The First Volume of Qinghe County

  "Hmm?" Ximen Qing looked at Wu Yue-niang with a hint of a smile, clenched his fist and then spread out his fingers one by one to explain the current situation.

  "Dongmei? No way, she's run away, but now all the big and small doors are closed, she can't come back once she's out. Haven't you calculated the time?"

  "You don't know, I just sent the steward to deliver 300 taels of silver to County Magistrate, oh, this should thank Abacus Li, these 300 taels were accumulated by him with great effort. Now I am the county's county lieutenant, and there are cow-headed yamen guards guarding the gate."

  "Not bad, your dad and brother have all arrived, bringing a bunch of people with them, but they were blocked by Niu Doutou at the gate."

  "Dongmei took them to the small gate. Well, the latest news just now is that your brother and Dongmei drank boiled water."

  Ximen Qing finished speaking and let out a sigh, looking at Wu Yue'e with a "benevolent" expression, as if a teacher was looking at a student who didn't know his lessons, wanting to personally instruct him.

  "What!" Wu Yue's shock was no less than just now, she did not expect that so many things had happened during this period of time, and her hope was ruthlessly extinguished by Ximen Qing.

  "When can I get out of here?" Wu Yue's heart sank into the bottomless abyss, sadly thinking: "How could I forget to tell Dongmei about becoming the county magistrate just now."

  "When can we get in?" Outside the Ximen government office, a group of people were scattered about, some standing, some sitting, with Wu Qianhu crouching in the middle, his face gloomy and lost in thought.

  Wu Da Shu and Dong Mei sat aside with gloomy faces, smelling the greasy smell of washing pots all over their heads and bodies.

  "You can't go out and they can't come in." Ximen Qing smiled slightly: "But just wait a moment, you'll be able to meet soon."

  Wu Yue-niang stared at Ximen Qing's mouth moving up and down, suddenly asking: "What do you mean?"

  "Old man, what I mean is..." Ximen Qing deliberately paused for a moment, seemingly savoring Wu Yue's colorful expression: "I want to divorce you."

  Wu Yue-niang felt relieved upon hearing this, anyway the matter had already blown up to this point, and Ximen Daxin's lifetime savings of nine-tenths had been squandered by himself. Although she was divorced, her reputation would be tarnished, but Wu Yue-niang no longer cared.

  Originally, being at Ximen's house was no different from being a widow, except for the wedding night when Ximen Qing, fueled by wine, made love twice, and on other days, he either went out to indulge in pleasures or spent the night with Zhuo Er.

  Wu Yue-niang suddenly realized she could clearly count the number of times she and Ximen Qing had slept together.

  Maybe leaving this man will make me happy instead.

  Looking at Wu Yueniang's relaxed expression, how could Ximen Qing not know her thoughts? Was it enough to just let Wu Yueniang off like that? Ximen Qing didn't think so.

  "Stay well and don't play hanging games again." Ximen Qing said calmly: "I'm going to write a divorce letter, sir."

  "You two, throw this guy into the woodshed and keep an eye on him, just don't let him die." Ximen Qing kicked the half-unconscious Abacus Li: "Alas, still have to find an accountant, what a headache..."

  Watching Ximen Qing and Yueniang walking out of the house together, Wu Yue's heart had long been numb, without even a feeling of anger or jealousy.

  "Just let all this end early."

  "Sir." Xue'er asked in a low voice: "The madam has been in the mansion for many years, without merit but with hard work, does sir want to consider it carefully?"

  Ximen Qing smiled gently: "She is very hardworking, she has earned me five thousand taels."

  "Don't worry, I have a plan. Those 5,000 taels of silver, I will make the Wu family spit out every single tael, until the very last coin."

  Xue'er lowered her head and thought for a moment, then stopped talking.

  Ximen Qing smiled with satisfaction, and the two of them arrived at the study. Ximen Qing gave an order, and the book boy opened the rice paper, took a paperweight to press down on all four sides; The book boy handed over the inkstone, took out a piece of Huizhou ink, and Snowy laughed as she accepted it: "Let me personally grind the ink for Master."

  Watching Xue'er's small hand holding the rough ink pad, drawing circles in the inkstone, Xi Menqing couldn't help but think of this morning's scene and was momentarily stunned.

  This snow is still not fully open, and it's already 70-80% gone. It's pitiful. If I could go back to my own era with the snow, tsk tsk tsk.

  "Master, the ink is ready." Xue'er softly reminded Ximen Qing.

  "Oh, all right!" Ximen Qing came out of his reverie and took a lake pen from the shelf, dipped it in ink, and with swift strokes wrote out a divorce paper.

  Looking at the crooked and twisted characters that formed a unique font, Ximen Qing nodded in satisfaction: "Written very well, almost my best handwriting."

  The little book boy next to him had been watching and had a strong urge to make a sarcastic comment: "Writing characters like this is also considered weird."

  No wonder, Ximen Qing was originally uneducated and untalented, and when he was young, he didn't practice well. In his time, nobody practiced writing with a brush anymore.

  Xue Er also went over, frowning and strongly suppressing her nausea, looked at two lines, then couldn't bear to look again.

  "This is a treasure of a calligraphy, the only one in the world!" Ximen Qing proudly boasted: "In the future when I become famous... this font will be called Blowing Snow Font! It will be on par with the four great masters Su, Huang, Mi and Cai! Su, Huang, Mi, Cai, Blowing Snow!"

