Chapter 107 Wind Comment
The sun shines brightly at noon.

Outside the clinic, four sedan bearers slowly lifted Zhang Zhuo's dark red official sedan and merged into the crowd on Anxi Street.

A faint fragrance filled the air in the clinic. Bai Li approached the counter, looked outside the door, and asked, "I think I saw Master Zhang Zhuo. Why did he leave as soon as he saw us?"

Chen Ji put the chess pieces into the chess basket one by one: "Master Zhang said he has to attend a banquet at noon, so he left first."

Bai Li was puzzled: "Did Lord Zhang come all the way to see you? Did he want to lobby for the Chen family and persuade you to return home?"

Chen Ji also had a question mark on his forehead: "No, he seems to be here to persuade me not to go home..."

Baili: "Ah?"

The prince who had just climbed over the wall brushed off the dust on his body and said jokingly, "Perhaps Lord Zhang saw your talent and wanted to recruit you to be an official in the government office."

"Can you become an official without taking the imperial examination?"

The prince smiled and said, "Of course, with Lord Zhang's background, it would be easy for him to recommend you an official position. He might really want to invite you to take up an official position. You can first serve as a staff member in the government office for two years, and then be sent to another place to take up a position."

Liu Quxing said bitterly: "What kind of official position can Chen Ji hold? He is not as good as me in learning medical skills. At the beginning of the year, I could find the positions of the twelve meridians, but he couldn't even remember where the Yongquan acupoint was..."

She Dengke crossed his arms and sneered: "You can remember the acupuncture points, but you can't remember the kindness of others to you."

Liu Quxing stiffened his neck and blushed: "What the hell are you talking about!"

The prince sighed: "No one in Taiping Medical Clinic has a mouth for nothing."

At this time, Old Man Yao was fiddling with the abacus beads and taking notes. He said calmly without raising his head, "Don't guess. As soon as Mr. Zhang came in, he asked me if Chen Ji had any girl he liked. I said no, maybe this kid's brain is not fully grown yet, so he hasn't thought about it yet."

Liu Quxing's breathing stagnated.

Old man Yao put down his brush, raised his head and continued, "Then, Lord Zhang began to praise his daughter for being gentle, sensible, and good at housework. Don't you understand what Lord Zhang meant?"

The clinic suddenly became quiet.

Liu Quxing opened his mouth wide and looked at Chen Ji silently, wanting to say something but stopping himself.

Chen Ji looked at Liu Quxing: "Brother, what do you want to say?"

Liu Quxing gritted his teeth: "You really deserve to die!"

Chen Ji: "..."

The master had pointed it out to this point, so it would be inappropriate for him to play dumb: "Master, you didn't respond to his question, did you?"

Old Man Yao sneered, "I'm not your father, what right do I have to respond to such a question? But I came to the clinic early in the morning just to get a closer look at your character. Now that I'm satisfied and leaving, I'm afraid I'm not going to the banquet, but to the Chen Mansion."

Chen Ji frowned: "So careless? I have only met Master Zhang three times, how can he judge my character?"

This time it was Old Man Yao's turn to be stunned: "Three times is not enough? He is quite sincere to come to the clinic for this matter. It seems that his daughter is very favored."

Chen Ji suddenly realized a problem: in marriages of this era, what both parties choose is not the person, but the family background.

As the master said, Zhang Zhuo was extremely responsible to his daughter by personally coming to the clinic to see Chen Ji's character.

She Dengke said in a muffled voice: "Mr. Zhang has several daughters. Which one is he going to matchmake with now?"

The prince leaned against the counter, thinking: "Master Zhang has only two daughters. The older one has married into the Liu family. It should be the younger one, but..."

Chen Ji was puzzled: "But what?"

Liu Quxing said bluntly: "But, the remaining daughter is a legitimate daughter, and you are a bastard. Could it be that Master Zhang has an illegitimate daughter?"

The prince shook his head. "Even if Chen Ji is a bastard, he is still the bastard of the Chen family. The Chen family has been well-off for generations. The current head of the family, Chen Luchi, is a cabinet minister and the Minister of Revenue. If Lord Zhang goes to the Chen family to propose marriage for his illegitimate daughter, he will be kicked out of the Chen family by Lord Chen. Therefore, the one Lord Zhang wants to propose marriage to is probably his legitimate daughter."

