novelraw Chapter 68: Miss This Village and There's No Next Inn
Chapter 68: Miss This Village and There's No Next Inn
Li Qiuchen briefly told Liu Po the story he had just made up. Liu Po listened and nodded repeatedly, only saying don't worry about going to study. When you become a high official and come back, your godmother will also bask in the glory. As for the neighbors gossiping, don't bother yourself. This old woman will handle them properly.
The truly troublesome part was the old shopkeeper's side.
Taking advantage of the current lack of anyone in charge in town, Li Qiuchen asked him to use his connections to change his household registration to Blue Stone Platform's records.
This was simple to do, nothing more than modifying the town's household registration book. With the town mayor currently absent, there was absolutely no one supervising.
The key was finding the right person, someone who couldn't let word leak out afterward.
If someone really did investigate and trace back, Li Qiuchen's name was in the household registration book, and the Liu Po household was an established fact. There would be nothing to find fault with.
When changing the household registration, the old shopkeeper asked one more question: did he want to change his surname?
Li Qiuchen quickly said yes, yes, and not just the surname but the name too.
The name Chu Xiaohe would no longer be used. The household registration would write "Li Qiuchen."
He had previously not used his real name because Li Qiuchen was worried about the old peach tree crawling up from the ground to come collect a debt.Now, with the old peach tree's fate unknown, he had added another layer of concern.
That was, in the future when entering the county academy's inner court, once illusory realm trials were conducted, whether his real name might be exposed.
You had to know that in the backend, you could see the challenger's personal information.
If nobody was paying attention to you originally, but then they saw your name was wrong and it aroused suspicion, that would be counterproductive.
Weighing the two harms, he chose the lesser. Single-mindedly seeking stability didn't mean doing nothing at all.
Sometimes, in pursuit of greater security, you had to proactively bear certain risks that could be borne.
Li Qiuchen made this decision decisively and promptly. Within a few days, he congratulated himself in his heart for not being indecisive.
Because miss this village and there would be no next inn.
A few days later, the town mayor and Squire Zhao and his party returned from the county.
Still riding in the county's smoking small carriage, tut-tut-tutting up to the town entrance.
Over a dozen haggard, bedraggled old men stepped off the carriage, all bursting into tears.
It was terrifying.
Not just that they were frightened in their hearts, the townspeople also found it terrifying.
How come you all didn't die?
Weren't you all supposed to be locked in the death prison?
The Zhao family had already been in complete chaos for over two months. Each branch was fighting over dividing the inheritance until they nearly knocked each other's brains out and then Squire Zhao himself came back alive!
What a situation this had become.
These people's return was like a stone thrown into still water. The previously stagnant Blue Stone Platform instantly erupted.
All through the streets and alleys, various pieces of gossip circulated with no way to verify their truthfulness.
Some said the Zhao family had bribed the county magistrate. Others said the current county magistrate was fair and strict.
Regardless, these local worthies and clan elders had suffered no losses other than sitting in jail. Squire Zhao was still Squire Zhao, and the town mayor was still the town mayor.
With these people's return, order in Blue Stone Platform was also rapidly restored.
No one noticed that one extra name had appeared in the town's household registration book.
Squire Zhao was a capable man. After resting at home for a few days, he incidentally settled all the messy family affairs at the same time. The shops along the street reopened one by one, quickly restoring their former appearance.
On this day, he invited Liu Po and Li Qiuchen to his home for a banquet, formally expressing his thanks.
He was thanking them for saving the old master's life.
Expressing filial piety as a son was only part of the reason.
The other part couldn't be put on the table for discussion.
Old Master Zhao commanded great respect and prestige. As long as he was still alive, no matter how much chaos there was at home, the family absolutely couldn't be divided. If that last breath of his hadn't come back, that would be a different story. By the time Squire Zhao returned, he would probably have found only a complete mess at home.
After three rounds of wine and five courses of food, Squire Zhao finally revealed his true intentions.
First, he wanted to ask Liu Po to perform a ritual, sweeping through the Zhao household inside and out to dispel the inauspicious air.
The business with Mohe the Perfected Being honestly had nothing really to do with him. At most, he had donated some silver and eaten two of the man's pills.
Squire Zhao had many grievances he wanted to express.
As an ordinary mortal, where would he have the ability to tell whether someone was a real immortal or not?
Don't just talk about him. Whoever came, wouldn't he have to go through this same process?
He had originally planned to spend money to avert disaster, but hadn't expected that spending the money would instead bring the chamber pot down on his own head.
Adding to that all the messy family affairs at home, some had already escalated to an unmanageable degree.
For example, his third concubine had carried on secretly with the stable hand. His cousin was keeping a secret mistress outside... all these things had been exposed.
If you didn't give everyone a way to save face, family life truly couldn't go on afterward.
Performing a ritual, dispelling the inauspicious air, then drinking a big round of wine, everyone would muddle past this period in confusion and let it go.
Settle accounts slowly afterward.
In the past, this kind of work would definitely not have been Liu Po's turn. But as the saying went, right now there was nothing to choose from then there was a second matter, which was to recruit Li Qiuchen.
Blue Stone Platform had originally had garrison troops stationed there, along with local militia. The militia's wages were all paid by the Zhao family.
As a result, during the last incident, they were all swept away in one go.
The current Zhao family could be said to be strong in appearance but weak in substance. Sitting on a vast estate with no military protection, the intense sense of crisis made Squire Zhao uneasy.
He needed to recruit people.
A militia force had to be assembled as quickly as possible to dispel the covetous thoughts of those petty villains toward his family property.
Li Qiuchen was too young? Young age had its advantages. If it were a vigorous man in his thirties or forties, skilled with bow and horse, but with an unclear background, how would Squire Zhao dare bring him into the household?
Li Qiuchen was completely uninterested in this and politely declined Squire Zhao's recruitment.
What a joke. He was now a scholar... a person about to go study. Who cared about the Zhao family's meager militia wages?
Squire Zhao's worries were not without reason.
Not even two days after finishing that meal, a band of strongmen arrived in town through the wind and snow.
This was a merchant caravan returning from the Border Wilds. Over a hundred pack animals carried fully loaded cargo. Several dozen guards were all fully armed, appearing particularly sharp and formidable.
If it were just an armed merchant caravan, that would be one thing. Blue Stone Platform was a thoroughfare, and similar groups had been seen in past years. Merchant caravans willing to spend money on guards usually had strong backing. Even mountain bandits wouldn't dare approach when they saw one.
The key was that this merchant caravan didn't only have humans.
There were also Rakshasa ghosts and demons.
The Rakshasa ghosts had white hair and golden eyes, with twin horns on their heads, their appearance extremely terrifying. Even more terrifying was a large man in the caravan, standing a full zhang and two chi tall, with dense thick fur, two eight-chi-long giant swords on his back, looking like an earthly deity.
How could any normal person grow to look like this? A pure demon without question.
What proper merchant caravan needed to hire such terrifyingly powerful armed escorts? Would the profit from one round trip be enough to feed them?
Squire Zhao heard his servants report and went to stand at his doorway to look from a distance. He only felt his scalp tingle.
This formation, rather than saying it was a returning merchant caravan, looked much more like Rakshasa cavalry from the Border Wilds descending south.
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