Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

"Sir, don't believe him easily," seeing Fu Jiu chasing after Wang Yue, the Seventh Master couldn't help but dissuade him, "Since Fang Shun was admitted to the ward, he has been bragging to others about his years of doing business in Jiangnan. He called so-and-so brothers with so-and-so in the government office, and he was allowed to enter and exit the government office freely. He also swore brotherhood with the leader of a gang of thieves on a certain hilltop, and robbed a horse-drawn carriage of a profiteer. He also took a bandit as his godfather, and the godfather wanted to marry his daughter to him, but he refused because it was troublesome. He also lived and ate with street hooligans, and had a close relationship with the son of a wealthy family in Jiangnan, etc. There was nothing he dared not say. I thought he didn't tell the truth, but when he came to you, it was hard to fool him, but he still kept talking nonsense."

"Don't worry, Master Qi," Chen Shao consoled him, "Whether he is telling the truth or not, I will never be biased against a certain medicine store just because of a few words from one person."

If there is any bias, it should be influenced by the actions of the Zhu family, the Gu family, the Fan family, etc., rather than just a few words from Fang Shun.

"That's right, Your Excellency is not a person without rules." When the Seventh Master heard her words, he knew that he had said too much. Seeing that she didn't care, he hesitated for a moment and couldn't help but bring up the topic of lunch again, "Your Excellency asked the people to rate the drugstore. I agree very much, but the suggestions they put forward in the lobby of the prefectural mansion before..."

Qiye had mentioned this topic before when they were having lunch at the prefect's residence, but Chen Shao easily brought it up. Qiye was unsure of Chen Shao's thoughts, but for the sake of his son and son-in-law, he had to bite the bullet and bring it up again.

He didn't want to force people in, nor did he want them to be in charge of anything. As long as he could find them something to do and have something to eat, even if it was just sweeping the floor, it would be fine.

Before today, he didn't think it was a difficult task. It was only at the discussion meeting today, when he heard Chen Shao was going to formulate the assessment standards and heard the shopkeepers demanding strict assessment standards, that he began to worry.

My son and son-in-law know that if strict assessment standards are set, they will definitely not pass.

"I may not necessarily adopt it." Chen Shaoming said, "Especially after getting the appointment letter, relatives, no matter how far away, who want to enter the medicine shop will have to undergo a stricter assessment than ordinary people."

His thoughts were exposed, and Qi Ye felt a little embarrassed, "I, I..."

"I didn't change the rules because of you, Master Qi," Chen Shao said gently, "but people like you who work hard for the pharmacy should be treated preferentially. Ordinary people work hard all their lives for the sake of their descendants. If they can't benefit their descendants, then there is no point in working hard."

"That's right." Master Qi said with great emotion, "However, there is no need to be too preferential. The assessment should still be conducted, but the standard of the assessment should not be too strict."

"Of course." Not wanting to give him or others who share the same idea unnecessary hope, Chen Shao said bluntly, "I won't make the criteria for consideration more stringent, nor will I make the criteria for assessment easier. What I mean by preferential treatment is that those who get the appointment letter will have an easier time enrolling their descendants than others, or if there are any vacancies in the medicine shop, they can be assessed first."

After a pause, he continued: "Once the rest of the pharmacies are incorporated into the government, the scale of the pharmacies will become larger and larger. If you want to come in again in the future, there will definitely be certain thresholds. For example, you must have studied in the Imperial College, and you must have passed every assessment while studying in the Imperial College, etc."

Master Qi nodded: "It should be so."

Seeing that he agreed with her but his eyebrows were not relaxed, Chen Shao took the opportunity to ask about his son, daughter-in-law, daughter and son-in-law. Knowing that they did not have fixed "workstations" but went wherever there was a shortage of people, he stood up and said, "I haven't come to see the medicine shop since it expanded. If Master Qi is free, how about taking me around?"

Naturally, the Seventh Master would not refuse.

