The sickly son died young? After the marriage exchange, I will bring prosperity to his entire clan f

Seeing Du Mingxian's confident smile, he smiled along with her, his eyes filled with relief. However, he still said to her very seriously, "Don't worry, I will never do anything to betray you in this lifetime."

"Don't worry," Du Mingxian gently patted his chest. "If you dare to do anything to betray me, I'll just kill you."

"Okay." He smiled, his eyes serious. "If that day ever comes, I will kill myself."

"Alright, alright." Du Mingxian patted him dismissively. "You're the one who wants to hear what I did today, and you're the one who says sentimental things. Lord Qi, you've really changed."

Ling Silang smiled and said, "Let's eat."

After the two finished eating, Ling Silang went back to work, while Du Mingxian went to the back for a nap. She had really stayed up too late yesterday. Even though she was in good health and usually had spiritual water to nourish her, she couldn't withstand staying up until dawn. That man's energy was really boundless.

When she woke up from her afternoon nap, she saw Xiangyang standing excitedly outside the door.

"What good news have you heard?"

Xiangyang couldn't wait to share this with Du Mingxian, "Madam, this is some really big gossip!"

"Wait a moment, bring some tea, pastries, and melon seeds first, then we can sit down and listen slowly."

Soon, everything was ready, and they went directly to the pavilion in the center of the lake. It was surrounded by water, and the only way to get there was a wooden bridge. As long as someone came over, they would be able to see it, and it was very safe to talk.

"Alright, we can begin now." Du Mingxian adopted a listening posture.

Xiangyang was extremely excited. "Madam, let me tell you something really shocking, about the former magistrate."

"I never expected him to have such a fetish. With so many women around him, he would sometimes share them with the well-behaved yamen runners, and even with those he was on good terms with."

Du Mingxian shuddered, "What kind of fetish is this? This is absolutely perverted!"

"How did someone like that become an official? It's utterly shameless."

"He's from a prominent family. It seems he's made some mistake. His family used a lot of tricks to protect him, and in the end, they arranged for him to be an official here. They also send him money from time to time."

"Do you know why there's no furniture in our house? I heard that a lot of the furniture was the best, so when the former magistrate's wife left, she either took it with her or sold it."

Du Mingxian became interested and realized she would have to investigate which family this former magistrate came from.

"Any other gossip?"

"Yes, yes, please don't worry, Miss."

Next, Du Mingxian really got to eat one piece of gossip after another. The gossip was all rather chaotic, and it all revolved around the small circle of the county government.

For example, if a wife complains that her husband is impotent, she might end up having sex with his friends when he invites them over for drinks.

The man was naturally indignant and even cursed his brother. However, this brother had a good relationship with the former magistrate and stirred things up, causing the man to lose his position as a yamen runner.

The man shamelessly begged his brother again, even offering his wife as a sacrifice, and thus returned to the ranks of the yamen runners.

These are things that circulate among the yamen runners; outsiders really don't know about them.

The information these women in the backyard know is what their men usually find out and tell them when they get home, and they tell the women in the house not to spread it outside.

When the former magistrate was still alive, these women dared not spread the news, fearing that it would affect their husbands' jobs. They all kept their mouths tightly shut.

Now that the former magistrate is dead and gone, a new magistrate has arrived. In order to curry favor with this new magistrate, when they heard that Xiangyang liked to listen to gossip, they kept talking, guessing, and making things up, talking a lot and making a mess of things.

Of all these messages, Du Mingxian only heard one: the county government was in chaos, extremely chaotic.

With such a county government office and such yamen runners, how could Ling Silang be expected to manage it, and how could he possibly govern Ping County well?

These people used to follow the former magistrate, and they even dared to sleep with his concubines. Now they're following Ling Silang, a magistrate who has nothing, and he won't give them any special benefits.

It is difficult to go from extravagance to frugality.

The issues ahead are even more difficult to handle.

When Ling Silang returned that evening, Du Mingxian told him all this news. Ling Silang felt disgusted upon hearing it, and thinking about the way some people looked at him that day, he didn't tell Du Mingxian.

"Thank you, Madam. As long as we find out this information, I will have a solution, so there's no need to worry too much. We've only just arrived, so we can take our time to sort things out. Besides, our main purpose in coming here is to investigate the Ming King."

Du Mingxian knew, of course. "Now that you've become the magistrate of Ping County, you'll definitely govern the entire county well. Even the Prince of Ming is going to investigate, so you probably want to do a good job as the magistrate."

Ling Silang shook his head, "I can't do it well."

"But what happened?"

"Among those people are Mingwang's people, and others' people. If I want to investigate the case, what I have to do is appear to be honest and upright on the surface, but be corrupt in secret, so that I can become one of them."

That's a stain.

Du Mingxian understood this, and she believed that Ling Silang must understand it too. "We still need to ask the Crown Prince about this matter. If it is not handled properly, even if we find out who the Ming Prince is, we will still be regarded as corrupt officials, and it will be difficult to end the matter."

"Don't worry, I'll send a message to the Crown Prince in a bit to ask for his opinion. Anyway, we've just arrived and there are still many places to visit. We'll wait for the Crown Prince's reply when we have time."

"That's good. If there's anything you need me to do, just let me know. Or I can take Xia Yu to visit the villages outside and see how the people live. If it can help them, that would be even better."

"Thank you, but you shouldn't go. It's too risky. We're probably being watched every time we do something, so it's not convenient for us to go anywhere."