"Lord Lu, I met a girl today while having dinner with Wei Du and Zheng Ying."
"She bears eight points of resemblance to an old friend of mine. I cannot believe such a coincidence exists in this world."
"How about Mr. Lu help me analyze what these two good ministers of mine are trying to do?"
After hearing Li Chengfeng's words, Lu Wen opened his eyes wide in disbelief: "How dare they plot against Your Majesty like this?"
As he finished speaking, he suddenly realized Li Chengfeng's identity and quickly lowered his head and knelt, saying, "This humble official has overstepped his bounds."
Li Chengfeng didn't care about this. He just saw Lu Wen's expression and thought to himself, "As expected."
Thinking of this, he shouted to the iron pillar outside the door: "Call Zhao Sheng."
A "yes" came from outside the door, followed by the sound of footsteps walking away.
Not long after, Zhao Sheng came to report.
The door opened and closed again. Li Chengfeng told Tiezhu that no one was allowed to approach the study without his permission.
Inside the room, Li Chengfeng sat on the armchair and said to Zhao Sheng, "Tell Lord Lu what you found today."
Zhao Sheng bowed to Lu Wen and said, "Today, without Lord Lu's permission, I have arbitrarily checked the correspondence between him and other officials in Jiangnan Prefecture."
"Then I followed the lead and found the residences of these gentlemen, and also looked through their studies."
"These are all my harvests today. Please review them, Your Majesty."
Looking at the stationery, account books, and other items on the table, Li Chengfeng said to Lu Wen with interest, "Master Lu, would you like to take a look together?"
As he said this, he threw the letters in front of Lu Wen.
He opened the letters with trembling hands. Although he knew that their local people were definitely plotting against him, when these ugly plans appeared so clearly before his eyes, Lu Wen still couldn't control his anger.
He suppressed his anger and disgust and read all the letters. Then he knelt down and said to Li Chengfeng, "Your Majesty, please save me and my family!"
Li Chengfeng finally confirmed that Lu Wen was wronged and that he was carrying a pressure that ordinary people could hardly bear.
"Stand up and answer. Tell us everything you know or have personally participated in."
"Yes." Lu Wen stood in front of Li Chengfeng and began to tell his story.
Lu Wen came from a poor family, but he was smart and studied hard since he was young.
His parents used all their resources to support him in his studies and imperial examinations.
Until he successfully arrived in the capital and prepared to take part in the imperial examination that year.
After he arrived in the capital, he had very little money left and could only stay in the worst inn. He even had to write letters, poems and paint for others to earn some living expenses.
After a while, his calligraphy and paintings became famous and attracted the attention of a high-ranking official in the capital, who wanted to take him in as his disciple.
Anyone who can enter Beijing to take the imperial examination is a learned man, so it is very difficult to stand out from them.
But if there are officials in the court paving the way, then it will be a different situation.
Not all officials in the court started forming cliques and engaging in personal gain after becoming officials. They began selecting suitable students from the moment the candidates arrived in Beijing.
Then train them and wait for them to take the exam.
Those who passed the exam would become helpers in official circles, and those who failed could be recruited into the government as staff.
It is more reassuring to trust the close friends who are personally trained.
The adult who wanted to be Lu Wen's teacher sent someone to bring Lu Wen into the mansion and began to train him.
Lu Wen also cherished this opportunity. Except when he was reviewing on his own, he would study with the adult whenever he was free.
However, as time went on, he discovered that many of the things this so-called teacher did were wrong in his opinion.
However, his words were of little influence, and he was grateful for the teacher's cultivation, so he could not disobey the teacher. He could only think about staying away from this teacher after taking the exam.
Fortunately, Lu Wen passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi, but his ranking was not high.
He observed government affairs in various ministries and government offices in the capital for a year before being assigned by the Ministry of Personnel to Zezhou to serve as the magistrate of a county under its jurisdiction.
Lu Wen was very happy that he became an official so smoothly. He couldn't wait to pack his bags and leave his teacher.
The teacher did not try to persuade me to stay, but just said meaningfully that there would be plenty of opportunities to meet again in the future.
Immersed in excitement, Lu Wen did not think too much about the teacher's words, and just regarded it as a polite farewell from the teacher.
After settling down in Zezhou, Lord Lu took office as the county magistrate.
He brought his parents to live with him, hoping that his parents, who had worked hard all their lives, could enjoy a good life.
But who knew that this was the beginning of Lu Wen's nightmare.
His father had just arrived in the county and was still a little hesitant to go out.
Later, Lu Wen persuaded his father to take his mother to the market to see where his son would work in the future. His father excitedly took his mother out.
From then on, Father Lu's heart gradually became wild and he was away from home all day long.
Mother Lu devoted herself to her son, the county magistrate, and didn't pay much attention to her husband's daily life.
Over time, Father Lu was actually led by some scoundrels to develop the bad habits of eating, drinking, whoring and gambling.
Finally, on an ordinary night, the drunken Father Lu got into a fight with another playboy in a brothel over the most popular prostitute.
Mr. Lu worked hard all year round and was much stronger, so he beat the playboy so hard that he couldn't even fight back.
After the dandy's henchman pulled the two apart, he sternly told Father Lu to wait.
Then he helped his young master walk away.
Father Lu spat and shouted unyieldingly, "I'm the father of the county magistrate. You dare to mess with me? You're blind!"
After beating the man, Mr. Lu's drunken smell had dissipated a lot. Thinking that he had not suffered any loss today, he went home in a nonchalant manner.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com