Confucian and Taoist scholar

Chapter 45 The County Magistrate's Anger

Kaiyang County Government Office.

Li Yuan sat in the court and handled a lot of official business.

In the past few days, the county town was searched, and no one who intended to harm Lu Zheng was found, but many places where evil was hidden were discovered, and many people were arrested.

He hadn't had a good night's sleep recently, and he was finally going to finish these things.

Just then, an official came hurriedly.

"Sir, there's a man and a monster outside, saying that Lu Zheng asked them to bring something very important and hand it over to you personally!"

"Ok?"

Li Yuan suddenly became alert and ordered, "Bring them here!"

"Yes, sir!" The officer received the order and hurried away.

After a while, Liu San and Huang Shu came to the lobby.

Liu San, holding his bag, saw the high-ranking Li Yuan and knelt down, saying respectfully, "I, Liu San, pay my respects to the county magistrate!"

Huang Shu also prostrated himself on the ground and saluted respectfully.

Li Yuan said solemnly, "Get up! Present what Lu Zheng asked you to bring!"

Liu San quickly raised the bundle and said, "Everything in here is here!"

An officer nearby took the bundle and opened it to inspect it.

There were several wooden boxes in the bundle, and each box contained different items.

There was a letter, several portraits, a leather bag, a bottle of elixir, a bead and a flower.

The officer just opened it and took a look, and after making sure that there was nothing wrong, he presented all the items to Li Yuan.

Li Yuan's gaze paused on the folded painted skin, then he opened the letter to read it.

The letter was several pages long, filled with tiny handwriting.

Li Yuan took the letter and read it carefully. The more he read, the more frightened he became, and his expression became uglier and uglier.

The officers nearby were all worried when they saw Li Yuan's appearance.

The county magistrate was angry a few days ago, but he didn’t look as scary as he does today.

They were curious about what the scholar of heaven and earth wrote in the letter.

It took Li Yuan more than a quarter of an hour to slowly read the content.

He took a deep breath, then slammed the table and shouted angrily, "Where's County Magistrate Zhou? Call him over!"

Everyone was terrified, and an officer ran out to call for help.

Zhou Wei was still in prison sorting files and interrogating prisoners when he saw an official coming to say that the county magistrate was looking for him.

Zhou Wei had no choice but to put down what he was doing and go to see Li Yuan.

He noticed that the officer's expression was not right and asked, "What happened again?"

The official whispered, "Mr. Lu sent someone to deliver some things. The county magistrate was furious after reading the letter, even angrier than he had been a few days ago."

Zhou Wei's heart skipped a beat when he heard this, and he quickly quickened his pace to rush to the court.

"Sir, what's the urgent matter?" Zhou Wei asked as he entered the room.

Li Yuan paced back and forth in the hall with a gloomy face. Seeing Zhou Wei coming, he said coldly, "Everyone else, get out first."

The officials, Liu San, Huang Shu and others did not dare to stay any longer and left the place directly.

Li Yuan pointed to the letter on the table and said, "County Lieutenant Zhou, take a look!"

Zhou Wei was nervous and quickly picked up the letter to check it out. The more he read, the more frightened he became.

"This, this, this..." After reading the contents of the letter, Zhou Wei didn't know where to start.

Li Yuan's anger dissipated a little, and he sighed, "Even in the prosperous times of great dynasties, there are bound to be cases of demons harming people. The world is in chaos now. Although I, Li, am not a man of great talent, I think that I have managed Kaiyang County to be relatively peaceful, at least better than other places..."

"Hey, it turns out this peaceful situation was just my fantasy. They're doing all these things right under my nose... Ghosts have been stealing people's yang energy for years, monsters kill people to create painted skins, and raise evil spirits. Behind all this, there are masters guiding them! It's incredible, incredible!"

Zhou Wei quickly said, "It's my fault for not doing my job well. I'll go and lead an investigation right away. Even if we have to turn the place upside down, we'll find them!"

He was shocked and angry. He had just led people to search the county, but he didn't find the things that Lu Zheng said.

Li Yuan walked up to Zhou Wei, raised his hand and pinched Zhou Wei's rough cheek, exuding a literary aura.

"We should investigate, and investigate thoroughly. Otherwise, even you, the County Lieutenant, might turn into a monster in painted skin one day, and I wouldn't even know it! Who knows how many demons and monsters in painted skin there are in this county!"

"Sir, it's my fault that I'm incompetent..." Zhou Wei trembled with fear.

Li Yuan suddenly remembered something, "My Zhao'er just went out to study."

Recently, many students from Beishan Academy have been allowed to travel and study.

Li Yuan didn't want Li Zhao to stay at home, so he assigned two guards to Li Zhao and went out to study with his friends.

Now that he found Kaiyang County so unstable, he couldn't help but worry about Li Zhao.

Zhou Wei quickly said, "I'll send someone to bring Master Li back!"

Li Yuan glared and said, "My Li family can't afford to lose this person!"

With so many students going out to study, he called Li Zhao out because he was worried about his safety. It was really embarrassing.

After hearing this, Zhou Wei didn't dare to mention it again.

Li Yuan thought for a moment and said, "You should go and take care of your own affairs first. Let me think carefully about what Lu Zheng said. Don't bring anyone along to alert the enemy."

According to Lu Zheng's narration, these demons and monsters act so cautiously that it may not be easy to catch the real mastermind behind the scenes.

"I'll follow your instructions!" Zhou Wei said.

Li Yuan waved his hand and said, "Go down!"

Zhou Wei took his leave and left the lobby, then returned to the prison.

His face was extremely gloomy. Since Li Yuan told him not to alert the enemy, he would re-interrogate those people in prison. He didn't believe that he would not find any clues.

Li Yuan looked through all the things Lu Zheng sent, then repacked them and put them away.

He left the court and came to the courtyard outside, where he saw a group of people still waiting there.

Li Yuan turned to look at Liu San, "Liu San."

Liu San quickly stepped forward, clasped his fists, and said, "What do you want, sir?"

Li Yuan smiled and said, "Lu Zheng mentioned you to me, saying that you're a gambler, but your character is decent. He asked me to take you to the county government to work. Are you willing?"

Liu San was overjoyed when he heard this, "I'm willing! Thank you very much, sir!"

Li Yuan said calmly, "Don't be too happy too soon. Lu Zheng said he'll give you a three-month probation period. If you perform well, you can start your job. If you're a hopeless case, we at the county government won't have any extra food for you. Go back to where you came from."

Liu San said excitedly: "I will definitely not let you down, my lord and the scholar."

Li Yuan didn't say much, and casually picked an official to take Liu San to familiarize himself with the situation in the county government office.

Then, Li Yuan looked at Huang Shu again, "Are you Huang Shu?"

Huang Shu said respectfully, "Little demon Huang Shu, I greet the county magistrate."

Li Yuan said, "Lu Zheng entrusted you to me and asked me to find someone to teach you how to read and learn etiquette. Are you willing?"

"Little Demon is willing!" Huang Shu nodded repeatedly.

"Very good, come with me. There are some things I need you to explain in detail." Li Yuan carried his bag and slowly left the county government office. "Prepare the car, let's go to Beishan Academy!"

(End of this chapter)