Chapter 59: The Liu Family: The Magistrate's Silent Treatment

"They made him a local magistrate, not an actual parent."

Not far from the sparsely populated Liu family porridge stall and orphanage, Liu Zilin, whose temper was always fiery, wore an unusually calm expression today. He turned and spoke earnestly to his two elder brothers.

Liu Ziwen remained silent, quietly gazing at the cold and desolate porridge stall and orphanage.

Currently, the price of rice in Dragon City had dropped to an extremely low level. Anyone with a bit of family wealth did not have to worry about food, while those without any were at the disaster-relief camp outside the city. Even if some opportunistic commoners came to take advantage of the free handouts, they would simply collect a bowl of porridge in the morning or evening and leave.

No longer was anyone standing anxiously by the porridge stall, starving and waiting eagerly for a bowl of watery gruel.

Everywhere in Dragon City County, labor was being recruited. As long as a refugee had a functioning arm and leg, they could find odd jobs, earn a wage, and eat their fill. No one wasted time waiting around here.

The orphanage was even more so.

Word had it that a new female secretary at the county yamen had cleared out a section of the official residences to establish an infant-care bureau specifically to take in abandoned orphans.

She had even recruited a large number of childbearing-age women from the suburban disaster-relief camp to exclusively raise the children. Their wages were not much less than those of dock laborers, and the work was much easier. Countless refugee women fought eagerly to get in...

So here at the Liu family... this time, they truly seemed to be acting as benefactors.

Since the eldest brother remained silent, Liu Zi'an and Liu Zilin could only stand honestly beside him, keeping their mouths shut.

Behind the three brothers, an old steward who had long managed the porridge stall and orphanage stood with his back hunched and head bowed, waiting awkwardly.

"Shut it down for now."

Liu Zi'an turned his head and spoke first.

He had originally been inside the sword shop staring at a certain swordsmith and sword furnace when Liu Ziwen suddenly sent someone to summon him. Their third brother, Zilin, had probably been fetched the same way.

Liu Zi'an naturally had the look of a sickly invalid. Right now, lowering his eyelids to look at those two old-fashioned, money-losing burdens, his expression was somewhat bored and indifferent.

At present, the source of wealth for the towering tree that was the Liu family was not the porridge stall or the orphanage at all. Holding the cash cow that was the Guyue Sword Shop in their hands, the former at best only earned them some pocket money.

The poor people of Dragon City County could no longer be squeezed for any profit; if they wanted to make money, they had to earn it from the powerful and wealthy elites of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Liu Zi'an had long advised his eldest brother to close them down, but as he could see, the latter naturally hadn't listened.

Hearing the second young master's words, the old porridge stall steward immediately wore a bitter expression and spoke in a flustered manner, "Young Master, it's our incompetence. Perhaps we should follow the Second Young Master's instructions..."

"The porridge stall and the orphanage cannot fall."

Liu Ziwen said earnestly, stating a fact.

He turned around, raised his hand to straighten the trembling old steward's hat, and said calmly,

"Uncle Tai has done a fine job over the years, and our father's porridge stall has always been meticulously tended by you. You've worked hard. Hold on a little longer; after this year passes, Uncle Tai can go to the procurement bureau of the sword shop and pick an easy position to spend his old age."

"It's no hardship, no hardship at all! To think the Young Master still remembers this old servant..." Uncle Tai wept tears of gratitude.

Liu Ziwen waved his hand.

Liu Zi'an watched coldly from the sidelines.

Liu Zilin didn't care at all. Right now, he was focused entirely on one thing, nagging right beside his eldest and second brothers to undermine a certain arrogant magistrate.

"Eldest Brother, the closing of the porridge stall is a small matter, but the loss of our Liu family's face is a huge one! He has been in office for so many days, yet he still hasn't come to our Liu family to pay his respects!"

Ignoring him, Liu Ziwen led his second and third brothers to each collect a bowl of hot porridge to drink. He lowered his head, finished it in silence, and shook his head, saying,

"It's a bit too watery. Make the batches in the pots thicker next time."

"Yes, Young Master."

As Uncle Tai left, bowing and scraping, Liu Ziwen didn't even look back as he rebuked, "Drink up!"

Liu Zi'an, who had been lowering his head to sip his porridge, drained the remaining half-bowl in one gulp.

Liu Zilin, still muttering, panicked, hurriedly tilted his head back, and poured the last mouthful of hot porridge—complete with the bits clinging to the rim—straight into his stomach. The motion was too violent, causing him to cough heavily until his nose and mouth were covered in it.

The Liu family's young master looked at his two puzzled younger brothers and asked,

"Have you forgotten our father?"

Liu Zi_an fell silent, and Liu Zilin's expression tightened.

The latter gritted his teeth.

"Not forgotten. It was this bunch of lowly commoners who killed Father!

"In the disaster year, Father kindly opened the porridge stall to give relief to these wretches. Once the grain ran out, naturally we had to reduce the number of porridge stalls. These ungrateful wretches, instead, instigated by people with ulterior motives, clashed with Father and ransacked the Liu family estate."

