Chapter 42: The Imperial Inspector
"How dare you! Who are you!"
Li Zhangsheng curled up in pain.
He has been the precious young master of the Li family since he was born. Except for his father, no one has ever dared to hit him.
"I'm your great-grandfather, hahahaha..."
A burst of laughter spread overhead, accompanied by punches and kicks raining down.
In pain and shock, Li Zhangsheng found himself lying in a cold and hard alley with a dog hole next to him.
He realized what was happening.
"Wrong! Wrong!"
“It’s not me!”
He held his head and shouted:
"I'm the young master of the Li Mansion. You've caught the wrong person, uh-uh-"
A roll of rags was gagged against his mouth.
In the chaos, no one listened to his shouts.
A man lifted Li Zhangsheng's arm:
"It's no use shouting!"
"Grandpa is teaching you a lesson. Don't mess with noble people in the future."
"These hands are incredible."
Li Zhangsheng's pupils dilated rapidly, and fear burned in his eyes like a raging fire that spread all over the mountains, making his whole body tremble.
He knew what was going to happen next, and it scared him so much that heat flowed between his legs.
His arm had been lifted up, and another man approached him with a wooden stick as thick as a rolling pin.
“Mmmmm!”
Li Zhangsheng struggled desperately, but the wooden stick had already swung towards his arm.
Click.
In the quiet alley, the sound of bones breaking can be clearly heard.
Li Zhangsheng's face was as pale as paper, and the sudden and severe pain made him dizzy.
He fainted from the pain.
"Who is here? Why aren't you back after curfew?"
The street messenger who was patrolling at night noticed some movement in the alley and came over here.
Seeing this, the group of people who had captured Li Zhangsheng quickly threw him away and ran away.
When the street messenger arrived with a lantern, the alley was deserted.
Only the pale-faced Li Zhangsheng fainted on the ground, his arms bent at unnatural angles, like a puppet with its strings cut off.
The stars are getting brighter in early summer.
Even dreams were illuminated.
In the student dormitory of the academy, Xue Che was sleeping soundly in his room.
He dreamed that he, Su Zhizhi, Village Chief Hao, and Wu Yingniang were sitting together eating rabbit candies.
A big bag of rabbit candies, each one is big and white.
Village Chief Hao and Wu Yingniang both praised: "The candy that Che gave us is really delicious."
Su Zhizhi smiled brightly, holding the candy and said:
"Ache is my best friend."
In his sleep, Xue Che's long eyelashes trembled slightly, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.
…
The young master of Li Changshi's family had his hand broken by a gangster.
This news was like a muffled thunder in the clear summer sky in Baiyun County, and everyone heard it.
Everyone speculated that Li Changshi might have offended someone, and the other party was taking revenge on his son.
Li Shaoer originally wanted to go home and complain about the fight between Su Zhizhi and herself in the academy, but when compared with Li Zhangsheng's incident, no one cared about her little thing.
The doctor who visited Li Zhangsheng said that the bones in his hand were broken into several pieces. Even if they were reconnected, there would still be sequelae.
When Li Shao'er and Aunt Feng heard the news, they were surprised but secretly delighted, yet they dared not show it.
Madam Li is old, but Concubine Feng is still fertile and might give birth to someone even more promising in the future.
Mrs. Li stayed by her son's bedside, her eyes swollen from crying:
"My son, which scoundrel, who deserves to be struck by lightning, attacked me?"
"Sheng'er, your father will definitely find out who did this and avenge you."
"Sheng'er, take good care of your injuries. Mother will be here to protect you..."
Li Zhangsheng leaned against the bed, his hands tightly bandaged. His expression was blank. He only asked one question:
"Mom, where is Ah Cai?"
"Why are you asking about that servant?" Madam Li wiped her tears. "I don't know where he's dead. I haven't seen him in the past two days. When we find him, have the housekeeper beat him to a pulp."
Li Zhangsheng felt creepy and always felt that there was a pair of eyes staring at him from behind.
As soon as he closed his eyes, he felt as if he was back in that deep, dark alley, being beaten and kicked, and afraid to sleep alone at night.
He wanted to find Ah Cai and ask him what was going on.
They clearly wanted to capture Xue Che, so why was he the one who was abducted?
"Don't worry, Sheng'er. Your father will definitely find the person."
Speak of the devil, here he comes, Madam Li kept saying, and Li Qiong rushed in from outside, rageful.
Li Qiong had been extremely busy these days. When she heard that her son's hand was broken, she vowed to turn Xunzhou upside down to find the person.
Li Qiong hasn't been hanging around all these years for nothing; he has some brains and some tricks up his sleeve.
