The "four layers are high and five buildings face each other" mansion looks extraordinary from a distance.

  It was early in the tenth month, and the moon was like a silver hook. On this building, every tile on the eaves had a lamp lit, and the candlelight shone brightly. From afar, it seemed as if golden dragons were soaring through the vast night sky.

  Entering the brothel, from the main entrance, there is a long main corridor, about 100 steps, with three-story high side buildings on both sides. Under the eaves of the main corridor, there are hundreds of courtesans and dancing girls, all waiting for customers to choose their flower cards. Surrounding the south and north sky wells, there are small pavilions for drinking, each passageway and each pavilion is hung with crystal clear pearl curtains and embroidered valances, a dazzling sight.

  "Even in Yanjing, there is no such prosperous place," Zhang Yuber Chongguan lived in Yanjing for three years after being appointed as an official in a local area. Every time he thought of Yanjing, he had some nostalgia, but with a smile on his face, he said, "Having lived in Jiangning for a long time, I am happy and do not miss Shu... Listening to Su Mei's singing, I forget that I am in a foreign land..." But he forgot, Jiangdong Prefecture was his hometown, and the capital city was his foreign land.

  "When it comes to Su Mei's singing, Lin Xie actually has some experience..." Lin Meng said with a smile beside him. Although he was forced to agree to secretly help Lin Xie establish himself in Jiangning, he was still Lin Xie's elder in the clan, and making a few harmless jokes about Lin Xie was effortless.

  "Does Lin know Miss Su Mei?" asked Zhang Yuber.

  Xiao Chang is a popular qingyue mode in the Great Yue Dynasty, which can be regarded as the pop music of the Great Yue Dynasty. Su Mei's art shocked Jiangning, and she was good at singing small songs, with a gentle and sweet tone that could move people's hearts. However, Lin Xuan could only smile wryly, knowing that those who knew him also knew about his embarrassing encounter with Su Mei during the Jiangning imperial examination, which couldn't be considered a glorious thing. "I saw her from afar during the Jiangning imperial examination," Lin Xuan murmured in response to Zhang Yuber's attempt to bring up the topic.

  Lin Mengde didn't want to let him off so easily, and pulled over a small servant in brocade clothes from the side building, asking: "Did Miss Su Mei's flower card get taken by someone tonight?"

  "'Still here,' said the young servant in brocade,"I'll go and ask the Fourth Master if Miss Su Mei is free."

  "Go ask... just say it's Left Envoy Zhang, Master Lin of the Ji Yun Society, and Lin Mengde of the Linji Aggregated Wealth Warehouse, paying respects to Miss Su Mei's esteemed presence." Lin Mengde knew that even if Su Mei was idle, she would only come out to sing if she was in the mood. In this Jiangning City, there were only a few people with enough face to definitely be able to invite Su Mei out to sing and assist with the wine excitement. He patted the shoulder of the embroidered clothing young servant and told him to hurry up, then smiled at Lin Fu and said, "Don't worry, I'll take care of the twenty taels of silver for the listening fee."

  Lin Jingzhong just smiled and followed Lin Lian, Lin Mengde, and Zhang Yuber into the elegant room to sit down. He also wanted to see what Su Mei, who was famous in Jiangning, looked like. Zhou Pu, as an escort, naturally had to be reserved and speak little. In his heart, he thought that Lin Mengde and Zhang Yuber's faces were not enough, and since Lin Lian was here, Su Mei would also come.

  Lin Mengde and Zhang Yubo didn't have high expectations for Su Mei's arrival. She would put the flower card in the Fang Lou, but she was still mostly at Baiyuan. Even if she was interested in earning the twenty taels of silver as listening money, there were many people with higher status than them who came to the Fang Lou tonight to get drunk. Su Mei might not look down on this side. The few of them sat into a small pavilion and let the young servant bring over wine and dishes, laughing that they would wait for Su Mei for the time it took to finish a cup of tea, and if there was no response, they would choose another flower card to accompany them in drinking and having fun.

