"But how can your uncle guarantee that no one will be greedy or take anything? Even though the full salary has been paid, people are always greedy. I'm afraid not everyone can be selfless and serve the public. For example, today, if... if I were not short of money and could give you the money, it would be just you and me here. If I don't say anything and you don't say anything, then no one will know."
"Master Ruan is right. If Master Ruan gave me some money today, I'm afraid no one would know. But I'm alone, what use is there for the money? It's just a little food and drink. If I use Master Ruan's money today to eat delicious food and drink spicy drinks, I won't have enough money when I want to go back later. If I ask for the tip again, I'm afraid I won't meet someone like Master Ruan who is willing to keep it a secret for me."
Besides, the Qinghe Inspectorate is no pushover. During the years that the Qinghe Earl was in charge of Qinghe, he'd beheaded countless people for corruption and bribery. Even if someone dies, their family still has to pay back the debt. If the family still has some money, it's fine. But if it's all gone, they'll have to pay back the debt by mining at high interest rates. It's easy to get in there, but hard to get out!
"Oh, I see." It seemed that the Earl of Qinghe had indeed made great achievements in the administration of officials. Ruan Shihao replied while casually asking, "You seem quite old, so why are you still alone? Haven't you saved enough money to marry? Do you want me to find you two good-looking and fertile girls when I get back?"
After asking a lot of questions, Ruan Shihao couldn't even come up with a decent gift, which really embarrassed him. In the end, he had to resort to the trick of introducing people. After all, in Taijing City, buying two daughters of people who went bankrupt due to taxation would not cost much money, even if he carefully selected their looks and figures. If it really didn't work out, he could just buy two and send them to them. It would be like he had half of his own people in Qinghe's system.
"Before Shangba County was burned to the ground by your army, I was the postmaster there. At that time, I had parents and children, a virtuous wife, and a clever son. However, your army advanced so swiftly that only I and my daughter escaped the night the city was breached. I'm afraid the rest of us were killed by your army, who then built a Jingguan for us.
"I've been hiding for years, starving, and my daughter died of illness. I was starving in the old forest, so I had no choice but to go down the mountain to fight for my life. Fortunately, the uncle took me in and I became the postmaster of Qinghe."
At this point, the postmaster stopped looking at Ruan Shihao and bowed, "Master Ruan must have more questions, but I'm not feeling well and I'm afraid I can't answer them. But you can come and go freely in the posthouse. If you have any questions, you can go out and ask others."
After saying this, the postmaster bowed again and left without looking back.
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