CHAPTER 399: CHAPTER 399: NOBLE

Two servants, one male and one female, the male has reached the age of senility while the female is about the same age as Mrs. Han.

The two were escorted by the government officers of Jinling Prefecture.

Besides these two servants and a squad of government officers from Jinling Prefecture, there were also two other groups who had come to the Tianfu County Government.

These two groups were from the noble families, the Zheng Family and the Shangguan Family of Jiangnan.

When County Magistrate Xu learned that representatives from the Zheng Family and Shangguan Family had arrived, he was so scared that he fell to the ground with a thud: "Zheng, Zheng Family and Shangguan Family...have, have sent people?"

Master Tian quickly helped County Magistrate Xu up, saying, "Yes, my lord, representatives from both families have arrived, and both are the legitimate heirs."

Legitimate Heir!

The legitimate heir of a noble family is the future head of the family; both the Zheng Family and Shangguan Family had sent their legitimate heirs. What are they trying to do?

County Magistrate Xu’s legs went weak: "Brother Tian, did I judge this case poorly? Have they come to check on it? Aren’t these two families enemies? They won’t start a fight here in Tianfu County, will they? If they do, whom shall we support? Oh my, why does handling a case involve so much trouble?!"

County Magistrate Xu is a person with a faint heart, he always pursued safety, rather having no significant achievements but no faults, just trying to get through his term peacefully. But as his transfer approached, why did so many things arise? Even the two great noble families of Jiangnan have been drawn in, and these families have connections with the royal family... he is scared.

Master Tian felt rather helpless, wishing his colleague and friend could be braver.

"My lord, back in the day, the Linglong Painting Boat suffered due to these two families, and they also became enemies because of the Linglong Painting Boat. Now it seems that there might have been hidden reasons for the disaster of the Linglong Painting Boat, otherwise, these two families wouldn’t have sent representatives."

And the representatives are the legitimate heirs who can represent their families.

"Brother Tian is right, it looks like there were hidden circumstances in the past." County Magistrate Xu steadied his mind and finally stood firm, asking, "Who is receiving these distinguished guests? Has Lord Jiang been notified? He is in charge of incarcerations, he needs to come. Also, people from the Gu Family and Xue Family should be sent for, in case the distinguished guests wish to meet them, it wouldn’t look good if they weren’t there."

Ten days ago, after the Lu Family People were detained, the Gu, Shang, and Xue Family People had gone home, originally thinking there was no need to call them back, but now with distinguished guests arriving, it was better to call them back.

Master Tian reassured him, "My lord, rest assured, Steward Yu is already entertaining the distinguished guests outside. Lord Jiang has been notified; he is a shrewd person and probably has already sent for the people from the Gu and Xue Families. Don’t worry about these things, hurry out to greet the distinguished guests."

County Magistrate Xu quickly adjusted his robe, and together with Master Tian and a few servants, headed to the main gate of the county government to welcome the distinguished guests from afar.

Shangguan Zhuo and Zheng Ying, both under twenty, dressed in splendid brocade robes, their faces radiant and carriage upright like distinguished young masters, came sitting in broad magnificent carriages, bringing nearly twenty servants, and majestically halted in front of the main gate of the county government, completely blocking the street.

They hadn’t expected the streets of Tianfu county to be so narrow; seeing their horse-drawn carriages obstructing the way, they promptly instructed their housekeeper to disperse the servants, clearing a path for pedestrians on the street.

Before this, their respective grandfathers had told them that their visit was to uncover the truth of the past, not to disturb the locals.

"But the people of Tianfu County had never seen such a spectacle. Upon seeing the fine horse-drawn carriage and the well-trained group of servants, they crowded around, pointing at the carriage and saying: "Wow, who is sitting in that carriage? With such an entourage, could it be some noble person has arrived?"

Some basket-carrying peddlers squeezed through the crowd and mocked: "You must be joking, what kind of noble person would come to a broken place like Tianfu County? We’ve got plenty of disaster refugees... This must be someone from the household of the Lord County Magistrate."

Someone retorted: "Pah! The Lord County Magistrate comes from a peasant family, how could his family have such a carriage? Look at the gemstone on that carriage cover, wow, isn’t that a gemstone? I heard from my relatives in the Prefecture that those colored gemstones are incredibly valuable."

"Hey, are you looking down on the Lord County Magistrate? There is a saying, one year as a Magistrate, one hundred thousand tael of Silver. Although the Lord County Magistrate is not a Magistrate, having been the County Magistrate for so many years, he must have some silver, right? Why wouldn’t his family afford such a carriage?"

County Magistrate Xu had just come out and heard these words, nearly dying of anger, pointing at those peasants, he almost cursed out... Fine, fine, they think he has had it too easy, they won’t be satisfied until they’ve got him killed?

Steward Yu quickly shouted: "This is a sensitive area of the county government, bystanders are not allowed to gather, disperse now, disperse!"

The government officers of the county government hurriedly came to disperse the crowd, but due to the presence of important guests, they could not be too rough, and it took a little while before they could drive away the people gathered around the entrance of the government office.

County Magistrate Xu, who had just changed into new official uniform, was so startled by this commotion that his whole outfit was soaked with sweat, with beads of sweat trickling down his forehead, he said to Shangguan Zhuo and Zheng Ying: "The two young masters have come from faraway, forgive me for not greeting you from afar."

Although these two individuals had prestigious identities, County Magistrate Xu did not yet abase himself by calling them superior, as after all, both were merely scholars and held no official positions.

Shangguan Zhuo and Zheng Ying bowed to County Magistrate Xu in return: "Lord Xu, you are too kind, we are here mainly because of the escaped slaves from the Linglong Painting Boat."

The two pointed to two elderly servants behind them and said: "These two were servants on the Linglong Painting Boat back in the day, they recognize most of the people from the Linglong Painting Boat, please arrange for them to identify someone, Lord Xu."

County Magistrate Xu was shocked, he hadn’t expected these two families to be even more anxious than him, it seems Master Tian was right, there must be some hidden details regarding the matter of the Linglong Painting Boat back then, and these families sending their legitimate heirs here urgently wanting to know who the escaped slave was? Wanting to uncover the truth of that year from the escaped slave.

County Magistrate Xu hurriedly said: "Please, young masters, I will arrange for them to identify the person right away."

County Magistrate Xu immediately brought the two noble young masters, Squad Leader Cheng from Jinling Prefecture, and the two elderly servants into the public hall of the county government.

The two young masters did not go to the back office but sat directly in the public hall, while County Captain Jiang already arrived with Squad Leader Yang, Luo Wu and several other junior government officers.

Upon seeing him, County Magistrate Xu directly instructed him to take Squad Leader Cheng and the two elderly servants to the prison to identify Old Master Lu.

When the two elderly servants saw Old Master Lu, they were stunned for a moment, and after carefully recognizing him, they nodded to County Captain Jiang: "He looks very much like Huai Siliu."

However, to avoid misrecognition, they still wanted to try another test.

"Zhu Wazi!" The elderly man suddenly shouted at Old Master Lu in the cell.

Old Master Lu was in a drowsy sleep, hearing this long-lost name, he opened his eyes, looking at the person calling him and said: "What are you shouting about, I no longer use that beggar name."

The old servant chuckled: "I know, you were called Zhu Wazi when you were begging, and changed to Huai Siliu after you joined our Linglong Painting Boat."

Old Master Lu shuddered, waking up from his sleepiness, realizing something, and hurriedly denied: "Nonsense, what Linglong Painting Boat, what Huai Siliu, I don’t know any of these!"