Starting from the kitchen, he looked around the staff dormitory, the warehouse for receiving and sorting imported medicinal materials, the medicine warehouse, the medicine dispensing warehouse, the wards A to D, the doctors' triage rooms, the front hall, etc., and then sat in the side hall to rest and drink tea. Chen Shao said sincerely, "Seventh Master, thank you for your trouble."

It really took a lot of effort. Master Qi said calmly, "If there is anything that needs to be corrected, please let me know."

"It's already very good." Chen Shao complimented him appropriately, and then turned the topic to the work arrangements of his son and son-in-law, whom he was concerned about. "I think the drugstore is on the right track from the inside out, but the kitchen, dormitory, and external medicinal material receiving/classification warehouse, etc., are all unattended, which is a bit inappropriate. How about this, while the scale of the drugstore is not particularly large now, let Zhou Dasao help look after the kitchen for cooking, let Zhou Ersao help look after the kitchen for decocting medicine, let Miao Jie help look after the dormitory and sweeping, let Zhou Da Ge help look after the external medicinal material receiving/classification warehouse, let Zhou Er Ge help look after the medicine warehouse, and let Miao Jiefu help look after the ward. If there is anything inappropriate in the process, Qi Ye can make adjustments."

The seventh master’s surname is Zhou.

He has two sons and a daughter, all of whom were called by Qi Ye to help during the expansion of the pharmacy.

Chen Shao had only seen them in Changning Village and had not had much contact with them. However, judging from the well-managed medicine shop, their contribution was definitely indispensable. If it were somewhere else, Chen Shao might not have used them for this reason, but because of Master Qi, she was willing to give them a chance.

The Seventh Master's face flushed, and he quickly refused, "This, this is not appropriate. Just arrange for the eldest, the second and Qian the second, and forget about the eldest's wife. Also, you can ask the eldest and the second to help look after the kitchen, but they don't understand medicinal materials, so it's not appropriate for them to go to the warehouse for receiving/sorting medicinal materials. You can't arrange them randomly."

"That's fine," Chen Shao adjusted obediently, "Let Brother Zhou be responsible for the kitchen's purchases, Brother Zhou Er will be responsible for the safety of the medicine store, and Brother Miao will still be responsible for the daily management of the ward."

Qi Ye breathed a sigh of relief and said, "This is more appropriate. If they can't do it, let them go, and they won't have anything to say."

Chen Shao smiled and said, "I've said it long ago that once the medicine shop is handed over to Master Qi, I won't interfere in any other matters. Forget it this time. If Master Qi wants to arrange someone in the future, just do it directly. I trust Master Qi, so naturally I can trust the people that Master Qi trusts."

"You are so polite, sir." It would be a lie to say that he was not touched, but the Seventh Master was incapable of receiving false flattery. He could only remember the favor silently in his heart and return it double in the return at the medicine shop.

After dealing with the work of the Seventh Master's son and son-in-law, Chen Shao naturally turned the topic to his grandchildren: "Qiangzi, Fengzi, and Xiao Liu'er are all quite old, right?"

"Not small, but not big either." Thinking that Chen Shao was going to assign them jobs, Qi Ye quickly stopped him, "Just let them help their parents, there's no need to assign them other things."

Chen Shao did not explain and continued to ask: "Have you ever studied before?"

Speaking of this, Master Qi couldn't help but laugh, "They should have gone to school two years ago. His grandma and dad got sick one after another, and not only did they spend all the family savings, they also owed a lot of debts. We scraped together the money over the past two years and finally paid it back. We had planned to send them to school to learn a few words next year, but we didn't expect to find such a job here. Now that we have money, we will wait until after the New Year to send them to a private school."

Chen Shao's heart was moved. Although she trusted Master Qi, his words undoubtedly reminded her that she should do a good background check before hiring people in the future. People's hearts are hidden in their stomachs, and money can move people's hearts. She couldn't use the public career she had built to gamble with people's hearts and nature. Although her mind was full of mixed thoughts, Chen Shao said calmly, "It will take until March after the New Year to send him to the private school, right?"

