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“Okay, I’ll take your mother with me when the time comes.” Having said this, Jiang Erlang went to notify his parents and elder brother to pack up and return to their village.

The items that the Jiang family had to pack were simple, just some daily necessities and food. The rest of their grain and valuable belongings were kept with their daughter.

As the villagers returned in succession, everyone became busy.

The wheat stalks on the fields needed to be reaped, the land had to be turned, and the grains harvested had to be threshed and dried in the sun.

Then, it would be time for rice transplanting and bean hoeing.

At this moment, someone from the County Government arrived unexpectedly, asking Jiang Erlang to come to the county town, saying that the new County Magistrate wanted to see him.

The government official even joked, “Don’t be nervous, Jiang, it’s good news. You’ll find out when you get there. It’s not appropriate for me to tell you straightforwardly.”

Jiang Erlang was baffled, so he could only accompany the official to the county town.

Jiang Dalang and Jiang Erlang were worried, insisting on going with their younger brother. Chen Zhu and a few others also said they were going to the county town for some shopping, and decided to go together.

Yingbao, on the other hand, was not worried. Because a new chapter suddenly appeared in the book in her mind, it said that her father would receive a position, and it would be an official rank.

As expected, when Jiang Dalang and Jiang Erlang returned, they shared good news. Jiang Erlang was appointed by the new Emperor of the Zhou Dynasty as a Ninth-rank County Magistrate, and from now on, he had to stay in the county town for duty.

Moreover, Jiang Erlang chose Chen Zhu to work under him, and the County Magistrate agreed. Now, Chen Zhu had become the captain of the county guard.

“Is this really happening?” The Clan Leader of the Chen family was overjoyed and rubbed his hands together, “Finally, someone from the Chen family is joining public service, hehe!”

Madame Tang was even happier and clapped her hands, “Oh, this is truly heaven-sent. Our Zhu finally made it.”

She handed a string of coins to her daughter-in-law, Madame Shao, “Quickly go to the market and buy a jug of wine. We women will celebrate tonight.”

“Alright, I’ll go now.” Madame Shao giggled and led her daughter to the market outside the village to buy wine.

The Clan Leader of the Chen family stroked his beard and mumbled to himself, “With Sanlang working at the county town as the County Magistrate, who will take up the role of the village leader?”

Madame Tang gave him a side-eye, “Of course it’s Jiang Dalang. The most respected family in our village is none other than the Jiang family.”

The Clan Leader of the Chen family nodded, “Right, right! I’ll go talk to the others about this so that Jiang Dalang can take over the village chores.”

With that said, he bhacked his hands and went to find some elders of the village, heading towards the Jiang family home.

When Jiang Dalang heard about the Chen Clan Leader’s intentions, he was somewhat embarrassed and hesitant, saying, “I… I can’t do it.”

“Why not?” An elderly villager puffed out his beard and glared at him, “Are you trying to hold your younger brother back?”

Jiang Dalang: …

The Clan Leader of the Chen family stroked his beard and said, “You are the only one suited for the role of village leader in our village. Stop rejecting, we have many people waiting to rebuild their houses, and we cannot delay.”

“Indeed, Dalang, you can’t delay the farming work.” Chen Sanyou also said, “We chose you because of your familiarity with Sanlang’s duties. If we gave the tasks to someone else, they might not handle them as well.”

Upon considering it, Jiang Dalang finally nodded, “Alright.”

Hence, Jiang Dalang took over the duties of his younger brother Jiang Erlang, becoming Dongchen Village’s village leader.

Several months later, not only had the Zhou Dynasty suppressed Wang’s rebellion, but they had also recaptured all the lost cities. Afterwards, they successfully took over three states, further expanding their territory.

At present, Daqian only had four states left, all of which were very barren lands with very few arable farms.

The soldiers of Daqian could not even afford food, let alone fight for the court. Many serving soldiers fled and came to the Zhou Dynasty territory, as many of them originally came from there.

Traders and aristocratic families also fled in succession, and sought refuge with the Zhou Dynasty.

The Wen family were among these refugees.

Wen Jingyan led his family into Jiankang City, and he became an Imperial Doctor at the Imperial Medical Bureau again because of his outstanding medical skills.

In the fourth year of the Zhou Dynasty’s reign, the Zhou Emperor personally led an army to conquer the remaining three states, brought Murong Xian, the Emperor of Daqian, back to Beijing, and conferred him as Marquis Changshou, living a pampered life in the inner courtyard of the Imperial Palace.

Xiao Chengjun was also brought back and he lived in the Earl Residence with his brother Xiao Mo.

Their father, who was slightly paralyzed from a stroke but did not have a life-threatening condition, was made an earl by the Zhou Emperor and lived under the emperor’s watchful eye. Like his son, he was not allowed to leave Beijing unless there were important matters.

Now, Yingbao is sixteen years old, a proper grown-up woman, and has moved to live in the county town with her mother.

Jiang Erlang served as the County Magistrate in the County Government, and his work was extremely busy, so he needed someone to take care of his daily life.

So, Chunniang brought her daughter to live in the courtyard with two entrances next to the store.

The daughter was growing up, and it was inappropriate for her to be seen in public often, so Chunniang bought two young girls and hired an old woman to do miscellaneous work, as well as a coachman.

The two girls were fairly young, both around eleven or twelve years old, and came from poor families.

Yingbao named them Muxiang and Xinghua.

Muxiang was slightly more mature, while Xinghua was lively. Their parents sold them when they were only nine years old, and they ended up in Qinchuan County. Fortunately, they met Chunniang and her daughter when they were visiting the Teeth Row.

Seeing them looking pathetically thin, Chunniang decided to buy them both.

“Miss, the postal station has delivered a letter.” Xinghua lifted her skirts and quickly ran into Yingbao’s room, handing the parcel she was hugging to her young mistress.

Yingbao took the parcel and used scissors to cut open the stitches and threads.

Inside the parcel was a letter, several nice-looking bolts of silk, and a box of beaded flowers.

This was sent by her younger brother, Jiang Jie, and the letter said that he was going to take the civil service exam this year and asked his parents and sister to accompany him in Beijing.

Yingbao smiled and immediately took the letter to find her mother.

She hadn’t seen her brothers for several years, especially Jiang Jie. Since he went to Jiankang with Teacher Wu, he hadn’t been home once.

Jiang Jie had written back before, saying that he was kept at the Imperial College by the Emperor to study and that he was not allowed to return home until he passed the civil service exam.

He also said that Teacher Wu had taken up a post in Beijing and couldn’t come back.

Now that the country was unified, the Emperor of the Zhou Dynasty opened the court again and was keen on recruiting talents. As long as one was talented and ambitious, the Emperor would personally inspect and provide a corresponding post if they had no misconduct and had good character.

“Mom, Xiaojie sent a parcel, along with a letter.” Yingbao read the letter to Chunniang and asked, “Should we go to Beijing?”

Chunniang took the letter and squinted at it carefully, unfortunately, she couldn’t recognize any characters.

She sighed and said, “Let’s wait until your father comes back, and ask him if he wants to go.”

Ever since her husband became the County Magistrate, his days were always busy. Sometimes he went out of town to patrol and wouldn’t be back for a day or two.

Yingbao: “Dad definitely can’t make it. We’ll go when the time comes.”

Her father was really busy, often not coming home. Besides, he was a ranked military officer now, and he couldn’t just take his work lightly and go to Beijing. If he was punished by his superior, that would embarrass his younger brother.