Great Zhou Wensheng

Chapter 44, "Jiangyin County Annals," a thousand-year-old tale from Liaozhai!

As dusk fell, Jiang Xingzhou stepped onto the bluestone steps, passed through the corridor, and returned to Langhuan Pavilion. A string of copper bells hanging from the eaves tinkled crisply in the night breeze.

Just as I was about to push the door open, I suddenly saw a warm yellow light shining through the window.

His hand involuntarily paused on the door knocker.

Through the half-rolled bamboo curtain, one could see Miss Xue Lingqi in the study, her dark blue hair loose, resting her chin on her hand, half-lying on the rosewood desk.

A crimson skirt cascaded down her back, like a hazy, misty sunset.

She held a sprig of winter plum in her jade hand, moistened with a little dew, and gently fed it to the green cicada in the glass cup. The cicada, which looked like a black jade cicada, fluttered its wings as if about to take flight, and a golden halo shaped like a copper coin appeared on its surface.

"All day long, I recite 'Guanju' and 'Luming' to you, and I also have to copy the fragments of 'Qianshen Fu' as food!"

If you don't develop golden veins soon, I'll start feeding you the "Discourses on Salt and Iron" tomorrow.

She lightly tapped the bamboo tube with her fingertip, startling the green caterpillar into abruptly retracting its jade-like wings.

"I'm so sleepy!"

"Jiang Lang hasn't returned yet? I'll have him copy one for me tonight!"

She murmured, her voice fading as her long eyelashes cast shadows beneath her eyes, and the plum blossom in her hand slipped from her hand onto the table and inkstone.

The Langhuan Pavilion was quiet and still, except for the fluttering of the wings of the green-winged insects.

Jiang Xingzhou gently pushed open the study door and entered, gazing at the books piled on her desk, when he suddenly caught a whiff of the familiar, pure fragrance of a maiden filling the room.

Since he took up residence in the Langhuan Pavilion of the Duke of Xue's mansion and lived in the study, no outsider has been allowed to borrow or read the secret books in the Langhuan Pavilion.

Even this proud and arrogant young lady rarely appears in Langhuan Pavilion.

However, literary insects need to be nurtured with talent. They should be read different poems and articles to each day to help them develop their talent.

These books are only found in the Langhuan Pavilion.

Unexpectedly, she would be copying books here at night to feed insects.

"July's heat is intense, September brings the time to distribute clothes!"

She drifted off to sleep, muttering lines from the Book of Songs in her dreams.

That slightly childish ending note, like a pebble thrown into the center of a lake, rippled warmly across Jiang Xingzhou's heart.

Jiang Xingzhou smiled and gently draped a white fox fur coat from the rosewood chair beside him over her porcelain-white shoulders.

When the snow-white fox fur coat was draped over her shoulders, the sleeping girl blinked her eyelashes unconsciously, rubbed her collar, and remained fast asleep.

He picked up a sheet of Xuan paper on the table that had not yet been fully copied.
But on the yellowed Xuan paper, there were still wet ink stains.
It is a fragment of the poem "The Ballad of the River" from the Book of Songs in Wei. Among the mottled ink, one can see the delicate small regular script characters "The woman's infatuation is unspeakable".

Jiang Xingzhou gazed at the Xue family girl, who was fast asleep.
Suddenly, she remembered five years ago, when they first met. She and he, as teenagers, were on the third floor of Langgan Pavilion, the top floor of Langhuan Pavilion, bickering and reading until dusk. They also fell asleep unguarded in a room full of candlelight.

"This little girl, after all these years, is still so trusting!"

Jiang Xingzhou shook his head inwardly.

I helped her finish copying the poem "The Ballad of the River" from the Book of Songs in Wei.

Seeing that she was still fast asleep, he lifted her up from the desk and placed her on the bed in the study, covering her with a quilt.

Outside the pavilion, the bamboo grove swayed, and the distant hooting of owls echoed from the west wing.

Afterwards, Jiang Xingzhou lay down on the wooden couch in a side room next to the study and fell asleep fully clothed.

The next day, the morning light faded.

Jiang Xingzhou got up early, washed up, and arrived at the county government office in time with the sound of the morning watchman's clapper.

Today is a holiday for the county school, so he can go to the county government office to do odd jobs such as organizing books and records.

Spiderwebs, unswept for years, hung from the eaves of the official's office.

"Greetings, Brother Jiang!"

Gu Zhimian arrived early and was standing on tiptoe, using a broom to dust off the dust and cobwebs from the windows of the official's office. When he saw Jiang Xingzhou coming, he quickly turned around and bowed.

The old scholar Zhang Youyi, carrying a stack of thread-bound books several feet high, almost stumbled, but was supported by Jiang Xingzhou's elbow to keep his balance.

The young scholars arrived early and, having nothing else to do, helped the yamen runners with their work at the county office.

The monthly allowance of millet given to the students by the county government was only enough to ensure they were well-fed and could concentrate on their literary cultivation.

But it's far from enough for home use.

They were very diligent in this menial job, which earned them twenty taels of silver.

"Brother Gu, Brother Zhang, are you well?"

Jiang Xingzhou returned the greeting with a smile.

"You're waiting even earlier than the county magistrate is going to the yamen."

The clerk Cui Mingyuan's hearty laughter came from behind the corridor pillars.

"Master Cui!"

