Eagle-eyed and wolf-watching

Chapter 1463 The Gear of Destiny!
On November 21, it snowed heavily in Yunping Jinzhong.
In a mansion somewhere in the city, a young man named Wang Xishun, who looked to be in his twenties, was eating shabu-shabu hotpot with his family.

Ever since the first shabu-shabu hotpot restaurant opened in Yijing, shabu-shabu hotpot has quickly become popular throughout the northern part of Daqian, especially in the cold winter when many people want to eat a hot pot.

However, wanting and being able to do are two different concepts. Although the Luobi people became a vassal of Daqian, the sheep on the grassland could be sold to Daqian smoothly, and the price of mutton dropped a lot, but most of the people of Daqian could only have enough food to make a living.

For them, hot pot mutton is a very luxurious behavior. The price of a meal of hot pot mutton may be enough for them to work for ten days or eight days. Compared with hot pot mutton, buying some pork, chicken, duck and fish to satisfy their cravings may be a more realistic choice for them!

Although the slightly wealthy middle class have spare money to eat mutton hotpot, they dare not eat too much. They only choose half a pound or a pound of mutton, supplemented with vegetables, vermicelli and potatoes, and then noodles as the staple food!

At this time in this mansion, Wang Xishun was sitting in the main seat, with his wife and two concubines sitting beside him, and five children sitting opposite him. In the middle of the dining table was a steaming copper pot. The two concubines and several children were putting freshly cut mutton into the pot one plate after another...
Several maids were serving the family around the dining table, and in order to supply the family with enough meat, two young men were slicing the meat very skillfully.

Seeing the hot water in the pot boiling, Wang Xishun realized that the mutton was cooked. He immediately used chopsticks to scoop up several slices of mutton from the pot, dipped them in the salty and delicious sesame sauce, and put them into his mouth.

Feeling the delicious aroma of mutton in his mouth, Wang Xishun scratched his young but somewhat bald head with some satisfaction, and sighed unconsciously:

"It's such a treat to eat this pot of mutton hotpot in the middle of winter. Your Majesty is such a big eater!"

After saying this, he looked at his two sons in front of him, who were scrambling to eat the meat from the copper pot. He couldn't help but laugh and scold:

"Eat slowly, you two little brats! I buy you mutton every now and then, why are you two eating like this?"

Faced with their father's scolding, the two children slowed down their pace in taking out the meat, but they never stopped.

Seeing this, Wang Xishun couldn't help but sigh:

"The old saying is true: you little brats can eat me to death. If you two keep eating like this, my little fortune will be wasted!"

Hearing Wang Xishun say this, his wife Liu, who was picking her teeth with a toothpick beside her, immediately said coldly:
"How can you live off your savings without losing everything?"

Wang Xishun, who understood the meaning of his wife's words, felt a little helpless, and immediately spoke again:
"My dear, I don't want to live off my savings, but the higher-ups insist on cutting me off. What can I do?"

“Hmph! The higher-ups don’t want you anymore, so you just give in? I was so blind in the beginning, how could I fall for a loser like you…”

Faced with his wife's verbal humiliation, Wang Xishun felt aggrieved, but he didn't know how to refute!

Wang Xishun is a native of Jinzhong. His father was originally a blacksmith and his mother was a traditional housewife. Wang Xishun also has an older sister named Wang Qingqing. Although the family is not rich, they can get by with the income from his father's blacksmith shop.

But when Wang Xishun was thirteen years old, Wang Xishun's father accidentally injured his hand while working in a blacksmith shop. Although his life was not in danger, he lost the ability to forge iron. The owner of the blacksmith shop was kind enough to give Wang's father medical expenses, but did not give any other compensation.

In this way, Wang Xishun's family lost its source of income. In order to make a living, Wang's father had to agree to let his beautiful seventeen-year-old daughter Wang Qingqing marry a wealthy man named Li in his fifties from Jinzhong as a concubine. In exchange, he got twenty taels of silver so that the family could do some small business!

