After Wenren Sheng passed the provincial examination, he sent a Visiting Card directly to the local County Magistrate.
Then he went to pay him a visit.
He emerged half a day later.
After that, he went to see Recommended Man Wen.
Once again, a Visiting Card paved the way.
He emerged another half day later.
Three days later, the Confucian Temple opened.
Under the watch of the County Magistrate and the two successful candidates, Qian Scholar and the others were forced to confess one by one to murder and burial, seizing land, monopolizing lawsuits, forcibly lending at usurious rates, secretly running Gambling Dens, harming decent citizens, taking over businesses, and occupying artisan households...
In short, they laid out every kind of sin they had committed, filling the surrounding onlookers with righteous indignation.
Many people wept beside them.
These crimes had been piling up for who knew how many years.
"I am guilty. Please, fellow villagers, spare my life for the sake of my eighty-year-old mother. I will surely mend my ways and turn over a new leaf," Qian Scholar said, weeping bitterly.
In truth, he had originally intended to apologize to Wenren Sheng and casually offer him three thousand mu of good land.
Of course, his family alone would not have paid for it.
More than a dozen powerful clans would contribute together.
He himself would only have had to provide fifty mu.
Yet he had never expected Wenren Sheng to settle their families with lightning speed.
As for the County Magistrate, someone else had taken the lead and borne the hatred, while he himself was merely a Mobile Official. All he needed to do was rake in what he could and leave quickly.
This was already his third year in office, and he would soon be transferred elsewhere.
If