The return of the son-in-law

Early the next morning, Guo Zhanan heard rustling sounds from outside.He got off the bed, put on a cloak, walked to the window, opened a gap, and saw Huo Yu throwing snowballs on the snow by himself.

Guo Zhan watched quietly for a while, and found that Huo Yu sometimes squatted on the ground and threw snowballs, and sometimes dodged left and right as if trying to avoid the snowballs thrown from the opposite side. He was having a great time playing alone.

Huo Yu's face was flushed from playing, he accidentally glanced at Guo Zhan'an by the window, threw a snowball and ran to the window, and greeted Guo Zhan'an with a smile: "Big brother, ah, no, good morning Mr. Guo."

Guo Zhan'an looked at the beads of sweat on Huo Yu's forehead and said, "Just call him big brother, where's your grandfather?"

"Grandpa woke up a long time ago. I found some rice in the kitchen last night and said it's for cooking porridge for us!" Sure enough, as soon as he talked about food, Huo Yu started chattering, "What do you want to eat in the morning, big brother?" Porridge? There used to be dried meat and pickles, but grandpa said that there might not be any today.”

Guo Zhan'an couldn't help thinking of what Elder Sun said yesterday. He told Huo Yu to wait a while, then turned around and brought his hand stove from the room and handed it to Huo Yu: "I'll lend you to use it for a while, don't catch a cold."

Huo Yu stretched out his hand to touch it, and immediately retracted it: "No need, big brother, you don't know, throwing snowballs is fun. I'm so hot that I'm sweating, but grandpa won't let me take off my clothes."

Seeing Huo Yu's refusal, Guo Zhan'an didn't try to persuade him much, but held the stove in his hands and said, "Your grandfather is right, you're sweating all over now, and when the wind blows, you'll catch a cold."

Huo Yu smiled and raised his hand to touch the back of his head: "I remember it! It's so uncomfortable to catch a cold, and I won't even let you eat delicious food. Is the eldest brother getting up? Do you want to eat together?"

"You can play for a while, I still have something to do."

"Oh." Huo Yu sensed the coldness in Guo Zhan'an's words, so he didn't ask any more questions, and ran to the courtyard to play again.

After Guo Zhanan changed his clothes and washed up, he went around to the kitchen to take a look.Inside, Mr. Sun was cooking porridge with a bitter face. When he saw Guo Zhanan coming, he patted his clothes, walked to the door and cupped his hands and said, "See you Mr. Guo."

"Old Sun, you're being polite," Guo Zhan'an said, looking at the boiling hot water and some rice grains in the pot, "Let's go out to eat in the morning, and then go buy rice and vegetables after eating."

Elder Sun hesitated: "This..."

Guo Zhan'an laughed: "It's not like we don't pay for nothing, so don't they want to do business?"

Thinking of the porridge that was so thin that it could only be regarded as rice soup, and thinking of Huo Yu who had been hungry all night, Elder Sun finally nodded: "Master Guo, please wait in the lobby for a while, I will call Yu'er over."

Huo Yu was very happy when he heard that he could go out for breakfast. He took the collar Guo Zhanan gave him and covered his ears tightly. Big brother, big brother, here I come, big brother!"

Old Sun followed behind, but he was too old to catch up with this tough guy, so he could only pull Huo Yu aside after entering the hall and educate him: "What did I tell you yesterday? Mr. Guo is an adult. Yu'er, don't be presumptuous."

Huo Yu pouted, and retorted: "Obviously it was Big Brother who said it, I can call him Big Brother, Grandpa, if you don't believe me, ask Big Brother."

Guo Zhanan waved his hand and said, "It's just a child, you can shout whatever you like, it's okay."

Old Sun's lips moved, but he still didn't say much.

Tonghua County is not big, but it is not small either.Fortunately, it's winter now, and there is no need to go to the fields to farm, and no one is willing to come out, so the three of them walked along the crowded place, and after a while, they saw two rows of early morning shops on the side of the road.

Huo Yu was almost stunned. He took Elder Sun's hand and said excitedly, "Grandpa, there's a lot of food here!"

Guo Zhan'an subconsciously glanced at Huo Yu, and found that his eyes were shining, and his cheering was not fake, so he couldn't help being a little puzzled—he was already 13 years old, could it be that he had been staying in the bandit village and never seen a normal person What is your life like?

Elder Sun subconsciously brought Huo Yu to his side, and whispered, "Yu'er, don't speak so loudly outside, it's your first time here, you must hold my hand, you know?"

Huo Yu nodded half-understood, he obviously listened to what Sun Lao said very much, his eyes kept rolling, looking at everything in front of him curiously, but his one hand was tightly grasping Sun Lao's.

Guo Zhanan led them to a wonton stand, and pointed three fingers at the boss: "Shopkeeper, here are three bowls of wontons."

As a result, the shopkeeper just glanced at him casually, then turned his head to talk to other people.

Elder Sun moved closer to Guo Zhanan and whispered, "They all look like this."

Guo Zhanan raised his eyebrows, raised his fingers and tapped on the stall twice, and repeated again: "Shopkeeper, here are three bowls of wontons."

The shopkeeper waved the colander and said nonchalantly, "It's gone, it's all sold out."

Huo Yu pointed to a pile of wontons that hadn't been cooked yet: "It's a lie, there are so many more."