Qiye nodded, "Four or five more months."

"Four or five months cannot be wasted," Chen Shao thought for a moment and arranged, "Seventh Master, please count all the people in the pharmacy in the next two days, including doctors, shop assistants, cooks in the kitchen, and errand boys. Count the children between the ages of six and sixteen to see how many children of this age group there are in each family. After the count, give me the list and I will arrange a few teachers to enlighten them or give them lessons in advance."

The Seventh Master agreed first, and then joked: "The day before yesterday, the master said that he wanted to take a good rest for a few days, but before he could rest, he took on such a heavy workload."

"Go ahead and get busy, and talk about it when you're done." Chen Shao said.

After finishing his talk, Chen Shao returned to the sycamore tree outside Ward A.

Fu Jiu and Wang Yue had already found two people who had been treated in other pharmacies.

Both are middle-aged men.

One is surnamed Feng and the other is surnamed Huang.

A year ago, a middle-aged man named Feng went to Tongchuntang twice for chest pain. Because of these two illnesses, he not only sold a pig and a number of chickens and geese at home, but also sold a two-acre piece of land.

A middle-aged man named Huang went to Kangle Hall for treatment four years ago because of blood in stool. To treat this disease, he not only sold his pancake shop in the town, but his disease became more and more serious. Later, he was penniless and was kicked out of Kangle Hall. He was unwilling to die like this, so he tried a few folk remedies recommended by the elders in his family to get better.

The illness was cured, but the family was left with nothing.

Huang was unwilling to accept this and went to the Kangle Hall to seek justice. However, he did not get justice and his leg was broken instead. He was still unwilling to accept this and went to the court again with his broken leg. However, he could not pay the money he had worked hard for and was beaten by the yamen runners again.

After asking Quan Shuyu to write down what the two said and sending them away, Chen Shao was not angry yet, but Chan Yi was angry first, "I don't think we need to bring them into the official system. Just drag them over, beat them up, and close the door!"

"It's the pharmacy that's under the jurisdiction of the authorities, not them." Quan Shuyu corrected, "But I do agree that we should investigate them thoroughly. We've only questioned three people, and so many problems have been exposed. I wonder how many more there are that haven't been exposed."

Chen Shao stood up: "Let's go back first."

After returning to the prefect's mansion, before getting off the carriage, Chen Shao asked Quan Shuyu: "Do you have all the account books of the medicine shop? Give them to me."

"They are all in the west wing." Quan Shuyu followed her footsteps and said as they walked, "There are nearly a hundred drugstores. The account books and rosters of each drugstore are piled up thick. If we move them all to the study, I'm afraid there won't be enough space."

"Then there is no need to move. Let's go to the west wing." When he reached the gate of Chengfeng Courtyard, Chen Shao suddenly stopped and said, "Tomorrow... Never mind. Let Chanyi go. Chanyi, tomorrow you go to the Imperial College to see how many teachers are still there. Ask the teachers who are still there if they can find the teachers who left. If you can find them back, follow the teachers who have been found to come to the prefectural governor's mansion to see me. If you can't find them back, then come directly to see me. The time will be set in two days."

After Chan Yi agreed, Chen Shao looked at Fu Jiu again and said, "Before it gets dark, go and invite Cen Yuanzhi over."

Ding Lisheng and Zhao Lin have been convicted of various crimes for condoning the evil deeds of the Ding and Zhao families and their own evil deeds outside, but they have not yet been punished. I originally wanted to wait until I had some free time to find out if they had committed other crimes in the officialdom, but now it seems that there is no need to wait.

Fu Jiu blinked twice and looked at Chan Yi: Who is Cen Yuanzhi?

Chan Yi reminded him unhappily, "The official from the Household Department rented the same farmhouse as Du Zhong. The clothes and shoes he was wearing were rented by him for twenty coins. Do you remember?"

Fu Jiu nodded repeatedly: "I remember, I remember."

The voice was still there, but the person had already run away.