Carrying the little lucky star, leading the villain on the road to exile

Chapter 372. The Eight Trigrams
Gu Kaiyuan said, "I'm fine. I just haven't seen you guys for a while, so I wanted to see what you've been up to. Let's go for tea sometime."

Tian Zhuang said with a smile, "That's easy. Once I'm done with this busy period, we can have a proper get-together."

After saying that, Tian Zhuang left in a hurry. Gu Kaiyuan did not linger either. He went to the teahouse first, but missed the performance. After inquiring about the storytelling time, he began to inspect the shop.

His two shops are still under renovation, but they should be finished soon.

Turning to Bai Suihe's shop, I found that business was still booming. Fortunately, I had sent the employees from the other shops here to learn, so they were able to keep up with the workload.

After taking a look around inside, the shopkeeper immediately followed him, asking, "Master, is there anything you need me to do?"

Gu Kaiyuan said, "I just came to see you. You've all worked hard. Once this busy period is over, I'll have your wives give you a reward."

The shopkeeper listened and said with gratitude, "Thank you, sir and madam. It is thanks to you that we have this opportunity. This is what we should do."

Seeing how busy everyone was, Gu Kaiyuan didn't stay long. He knew that if he didn't leave, the shopkeepers wouldn't be able to work so freely. He gave them a few instructions and then left.

"Boss Gu," the owner of the grocery store next door saw Gu Kaiyuan and had been waiting outside for a long time. As soon as he saw him come out, he immediately stepped forward with a smile, "Your business is booming. Our shops are all thanks to you, and business is much better."

The grocery store owner was genuinely grateful. His shop's business had always been lukewarm, but now, because of the fabric store, there was more foot traffic, and people would occasionally take some things from his shop. Over time, business gradually improved.

So it's probably the owner of this general store in the whole county who most hopes that Gu Kaiyuan's store will continue to be so popular.

"If we all work together, we'll all prosper," Gu Kaiyuan said with a smile, cupping his hands in greeting. "We'll be neighbors from now on, so please bear with me if anything happens."

The grocery store owner smiled and said, "No problem, no problem, we'll all take care of it together."

A close neighbor is worse than a distant relative; everyone hopes to maintain good relations with their neighbors.

Moreover, this shop looks very promising, so of course he wants to find a way to befriend it.

The general store wasn't big, but it had a pretty complete selection of items. The proprietress was personally overseeing things inside, while the owner stood outside, enjoying a more relaxed atmosphere.

Seeing that he was so relaxed, Gu Kaiyuan simply stood outside his shop and started chatting with him, "Still don't know how to address me?"

It's really not Gu Kaiyuan's fault. He's been busy for so long, and only these past few days have he had some free time.

“My surname is Wu, Wu Wei,” Wu Wei added, fearing that Gu Kaiyuan would misunderstand. “Wu with mouth and sky, the fear of being fearless.”

"Good name," Gu Kaiyuan praised. "Mr. Wu has been doing business here for a long time."
Your shop seems to have a pretty complete selection of goods.

"We were all exiled here, but it's been several decades. We've accumulated this little bit of property bit by bit."

Our family runs this small shop; we may not be rich, but we won't starve either.

Gu Kaiyuan looked inside and noticed a back door. "Is there a residence behind this place?"

"Yes, there's a small courtyard inside. Shall we go inside and talk?"

Gu Kaiyuan declined, saying, "I won't bother you any longer. I'll visit you another time if I have the chance. But your place is quite nice. What is there in this world but peace and tranquility at home?"

Our Zhang County will only get better and better in the future.

Wu Wei said, “That makes sense, but you are luckier than us. You were pardoned as soon as you arrived, and you also met a good official like Lord Xu. You have a much better starting point than us.”

Speaking of this, Wu Wei's tone was somewhat sour. They were also exiled people, so why didn't they have such good luck?
Generations of people have endured hardship here before finally regaining their freedom, but these people have everything as soon as they arrive.

“Our Lord Xu is indeed quite good,” Gu Kaiyuan said, not bothering to argue, since they had truly benefited.

Although it was unjust for them to be exiled here, many others were implicated and were just as innocent as them.

“That goes without saying,” Wu Wei said, opening up the topic at the mention of Xu Zitian. “You don’t know that the county magistrates here used to either not care about anything or they would interfere haphazardly, making everyone suffer.”

There weren't so many shops here before; they were all controlled by the former county magistrate, and sometimes the prices were shockingly high.

Back then, we were still living in the village and rarely went to the county town. We tried to go as far as possible to the neighboring county town to buy things.

Later, several more people came and went, some bad, some so-so. Everyone could only adapt, but slowly, they managed to get through it all.

Now, what the whole county fears most is not natural disasters, but the incompetent county magistrate.

Since Lord Xu arrived, he has eliminated several powerful factions, and some of the bad practices from before have gradually improved. Moreover, he is very fair in his dealings and never favors one side, so the county town has slowly become stable..."

Gu Kaiyuan knew all this; how bad could the students taught by Grand Tutor Lu be?

After listening to the other party ramble on for so long, they finally got to the point: "Our Lord Xu is good in every way, except for one thing: he is not interested in women."

After chatting for a while, Gu Kaiyuan proved to be a good listener, occasionally chiming in with a few words, which greatly piqued his interest. Some things that were difficult to say in words, he readily shared.

"The wealthy merchants in the area, seeing that Lord Xu's residence was empty and he had no female relatives with him, all had their eyes on him."

She tried every means to please Lord Xu, but was always refused, thus avoiding the schemes of those people.

When Lord Xu arrived here, he was about to take office, but he didn't seem to flirt with any woman, nor did he seem to be interested in any romantic advances. Even his servants were just young boys. Soon, rumors started circulating that our Lord Xu was not interested in women and was suspected of being homosexual...

Gu Kaiyuan, “…” Xu Zitian has a family in the capital. His wife has even given birth to three sons for him, but because the children are young, he couldn’t bear to let them come with him to his post.

"Is it possible that he's already married and has children..." Gu Kaiyuan couldn't help but say something in his defense.

“You don’t understand,” Wu Wei glanced into the shop and saw his wife attending to customers. He lowered his voice and said, “Even if you’ve been married and have children, it’s been almost three years since you came here. What man can stay here for that long?”

Anyway, everyone thinks that Lord Xu is crazy. Only Gu Kaiyuan and his group have been here for a short time and don't know about these things. "It's normal for a man to have three wives and four concubines. If there's nothing wrong with him, who can stand it?"

(End of this chapter)