Reclaiming old skills
As the carriage entered the city, Lu Chang first invited him to stay at his residence for the night.
Although the newly arrived governor could live in the governor's mansion in the city, Yuan Cheng was still new and had not yet reported to the government office, so the formalities were not yet complete and he could not move in.
Jingwan, standing nearby, advised, "Our house is quite large, with many rooms. Lord Yuan, you don't need to be so polite with us."
Lu Chang's bad mood finally improved a lot because of the word "home". He liked that Jingwan treated that place as her home and that she treated him as her family.
Yuan Cheng originally intended to stay at an inn, but after being persuaded by the two men, he agreed instead.
The butler was well-trained and handled the situation with ease, even when the host suddenly brought guests to stay overnight. He led the guests to a private room to rest without daring to neglect them.
Exhausted after returning from Shiyu Town, Jingwan took a bath and sat on the terrace wearing only a long white shirt, while Fangjuan dried her damp hair with a handkerchief.
Beside her was a small stove, on which several oranges were roasting, their delicate fragrance wafting out, refreshing and delightful. She gently stroked Ali's fur, and the tabby cat in her arms squinted comfortably, nestled in her embrace, refusing to move.
Someone went upstairs, but she didn't turn around. She knew it was her cousin from the sound of footsteps.
"It's cold, why didn't you put on another layer?"
Fangjuan went back inside to get her clothes, leaving Lu Chang to dry her hair. He sat behind Jingwan, lifting a strand of hair and wrapping it in a handkerchief.
Fangjuan brought clothes for Jingwan to put on, and then went downstairs sensibly. As long as her mistress was there, she never wanted the maids to disturb her.
No one spoke, not wanting to disturb the peace of the moment. Lu Chang let his long, waist-length hair down and warmed it with the heat of the stove. Jing Wan touched her hair and felt it was mostly dry. Without turning around, she hugged the cat and asked, "Cousin, do you dislike Lord Yuan?"
Lu Chang was combing her hair with a jade comb. There was a knot at the end of her hair. He didn't dare to use brute force and gently untangled it with the comb. Upon hearing this, he stopped what he was doing and asked her why she said that.
"I can feel it. Ever since you met Lord Yuan today, you've looked unhappy, cousin."
Lu Chang raised an eyebrow and continued combing her hair, saying, "I don't dislike Lord Yuan, it's just..."
He didn't say anything more, focusing only on combing her hair. Jingwan insisted that he continue.
The man put down the jade comb and embraced Jingwan from behind. At first, it was just a gentle hug, but it grew tighter and tighter. Finally, he held Jingwan's hands tightly in his own.
Her hands and back felt warm, and Jingwan felt as if she were a silkworm, wrapped in a warm cocoon.
She could feel the warmth of Lu Chang's breath on her cheek. Unwilling to refuse, she leaned against him and heard him say, "I just want the girl I like to have only me in her heart and eyes."
Since meeting Yuan Cheng, she has been preoccupied with most of her attention.
"I'm human too. I get jealous, I get sad. Jingwan, can you feel any of that?"
Jingwan bit her lip, and blush spread from her cheeks to her face.
The next morning, Yuan Cheng had breakfast at the house and then went to the government office with Lu Chang. Thanks to Yuan Cheng, Jing Wan came to see Lu Chang off for the first time.
As they were talking, a maid rushed over and said that Lord Yuan had forgotten something.
She presented a safety amulet with both hands, and Yuan Cheng smiled and said, "I really forgot." He then accepted the amulet, saying, "Thank you!"
She had taken it off while bathing last night and left it aside, but forgot to take it today. The safety buckle was tied to her wrist, and when she saw Yuan Cheng awkwardly tying it with one hand, Jing Wan reached out first: "Let me help you, sir."
She fastened the jade button immediately, then touched it with her hand and asked, "Where did you buy this, sir?"
Yuan Cheng glanced at the safety buckle on his wrist and said gently, "It was a gift from a friend. I wore it because it looked nice."
The sleeve fell down, concealing the safety buckle.
Before leaving, Lu Chang squeezed Jing Wan's hand. Remembering last night, she blushed again as she watched the two of them leave.
Lu Chang and Yuan Cheng had their most frequent interactions in Ye City. At that time, they looked at each other with great scrutiny. They never expected that they would work together today and face each other every day.
Last night, Jingwan asked herself if she disliked Yuancheng. He hadn't lied to her; he didn't dislike Yuancheng.
The eunuchs were a major force behind the downfall of the Lu family. If it weren't for the several military supervisors framing and slandering his father, the late emperor wouldn't have easily become suspicious. The eunuchs were also involved in the massacre of the Lu family army when the natural barrier was cut. But Yuan Cheng is different. He was able to stay by Li Muyun's side for so many years, which was not just because of their master-servant relationship in the palace.
He could always see another side of Yuan Cheng.
Sure enough, on his second day in office, the sound of caning rang out in the government office, and the first person to suffer this punishment was Zhou Tong, the clerk.
Zhou Tong had been drinking last night and was late for his shift. When he arrived at the government office, he bumped into Yuan Cheng, who was on patrol. He staggered and almost bumped into Yuan Cheng.
Yuan Cheng asked Han Chong, the adjutant standing to the side, how to deal with officials who have made mistakes.
Han Chong looked at Zhou Tong lying on the ground and said cautiously, "He should be stripped of his clothes and given twenty strokes of the cane."
"Take him to the main courtyard, and all the officials in the office will go to witness the execution."
Zhou Tong hesitated and did not move: "This..." It's one thing to punish someone with a cane, but to make people watch the punishment is not only hitting someone, but also making them lose face. Isn't that going too far?
