P.S. Okay, okay, I'll give Zhao Hao back to you, but you are not allowed to play that joke again in the future~~~

Zhao Liben ate three bowls of porridge in a row, and finally sat on the doorstep with his hands on his belly, feeling satisfied, and no longer angry with his eldest son.

Zhao Shouzheng then mustered up his courage and asked in a low voice, "Dad, they said you had offended Gao Gong. Could it be that they were also trying to trick us?"

"No, I really offended Mr. Gao badly." Zhao Liben smiled and said with a sad tone, "Who would have thought that with his shitty temper, he could climb to the position of the second assistant minister of the cabinet!"

Zhao Hao shuddered when he heard this... Gao Gong was an almost invincible figure in the Longqing Dynasty! It was only February of the first year of the Longqing Dynasty. How could the old man have a chance to make a comeback?

"But this time, it has nothing to do with the surname Gao. This is just an excuse for them to use me as a scapegoat!" Zhao Liben spat fiercely and said, "Otherwise, why did they obediently collect the money and release me as soon as you gritted your teeth and refused to pay?"

"Ah, they collected the 50,000 yuan?" Zhao Shouye was stunned when he heard this.

"Of course! If they don't bleed, they will suffer together!" Zhao Liben sighed depressedly, "In the past, the inspections in Nanjing were mostly just formalities, so this time, Nanjing wanted to follow the usual practice. Unexpectedly, the situation in the capital suddenly changed, with unprecedented force. More than one hundred officials above the seventh rank were dismissed in the first month of the year..."

Zhao Hao majored in Ming history, so he could naturally understand what Zhao Liben said.

The so-called Jingcha is the imperial court's assessment of Beijing officials every six years. Officials dismissed during the Jingcha will never be reappointed, so it is like the gate of hell for every Beijing official. However, because of this, the bigwigs who preside over the Jingcha generally do not take ruthless actions. This is even more true in Nanjing. After all, everyone is sitting on the bench, so why bother to make things difficult for each other?

According to the convention, the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty had two teams, the Nanjing officials were examined by the Nanjing Ministry of Personnel and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the final result was reported to the capital for review. This time it was the same at first, but who would have thought that Beijing would set off a bloody storm, how could Nanjing dare to be perfunctory?

"How can the mess in the Southern Ministry of Revenue withstand a careful investigation? This is the first time in recent years that a serious investigation has been carried out, and a deficit of 100,000 taels has been discovered in a short time. This is not a small amount. If it is reported to Beijing, not only will the Southern Ministry of Revenue be in trouble, but the Southern Metropolitan Procuratorate will also be in trouble!" Zhao Liben laughed at himself and finally said:

"The hole must be filled, and someone must take the blame in order for most people to get through this safely. At this time, I don't know which bastard brought up the old man and Gao Gong's past feud. That group of people believed that I was going to be in trouble anyway, so they came up with such a sinister trick, trapping me in the South Courtyard to trick you two idiots!"

Zhao Shouzheng hurriedly defended himself: "Dad, I don't know anything..."

"Shut up!" Zhao Liben glared at him, but he no longer had the energy to get angry. He sighed and said, "I just wanted to cheat as much as I could. Alas, it's also our deep love for father and son..."

Zhao Hao heard this, glanced at his uncle, and thought, he mainly thought you could be reinstated...

As expected, the uncle was about to faint from the pain, and he murmured, "That's 20,000 taels. Where can I earn more money..."

Zhao Shouzheng was excited when he heard this, and patted his elder brother's shoulder and said, "Just be happy. If it weren't for my son's sensible advice, we would still be carrying a huge debt of 50,000 taels..."

"You're not happy at all!" Zhao Shouye was slapped so hard that it hurt, and he pushed his brother's hand away.

"Oh? My dear grandson, you can't even read a few words, but you have such insight?" Zhao Liben looked at Zhao Hao in surprise. He didn't expect that this useless grandson could actually see through the truth.

"Oh, people have to grow up..." Zhao Hao thought to himself, here it comes!

These days, he has been preparing a complete set of excuses in his mind so that he can get away with it when people become suspicious.

As a result, my father and uncle, the two funny brothers, didn't notice anything unusual. But Zhao Liben was indeed an old and experienced man, and it was obvious that he couldn't get away with it so easily.

Zhao Hao's heart was in his throat, preparing to deal with Zhao Liben's questioning.

"Alas, this is also a small blessing for my Zhao family in this misfortune." But Zhao Liben didn't care about this at all. Instead, he said with satisfaction: "From now on, my family will have to rely on you, kid."

Seeing that he passed the test so easily, Zhao Hao felt relieved, but at the same time, he also felt a sense of disappointment as if he had punched in the air.

Zhao Xian, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly spoke up when he heard this: "Grandpa, are you saying... you didn't get your job back?"

"Reinstatement is bullshit! This time I got into such a big mess. I'll be lucky if I can be demoted and become a commoner without bringing trouble to my descendants." Seeing his eldest grandson talking about something irrelevant, Zhao Liben got angry again. It took him a while to calm down and asked his children and grandchildren beside him:

"I must leave Beijing within three days. Please consider whether to leave or stay."

The two brothers Shouye and Shouzheng looked at each other, and the eldest brother spoke first: "Father, the court has not dismissed me from my post, so I am afraid I can't go back to my hometown with you."

"You take it so seriously just because you helped a corrupt official. If you don't want to leave, then don't leave!" Zhao Liben curled his lips. He couldn't help feeling jealous when he thought that he had become an ordinary citizen.

Zhao Shouzheng was a little undecided. He looked at his son and saw that Zhao Hao didn't say anything, so he whispered, "One night won't make a difference. I'll discuss this with Zhao Hao later."

"Yeah." Zhao Liben nodded, but did not discourage him.

~~

When the five members of the Zhao family finished speaking, the night watchman's drum outside had already been struck twice.

"You'd better go to bed early, otherwise you might wake up hungry in the middle of the night." Zhao Shouye reminded with experience.

"I'll sleep here." Zhao Liben stood up and pointed to the kitchen where the fire was still burning. "It's warm here."

"Uh, okay..." Zhao Shouye's mouth twitched. This was originally where he and his son slept.

"I'll go get a bed and quilt for my father." Zhao Shouzheng took his own quilt from a small house not far away and gave it to his father. He helped him settle down and then went back to the room to sleep.

~~

At night, Zhao Hao and his son, wrapped in a quilt, lay on the broken wooden board left by the servants.

The two of them tossed and turned, causing the bed to creak and making it increasingly difficult to fall asleep.

Zhao Shouzheng stayed up until the third watch, and when he heard the snoring next door, he sat up and whispered to Zhao Hao, who had his eyes wide open:

"Son, you're not full, are you?"

"Yeah." Zhao Hao nodded with a wry smile. Dinner was not much to begin with, and the old man finished three bowls, so of course he was not full.

"Hey, look what this is?"

Then Zhao Shouzheng took out an oil-paper bag from his arms like a magic trick, gently unfolded the oil paper, and a yellow roasted duck leg appeared in front of Zhao Hao.

"Where did it come from?" Zhao Hao was shocked.

"Shh! Eat quickly..." Zhao Shouzheng quickly made a gesture to keep quiet and whispered, "I secretly went out to buy it after noon. Eat it quickly, don't let your uncle smell it, he has a sharp nose..."

"Let's eat together." Zhao Hao swallowed hard. He had been drinking vegetable porridge every day these days, and his eyes had turned green.

"You're still growing up, it would be a waste if I eat it." Zhao Shouzheng also swallowed his saliva, but stuffed the duck leg into his son's hand without hesitation.

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