Royal Gold Medal County Magistrate

Night fell within the Feng Hua Brothel.

Xie Xian and Du Lingfeng were clinking glasses.

Over the past few days, the two had become quite close.

Xie Xian, being a man of “high education” who also mingled with a group of “bandits” in business, had naturally developed the ability to speak to people like people and to ghosts like ghosts.

Du Lingfeng had long lost any wariness in his heart, and the two only spoke of romance and pleasure, not of business.

After a few rounds of wine, Du Lingfeng, his face flushed, excitedly said, “Brother Xie's poetic talent has truly opened my eyes!”

“I only regret not meeting Brother Xie sooner! But when will you compose a complete poem?”

That depends on when the master can compose a complete one!

With such brilliant works already out there, showing you my own poems would be like slapping myself in the face!

Xie Xian's eyes darted around, and he picked up the Yin-Yang pot to fill Du Lingfeng's cup, then poured himself a glass of water, quickly downing it.

Waving his hand, he said, “I am ashamed, truly ashamed! This foolish brother can only compose poetry under the influence of alcohol... Alas, I cannot hold my liquor!”

“Given the chance, I will certainly compose a complete one! Brother Du, you are drunk. Let's call it a night. I'll send someone to take you home.”

Du Lingfeng drained the wine in his cup, pushed away the beauty in his arms, and said with a smile, “Alright! It's getting late. Then I'll look forward to Brother Xie's masterpiece! No need to send me off, I brought my own men...”

With that, he stood up and staggered out of the Feng Hua Brothel.

After he had gone far away, Xie Xian walked into the reception room deep inside the building.

Inside, a group of people were eating. Seeing Xie Xian enter, Zhou Tie asked, “Old Xie, how did it go?”

Xie Xian shrugged: "Same as before."

“I'm saying... is there a need to be so troublesome?! Why not just tie him up? Wouldn't we be able to mold him however we want?” Zhou Tie complained.

“No, what if we alert the enemy? Although Du Lingfeng is a salt smuggler, I think he's a decent person. I'll be frank with him tomorrow. Let's try to do this quickly.”

......

The next day, night.

Du Lingfeng rode in his sedan, heading to the Feng Hua Brothel as usual.

As soon as he stepped through the door, Xie Xian immediately grabbed his wrist.

Du Lingfeng was initially stunned. He raised his head and saw Xie Xian's serious expression, and asked in confusion, “Brother Xie, why are you grabbing me?”

“Come with me!” Xie Xian did not answer, pulling Du Lingfeng towards the second floor.

Du Lingfeng did not suspect anything and was led directly into a dark room.

The room had no windows, lit only by a few oil lamps.

After the two were seated, Du Lingfeng finally reacted and couldn't help but laugh, “Brother Xie, what kind of mystery are you playing with me?”

In the dim room, the flickering lamplight shone on Xie Xian's face, and he opened his mouth in a deep voice, “Brother Du, you are in great danger!”

“What?” Du Lingfeng's face furrowed, and a hint of vigilance rose in his heart: “Brother Xie, what do you mean by this?”

“Brother Du, if I'm not mistaken, you should be selling smuggled salt, right?”

As soon as these words came out, Du Lingfeng's hand instantly went into his sleeve, while coldly staring at Xie Xian.

His mind was constantly replaying his experiences with Xie Xian these past few days.

After thinking it over, he found no flaws and said calmly, “Brother Xie, selling smuggled salt is a business that gets you killed! How can you say such things randomly? I'm in the fur trade, you know that.”

“Fur trade?” Xie Xian smiled noncommittally: “If you were in the fur trade, you shouldn't be in Jianjiang at this time, you should be heading north.”

“No need to hide it anymore. You did business with the Sun family before, right? The Sun family head told me this personally.”

“Lies! This is definitely a lie!” Du Lingfeng tightened his grip on the dagger in his hand: “Although I don't know why the Sun family would slander me like this, has Brother Xie ever thought that since he buys smuggled salt, why would he tell you?”

“Does Brother Du know Fang Zheng Yi?”

