Rebirth: From being expelled from the imperial court to becoming a high-ranking official

Lin Zhaotang has been in office for a few days.

Lin's wife was good at tidying up the household. As soon as she arrived, she started to clean up the inner court. As expected, Lin Zhaotang didn't have to do anything to settle the inner court.

Lin Zhaotang has been looking through past and unprocessed case files these days.

In the first few months before he took office, the county magistrate was in charge of handling cases at the county government office. So whenever Lin Zhaotang saw something he was unclear about, he would ask the county magistrate.

The county magistrate here is named Lu, he is in his forties, and is a juren. He looks quite friendly, but he is a bit careless in his work and knows nothing when asked.

"Has this case of brothers fighting over property and causing injury been submitted to the government office for review?"

"Here, here... let me see..."

County Magistrate Lu took the case file and looked at it, then thought for a moment and said, "It should have been submitted. However, the prosecutor has not yet arrived, so it should not have been approved yet."

Lin Zhaotang naturally knew that the prosecutor in the mansion had not yet taken office, but.

"Didn't this case happen last fall? How come it hasn't been approved yet?"

"Well, well... this isn't an urgent case, so it must have been missed..."

Lin Zhaotang frowned when he heard this.

Even though he usually had a good temper, he was a little angry at this moment.

……

"Has anyone reported any banditry in Qushan in the past few months?"

"Is there a bandit problem in Qushan? I don't think so...Your Excellency may not know that although Qushan is not peaceful, the area under the jurisdiction of our county is still quite quiet and nothing has happened."

Lin Zhaotang was a little confused. Since there was news of banditry in Qushan, why didn't anyone report it?

Could it be that all the bandit problems are in Pingle County?

Although Qushan belongs to two counties, it is not necessary to divide it so clearly.

"Have you received any reports of robbers in other places in recent months?"

"Sir, that's even worse. Our county has always been peaceful. The weather has been good in recent years. Who would go and rob people?"

Lin Zhaotang nodded and stopped worrying about this issue.

Seeing that Lin Zhaotang stopped asking questions and focused on the case file, the county magistrate spoke again:

"Sir, Mr. Lin has sent his visiting card twice. Why don't you see him? I heard that Mr. Lin's ancestors moved here from Fuyu County. Maybe he is your relative."

In fact, when Lin Zhaotang first took office, he was warmly received by several local gentry, including Mr. Lin.

However, when Mr. Lin later wanted to invite Lin Zhaotang to meet him again, he declined.

Lin Zhaotang was still flipping through the file: "I have just arrived and have a lot of things to do. Please help me reply."

Lin Zhaotang has been looking at case files and household tax books these days.

Before taking office, Lin Zhaotang knew that many county magistrates would leave a mess for their successors before leaving office, which could lead to mountains of cases or huge deficits.

Lin Zhaotang was mentally prepared. Fortunately, the previous county magistrate seemed to be a good person.

Although there are several unresolved cases, they are not very difficult as most of them have not been submitted to the government for approval.

Although there were some deficits, such as some overdue taxes that had not been collected, the amounts were not large, which made him feel relieved.

"Lord Lu, please sort out the cases on hand. The court will file the charges tomorrow. Don't delay."

The county magistrate said, "Yes, sir."

After the county magistrate left, Lin Zhaotang had almost finished reading the case files on hand, so he returned to the inner court.

When Lin's wife saw him coming back, she asked, "Have you finished your work so early?"

"Well, I've only been looking at some old case files these days. Tomorrow, when the case is heard in court, there may be some new details."

Mrs. Lin seemed to be in a good mood. She took a pair of velvet flowers and said, "I went for a walk on the street today and found that the velvet flowers in Xunlin County are different from those in our area. Look."

Lin Zhaotang looked at his wife happily and said with a smile: "It is indeed beautiful and suits you very well. Can I help you put it on?"

Mrs. Lin blushed and sat down.

Lin Zhaotang took the velvet flower and was about to put it on his wife when he heard his wife say, "I ran into someone while I was walking today. She looked like the wife of a wealthy family. When we chatted, we found out that her husband has the same surname as you, and his family also moved here from Fuyu County. We even said that maybe they are from the same family as you."

Lin Zhaotang paused before continuing to put the flower on his wife's head. He said softly, "How can my family have any relatives? Aren't we both orphans?"

"Even if they are not relatives, it would be good to acknowledge them. Looking at their attitude, we won't suffer any loss if they acknowledge us. We are all alone, and Yun'er doesn't even have any cousins. I don't want him to be alone like us in the future."

"How could that be? We can just give him some brothers and sisters in the future."

Lin Zhaotang always listened to his wife in everything. This was a rare occasion when he expressed his disagreement with his wife, and his wife was a little unhappy.

"Even if Yun'er has brothers and sisters, it won't prevent you from recognizing your relatives. You are making excuses, as if others are taking advantage of you. If you have a relative, you can help each other and have someone to discuss things with..."

Lin Zhaotang rarely agreed with his wife and just listened to her.

After a while, Lin's wife noticed that his face looked a little strange and different from usual.

Lin's wife immediately frowned: "What's with that expression? You just casually mentioned that you want to be recognized as a relative. They may not really recognize you even if you are willing."

Lin Zhaotang said slowly: "My wife, why should we recognize our own family? Aren't we living well enough on our own?"

"Even if our family is doing well, it doesn't matter if we recognize each other as our relatives. Then we can have someone to discuss things with."

Lin Zhaotang could only say: "I just feel that you and I are new here and don't know anything. If that person is a bad person, it will cause trouble and cause trouble."

When Mrs. Lin heard this, she thought it made sense and stopped nagging about it.

On the second day, when the court was opened for hearing, Lin Zhaotang sat in the hall early. The yamen runners stood solemnly on both sides, and the clerks also sat on one side, ready for battle.

Lin Zhaotang had never been in court, so he didn't know exactly what was going on in daily court.

But he sat in the hall for the whole morning and no one came.

In the afternoon, Lin Zhaotang asked the yamen runners and clerks to take a break and only left these two people by their side.

---

Under a shady wall outside the county government office, several yamen runners were squatting or standing, fanning themselves in the wind and chatting.

"Is the county magistrate waiting for someone to file a complaint? No one has come for half a day. Isn't that a bit bad?"

“It’s a bit embarrassing.”

"How about finding some cases for the county magistrate? One of his hangers-on just said that his neighbors had a fight over a cow. Why not let them come to the magistrate to settle the case?"

"Forget it. We don't know what Old Lu wants to do yet, so don't get involved. Besides, who knows what the county magistrate's temper is like? Let's just leave it alone for now."

---

Lin Zhaotang waited for a day, but found no case, so he closed the court and returned to the inner court on time.