The prince is more stable

Chapter 372 Windfall from Heaven
The girl was about seventeen or eighteen years old, just in the prime of her youth.

Her origins were mysterious and no one knew where she came from. The villagers asked her curiously, but she just smiled and didn't answer.

She was very gentle, with a quiet and gentle temperament. The villagers privately speculated that this woman must be from a wealthy family, because she never lacked money. She might have come from a wealthy family, but for some reason she came to live alone in this remote and poor village with several servants.

Many people saw that at sunset, she often stood on a cliff on the mountainside, staring at the setting sun, until the last trace of sunset disappeared below the horizon, and then she returned to the house lonely.

She is as beautiful as the beautiful verses recited by a poet in the sunset, and her loneliness is also like poetry, mysterious and profound. In the few words, there seems to be a past that is hard to express.

Since moving to this village, she has seen the sufferings of the villagers, and later she intentionally or unintentionally carried a bamboo basket with a lot of food to give to the villagers.

She was too gentle. Even when giving gifts, she tried hard to maintain the villagers' self-esteem. She would just say that it was something she couldn't finish and asked the villagers to help eat some, or that it was just "by the way". She always acted as if her kindness was unintentional so that the villagers would not remember her kindness.

As time went by, the villagers finally regarded her as a female Bodhisattva-like figure, and everyone in the village, young and old, respected her very much.

The same is true today.

A bamboo basket full of mushrooms and winter bamboo shoots was distributed to several elderly people left behind in the village. It was enough to last for a day or two, and she, as usual, gave it away as if casually.

Mr. Ge was very grateful. He stood up, took the bamboo basket, and expressed his gratitude hurriedly.

The woman stared at the silver ingot in his hand and warned him, "Master Ge, please keep the silver safe. Don't show it to outsiders easily, otherwise it might provoke evil intentions."

Old Master Ge said quickly, "Okay, okay. I'll crush the silver and exchange it for copper coins in the city. I won't let anyone find out."

"That noble man just now was a good man. This ingot of silver saved his life."

The woman finally asked curiously, "Is that noble man an official? Are officials so kind?"

Mr. Ge hesitated for a moment, then smiled bitterly and said, "He shouldn't be a bad person. He's different. I only have this worthless life and an acre of thin land left. What can he want from me?"

The woman then asked, "What does that noble man look like? Can you tell me what his position is?"

The old man shook his head. "I didn't ask. Even if I told him, I wouldn't understand. But he has a lot of followers. He must be an important person. But he is very young, only about twenty years old. It's really strange. Could he have passed the imperial examination and become an official in his twenties? He must be very good at studying."

The woman smiled softly, "I'm afraid Mr. Ge has never left the village. Many people are born into official positions. He must have been born into a very good family."

Old Master Ge smiled and said, "It's all destined. We poor people are just envious. But Mr. Zhao said he can make us live a good life. I don't know whether it's true or not, so let's just take it as it comes."

The woman asked curiously, "Do you know his last name is Zhao?"

"Before leaving, I asked him about it. He said his name was Zhao Xiaoqian. If our lives are not good in the next six months, we can go to Zhending Prefecture and curse in the streets. Haha, he is an interesting official."

The woman's expression froze instantly, her beautiful cheeks flushed unconsciously, her breathing gradually became rapid, she was excited but tried hard to suppress it.

"His...his name is Zhao Xiaoqian?"

"Yes, I remember it clearly."

"He...actually came to Zhending Prefecture to be an official?" The woman's eyes gradually turned red and she murmured like a dream.

…………

It was already evening and the sky was getting dark when Zhao Xiaoqian and his party returned to Zhending Prefecture.

Riding to the government office gate, Zhao Xiaoqian dismounted, threw the reins to Chen Shou, nodded to the guard at the gate, and turned to enter through the side door of the government office. He had gained a lot today. On the second day of his appointment, Zhao Xiaoqian had already formed a general impression of the people's livelihood and customs in Zhending Prefecture.

