After the spiritual energy was restored: Goddess girlfriends came knocking.

In the days that followed, Lin Chu had a rare period of leisure.

Soon, the imperial edict of commendation arrived.

The imperial guard who delivered the decree was surnamed Cao. He had served the emperor for over twenty years and had seen many different situations.

But when he stood in the main hall of the Yunzhou government office and unfolded the imperial edict, his voice rose a few decibels halfway through reading it.

"...Lin Chu, the prefect of Yunzhou, is a man of both talent and virtue, diligent in his duties and loving towards the people. When the flood raged, he personally went to the perilous place, and his skillful management saved countless lives. He is hereby granted the title of Marquis of Anji, with a fief of three thousand households, which shall be hereditary and never be replaced. This is the imperial decree."

Marquis Anji.

The Great Zhou Dynasty has not conferred titles upon non-royal individuals for a very long time.

The last time a foreign official was granted a title for meritorious service was three dynasties ago.

When the news spread, the entire Yunzhou was in an uproar.

The entrance to the government office was crowded with people who came to offer their congratulations, and Meng Wenbin couldn't stop smiling.

Lin Chu received the imperial decree, but his expression remained calm. He went to the back hall to review official documents as usual.

Cao, the imperial guard, observed this and reported to the emperor upon returning to the capital that Marquis Anji had received the imperial decree, appeared calm, and immediately went to handle state affairs.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Shiyan couldn't help but exclaim, "Minister Lin is truly a national treasure."

The news of the conferment of the title of Marquis spread like wildfire throughout the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Even the common people in those remote prefectures and counties who didn't care much about politics began to know that there was a Marquis of Anji in Yunzhou.

The storyteller in the teahouse turned Lin Chu's story of flood control and disaster relief into a new tale. When he told the part about Lin Chu falling ill in the disaster area, everyone in the audience was deeply moved.

In Yunzhou, the title "Marquis Anji" was no longer an official title; it referred to the emperor.

When Lin Chu first arrived in Yunzhou, those powerful families who had dominated the area for hundreds of years had secretly competed with him.

The Liu family's land was confiscated, the Ye family's second son was imprisoned, and the He family donated money to bring peace back.

At that time, they still harbored some resentment.

No matter how capable you, Lin Chu, are, you're still an outsider with shallow roots. Sooner or later, things will fall apart.

Nobody thinks that way anymore.

Less than half a month after the imperial decree conferring the title of marquis was issued, the heads of more than a dozen prominent families, large and small, in Yunzhou all personally paid a visit to the emperor.

They're not here to give gifts, they're here to make a statement.

Upon seeing him, Lin Chuyi drank some tea, exchanged a few polite words, and after seeing him off, leaned back in her chair and rubbed her temples.

"What's wrong?" Zhou Caiwei brought in a cup of hot tea and placed it beside him.

"It's nothing." Lin Chu took the teacup. "It's just that I used to put in a lot of effort when I was fighting with them, but now it's better that I don't have to fight anymore. That's more effective than anything else."

Zhou Caiwei sat down opposite him and casually remarked, "This is the power of public opinion."

Lin Chu nodded.

In the days that followed, stories about Lin Chu spread far and wide.

Many people began to be curious about his past, and the most discussed topic was that Marquis Anji was almost thirty years old and still had not gotten married.

The people of Yunzhou have been curious for a long time about why Marquis Anji did not marry.

Several years ago, some people tried to match them up.

The Liu family sent someone to express their desire to marry one of their daughters to Lin Chugang as his principal wife in the second year after Lin Chugang arrived in Yunzhou.

He adopted an extremely humble posture, saying that he dared not presume to presume upon the position, and only hoped that the Marquis would not find him disrespectful.

Lin Chu declined.

Later, the He family also tried to reach out, even saying they didn't care about wives or concubines, as long as the marriage could be arranged, but Lin Chu still politely declined.

Later everyone realized that the young lord had no such intention at all.

Some guessed he had high aspirations, some guessed he wanted to wait until he went to the capital before making any decisions, and others guessed he might have some hidden illness.

No matter how much they guessed, no one could figure it out.

Until one day, a message came out from somewhere.

It is said that Anji Hou Linchu was born in Qinghe Village. He lost both his parents at a young age and was adopted by an old scholar.

The family was dirt poor, not even considered poor.

But he had a childhood sweetheart; the two grew up together and depended on each other for survival.

Later, Lin Chu passed the imperial examinations and rose through the ranks from a student to a scholar, then to a provincial graduate, and finally to the top scholar. Meanwhile, the girl followed an immortal and went to cultivate immortality.

From then on, the mortal and immortal realms were separated, but Lin Chu refused to remarry and kept waiting for her to return.

It's unclear who first uttered these words, but they spread extremely quickly.

