With Lou Yunchun's reinstatement, the situation in the court changed abruptly.
The emperor ordered a retrial and re-investigation of the imperial examination cheating case and asked the Censorate to transfer all the files to the Dali Temple for a new investigation.
The flood case was reexamined by the Ministry of Justice.
The Minister of Justice was ready to take action. In recent days, many officials in the Ministry of Justice had been demoted due to the investigation of old cases. Now that this case fell into his hands, he could finally vent his anger.
Minister Kou was the highest-ranking official among the aristocratic family, second only to the three masters. Now he has been stripped of his power to seal and reject documents. He no longer has the right to interfere with the memorials submitted by various departments and the imperial edicts issued by the emperor.
The various ministries and departments were no longer restricted, and memorials impeaching the Ministry of Personnel and the Censorate rushed onto the emperor's desk like a flood.
The saint was knocked dizzy and drank ginseng tea for several days to replenish his energy, but he drank too much and started bleeding from his nose.
Lou Yunchun re-investigated the fraud case and went into Wanjuanlou to detain Zhao Xiu, but Zhao Xiu disappeared without a trace. The Dali Temple went to the sea to arrest the clerk and put up a notice to search for him.
However, Wanjuanlou did not close down due to Zhao Xiu's disappearance, but was taken over by the Zhou family again, and the owner became Zhou Huai, the former Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.
Although Zhou Huai was dismissed from his post, he had a deep foundation in the capital, which was not comparable to Zhao Xiu. In his hands, the "Jishu League" quickly evolved into the second bookstore.
Outsiders could only glimpse the internal struggle between the Zhou family and Zhao Xiu through the changes in the shopkeepers of Wanjuanlou. To outsiders, the shopkeepers of Wanjuanlou were not important; all they wanted was money.
The cicada pond in the court is boiling with soup, and the summer in the bookstore is long and lingering.
Half a cup of tea, a wisp of fragrant mist, filling the air with coolness.
Liang Mo and his master were printing in the backyard, while Xu Jiang was binding the books in the front. Her newly approved printing documents had already been issued, and most of them had been published.
In addition, because other bookstores were banned from publishing books by the Jishu League, they found Xu Jiang through Wu Qingchuang and Dan Si, and wanted to communicate with her and put her new books on the shelves, so that the new books were sold out.
She had no choice but to sell a lot of the second and third editions of the previously printed volume, including the two copies Liang Mo had engraved himself.
Seeing that they were too busy to handle the work, Liang Mo asked his master to come and help. Other bookstores took the printed paper back and bound the books themselves, while Wu Qingchuang and Dan Si rented the plates and took them back to print the books themselves.
This allowed Xu Jiang to breathe a sigh of relief.
She had finished binding a book and was about to get up to refill her tea when a voice rang out from outside the shop, "Is Madam Xu here?"
Xu Jiang went out to greet her, only to find that it was Mulan Jing's personal maid.
When the maid saw Xu Jiang coming out, she handed her a letter and bowed to her, saying, "Madam Xu, our mistress and daughter are about to leave for Gusu. Since it is inconvenient for us to personally go to your house to say goodbye, I am asking you to do so on their behalf."
"When are we leaving?"
"Right away." The maid glanced towards the alley entrance and saw two carriages parked there.
Xu Jiang was about to step forward when the maid stopped her. "Madam said that you don't need to see me off. She is ashamed to see you. She just hopes you take care of yourself."
After saying this, he bowed to Xu Jiang again and left in a hurry.
Xu Jiang held the letter and stared at the carriage. Someone in the carriage opened the curtain and waved at her. It was Mulan Jing.
Her heart ached and she raised her hand and waved to the people in the carriage.
After this farewell, I don’t know if we will meet again.
The carriage drove out of Huailiu Lane and headed towards Jinguang Gate.
On the official road outside the city, a speeding carriage kicked up dust that flew into the faces of three ragged men. One of them cursed, "Running so fast, are you running for your life?"
He dusted himself off and gave a fierce kick to the even more shabby man beside him, "You tactless bastard, why don't you block it for me?"
The person who was kicked was Xu Twelve. Xu Twelve was so hungry that he could not stand steadily. He was kicked to the ground and could not get up for a while.
The man kicked him again and said, "Get up! Stop pretending to be dead! I spent fifteen taels of silver to redeem you. If you die before I find that bastard, I'll feed your bones to the dogs!"
Xu Twelve grabbed the man's feet and begged, "Fourth Master, please give me something to eat. If you don't eat, I will starve to death."
The other man frowned, "Fourth brother, give him half a Hu pancake. He's really starving to death. Who will take us to find Xu Jiang?"
After saying that, he looked ahead again. At the end of the winding official road, a capital city stood proudly among the surrounding villages like a moon surrounded by stars.
"We'll be in the capital soon, so we don't need a bite to eat."
Xu Si took out a Hu pancake from his arms, tore off half of it and threw it in front of Xu Twelve. Xu Twelve grabbed it and stuffed it into his mouth without caring whether the Hu pancake was covered in dust or not.
He tore the remaining half into two and shared five portions with his comrades.
"This capital city is great. Look at each village and each township, they are as big as our county." Xu Si looked at the rows of houses and then at the majestic capital city, as if he was looking at a mountain of gold.
He kicked Xu Twelve again and asked, "Did you say that bastard really open a bookshop in the capital and make a lot of money?"
Xu Twelve was choked by the Hu Bing and was speechless. After a long while, he nodded and said, "Absolutely true."
Xu Si said bitterly, "A bastard is a bastard. She has a tough life. No wonder she killed her master."
The three men came all the way from Qianzhong, selling donkeys and clothes. If Xu Twelve had not been useful to them, they would have sold him as well, and only then did they manage to make it to the capital.
The fact that she, a woman, could walk to the capital and open a bookstore must have been due to her luck and the money that Xu Yuan left for her.
Xu Yuan is a member of the Xu family. His money is the Xu family's money, and the Xu family's money is their money. Why should she, a bastard, take it all for herself?
When he finds her, he will make her hand over all her money.
Thinking that a lot of silver was about to jump into his pocket, Xu Si couldn't contain his excitement. He saw Xu Twelve still sitting on the ground. Just as he was about to lift his foot, Xu Twelve nimbly got up from the ground.
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