When Chen Yunfan first arrived in Shuzhou, he had not thought too much about it.
Even though he had not spent three years training and studying in Capital Prefecture before being directly promoted to Counselor of the Shuzhou Provincial Administration, Subordinate Fourth Rank, he had only assumed it was His Majesty's favor.
After all, that emperor had even "forcibly" pressed the title of Zhuangyuan onto his head. What did an exceptional reward matter?
But ever since he had come to Shuzhou, gone through certain events, and met certain people, he had increasingly felt that something was amiss.
The administrative affairs assigned to him were always the sort that were easy to handle yet yielded great achievements.
From time to time, inexplicable merits were even delivered right to him.
For instance, Xiao Dongchen had once handed him a matter that he had nearly finished handling himself.
For instance, the villages and towns assigned to him for collecting grain taxes were always closest to the Prefectural City, requiring little effort or worry.
Then there was the evidence of corruption by people in the Provincial Administration Yamen, which always found its way into his hands by the most "reasonable" means.
In the shadows, it was as though a group of people had specifically been preparing all this for him.
Although Chen Yunfan found it strange, he felt there was no need to shut earned merits out the door.
Besides, he had assumed it was assistance from the White Robe Prime Minister, where Chunying was, so he had not given it much thought.
Yet today, Uncle Zhong—Lin Zhong, a loyal servant whose ancestors had served the Chen Family of Jiangnan generation after generation—had brought Lü Jiunan's corpse here, making him realize that the matter behind all this was surely deeply entangled.
The mastermind was