of him that these boring people disturbed the host's family.

The Cheng'en Marquis's family did not take this to heart, and instead told him not to worry about it: "If you want to pay attention to them, just deal with them casually, just for fun. If you don't want to pay attention to them, ask the doorman to block the post for you, I think those people won't dare to complain. You are not young anymore, and the late emperor has already granted you a marriage, so it's better to get married and start a family as soon as possible. Now that your old house has been cleaned up, you should find craftsmen to rebuild the house as soon as possible in preparation for the wedding next year."

Wu Ke was worried about this matter: "It's such a big house, and I don't have much money. How can I rebuild it?"

Although the late emperor "granted back" the Wu family's old residence in his will, in fact, the Wu family's property was not confiscated, and the ruins were not confiscated by the government. The so-called "granting back" was just a formality to let the people in the capital know not to covet the land. In addition, the late emperor also "granted back" some of the Wu family's properties, but they all needed to be reorganized and might not contribute much silver.

Wu Ke spent half a day calculating, but he still had no confidence that he could rebuild the entire Wu Mansion. Besides, there were only him and his cousin at home, and even if he included his future wife Zhang Yingfeng, they couldn't live in such a big house. His cousin's engagement with King Kang had already been decided, and the clan government would bear her dowry. When she got married, there would be only him and his wife in the Wu Mansion again. If the house was built too big, it would only look more deserted, so why waste that money?
Wu Ke couldn't afford the money, nor did he want to pay it, and he didn't want to borrow money from the Zhou family. The Zhou family had done enough for him and his sister. Without the Zhou family's help, he couldn't imagine that he would be in the situation he is today!

Just when Wu Ke was worried, his classmate Hai Jiao came to him and said that his teachers Xie Wenzai, Cao Gengyun and Lu Bainian were interested in buying several small courtyards outside Wu's old residence and connecting them to open a school for future schooling. Although the three teachers had limited savings, a wealthy sponsor, Hai Xiya, was willing to pay for the house at the market price and asked the owner Wu Ke what he thought.

Wu Ke was surprised and delighted: "How can this be possible? We are just a few nerds. If the teachers want us, I can give it to them with both hands. How can I ask for their money?!"

Haijiao waved his hand and said, "Why are you being polite to us? The elders also know that you are short of money. Even if you don't rebuild the old house, you will have to spend a lot of money just to marry a wife and a sister next year! Now is different from the past. You have a title and your sister is about to become a princess. You can't expect the Zhou family to give you money? Even if the Duke of Zhenguo and the Marquis of Cheng'en don't mind, I'm afraid you don't have the face to do so. There is not much that our family and our cousin uncle can do to help you. We can only spend money to buy a piece of land so that you can have more money.

"Don't think the money is too little. The three elders have only been pardoned for ten years. They lived in the border town before and didn't make money until they returned to Chang'an. Their savings are limited, so they can only take out this much. Don't be embarrassed, just accept the teachers' kindness. When they open a school near your home in the future, you will have a place to study, won't you take care of them more?"

Wu Ke's eyes turned red as he choked up, "I really don't know what to say... I should be the one honoring the teachers, but I still want them to give me all they have..."

He lowered his head to wipe away his tears, and was silent for a while before he looked up and said to Hai Jiao, "I understand the teachers' good intentions... Now I am really short of money, so I won't be polite with you. Which piece of land do you want to buy? Just tell me, no matter how big the land you want is fine. You don't have to worry about rebuilding the houses. I have my own way to find craftsmen to start the work, and then I will build the teachers' school together, and save some money. In the future, when the teachers' school is established, I will also go to them from time to time to ask for advice. I... and my future children and grandchildren will also take care of the teachers in their old age. If anyone outside dares to be rude to the teachers, I will fight for justice for the teachers even if I have to risk the Wu family's century-old reputation!"