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Chapter 35 Secret Report
Lu Qing tapped the account book that Shen Xiang had brought him with his fingers. After a moment's hesitation, he said to Shen Xiang, "You can go now. Leave the account book behind.

You have never been here tonight, and I have never seen you before."

After hearing this, Shen Xiang looked up at Lu Qing. The ferocious golden mask prevented him from seeing the expression of the censor opposite him, and he couldn't guess his position and intention from his tone. For a moment, he felt hesitant, not knowing whether he had won the gamble by taking the risk to come here late at night, or had encountered another situation of officials protecting each other. The energy and spirit he had just used to expose the connection between Li Wencai and Lu Ji was instantly gone.

"Let's go, don't delay any longer." Lu Qing waved at him and urged Shen Xiang to leave.

Shen Xiang pursed his lips, not daring to disobey the censor's wishes. He turned around with a stern face and walked towards the door. His hand touched the door, and Lu Qing's voice came from behind him again.

“Remember to act naturally and don’t arouse suspicion.

After the storm is over, the Qingshui County Government will be in need of new personnel."

Shen Xiang was slightly stunned, a light flashed in his eyes, and the energy and spirit he had just lost came back all at once. Without any hesitation, he pushed the door open, turned around and closed it gently, and disappeared into the night quietly.

After Shen Xiang left, Zhu Yu, out of curiosity, flipped through the two account books again, and the more he looked, the tighter his brows furrowed.

"How is it?" After Zhu Yu closed the account book, Lu Qing, who had taken off his mask and was sitting beside him, asked.

"I expected Lord Li to have a big appetite, but I didn't expect it to be this big." Zhu Yu said frankly, "There's a big difference between the two accounts, openly and secretly."

Lu Qing shook his head: "He is quite tolerant, but unfortunately, he doesn't have the ability to eat alone."

After he said this, Zhu Yu immediately understood.

Li Wencai turned a blind eye to Lu Ji's evil behavior of bullying the people in the village and dominating the market, and condoned it. The prefect above him sent all the cases against Li Wencai back to Li Wencai for handling.

I'm afraid these layers of protection all have a price tag, and the increase from top to bottom is definitely not due to someone's greed.

"Big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp." Zhu Yu pondered, "Originally, I thought Lu Ji was the small fish, and the individual winemakers in Qingshui County were the shrimp.

Now it seems that I have overestimated Lu Ji. I am afraid that he is not even a shrimp, but just algae eaten by shrimps."

In response to her evaluation, Lu Qing just smiled faintly.

After that, he did not continue to stay up late to check the accounts and files. The three of them went to bed.

The next morning, as expected, the chief clerk sent someone to deliver a rich breakfast and asked if the censor had any instructions. He tried to find out in a roundabout way what Lu Qing was doing here and how long he would stay.

However, with Fu Wen, a "door god" blocking the way outside, it was obvious that he could not get the answers to these questions. He did not dare to ask too directly, so he had to leave in disappointment.

Lord Li, who had been sent home to rest the day before due to "overwork", did not come to the yamen to report. The chief clerk sent yamen runners to Li Wencai's home to inquire about the situation. Not long after, the yamen runners came back and said that they could not even enter the gate of Li Wencai's house. No matter how they knocked on the door, no one answered.

The chief clerk was suddenly at a loss. Without Li Wencai in charge, he really didn't know what to do with the big Buddha statue in the yamen.

After breakfast, Lu Qing checked the various account books of Qingshui County as usual. He also handed the criminal case files of the past year or so to Zhu Yu and asked her to help him look through them.

Zhu Yu knew nothing about looking at the accounts, but he was quite familiar with the criminal case files, so he sat down at the desk and started reading them.

It was not until noon that she stretched her stiff arms and rubbed her sore neck.

"How are the affairs of the Qingshui County government?" Lu Qing asked.

Zhu Yu smiled back at him: "From the files they brought, it can be seen that Qingshui County is a place where government affairs are well managed, the people are happy, the officials are conscientious and diligent in performing their duties, and the situation is very good." Lu Qing heard the sarcasm in her tone and laughed: "So, there really is no one in this world who is completely useless.

Even in a place like Qingshui County, among a group of mediocre officials, one can still find the merit of being good at handling accounts and files."

Zhu Yu nodded repeatedly and looked at the pile of volumes that Lu Qing had already finished reading and stacked aside. "Now that we've finished reading these, do we still need to stay in this government office?"

"Yes." Lu Qing called Fu Wen over and said, "Go and ask the people from the yamen to go outside and pick out some good-looking storybooks to entertain the Second Master, so that he won't be bored before we leave here."

Zhu Yu looked at Lu Qing in surprise. Fu Wen seemed to be accustomed to any order from his master. He immediately went out to tell the yamen runners guarding outside the yard.

In just half an hour, a lot of things were delivered from outside, including storybooks, snacks and fresh fruits.

Those who know that this is for the Imperial Censor who is here for inspection may think that it is to entertain some distinguished guest.

Lu Qing did not bother to be polite with them and accepted everything they sent him. The next day, the three of them stayed in the courtyard at the back of the yamen, leaving the chief clerk and the county magistrate in front to panic.

Late at night the next day, a bird's cry was suddenly heard outside the house. Fu Wen, who was guarding the door, opened the door and went out. After a while, he came back with a bamboo tube in his hand.

Lu Qing also got up at this time, lit an oil lamp, and took out a piece of paper from the bamboo tube.

There was a lot of writing on the paper. He quickly read the contents, took another piece of paper from the desk, wrote a few words on it, and put it back into the bamboo tube. He pushed open the window, pulled out the jade whistle from his arms, blew it, and threw the bamboo tube out.

In the darkness outside, a dark shadow seemed to pass by quickly, and then the original silence returned.

Zhu Yu was unaware of all this. It was not until the next morning that he saw the piece of paper that Lu Qing handed to him.

She looked at it carefully and couldn't help frowning.

The three of them have been in the backyard of the county government office for the past few days and no one has left. So the things recorded on this paper were most likely collected by the secret agents around Lu Qing.

Lu Qing didn't mention this matter specifically, and Zhu Yu didn't intend to ask any more questions.

However, the content recorded on this paper is somewhat confusing.

Although the secret report was concise, it explained the various causes clearly.

In the Qingshui County area, there are only three people who claim to have made a fortune from the Ghost Fairy Temple and are still alive and well.

Two of them were brothers who lived in a farm outside the city. They were notorious lazy men and scoundrels. They loved to cause trouble in the village, drink and play dice, and whenever they had money, they would go to the gambling house.

Originally, no one around knew that the dilapidated and neglected mountain temple was a "ghost fairy temple" that could promise people unexpected wealth, until one day they suddenly discovered that the two ruffian brothers had swept away their previous financial difficulties and suddenly became wealthy.

At first they were unwilling to tell anyone else, until later they were fed up with gossip by their usual friends, and they blurted out in a daze that they had prayed to the ghosts and immortals in the ghost temple for windfall gains, and as a result they really got a large ingot.

Others were surprised when they heard this, but they didn't believe it. After all, these two brothers were not reliable people.

However, people are always curious. One of the people present at the time went home to buy offerings to the gods and ran to the Ghost Temple to pray for wealth. Sure enough, he got an ingot of gold.

　Thanks to Vegetarian Pig for the monthly ticket!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)