I'm the Farmgirl You Can't Mess With

Chapter 1376: Side Story: Qi Xiuyuan (8)

Uncle Zhu tidied up Qi Xiuyuan, changed him into clean clothes, and put a hot towel over his face briefly. When his face turned red, he let the servant sent by Old Madam Qi in.

The moment she entered, she saw the Eldest Young Master sitting on the bed helplessly looking at the two children. The two children on the bed were sitting on his two sides. One of them had puffed up cheeks, and the other had a straight face. It was obvious that they were mad over something.

The servant thought that she understood the situation, so she went forward to greet the three young masters and left immediately after.

Qi Xiuyuan immediately said to his brother and cousin, “Go back immediately. Don’t stay here any longer.” He stroked Qi Haoran’s head and said gently, “Don’t worry, Brother. I’ll definitely take medicine and recuperate well.” Ths chapter is updated by novel·fıre·net

What happened yesterday made Qi Xiuyuan extremely wary of the Qi family. He didn’t want his younger brother to meet Old Madam Qi.

Although Uncle Zhu didn’t know what had happened yesterday, he could see that Eldest Young Master was now even more guarded against the Qi family. Nothing good must have happened yesterday. Therefore, he immediately sent the two of them out of the residence.

After listening to the servant’s report, Old Madam Qi suddenly wanted to see her youngest grandson. When she found out that he had left, the feeling of disharmony surfaced again.

She thought for a moment with a dark expression and instructed, “Get someone to keep an eye on Eldest Young Master and see what he’s been up to recently.”

Old Madam Qi coughed lightly and sighed. “My health is deteriorating by the day, and soon I might not be around anymore. Feng’er is muddle-headed about the inner estate matters, while Madam Wu is short-sighted. Do look out for them in the future.”

The servant said with a smile, “Old Madam, surely you will live a long life. It’s just that you’ve been thinking too much these past few days. After some rest, you’ll be able to relax again.”

However, this was impossible because the old lady died soon after.

Uncle Zhu was sent to Qi Xiuyuan’s side by his uncles in the Zhu family. Qi Xiuyuan passed news to his two uncles through Xia Tong, but Uncle Zhu and the rest actually had their own channels, channels that were faster and more secretive than Xia Tong.

Seeing that his young master was so frightened that he had a high fever after meeting with Old Madam Qi and had been a little distracted for the past few days, Uncle Zhu naturally couldn’t not report it to his master.

He originally wanted to report what happened that day only after investigating it clearly. But firstly, his young master was resistant. Secondly, Old Madam Qi had chased all the servants out of her room that day, so no one knew what they were talking about.

Uncle Zhu could only tell Qi Xiuyuan’s two uncles about his abnormality. As for what exactly happened, he would have to let them investigate it.

When Zhu Qing received Uncle Zhu’s secret letter, he sneered in his heart. He didn’t even investigate. It was enough for him to know that Old Madam Qi had threatened his nephews and might harm them.

Coincidentally, Qi Feng was trying his best to impeach a certain county magistrate and sue him for opening a granary to sell grains.

As a tainted imperial censor who did not discipline his household strictly, Qi Feng’s career had been lackluster all these years.

Although the Great Zhou Dynasty was not particular and there were many officials under Emperor Jingyan who were more absurd than him, as an imperial censor, reputation was the most important thing.

If an imperial censor’s reputation wasn’t good, right off the bat, he didn’t have a strong ground to stand upon when he impeached others.

For the past three years, Qi Feng had been an invisible figure in the Imperial Censorate, all because the matter with the Zhu family back then had blown up too much. His colleagues in the Imperial Censorate found him an eyesore, and when he impeached other officials, they often used this matter to attack him.

As an imperial censor, one gained promotions through the impeachment of others. He had a chance of advancing to Grade 4A three years ago, but it was foiled by the Zhu family. In the past three years, he had been suppressed everywhere because of what happened back then. This was also one of the reasons why Qi Feng had always been resentful of and dissatisfied with Qi Xiuyuan and Qi Haoran.

