Yanzhou City at the end of the Shen Dynasty and the beginning of Youyou has not completely gotten rid of the ravages of the scorching sun. The occasional wind still carries the heat with it, and the summer cicadas still hide in the depths of the branches and leaves of the old trees, neighing thirstily. But the streets were already a little lively, and sparse pedestrians could be seen. The vendors who walked the streets carried their burdens, dragged out their voices, and shouted for business like songs. The merchants who had rested for a long time shook the rattle and began to make a small business that seemed to have no end in sight. After two consecutive years of governance, the Xiaonan River, which runs through the city, is no longer the dirty scene of the river being black and greasy, with withered artemisia and fallen leaves floating all over the river. On both sides of the riverbank were newly built stone embankments, and the mortar of glutinous rice was added to make the stone cracks tight, and the sunlight sprinkled brightly and shiningly, as if two silver ribbons were embedded in the river. Most of the willow trees planted by the government last spring and summer survived; These tenacious little trees are also a striking addition to the irritating dry weather. It's just that because the drought has been so long, the water level of the river is very low, and there are many bare-bottomed dolls in the muddy ponds of the slightly larger puddles on the river, so I can't tell if the river has become as clear as it was in the early years......

Yang Heng, who was lost and depressed, is now walking on the embankment of the Xiaonan River.

In the blink of an eye, he has completely changed his appearance. His face was haggard, his face was dark, and his two lightless eyes were so dull that he barely moved. The two eye bags that I have because of long-term fatigue are also very obvious, like hanging two small pockets under the eyes. The soft foot of the black yarn was held in his hand, revealing a head of gray hair, and a piece of broken grass hanging from an unknown source on the fluffy bun. Even the painstaking lines on the corners of his mouth, which were usually inconspicuous, have now become extremely profound, as if someone had engraved his face with a knife...... It's hard to imagine that this is the official of the Ministry of Industry who was still able to sit and talk to Admiral Yanshan in the yamen just now. He has completely turned into a middle-aged man who has suffered a lot from life......

Now only the light cyan gauze shirt and the satin cloth shoes of the official standard on his feet can still prove his identity.

But it was the light cyan official uniform that made him even more sad.

He stumbled along the embankment, oblivious to the few children who surrounded him. Two kind-hearted pedestrians who were afraid that he would find a short time were also driven away by his yelling. He walked aimlessly, not caring where the river leads, not caring what other people think of him, or even the stupid aunts who point their fingers at him and talk loudly on the side of the street. In fact, he didn't notice it at all. All his thoughts remained in his own heart, completely immersed in the sentimentality and sorrow of his ill-fated fate......

…… He is a native of Huaiyang, Jingdong, and his ancestors have been guarding more than ten acres of dry land and two acres of paddy fields outside the state city for generations. His father had gone to school, but he had never been able to go to school, so he pinned all his hopes on him, hoping that he would have the glory of his ancestors. He actually has no talent for reading, but he is a filial son, he will do whatever his father says, with a perseverance and rote memorization, he was finally admitted to Xiucai at the age of twenty-one, and passed the state examination in one go, and then went to Beijing to participate in the big competition. But the first time he went to Beijing to catch the exam, except for spending a lot of money from his family, he didn't get any results in the examination room. The following year, his father and grandfather, who had always had high hopes for him, died of illness, and in order to keep filial piety to them, he did not take the Ministry of Rites Examination in the fourth year of the Eastern Era. In the countryside of Ruzhou, while keeping filial piety, he kept in mind the teachings of his elders and studied hard. In the seventh year of the Eastern Common Era, he discussed with his mother and sold his family's two acres of paddy fields and went to Beijing for the second time to take the Ministry of Rites Examination. In this test, he took the third place in the first class, and the saint gave the Jinshi and the first, and since then he has jumped to the dragon gate!

Because he was the leader of the Great Competition in the seventh year of the Eastern Yuan Dynasty, he neither stayed in Beijing to be elected like Ouyang Zhi, nor was he assigned to the Hanlin Academy to be an idler like Ran Tao, and was soon given a real position by the imperial court and sent to the Ruzhou Mansion Inspectorate to serve as the Bapin Cangcao. He knows that he has a dull mind, lacks alertness and flexibility, so he usually does things first and never competes with others when he meets easy and brilliant official duties, so he is very popular. His hometown is in Huaiyang, Huaiyang is also a famous place on the Grand Canal where the north and south goods meet, where merchants gather, since childhood to the big ears and eyes, there are naturally some neighborhoods and hundreds of cities of the philistine atmosphere, he is a dead brain to study, can communicate with colleagues to stay a small favor in the city, quietly meet the boss, these things are almost not learned...... In this way, for three consecutive years in Ruzhou, the evaluation was "excellent and outstanding", and it was also the status of the leader, which soon attracted the attention of the imperial court. The deputy Xian of the Yushitai, who went to Ruzhou to inspect his official duties, met again and again, and obviously valued him very much, but the household department was the first. Tian Wangtian Dongli, who was the left attendant of the household department at that time, recruited him back to Shangjing as soon as he issued an order, and he was immediately promoted to the eighth rank and awarded the observation post......

