Chapter 51: The Legal Advisor

Lu Qingyuan brought over a spread of fine food and wine, claiming he wanted to share a drink and chat with Li Yu.

Looking at the table full of local delicacies, Li Yu, who had just eaten his fill, had little appetite.

"If you have something to say, just say it. I still have to meet the children at the county school tomorrow."

Seeing his lazy demeanor, Lu Qingyuan obligingly poured him a cup of wine.

"This is our famous Lanling wine, would the Magistrate care to have a taste?"

Li Yu was not particularly interested in alcohol to begin with, though he might indulge in something fresh and untried.

However, as the private secretary poured the wine, Li Yu caught a glimpse of the gold-threaded embroidery revealed on the inside of his cuff, which suddenly piqued his interest in conversing with Lu Qingyuan.

"I wonder what relation Lu Liu has to the private secretary?"

Lu Qingyuan replied that they were merely distant clansmen, and Li Yu did not dwell on the subject.

"Were you hired by Magistrate Wang? You must have been at the yamen for quite a few years, then?"

Private secretaries were not official civil servants; most of them were heavily compensated by local officials specifically to help handle routine administrative affairs and quickly grasp local sentiments.

Lu Qingyuan's annual salary was forty strings of copper coins, higher even than his father's stipend as a ninth-rank garrison inspector, which showed how heavily Magistrate Wang relied on him.

"Replying to the Magistrate, all in all, I have been in the yamen for seventeen years."

Seeing that Li Yu had finished his cup of wine, Lu Qingyuan promptly and cheerfully refilled it.

"When Magistrate Wang first arrived here, his grandson was still in swaddling clothes; by the time he left, that grandson was already holding his own babies."

Having spent over a decade in the county yamen, there was nothing that escaped his knowledge.

Li Yu nodded knowingly. "Since Magistrate Wang has already retired, presumably no one is paying your wages anymore. Why haven't you gone home yet?"

Private secretaries were much like secretaries; someone else's preferred aide might not be to the new boss's liking.

Was this an attempt to drive him away?

Lu Qingyuan's smile stiffened slightly, but he maintained it and said, "Serving the imperial court is the honor of us scholars. To speak of money would truly cheapen the sentiment."

That paltry salary was a mere pittance; whether it was paid or not mattered little to him.

"Then you truly are a good man, an absolute saint."

Li Yu desperately wanted to smash the evidence he had uncovered right into the man's face, but to avoid alerting the enemy, he smiled instead.

"It is only a pity that Vice Magistrate Xiao went too far. That was five thousand strings of copper coins—the blood, sweat, and tears of the common people."

Lu Qingyuan's sleeve twitched imperceptibly, and his posture became even more deferential as he poured another cup of wine.

"The Magistrate is young and does not understand the severity of these matters. Magistrate Wang was precisely too ignorant of the severity, which was why he was frightened into falling ill and returning home..."

The dim tung-oil lamp cast its light upon Lu Qingyuan's face, and Li Yu unexpectedly caught a warning look in his eyes. Before he could speak, he heard Lu Qingyuan continue.

"This humble servant is older than the Magistrate by some twenty years, yet I dare to speak my mind plainly to the Magistrate. Although the Vice Magistrate's official rank is below yours, Vice Magistrate Xiao is, after all, a prominent local family with deep roots. He is connected by marriage to all the major households, and the various clans are closely intertwined. You, Magistrate, are a genuine Imperial Academy graduate.

Unlike Vice Magistrate Xiao, who worked his way up from the clerical ranks and has reached the limit of his career in this position, Magistrate Wang retired years ago without the imperial court ever promoting him to full Magistrate. If you, Magistrate, wish to achieve political merit in the future, rise higher, or successfully carry out the court's mandates... I fear you will still need Vice Magistrate Xiao to lend a hand."

A young man like this wasn't short on money, and with a beautiful wife at home, feminine charms might not work either. Presumably, only fame, status, and wealth could win his heart.

Yet he wasn't even willing to offer a bribe to show respect?

