After the spiritual energy was restored: Goddess girlfriends came knocking.

This is my fourth year in Yunzhou.

A blue-curtained carriage arrived at the entrance of the government office that day.

The driver was an old servant who handed over a visiting card with a name Lin Chu had never expected—Zhou Caiwei.

Lin Chu was reviewing official documents in the back room when he heard the announcement and paused for a moment.

He straightened his clothes and hurried out to greet them.

Zhou Caiwei stood at the entrance of the government office, dressed in a plain blue ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress), her hair casually tied up with a silver hairpin.

Compared to seven years ago, he was a completely different person. His already delicate features had matured even more, and his expression had become more composed, but his eyes were still bright, and he smiled when he saw Lin Chu.

"Lord Lin, how have you been?"

Lin Chu cupped her hands in greeting: "Miss Zhou, what brings you here?"

"My father sent me." Zhou Caiwei took a letter from her sleeve and handed it over. "This is the transfer order."

Lin Chu took the letter and unfolded it; Zhou Tingfu's handwriting was as vigorous and powerful as ever.

The letter stated that Zhou Caiwei had cultivated her righteous spirit since childhood and had already achieved some success in her cultivation. Now that Yunzhou was busy with affairs, she was sent to serve as a staff member, firstly to assist in government affairs and train herself, and secondly to serve as a bodyguard.

The letter ended with a small note: "My daughter is unruly; please take good care of her."

After Lin Chu finished reading, she looked up at Zhou Caiwei.

She was looking up at the gate of the government office, a smile playing on her lips, as if she were looking at something new and interesting.

"Miss Zhou, please."

Zhou Caiwei's arrival did indeed make Lin Chu feel much more relaxed.

She grew up by Zhou Tingfu's side and was exposed to political affairs from a young age, so she picked them up very quickly.

She could find discrepancies in the yellow and fish-scale books with just one glance, and she could pinpoint suspicious points in the criminal case files with just a few glances. She even dared to annotate the official documents written by Lin Chu with her pen.

Within two months, Zhou Caiwei had become familiar with the people in the government office.

Meng Wenbin was initially very polite to her, after all, she was Zhou Tingfu's daughter, and he dared not neglect her.

Later, I discovered that this girl had no airs of a noble lady and was very efficient in handling matters, so I let go of that barrier.

Lin Chu was not unaware of Zhou Caiwei's thoughts.

He knew this seven years ago when he was at the Zhou residence.

At that time, he deliberately kept his distance.

Unexpectedly, after so many years, it seems that she still has these feelings, only she hides them better than before.

But he could only pretend he didn't know.

……

Time flies.

In the blink of an eye, Lin Chu has been in Yunzhou for six years.

He was twenty-six years old that year, and his expression had become more composed and dignified.

His reputation has long since extended beyond Yunzhou Prefecture.

The four lines of Zhang Zai's poem are regarded as the golden rule by scholars all over the world. "Looking at Mount Tai" is engraved on stone tablets in countless academies. The achievements of Shigou County in three years of poverty alleviation and Yunzhou Prefecture in six years of great governance have made the name memorable to everyone in the court.

The Emperor has mentioned him more than once in his imperial court.

With each letter Zhou Tingfu wrote, the wording became increasingly concise, but the expectations conveyed between the lines grew ever stronger.

Everyone knows that this 26-year-old lord is destined for greatness.

……

Summer has arrived in the blink of an eye, and it has been raining non-stop this summer.

For the first few days, everyone felt fortunate... that there wouldn't be a drought this year.

But this relief quickly turned into fear.

The rain grew heavier and heavier, turning from a drizzle into a downpour, and it continued for more than half a month, as if someone had poked a hole in the sky.

The area where Yunzhou and Jinzhou meet is low-lying, and several rivers swelled simultaneously. The dikes could not withstand the pressure and finally breached one night.

The floodwaters rushed downstream like a runaway beast, submerging more than a dozen villages overnight.

Lin Chu arrived in the disaster area that very night.

The scene before him was even more tragic than he had imagined.

Lin Chu stood for a while, then turned to Yu Qian and said, "Pass down the order: transfer all available manpower from Yunzhou to this area. I will personally speak to the military government. Also, notify Jinzhou Prefecture that the two prefectures should work together and coordinate their efforts."

Yu Qian responded and ran off.

Lin Chu then turned to Zhou Caiwei: "Immediately draft a notice instructing the disaster victims to move to higher ground, telling them that the government will open its granaries to distribute food, and that they should not loot or cause trouble in the chaos."

Zhou Caiwei nodded, and then glanced back at him as she turned around.

"You should also be careful."

"I know."

For the next two months, Lin Chu barely slept a full night.

He reorganized the resources of the two states.

