The Daily Life of a Rich Peasant's Boy in the Imperial Examination

As soon as Sun Shan entered the guest room, Sister Yun came to greet him.

Suddenly noticing Sun Shan's listless appearance, he asked in surprise, "Brother Shan, what happened?"

Could it be that Prefect Liu beat me? After carefully examining the intact clothes, I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

If Magistrate Liu beat her, Yun-jie wondered if she should fight back.

Even superiors shouldn't bully people and let Brother Shan get beaten up for nothing.

Sun Shan shook his head.

Gui Ge'er said angrily, "Prefect Liu assigned Shan Ge a task, which is really too much."

Of course, he spoke in a very low voice when he said this, afraid that someone might overhear him.

Sister Yun asked, puzzled, "What mission?"

The fact that Brother Shan is so dejected suggests that this task must be extremely difficult.

Sun Shan handed the documents that Prefect Liu's advisor had given to Sister Yun.

Sister Yun opened her eyes wide, took a closer look, and finally understood what was going on.

He breathed a sigh of relief and comforted him in a relaxed tone, "Brother Shan, don't be angry. This kind of thing happens often. You'll encounter it sooner or later."

Sun Shan was taken aback and stared intently at Sister Yun.

Sister Yun, seemingly unaware of the situation, said, "Brother Shan, I've heard about the tax levies since I was a child. Our He family was also subject to them. Alas, there's nothing we can do about it. The tax rate in a place is fixed, and if some places can't pay, the tax will inevitably be levied on other places."

"Brother Shan, as you know, the He family is a wealthy family in the area, and we occasionally encounter situations like this. You're unlucky this year; you've been assigned a task."

Sun Shan asked in confusion, "Many members of the He family hold official positions; are they also assigned quotas?"

Sister Yun said helplessly, "Brother Shan, everyone knows each other in the court. Sometimes when we run into old acquaintances, we have to take care of them. We'll help if we can, but in this situation, we definitely have to accept it out of consideration for their feelings."

He paused, then added, "However, the amount allocated won't be too excessive. If the burden is too heavy, we won't agree to it."

Sister Yun looked at the tax amount allocated to Yuanlu County and patted her chest.

He said with good luck, "Brother Shan, the task given by Prefect Liu is not too difficult, we can still complete it."

Sister Yun also knew how much surplus grain the granaries in Yuanlu County had, and looking at the assigned tasks, she could reduce the number of trips to Dongting Lake by one or two.

His eyes darted around, as if he had thought of something.

So he asked, "Brother Shan, are you planning to draw grain from the granary, or levy additional grain from local wealthy households?"

The granary belonged to the government, but in effect, it belonged to Sun Shan.

The extra grain requisitioned from wealthy local households belonged to everyone, so Sun Shan wouldn't lose out.

Sister Yun knew some of the ways of officialdom; very few officials would willingly sacrifice themselves to feed a tiger.

Usually, the task is simply delegated to someone else, since it's someone else who suffers the loss, and the officials don't care.

Sun Shan looked at the task given by Prefect Liu, but he didn't know how Prefect Liu had figured it out.

Then he thought of the surplus grain in the granary that had not yet been sold, and he also thought of the local wealthy households, such as County Magistrate Wang and Inspector Liang.

Should the grain tax be collected from the government granary, or should it be levied on wealthy households like Magistrate Wang and Inspector Liang?

Sun Shan remained silent for a while before saying, "Let's discuss this further when we get back to Yuanlu."

Sister Yun and Brother Gui wisely shut up. Brother Shan was right; it wasn't easy to discuss things outside. They could only talk freely back in Yuanlu.

The next day, Sun Shan got up early to prepare for a meeting at the government office.

To be honest, I really didn't want to go to the meeting, and I didn't want to see Prefect Liu's hypocritical behavior.

Sun Shan wished he could punch him and make him disappear on the spot.