  This time even Hua Tong'er, who hadn't come over to watch, couldn't bear it and went aside to vomit.

  Although the letter was not well-written, Ximen Qing did not expect that he would shock the literary world and become famous all over the country because of this divorce letter. When people talked about this letter, they respectfully referred to it as "The Seven Divorce Letters in the Snow".

  "Wu Yue-niang, for the following reasons, has a husband Ximen Qing, is willing to establish this divorce letter, allowing him to remarry, and never dispute again. Fearing that there will be no evidence later, she voluntarily establishes this written agreement as proof."

  "Disrespecting her husband's way, scolding him, divorce!"

  "Stop your groundless crying and being a disobedient wife!"

  "Unreasonable jealousy, discord with husband, divorce!"

  "Refusing to repent and threatening with death, stop!"

  "Return the dowry and divorce!"

  "Bully and oppress the weak, stop it!"

  "There are three unfilial acts, and having no descendants is the worst!"

  "Take it easy! Take it easy!"

  Yes, actually the last one, Ximen Qing was completely making it up, anyway in this era, this is a real reason for divorce.

  Ximen Qing himself read it twice and threw down his brush, laughing loudly: "The words are good, the writing is even better!"

  Xue'er closed her eyes, picked up the rice paper, blew dry the ink, and felt around to fold it. Only then did she open her eyes and let out a sigh of relief: "Master, what should I do next?"

  "What's next?" Ximen Qing's mouth curled up into a faint smile as he played with the sheep fat jade pendant: "Next, we need to make this thing bigger."

  Then Ximen Qing had someone drag Wu Yue'e out of the room, accompanied by two maidservants. Ximen Qing walked ahead, heading towards the main gate.

  The cow was leaning against the gate with its head down, dozing off. It didn't expect the gate to suddenly open behind it and almost fell in: "What kind of person are you? You can't even say a word when opening the door!"

  The ox turned its head and found it was Ximen Qing, the top official: "It's the county magistrate, I spoke hastily, please forgive me."

  "It's nothing, it's nothing." Ximen Qing is now in a very good mood: "I didn't expect that Cow Head was sleeping at the door. How about it, is it tiring or not?"

  He said with his mouth, Ximen Qing had already taken out a string of money and handed it over: "I just took office today, consider this as a meeting gift. Brothers helped me stand guard for half a day, take it to drink some tea."

  The cow's eyes lit up in front of him, ignoring the two yamen runners drooling three feet away, and directly put the money into his sleeve: "Ah, my county magistrate, you're too polite! What's there to be afraid of? Sir, do you have any other business, just give orders!"

  "Alright. You go help call over Wu Qianhu from that side."

  In less than three minutes, Wu Qianhu and Wu Dabo brought Dongmei and the group of people to the gate.

  "What's going on here?" Ximen Qing looked at Wu Dalang, whose clothes were still wet, and pinched his nose, saying: "Who is so bold to pour such a large amount of water? And it smells so strong."

  "You scoundrel!" Wu Da Shu jumped up high, grasping his whistle rod and was about to pounce.

  "Huh?" His superior was right in front of him, and Niu Tou's expression was stern. He simply drew his waist knife and blocked Ximen Qing behind him, pointing the blade at Wu Daishu: "You scoundrel, what do you want to do?"

  Two attendants also pretended to hold water fire pincers and stood on either side of Ximen Qing, putting on a show of loyalty and protection.

  This feeling is great!

  "Ximen Qing, what are you trying to do?" Although he managed to grab hold of the impulsive Wu Daishu, Wu Qianhu also couldn't help but shout loudly: "Where is my daughter?"

  "Your daughter?" Ximen Qing made a bewildered expression, pushing aside the cow's head that was blocking his way: "Your daughter is fine, what are you shouting about?"

  "Wu Yueniang, come out."

  At Ximen Qing's order, two maidservants led Wu Yueniang out.

  Seeing his daughter's stupid expression, Wu Qianhu felt a little heartache and shouted: "Ximen Qing, what have you done to my daughter?"

  "Call County Magistrate!" Niudou's face turned red with rage, and he was about to draw his sword and step forward.

  "It's nothing, nothing." Ximen Qing chuckled and handed the divorce letter to Wu Qianhu: "What's the point of being stubborn. Here is a divorce letter, old man Wu, you'd better take it."

  Two maids also handed Wu Yue-niang over to Dongmei.

  "What kind of bird script is this!" Wu Qianhu opened the letter and took a glance, almost vomiting.

  "Can you understand? It's good if you can understand." Ximen Qing lazily announced, "From now on, Wu Yueniang and I will no longer have a husband-and-wife relationship."

  "As the newly appointed county sheriff of this county, I have one more thing to announce."

  "That's a case of property encroachment."

  "Wu Lao Tou, listen up. The fact that you let Wu Yue Niang infiltrate and secretly occupy the tens of thousands of wealth of our Ximen family has already been made known to the county magistrate."

  "As the first case accepted after taking office, from Zhu Zhi County to Benxian Wei, there is no more attention."

  "So, Old Wu, remember to come to the yamen tomorrow afternoon, otherwise, Cow Head will bring an arrest warrant and personally invite you over."

  "Do you understand?"