The Side Character Wants to Lie Flat-Chapter 140: An Incognito Visit

Hua Manman hadn’t expected the Crown Prince to be heading this way as well.

’What a coincidence.’

She returned to Prince Zhao’s side and told him what had happened.

Li Ji wasn’t particularly surprised.

According to the original plan, the Crown Prince was meant to stop in Fu’an County for some time on his southern tour for disaster relief.

After all, the damage in Fu’an County was quite severe and in desperate need of the court’s aid.

What interested Li Ji more was what the soldiers meant by "no careless talk."

’What is it in Fu’an County that the Crown Prince must not find out?’

While the doctor was dressing his wound, Li Ji struck up a casual conversation.

"The Crown Prince’s arrival should be a good thing. Why do those soldiers look like they’re ready to kill someone?"

There were no other patients in the clinic at the moment, and the doctor, who was idle anyway, heard this and quickly lowered his voice to warn them.

"Don’t talk nonsense! If those government officials hear you, you’ll be in for a world of hurt!"

Hua Manman asked curiously, "I hear the Crown Prince brought a lot of money and provisions this time, specifically for disaster relief. You must be very happy, right?"

The doctor glanced at the two of them. "You’re not from around here, are you?"

Hua Manman admitted readily, "That’s right. We’re refugees from out of town."

The doctor heaved a long sigh. "If that money and grain could actually reach the victims, of course we’d be happy. But when are things ever that simple?"

Li Ji raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying someone is lining their own pockets?"

The doctor was startled by his words and waved his hands in a panic.

"I never said that! Don’t you go making things up!"

Li Ji tried a different tack. "I heard the county government’s granaries are full of grain. How come we haven’t seen the County Magistrate distributing any to the victims?"

The doctor stared at him and retorted with a frown.

"Why are you asking so many questions?"

Li Ji simply smiled without offering an explanation.

Pretending to be busy, the doctor turned away to tend to his own affairs.

Hua Manman followed the clerk to have the prescription filled.

As she took the herbs, wrapped in oiled paper, from the clerk, he suddenly leaned in and asked conspiratorially.

"You’re actually important people on a secret inspection, aren’t you?"

Hua Manman’s heart skipped a beat. ’Has our cover been blown already?’

Seeing her silence, the clerk took it as a tacit confirmation, and his face lit up with excitement.

"I knew I wasn’t wrong! This kind of thing happens in plays all the time—

A high-ranking official, wanting to investigate the people’s conditions, deliberately disguises himself as a commoner and goes around asking questions.

I won’t lie, it’s my favorite kind of story!"

Hua Manman was speechless.

’So it wasn’t that our cover was blown, but that this young clerk just has a wild imagination.’

The clerk rubbed his hands together, winking at her secretively.

"Actually, I figured you were on a secret inspection earlier. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been asking about County Magistrate Luo."

An idea sparked in Hua Manman’s mind.

She took a piece of broken silver from her sleeve, pressed it into the clerk’s hand, and asked in the same conspiratorial tone.

"How much do you know about the County Magistrate and the disaster relief? Can you tell me about it?"

The clerk felt the weight of the silver, his smile growing even more excited.

He glanced around to make sure no one was near before whispering to her.

"You asked before why County Magistrate Luo doesn’t distribute grain to the victims, right?

It’s not that County Magistrate Luo refuses to distribute the grain, but that Deputy County Magistrate Gao is unwilling to open the granaries."

Hua Manman was even more confused.

"A deputy county magistrate’s position is lower than a county magistrate’s. Shouldn’t he be taking orders from the County Magistrate?"

The clerk tucked the silver into his sleeve and began to explain.

"That’s something you wouldn’t know.

Although Deputy County Magistrate Gao’s rank is a bit lower, he’s from the Gao Family.

You’ve heard of the Gao Family, right? They’re a major local clan!

Not only does the entire Gao Family support the Deputy County Magistrate, but the Deng and Cao families are also secretly backing him.

Before County Magistrate Luo took office, Deputy County Magistrate Gao had already been serving in the Fu’an county government for over a decade. The government office is almost entirely filled with his cronies.

You could say that Deputy County Magistrate Gao calls all the shots in the county government now.

County Magistrate Luo has the title but no real power. The Deputy County Magistrate even holds the keys to the granaries. There’s nothing County Magistrate Luo can do about him."

Hua Manman blinked. "In other words, Deputy County Magistrate Gao has turned County Magistrate Luo into a figurehead?"

The clerk nodded vigorously.

"Exactly!

I once went with my master to the county government to treat County Magistrate Luo’s mother, and I heard the old lady complaining about all this.

To be honest, County Magistrate Luo is actually a good man.

He lives very frugally himself, yet he’s willing to spend his own money to help the elderly and widowed.

When people who have been wronged come to him, he does his best to see that justice is served.

Oh, and when he first arrived last year, he proposed building canals throughout the county and raising the river embankments.

Unfortunately, as soon as he made the proposal, it was shot down by Deputy County Magistrate Gao.

Everyone in the county government sided with the Deputy County Magistrate. County Magistrate Luo couldn’t fight them all alone, so the matter was dropped.

And then this year, just as we feared, the floods came.

If they had just listened to County Magistrate Luo and built the dams and canals back then, we wouldn’t have so many homeless refugees now..."

At this, the clerk couldn’t help but sigh.

Although his family lived in the city and was lucky enough to escape the disaster, he had relatives in the countryside.

Now that the countryside was flooded, he didn’t know if those relatives were dead or alive.

Hua Manman asked, "So, County Magistrate Luo is actually a good official?"

The clerk sighed. "He is. It’s just a shame he has such bad luck, walking into a mess like this right after he arrived."

Hua Manman went on to ask more about Deputy County Magistrate Gao and the Gao, Deng, and Cao families.

The clerk told her everything he knew.

The Gao, Deng, and Cao families seemed independent, but they were all connected by marriage. For instance, Deputy County Magistrate Gao’s mother came from the Cao Family, while his wife was from the Deng family.

The relationships between the three families were a tangled web, much like their interests, which were so tightly interwoven they were impossible to separate.

This was the main reason they could band together so tightly and present a united front.

Carrying the packet of medicine, Hua Manman left the clinic with Li Ji, Jin Ling’er, and her younger brother. They took a room at an inn in the city.

The first thing they did after getting the room was to take a long, hot bath.

Once she had washed away the chill, Hua Manman brought the prepared medicinal broth to Prince Zhao.

As Li Ji drank the medicine, he listened to Hua Manman recount the information she’d gathered.

After she finished, Li Ji had a clear picture of the situation.

He set down the empty bowl and said languidly.

"Floods happen in the south every year during the rainy season.

To deal with this, the court not only sends disaster relief supplies to the south every year but also allocates silver to the local county governments so they can reinforce the embankments.

But looking at the state of Fu’an County, they clearly didn’t do as they were told.

So, where did the silver for building the embankments go?"

Hua Manman’s heart sank. "Could it have been embezzled by Deputy County Magistrate Gao?

No, he couldn’t have pocketed that much money on his own. The Gao, Deng, and Cao families must have been in on it too."