Chapter 64: Strange Encounter at the County Government Office

  Whether it was the grand banquet or the evaluation the next day, Zu Zhao performed flawlessly without any flaws. He not only maintained his usual humble and gentle demeanor but also answered questions from the prefecture and local dignitaries in an orderly manner. Although he couldn't guarantee that everyone present would be satisfied, at least he didn't make anyone dissatisfied. For the conventional examination of this county, such a performance was undoubtedly considered qualified.

  Moreover, considering Liu Taishou's personality, he likes to follow the rules and be moderate. If there were any unusual actions, it would be even harder to make judgments based on personal experience.

  In the county government, they will stay until the end of the month. Following the traditional practice of selecting and recommending officials, all the upright scholars who have been recommended by each county should gather together once to meet each other, not only to wait for the announcement of the final evaluation results but also, as Liu Taishou said, to get a formal acquaintance with each other and leave some impression.

  The Youbei Pingjun County governs eight counties: Pinggang, Wuzhong, Junmei, Xuwu, Xiyang, Changcheng, Guangcheng and Tuyin. This year, each county jointly recommended eleven candidates for the imperial examination. Except for Zu Zhao, Tian Kai and Li Xin, there are three others who are truly virtuous and talented. The rest either have connections with the local government or spent a lot of money to gain fame. For some local wealthy families and landowners, they often open their granaries to help the poor and do good deeds to solve problems for the local government. It's not that these people have kind hearts, but rather they hope to get official titles for their children at the end of the year.

  Generally speaking, those who can arrive at the provincial capital on the tenth day are mostly real talents, and the later they arrive, the more they are seeking fame.

  Therefore, during the period when Zu Zhao stayed in the county government, he had almost no contact with those so-called Fang Zheng scholars who arrived late in the next few days. At most, it was at the evening banquet of the Taishou Mansion, where Liu Taishou himself introduced them to each other with a serious expression. It turned out that Liu Taishou was not tired of this kind of introduction, and he did not feel bored at all. On the contrary, he showed a very pleased attitude every time.

  By the seventeenth of this month, all the "xiancai" (virtuous and talented scholars) recommended by each county had arrived.

  Two consecutive days of banquets, until the third day was the final announcement of this year's evaluation results.

  Although there were banquets at the Taishou Mansion every night for over a decade, looking very extravagant and wasteful, Liu Taishou himself still cared about his reputation. Therefore, almost every banquet was just a show of grandeur. The food and drink on the table were not actually abundant. Each person had one table setting, with only three or four dishes per table. Occasionally there would be meat dishes, but they would be whole roasted sheep, chickens, or pigs placed in the center of the hall, cut into portions by servants according to instructions.

  Except for Li Xin and a few other poor families, every dinner party was a feast with plenty of food and drink. The rest of the people either maintained their dignity or despised the humble dishes, basically just going through the motions.

  On the 20th of this month, Beiyuan finally made a big move. Liu Taishou was very happy to cook beef and mutton, changing his usual low-key style, truly setting up a grand banquet. It can be said that during the entire period of inspection in the prefecture, only this dinner was a real feast.

  In the late afternoon, Zu Zhao and others went to the governor's mansion by invitation.

  The inn where everyone stayed was located on the west side of the governor's mansion. In order to save their legs, people didn't go all the way around to the main gate of the governor's mansion, but instead took a shortcut through the west gate used by the servants and miscellaneous workers coming and going from the west wing. As soon as they arrived at the west wing, they passed through a corridor and headed towards the central courtyard. Just then, seven or eight servants came face to face with them, all of whom were holding various dishes and ingredients, while the last three were pushing a small cart carrying a pile of miscellaneous items towards the west wing.

  Tian Kai and Li Xing, who were walking in the front, naturally dodged to the side. Zu Zhao was walking at the back, and only started moving forward after the people in front had avoided those laborers. He thought that by sidestepping he could avoid the last small cart, but just as he was doing so, he accidentally bumped into one of the laborers who was pushing the cart. The laborer was wearing rough clothing and had a slender build, but was actually a young woman.

  At the moment of collision, the other party was originally hanging his head low, but suddenly raised his eyes and glanced at Zu Zhao.

  Zu Zhaowu didn't pay attention to her at all, and hadn't even given her a proper look, but he keenly sensed that there was an unusual chill in her eyes. He subconsciously turned back, carefully sizing up the female servant for a moment, while she seemed to have come to her senses as well, hastily lowering her head again.

  The sharp chill in the air suddenly disappeared.

  At that moment, he caught a glimpse of a scar about two inches long on the woman's cheek. The wound had just scabbed over and was still fresh, but judging from this glance alone, it should have been inflicted by a sharp object. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't figure out what kind of sharp object could have injured an ordinary female servant like her.

  For a moment, thoughts were racing, and at the bottom of his heart, there was always a voice driving himself to figure out this matter.

  While hesitating, Li Xin's voice suddenly came from behind: "Zu brother, where are you and what are you doing?"

  Zu Zhao let out a sigh, detached from his thoughts, and reconsidered the moment just now. He could only mock himself for being overly suspicious - how could he have made any guesses based on just one glance and one facial expression? If he had really chased after him to ask questions earlier, he might have been mistaken for a troublemaker!

  He shook his head and followed him.

  Li Xìn waited for Zu Zhao at the gate for a while. When Zu Zhao came forward, he asked another question: "Brother Zu, what were you looking at just now?"

  Zu Zhao smiled and said, "Nothing much, just accidentally bumped into those servants."

  Li Xin nodded slightly and walked forward shoulder to shoulder with Zu Zhao. After a moment of contemplation, he spoke again: "I don't know if Brother Zu saw it just now? That..."

  Zu Zhao looked at Li Xin with a puzzled expression and asked: "What did you see?"

  Li Xian looked somewhat uncertain, not knowing how to start, but just a moment later, he finally said straightforwardly: "It was the porter of that cart I saw earlier, it seemed like a girl with injuries on her face. It's really strange."

  Zu Zhao was slightly stunned, not expecting that even Li Xin had noticed this. At this time, he pretended to comfort her by saying: "Oh, I saw it too. However, maybe this person is a female slave from somewhere else, and having some scars on her body is quite normal."

  He further persuaded himself in his heart: The Han Dynasty has not completely abolished slavery yet!

  Li Xin glanced at Zu Zhao, nodded slowly and sighed: "Brother Zu's words make sense. However, looking at the wound, it seems to be an arrow wound, so I am very suspicious in my heart. Is there such a miscellaneous servant in the governor's mansion, or is it a woman?"

  Zu Zhao was taken aback and hastily asked: "Arrow wound? Xian Yan brother, are you sure you're not mistaken?"

  Li Xinken said affirmatively: "My family has been hunters for two generations, and we are very familiar with bows and arrows. I can definitely say that it was an arrow wound."

  Zu Zhao slowly took a deep breath, and the doubts in his heart resurfaced. Although it's impossible to make a judgment based on just one glance, everyone has their own aura; if he were really just an ordinary miscellaneous servant, how could he have such an extraordinary aura that was different from ordinary people?

  Li Xìn saw Zu Zhāo's silence and couldn't help but ask: "Brother Zu, what's wrong? Don't you have any opinion?"

  Zu Chao said with an uncertain expression: "I'm not quite sure myself right now. Anyway, let's just leave it at that for now, after all this is the prefectural governor's residence and we outsiders don't dare to cause trouble easily."

  Li Xing originally wanted to say something, but after hearing what Zu Zhao said, he stopped himself from speaking.

  I highly recommend Xu Ke's early film "The Blade Guest", it has a lot of style!