The great-grandfather they mentioned was someone the original owner had never met in her previous life. By the time she returned, he had already passed away.
Li Shi had told Xu Keke about this person. This person was Chen Zikang's grandfather, named Chen Hui.
He had passed the imperial examinations and served as a county magistrate. During his tenure, he amassed some wealth. Because of his unseemly corruption, he offended his superiors. Knowing the consequences, he left a letter and returned to his hometown with his family.
Others return to their hometowns to live a peaceful and prosperous life.
He, however, built a grand ancestral hall and continued the family genealogy. It's unclear how he traced it back, but he managed to include a famous general surnamed Chen, recorded in the county annals, into the Chen family genealogy.
The Chen family's newly built ancestral hall had a plaque written by a highly respected elder. It was renamed the Hall of Loyalty and Righteousness.
Ultimately, secrets don't stay hidden forever, and news of his scandals during his tenure eventually reached us.
But by this time, he had already taken the lead in contacting more than a dozen local gentry to repair bridges and pave roads, and also built several schools.
Some of these schools were for the wealthy and charged extremely high fees. They also established the first girls' school in the area.
What makes him most admirable is that he also established a school for poor children, charging absolutely no tuition. He didn't even charge for books or writing materials. Anyone who wanted to attend could go. The school covered all of his expenses.
There was only one problem: after receiving the lowest grade several times in a row, he was forbidden from going again. Even so, the poor families were very grateful to him.
"A great philanthropist" is not enough to express their respect for him. People from all around call him Mr. Chen. "Whenever there's something to discuss, Mr. Chen always brings it up," they say.
So when those stories came out, nobody believed them. Quite a few people volunteered to defend him.
The Li family knew this because one of their uncles was his classmate. When Chen Hui fled back from his post, he used the Li family's merchant ship.
Later, when the new government was reorganized, it needed some influential local figures to bolster its image. So, Chen Hui was invited to the city to serve as a government advisor.
As an advisor, he was highly respected by government officials, who would often use his car to take him to the Executive Yuan to hear his opinions on current affairs.
But the meager allowance they received was barely enough to feed the family to the second tier of the meal. They had neither money nor power.
Li Shi said at the time that if he were Chen Hui, he would definitely regret leaving his hometown. Because besides gaining a hollow reputation, he had no real benefits.
Chen Ming disagreed, believing that given what Mr. Chen had done, he must be enjoying his current life very much.
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