Chapter 2: The Wind Rises from Zhongshan Mountain Chapter 32: There are some people you can't afford to offend
In the main room, Zhao Shouzheng and Liu Yuanwai were both listening attentively to the noise in the west room. However, the thick wooden door was soundproof, so they could only hear Zhou Jijiu's faint sobbing.
"What's going on?" Zhao Shouzheng's eyes widened, thinking: "Could it be that my son has beaten Zhou Jijiu? What should I do then?"
He knew very well what crime it was for a citizen to beat an official.
Mr. Liu's face turned pale. He racked his brains but couldn't understand how a child of only fourteen or fifteen years old could make a fourth-rank official cry.
…
In the west room, Zhao Hao sat upright on a chair, looking expressionlessly at Zhou Jijiu who was kneeling in front of him and begging bitterly.
"You, Lord Zhou, are allowed to take advantage of others' misfortune, but I am not allowed to fight back?"
"Mr. Zhao, you misunderstood. Actually, I didn't want to come to your house at first." Zhou Jijiu hurriedly explained, "Before, I didn't dare to acknowledge this marriage because of Gao Xinzheng. Now that Mr. Gao has stepped down, I have nothing to worry about. I was planning to write a letter to apologize to Mr. Zhao and see if we can reconcile. But Mr. Liu kept instigating me, saying that even if Gao Xinzheng stepped down, your ancestor would never be able to recover. He also said how your ancestor held a grudge, and that his daughter would marry another Qian... I really believed his lies."
"You mean, it was Liu who instigated this?" Zhao Hao tapped his fingers on the table.
"I heard that he has married someone rich again, so he is anxious to break off the engagement with your family." Zhou Jijiu replied hurriedly.
"Oh?" Zhao Hao's heart moved, but when he asked, Zhou Jijiu didn't know the details. It was obvious that Liu Yuanwai kept his mouth shut on the matter.
Zhao Hao had no choice but to give up for now and turned around and said:
"Since you can't come up with the money, just help with the errands."
"Yes, yes, yes." Zhou Jijiu saw hope and nodded quickly, saying, "I will do whatever I can."
"My father took part in the provincial examination..."
"Leave it to me! I will recommend him directly and there is no need for him to participate in the examination!" Zhou Jijiu said immediately.
"There is also a guy called Fan Datong..."
"No problem, I'll recommend them all together." Zhou Jijiu said quickly.
"That wouldn't look good. Just let him pass the admission exam." Zhao Hao considered everything carefully. Fan Datong had always been uneducated and unskilled. If he was recommended, it would definitely cause a lot of controversy, which would implicate his father.
The world is big, and my father's career is the most important. When doing favors, I have to make sure that it does not affect Zhao Shouzheng.
"One more thing." Zhao Hao looked at him and said, "Help me get the qualification of a student supervisor. Is that easy?"
"It's not difficult, but we have to wait until after the Autumn Examination." Zhou Jijiu said hurriedly, "It's not that I intentionally delay it, but the court only makes the decision after the Autumn Examination in order to prevent anyone from taking shortcuts."
"Okay." Anyway, Zhao Hao had no plan to take the autumn examination. He just wanted to get the crown and belt of a deputy supervisor so that he could have a minimum of respectability.
This is actually the same thing as a rich landlord donating money to his wealthier family.
Unexpectedly, Zhou Jijiu feared that he would be dissatisfied, so he took the initiative to say: "The Imperial College will allow lay scholars to serve in the academy, saving you the trouble of donating money to the Ministry of Revenue."
"Scholar?" Zhao Hao's eyes lit up.
"It's different. But it's also much more respectable than the prison. Of course, the number of places is very limited." Zhou Jijiu shook his head and promised, "I will help Mr. Zhao get it done."
Zhao Hao originally planned to extort some more money, but a chief academic officer of the Imperial College could only do so much, and it was not as practical as a seventh-rank county magistrate.
"That's it for now, we'll talk about it later." He had no choice but to say, "Give me the engagement letter."
Zhou Jijiu originally came to cancel the engagement, so he naturally kept the engagement letter in his sleeve. Upon hearing this, he immediately took out an envelope and presented it to Zhao Hao with both hands.
Zhao Hao opened the envelope and found the same thing as last time. In addition to Zhao Shouzheng's engagement letter, there was also a note for five hundred taels of silver, probably the same one from last time.
Zhao Hao was no longer a nobody. He knew that people of status, especially officials, would not frequent money houses. They would ask their trusted servants to open an account, and daily money transactions would be made in the name of the servants, which could save a lot of trouble in various ways.
For example, today, Zhao Hao deposited the two thousand taels of silver directly into Gao Wu's account...
"How stingy." Zhao Hao is now worth more than 40,000 taels, so how could he care about a mere 500 taels.
But even a mosquito leg is still meat, so of course he won't retreat.
"Okay, let's go out." Zhao Hao put away the engagement letter and stood up leisurely.
"Mr. Zhao let me go?" Zhou Jijiu looked at Zhao Hao eagerly.
"It depends on your performance." Zhao Hao said irresponsibly.
"Yes, yes..." Zhou Jijiu nodded and stood up. How could he still have the bearing of a high-ranking official? He stretched out his hand to Zhao Hao and said, "Master Zhao, is my daughter's birth certificate also..."
