Chapter 266: Attendant of the Yellow Gate
The second day, Jiang Changtian stayed at home to accompany his family.
Mianmian once again endured her Father’s loving education.
Plus the comparative education of an overachieving brother.
Previously, as the only student, she could be first or last; without comparison, there was no pressure.
Everyone is the little princess of their own world.
But now that another student had arrived, she was perpetually trailing behind, and the competition had intensified.
Intelligence is, most of the time, constant.
Cunning, however, might take root, sprout, and grow.
Fortunately, many guests suddenly arrived at the house.
Jiang—the shy, anti-social—Changtian had taken a stroll to the government office that day and exchanged addresses and contact information with a group of people waiting for official positions.
Over the past two days, people had been arriving one after another.
Some had heard the news of him taking the post of Attendant of the Yellow Gate and came specifically to give gifts.
Others were truly struggling, unable to pay rent, and feeling that Brother Jiang was a dependable person, they came in desperation to see if there was any way out.
And some had ulterior motives, coming to fish for information.
The Jiang Family received them all with courtesy.
Meanwhile, Jiang Wan suddenly discovered that the neighbors of her neighbors of her neighbors had suddenly become bustling with visitors.
That was how she learned the news.
She never expected that Jiang the Second would actually come to the capital.
And even became an Attendant of the Yellow Gate.
She remembered that in her previous life, after her Father arrived in the capital, he also became a Vice Minister, but in the Ministry of Rites.
Now that her Father had become a monk, she had entered the capital alone with her grandmother.
The Vice Minister had become Jiang the Second.
And he was her neighbor.
To her, Jiang the Second was like a nightmare.
With people coming and going in the house, Mother and Father wouldn’t let Mianmian go out.
Mianmian decided to find something to do herself.
Let’s farm.
She dragged Brother Chong into the courtyard to dig the soil and farm.
Mianmian had to drag Brother Chong along whenever she did anything.
Because if Brother Chong was truly depressed, working more and moving more meant he basically wouldn’t have time to be depressed.
She specifically requested a plot of land in the perfectly good courtyard and had Big Brother Wei Biao and Big Brother Pang Ya come to dig it up.
Tilling the soil.
As it turned out, while digging, they actually unearthed a chest of silver in the courtyard.
Mianmian hadn’t expected to be so lucky with wealth.
Consequently, before any farming had even begun, the whole family started digging the ground.
Mianmian brought Ant along; it was time for it to play its part.
She let Little Tree scout the path.
To save some time.
On one side, Mianmian led the group in digging the ground.
On the other side, the neighbor Jiang Wan heard all sorts of noises from the courtyard next door and suspected she was having auditory hallucinations.
Because Jiang the Second was three doors away.
Yet she kept hearing all sorts of strange noises right next door.
Jiang Wan was so scared that she developed a high fever under her covers that very night.
The third day.
Jiang Changtian was at home accompanying his family.
Yesterday, because of receiving guests, he couldn’t accompany his little daughter.
As a result, in just one day, the house had almost been dug into a graveyard, with piles here and piles there.
Perhaps because Brother Chong was there, Mianmian avoided a beating.
Because she had dragged Brother Chong along to dig with her.
The harvest was also plentiful.
Not only did they dig up two chests of silver, but they also unearthed a skeleton, a chest of books and ancient texts, and a chest of bottles and jars.
If Mother and Father hadn’t forbidden it, Mianmian could have kept digging today.
The silver and books were nothing.
The skeleton was also quite ancient.
It was a skeleton of a young person.
In the end, they collected the remains and found a place to bury them.
Zi Congheng wasn’t afraid, he just didn’t understand why Mianmian wasn’t afraid either.
The two of them had no taboos.
If not for her family forbidding it, Mianmian would have wanted to keep that skeleton.
Medical students all know the difficulty of obtaining a cadaver.
But Jiang Changtian firmly refused.
He felt in his heart that it must be for the reason Brother Feng mentioned.
Leading his daughter to be exceptionally fond of things dug out from the soil.
On this day, Jiang Changtian accompanied his daughter to dig the soil and farm.
