Chapter 527 "He's a good official!"
(Thanks to Bilu Dinggongteng for casting 3 monthly votes.)
Niu Sangeng frowned: "It's almost New Year's, and you..."
"We're just registering now. They say we'll officially start working after the Lantern Festival next year."
Lu Erniang put down her porridge bowl and looked at Niu Sangeng with hopeful eyes, "Thirty copper coins a day!"
That adds up to nine hundred a month, almost equal to your monthly salary.
If we save up for a few months, we'll have some savings. That way, if I get pregnant in the future, we'll have more money to live on."
Looking at the expectation in Lü Erniang's eyes, Niu Sangeng couldn't bear to refuse.
He nodded gently: "Go if you want to."
But... if you don't want to do it anymore, just come back.
Lu Erniang happily agreed to Niu Sangeng's words and then lowered her head to eat her porridge again.
Niu Sangeng, however, looked at the bowl in his hand, his thoughts drifting back to that day—after Huang Wanchang was beheaded, it was he and Suozi who went to collect the body.
According to custom, those who collect corpses will touch the body; don't say that things on a dead person are unlucky.
Huang Wanchang was the prefect before he died. Before Li Shiyue arrived, he was the highest-ranking official in Jian'an!
He was dressed in the finest clothes; the shoes Huang Wanchang was wearing alone were worth more than ten taels of silver.
Even if a person is dead and beheaded, their clothes, shoes, and socks can still be good after washing, right?
This is all extra income for the jailers who are in charge of collecting corpses.
While cleaning Huang Wanchang's body, Niu Sangeng noticed that there wasn't much left on the soles of Huang Wanchang's shoes. He actually found a piece of silk cloth folded into a square no bigger than two finger joints inside the soles of Huang Wanchang's shoes.
He immediately put away the silk cloth, and only dared to unfold it when no one was around. The silk cloth was covered with writing!
Niu Sangeng was illiterate, but he knew in his heart that anything Huang Wanchang could hide in the sole of his shoe must be extremely important.
This thing is extraordinary!
So he folded the silk cloth again and hid it away.
"Honey? What are you daydreaming about? Eat up, it's getting cold."
Lu Erniang's voice pulled Niu Sangeng back to reality.
"Second Aunt," Niu Sangeng put down his porridge bowl, hesitated for a moment, and then asked Lü Erniang, "What do you think of... General Li...?"
Without hesitation, Lü Erniang replied, "He's a good official! Need I say more?"
Before she came, our family was almost unable to afford rice.
She's only been here a few days?
The price of grain in Jian'an City has dropped by 30%!
Moreover, he even said he was going to recruit workers. Isn't a job that can earn money for people a good official?
"I'm afraid there will never be another official as good as her."
Lu Erniang leaned forward, lowered her voice, and whispered to Niu San, "Aunt Wang and the others all say that although General Li likes to chop off people's heads, those who are beheaded are all bad officials, traitors who have surrendered to the enemy!"
She was genuinely good to us ordinary people.
We can't possibly defect to the enemy; the general won't cut off our heads.
Niu Sangeng nodded thoughtfully.
He remembered what Zhu Zi had said in the prison cell earlier that day: the Xuanjia Army had meat to eat every meal, and the soldiers guarding the city could get boiled chicken if they were on night watch.
Such treatment was unprecedented among the garrison troops of Jian'an City in the past.
Night had fallen, and Niu Sangeng and Lü Erniang had finished their dinner and were cleaning up the dishes, preparing to rest.
Lying in bed, Niu Sangeng tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
The piece of silk cloth he had hidden under the bed, in the crack between the bricks, was like a red-hot coal, making him feel so hot that he couldn't sleep at all.
"Second Aunt? Are you asleep?"
Niu Sangeng asked softly in the darkness.
Lu Erniang turned over and looked at Niu Sangeng. Even in the darkness, Niu Sangeng could feel Lu Erniang's gaze.
"Honey, what's wrong?"
"if......"
"It's okay, go to sleep."
Niu Sangeng ultimately said nothing.
Lu Erniang seemed to want to ask something more, but in the end she only gave a soft "hmm" and then fell silent.
The next morning, Niu San woke up earlier than usual.
He quietly dressed and got out of bed, not wanting to wake Lü Erniang who was still fast asleep.
In the kitchen, he washed his face with the water left over from the pot last night, added some water, and then added a thick piece of firewood to the stove before going out.
The snowstorm has stopped.
Winter days in Jian'an are always short and nights are long.
Although it was still dark, people were already walking around in the alley.
Hardworking people get up very early at this hour, all for the sake of their family's livelihood, right?
Niu Sangeng walked towards Jian'an Prison. When he was still a street away from the prison, he saw a large crowd gathered at the entrance of the government office.
He saw several Xuanjia soldiers posting new notices, and a large number of civilians had gathered around to watch.
Niu Sangeng wasn't one to join in the fun. He only glanced at it and then stopped looking, focusing on heading towards the prison behind the government office.
However, he had barely stepped into the cell when he heard people talking inside.
"Is it past midnight?"
A jailer who was familiar with Niu Sangeng greeted him and urged him to come and eat the millet porridge sent from the kitchen.
As Niu Sangeng was drinking his warm millet porridge, he heard Zhu Zi say, "Hey, have you heard?"
That's just how Zhu Zi is; he always likes to say only half of what he means.
"Pillar, hurry up and tell us! None of us are as well-informed as you!"
After someone praised him, Zhu Zi wiped his mouth and said to the crowd, "Before you came, didn't you see a lot of people gathered at the entrance of the government office?"
"I saw it."
What? You mean about hiring?
Or should we send someone to repair the Zhao family mansion?
Zhu Zi waved his hand, looking at him with a "you're wrong, how come you don't know anything" expression.
He amused people so much that some who couldn't stand Zhu Zi's haughtiness would laugh and give him a pat on the shoulder.
After getting his hands on Qiao, Zhu Zi finally spoke to the jailers: "The recruitment was all yesterday. The notice posted this morning said that we are going to investigate all the wrongful convictions in the city!"
He also said that if anyone had a grievance, they should go to the government office and find Judge Zhou!
Niu Sangeng was startled.
"And there's more!"
Zhu Zi continued excitedly, "General Li also said that in the next couple of days before the New Year, we should count the prisoners in the jail and kill those who can be beheaded as soon as possible, so as not to leave too many to freeload."
This is relevant to us. If fewer people live here, things will be easier for us, right?
Zhu Zi's words were enthusiastically echoed by the guards, who all started talking about which prisoner in which cell was a troublemaker, how annoying they were, and how they should have been killed long ago.
Niu Sangeng, who was drinking his porridge with his head down, couldn't taste the porridge in his mouth at that moment. He remembered the piece of silk cloth that he had hidden away.
Niu Sangeng silently said to himself, "Wait a little longer, let's see..."
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