"Ask my dad for it later." Zhao Hao said as he opened the door.
…
After coming out of the hall, Zhou Jijiu miraculously regained the composure of a fourth-rank official, except for two faint gray marks on his knees and his red eyes, which made it hard not to wonder what had just happened.
"Father." Zhao Hao clasped his fists towards Zhao Shouzheng and reported, "Grand Secretary has just given me a lot of persuasion, and I have realized that I should not be so stubborn. As the saying goes, it is better to resolve an grievance than to create one. Let's agree to cancel the engagement."
Zhou Jijiu also pulled up his beard and forced a smile, saying: "This child is teachable, this child is teachable."
Zhao Shouzheng was stunned for a moment, and when he saw Zhao Hao winking at him, he said nothing more. He went back to the east room, took out two engagement letters and handed them to his son.
Zhao Hao then handed the Zhou family's card back to Zhou Jijiu, and pretended to hand the other one to Liu Yuanwai.
Mr. Liu reached out his hand but got nothing.
"Where's the money?" Zhao Hao pulled his hand away and returned to his arrogant look. "Ten thousand taels of silver, not a penny less."
Compared to Zhou Jijiu, this guy is even more hateful.
"Didn't you say that it's better to resolve a feud than to create one?" Liu Yuanwai was confused and pointed at Zhou Jijiu. "Why did you retreat with him and not with me?"
Zhao Hao smiled and said, "Da Sicheng has already written an IOU and promised to collect the money slowly later, right?"
"Yes, yes, yes." How could Zhou Jijiu not cooperate ? He nodded and said, "I can't come up with so much money at once, so I can only collect it slowly. But Mr. Liu is worth millions, so this amount of money will definitely not be a problem for him."
"Huh?" Liu was stunned when he heard this, not knowing why Zhou Jijiu wanted to set a trap for him. But he would never believe that Zhou Jijiu would write this IOU.
"I have something else to do, so I'll be leaving first." Zhou Jijiu was afraid of getting into trouble again, so he bowed to everyone and left alone without paying any attention to Mr. Liu.
"This..." Mr. Liu could no longer see that Zhao Hao had a hold over Zhou Jijiu, so why was he still the vice president of the Dongting Merchants' Association?
After Zhou Jijiu left, he frowned and said to Zhao Hao and his son, "I don't care what method you used to deal with Zhou Jijiu, but the person who can blackmail Liu has not been born yet!"
"Then there's nothing to talk about." Zhao Hao also had a cold face, picked up the teacup and said, "Send the guests out!"
Gao Wu stood in front of the door and made a gesture of invitation.
Seeing that they were going to return empty-handed again today, Mr. Liu stamped his feet in anger and said, "Just wait and see, I will let you and your son know that there are some people you can't afford to offend!"
"I also say this to Mr. Liu." Zhao Hao stood at the door with his hands behind his back, watching Mr. Liu leave with a dusty face and a sneer on his face.
Zhao Shouzheng watched Mr. Liu disappear outside the wall, and then asked curiously, "What's so special about my son's poem that made Mr. Zhou so confused?"
Zhao Hao smiled faintly and said, "Because it was a love poem he wrote to Zhu Taiyu, a famous prostitute in Qinhuai."
"Zhu Taiyu?" Zhao Shouzheng had obviously heard of this name before, and said with an expert look, "I heard that she is a popular female historian this year. I'm afraid she won't be able to receive our Lord Jijiu, right?"
The famous prostitutes of Qinhuai River love talented and romantic men, followed by wealthy businessmen who spend money lavishly, and hate the officials of the dynasty the most. Because these people are stingy and like to put on airs, and most of them are old men...
"It was Duke Wei who paid a high price to invite her to accompany Zhou Jijiu." Zhao Hao scratched his nose awkwardly, feeling that this was not a question that a 14 or 15-year-old boy should discuss, so he said briefly: "Of course, Duke Wei did not come forward in person. He asked a man named Shao Daxia to do it."
"Shao Fang?" Zhao Shouzheng was stunned and said, "He is a strange man. It is said that there is nothing in the world that he cannot accomplish!"
Then he asked his son, "What did the Duke of Wei order Shao Fang to find the man surnamed Zhou for?"
"He wanted his youngest son Xu Bangning to inherit the title instead of his eldest son Xu Bangrui, so he asked Zhou Jijiu for help." Zhao Hao answered in a deep voice. If he was still guessing before, then Zhou Jijiu's performance had already proved it.
"So that's it." Zhao Shouzheng suddenly realized. He didn't expect that there was such a conspiracy behind the erotic poem.
According to the imperial system, if the sons of nobles wanted to inherit the title, they had to first enter the Imperial Academy's martial arts school to receive education, and then they could go to the capital to take the examination. If the Duke of Wei wanted to depose the eldest son and enthronize the youngest son, he had to first let his youngest son enter the Imperial Academy's martial arts school, and at the same time try to get the Imperial Academy to refuse admission to his eldest son, which required the cooperation of Zhou Jijiu.
"How did my son know about such a secret matter?" Zhao Shouzheng remembered something and asked hurriedly.