The clumsy lie was exposed, and the shopkeeper became furious, and swung the colander as if to smash Huo Yu's head: "Little brat, why are you talking so much nonsense! See if I don't teach you a lesson for your parents!"

Elder Sun stretched out his hand to block it, then turned his head and scolded Huo Yu: "Yu'er, why did I tell you to tell you to be obedient, and you still interrupt me!"

Huo Yu pursed his lips in dissatisfaction, but he still didn't speak.

The dispute here soon attracted a group of onlookers. They pointed at Guo Zhan'an and the three of them. They whispered among the crowd, and vaguely heard words such as "outsider" and "barbaric".

Seeing more and more onlookers, the shopkeeper's attitude became more and more arrogant: "If you say no, you won't have it. Stay where it's cool. Don't hinder my business."

Guo Zhanan was faintly angry. He sneered and said, "So that's how you do business? I've never heard of any businessmen turning away customers!"

"Officer? What kind of official are you?" The shopkeeper didn't care. "I tell you, I have to follow my business. I said I won't do your business, but I won't do it. Go away!"

Seeing that the two sides were arguing, a voice came over: "What's the matter? Oh, isn't this Mr. Guo? Chen Sheng, you really don't know Taishan, even Mr. Guo can't recognize it?" Chen Xiehao While talking, he squeezed in and stood between Guo Zhanan and Chen Sheng.

"Master Guo? What Master Guo?" Chen Sheng waved the colander dissatisfied.

"Don't wave the colander, when will you fix your problem?" Chen Xiehao cursed, and then said, "This is Mr. Guo, the new magistrate of our county!"

Chen Sheng opened his mouth wide: "County magistrate, don't lie to me."

"Who lied to you? Mr. Guo just arrived in our Tonghua County yesterday. I wanted to tell you today, but I didn't expect to make trouble so early. Why don't you rush to apologize to Mr. Guo!"

The two pieces of meat on Chen Sheng's cheeks shook a few times, and finally put down the colander, and apologized to Guo Zhan'an: "Master Guo, I'm really sorry, I have eyes that don't know Mount Tai, please show mercy and let me go." .”

Guo Zhan'an was surprised by the change in Chen Sheng's attitude. It was just a few words of quarrel. At this time, Chen Sheng was completely different from before. His hands and back were trembling, obviously terrified.

Guo Zhanan waved his hand: "You are worrying too much, give us three bowls of wontons."

Chen Xiehao said, "What wontons are you eating? Master Guo, why not go to my house and eat my pickled vegetables and pork."

Guo Zhan'an smiled and refused: "I've bothered you once yesterday, so I won't go today. Besides, I can't go to your house every day to eat and drink, can I?"

Chen Xiehao didn't insist, but slapped his head instead: "Hey, I forgot, I will prepare rice, pickles, pork, sauced duck and so on for Mr. Guo today."

Guo Zhan'an introduced Mr. Sun who was behind him: "This is my accountant, the county magistrate will settle the money with Mr. Sun."

But Chen Xiehao said: "Master Guo is joking, how can this cost you money, no money."

Guo Zhanan shook his head: "It should be given, I will not lose a copper coin."

Chen Xiehao worked extremely fast, and in the afternoon, Elder Sun came to Guo Zhanan to report on today's expenditure.

"It's up to you to figure it out. I'll calculate it once a month, and you'll be in charge of it yourself." Guo Zhan'an put away the paperwork on the table and led Elder Sun outside, "How much money does he want?" More or less?"

Elder Sun put away the account book rigorously, and replied: "Originally it was missing, but I went outside and found out the price of rice and oil here, and calculated it for him according to the price outside."

Guo Zhanan nodded. He looked at the snow outside with his hands behind his back, and suddenly asked, "What do you think of Tonghua County?"

"It's very strange." Mr. Sun said bluntly, "I heard that the officials of the imperial court have always been changed every three years, but the previous county magistrate was always the county magistrate of Tonghua County before we came. And at that time, Boss Liu also brought Someone went down the mountain to snatch it once, and it is said that the county magistrate's house was completely bare, so he found some silver taels."

"But he was charged with embezzlement and bribery. He found a large amount of gold and silver from the secret room of his house." Guo Zhanan tapped his finger on the table twice, and continued, "And when Chen Sheng knew that I was the county magistrate in the morning, his His attitude changed suddenly, he was obviously afraid of me, could it have something to do with the previous county magistrate?"

Could it be because of what the previous county magistrate did in Tonghua County, which left a deep impression on the people in Tonghua County, making them subconsciously fear the identity of "county magistrate"?

Elder Sun thought for a while and said, "I'm not sure about this, but Tonghua County is very poor, so poor that even Boss Liu and his group don't bother to come and rob."

Tonghua County is very poor, but the money seized from the county magistrate's mansion far exceeds the appropriation of the imperial court and the taxes that should have been handed over in the past few years. Where did the extra money come from?

Guo Zhan'an only felt that there was a fog in front of him, and the truth was shrouded in this fog, and he couldn't see or touch it.

But after he thought about it, he temporarily put down his thoughts of finding the truth - this is a matter for the Ministry of Officials and Dali Temple, and it's not his turn as a small county magistrate to take care of it.

What's more, what he should do most now is how to manage Tonghua County well, so that he can stand out in three years, return to the capital as soon as possible, and let those who plot against him fall one by one!