It spread from Yunzhou to Jinzhou, from Jinzhou to the capital, and from the capital throughout the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Storytellers embellished the stories, scholars wrote them into novels, and even blind street singers could play a tune on the sanxian called "The Marquis of Anji Waits for His Fairy Wife".

Some stories even say that the girl was a goddess from the heavens who descended to earth to teach Lin Chu to read and write, and that after he became the top scholar in the imperial examination, he was taken back to the heavenly palace by heavenly soldiers and generals.

Lin Chu once overheard this story in a teahouse and was left speechless, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Zhou Caiwei sat beside her, listening with great interest, and even commented, "This version of the Nine-Point Mystic Maiden is better written than the Dragon Maiden's version; it's more emotionally resonant."

Lin Chu glared at her, but she pretended not to see it.

The story spread far and wide, eventually reaching the backyard of the government office.

That evening, Lin Chu was reviewing official documents in his study when two maids came in to bring tea and snacks.

These two maids had been working in the government office for several years and knew that Lin Chu was usually kind and generous to his servants, so they were not too reserved in their speech.

"Master," the younger one put down the teapot, hesitated for a moment, but couldn't help but ask, "Are all the stories in those novels true?"

Lin Chu looked up: "What storybook?"

"It's about the fairy you're waiting for," another maid chimed in, her eyes sparkling with curiosity. "She said that girl was a fairy, your childhood sweetheart, and was later taken back to heaven."

Lin Chu chuckled, rolled up the book in her hand, and tapped each person on the head.

"Those are all fabricated and exaggerated; very little of it is true."

"Then, sir, why haven't you married yet?" The two maids covered their heads, blinking at him with undiminished curiosity.

Lin Chu put the book back on the table and leaned back in her chair.

The sunset glow outside the window was spreading over the courtyard wall, and the locust tree in the yard had grown much taller, its branches swaying gently in the wind.

He was silent for a moment, then the corners of his mouth curved into a smile.

"Because—a very foolish woman fell asleep."

The two maids were taken aback: "Asleep?"

"Mmm." Lin Chu picked up her teacup, her voice soft. "I'm waiting for her to wake up."

As he said this, his gaze passed over the teacup and lingered for a moment on the branches and leaves of the locust tree outside the window.

A very light footstep came from under the corridor and then stopped.

After a moment, they walked away again.

Lin Chu did not turn around.

He knew who it was.

Zhou Caiwei walked quickly through the corridor and stopped in the back garden.

She stood under the old plum tree, looking up at the sky filtering through the branches, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled.

She already knew.

Several years ago, she had her father thoroughly investigate Lin Chu's background—an orphan adopted by the Chen family in Qinghe Village, with a girl named Cang Yao by his side. The two were childhood sweethearts, but later the girl disappeared without a trace, supposedly taken away by people from the immortal sect.

Zhou Tingfu's letter was brief, but Zhou Caiwei was not stupid.

She pieced together the clues from all those years and understood everything.

She even knew that every time Lin Chu returned to Qinghe Village, she would sit by the stream for a long time.

She also knew that Lin Chu looked at her no differently than she looked at anyone else—gentle, polite, and courteous, never lingering for even a second longer.

But she still came.

She pleaded with her father for half a year, saying she wanted to go to Yunzhou for training.

Zhou Tingfu went from shaking his head at the beginning, to remaining silent, to finally sighing and nodding.

"You may not get what you want even if you go." These were the only words Zhou Tingfu said before he left.

Zhou Caiwei smiled and said, "Dad, I don't want anything, I just want to be closer to him."

"But," Zhou Caiwei whispered to the old locust tree, "I'm still a little sad."

After saying that, he laughed first, shook his head, swallowed the bitterness back, and said, "Never mind, just a little bit."

At the other end of the corridor, Yu Qian walked by carrying a stack of official documents and saw Zhou Caiwei standing under the plum tree in the distance.

He paused, glanced at Zhou Caiwei, then looked in the direction of the study, before lowering his head and continuing to walk forward.

Yu Qian is now twenty-two years old, no longer the boy who used to sit in a daze at the entrance of the Shigou County Government Office.

He has followed Lin Chu for almost ten years, rising step by step from gatekeeper to clerk to now head of the Yunzhou Prefecture.

Lin Chu said he was smart, diligent, and insightful, and later discovered that he also had a talent for cultivation... Yes, his talent in Confucianism and Taoism was higher than that of many students who were formally taught in academies.

But Yu Qian is still the same Yu Qian.

Every morning, he is the first to arrive at the study, where he sorts and arranges the official documents, grinds the ink, and brews the tea.

Lin Chu said to go east, not west; Lin Chu said to check which account book, he would move that account book.

To outsiders he was the head of the government office, but internally he was still Lin Chu's errand boy.

As he walked through the corridor, he suddenly realized something.

When you're young, you shouldn't meet people who are too amazing.

Once you meet them, your standards for this lifetime are set.

I didn't learn it from myself, but from Zhou Caiwei.