In the blink of an eye, ten days had passed since Li Huaigu married Miss Yunxiang.
The weather grew ever hotter. Especially at noon, the sun scorched dockworkers and boat-hauling trackers until their skin split and flesh cracked.
The various yamen of Shuzhou, which had originally worried about floods in the Chishui River, abruptly changed course from preventing floods to diverting water and digging canals.
To prevent drought from striking different regions.
Fortunately, the summer harvest was approaching, and vast swathes of fertile fields outside the Prefectural City had begun preparing for it one after another.
Even the farmland worked by the three great military garrisons of Iron Wall, Azure Wolf, and Black Armor had notified their soldiers early to begin the summer harvest, easing the Dingyuan Army's shortage of money and grain.
Within the Prefectural City, however, all was tranquil and peaceful.
Kanning Street in North City remained a place for talented scholars and beauties to rest and linger, though the topics they discussed had changed several times over.
Besides the usual matters from north to south and the situation at the Imperial Court, there was also the Third Place Scholar's wedding and Mr. Yue Ming's defense of the Xiao Family son-in-law.
Some spoke up for the two talented scholars Xinnian and Guiyun, saying things like, "When you can spare someone, spare them."
Others believed Mr. Yue Ming had done the right thing. Virtue had to match learning, and punishing them by making them copy the academy's rules was reasonable—though a thousand times was indeed rather too much.
In the end, most would add, "The Xiao Family son-in-law is truly overbearing."
But words were only words. The earlier matter of "the Xiao Family son-in-law forcibly seized a woman" seemed never to have happened, and no one mentioned it again.