  Lin Xian invited Zhang Yu Bo over, wanting to inquire about the internal situation of the Procuratorate's yamen. Zhang Yu Bo had previously heard Yang Pu say that Gu Wu Chen intended to invite Lin Xian into his retinue but was politely declined by Lin Xian. Recently, he also said that after Gu Wu Chen took office, he repeatedly mentioned Lin Xian in public gatherings within the Procuratorate's yamen, probably to create momentum for Lin Xian's entry into officialdom. It is truly enviable that a high-ranking official of the imperial court would go to such great lengths for a young scholar like Lin Xian. Lin Xian wanted to inquire about the internal situation of the Procuratorate, and Zhang Yu Bo naturally told him all the inside information he could share with others.

  "When I first entered Jiangning, I took a boat along the Jin River from Wumiao Water Gate into the city. Outside the mouth of the Jin River, I saw the Procuratorate's large prison built on an island in the river. However, I have never seen any mention of this large prison in the east of the river in the Tang Dynasty postal reports."

  "The northern regions are treacherous, and nine out of ten exiled convicts die. The Jiangning Ministry of Justice requested to change the punishment from exile to imprisonment due to its severity. Since the Jiangning Ministry of Justice had no authority to establish prisons, the Jiangdong Inspectorate was tasked with building a prison in Jiang Island to detain exiled convicts. However, this proposal was rejected by Yanjing after only two years, and Jiang Island Prison was used as an ordinary inspectorate prison instead. The inspectorate already had a large prison within the city, and the one outside the Jin River was only for prisoners who had been sentenced to penal servitude... So, the Jin River Prison was actually a very deserted yamen, and it was also located outside the city on the riverbank, where pirates often caused trouble. Zhang Yuber couldn't help but shake his head and click his tongue whenever he mentioned Jiang Island Prison."

  Lin Xian smiled slightly, knowing why Zhang Yubo said that Jiangdao Prison was a desolate government office.

  This morning, prisoners who were sentenced to hard labor can redeem their sentence with money. 4,000 yuan can redeem one year of hard labor. According to the country's criminal law, the maximum term for hard labor is five years. If it exceeds five years, it will be commuted to exile, which means that 20,000 yuan can exempt all hard labor sentences.

  The Jiang Island Prison only holds prisoners who have been sentenced to death, think about it, those with money can use their wealth to escape punishment, while the poor and miserable are locked up in prison to serve hard labor, the prison guards naturally cannot extort anything from them, and even need to provide food for these poor prisoners.

  The city prison is different, the city prison mainly detains suspects awaiting trial, and even witnesses in a case are detained in the city prison waiting for trial. Suspects want to spend their days more comfortably, they can only bribe the prison officer. Not to mention the detainees awaiting trial, there are many witnesses who have been extorted by the prison officer until they are bankrupt.

  "But it's hard to say, the one who originally proposed building a strong city was Yang Yan, the Langzhong of the Jiangning Ministry of Justice. Now that Yang has been transferred to Yanjing as the Langzhong of the Ministry of Justice, it's possible that after a while, he'll bring up the proposal again. If all the convicts from Jiangdong County are imprisoned in the Jiangdao Island Prison outside the city...". Zhang Yuber smiled and patted Lin Fu's shoulder, saying "Since Governor Gu has such high regard for you, there's no need to take this risk. Even if you can't get the position of the big prison in the city, there are plenty of lucrative positions in the Provincial Inspectorate!"

  Lin Xie and Zhang Yu Bo exchanged a smile, with an unspoken understanding. However, in his heart, Lin Xie was disdainful, but also helpless. As a scholar-official, Zhang Yu Bo was supposed to be a paragon of virtue, but even he had been thoroughly permeated by the idea that "being an official is only for seeking wealth".

  According to the convention of this dynasty, for the first time to enter officialdom from the eighth rank or above, one must be a scholar-official and have a noble title, or be admitted to the Imperial Academy through examination with excellent results. Gu Wu Chen promised to appoint Lin Zuo as an official in the Censorate, but in fact he could only choose officials of the ninth rank or those who had not yet entered the mainstream.