Every day when he went to work, there would be people sizing him up with strange gazes. Every time he impeached someone, the dead Zhu Wan and the living Qi Xiuyuan and Qi Haoran gave others a reason to attack him. Even if Qi Feng felt a little guilty towards the two children at the beginning, it slowly wore away over time.

At this moment, he wished he could get rid of them, but he feared that the Zhu family would go to desperate measures after they died. That was why he did not allow Qi Xiuyuan to study and left him to fend for himself.

This impeachment of the county magistrate was a battle he had been preparing for for three years. It was all because this county magistrate who came from a side branch of an aristocratic family had opened a granary privately. It was also a fact that there was not a single grain of rice left in the granary.

He decided to use this matter to wash away his previous humiliation and open a path for himself because this county magistrate and aristocratic family had offended Minister Qin.

Although Minister Qin was an evil person and was often attacked, it was true that he held great power. Although Qi Feng did not want to officially submit to him, he wouldn’t mind gaining favor with him.

Unfortunately, Zhu Qing also knew this county magistrate and was also aware of his private opening of the granary.

That county was under the border county where he was stationed. Before the new year, they had just fought with Great Jin and suffered serious losses. Many civilians’ houses were destroyed and their grains were robbed, so they had no choice but to move to the next county.

With so many refugees surging over, there were no grains, no clothes to ward off the cold, and not even thatched sheds. The county magistrate was so anxious that the corners of his mouth were bubbling. As he started an initiative to get the rich families in the county to donate grains and money to help the refugees, he wrote a letter to the Imperial Court requesting to open up the granary and release the grains, and requested for relief money.

However, that memorial elicited no response.

After a winter, it was spring again. No matter how many memorials the county magistrate wrote, it was useless. He had no choice but to write a letter to ask his clan to help mention it in the Imperial Court.

Unfortunately, it was still useless, because Emperor Jingyan was most afraid of hearing such things. Usually, he would hand such matters over to Minister Qin as soon as the officials brought up the matter.

While the Emperor and the courtiers could refuse, as a county magistrate at the frontlines, he could not watch the commoners die. As the money donated by the rich families had also reached their limit, he could not force everyone to donate all their assets. Helpless, he could only open up the granary in private. Not only that, but he also gave the grain seeds that should have been handed over to the Imperial Court to the commoners, so that they could plant crops on reclaimed land.

This matter had blown up quite a bit. The magistrate had already accepted that he would be fired over this, and his powerful family could probably keep him alive.

However, Qi Feng clearly did not think so. He wanted the death sentence meted out to this magistrate to establish his foundation in the Imperial Censorate and also as a gift to Minister Qin.

Zhu Qing was originally hesitating if he should plead for leniency for the county magistrate. After all, although it was wrong for him to open the grain warehouse without permission, he’d done so for the sake of the commoners.

However, when he saw that his nephew was being bullied by Old Madam Qi, he immediately rolled up his sleeves and stepped forward with this thought in mind, ‘Since you bullied my nephew, I can only bully your son.’

As one of the generals guarding the border, Zhu Qing had a lot of say in the court. First, he stirred up the emotions of the citizens at the border, raising the possibility of a civil uprising. Then, two days later, he submitted a memorial stating that his investigations revealed that the people at the border were doing this because they felt injustice for the county magistrate…

In short, the Imperial Court did not care about the lives of the people and did not provide relief grains and funds, causing the people to have no food or clothes. The people had the intention to rebel long before the new year. Coincidentally, the county magistrate in that province had given the appropriate relief and opened up the granary to provide relief to the people. Unexpectedly, the Imperial Court actually wanted to punish said county magistrate. Naturally, it infuriated the people greatly, revitalizing their will to rebel, especially after being incited by Great Jin’s spies. This nearly resulted in a disaster.

At this moment, the Great Zhou had chaos internally and externally, faced with powerful enemies outside and constant uprisings among the commoners inside. What Emperor Jingyan feared most was hearing that commoners somewhere were staging a rebellion again. So, when he heard that this matter was caused by an imperial censor impeaching a county magistrate, he was livid.

It couldn’t be Emperor Jingyan’s fault, nor could it be the ministers’ fault. Therefore, it could only be Qi Feng’s fault.