"What? The county magistrate!!!" Meng Zhao's eyes widened, his face full of disbelief, and his voice unconsciously rose a few decibels.
Wu Rongzhou nodded. "Yes, although this new county magistrate doesn't often give us speeches, I've seen him a few times from afar in the county and I'm sure I'm not mistaken. When I saw you greeting them just now, I was really startled."
Meng Zhao thought to herself, no wonder she felt a sense of familiarity after Song Wanyin introduced herself when they first met. It turned out that Wang Xian was the unfortunate magistrate of Qingshi County.
In the original book, after Shen Qinghe successfully rose to power through numerous hardships, he launched a large-scale anti-corruption campaign under the pretext of institutional reform. The first place he went to was Dongyang County, which immediately caused a huge uproar. Wang Xian was one of the people implicated in this storm and was sentenced to the maximum penalty of exile by Shen Qinghe for lax governance.
After Wang Xian was imprisoned, his wife was devastated and fell seriously ill. She then resolutely dragged her ailing body to accompany her husband on the road to exile, and they both died on the way.
It wasn't until Shen Qinghe became the Grand Secretary and defeated Song Tongsheng, the Minister of Personnel who had been his adversary for many years, that he learned from him that the two not only had political differences, but also had Song Wanyin as a reason.
The book only says that Shen Qinghe killed Song Tongsheng's beloved daughter, and Meng Zhao never expected that it was actually Song Wanyin.
Meng Zhao's thoughts lingered in his mind for a long time. When he came back to his senses, he saw Wu Rongzhou's hesitant expression and immediately said with a smile, "I really have to thank Brother Wu for telling me about this. Otherwise, if I had said something I shouldn't have without knowing the truth, I would have been in big trouble."
Wu Rongzhou was initially a little uneasy, worried that Meng Zhao would think he was meddling. But seeing that she didn't blame him at all and instead looked grateful, his heart immediately settled down: "Alright, then I'll go back first, lest the braised meat get cold. If Madam Meng needs any help, feel free to come and find me anytime."
Meng Zhao smiled slightly, revealing a genuine smile, and saw Wu Rongzhou out the door.
With so many people in the shop, Meng Zhao couldn't afford to think any further. He shook his head and went back to his work.
It wasn't until the sun slowly set, and the shop was almost sold out and the crowd thinned out, that Meng Zhao finally had time to recall the events of the day.
At first, she was a little worried that she might have said something inappropriate. She carefully recalled what had happened since she met Song Wanyin and found that their interactions mostly revolved around food and rarely involved anything else, which put her at ease.
Then he remembered Song Wanyin's identity. At this time, Shen Qing was still more than ten years away from becoming the Grand Secretary, and Song Wanyin's father was naturally not the Minister of Personnel.
However, regardless of the circumstances, given Meng Zhao's current social status, neither Song Wanyin's father nor Magistrate Wang Xian are people she can meet whenever she wants.
However, Meng Zhao was not discouraged by this. On the contrary, a different emotion quietly grew in her heart, which was a secret joy.
Ultimately, she was just an ordinary person. She had been living in fear ever since the incident at the docks, afraid that she would be in trouble again. She never expected that she would have such a hidden connection.
She didn't intend to use her connections to seek personal gain; she just felt that having this channel to speak would at least prevent her from being completely clueless and unsure of who to turn to if she encountered any injustices in the future. This made her even happier.
As soon as Shen Qinghe finished her work and stepped into the front yard, she saw Meng Zhao sitting alone in front of the counter, grinning foolishly. She seemed to be immersed in her own world, completely unaware of everything around her. Shen Qinghe was filled with doubt and couldn't help but raise her voice and call out, "Sister-in-law, what's wrong?"
Meng Zhao snapped back to reality and, upon seeing Shen Qing, suddenly remembered that in the book, it was Shen Qing who had caused the deaths of Song Wanyin and Wang Xian. This time, she had to stop her and not let it affect her business.
"Oh? I'm fine. Business is just good today, so I'm happy."
Shen Qinghe didn't press further, but simply nodded. "Sister-in-law, the backyard is all tidied up. Is there anything else you'd like to say?"
By this time, the others had also finished their work and came to the front yard, thinking that Meng Zhao would have to say something on the first day.
Meng Zhao glanced around at everyone and saw that they all looked tired, so she said directly, "I don't have much to say. Everyone did a great job today. Everyone should go back and rest early. We'll probably be busy tomorrow and the day after, but after we're done, I'll give you all some perks."
The exhausted group's eyes lit up instantly upon hearing about the perks, and they cheered excitedly, saying they would definitely work hard from now on.
After seeing them all off happily, Meng Zhao realized that he hadn't seen Song Kun.
"Second brother, where's Song Kun? I haven't seen him since. I was planning to treat him to something delicious."
As she spoke, a slight smile appeared on her lips, and the image of Song Kun and Shen Qing holding up a banner came to mind.
"Song Kun is right. The two of you holding up the banner really attracted a lot of people to our store. That's a great achievement."
Shen Qinghe chuckled softly, seemingly remembering something, and said, "When we came back just now, we ran into his family. They seemed to have something urgent to discuss with him, so they took him back directly. If you want to invite him to dinner, you'll probably have to wait a while. He'll probably be quite busy during this period."
Meng Zhao didn't know what had happened, but since she was going home with her family, she figured nothing would go wrong, so she relaxed.
Then he put out all the fires that needed to be put out, closed all the doors that needed to be closed, and had Shen Qinghe drive the donkey cart to take her and Xiao Chuan away from the shop.
They discussed tomorrow's plans on the way. Shen Qinghe had only taken one day off, but the lion dance team would be coming for three days, so they would have to find someone else to hold the banner. Xiao Chuan said he could do it, but there would probably be delivery orders tomorrow, so Meng Zhao didn't agree.
"Don't worry, sister-in-law. I've already talked to two older kids in the neighborhood. They'll bring some people over tomorrow to hold up a banner. All you need to do is treat them to a meal."
Seeing that the matter was resolved, Meng Zhao was no longer worried.
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