Now is not the time to speak. The officials of Lin'an County have left with Chang Laifu. As he left, he clearly saw that the eyes of those officials fell directly on the carriage loaded with silver, and he had to take a greedy look at Chang Laifu, who was walking in front of him, and then withdrew his gaze.

The road in Lin'an County is not wide, because it is a nongxian county, the road is only suitable for ox carts to pass by, but a horse shed is set up at the entrance, and the horses and vehicles brought by Li Xiao and his party can be temporarily placed there.

There are some bumps along the way, and there are stones protruding in several places, and it is not like in Jingshi City, it is a road paved with bluestone slabs, but a dirt road, potholes, and it is not very comfortable to walk on it. Lin'an County has money, but it is not good to improve the living conditions, it seems that the life of Lin'an County is not good. This can be seen from the people of Lin'an County who hid in the shade on both sides.

The people in the houses on both sides timidly peeked at Li Xiao and a few people on the country road, there was a little girl from a peasant family who wanted to speak, but was covered by the elders of the family into the house, the old man who was hiding in the shade of the tree and lying on the rattan chair got up quickly at this time, and with the help of his family, he went back to the house, and the old yellow dog on the side whined twice, followed into the house, and even the birds on the branches squeaked and hid inside. In an instant, Lin'an County, which was originally immersed in the quiet and quiet farming, was bustling a few times because of the arrival of a few uninvited guests.

"Your Excellency." Ding Tianer, the county lieutenant who led the way in front, turned around and shouted, he was obviously in a good mood after receiving the blue jade wine glass worth one hundred taels, and his face was full of smiles all the way.

County Lieutenant Ding and Mei Youqian are addicted to wine, and a good wine glass with a pot of wine is worth a hundred taels of gold for them. And Chang Laifu is lustful, from the beginning of the meeting, his eyes fell on Chu Chu intentionally or unintentionally. The little girl is really smart, but Li Xiao can't use the little girl as a bargaining chip to hand it over to Chang Laifu.

I have to say that the files about Taicang Eight Counties obtained by the procuratorate are really useful, although his errand here is to grow chili peppers, but knowing himself and his opponent will not be harmful to what he is doing next. However, he believed that the errand given to him by the emperor would never be so simple, and their trouble-loving Emperor His Majesty didn't know what he was thinking this time, Rao was from the same world as him, and now he couldn't guess the thoughts of this fellow.

People change, especially when it comes to the temptation of power and money.

Ding Tianer touched the jade cup in his arms, rubbed his hands, squinted and said with a smile: "My lord, the road is not easy to walk, you should walk slower and be careful." ”

County Lieutenant Ding was only kindly reminded because of the Lantian Jade Cup, but in Li Xiao's ears, there was another meaning, since the incident on Wencheng Street, the latter has been more vigilant and easy to think about it. But then again, the road here is not easy to walk, it is not as smooth as the Jingshi City, but there are other strange stone roads that are easy to walk, and there is no official road along the way to walk realistically. Although it is a little soft to walk on the top, every time it is only a few steps, there are raised stones blocking the way, and it is really uncomfortable to stumble.

Li Xiao glanced back at Zhou Shuyi, who was full of solemnity, and held Chu Chu, who almost fell to the ground because of the raised pebble, and said, "Thank you for reminding me." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, a bamboo ball suddenly rolled at his feet, full of dirt, the original white and tender surface, now it has become black, and several broken places are also obviously repaired, look closely, this is a child's plaything.

lowered his body and was about to pick up the bamboo ball, Zhou Shuyi behind him stepped forward quickly, and picked it up first, since Zhou joined the army and entered Lin'an County, Li Xiao has always felt that something is wrong, he is too sensitive not to say, and he always looks serious, and even the official of Jingzhao Yin Mansion next to him has become nervous. There is definitely something strange about this Lin'an County, and Zhou Senjun should know something.

"My lord, are you alright?" Ding Tianer stepped forward quickly and asked busily. looked Li Xiao up and down, and saw that the latter was fine, so he turned his head to look at the owner of the bamboo ball, changed his face, and bared his teeth: "Whose bastard thing, if you hurt Lord Li, you can afford it?" ”

He glanced at the audience, and finally his eyes fell on the two or three children hiding behind an old locust tree, and he rolled up his sleeves and was about to step forward.

"County Lieutenant Ding, children's play, don't take it to heart." Li Xiao stopped Ding Tianer, who was about to come forward, and said with a smile. Then he took the bamboo ball in Zhou Shuyi's hand, walked slowly to the child, squatted down, and handed the bamboo ball in his hand to the latter.

Several children looked at each other, not knowing for a moment whether to take it or not.

"Adults forgive sins, children are ignorant and dirty your hands." A peasant woman ran out of the house on the side, who looked to be twenty-five or sixteen years old, but her face was full of vicissitudes, and the coarse linen clothes on her body and the linen scarf with her hair bun made the peasant woman much older, and there was a black birthmark on the woman's face, which was not very good-looking. In fact, it's not just her, most of the women I saw along the way had a few scars on their faces, or birthmarks, and they didn't look good. This made Li Xiao wonder if this Lin'an County had bad feng shui, and there was not even a beauty.