Liu Zi'an also said coldly,

"And that new magistrate who came after Master Di left—he was envious of Father's reputation for benevolence and coveted our family's wealth. When disaster victims starved to death, he framed us, claiming Father had poisoned the porridge, and extracted confessions through torture. How fickle the world is; not a single person spoke up for Father."

Liu Ziwen stared at his two younger brothers. "Before Father breathed his last with his grievances unredressed, do you know what he said to me?"

Liu Zi'an and Liu Zilin both shook their heads.

"He told me to keep the porridge stall running."

A heavy silence fell.

Liu Ziwen suddenly smiled, pointing his finger at the porridge stall and orphanage ahead, and said,

"A spoonful of rice breeds gratitude, a peck of rice breeds enmity. Very well, then our Liu family will simply change the way we run it. Look, don't the commoners throughout the county now praise our Liu family as great benefactors? Is there a single one who dares curse us?"

He nodded again,

"Therefore, as long as I am alive, Father's porridge stall must remain open."

Liu Zi'an nodded coldly, "We will not allow such unruly commoners to exist in Dragon City County ever again."

A fierce glight flashed in Liu Zilin's eyes as he said with bitter hatred, "Nor will we allow any magistrate with a backbone to exist. Either we decapitate them, or they kneel down and act like dogs!"

Liu Zi_an and Liu Zilin patted their younger brothers' shoulders firmly.

Before long, the three left the porridge stall and returned to their carriage.

On the way back,

Liu Ziwen glanced at the bustling streets celebrating the tail end of the Dragon Boat Festival, lowered the carriage curtain, and turned to his second brother—who possessed a deep and inscrutable mind, keeping his ambitions well-hidden—and said,

"Keep a close eye on the sword shop. You were right last time; right now is not the time to stir up too big of a storm. The calmer the situation in Dragon City County, the better. The matters of the sword shop are paramount!"

Liu Zilin was displeased. "Are we just going to sit here and watch that fellow surnamed Ouyang be so arrogant?"

Liu Ziwen glanced at his third brother, his expression normal.

"Naturally, we won't let him swallow his meat so easily. Since they are a flock of sheep driven in from the outside, and Dragon City County has more than just one wolf, we'll all feed together, or even turn around and eat him up instead..."

The Liu family's young master chuckled lightly. "Once the price of grain drops below five coins per dou in the next couple of days, we will step in and buy at the bottom."

A smile touched the corner of Liu Zi'an's mouth as he nodded, "Rest assured, Eldest Brother. I've been watching it the whole time and have everything prepared."

"However, these things must be done quietly. Once the price of grain drops to being worthless, Second Brother can take the Liu family's sincerity and go find Shopkeeper Ma, Shopkeeper Li, and the others. Adding flowers to a brocade is never as easy to make friends with as sending charcoal in the snow."

The more Liu Zilin listened, the more flushed his face became. If the carriage hadn't been so cramped and bumpy, he would have stood up, excitedly pacing back and forth while rubbing his hands.

"Well intercepted by Eldest Brother and Second Brother! Snatching the harvest—I love snatching the harvest the most! Hahaha, by then, the face of that dog official surnamed Ouyang is bound to be a sight to behold!"

Liu Ziwen turned to ask, "I told you last time to think carefully about how to set your broken leg back into place. Have you figured out what to do?"

Liu Zilin nodded forcefully, his face excited, "I've thought it through! I've been preparing for this leg-setting for ages! Didn't Eldest Brother say, what skill is there in merely killing someone? Breaking their spirit is the ultimate mastery!"

Liu Ziwen said indifferently, "Very well, when we get back, talk it over and let your second brother vet it for you. Soft knives sometimes don't draw blood, but occasionally you still need a hard knife."

Having given these instructions, the Liu family's young master couldn't help but sigh,

"Why put oneself through this? To stubbornly hold out for so long, and now it's the plum rain season—without our Liu family's craftsmen, are they still going to repair the Di Public Sluice or not?

"They just have to smash their heads bloody before they bother to look up and see the path clearly. Coming to Dragon City just to do one thing? Indeed, it's just one thing... coming over to share a meal and admit their mistake."

The three Liu brothers exchanged glances and laughed in unison.

Soon, the carriage slowly stopped in front of the tall stone lions at the entrance of the grand Liu family estate.

The three brothers—Liu Ziwen, Liu Zi_an, and Liu Zilin—got out of the carriage, ready to step inside and attend to their respective affairs.

Suddenly, a lame servant boy who had been waiting at the entrance for a long time rushed up with a serious expression and blurted out,

"First Master, Second Master, Third Master, this is bad! This afternoon, the magistrate suddenly held a gathering in the main hall of the county yamen. Not only did he invite the sixteen external grain merchants still remaining in Dragon City, but he also invited twelve other local gentry and landlords, yet solely... he did not invite us!"

The three Liu brothers froze in unison.

Liu Zi_an's usually calm and steady expression suddenly shifted, and a bad premonition rose in his heart.