Only when officials go to the poorest areas can they discover the darkness that the sun does not reach.

The four words "governance of the local area" do not mean that you can benefit the people by sitting in the lobby of the government office and reviewing a few documents, or blindly studying a few so-called policies. Those so-called good policies that are thought up with one's buttocks are nothing but stepping stones for officials to glorify themselves and seek qualifications.

It was only after Zhao Xiaoqian had actually served as an official that he realized how difficult it was to "establish a mission for the people."

He returned to the backyard of the government office exhausted. A constable was waiting outside his room with a strange look on his face. Zhao Xiaoqian didn't pay much attention and waved his hand to let the constable leave.

He took up his post in a hurry and had no time to buy a few maids to serve him. He had to rely on himself for everything, so Zhao Xiaoqian planned to take a hot bath in the big bathtub and then have a good sleep.

Walking into the room where he lived, Zhao Xiaoqian lit the candlestick, but the scene in the room made him gasp.

The silver, as the preparations said, was a "silver mountain". Large boxes piled up all over the room. When the boxes on top were opened, they were all full of silver, in the shape of ingots, silver cakes and silver bars. Silver of various shapes was piled up in the boxes.

Zhao Xiaoqian stood in the room in a daze, still unable to recover from the strong visual impact.

I remember there was this scene in Stephen Chow’s movie "Justice, My Foot" in my previous life. There was also a mountain of silver that blinded Stephen Chow’s eyes.

Only after Zhao Xiaoqian experienced it personally did he realize how strong the visual impact was.

After standing there in a daze for a long time, Zhao Xiaoqian's knees thumped uncontrollably and he knelt facing the silver mountain.

“May God bless me with mountains of gold and silver…” Zhao Xiaoqian muttered to himself as if fulfilling a vow, with a very pious expression.

After paying homage to the Silver Mountain, Zhao Xiaoqian turned around swiftly and bowed again towards the sky outside the door, his expression becoming more pious.

"Thanks for the gift from nature. I am so grateful for it..." Zhao Xiaoqian's voice was a little choked, and he couldn't tell whether he was excited or grateful.

There was silence outside the door at first, but before Zhao Xiaoqian finished speaking, there was a thud outside the door, as if someone had fallen. Then there was the sound of chaotic footsteps, and someone hurriedly ran to the door of the wing room.

"Duke Zhao, Duke Zhao! It's not a gift from nature. No, it's from us!"

At the door of the wing room, several panicked figures appeared. They were none other than Zhang Lan, the commander of the Imperial Guards, Liu Qianliang, the judge of Zhending Prefecture, Wang Shenxian, the magistrate of Zhending Prefecture, Zhou Shen, the director of the Ministry of Justice, Fang Xi, the director of the Ministry of Transportation, Li Zhenglian...

Well, except for Li Qingchen, all the bigwigs in Zhending Prefecture are here.

Zhao Xiaoqian was still kneeling on the ground, waving his hands without raising his eyebrows: "Move aside, I haven't finished worshipping yet."

"Duke Zhao, you are crying at the wrong grave!... Oh, that's not right! I spoke out of turn, please forgive me. In short, this silver is a small token of our appreciation, not a gift from nature." Judge Liu Qianliang said, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

Zhao Xiaoqian glanced at everyone and said unhappily, "Don't talk nonsense. This silver clearly appeared in my house out of thin air. What else could it be but a gift from nature?"

"I've been devoutly worshipping Heaven since I was a child, making a wish every morning and evening, hoping that Heaven will bless me with mountains of gold and silver... Heaven took pity on my sincerity, so it granted me a mountain of silver to fulfill my wish. What does this have to do with you?"

Zhang Lan and others' eyelids twitched.

How could a person be so shameless? He swallowed the money and forgot everyone's kindness. Was such a large sum of money just a waste of money?

(End of this chapter)