Seeing Lu Qingyuan practically dangling grand prospects before him like a pie in the sky, Li Yu figured these old foxes still looked down on him. Twirling the wine cup in his hand and admiring the patterns on it, he felt his palms itching to strike.

"Are you threatening this magistrate? If I don't turn a blind eye and pretend not to see, are you planning to use the same methods against me that you used against Magistrate Wang?"

A private secretary who was merely hired help without even a formal establishment position dared to threaten a county magistrate.

Who would believe it if word got out?

"Magistrate, please do not misunderstand." Lu Qingyuan's tone grew even more deferential. "This humble servant is entirely acting in the Magistrate's best interest, fearing that the Magistrate might ruin his own grand future over past affairs."

"This humble servant's heart and soul are dedicated to the Magistrate. If the Magistrate believes this humble servant harbors selfish motives and is issuing threats, then consider that I never spoke these words at all."

With that, he raised his gaze to appraise the young man's expression, but could read neither joy nor anger from it.

He couldn't help shivering inwardly: was this Magistrate Li really just over twenty years old?

Li Yu remained silent for a long time after hearing this, only telling him to withdraw after a while.

"You may go. This magistrate will carefully consider what you have said."

Carefully consider how to gather airtight evidence, pack all these people up and ship them away, and then install a few upright officials in their place.

The next day, acting as though nothing had happened, Li Yu went on a routine tour of various parts of the county city, making no mention of auditing accounts.

To the prisoners in the cells crying out for injustice, he offered no words about retrying or reviewing their cases.

Everyone assumed the matter had passed and that the Magistrate would no longer pursue bygones.

Only after they had let down their guard did Li Yu dispatch Xiao Yunzhou to Duozhuang to oversee the construction of the reservoir.

Recognizing him as the shrewdest among them, Li Yu wanted to weed out all these蛀虫 (parasites/weevils), and naturally needed to send the cleverest one away before properly investigating the case.

Although many vice magistrates were assigned to important locations for independent duty, Xiao Yunzhou had already been acting on behalf of the magistrate for five whole years.

For a long time, he had even convinced himself that he was bound to be promoted to actual magistrate, and naturally had no desire to serve as a mere water-works vice magistrate.

Li Yu cared not whether he was willing or not: "You lot have saddled this magistrate with such a colossal mess of bad accounts. Don't tell me you expect me to hand this over to my successor?"

Li Yu picked up the ledger from his desk and slammed it heavily onto the official desk.

"I can let other matters go and turn a blind eye as if I know nothing, but this deficit must be made good by you lot."

He rested his hands on the armrests of his official magistrate's chair and crossed one leg over the other.

"If the reservoir is built well, past matters will be forgiven by this magistrate. If it is not built well, we shall go to the prefectural yamen and the surveillance commissioner's yamen to have a talk."

As painful as it was to spit out money he had already swallowed, Xiao Yunzhou dared not offend Li Yu at this juncture.

Despite a thousand reluctances in his heart, he still obediently agreed like a dutiful grandson.

Inwardly, however, he cursed up a storm: curses upon his ancestors, it truly was true that a higher official crushes the lower one to death.

"This subordinate understands."

Li Yu reminded him that the money must not be squeezed from the villagers; however the funds were consumed, they must be disgorged in the exact same manner.

After Xiao Yunzhou took his orders and withdrew, Lu Qingyuan could not help speaking up.

"Why must the Magistrate be so harsh and stern? Vice Magistrate Xiao and the Magistrate are not enemies."

Not only were they not enemies, but who knows, he might even help you secure a massive profit?

Looking at the gold-threaded embroidery on the inner lining of Lu Qingyuan's sleeve, Li Yu suddenly smiled.

"That five thousand strings of copper coins for building the reservoir—I wonder what percentage they allotted to the private secretary?"

Following the direction of his gaze, Lu Qingyuan hurriedly and guiltily tucked his inner garment away.

"This humble servant does not understand what the Magistrate means?"

Were they going to settle past accounts with them, or were they not?