  Lin Mengde sat beside him and listened for half a day, slowly making out some clues, thinking that Lin Xiang was indeed a good candidate for the imperial examination. In Jiangning City, there were countless candidates waiting to be appointed as officials, including those from the Imperial Academy, who had no hope of success even after their hair turned white. Yet, Lin Xiang came to Jiangning and immediately got a chance after submitting his application. From the tone of his conversation with Zhang Yuber, it seemed that he still had room for choice in selecting an official position within the Provincial Administration Office?

  In these times, the people fear officials and even more so cruel clerks. This prison clerk was the most notorious of all. It's often said that "a fat belly becomes thin as a monkey when entering prison". The notoriety of this prison clerk is one thing, but it's also an extremely lucrative position. Lin Meng thought to himself: Could Lin Xie really be going to become a prison clerk? If so, he mustn't offend him in the future.

  Lin Xianzheng was appointed as the prison officer of Jiang Island Prison outside the city, and the prison officer of the Chachashi Department was a small official from the ninth rank. He entered the official career with the honor of being a candidate, which was quite suitable for him.

  The position of prison governor was originally a military post, but during the reign of Emperor Renzong, it was changed to appoint Confucian scholars to govern prisons in prefectures and counties due to concerns about imprisonment and punishment. This has become a convention over the past hundred years, with only civil officials serving as prison governors. However, Emperor Renzong did not know that these Confucian scholars were even more ruthless than military personnel, using cruel punishments to extort prisoners and employing numerous tricks.

  He didn't want to extort a large sum of money from the prisoners and their families. He wanted to build a warehouse at the mouth of the Jin River, but the biggest difficulty was that the pirates were coming and going frequently on the Chao Tian Tang above the river. He had his eye on the Jiang Island Prison, which was directly opposite the mouth of the Jin River. Once he became the warden of the Jiang Island Prison, he could openly use the military force guarding the prison to patrol the river mouth and protect the safety of the warehouse at the mouth of the Jin River - it would be a win-win situation for him.

  Lin Xian had been worried that someone would come to compete with him for this position. After listening to Zhang Yu's analysis, Jiangdao Prison was actually a job with little oil and water to be extracted, extremely heavy responsibilities and full of risks. He put down his mind and thought about going to ask Gu Wu tomorrow to let him go to Jiangdao Prison as the prison officer.

  They ate and drank, talking about food, and the time it takes to drink a cup of tea had already passed. Zhang Yuber stuck his head out to look at the outside of the curtain and complained: "Miss Su Mei should have sent a reply even if she didn't come..."

  Lin Fu understood Zhang Yubo's meaning and said to Lin Jingzhong: "Call a servant to come in, let them bring the flower plate over, or let them find a few girls familiar with Master Zhang to let Master Zhang choose..."

  Lin Jingzhong was just about to get up when he heard Su Mei say at the door: "Is this going to drive me out?"

  Zhang Yubo and Lin Mengde heard Su Mei's clear and charming voice, and hurriedly stood up to the door to welcome: "Who will drive away Su's family?"

  Lin Xuan finally saw Su Mei's splendor in Jiangning, Zhang Yuber was the left commander of the Jiangning Prefecture's Military Department, and Lin Mengde was also a wealthy merchant in Jiangning City. Su Mei was someone who could make Zhang Yuber and Lin Mengde stand up to welcome her. Lin Xuan smiled slightly at the corner of his mouth and stood up, walking behind Zhang Yuber and Lin Mengde, saying: "Su's family is able to come over, Lin Xuan is grateful..." As he watched Su Mei approach with her robes fluttering, her jade pendants clinking, her sleeves rolled up revealing her white wrists, her slender fingers, her eyes shining brightly like a child, this was still Lin Xuan's first time seeing Su Mei dressed up after his soul returned. Looking at the smile on her face, he felt a few moments of heart palpitations.

  Su Meng ignored Zhang Yubo and Lin Mengde, but instead turned to Lin Jue and whispered: "Does Mr. Lin not recognize Su Meng?"

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  PS: Chapter 3 is online, brothers, where are the red tickets and collections?