The legitimate daughter marries a bastard's son... Liu Quxing felt even more jealous.

While he was thinking, Bai Li said, "But, the reputation of this Mr. Zhang Zhuo..."

"Huh?" Chen Ji looked at Bai Li.

Bai Li hesitated for a long time, then gently tugged at the prince's sleeve: "Brother, you tell me."

The prince said helplessly, "If you want to get promoted under Lord Zhang, it costs 800 taels of silver to be promoted to a county chief clerk, and 3,000 taels of silver to be promoted to a county magistrate. The price is clearly marked. Every day, the Zhang Mansion is crowded with people queuing outside the door to seek official positions. It is said that there are officials from other prefectures as well. However, Lord Zhang has a very good reputation. As long as you pay him, he will really do things for you."

Liu Quxing, who was standing by, became excited: "I heard that Lord Zhang has dozens of concubines. Is that true?"

The prince laughed and said, "It's true. Every year, countless officials send him beautiful concubines, and he never refuses them all."

Liu Quxing sighed: "How many houses would that require?"

The prince said, "Master Zhang divided his concubines into three, six, nine grades. The top three stayed in his house, and the bottom six were all sent to the farm to do farm work..."

Bai Li said on the side: "The Chen family is a clean family in the north, and they have always had a grudge against the Xu family in the south..."

Chen Ji shook his head: "These are not my concerns in the court. I am just not interested in this matter."

Old Man Yao said sarcastically, "You speak as if you can decide this matter. Parents' orders and matchmaker's words, how can you decide?"

Chen Ji replied, "Master Zhang thought about this matter, and I'm afraid he has his eyes on the cement formula in my hand. Now that the prince and I have not signed the contract to transfer the formula, there is still hope, so Master Zhang has made up his mind. I just need to sign the contract with the prince as soon as possible and let Master Zhang know that there is no hope for the cement matter, and he will abandon me like a worn-out shoe."

Old man Yao stroked his beard and said, "That's true. This person won't do anything unless it's profitable. He is a real mean person."

The prince suddenly said, "However, Lord Zhang was not like this when he was young. He passed the imperial examination at the age of twelve and became the top scholar at the age of fifteen. At that time, he already had a wife. Lord Xu asked someone to act as a matchmaker, wanting him to divorce his wife and marry the daughter of the Xu family, but he refused. At that time, he said to the matchmaker, 'If the lady does not have me, she will still be the lady. If my wife does not have me, she will be nothing but a skeleton.'"

"When he was nineteen, Mr. Zhang's first wife died of illness. He was disheartened and resigned from his post and returned to his hometown in Jiangling, Huguang."

Bai Li was puzzled: "Hey, then why did he marry Lord Xu's niece?"

"It is said that after being idle at home for a year, Lord Zhang finally came to his senses and married Lord Xu's niece. From then on, he rose to prominence."

However, at this moment, Bai Li suddenly lowered his voice and said, "Chen Ji, there is someone staring at me across from the clinic. I have seen him, and this is not the first time."

Chen Ji glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw a sturdy middle-aged man standing in the shadow of the bun shop's awning, silently staring at Bai Li.

The middle-aged man was dressed in black, with a tiger back, wasp waist, and mantis legs, and looked extremely strong and sturdy.

Chen Ji wanted to see the other person's appearance clearly, but the other person was wearing a hat and his face was hidden in the darkness under the hat.

Is he a spy from the Secret Service? No, a spy wouldn't stare at someone like that.

He thought for a moment and asked, "How many times has the princess seen him?"

Bai Li recalled: "Four or five times. The first time was in a tavern at the foot of the Donglin Academy. I followed my brother down the mountain that day, and he was sitting alone in the tavern. This person has a special figure and temperament, so it is easy to remember him after seeing him."

"Where have you seen me since then?"

"Let me think about it. When I came back from the academy and just entered Luocheng, he was standing by the road." Bai Li said, "I was quite scared when I saw him at first. I thought he was some bad guy, but later I got used to it. He just looked at me for a while and then left."

"Does he have any other characteristics?"

Bai Li recalled for a while, and suddenly said: "I remember that one time when I passed him, I saw a tattoo on his wrist with his sleeve rolled up. It looked like a Buddha."

"Buddha?" Chen Ji frowned and looked outside the clinic, but there was no one under the awning of the bun shop.

(End of this chapter)