The peasant woman ran quickly to Li Xiao, and was busy kneeling and kowtowing, her tone was panicked, and her body trembled significantly. When the little girl on the side saw her mother's appearance, although she was ignorant, a few tears flashed in her eyes, and one of them knelt down with the woman, ignoring the dust on the ground, while the other two children froze in place, helpless and did not know what to do.

Li Xiao was a little surprised, and his hand holding the bamboo ball stopped in the air, not knowing whether to put it down or what. He frowned slightly, and said, "It's just a child's play, get up quickly, the ground is dirty." ”

The peasant woman remained on her knees, not daring to get up, and begged for mercy again and again.

"Since the adults asked you to get up, then get up, why, do you like to kneel so much?" Ding Tianer took a step forward and scolded the peasant woman sharply, then spat his lips and scolded in a low voice: "Cheap bones." ”

The last few words fell on Li Xiao's ears without omission, making him frown.

The biggest difference between officials and the people is the identity of the two.

The peasant woman timidly glanced up at Ding Tianer, and then looked at Li Xiao. The latter was so handsome that she lost her mind for a moment. With trembling hands, she took the bamboo ball from the latter's hand.

Li Xiao shrugged her shoulders, stood up, and wanted to touch the little girl's bun, but the peasant woman subconsciously pulled the little girl back. It embarrassed him a little. Seeing that his gold lord had lost face, he was about to have a seizure, but he was pulled by the former, shook his head, and turned to leave.

The bamboo ball incident was just a small episode, and Li Xiao didn't take it to heart. Under the leadership of County Lieutenant Ding, several people soon arrived at the accommodation arranged for them by Chang Laifu.

It is a spacious courtyard, the location should be in the southeast of Lin'an County, listening to Ding Tianer, not far from the acres of land, but also for the emperor's errands, if it is far away, I am afraid that Li Xiao and they will not be able to take care of it.

In fact, Li Xiao wanted to say that there was no need for this, the yard was very large, and it was just right to experiment with the way of growing chili peppers here. After all, there is an obvious gap between the past life and the present, whether it is soil or scientific and technological means. For the first time in growing chili peppers, he is not very sure, the only thing that is certain is that this errand will not be completed overnight. And now it's summer, where is the best time to grow peppers? Of course, for this, the people of this world do not know.

But the emperor wouldn't be unaware of this, but he still let him plant, was it really just to let him temporarily avoid the attention of the forces in the capital?

"My lord, this is the residence prepared for you by the county lord, it is a little simple, it is not as good as the conditions in the city, and I hope that the adults are not strange." Ding Tianer opened the courtyard door, then handed over the copper key in his hand to Zhou Shuyi, and then arched his hand and said: "The adults are tired of traveling and driving, and the small ones will not be disturbed, so they will go back to report to the county lord, if there is an order, you can send someone to the county office." ”

He pointed to the west and continued, "The county government is three streets away from here, and the small home is two streets away from here. ”

Li Xiao arched his hand and nodded with a smile.

Lin'an County, in other words, is not as prosperous as the Jingshi City, and the buildings are not as gorgeous as the latter, but there is no imaginary kind, such as the simplicity of the general agricultural county, in fact, in addition to the road, the houses are considered superior, the tiles are used instead of thatch, and the earthen walls are not simple earthen walls, most of the places are inlaid with bluestone blocks. Especially the residence arranged by Chang Laifu for them, with stone walls and carved railings, is not as gorgeous as the Chu Mansion in Suzhou, but it is better than the houses of ordinary wealthy merchants.

Ding Tianer left quickly, during which he kept touching the jade cup in his arms with one hand, secretly rejoicing all the way. Only two officials from Lin'an County were left, busy moving the luggage brought by Li Xiao into the yard back and forth.

"Childe, what you did outside just now, Shu Yi really doesn't understand." When the Lin'an County officials were busy leaving, Zhou Shuyi motioned to his colleagues to close the courtyard door, and then stepped forward to ask.

Outrageous behavior, Zhou Shenjun really can't understand it. Anyone can see that the Lin'an County officials who came to greet him just now should be the largest official position of Chang Laifu, and the county Cheng Mei Youqian and the county lieutenant Ding Tianer are both respectful to Chang Laifu, not to mention giving him the silver, and they can't just give gifts to the latter two.

Li Xiao didn't answer, circled around the luggage twice, slid his fingers on the box, and then took out a paper file in a bookcase, which was the file about Taicang Eight Counties obtained by the procuratorate.

He threw it to Zhou Shuyi, sat on the stone bench that Chu Chu had cleaned, and scanned the huge courtyard. The big tree in the courtyard with an unknown name held up most of the shade.

"Don't go out and hang out these days." He picked up the fallen leaves on the stone case, pinched them gently, and said to the official of Jingzhao Yin's Mansion: "After a while, you and Zhou Shenjun will go to the county entrance to see if our people are here, and by the way, you can inquire about the situation in Lin'an County, you don't have to hide from the people who often come to Fu." ”