The journey of the only child of a peasant family to take the imperial examination

"We have changed our allegiance now. The capital is different from Lin'an. There will be many more things to consider in the future," said Zhang Ping'an.

"I understand," Liu Sanlang nodded. In fact, he had seen a lot in the capital in the past few months and understood a lot more.

Although life became more prosperous and the positions he held became higher and higher, many things were no longer as free as before.

There are always people above you, and they are all smart people. How can you not be cautious?

After the two of them returned to the post station with Mr. Huang, Liu Sanlang left first.

The next day, Zhang Ping'an and Liu Sanlang submitted a memorial to the court, expressing their desire to return home to visit their relatives.

In less than three days, the memorial was approved, which was very fast.

Because the two had not returned home for five years in the north, and the journey back to Lin'an was long, beyond the 500 miles stipulated by the court, the home leave was approved according to the maximum period, and each of them had three months of leave.

After the home visit leave is over, everyone can return to their respective positions and take up their posts.

After receiving the reply, Zhang Ping'an and his elder brother-in-law Liu Sanlang began to make large purchases in the capital. Although Lin'an might not lack anything, the gifts they brought back were at least a token of their thoughtfulness.

In the middle, he encountered a particularly disgusting thing. Liu Sanlang wanted to buy some small gadgets unique to the capital for the women in his family, such as New Year's purses, small jewelry, head flowers, etc.

They all looked fine when he looked at them, but he didn't understand women's things, so he just randomly pointed at the ones he thought were pretty and asked the store owner to pack them up.

When I got back to my residence and opened the boxes, I found that many of them were defective.

If it was something used by men, Liu Sanlang would be much more careful, but he really didn't know anything about women's things. Moreover, the shop was full of women, so he felt embarrassed to stay there for too long, and ended up being cheated.

Whether it's money or not is one thing, but this store is too dishonest in doing business, and I don't know how many people they have cheated.

Liu Sanlang didn't even have dinner. He picked up his bag and went back to the shop to find the owner.

I thought the transaction would take less than an hour, and since I was so big, the store owner would definitely be wary of me.

But the other party was not afraid at all and flatly denied it, "Sir, please don't wrongly accuse us. This thing was not sold by us at Linlang Pavilion. Go find whoever sold it to you!"

"I just bought it from you. I'm such a big guy, I don't believe you could have forgotten it!" Liu Sanlang was a little angry.

"Who saw it? Who can testify for you?" The shopkeeper asked calmly, moving the abacus beads with one hand and stroking his beard leisurely with the other.

"You! How can you do business like this? You are so shameless. Honesty is the basis of business. Your shop won't last long!" Liu Sanlang really didn't expect that there would be someone who would dare to play such a petty trick on him.

The waiter next to him was wiping the counter and seemed to want to say something but hesitated, as he was afraid of the shopkeeper and didn't dare to say anything.

The two argued for a while, but the shopkeeper just said, "No returns or exchanges. You didn't buy it from me!"

In the end, the bad guys were the first to file a complaint and threatened to report to the police to scare Liu Sanlang.

Liu Sanlang was so angry that he laughed. After putting down his bag, he sat in the hall with a big horse and a golden sword, and said in a deep voice: "Okay, report it to the police, report it quickly, if you don't report it, I will report it too!"

Everyone doing business in Beijing is a shrewd person. After hearing this, the shopkeeper hesitated for a while, wondering if this big guy had some background.

But looking at this man, he was dressed in ordinary clothes, without any accessories, and spoke honestly, and he didn't seem to have any connection with the government.

Moreover, when buying things, he stated that he was going to bring them back to his family when he returned home. The things he bought were not too expensive. It was obvious that he was an outsider and not a local Beijinger.

After hesitating for a while, the shopkeeper winked at the waiter and asked him to go forward and test the waters before making any plans.

Those defective products couldn't be sold at a high price, and he didn't want to let go of the careless buyer who finally found one.

Upon seeing this, the waiter served Liu Sanlang a cup of tea and asked a few tentative questions.

But Liu Sanlang didn't want to waste time talking to them anymore. He asked, "Didn't you say you were going to report this to the authorities? Go ahead. I'll be waiting right here."

The waiter looked at the shopkeeper in embarrassment.

The shopkeeper looked at Liu Sanlang a few more times, thinking it was bad luck, then waved the waiter over, whispered something to the waiter, and let the waiter go out.

At the same time, he did not forget to scold Liu Sanlang, saying, "My dear guest, I advise you to leave quickly. The officials in the capital are not to be trifled with. Don't get sued and imprisoned for such a small matter. That would not be worth it. I am saying this for your own good!"