That's a good thing; But it's undoubtedly even worse!

Less than a month after he entered the household department, Tian Wang was forced to resign because he was involved in the "Liu Lingtai case". He is the person who Tian Wang personally transferred to the household department, and he is also the leader of the tribute test of the Ministry of Rites in the year of Renxu, so he is naturally the target of the public without dispute. He was soon dismissed from his post in the household department and retained in Beijing to take up his post. Then he was kicked to Pingyuan County as a county magistrate. After more than a month, there was such a big contrast in the career path, and it was difficult to accept it on anyone. He inevitably complained a little in his heart, and probably said some unpleasant things on some occasions. These words soon spread to Shangjing, and his Pingyuan County Cheng was immediately changed to the Jiupin master book of Xiaoluo Workshop of the Ministry of Works; Half a year later, he was demoted to the head of the ninth grade. Since then, his position has not changed.

Without a doubt, this was a major setback in his life!

At that time, he was indeed very depressed. But he didn't completely despair, and he didn't give up trying. For several years, Xiaoluo Workshop was first-class in the year-end evaluation of the Ministry of Industry, but his official position was still a master from Jiupin. He was very disappointed. But he is very reluctant to accept the harsh reality. In desperation, he suddenly made a decision. He thought that since he could no longer change his fate through his political achievements, he might as well change to another way, one by one, he could regain his strength by climbing relatives! But according to his situation at that time, of course, he didn't dare to expect others to marry his daughter into his family, so his choice could only be to send his daughter out to become a good in-law. He is still very confident in his daughter, Yiyi Pan'er is a good girl, whether it is appearance, filial piety or housekeeping, she is first-class and good!

Having made up his mind, he began to work on it almost non-stop. Through the paving of money and silk, he soon got acquainted with the prince's mansion Shaozhan Chengqiao. Although he fell from his official position, no one dared to take the identity of the list, and Cheng Qiao, who had just been suspended because of Liu Lingtai's case, also had a common language. In the seventeenth year of the Eastern Era, Cheng Qiao reported that Ding Wei returned to his hometown of Yanshan, and agreed to marry his children in the summer and autumn of the following year. At the beginning of the autumn of the second year, he sent his daughter to Yanshan to marry the second son of the Cheng family according to the agreement, but his daughter encountered robbers on the way, and his life and death are unknown, and his brother-in-law who sent his relatives on his behalf also died under the knife of the bandits......

This is the second major blow in his life!

The impact of his daughter's encounter with a bandit was far heavier than the ups and downs he encountered in his career.

He has the courage to bear the twists and turns in his career, but he has a deep guilt for Pan'er.

This guilt comes from Pan'er's mother......

Pan'er was born to his deceased ex-wife. In his resume, he filled in the column of "What He Worked Before Leaving the Job" as "farming", but in fact he could not go to the field several times a year, and his wife was engaged in the family's farm work except for the two long-term workers hired. She was a good woman, no matter how hard and tiring the work was in and out of the door, she never complained in front of him, and after finishing the farm in the fields, she had to serve him when she came home. In his memory, except for the four months before and after giving birth to Pan'er, she almost didn't see her busy at other times. But she was not blessed, she was only a jinshi for less than two months, and she went to home because of tuberculosis. She actually died of hard work. It was for him and for their family that she became ill......

He has always said to himself that he will treat his daughter well, find a good family for his daughter, and must not let her suffer anymore, and must let her live a good life, but in the end? What did he end up doing to his daughter? In order to protect his reputation and official position, he registered Pan'er in the government against his will to "die of a violent illness"; He went around telling people that his daughter was as unblessed as her mother; He also wrote a letter to Cheng Qiao to state the matter......

He will never be able to make up for his mistakes!

He will never be able to forgive himself!

In fact, he has blamed his last decade for his own injustice. He thinks it's all his fault! This is the punishment of heaven for him, and it is the punishment of the gods and Buddhas in the underworld; And this punishment is far from over!