Tang Dynasty Xie Lu Lang

Chapter 484 Chang'an, though vast, cannot accommodate two people.

At the Li family mansion in Anyefang, Li Linfu was awakened from his sleep by the noise outside. When he opened his eyes, he found that it was still early. Upon listening carefully, he realized that there was an argument between the servants in the various courtyards outside.

"You insolent servant! Anyone who dares to cause trouble here again will be expelled!"

Li Linfu put on his clothes and came out, shouting and cursing loudly into the shadows.

In wealthy families living together as a clan, friction and disputes were inevitable, as were snobbish individuals who looked down on those in power. The masters themselves generally maintained appearances and, unless there was a deep-seated hatred, would not argue or quarrel openly. The servants, however, acted as mouthpieces for their masters, constantly arguing among themselves.

Li Linfu enjoyed a successful official career in his early years, and was a prominent figure both inside and outside the government. His family members treated him with great respect. However, in recent years, his career has faltered, and at the beginning of the year, he inadvertently incurred huge debts. To make matters worse, he has a large family, which inevitably encroaches on the living space of other members of his clan, thus making him the target of cold looks and disdain.

Therefore, the quarrels among these servants outside were, in themselves, a form of protest against Li Linfu, which naturally put him in a bad mood.

He got up very early, and unable to sleep due to his resentment, he sat in his own hall, panting heavily. His wives, concubines, and children also woke up one after another. When they entered the hall and saw him like this, they all carefully greeted him and took their leave, not daring to stay and risk bad luck.

Before long, the sound of horses being led away could be heard from inside the house. This was because some clansmen who held official positions in the court were leaving home to go to court.

A servant hurried in, bowed, and said, "My lord, the stable master has come to ask if you are going out today and whether you need the horses fed now."

"If we don't go out, then we won't feed the horse? Will we save the horse feed to feed his whole family?"

Upon hearing this, Li Linfu flew into a rage, slammed his fist on the table, and roared.

"But, but the stableman said that the family hasn't paid for feed for two months!"

Upon hearing this, the servant cautiously whispered again.

The clan lived together but each member had their own life. However, some facilities and areas were shared, such as the family stables. All the clan members’ donkeys, horses and other riding animals were kept in the stables, and there were grooms and servants to take care of them. However, each family was also responsible for their own materials and labor.

"Go and seize that unruly servant, and ask him what he has in his house that he can use to pay off his debts!"

Hearing that even the groom at home dared to demand payment, Li Linfu became even angrier and immediately gave another order.

Before long, several grooms were brought to the scene. They might have grumbled and complained privately, but when faced with the enraged Li Linfu, they all lowered their heads and repeatedly apologized, saying, "Shilang, please calm down, Shilang, please..."

Li Linfu, however, would not give up easily. He personally wielded a cane to beat and punish these people before expelling them from the party.

After all this commotion, it was already dawn. Although Li Linfu was not qualified to attend court, he still had to go to work, so he ordered his family to prepare breakfast as soon as possible.

After he washed up and changed his clothes, a servant came to the central courtyard and greeted Li Linfu with clasped hands, saying, "Greetings, Shi Lang. I have been ordered by my lord to invite you to meet me in the main hall."

Upon hearing this, Li Linfu dared not delay and hurriedly went to the main hall of the residence.

His cousin, General Li Zhaodao, was sitting upright in the hall. Upon seeing him arrive, he said in a deep voice, "Why are you being so angry with the servants again?"

"These unruly servants are really going too far! They won't know their place unless they're taught a lesson!"

Li Linfu, looking indignant, explained the reason to Li Zhaodao.

After listening, Li Zhaodao sighed and gestured for Li Linfu to sit down first. Then he said, "There are many people in the family and many eyes, so it is not appropriate for me to take sides. You should send your son to the pawnshop in the West Market to withdraw a few hundred strings of cash. I will then send someone to settle the account. Since we know that the situation is different now than before, we must adapt to the changing circumstances."

The Li family naturally possessed ancestral property, enough for its members to maintain a basic standard of living even without official positions or salaries. However, Li Linfu had already spent a considerable amount, and if Li Zhaodao were to continue allowing such spending, the members would undoubtedly harbor resentment. Therefore, they had no choice but to borrow money from merchants in the market, a common tactic among impoverished nobles. For example, the family of Prince Bin, Li Shouli, in a neighboring district, had such a large number of loan sharks in the West Market that they were practically setting up offices at the prince's residence.

"Thank you for your care, brother. Once my situation improves, I will repay you tenfold for your kindness over the years!"

Li Linfu didn't particularly like his cousin, finding him too pedantic and inflexible. He lacked both cunning and adaptability. Now that he was in trouble and his situation was becoming increasingly dire, he knew that without his cousin's help, the whole family would struggle to make ends meet.

"Brothers help each other without expecting anything in return."

Upon hearing this, Li Zhaodao waved his hand and then asked, "It's already July. How are the preparations going? The old residence in Tongyi Ward was recently sold to the Cai Kingdom Princess's family for only tens of thousands of strings of cash. That's all the cash the family can use this year. We might be able to raise a little more, but I don't expect it to be much." This question was pointless; Li Linfu was already struggling with daily life, let alone covering a deficit of hundreds of thousands of strings of cash.

“My brother has already helped me a lot, and now he is willing to give me tens of thousands of strings of cash. I will definitely do my best to raise the money and try to get through this difficult time safely!”