In this way, at a young age, Wang Xishun became a peddler walking around the streets with his father, selling small commodities such as needlework, cloth, etc. to earn a few taels of silver to support his family.

Originally Wang Xishun thought that his life would pass like this, but he didn't know that the gears of fate had already turned quietly. When Wang Xishun was seventeen years old, the year his parents wanted to find a wife for him, the Fengwu Army entered Yun and captured Jinzhong.

Just when the Wang family was becoming somewhat anxious because of the turbulent times, Wang Qingqing returned home. She told her parents that her ex-husband, the fifty-year-old Old Li, had been beheaded and his property confiscated by the Fengwu Army because he was a profiteer.

Originally, she was also going to be exiled, but she fell in love with a man in the Fengwu Army, so not only did she not have to be exiled, but the man also opened a cloth shop for her...

The Wang family members were very happy to hear the news, and Wang Xishun naturally went to work in his sister's cloth shop. It was at that time that Wang Xishun met his cheap brother-in-law Ye Hao!

Although Wang Qingqing and Wang Xishun were average in business, their cloth shop was doing very well under Ye Hao's care. However, Wang Qingqing always felt that being a businessman was not promising. Even if the business was big, she still had to bow and scrape like a grandson in front of the officials.

So Wang Qingqing wanted to ask Ye Hao, who had been appointed by Ye Mingsheng as the governor of Yunbing at that time, to let Wang Xishun become an official as well. Even if he was not a high-ranking official, just a small official, in Wang Qingqing's view, it would be a matter of honor for the family!

If an ordinary person wants to become an official, it can be said to be harder than climbing to the sky. However, for Ye Hao, the governor, it is just a matter of words. However, Ye Hao still has a bottom line and did not agree to the request of his mistress Wang Qingqing casually!
However, soon after Wang Qingqing became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Ye Hao, the overjoyed Ye Hao could no longer resist Wang Qingqing's nagging and arranged a minor official position for Wang Xishun in the Yunbing government office, so that Wang Xishun, who could barely read and write, also got a job as a T official!

Although it was thanks to the sister's unremitting efforts that she got this T rice bowl, the Wang family was still overjoyed. Not only did they celebrate with a grand banquet, they also went back to their hometown to worship their ancestors...
It was at this time that, because Ye Mingsheng was strict in his inspection of integrity, a number of G members got into trouble one after another. So during this period, the agent white glove model became popular among the G members of the Fengwu Army. Many people did not accept money themselves, and if you offered it to them, they would refuse it with righteous words, and some would even report you.

But in private they collected the money through agents, thus establishing a firewall. Compared with the previous simple and crude method of giving gifts in person, this method is very covert and less likely to cause trouble. Even if something goes wrong, they can pretend that it has nothing to do with them!
Although Ye Hao is a royal relative, he is also not exempted from the inspection. Therefore, he follows the trend and makes his mistress Wang Qingqing his agent.

Although most of the money Wang Qingqing collected was taken away by Ye Hao, a considerable portion of it also went into Wang Qingqing's pocket. In this way, Wang Xishun also got some of the leftovers from his sister!
Even though it was just some leftovers, it was enough for Wang Xishun to live in his current mansion, eat delicious food and fish every day, and marry two concubines.

Just when Wang Xishun was enjoying his life, the gears of fate started turning again, because the higher-ups issued an order to lay off employees, and as the governor, Ye Hao had to turn the knife inward and lay off his own people! Many people who could enter the government and get a job as a T had connections, so Ye Hao just laid off some unrelated tools at the beginning.

But unfortunately, only laying off these thirty or fifty people cannot meet Ye Mingsheng's goal of reducing court expenses and alleviating the court's financial burden.

As Ye Mingsheng's words became more and more harsh, Ye Hao, who could not stand the pressure, had to start considering the jobs of those Ts with strong backgrounds and backers!

Nowadays, cutting off someone's financial resources can be considered an irreconcilable feud, so after Ye Hao took action, the other party fought back and directly exposed the improper relationship between Ye Hao and Wang Qingqing, as well as the fact that Wang Xishun relied on nepotism to enter the government!
Ye Hao couldn't bear the pressure from Ye Mingsheng any more, so in order to ensure a smooth layoff, he fired Wang Xishun from the yamen despite Wang Qingqing's strong opposition.

