Chapter 270: The Road to High Office 70

Chapter 270: The Road to High Office 70

——At the foot of Wanhu Mountain, there lived a thousand-year-old white fox who practiced cultivation.

Performing good deeds, exorcising evil spirits, combating wickedness, and righting wrongs.

People called him the White Fox Lord.

As the narration concluded, a dashing martial artist clad in white gracefully entered the stage...

The first grand performance of "White Fox" was arranged on the city tower.

Tens of thousands of spectators gathered, without selling tickets or charging fees—it was a theatrical tribute to celebrate the completion of the city wall repairs! Moreover, the performance would continue for three consecutive days, and only on the fourth day would it move to the Pear Garden Theater in Lingbei County for the fourth show.

But was it truly free?

Observing the enthusiastic crowd of tens of thousands, Xu Zeping sat under the city tower with Cheng Ge Er, watching the children running around selling snacks. He smiled silently.

Five days prior to the completion of the city wall repairs, he had done three things:

First, he had Clerk Chen dispatch vendors to neighboring counties to spread the word that "White Fox" would debut on the city tower of Lingbei County on March 30th.

Second, he tasked Officer Zeng with notifying the inns in Lingbei to prepare their rooms and dormitories, and instructed merchants to stock up on food.

Third, he directed the Town Heads to have the village chiefs gather local produce such as potatoes and frozen pears... and prepare whatever they had.

If a village was short on certain items, they could borrow from the government office and repay in silver after the grand performance.

Adults tend to be less wary of children, so Xu Zeping suggested that each village select a bold and articulate child to handle the food sales.

Everything went as Xu Zeping had planned. By last evening, all three inns in Lingbei County were fully occupied, and the food stalls along Jiling Street were bustling with activity.

Following yesterday's award ceremony, Xu Zeping wandered around Jiling Street. The visitors who came to watch the play were all affluent young masters and elders clad in fine cotton robes, and they were exceedingly generous with their spending on food.

"Tanghulu~ sweet and sour tanghulu~"

"Roasted sweet potatoes~ fragrant and sweet roasted sweet potatoes~"

..

The clear calls of the children selling snacks rang out through the crowd, accompanied by the jingling of copper coins.

Witnessing these scenes, the smile in Xu Zeping's eyes grew deeper.

"Pingping, do you want some roasted sweet potatoes?" Cheng Ge Er poked Xu Zeping's soft belly, enticed by the sweet aroma of the roasted sweet potatoes.

Cheng Ge Er, five and a half months pregnant, had a round belly that made him appear as though he were seven months along. This made Xu Zeping nervous every time they went out.

If it weren't for the doctor's advice that carrying twins required regular exercise to avoid risks during childbirth, Xu Zeping wouldn't have let him go to the embroidery workshop.

To prevent any accidents, Xu Zeping bought two young maids to serve them.

Every time they went out, Cheng Ge Er was accompanied by at least four people... and only then did Xu Zeping feel at ease.

Xu Zeping knew exactly what Cheng Ge Er was thinking.

He quickly called over the boy selling roasted sweet potatoes: "Kid, give me a roasted sweet potato. How much is it?"

The boy smiled and shook his head: "Minister Xu, I'll give you two for free."

"That won't do. I heard it's three coins per sweet potato, so here's six coins for you!"

Just as Xu Zeping was taking out money, the boy put down two sweet potatoes and ran away.

He dashed into the thick crowd and vanished in a flash.

Xu Zeping, clutching two roasted sweet potatoes, shook his head in resignation.

The three consecutive days of grand theatrical performances not only allowed the villagers of Lingbei County to earn enough to get by but also helped them tide over the food shortage for the next two weeks.

The three days of spectacular performances not only did not drive away the tourists but instead attracted even more visitors from other regions.

On the morning of the fourth day, tourists had already arrived from Liaobei Prefecture and even the Prefecture City.

At the same time, outside merchant caravans also entered Lingbei County along with the tourists.

Seeing these scenes, Xu Zeping finally breathed a sigh of relief—thank goodness, he had finally turned Lingbei's economy around.

With the economy thriving, Xu Zeping could relax for a while and was in no hurry to visit the various townships, as he needed to accompany his husband, Cheng Ge Er, during childbirth.

The doctor said that carrying twins made it hard for the babies to reach full term, and they were likely to be born prematurely.

The babies were due in early May, so on the third day of the fourth month, Xu Zeping accompanied Cheng Ge Er to Baoyue Tower to pick up the custom-made peace charms and had the craftsman make another identical pair.

After retrieving the peace charms, they packed them along with a few baby clothes and sent them to Yanjing in the afternoon.

Due to the surge in tourists, business at Sijichun was through the roof. Among Cheng Ge Er's four apprentices, only two were skilled enough to work independently, while the other two were still learning needlework. With Cheng Ge Er's belly getting bigger, they had no choice but to hire two embroidery workers from outside at a high cost of five taels of silver.

After hiring the two embroidery workers, they were assigned to embroider money pouches, handkerchiefs, and round fans featuring the wise and martial deity.

The business exploded instantly, and the rapid increase in business was something Mrs. Cao Zhou hadn't expected.

After hiring the embroidery workers, she hurried to the countryside to recruit more workers.

The second batch directly recruited ten workers.

"The White Fox" had a total of twenty performances, each one a hit that left the crowd craving more.

After word of mouth spread, the number of tourists attracted grew larger, and Lingbei County saw a continuous stream of visitors every day. Clearly, under Xu Zeping's unintentional guidance, the city had become a tourist hotspot.