Upon hearing this, Li Linfu was overjoyed. He hadn't expected his cousin to be willing to provide so much money, which greatly relieved the pressure on his shoulders. He quickly added, "The land in Pingkang Lane isn't entirely worthless wasteland. Although it's been overvalued due to the Zhang family's scheme, if it can be properly managed, it could be a beautiful estate that can be passed down through generations and benefit future generations. Now, I have a plan with the sons of Minister Yuwen. If he's willing to help, getting out of this predicament won't be difficult!"

Although he truly relied on Pei Guangting's wife, Lady Wu, this was his deepest secret and could not be easily revealed to outsiders. Therefore, he used Yuwen Rong's son, Yuwen Kuan, to appease his family.

"It's best if you have your own ideas."

Upon hearing this, Li Zhaodao felt somewhat relieved. He then said to Li Linfu, "I know you still harbor resentment towards that Zhang son, but tracing back to the beginning, it's hard to say who was right and who was wrong. The most important thing right now is to settle things peacefully. The great city of Chang'an can accommodate both of you. Don't let your anger and resentment cause you to continue to entangle yourselves."

Upon hearing this, Li Linfu became somewhat impatient. Although his cousin had helped him a great deal, he was so pedantic and cowardly that he couldn't distinguish right from wrong and had no fighting spirit whatsoever, which was truly discouraging.

However, he did not directly refute or contradict his cousin. He simply bowed his head in agreement, gave a perfunctory reply, and then excused himself and left the room.

After returning to his own courtyard and having a simple breakfast, Li Linfu instructed his son, Li Xiu, to go to the West Market pawnshop to collect money later before leaving with two attendants.

As he stepped out of his house, he saw a tall, thin young man with dark circles under his eyes standing under a willow tree across the street, peering into his house. Li Linfu immediately frowned and ordered his servants to drive the man away.

Ji Wen had just wandered into the neighborhood to observe the layout and terrain around Li Linfu's house when he unexpectedly bumped into Li Linfu, which startled him.

Seeing that there was no way to avoid him, he simply walked straight in and greeted Li Linfu with his hands clasped from a distance, saying, "Greetings, Director Li. I am Ji Wen from Henan Prefecture. I was formerly a student of the Imperial Academy, but although I did not complete my studies, I have received much instruction from you, Director Li. I am now working under Prefect Pei of another prefecture. The Prefect is fond of painting and particularly admires the exquisite skills of your young General Li. Therefore, he sent me to seek your guidance. I wonder if Director Li would be willing to introduce me?"

Upon hearing this, Li Linfu frowned. In his previous years, when he served as the Director of Studies at the Imperial Academy, his main task was to manage the order of the Imperial Academy. He did not personally participate in teaching, so he had little impression of Ji Wen.

Hearing the man still referring to his old position from years ago and claiming to be a subordinate of the state official, he ignored him and pointed at Ji Wen, saying in a deep voice, "The laws and regulations in the capital are not comparable to those in other states. If you come to visit, you should present a letter of request for an audience. How dare you peek out from in front of someone's door! If I see you doing this again, I will punish you severely!"

Upon hearing this, Ji Wen immediately bowed and apologized repeatedly. Only after Li Linfu rode away into the distance did he dare to raise his head again. He looked at Li Linfu's back and sneered twice before turning around and disappearing into the alley to continue observing and scrutinizing the Li family mansion.

After leaving his home, Li Linfu went straight to the Honglu Temple in the Imperial City. By the time he arrived at the government office, the sun was already high in the sky. However, the Honglu Temple was essentially a sinecure, and Li Linfu was the judge in charge of handling cases, so no one dared to say anything about his lateness or early departure.

But when he arrived at the main hall and saw the stacks of documents piled up on the desk, he couldn't help but frown and ask in a deep voice, "Hasn't Song Cheng returned to his post yet?"

Upon receiving a negative answer, Li Linfu's face immediately darkened, and he began to sit down to deal with the backlog of cases. Although there were many of these matters, they were all trivial and insignificant, mainly consisting of petitions from powerful local chieftains in the capital requesting an audience or asking for gifts, as well as requests for gifts from family members of officials, both inside and outside the capital, regarding death and other matters.

Li Linfu dealt with some trivial matters directly on the case basis, but he put aside more complicated matters that required him to go out to carry them out.

He's been very busy these past few days, attending meetings at Yuwen Rong's house and secretly meeting with Wu Shi. He really doesn't have much time to waste on these trivial matters.

It wasn't until late afternoon that Song Hun, his eyes glazed and his steps unsteady, entered the government office. When he saw Li Linfu sitting in the hall handling affairs, his eyes lit up, and he stepped forward, smiling and saying, "I had guests to entertain last night, and it's still late. I'm sorry to trouble you, Brother Li, to handle the affairs of the office all by yourself!"

Li Linfu was naturally a little angry, but considering that Song Hun was Song Jing's son, he couldn't directly glare at him and argue. So he simply got up and beckoned Song Hun to come in and said, "I have finished dealing with all the cases here and handed them over to my subordinates. As for this batch of cases, I don't have time to deal with them today, so I'll have to trouble you, Fourth Brother Song!"

"Tenth Brother, please rest assured, I will definitely do a good job!"

Song Hun smiled and agreed as he followed Li Linfu out of the government office, then asked him, "It's only midday, why are you leaving already, brother? What's the matter that you're in such a hurry?"

"Alas, unlike Si Lang, I don't have a powerful family to rely on, and I still have to go to Master Yuwen's house to handle things hastily!"

Li Linfu gave a half-joking reply, then left the government office and headed out of the imperial city.

After seeing Li Linfu off, Song Hun returned to his office but did not rush to attend to official business. Instead, he summoned a clerk and inquired in detail, "What time did Li Shi return to the office this morning? What did he do, and who did he meet...?"

(End of this chapter)