Chapter 2: Rain in Li County

Chapter 2: Rain in Li County

Chapter 2: Rain in Li County
In the spring of March in the ninth year of Jinghe, a light rain had just fallen in Li County.

In the hall of the Li County Weaving Institute, Liu Sheng sat at the bottom and listened to his boss reporting to his boss, and yawned quietly.

There's no other way. I stayed up until the early hours of last night helping my boss write this report and I hardly slept.

It's the once-in-three-year evaluation period again.

However, the Censor sent by the court this time did not play by the rules. He liked to make incognito visits and surprise attacks. His superior did not get the news until the evening from somewhere, and the Censor would visit Li County early the next morning.

Therefore, Liu Sheng, the best writer in the Li County Weaving Institute, was asked to finish the manuscript in a hurry, so as to prevent the director of the weaving institute from stumbling and making a fool of himself when giving his report.

So today, when the Chief Justice was supposed to receive and report to the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner alone, she, the small treasurer of the treasury, had to accompany him.

There is no other reason for this honor. It is just to prevent the dean from suddenly forgetting the words.

I heard the director of the Li County Weaving Institute, who was over sixty years old and had sparse white hair, complaining respectfully to a middle-aged elegant scholar sitting at the top, wearing a crimson official robe:

"...Although Li County is not as prosperous and populous as the capital, Jiangnan and other places, and man-made weirdness often occurs, it is located in a remote area, only a thousand miles away from the northern border, and the weirdness is thick, so there are also many weirdness caused by natural infection, which is difficult to control."

Then he changed the subject and said, "Fortunately, I have the protection of the Supreme God. Since I took office, I have worked hard, diligently, day and night, and have finally achieved some achievements. Last year, the number of strange outbreaks was seven, which is less than the average number in previous years..."

Liu Sheng tried to remind him softly in a voice that only the dean could hear: "Three pieces."

"Yes, three." The director said calmly, "But the number of cases we are investigating is as high as 156. In order to solve the people's worries, the Li County Weaving Institute is very busy working from dawn to dusk every day. In addition, the ratio of mysterious decontamination and purification has also increased from the previous 3 to 20 to..."

"Ahem, nine to twenty." Liu Sheng was embarrassed and whispered again.

"Nine to twenty." The director did not feel embarrassed and said righteously, "I dare not say that this result is outstanding, but I can only say that it is worthy of the people."

Yes, although the Weaving Institute is named "Weaving Institute", it does not engage in weaving business.

More than three hundred years ago, a strange aura broke out. Countless lives were killed by strange creatures, infected by strange aura, and swallowed by strange lands. People could no longer be humans, and strange auras could no longer be strange. The Tang court was helpless and could only watch the people become homeless, corpses scattered all over the field, and the land was devastated.

Until the first year of the divine revelation, a huge face of a god suddenly appeared in the sky. Wherever the god's eyes went, the weirdness could not be hidden, and many weirdnesses entered a state of contraction, stillness, or even annihilation.

Although the divine eyes open and close unpredictably, causing endless strangeness beyond the eyes, that dark and bloody period has become history.

From then on, people in the world bowed their heads to the god in heaven and called him "the Supreme God". They believed that it was the Supreme God who had pity on the people suffering from strange disasters, so he descended from the realm of gods to the human world, overlooking the world and shocking the strangeness.

Later, people discovered that perhaps it was the appearance of the Supreme God that brought spiritual energy, and talented people could communicate with the Supreme God to practice and gain abilities, resist or even resolve the weirdness.

Therefore, Emperor Xuanwen organized a group of practitioners to eliminate most of the strange things left in various places. Those that could not be eliminated were driven to the northern border, where they built a high wall, called it the "Great Wall". They also built weaving houses in various places, which were under the management of the Weaving General Administration in the capital, with the aim of solving the strange problems in various places and protecting the peace of the people.

The middle-aged scholar in the red robe was the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner from the Capital City Textile Administration. He nodded and listened while drinking tea, seemingly unaware of the small movements of his subordinates. He smiled and said:

"The higher-ups have been keeping an eye on these developments. Over the years, the Li County Weaving Institute has risen from 289th to 238th in the Weaving Bureau system. Yongzhi, you have made an indelible contribution to this."

The director was overjoyed. His surname was Zhang, his given name was Xian, and his courtesy name was Yongzhi. His superiors addressed him by his courtesy name, which meant they skipped the stage of greetings and treated him as one of their own. He quickly smiled and said he did not deserve the honor.

If I can gain your favor, perhaps I'll have the opportunity to report on my work in the capital during this assessment, and maybe I can get a promotion and leave this desolate Li County.

"By the way, what was the name of the article submitted by the Li County Weaving Institute last month?" The Censor suddenly mentioned.