Because he entered the palace as a slave at a young age, Yuan Cheng's voice has always been somewhat effeminate. He always liked to show people a gentle smile, and people always felt as if they were bathed in a spring breeze when they saw him. Today, his voice was as peaceful as ever. Observing him and listening to his voice, in the eyes of outsiders, he seemed to be an extremely easy person to talk to.
Han Chong also mistakenly thought so. Just as he was about to speak up for Zhou Tong again, he heard Yuan Cheng say, "As the Prefect, you should be helping me manage the general affairs of a prefecture. But now you have disobeyed my orders. How should you be punished?"
Han Chong was terrified and knelt down to beg for forgiveness, his head pounding loudly.
Yuan Cheng smiled and said, "Go and accept your punishment!"
Lu Chang followed behind, thinking that if Jing Wan were here, she would never have imagined that this was the gentle and humble Lord Yuan she had described.
As a warning to others, on the third day, no one in the government office dared to miss their shift.
After dealing with the minor official, Yuan Cheng focused his attention on Lu Chang and asked, "That day at Shiyu Port, I saw many people carrying soil to build a dike. When I asked, I learned that you were the one who wanted to build a fortification there."
There was nothing to hide. The construction of fortifications in a prefecture required the approval of the prefect. The previous prefect, Shangguan Yi, knew that he was leaving Chaozhou, so he did not make things difficult for Lu Chang and readily agreed. However, he did not forget to tell Lu Chang that the government did not have enough money to build the water city, and Lu Chang's "big project" was bound to be abandoned halfway.
Now that the new governor has arrived, Lu Chang will naturally report this matter again.
He didn't know what Yuan Cheng was planning. If he obstructed the construction of Shiyu Water City, it would be difficult to proceed. This was a project he had planned since he first came to Chaozhou.
Shiyu Port was originally a natural harbor, but it was later built by human intervention. It was first constructed during the Jianyuan era, but due to the poverty of Chaozhou, successive officials did not pay enough attention to this harbor. Although it prospered, it was still not enough.
Lu Chang observed that the coastline was long and straight, and it was located on the west side of Yai Mountain. If a water city could be properly built, this place would surely become a great harbor that would shake the southern region.
To this end, he even invited experienced craftsmen from various places to design the blueprints, putting in a lot of effort.
Yuan Cheng didn't care why he was building it, he only asked him, "Where did the money come from?" He looked through the Chaozhou tax books and found that after the money was handed over to the national treasury, the amount of silver left in the local area was so little that it was almost unbearable to look at.
Lu Chang said, "The government can reduce taxes so that the people can take turns contributing to the construction, which will save a lot of money. If merchants are willing to donate money, they can also get a share of the profits once the water city is built. In addition, the government will also contribute a little money, which can make up for the cost."
Yuan Cheng frowned: "If you reduce taxes, where will the money to be handed over to the imperial court come from?"
Unexpectedly, this handsome young man said with a nonchalant air, "We can only owe it to the imperial court for now!"
Yuan Cheng laughed loudly, "What a fine debt to the court!" He said no more and let Lu Chang show his skills.
In the past, when Shangguan Yi was in charge, he never paid attention to the affairs of the prefecture. When he was in charge, he often made Lu Chang feel tired. When he was in charge of the government in Chaozhou, the old governor Shangguan Yi did not pay attention to the affairs of the prefecture, which often made Lu Chang feel tired.
As the saying goes, "What the superior does, the subordinates follow suit," and the officials below also learned to be perfunctory in their duties. Of all the officials in Chaozhou, only Fang Huai was like him, which made him feel like a lone tree unable to support the whole situation.
But Yuan Cheng was different. Upon arriving in Chaozhou, he immediately rectified the officials and purged corrupt practices. Looking at all these things, even if there were disagreements and disputes over state affairs, it was because of different considerations. He was not making things difficult for himself; on the contrary, he often cooperated with him, intentionally or unintentionally.
Lu Chang had visited his residence in Chaozhou. The residence originally belonged to the old governor, Shangguan Yi. When the man left, he emptied the house completely. When Lu Chang visited again, there were only some tables and chairs inside, and not a single piece of anything luxurious was there.
He was different from Yang Fujin, different from those eunuchs vying for power, and different from the court officials standing under the Mingtang Hall; he was an anomaly.
Lu Chang understood why Li Muyun had been able to keep Yuan Cheng by her side for so many years.
Lingnan is mountainous, and agriculture is not thriving. While coastal areas can develop through fishing, the Lingnan region lacks fertile land, leaving the people unemployed and forced to pay taxes, leaving them with no choice but to retreat into the mountains as bandits. Therefore, Yuan Cheng and Lu Chang ventured deep into the mountains several times.
The mountain people were still practicing slash-and-burn agriculture, and their technology was backward. Their production speed and results were far inferior to those of the people in the Central Plains.
That's not all. To cultivate the She fields, the mountain people have been cutting down forests in large quantities and burning the remaining branches. Wild animals in the mountains are homeless, and there have been several incidents of tigers coming down from the mountains to eat people. Startled deer run and look around, pheasants cry out. Once deep in the mountains, one sees a scene of smoke filling the sky.
Moreover, not all forests are suitable for slash-and-burn agriculture. The southern part of Chaozhou is somewhat better, but the northern part is mostly low-lying, with large areas of dense forest and swamps, breeding mosquitoes and other insects, making it uninhabitable. Wild animals are secondary; the most important issue is the pervasive miasma, which is incurable once inhaled.
Even though he had been in Lingnan for almost a year, Lu Chang had never seen the miasma that made people pale at the mere mention of it. This was because the locals were experienced and familiar with the local conditions, and they would never easily live in a place teeming with miasma, let alone venture into it.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
