Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 75 Xu Shigao

A few days after its opening, the business of Liji Braised Meat Shop gradually stabilized, with a daily turnover of around 30 taels and a profit of around 10 taels.

Compared with the previous braised pig cooking alone, the profit ratio has indeed been reduced a lot.

After all, pork and pork itself are not cheap.

Even so, Li Nan and Liu were happy.

The official school will start again after the Lantern Festival. Li An basically studies and writes articles at home on weekdays, and occasionally gets together with Gu Tingye and others.

On the morning of the Lantern Festival, Li An came to Liu's house with the article he had written.

"Yes, after this period of training, the wording of the article has become much more rigorous and fluent, but the core idea is insufficient and too vague. I need to work harder in this aspect in the future." Liu Xuewen said.

"Thank you for your teaching, teacher." Li An said respectfully.

Liu Xuewen returned the article to Li An and asked: "Today is the Lantern Festival. There is a poetry meeting in the evening. You can join in the fun as a teacher." Liu Xuewen said.

"Teacher, the students have something to do tonight, so they can't go to the poetry meeting." Li An said.

He is also planning to make a fortune tonight.

"Well, since you have something to do, forget it." Liu Xuewen nodded.

"My lord, Mr. Xu, the academic administrator of Jiangdu County, is outside asking for an audience." A servant reported outside the door.

"Why is he here?"

Liu Xuewen frowned slightly and said, "Invite people to the front hall and let them watch the tea. I will be there right away."

"Yes!" the servant responded.

"Let's go and meet my master." Liu Xuewen said.

"Yes." Li An responded.

Yangzhou has six counties under its jurisdiction, and Jiangdu is one of them.

Jiangdu County is not far from Yangzhou City, only more than thirty miles.

Liu Xuewen, as the academic administrator of Yangzhou, is also the superior of the official academic administration of the six counties under the jurisdiction of Yangzhou.

In terms of grade, he is at the seventh rank, which is the same level as the county magistrates. However, the academic administration in each county is only at the eighth rank, which is a whole grade lower.

As the saying goes: If you have misfortune in three lives, the county magistrate will be attached to Guo; if you do evil in three lives, you will be attached to the provincial capital of Guo; if you are full of evil, you will be attached to the capital of Guo.

Although Jiangdu County is not considered Fuguo, it is only more than thirty miles away from Yangzhou. Whenever there is any news, it will soon reach Yangzhou.

The name of the academic administrator in Jiangdu County is Xu Shigao. In the past few years, there were rumors that he accepted money to enroll some children from wealthy families who did not meet the requirements into official schools.

Liu Xuewen, as a state academic administrator, naturally wanted to investigate the matter.

After investigation, it was found that Xu Shigao indeed received a lot of money and arranged for many children from wealthy families to enter official schools.

For this reason, Liu Xuewen wrote a letter to impeach him, but because there was someone above Xu Shigao, nothing happened.

However, Xu Shigao, who had managed well that year and could have been promoted, was unable to be promoted because of Liu Xuewen's impeachment.

Therefore, he hated Liu Xuewen. Every year at the Shangyuan Poetry Festival, academic administrators from each county would bring students from their counties to participate.

After all, this is also an opportunity for students to make a name for themselves.

However, Xu Shigao has never been there in recent years.

Li An had heard all this, and he felt that Xu Shigao's visit today might be a bad person.

Following Liu Xuewen to the front hall, he saw a man about forty years old with a gloomy complexion sitting in the hall drinking tea, and behind him stood a boy of seventeen or eighteen years old.

Seeing Liu Xuewen come in, the middle-aged man stood up and smiled, cupping his hands and saying, "I've met Mr. Liu."

"Well! Xu Xuezheng, you're welcome, sit down."

Liu Xuewen nodded, came to the main seat and sat down. Li An stood beside Liu Xuewen and felt a gaze on him. He followed the gaze and saw the young man behind Xu Shigao looking at him.

Seeing Li An looking over, the young man smiled scornfully and withdrew his gaze.

Xu Shigao sat down, glanced at Li An beside Liu Xuewen, and said with a smile: "I heard that Mr. Liu accepted a student last year, should this be him?"

"Yeah." Liu Xuewen responded lightly.

"Li An, a junior student, has met Xu Xuezheng." Li An saluted.

Xu Shigao didn't care about Liu Xuewen's attitude. He looked at Li An and nodded, praising: "Sure enough, he is a talented person."

"Xu Xuezheng is so complimentary." Li An said calmly.

"hehe."

Xu Shigao smiled softly and said: "Master Liu, I have been delayed for the past two years and did not come to participate in the Shangyuan Poetry Festival. It is rare that I have time this year, so I brought my incompetent student to see the world. Zhonghe, not yet Salute to Mr. Liu!"

"The underachieving student Feng Xihui has met Liu Xuezheng." Feng Xihui saluted.

Liu Xuewen nodded slightly and said, "I wonder if Xu Xuezheng has something to do with your visit today?"

"Haha, I heard that Mr. Liu accepted this student because he is good at poetry. It happens that my incompetent student also likes poetry. Today's poetry meeting can allow them to compete." Xu Shigao said with a smile.

Liu Xuewen's face darkened and he said, "Unfortunately, my student has something to do tonight and has no plans to attend the poetry meeting."

When Xu Shigao said this, he understood the purpose of Xu Shigao's visit this time.

According to the rules, the Shangyuan Festival Poetry Competition is for local students to become famous, and those with a good reputation cannot participate.

However, Pan Shan passed the county examination last year and had the title of scholar, so he could not participate.

The purpose of Xu Shigao's proposal to compete was for him.

Not to mention that Li An told him before that he was not going to participate in the poetry meeting today, even if Li An wanted to participate, he would not agree.

The other party came prepared, but Li An was not prepared at all.

Once he loses, it will definitely be publicized. Li An may not be able to bear it at his young age.

"Teacher, I..."

Li An naturally guessed the other party's purpose and wanted to agree, but was stopped by Liu Xuewen's look.

"Such a grand event is a great opportunity to make a name for yourself, but Mr. Liu's students didn't participate?" Xu Shigao pretended to be surprised, with a trace of ridicule in his tone and eyes.

"Haha, didn't Xu Xuezheng not participate for two consecutive years?" Liu Xuewen said lightly.

Xu Shigao's face was gloomy. He could naturally tell that Liu Xuewen was laughing at him because Pan Shan could participate, so he didn't dare to come.

Although this was indeed the case, Liu Xuewen's words made him almost unable to hold back the anger in his heart.

"Since Mr. Liu doesn't dare to compete, let's take our leave." Xu Shigao said coldly.

Even if Liu Xuewen doesn't agree, he can still let people publicize the matter.

Although it was not as effective as defeating his students in public, it could still embarrass Liu Xuewen.

If Liu Xuewen hadn't written a letter to impeach him, he would have been promoted three years ago. Given his age, he might not have the opportunity to become a Beijing official in the future.

After being manipulated like this by Liu Xuewen, not only was he not promoted three years ago, he was also unable to be promoted this time, which basically eliminated the possibility of becoming a Beijing official.

"Then I won't give it away." Liu Xuewen said calmly.

"How dare you let Mr. Liu see you off and say goodbye!" Xu Shigao bowed his hands and walked away.

"Teacher, the student actually has nothing to do. You can compare with him." Li An said.

"Okay, these are just disputes of will and have no meaning at all." Liu Xuewen shook his head slightly and interrupted Li An's words.

(End of this chapter)