Zhang Yuanzheng was full of doubts. It seemed that he had not submitted any articles recently?
Liu Sheng's heart skipped a beat when he heard this. It should be, right? The Provincial Surveillance Commissioner slapped his head and said, "Oh, right. It's called "Analysis of the Parsing Path of Artifact-Type Strange Objects - Research Based on the Strange Objects in Li County Inventory". It's really well written. Even the emperor praised it highly. He also told me to take a good look at it during my visit to Li County, learn from Li County's experience, and especially learn from Yongzhi how to tap talents and develop research work."

As he spoke, he touched his waist, took out a brand new volume of "Cultivation Theory" from his storage bag, and handed it to Zhang Yuanzheng.

Zhang Yuanzheng has not even read this article. How can he learn about development research?

Zhang Yuanzheng took the publication with a strong smile, but he was gritting his teeth in his heart.

Liu Sheng stretched his neck and stared at the publication in the dean's hand, feeling a little nervous.

This article was written by her and was the result of her research in the past two years since she entered the Weaving Institute.

She had presented it to Zhang Yuanzheng, but Zhang Yuanzheng said that he had been busy with official duties recently and would look at it later. As time went by, it was pushed to the bottom of the files and documents on the table and forgotten about.

So Liu Sheng had to find the manuscript submission letter for "Cultivation Theory", a journal in Tang Dynasty that is at the forefront of cultivation research and has an impact factor of over ten, and sent it himself.

Xinling is a newly launched technique for sending and receiving letters. Although letters are transmitted instantly, Liu Sheng thought that generally it would take three to six months for manuscripts to be reviewed. So when he heard the Censor mention an article, he was skeptical and felt that it was unlikely to be his.

I didn't expect that the review of "Theory of Cultivation" would be so fast this time. It was sent last month and published this month. It attracted so much attention that even the government knew about it.

Zhang Yuanzheng also had some guesses in his mind. He saw that this article was directly published as the first article in the February issue, which showed how much importance it attached to the magazine. He then looked at the signature, turned his head to look at Liu Sheng, forced out a kind smile, and said, "Xiao Liu is indeed a talent from our Li County Weaving Institute."

In a word, Liu Sheng can be identified as being trained by the Li County Weaving Institute.

The Censor seemed to have just noticed Liu Sheng behind Zhang Yuanzheng. She looked only about eighteen years old, with a slender and petite figure. The most eye-catching thing on her small oval face was a pair of round eyes, but one could see that her face was full of fatigue.

He couldn't help but think of his youngest daughter at home, who was about the same age and equally youthful, but she could already write articles that were published in "Cultivation Theory", while his own daughter still looked like an unlearned and trouble-making young official. He secretly sighed in his heart that comparison was the thief of anger.

His eyes lingered for a moment, and he smiled approvingly and said, "So this young friend is Liu Sheng. No wonder Yongzhi brought her with him when he reported on his work today. Talented people should indeed be highly valued, and she is so young. It is true that heroes emerge from youth."

Liu Sheng hurriedly said that he was not worthy of it.

"Yes, yes, she is not even twenty years old yet. She was born in Hanshan Academy and was admitted to our Li County Weaving Institute two years ago. She was admitted as an exception because of her resilience and high comprehension. After she came in, she was asked to work as the treasurer in the warehouse." Zhang Yuanzheng introduced to the Censor.

The reason why Zhang Yuanzheng remembered it so clearly was that there were not many new people entering the Li County Weaving Institute in recent years. The newly graduated students tended to apply to weaving institutes in prosperous places, where they could earn more money, have more jobs and be promoted easily.

"If she hadn't been rooted in the warehouse for research for a long time, she wouldn't have been able to write such an article." Zhang Yuanzheng was afraid that the Censor would think he was wasting talent, so he quickly added.

The position of treasurer is not a bad one. To put it simply, he is a warehouse manager who is responsible for looking after strange creatures. If one comes into contact with strange creatures too much, he will be easily contaminated and attacked, and will become crazy, lose his mind, or even transform into a new strange creature.

If Liu Sheng didn't have extremely high resilience, that is, a strong ability to resist strange forces, he might have become a little mentally ill after staying in the warehouse for two years, let alone writing articles or doing research.

The Provincial Surveillance Commissioner was also very clear about this truth, and asked Liu Sheng: "Hanshan Academy is also a good academy. Being able to get in shows that you have good talent. But you are still young, why don't you continue studying? Maybe you can take the imperial examination and enter the National Academy?"

Although being a treasurer in the weaving house is considered a stable job, it is not a high-ranking job, and it is not comparable to being assigned by the National Academy. For example, Zhang Yuanzheng became the head of a county as soon as he graduated, enjoying the treatment of the seventh rank. He is now in charge of the county weaving house and has been promoted to the sixth rank.

Liu Sheng bowed and said calmly: "To reply to your Excellency, because I cannot communicate with the gods."

(End of this chapter)