"Boss, you don't have to worry about this," Liu Sanlang said in a deep voice.

After a while, the shopkeeper asked the waiter to call over a familiar official.

He was indeed a man from the yamen, and he was wearing the clothes of a yamen runner, with a ferocious expression on his face.

The two were shocked to see how big Liu Sanlang was, and their expressions unconsciously became more restrained.

They first asked what Liu Sanlang did for a living and where his ancestral home was. After learning that he was just an ordinary citizen, the two felt relieved.

After asking a few questions in a serious manner about what happened, the two men tried to get rid of Liu Sanlang by using both soft and hard tactics, and their attitude was very bad.

If it were the Liu Sanlang of the past, he might be afraid and choose to keep quiet, but he won’t do that now.

"So, you don't want to handle this matter fairly?" Liu Sanlang stood up, feeling oppressive.

One of the two yamen runners was shrewd. He felt something was amiss and unconsciously slowed down his tone before asking, "You didn't buy this thing in this shop either. So what do you want?"

"Just because you say it's not true, then it's not true? Come on, I'll go to the yamen with you and report to the authorities," Liu Sanlang said and strode out.

At this moment, the astute yamen runner finally remembered and patted his head, saying, "Could it be that you are the newly appointed commander of the Dragon God Guards by His Majesty, and were previously in the army?"

"Sir, do you know him?" the shopkeeper asked hurriedly.

"Oh, the flood really washed away the Dragon King Temple. I just forgot that when the emperor moved the capital, he was riding a horse in front to lead the way. I saw him once, but it was the first time I saw such a tall and strong person. Later I found out his identity after asking around. I heard that the emperor held a celebration banquet a few days ago, and he was among the people who were rewarded. The most important thing is, do you know who his brother-in-law is? He is a second-rank deputy privy councilor, and even our immediate superior, the Jingzhao Yin, has to serve him carefully. What should we do now? The matter has become a big deal!" The shrewd yamen runner said with a look of annoyance.

The other person was also shocked when he heard that Liu Sanlang was so powerful, and he started scolding the shopkeeper without saying anything.

The shopkeeper was so embarrassed by the scolding that he could only respond timidly and did not dare to talk back.

After the two yamen runners finished speaking, they hurried out to chase Liu Sanlang, hoping to persuade him to come back.

But the two men were far less strong than Liu Sanlang, and finally arrived at the Jingzhao Prefecture government office.

It was Jing Shaoyin who came out to receive him personally.

Jing Shaoyin was equivalent to the deputy of Jingzhaoyin, in charge of specific affairs such as taxes, prisons, etc.

After hearing what Liu Sanlang said, he was ashamed that such a thing happened in the shop below. Then he said that he would punish Liu Sanlang severely and asked someone to take Liu Sanlang back to the shop to return the goods.

Frankly speaking, Jing Shaoyin didn't think this was a big deal. He even found it a little funny. He advised, "Who are we? Who are they? There's no need to bother with them and only make things worse. Next time you encounter something like this, just send someone to the government office and tell them. It'll be a piece of cake to deal with these treacherous and cunning businessmen. You're really asking for trouble. You're making life impatient!"

The tone was full of a sense of superiority.

Liu Sanlang felt a little uncomfortable listening to this. "I'm not targeting anyone, nor am I trying to embarrass anyone. I know it's not easy for some small vendors to do business. I also come from a humble background, but this shop has gone too far this time. Now, because I have an official position and some connections, I can quickly solve the problem, but what about others? If other ordinary people encounter such things, won't they just suffer in silence? This shop's business methods are very problematic and they really need to change them!"

"Yes, Brother Liu, you are right. I will ask someone to accompany you to the store," Jing Shaoyin nodded and replied.

But he obviously didn't listen to a word of it. In his opinion, he could clearly use his power to suppress others, so why bother to be so serious? After all, it was ordinary people who suffered, not people of his class.

Seeing Liu Sanlang feeling very frustrated, he waved his hand and said, "No need, I'll go by myself. After my family visit is over, I will live in the capital. I can't control what I didn't see, but I can't ignore what I encountered. I'll wait and see the results of Master Xu's governance."

After saying this, he strode away with his bag.

When I returned to the shop, the shopkeeper quickly refunded my money and let me take any item in the shop.

But Liu Sanlang didn't want to buy from this store anymore, so he left after warning the shopkeeper.

Went to another store and bought something.