Du Lingfeng frowned: “Of course I know. Fang Zheng Yi came to Jianjiang to provide disaster relief, who doesn't know? Didn't Brother Xie work for Fang Zheng Yi in the beginning?”

Xie Xian sighed: “That's right, I did work for him.”

“The Sun family initially colluded with Liu Xun, the Jianjiang prefect, and Fang Zheng Yi obtained evidence of this, but he did not report it. Instead, he privately took the Sun family for himself.”

“This time I returned to Jianjiang, the Sun family has always mistakenly thought that I came back to work for Fang Zheng Yi, so they told me the truth.”

“Brother Du, do you have anything else to say?”

Du Lingfeng's gaze began to wander: “Since Brother Xie has determined that I am selling smuggled salt, what else can I say?”

“If the Sun family had recognized me long ago, why did Brother Xie only seek me out in private today?”

Hearing this, Xie Xian's expression suddenly became tangled, seemingly with some pain: “I knew Brother Du before, and only learned of this matter two days ago, but I wanted to see what kind of person Brother Du is.”

“After knowing you for so long, I believe that Brother Du's character is naturally excellent. Moreover, this matter is ultimately unrelated to me, so why should I lose this friend?”

Du Lingfeng's expression eased slightly, but he still did not relax his vigilance: “Isn't Brother Xie working for Fang Zheng Yi? That Lord Fang is well-known in Jianjiang City, upright and selfless, wholeheartedly serving the people. I heard that you spent a lot of time with him when the disaster was severe.”

Xie Xian smiled disdainfully: “Heh? That's just the appearance Fang Zheng Yi puts on, otherwise how would he have annexed the Sun family?”

“To tell you the truth, the reason I helped him was because he promised me an official position.”

“For this illusory official position, this Feng Hua Brothel has long been surnamed Fang, not Xie! ”

“Oh? How do you say that?” Du Lingfeng became somewhat interested.

“When I established the Feng Hua Brothel, my original intention was to make money, but later Fang Zheng Yi found out about it and used the Feng Hua Brothel to attract wealthy merchants in the city to provide disaster relief for him.”

“After the disaster eased, he set his sights on the huge profits of the Feng Hua Brothel... Fang Zheng Yi promised me to be an official in the capital, on the condition that I transfer the Feng Hua Brothel to his family slave's name.”

“But after I returned to the capital with him, he made all kinds of excuses and abandoned me. In a fit of anger, I left a letter and returned to the Feng Hua Brothel.”

“Now, I am only nominally responsible for management in the building, but in reality, I have nothing to do with a single tael of profit... The word 'official' has two mouths, I was too naive and believed his nonsense!”

Next door, a group of people were eavesdropping on the wall.

Zhao Lie muttered, "Mister is really good now, daring to slander Master like this..."

Qian Desheng's eyes lit up, and with a happy expression, he turned and walked to the desk, picked up paper and pen, and wrote down everything Xie Xian said.

Zhao Lie curiously approached him, and when he saw that he was writing down the bad things Xie Xian said, he immediately reached out to stop him, and said angrily: "What are you doing?"

Qian Desheng licked his lips embarrassedly: "I'm out on business, I have to report to Master when I get back!"

Isn't that what I used to do when I was by His Majesty's side! What? Is Fang Zheng Yi more difficult to serve than the emperor?

Hehe, this time when I go back, I'll write a small report, and I'll be a confidant!

Seeing the two arguing, Zhou Tie also came over, looked at the content on the paper, and smiled contemptuously.

“You eunuch! A dog can't change eating shit!”

Qian Desheng sneered at him.

Damn Zhou Tie, I'll kill you when I get back! Let's see if Master believes you or me!

“Tear this thing up! Don't write down these messy things in the future, we're out here to do things, not to fight internally.” Zhao Lie said seriously.

Zhou Tie pulled him away and whispered, "Why bother with him? Break this old thing's legs when you get back! No one in the county has dared to write small reports for many years, let this old bastard write if he's not afraid of death!"