"Zhen'er, bitter ......"

Li Han was lying on the bed wailing, and Qin Zhen was feeding him medicine with a bowl and spoon.

"Good medicine is bitter."

Qin Zhen couldn't help but stuff the decoction into Li Han's mouth, glared at Li Han with a kind gaze, and only after the latter swallowed it did he contentedly take the second spoonful and hand it to his mouth.

Li Han shook his head with a sad face.

"Don't force me to let Chen Shu come over and pry your mouth open."

Under Qin Zhen's threat, Li Han had to open his mouth to drink medicine aggrievedly.

At this moment, Xiao Daiyu pushed the door and entered.

"Engong, Lord Chen is here."

Hearing this, Qin Zhen's eyes froze, he handed the decoction to Xiao Daiyu, and walked straight out after saying "feed him medicine".

In the courtyard, Chen Kuai stood in the shade of a tree with a jar of wine, obviously waiting for a long time.

"Have you eaten?" Qin Zhen asked.

"Not yet." A familiar smile appeared on Chen Kuai's face.

Qin Zhen immediately asked people to prepare a few side dishes, moved the whole table to the courtyard, and sat down with Chen Kuai.

Without waiting for Qin Zhen to speak, Chen Kuai took the lead.

"Those bandits are dead."

He glanced at Qin Zhen and said slowly while pouring wine for Qin Zhen.

"The whole thing is carried by Chen Sanye's housekeeper, and it ends here."

Qin Zhen originally got up and wanted to leave, but in the end he couldn't do so.

Chen Kuai raised his glass: "What happened last night, I will make a compensatory deal with you on behalf of the Chen family." ”

Qin Zhen also raised his glass and said, "Thank you for the matter." ”

Immediately, he got up and wanted to leave.

was stopped by Chen Kuai's words.

"Zhen'er, do you know how I became a head catcher?"

Chen Kuai picked up the wine glass and drank to himself, his eyes slightly closed, as if he was reminiscing.

"In that year, there was a great drought, there were locusts, cannibalism, the corpses of the coastal counties were all over the field, and there were people who starved to death everywhere, and I don't know how many people hung white silk vegetarian. My mother was married from another province, my father was weak, he was bullied by the same clan and could not receive rations, and starved to death, my mother took me to my mother-in-law's house in order to make a living, and was killed and cooked by a hungry crazy person in the middle of the road......"

His tone was very relaxed and indifferent, as if he was not talking about his own tragic experience, but about the past of others.

Qin Zhen understood that it was not that Zhang Kuai was ruthless, but that people who had suffered a lot had numbness.

"It was Zhang who saved me."

Speaking of this, Chen Kuai drank all the wine in the cup again, and looked at Qin Zhen word by word.

"Since then, I have known that although my surname is Chen, I am not a member of the Chen family!"

Qin Zhen has always been unclear about Chen Kuai's position and is worried about the identity of his Chen family.

Now, that fear is gone.

"Zhen'er, don't look at me Chen Kuai to eat and take cards to be proficient in everything, but who is a brother and who is an enemy is still clear. Chen Sanye is powerful, even if he is the city lord, he can only appease the majority; So far, it's not that I'm biased in favor of the Chen family, but it's my protection of you. ”

Chen Kuai said sincerely: "You can't fight with the Chen family now!" ”

"But Third Master Chen wants me dead, doesn't he?" Qin Zhen's gaze was cold.

Even before that, Chen Sanye had no murderous intent towards Qin Zhen.

Since the Baiyang Tower incident, Chen Sanye must have been determined to kill Qin Zhen.

"But he can't move you." Chen Kuai personally poured a full cup for Qin Zhen: "At least for now, he can't move you." ”

"Why?" Qin Zhen then asked.

Chen Kuai did not directly explain this problem, but talked about today's coastal county.

"Zhen'er, let's look at today's coastal county, clothing, food, housing and transportation, all walks of life, down to weaving and selling silk, up to salt canal minerals, which has nothing to do with the three families? In the early years, the three major families supported each other, and although they monopolized the economic lifeline of the coastal county, at least there was still some oil and water to be fished, and there was still some good life to live. ”

"Since the Fang family declined and was trampled on by the Huang family, the three major families have become two-for-tat, and the world is becoming more and more erosive."

To put it simply, it is definitely better to compete with multiple parties than to dominate the country.

As the actual controller of Offshore County, the Offshore City Lord naturally wants to see the "Four Families, Five Families" and the like blooming, and does not want the Huang family and the Chen family to dominate, or even collude and embrace the land for themselves.

It is not conducive to regulation, and it is not conducive to the wealth of the coastal city lords.

Combined with what Chen Kuai had just said, Qin Zhen quickly understood the deep meaning.

"What does the lord mean?"

According to Chen Kuai's statement, Chen Kuai alone could not protect Qin Zhen.

The only one who can make Chen Sanye compromise is the city lord!

"But why does the city lord protect himself as a nobody?"

Chen Kuai's answer to this question is very simple.

"In Jinhai County, there are only a handful of people who can find someone who has potential and has the courage to face the Huang family and the Chen family. You have a conflict with the Huang family, and now you have a conflict with Chen Sanye, which is just right. ”

Qin Zhen was silent.

After half a ring, Qin Zhen asked in a deep voice, "The City Lord has so much confidence in me?" ”

"It's like a gambler who goes to the gambling house to find excitement, throwing two dollars casually, and it doesn't hurt to lose, if you win, won't you make a lot of money? The lord of the city doesn't have any confidence in you, and he won't even help you, he will just watch you fight with those two families on the sidelines. ”

"You won, it's your creation, and then he picks peaches with peace of mind; If you lose, it's your fate that is not good, and he won't even feel sorry for it, but will keep looking for the next candidate. ”

"Officialdom! Isn't that it? Which official doesn't fight with the gentry? Where does the right of the official come from? Didn't it give it to the gentry? Where does the name of Haoshen make money? Isn't it also handed over by the official master? ”

"It's just that now, both sides feel that the other party wants a little too much."

Chen Kuai shouldn't have said these words.

He has been in the officialdom for so many years, and he has long figured out the hearts of these officials and gentry.

To him, this is a secret; But for Qin Zhen, he benefited a lot.

After listening to Chen Kuai's words, Qin Zhen had a new understanding of the world in front of him.

Looking at the liquor that had been cold on the table for a long time, Qin Zhen finally picked it up and drank it all.

Chen Kuai grinned: "It seems that you have figured it out." ”

"I don't have a choice." Qin Zhen sighed, some of them were unwilling, some were accusatory, and some were powerless: "We pariahs, it's really difficult to ask for a job!" ”

"Who's to say it isn't? If hard work alone could have made you rich, the cattle in the fields would have been rich long ago! Chen Kuai poured wine for Qin Zhen again.

A pot of wine has been drunk here, and it is almost at the bottom.

I only heard Chen Kuai mysteriously say to Qin Zhen: "Qin Zhen, I treat you as a brother, and I will give you an account today, I came to Offshore City this time with a mission." ”

Facing Qin Zhen's puzzled eyes, he got up and listened to his ears.

Said slowly in a voice that only two people could hear.

"Zhang Cong is a good official, but the offshore city lord is not."