The reason was none other than the fact that "The White Fox" had a large fan base from the original book.

With the economic development, the prices of land and shops in Lingbei County shot up, and every day there were people buying and selling land and shops, filling the county office's treasury with deed taxes.

Currently, the deed tax in the Great Jing Dynasty was four percent!

Every day when Xu Zeping went to work, he could see Clerk Yuan happily clicking away on the abacus.

"Minister Xu, we have found candidates for the clerk position. Would you like to take a look?"

As soon as Xu Zeping sat down on his chair, County Deputy Yang invited him to interview the clerk candidates.

Due to the wall repair project, many locals had developed a favorable impression of the county office, and even though the office couldn't pay salaries, they still applied for the three teams.

After Xu Zeping and County Deputy Yang picked and vetted them, they chose ten strong men for the labor team, two for the patrol team, and two for the constable team.

The two men from the labor team were moved to the kitchen team to cook and retire.

With the treasury now well-stocked, supporting twenty people across the three teams was no issue.

Among the three teams, the patrol team had the highest monthly salary, with one tael of silver, ten catties of white rice, and one catty of pork.

The monthly salary for both the strongmen and the runners was half a tael of silver, five catties of rice, and half a catty of pork.

Now, the government office has only six departments left vacant. Just yesterday, Xu Zeping was wondering when they’d recruit clerks, and today, someone showed up unexpectedly.

"Let’s go check it out."

"Good day, Minister Xu!"

When Xu Zeping and County Deputy Yang walked into the hall one after the other, a scholar in a worn-out robe quickly bowed and greeted him.

Hearing a voice that sounded familiar, Xu Zeping looked closer and recognized Qiao Yi, the scholar he’d guessed riddles with during the Lantern Festival.

"Scholar Qiao, lift your head. Let me take a look," Xu Zeping said with a smile, seated high on the dais.

Hearing this, Qiao Yi instinctively raised his head and saw the young official in robes seated above—it was the same person he’d guessed riddles with that day!

Qiao Yi was stunned and quickly bowed, saying, "I didn’t realize it was the county magistrate that day. Please forgive my rudeness."

Hearing this, County Deputy Yang exclaimed, "Sir, do you two know each other?"

Xu Zeping explained how they’d met, and County Deputy Yang remarked, "It must be fate."

"Scholar Qiao, with your academic credentials, why are you applying for a clerk position?"

Qiao Yi sighed, "Earlier this year, my mother fell seriously ill and passed away. We sold what little land we had to cover her medical bills, and now we’re out of food at home... and with the mourning period, I thought I’d try my luck applying for a clerk position."

After hearing this, Xu Zeping felt deeply sympathetic toward Scholar Qiao.

"Which department are you applying to work in?"

"I’m somewhat proficient in the Book of Rites and would like to apply for the Rites Department."

Xu Zeping tested him on drafting and reviewing official documents, and Qiao Yi performed quite well.

Satisfied, Xu Zeping had County Deputy Yang draw up a contract, hiring Qiao Yi as a clerk in the Rites Department of the Lingbei County government office, starting the day after tomorrow.

Xu Zeping was considerate, so before Qiao Yi could even ask, he had County Deputy Yang advance him a month’s salary to help him through this tough period.

As Cheng Ge Er’s pregnancy advanced, Xu Zeping was always on time for work, never lingering at the government office longer than needed.

As soon as his duties were done, he’d head straight home.

Time flew by, and before they knew it, it was August 27th.

By then, Cheng Ge Er was eight and a half months pregnant, her belly so big it looked like she’d stuffed a watermelon inside—she couldn’t even see her toes when she looked down.

Xu Zeping was on edge every day. There was an old saying that seven months is viable, but eight is not. He didn’t know why, but he silently prayed she’d make it past September 12th.

Even the bumper harvest from the rice-fish industry couldn’t ease the worry in Xu Zeping’s heart.

County Deputy Yang, Clerk Chen, and Clerk Yuan each raised rice fish in their own fields, releasing fish fry at different intervals.

County Deputy Yang released fish fry a month after planting the seedlings.

Clerk Chen released fish fry a month and a half after planting.

By mid-August, when the rice was ripe, County Deputy Yang’s mixed farming of carp and crucian carp proved the most successful, with each fish weighing around two catties.

The fish fry from other single-breed varieties, whether due to the lack of diversity or other reasons, did not grow as healthy and sturdy as those in mixed breeding, with the mature fish weighing just over one pound.

Following that were the fish raised by Clerk Chen, and finally those by Clerk Yuan. Perhaps because they were harvested too late, most of the fish at harvest weighed only half a pound to eight taels (approximately half a pound).

However, these three instances were still seen as successful examples, and they were already confident enough to promote the rice-fish farming method to the local community.

During this period, Xu Zeping and his partner also received a letter from Yanjing, letting them know that Su Yuheng had given birth to a healthy, chubby baby boy weighing six pounds on the fourth day of the fifth lunar month.

Xu Zeping's birthday was just two days away.

The sixth day of the fifth lunar month was Xu Zeping's birthday and also his capping ceremony—a traditional Chinese rite of passage marking adulthood.

With the elders not present and Cheng Ge Er having limited mobility, his capping ceremony was a modest affair.

Following the capping ceremony, Xu Zeping was officially recognized as an adult, and he was also granted his courtesy name—Yuanzhi.

Liu Huaizhi bestowed it upon him, wishing for his young disciple to embody a serene nature and a vast outlook.