Chapter 81: You Are Not In Exile You Are Clearly Traveling!
Chapter 81 Crazy Wool Gathering
After some persuasion, Chen Yuan explained to Xu Tian that he wasn't changing his career, but rather trying to make some money.
In reality, since he had been exiled, there was no chance of him returning to officialdom. Unless the Emperor was willing to admit fault or if there was a change in Emperors, there was no possibility of him returning to his former position.
His current situation made it impossible for him to continue serving as an official. Moreover, he no longer had any desire to hold such a position. His greatest wish now was to protect his wife and daughter and ensure their happiness.
"If Master Chen needs money, just come to me! I have plenty!" Xu Tian patted his purse. Being unmarried and not indulging in luxuries, he had saved up a considerable sum of money.
"It's alright, you can leave now!" Chen Yuan waved his hand, indicating that he didn't want to talk further.
Upon hearing this, Xu Tian didn't press the matter further and left. However, before departing, he whispered, "Master Chen, if you really want to do business, it might be better to wait for a while..."
Watching Xu Tian walk away, Chen Yuan squinted his eyes. It seemed that Xu Tian wasn't foolish after all!
He also understood the current situation of Captain Sun, which was akin to a beast on the verge of madness. Until the court announced Captain Sun's fate, he might behave normally. However, if the court decided to remove him from his position and imprison him, Captain Sun wouldn't sit idly by.
If someone promised to spare his life in exchange for their own, Captain Sun would likely agree.
Therefore, Chen Yuan agreed with Xu Tian's suggestion to keep a low profile for the time being. Even if they wanted to start a business, it would be better to wait until the situation calmed down.
However, Chen Xue wasn't one to sit idly by. With her father's guidance, she found a way to earn contributions.
First, she had Xiao Die write down her recipes and then had the system recycle them. This yielded thousands of contributions, much to Chen Xue's delight.
Next, she asked Xiao Hua to write down some recipes she knew. Similarly, each recipe earned her hundreds of contributions.
After that, Chen Xue began gathering information from both the servants and her father, intending to extract every bit of knowledge from their minds.
Chen Yuan spent his nights farming and his days painting. His hands were sore from overwork. However, Chen Xue immediately exchanged some medicinal wine for him and handed him a brush, urging him to practice calligraphy.
Chen Yuan: ...
Despite the upheaval caused by the riot, the Chen family remained relatively unaffected and continued to stay together in their carriage.
However, the other prisoners were not as fortunate. The bailiffs seemed to take out their anger on them, lashing out whenever they felt displeased.
One old man was struck on the back by a bailiff, causing him to stumble and nearly fall.
"Old man, hurry up!"
"Do you have any humanity? He's already so old!" A nearby prisoner immediately rushed to help the old man, preventing him from falling, and then glared at the bailiff.
The bailiff lashed out again, and the man, unable to dodge, turned his back to absorb the blow.
"You're so compassionate, why don't you take a few more lashes for him!" The bailiff swung his whip at the man, clearly seeking revenge for the earlier attempt on his life by the prisoners.
In the blink of an eye, the man's back was covered in blood.
"Stop!"
Xu Tian happened to witness this scene as he left Chen Yuan's side and immediately intervened.
"Liao Er, what are you doing?"
"Xu Tian?" Liao Er turned to see Xu Tian and paid him no mind. "What's it to you? Don't meddle in others' business!"
Xu Tian approached, pointing at the bloody back of the man, and said angrily, "Are you insane? If you keep this up, you'll kill him!"
"Is that so?" Liao Er remained indifferent. "If he dies, so be it!"
"You!"
Liao Er sneered and reached out to poke at the bandage on Xu Tian's head, causing him to flinch in pain.
"Is your brain damaged? Don't you know who injured you? Do you know that I nearly died because of them?"
"If those soldiers hadn't arrived in time, do you think you'd still be seeing me now?"
"Now that they've fallen into my hands again, don't expect things to go smoothly for them!"
"You..."
Xu Tian opened his mouth, initially intending to refute, but he couldn't deny that he harbored some resentment. After all, he had been kind to the prisoners, even giving them more food than the other bailiffs, yet they had still tried to kill him.
However, even if he was angry, what was the point? The ringleaders had already been punished, and the others were simply misled.
He sighed and tactfully said, "If you keep beating them like this, what will happen if they die? You must know that many people have already died because of this riot. If the number of people sent over doesn't meet the quota, we'll all be in trouble."
Liao Er furrowed his brow at this unexpected point. Having just left the capital not long ago and with another half year to travel to the Southern Barbarian Region, they were bound to lose some prisoners along the way. This, coupled with the casualties from the riot, meant that if they didn't meet the quota, they would be held accountable...
"You're lucky!" Liao Er glared at the man before turning to the other prisoners and shouting, "What are you looking at? Keep moving, or I'll gouge out your eyeballs!"
"Thank you, sir!"
The man thanked Xu Tian before helping the old man and continuing on their way. Xu Tian sighed.
He suddenly felt that he should do something. While it was true that some of the prisoners deserved their exile, many were innocent, like Chen Yuan, and many were women and children.
However, he alone couldn't change this situation, and his power was limited.
When the bailiffs attacked Chen Yuan earlier, he couldn't stop them alone. It was only when Zhao Guang and his men arrived that the bailiffs backed off.
Suddenly, he thought of Chen Yuan's question earlier about whether he wanted to become the captain...
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