Wang Xishun's reaction to this was not as strong as his sister Wang Qingqing's. Although he was Ye Hao's adopted brother-in-law, he was just a minor official in the yamen. Not only did he have no power, he also had to go to work on time every day, and even his salary was very low.

Because his sister gave him pocket money, he didn't care about the little salary. If it weren't for the skin, he would have given up on this job long ago.

So just when Wang Xishun thought that he could skip work at the government office and just eat, drink and have fun every day, something went wrong with his sister Wang Qingqing.

Originally, Wang Qingqing was law-abiding and usually low-key, so she was a qualified agent for Ye Hao!
But after the relationship between Wang Qingqing and Ye Hao was exposed last time, Wang Qingqing was no longer safe for Ye Hao. In addition, as Wang Qingqing grew older, she gradually became less attractive, and Ye Hao also had a new love and a new agent!

Just like that, Wang Qingqing fell out of favor. Ye Hao, who was worried that someone would make a fuss about his relationship with Wang Qingqing, sent her to the countryside to avoid the limelight...

Although Wang Qingqing gave Wang Xishun a sum of money before leaving, for Wang Xishun who had developed the habit of spending lavishly, this sum of money could not support his spending for too long!

Seeing that Wang Xishun was silent, Liu took the initiative to persuade him:
"There are only a little over a hundred taels of silver left by your sister. You have to think of a way to save us. Otherwise, our whole family will be starving in no time!"

After hearing this, Wang Xishun couldn't help but said in surprise:
"Wasn't there still 150 taels of silver left by my sister last month?"

Facing her husband's question, Liu said awkwardly:
"Last month, Madam Li said she had a business that was sure to make money. I invested fifty taels of silver in it, but now the business is dead!"

After hearing this, Wang Xishun was shocked and immediately asked:

"Why didn't you discuss this with me?"

Although Liu felt guilty about this matter, she still said confidently:

"What do I have to discuss with you?"

"What else can you do with these besides eating and drinking PD?"

"I am also thinking about our family and want to earn some money to supplement the family income!"

"If you, Mr. Wang, were capable, would a woman like me have to do this?"

"Look at other people's wives. They just need to be a noble lady every day. Some men work hard and their wives also benefit from it and become imperial concubines!"

"I've been unlucky for eight lifetimes following you, Wang Xishun..."

Speaking of this, Liu, who had been feeling a little guilty just now, now began to drop little crystals, as if she had suffered some great injustice.

Wang Xishun looked at his wife's aggrieved look and was very confused. It was clearly her fault, so why did she still feel so aggrieved, as if she was the one who was wrong?
Just when Wang Xishun was puzzled, the two children born to Liu, although they didn't know why their mother was crying, but when they saw their mother crying, the two children started crying too. Liu cried even harder while holding the two children. In an instant, the room was filled with loud crying, and Wang Xishun was overwhelmed when he heard it!

Wang Xishun didn't know what to do when he saw this scene, but he could only ask:
"Don't cry, my lady!"

"Can you get the fifty taels of silver back?"

Upon hearing this, Liu wiped the tears from her face and said:

"How could I know if I could get it back? I went to Madam Li to ask for the silver, but she said she didn't have any either. I even invested 100 taels of silver, but now that profiteer is nowhere to be found!"

As soon as these words came out, Wang Xishun felt his head buzzing. If it were in the past when his sister Wang Qingqing was still in Jinzhong, fifty taels of silver would not be a small amount, but it was not much for Wang Xishun. But now that Wang Qingqing has escaped, these fifty taels of silver are very important to Wang Xishun.

Seeing her husband's grief-stricken look, Liu continued:

"I see that your previous colleague named Li is making trouble, wanting the government to reinstate him to his post. You should join in the trouble too. When the government reinstates you, you will be able to hold your job as a T again..."