Jiang Xingzhou quickly bowed.

The official robes of this clerk had frayed edges, but the bronze keys in his hand were polished to a gleaming shine. "Follow me!"

Cui Mingyuan unlocked the door and pushed open the heavy door of the official's office library. The creaking sound of the door hinges startled the sparrows under the eaves, which fluttered across the courtyard.

Jiang Xingzhou and the other students had just stepped over the wooden threshold, which was about a foot high, when they were frozen in place by the overwhelming aura of Chen Mo.

A few rays of sunlight slanted across the warehouse through the window lattice, illuminating the floating scent of ink and dust.

The bookshelves are filled with rows of dusty books, including more than a thousand volumes of the "Jiangyin County Annals" alone.

This library seems to be rarely visited.

Between the interwoven wooden frames, yellowed Xuan paper and indigo covers are stacked layer upon layer.

Cui Mingyuan used a feather duster to brush off the accumulated dust from a certain volume of a county gazetteer from a certain year. Fine dust rose from between the pages, like stardust falling into the morning mist.

"This library in the county government office has tens of thousands of volumes."

This area is not open to the public.
It was only used to store historical records such as the *Jiangyin County Gazetteer*, *Jiangyin Geography*, *Jiangzhou Prefecture Gazetteer*, *Grand Canal Transport Records*, and *Jiangyin Historical Financial and Tax Accounts*.

Cui Mingyuan inserted the bronze key into the lock and opened the library.

"One of the most important tasks of the Lifang (official office) is to repair and maintain the local county annals."

The Jiangyin County Gazetteer needs to be compiled annually.

It records many affairs, large and small, within the county, including the appointment of county magistrates and officials, natural disasters, calamities, thieves, criminal cases, grain transport, millet harvest, population changes, taxes, personnel files, and so on.

All the successful candidates in the imperial examinations who came from Jiangyin County, as well as the Hanlin scholars, vice ministers, and ministers who returned to their hometowns to retire, were required to have a poem written for them in the "Jiangyin County Annals".

Most of the materials stored here are historical records and cannot be discarded.

Stored in the database for future reference.

The book records the interpersonal relationships and customs of Jiangyin County over the past thousand years, making it extremely valuable.

Cui Mingyuan explained,

"When cleaning up the library, the biggest enemy is bookworms."

The books in the storeroom, rich in literary talent, are most likely to attract bookworms.

If the "Jiangyin County Annals" is damaged, the characters will be eaten away by bookworms.

That corresponding 'history' then vanished into the long river of history, and no one in the world would ever know what had happened over the past thousands of years!

As he spoke, Cui Dianli distributed tools for cleaning books to the students—feather dusters, brushes, and pens and ink.

"Is there no other way but to seal the books away and prevent bookworms from infesting them?"

Jiang Xingzhou asked curiously.

"no way!

The eggs of bookworms are naturally born inside bamboo slips and enter the library along with the books.

After hatching from their eggs, they tear apart ancient texts, using them for sustenance and spiritual practice. Only after the spring equinox each year, when the bookworms awaken, can they be regularly cleaned up!

Cui Mingyuan shook his head.

"I remember in the fifth year of the Tian Shou reign, bookworms devoured the last three chapters of the 'Records of the Grand Canal,' resulting in a tax shortfall of 30,000 taels that year. Since detailed records of these transactions have been lost, they have become impossible to trace!"

Cui Mingyuan flipped through a volume of "The Records of the Grand Canal" on the bookshelf, his expression somewhat helpless.

"Some woodworms,"
He also had a particular fondness for devouring volumes on topics such as 'finance and taxation' and 'criminal justice'.
I wonder who they're trying to cover up for?

The voice has not fallen,

Cui Mingyuan opened a volume of the "Jiangyin County Annals," and a translucent blue bookworm crawled out from between the yellowed bamboo slips.

It slammed onto the ground, then rolled over the blue bricks, splashing out a pool of indigo-blue, liquid-like insect corpses.

He was of low rank and minor official position, so he dared not investigate further.

The situation here is complex and could potentially involve a high-ranking official or a powerful family.

Upon hearing this, the poor students looked at each other in dismay, their hearts pounding with fear, and dared not utter a sound.

"Decades ago in Jiangyin County, there was a case of bookworms in the library. Three hundred volumes of the Criminal Law Compilation were covered with bookworms overnight, and the files were almost destroyed."

From then on, the library was cleaned regularly every year!
Every volume of this *Jiangyin County Gazetteer* needs to be carefully examined and cleaned! Any eroded or missing characters must be repaired as soon as possible.

Cui Mingyuan gave Jiang Xingzhou a meaningful look and said:
“Our Jiangyin County may seem like a small county, but it's actually a place with a lot of evil spirits!”
It connects the imperial court to the countryside.

If you pass the imperial examinations and become a Juren or even a Jinshi, you will eventually step into the court of the Great Zhou Dynasty and fight against those ancient foxes in the temple.

Their methods can be gleaned from the county annals.

I read through the entire "Jiangyin County Annals" in this library, which records countless cases.

Only with at least a century of experience in local county governance can one have a chance to gain a foothold in the Great Zhou court!

"Thank you for your guidance, Lord Cui!"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Xingzhou felt a chill run down his spine, and after a moment of thoughtful reflection, he bowed and thanked him.

(End of this chapter)