Yunzhou provided grain, and Jinzhou provided manpower. He mobilized troops from both sides to repair dikes and dredge waterways.

He designated twelve resettlement sites in the disaster area, and appointed a manager for each site to report to him daily.

The notices were posted in every place where the disaster victims gathered, and they read: Each person will receive one liter of rice per day, and the elderly and children will receive an extra ounce of meat. The injured and sick will be given medicine by the government.

Medicine is the most scarce resource.

Lin Chu paid for it himself and wrote to Zhou Tingfu, asking him to transfer a batch of medicinal herbs from the capital.

Then came the plague.

After the floodwaters receded, the drowned livestock and people began to rot in the mud.

Water sources in the disaster area were polluted, and the epidemic spread like wildfire.

Lin Chu rushed to the villages most severely affected by the plague and separated the sick from the healthy.

The decision to burn all the bodies together met with tremendous resistance at the time.

The deceased's family cried and begged not to allow the cremation, saying that it was extremely unfilial of them not to leave behind a complete body after the person's death.

Lin Chu stood in the middle of the crying crowd, remaining silent for a long time.

"Burn it," he said. "If we don't burn it, the living will die too."

Zhou Caiwei stood next to him and saw that his fingers were clenched so tightly in his sleeves that they turned white.

Two months later, Lin Chu collapsed on her own.

He was carried back to the government office, his high fever persisting, his lips pale, and his forehead covered in cold sweat.

Zhou Caiwei stayed by her bedside for a day and a night.

Lin Chu stayed in bed for five days.

On the morning of the sixth day, he sat up, propped himself up on the bed, and called Yu Qian in.

"Prepare the car, let's go to the disaster area."

Yu Qian stood motionless at the door.

"Go to the disaster area," Lin Chu said again.

"Sir, your fever has just subsided—"

"Am I not feeling well?" Lin Chu stood up, swayed slightly, and steadied herself by holding onto the edge of the bed. "Let's go."

Yu Qian glanced at Zhou Caiwei, who was standing beside him. Her lips moved, but she didn't say anything in the end.

It took exactly one year from the breach of the flood dike to the removal of the last resettlement site.

In that year, most of the dozen or so villages and towns on the border of Yunzhou and Jinzhou were rebuilt.

The dikes were repaired, the river channels were dredged, and the plague was completely eradicated.

Lin Chu's hair turned a few strands white during that year.

But his luck only grew stronger, and Zhou Caiwei, as a cultivator, felt it very clearly.

Sometimes when he stood among the disaster victims, the air around him seemed to quiet down, as if an invisible force was flowing around him.

Three months after the plague subsided, strange things began to happen.

First, it was a small town on the border of Yunzhou.

The townspeople pooled their money to build a small shrine at the town entrance. Inside, instead of any gods or Buddhas, was a statue of a young scholar—in a blue robe, with gentle features, holding a scroll in his hands.

The three characters are engraved below: Lin Gong Ancestral Hall.

After Lin Chu found out, he sent someone to persuade her.

They said not to do these things, that I'm not dead yet, why build a shrine?

Useless.

Soon, the second one was erected.

Then came the third and the fourth.

People in Yunzhou and Jinzhou spontaneously built shrines for Lin Chu. Some were built at the entrance of the town, some at the head of the village. Some were small brick temples built with money from wealthy families, while others were small shrines the size of a palm built with stones by poor families.

They come in various shapes, but the statues inside are all the same – young scholars with gentle and mild appearances.

The governor of Jinzhou had no objection to this.

He was a shrewd man; he knew that Lin Chu's future path lay not in the local areas, but in the high halls of power.

He even said to those around him in private, "A man like Lord Lin is destined to become a high-ranking official. It's our good fortune that he can stay with us for a few years."

Lin Chu tried to dissuade them, stopped them, and even issued an official document saying that no more shrines should be built.

But the people wouldn't listen.

The reason they wouldn't listen was simple—you, Lord Lin, saved our lives, so it's our own business to erect a statue of you and burn incense for you.

The government controls everything, so how can they control who we worship?

That day, Lin Chu stood in front of a newly erected shrine, looking at the statue inside.

The statue's face is somewhat blurry, but its expression does bear a resemblance to his.

A scholar in a blue robe held a book in his hand, a slight smile playing on his lips.

Zhou Caiwei stood next to him, also looking up at the statue, then turned to look at Lin Chu, and the corners of her mouth curled up slightly.

"They do look quite alike."

Lin Chu didn't speak.

He could feel the increasingly profound fortune bestowed upon him.

That good fortune came from every stick of incense lit for him in the fields.

The simplest and purest trust and gratitude are converging from all directions, turning into an increasingly warm feeling within him.