Village Head Wang

"Our village isn't under the jurisdiction of the same village head as the two smaller villages above. The village heads also care about their reputation, so they just let us fight it out," the old man sighed.

There is a village head for every 110 households. In this densely populated area with many villages, it is quite normal to have two village heads.

The village head, who should be mediating disputes, is instead letting the villagers fight over water, which is truly unacceptable.

Zhao Ruxi turned her head and glanced at Chen Kang.

Chen Kang understood Zhao Ruxi's meaning, and a few beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

He personally selected the 23 village heads around Nanyang. Of course, this selection process involved not only assessing their competence but also the amount of money they contributed to him annually.

This money had been distributed to Cai Yaozong Cai Yaozong, so when they encountered such problems, they would usually turn a blind eye as long as things didn't escalate too much. But now that Zhao Ruxi was involved, things were a bit more complicated.

After they bid farewell to the old man and left the fields, Chen Kang explained to Zhao Ruxi, "This kind of problem doesn't exist in other villages. It's just that the villagers in these two villages have a long-standing feud. A married woman from Scholar Tree Village Wang Family Village was beaten to death by her mother-in-law in Huaishu Village. When the villagers came to seek justice, a conflict broke out, and the Wang Family Village killed one of the people from Scholar Tree Village. That's how the two villages accumulated their enmity. So they quarrel over even the smallest things, and the village chiefs can't control it. It's not like what that old man said, that they just let them fight because of face."

Zhao Ruxi nodded, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

Seeing that Zhao Ruxi didn't press the matter further, Chen Kang breathed a sigh of relief. He thought to himself, "So what if Zhao Ruxi is smart and has a powerful background? She's still just a naive young girl. She can easily brush off any questions with a few words."

Thinking this, he heard Zhao Ruxi say, "Let's go for a walk in the village."

Zhao Ruxi came here not only to check on the fields, irrigation systems, and land reclamation, but also to meet the village heads. She had already met three village heads in the places she had visited a couple of days ago.

Therefore, Chen Kang was not surprised by her request.

The area where they were standing belonged to Wang Family Village. After walking for a while, the group entered Wang Family Village.

Upon entering the village, the first thing you see is a magnificent house. It's not that it has the size or exquisite carvings of Zhao Ruxi's mansion in the city, but rather that among a sea of gray mud-brick houses, the high-walled courtyard with its large blue bricks stands out as quite impressive.

"That's the home of the village chief Wang Houde," Chen Kang introduced.

Zhao Ruxi narrowed her eyes. "His family is quite wealthy."

"Wang Houde's father, Wang Jiaxing, was a scholar who spent half his life as a shopkeeper in the capital. He accumulated wealth and returned to his hometown to buy land and build a house. That's why his house is better than everyone else's," Chen Kang said with a smile.

"Wang Jiaxing was well-informed and fair-minded in the capital. After returning to his hometown and settling down, the villagers elected him as the village head. After Wang Jiaxing's death, Wang Houde was also elected as the village head."

Many villagers had gone to work in the fields, but there were still some elderly people and children left. When they saw a group of well-dressed people entering the village, everyone curiously gathered around.

Someone recognized Chen Kang, seeing him attending to a very beautiful woman of unknown gender with the obsequious deference of a servant. An old man mustered his courage and asked curiously, "Administrative Clerk Chen, who is this distinguished person?"

Chen Kang didn't hide anything and replied, "This is the newly arrived Assistant Magistrate, Lord Zhao."

Zhao Ruxi cupped her hands in greeting to everyone around her and said, "Greetings, everyone."

Before anyone could answer, a voice rang out from ahead. "Is that Administrative Clerk Chen up there?"

Zhao Ruxi looked up and saw a plump middle-aged man jogging over, a warm smile plastered on his fleshy face, "No wonder the magpies were chattering this morning, it turns out the officials from the yamen have arrived."

As he spoke, his eyes swept across the crowd, finally settling on Zhao Ruxi.

Before he could speak again, Chen Kang quickly introduced, "Lord Zhao, this is Wang Houde, the village head of Wang Family Village."

He turned to Wang Houde and said, "Village Head Wang, this is the newly arrived Assistant Magistrate Lord Zhao."

Wang Houde quickly cupped his hands to Zhao Ruxi, his already small eyes narrowing into slits with a smile, "Lord Zhao, I am Wang Houde, the village head of Lord Zhao Wang Family Village. I hope you will take good care of me in the future."

"Village Head Wang." Zhao Ruxi smiled and raised her hand in return.

The news that the newly arrived Assistant Magistrate of Nanyang, Lord Zhao, is a woman has probably already reached the ears of the village heads. Zhao Ruxi met with several village heads today, and they seemed not at all surprised that she was a woman and still quite young.

Wang Houde was the same. Aside from his initial curiosity, he didn't reveal anything else. He warmly led everyone into his house, ordered servants to serve tea and snacks, and then answered Zhao Ruxi's questions.

The two had only exchanged a few words when a commotion broke out outside the door.

Wang Houde's amiable face suddenly darkened, and he said to the steward standing to the side, "Go and see what happened."

Zhao Ruxi looked at Zhou Chun, and seeing Zhou Chun nod almost imperceptibly, she stood up and said, "I'd better go take a look too." Without waiting for Wang Houde and Chen Kang to react, she walked straight outside.

"Hey, Lord Zhao..." Wang Houde called out, but seeing Zhao Ruxi walking out as if ignoring him, he looked at Chen Kang for help. Chen Kang nodded to him, then stood up and chased after him.

By this time, a large crowd had gathered three or four deep outside the door, and in the middle of the crowd, a middle-aged couple was kneeling there, crying and pleading, "Your Honor, please do us justice!"

Upon seeing these two people, Wang Houde's expression turned extremely ugly.

He slowed his pace, falling behind Zhao Ruxi and her group. Turning around, he gritted his teeth and asked the butler in a low voice, "Didn't I tell you to keep an eye on that couple? How did they manage to come here and cause trouble?"

The steward panicked. "I sent out all three of my servants to tie up the couple and take them to a cave in the back mountains. I don't know what those three servants are doing now, why did they release them?"

Wang Houde was so angry his nose almost twisted. "You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?"

The steward was about to go and ask the three servants what was going on when he realized something was wrong and stopped. He looked at the two men kneeling at the door and asked Wang Houde, "Master, what do we do now?"

Although Wang Houde was angry, he was not particularly panicked.

He instructed, "Have your wife give you two hundred taels of silver notes and secretly slip them to Administrative Clerk Chen."

"Yes." The steward acknowledged the order and quickly went back to get the silver notes from Wang Houde's wife.