Let’s focus on farming and not turn it into treasure hunting.
Seeing her daughter digging everywhere, Qin Luoxia felt a bit guilty, thinking that this trait of her daughter’s might have been inherited from her.
She had fled from famine with Mother, so she really wanted to store food.
Wherever she went, she wanted to dig a cellar to store grain.
She had been a bit busy these past few days, scouting locations, thinking about where would be good to dig.
However, her daughter digging here and there had unexpectedly helped her scout the locations.
The whole family worked together to clear a plot of land, diligently doing it themselves, sowing the wild onions they brought, and then scattering some unknown seeds that Mianmian had someone buy from the street.
They planted very seriously but randomly.
Mianmian thought she always needed to find something to do; she didn’t have anything else, just a spring, unchanged for years—she hadn’t lived for decades yet.
It was just a thin stream of spring water.
She dripped a drop into a bucket to water the newly opened vegetable plot.
She watered it all very earnestly.
She was useless at manual labor, but anyway, clearing a plot of land and planting it made the day pass by.
The fourth day.
Jiang Changtian had to go to work today.
He had also received his work uniform yesterday.
Perhaps because he was a close minister to the Emperor, he received it quickly; if it were another position, he would probably have to go through procedures.
The base color of the robe was navy blue, with embroidery in the middle.
There were little deer.
There were cranes.
There were auspicious clouds and lingzhi mushrooms.
The hat was plain black, made of silk.
There was a round jade on the head.
If one’s face wasn’t good-looking, wearing this hat would easily make the face look oily.
Jiang Changtian had a widow’s peak on his forehead; dressed neatly, with his long hair flowing beneath the hat, his hair tips tidy, his eyebrows handsome, and his eyes naturally affectionate.
The robe was the kind that required a belt.
It really showed off his figure.
On his feet were official boots.
A full set.
After putting it on, it added even more grace to his already handsome face.
Jiang Mianmian felt that Mother was very reluctant to let Father go to work, probably because she thought Father was too good-looking and was worried.
Mianmian and Little Chong both got up early to see Father off to work.
The daily routine basically hadn’t changed.
Father had to go to work wherever he was.
After sending Father off, Jiang Mianmian went to water the vegetables.
She decided to water them once every morning.
The servants in the residence thought that this young lady of noble birth had never done a day’s work in her life, yet she insisted on growing vegetables in winter and watering them diligently every day; planting at this time, no matter how much you watered, it was useless.
But no one dared to tell their master what to do.
Jiang Changtian went to work, first going to the government office to report; after normally reporting, he should have entered the palace to wait for his duties.
Perhaps it was because he hadn’t offered bribes or declared a stance.
Upon arriving at the government office, someone led him to familiarize himself with the business, and then threw a pile of trivial rules and regulations at him, telling him to memorize them first; it looked like he wouldn’t be able to enter the palace without some training.
Perhaps after a while, the Emperor would forget this person.
Jiang Changtian sat in the government office; this room was much better than the small room at the Herb Preparation Bureau in Ming County.
Through the window, he could see the trees in the courtyard; the trees had golden leaves with red edges, as well as green leaves, contrasting with each other, very beautiful, like a painting.
The windowsill was also very clean, with no one scribbling on it.
He sat in this little room, watching the hustle and bustle outside; today, a long line of people had formed to pay their respects to Prime Minister Lu.
And before him was a desk, covered with various detailed rules and regulations.
Jiang Changtian was not in a hurry; he opened the first book, “Palace Regulations,” and began to read it seriously.
He had a photographic memory, flipping through page by page, very quickly.
Over there, after Prime Minister Lu met with two officials, he asked his subordinate: “What is that new Vice Minister Jiang doing?”
“He is reading the details, but he is flipping through them very quickly; it seems he probably hasn’t taken it in,” the subordinate replied.
Prime Minister Lu nodded.
He has some cunning, but not much.
It’s fine, grind him slowly; young people’s temperaments need to be ground down, otherwise, he might really think that he can get ahead in the capital just by having a pretty face; there are exceptionally many beautiful people who have died in this capital.
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