BXBX NOVEL Chapter 1534: Glowing?
“Father, what questions do they have? Who are they?” Tao Zhen asked his father in a low voice. He had always been vigilant.
Tao Jinyan smiled and told Tao Zhen, “Our village can only offer that much, so they can’t be here to gain something. There’s nothing much to take advantage of. They also look friendly. From their looks and their questions, they seem to be quite concerned about the well-being of the people. They shouldn’t be bad people. If they ask anything, if you know, just tell them. What you know is not a secret, but you might be the only one who knows in our village. Only those who have been to the county know. Since you can tell them what you know, why make them go to the county to ask?”
Although Tao Zhen still had some doubts in his heart, he trusted his father’s judgment. Moreover, he did not know much. Even if he knew something, everything came from the county. Many people in the county knew about it, so he did not want to make things inconvenient for the two people in front of him.
“Ask away.” Tao Zhen said.
“Thank you very much.” Xue Yan first cupped his hands to Village Chief Tao and Tao Zhen respectively to express his gratitude. Then, he asked Tao Zhen. “We don’t want anything tangible from you. We only seek answers. You usually go to the county office to handle matters, right? Did you hear anything out of the ordinary?”
Tao Zhen was also a smart person. The moment he heard Xue Yan’s question, he roughly understood. He said, “I did hear some rumors. But there should only be one thing that you might want to hear. That is, I heard people secretly saying something like… the heavens are high and the Emperor lives further away from it every day.”
Hearing this, Jiang Yue and Xue Yan both felt that Tao Zhen was very smart.
Tao Zhen continued, “There’s one more thing. I didn’t hear it, but I saw it with my own eyes. It happened at the beginning of this month. When I went to the county, I met the officers drinking and feasting. All of them were glowing.”
Wine and meat?
He was saying that the tax increase might have been pocketed by others.
Jiang Yue and Xue Yan were impressed by how Tao Zhen was subtly telling them the truth without exposing himself.
Suddenly, Xue Yan asked, “Which academy did you study in? Why are you at home now? Are you off today or?”
“I’ve never studied in any academy,” Tao Zhen said. “I learned how to read from my father when I was young. He taught me everything I needed to know.”
Tao Jinyan stroked his beard and smiled. “This child loved to learn since he was young, but we didn’t have that much money. In addition, I had several sons. Even if I could afford to send one of them to the Academy, it was unfair to the other sons, so I taught all of them. Only this child persisted in his studies and is still interested in books. These books belonged to me when I was young. I only occasionally buy one or two new books for him. In the past two years, because of the heavy taxes, I didn’t have any spare money, so he hasn’t gotten anything new.”
“You’ve taught your son well,” said Jiang Yue and Xue Yan.
“You guys are exaggerating.” Tao Jinyan was very happy. Among his sons, the youngest son was the most like him.
“We’ve intruded enough.” Xue Yan cupped his hands again. “Thank you for answering everything we wanted to know. We don’t have to ask anything else. We’ll be taking our leave.”
“Thank you.” Jiang Yue also cupped her hands.
“You guys are too polite.” Tao Jinyan and Tao Zhen quickly returned the greeting.
After leaving Village Chief Tao’s house, Jiang Yue said to Zhang Dazhu and Zhang Shoushou, “You guys can go home first. After ten minutes, you can go to the place where we met you just now. We will give you food there.”