Chapter 208: Expelled from the Clan
As Lord Chen's illness became more and more serious, Cui Qingyi's name also spread in the court.
The officials looked at Prime Minister Cui, whose face was full of wrinkles, and felt that he had aged a lot in just a few days.
On the other hand, the Empress Dowager's family, the Zhou family, were all prosperous. Zhou Yanxiu had disagreements with his family's political views, and because of Ming's death, he was so angry that he asked the emperor to demote him to Dongping County and be a small county magistrate.
The Zhou family had long given up on this eldest son and chose to train other younger generations in the family.
But starting last year, Zhou Yanxiu took the lead in carrying out judicial and prison reforms. Wang Xiaoqian, who is now active in various parts of Dajin in spreading the coroner's autopsy techniques, was promoted by him.
This year was even more remarkable. The people under his rule discovered and presented new grain seeds, which was a great contribution.
The Zhou family became angry again.
After the court session ended, Lord Zhou, the Empress Dowager's younger brother, could not wait to go to the harem and complained to her:
"This Yan Xiu is really stubborn. It's fine if he took a small sum of money with him to compile the coroner's notes, but he even took a woman with him to do such a great feat as discovering new grain seeds. He's simply stupid."
Although the title of village lord is not as high as that of county lord or princess lord, she still has a share of credit.
The Queen Mother looked at her brainless brother, slowly breathed a sigh of relief, and then said, "The potato was discovered by someone else, so she deserves half the credit. What do you think?"
Lord Zhou said as a matter of course: "If you know what's good for you, I'll give you some money to get rid of you. If you don't, I'll just deal with you directly. Is there any need to ask?"
As soon as the words fell, the whole palace fell silent, and the palace servants subconsciously slowed down their movements.
The Queen Mother held her forehead with a headache, thinking that there must be something wrong with her ancestral tomb, otherwise how could such a fool appear.
"Don't mess around. Yan Xiu isn't someone who would do such a thing."
At this point, Lord Zhou felt that he was not stupid, so he did not do anything unnecessary. He rolled his eyes and talked about other things: "Yan Xiu will be able to return to the capital in the spring. I think Ming has been gone for many years, so I have selected some noble ladies for Yan Xiu. Please give them your approval, Empress Dowager."
The Queen Mother was furious: "Don't interfere in Yan Xiu's marriage. You know why he left the capital. If you still want this son, don't act on your own. Go back quickly and tell your good wife not to have any bad intentions. Don't think that no one can deal with her because there is no mother-in-law above."
Lord Zhou came with high hopes but left disappointed. Not only was he scolded, but his wife at home was also severely scolded by the nanny sent by the empress dowager.
But he still didn't give up working on Zhou Yanxiu's marriage.
While waiting for the imperial edict to be delivered to Dongping County as quickly as possible, it was almost New Year's Day, and the number of officials guarding the Cui family's house was visibly increasing.
As for the Yuan and Mei families who were causing trouble here, since they could not find out what Cui Qingyi had done to be detained by the county government, they came up with a bad idea. They took people to the Hongyan Teahouse to pick the lock and sell the teahouse. The shopkeeper and others from the Jiang family rushed to stop them, but were beaten by Mei's men.
As soon as this happened, Zhou Wu led his men to arrest Yuan, Mei and their associates and put them in prison.
Mei was still restless in prison and instigated Yuan to make a scene in the prison every day, saying that the government had set its sights on the Hongyan Teahouse and was planning to rob her of her money and kill her.
This woman was so noisy that the jailer couldn't stand it anymore and had to separate the two of them to make things better.
This time, Cui Qingyi received the imperial edict directly at the county government office in Dongping County. When the title of Dongping Township Master was announced, the people watching outside were immediately shocked.
Who could have imagined that their Dongping County would have a village chief personally appointed by the imperial court.
Cui Qingyi looked at the document stamped with the royal seal and signed by the head of the Cui family, and was overwhelmed with emotions. Although the journey was extremely difficult, fortunately the result was not too bad.
The official from the Ministry of Rites who announced the decree said a few more words when handing it to Cui Qingyi, "Village Master, your decree to sever ties with the Cui family will soon spread throughout Qinghe, and you can rest assured.
When the potatoes are planted all over Dajin, you can rest easy for the rest of your life."
For the first time in her life, Cui Qingyi kowtowed to the altar willingly.
The people waiting for the imperial edict were arranged to rest at the post station. Zhou Yanxiu spoke to Cui Qingyi alone. This time, Zhou Yanxiu's attitude towards Cui Qingyi was much calmer.
"From now on, Dongping County will be your fief. With the title of Township Lord, as long as you don't think about doing evil, you can live a peaceful life.
This official is about to return to Beijing to take up his post, so I would like to give the village head a piece of advice: "Rather than letting others manipulate your fate in the future, it is better to settle some things as soon as possible."
Zhou Yanxiu stopped talking at that point, and Cui Qingyi didn't realize what this man meant by his inexplicable words until she walked out the door.
Cui Qingyi sighed in her heart. It seemed that her marriage as the village chief would have to be put on the agenda as soon as possible.
The royal family was not stingy. In addition to the title of Lord of Dongping Township, they also rewarded gold, silver, gold and silver utensils, plaques and houses.
Zhou Yanxiu and the officials from the Ministry of Rites carefully selected a house and finally chose a four-courtyard house near Dongshan Mountain, which was owned by the government. After the officials from the Ministry of Rites cleaned it up, they could move in.
At that time, the Ministry of Rites will also preside over the enthronement ceremony of the Lord of Dongping Township in this house.
Although Cui Qingyi was reluctant to leave her house in Huaihua Lane, now that things had come to this point, she had no other choice but to wait patiently for the Ministry of Rites' arrangements.
.......
Yuan and Mei were finally released from prison, and then they heard that Cui Qingyi had become the head of Dongping Township. Before they could be happy, they learned that she had asked the Emperor to completely separate from Cui.
Now that the imperial edict has been announced to the world, even the head of the Cui family dares not to have any relationship with the village chief.
Yuan Shi was not willing to let such a great opportunity go. She immediately went to Huaihua Lane to make trouble, but was stopped in time by people from the Cui family. "Madam, the master said that if you don't know what's good for you and cause trouble for the village head again, he will give you a letter of divorce and send you back to your parents' home."
Mei often instigated her sister-in-law to get into trouble. When she heard that her sister-in-law was going to be divorced and sent back to her parents' home, she refused to accept it. She hurriedly waved her handkerchief, twisted her waist, and ran away with her people.
Seeing that there was no one she could trust, Yuan reluctantly got on the carriage and returned to Linshui.
Only after returning to Linshui did she realize how big a fuss Cui Qingyi had made. Facing the visitors from Cui's family, Yuan was shaking like she had a stroke. "How dare she? How dare that damn girl?"
Cui Jin and the Cui family thought Yuan was referring to Cui Qingyi's request for an imperial decree to sever ties with the Cui family. But the next second, Yuan screamed at the top of her lungs, "If that good thing were given to Wenxu, my son wouldn't have to worry about his whole life. That damn girl is worse than an animal."
Well, the master's family didn't want to deal with this family of idiots anymore, so they threw down a piece of paper and said, "Master Cui, take care of yourself from now on."
Cui Jin picked up the document and took a look at it, then he was immediately furious. They had been expelled from the clan by the master family.
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