He really found the gangsters who kidnapped Li Zhangsheng that night, arrested them and tortured them for interrogation.
It would have been fine if I hadn't asked, but once I did, I almost vomited blood in anger.
It turned out that his son wanted to harm someone, but he found a group of idiots and targeted the wrong person, so he got himself kidnapped.
As for Acai, the matchmaker, he probably realized that the situation was not right and ran away long ago. No one knows where he hid.
Li Qiong locked up Dong Erlai and his gang of thugs and broke their hands and feet to vent his anger.
Now he returned to the mansion and pointed at Li Zhangsheng's nose and angrily scolded him:
"How could I, Li Qiong, give birth to such a brainless thing like you! You hurt others and end up hurting yourself, making people outside laugh at you."
Li Qiong wanted to pick up her son from the bed and beat him up again.
He was not angry because Li Zhangsheng harmed people. On the contrary, he felt that it was natural for his son to teach a lesson to anyone he disliked in the academy.
He was just angry that Li Zhangsheng was too clever and even messed up this.
It was just a small matter, just crippling the hands and feet of a country boy, but Li Qiong could do it with just a flick of his finger.
Why did it become like this?
Mrs. Li hugged her son, wiped her tears and shouted:
"Master, Sheng'er is already like this. If you want to blame someone, blame those people for not recognizing my son! Blame that kid named Xue from the academy for making my son unhappy!"
"You! You're stupid too!"
Li Qiong couldn't convince his wife at all, so he just threw up his sleeves and went to Aunt Feng.
Aunt Feng happily welcomed the master into the house, serving tea and massaging him:
"Master looks haggard today. It makes me sad just looking at him."
Li Qiong drank a sip of cold tea and lay on the couch, feeling comfortable being massaged by Aunt Feng, but the irritability in her heart could not be relieved at all.
In addition to the matter of his son Li Zhangsheng, he has more headaches.
The Inspector General will arrive in Xunzhou tomorrow.
He has been receiving a lot of gold and silver in recent years, not only from the benefits he received, but more importantly from the profits he made from smuggling salt.
Selling salt illegally was a serious crime in Dayu. Some people who boiled and sold salt illegally were caught and beaten to death.
But the profits from smuggling salt were so huge that it made people jealous. When someone from the higher-ups put the opportunity in front of him, how could he not be tempted?
What's more, with someone protecting us from above, the risk of this matter will be much smaller.
Regarding the imperial court sending inspectors to inspect various places, Chang'an had already sent people to inform Li Qiong, asking him not to reveal his identity.
But at this critical moment, something went wrong at Biehe Villa.
Biehe Villa is a villa he owns in the suburbs, which is specially used to operate a private salt workshop and is usually managed by his subordinate Yang Zhen.
But Yang Zhen had disappeared since the day before yesterday, and a batch of illegal salt had also disappeared with him.
Li Qiong could only cheer up and send someone to look for Yang Zhen privately, hoping that nothing would go wrong.
The next day.
Inspector Zheng Mingtang arrived in Xunzhou.
Governor Gu and Li Qiong received Censor Zheng.
Censor Zheng was in his early forties and was well-known in the Chang'an Censorate. He was best at reporting on matters as he heard them.
"You must have worked hard on your inspection tour of Lingnan, Censor Zheng." Governor Gu said with a smile, stroking his beard.
Censor Zheng looked exhausted from the journey and looked a little haggard, but Governor Gu had a rosy face.
Censor Zheng: "Inspector Gu has been transferred to Lingnan for a few months and is in high spirits. It seems the local climate is very nourishing."
Governor Gu: "It's not that the local climate is good, it's that I'm too generous and am used to living in remote places."
Censor Zheng: ...I speak frankly, but you are even more frank than me.
In terms of official rank alone, Governor Gu was of a higher rank than Censor Zheng, but neither of them was too restrained because they had dealt with each other before and were quite familiar with each other.
Governor Gu introduced him to Censor Zheng: "This is Li Changshi from Xunzhou."
Li Qiong stepped forward and saluted: "Your humble servant greets Censor Zheng."
Censor Zheng is usually a serious person.
When he smiles at people in a friendly and affable manner, contrary to his usual behavior, it often means that he has become suspicious of them.
On the one hand, they chat and laugh with others to get everything out of them, and then turn around and report that they are misbehaving and taking bribes.
Colleagues in the capital were most afraid of seeing Censor Zheng smiling at them.
At this moment, Zheng Yushi's eyebrows relaxed, and he smiled at Li Qiong very warmly:
"Li Changshi, there's no need for such formalities. I've heard that Li Changshi has served in Xunzhou for many years and understands the local customs and practices best, having made many contributions to the region."
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