As I stepped out of the courtyard, I ran into Magistrate Shen again.

He's like a persistent ghost, he's everywhere.

Magistrate Shen greeted him warmly as always: "Brother Sun, you've arrived? Let's go over together."

Sun Shan was unwilling, but Magistrate Shen had no choice but to pull him into the carriage.

Magistrate Shen comforted Sun Shan in a low voice: "Brother Sun, were you scolded by Prefect Liu yesterday?"

Having discreetly observed that Sun Shan's expression remained unchanged, Magistrate Shen became even more convinced that Sun Shan had been reprimanded.

Sun Shan is being stubborn and pretending nothing's wrong.

Oh dear, that's how young people are. Back in his day, he was just as stubborn and prideful.

But after experiencing more, I became indifferent, or rather, I became thick-skinned.

Magistrate Shen continued to comfort him, saying, "Brother Sun, just pretend that Prefect Liu didn't say anything. We are officials appointed by the imperial court, not Prefect Liu."

Our officials are still able to hold their positions steadily and securely, aren't they? Prefect Liu's temperament is inherently bad, so don't take it to heart.

"Brother Sun, to be honest, I often get scolded by Prefect Liu. I know him best; once he's scolded, it's all over, and we can even get along well in the future."

Magistrate Shen tried to comfort Sun Shan in various ways, but all he said was nonsense, which only made Sun Shan feel worse.

Finally, Sun Shan had no choice but to speak: "Magistrate Shen, I understand what you mean. Say no more, we've arrived at the government office."

Magistrate Shen immediately shut up and nodded seriously: "Brother Sun, I understand. Walls have ears. Let's go back to the post station and talk about it."

Sun Shan: ...

To hell with Magistrate Shen.

At his age, he's still so foolish; no wonder he's been stuck in the position of county magistrate in Chenzhou Prefecture.

It seems that Magistrate Shen will only ever be a low-ranking official of the seventh grade, and it's unlikely he'll ever climb any higher.

The carriage stopped in front of the government office. Sun Shan tried to shake off Magistrate Shen, but he couldn't. The two of them had no choice but to go inside together.

As soon as I stepped into the reception room, I heard voices.

When I went inside, I found that all of them were colleagues I hadn't seen for a year.

Sun Shan and Magistrate Shen bowed and greeted their colleagues.

Since they weren't new colleagues, everyone took the opportunity of Prefect Liu's arrival to exchange a few pleasantries.

Magistrate Zou of Yuanling County greeted him with a smile, "Lord Sun, Lord Shen, you've arrived? Is everything going smoothly?"

Sun Shan replied with a smile, "Colleague Shen, it's been a long time. How have you been?"

Magistrate Zou looked at Sun Shan with a broad smile.

He said cheerfully, "Good, everything is good. I am happy to see Lord Sun again."

This is absolutely true. Magistrate Zou's smile was so bright and sunny, just like the sunshine outside, warming people's hearts.

Sun Shan had just been assigned a task by Prefect Liu when Magistrate Zou learned of it.

Instantly I felt refreshed, and life seemed so wonderful.

Over the years, Prefect Liu has been forcing himself to take on responsibilities, claiming that he is the wealthiest magistrate in Chenzhou Prefecture and that as the senior official, it is only right that he should take on more important tasks.

These words made Magistrate Zou so angry that he vomited blood.

Pie, pie, pie, send your head.

If you keep trying to take advantage of others, no matter how rich you are, you'll eventually be completely fleeced.

Whether they were ordinary people or wealthy households, everyone under his jurisdiction complained endlessly.

Suddenly, in the latter half of this year, Prefect Liu, for some unknown reason, abandoned Shang County and instead targeted Sun Shan for exploitation.

This made Magistrate Zou so happy that he shed several bowls of tears.

Heavens above, earth below, we've finally shaken off Prefect Liu.

Finally, an innocent lamb fell into the clutches of Prefect Liu and was fleeced.