Madam, protect me!

The Imperial Palace.

Just after the morning court session, countless officials came out of a hall one after another.

Although His Majesty has not attended the court session for ten years, the court session on the first and fifteenth day of each month is still presided over by a prince according to convention. Officials of the fifth rank and above in Chang'an must attend the court session to participate in the discussion and resolution of some important court affairs.

Today's morning court session, as usual, was just a routine session. Nothing special happened and it ended very early.

Pei Zhe, the magistrate of Chang'an County, was one of the last few people to walk out of the Golden Palace. The magistrate of a county is a well-deserved top leader in a small place, but in Chang'an, where the powerful are everywhere, the fifth rank magistrate is nothing. He can only stand in the most remote corner like a minion during the morning court session.

After the court session, the officials gathered in groups of three or five, chatting and laughing while going to their respective offices.

In front of Pei Zhe, several officials were discussing something.

"What, Lord Li's son is not stupid?"

"Not only is he not stupid, but he is also very resourceful, and few people in the younger generation can match him. Even Lord Xu praised his two birthday poems, saying that his poetry and resourcefulness are unmatched by the younger generation..."

"Really?"

"How could it be false? I saw and heard it with my own eyes at the birthday banquet of Old Lady Song last night. How could such a young talent be a fool?"

"Strange, strange..."

"What's so strange about this? Like father, like son. Don't you think about who his father is? In my opinion, he may have been deliberately hiding his incompetence over the years. Think about it, will the Song family let the daughter of heaven marry a fool?"

"Makes sense..."

Pei Zhe followed behind the crowd. Unexpectedly, he could hear about Li Nuo from these adults in the court this morning.

Just from their descriptions, he could imagine what happened at the birthday banquet of the Song Mansion last night.

He felt a little proud.

After all, he knew about this earlier than everyone present.

However, this Li Nuo is really strange. He can't recognize all the characters, but he writes such good poems, and even writes rare good characters... Pei Zhe shook his head. He is full of too many contradictory things.

Riding a sedan back to the county government office, Pei Zhe saw the shadows in the court from a distance, accompanied by the sound of the gavel.

His brows were furrowed. In this Chang'an County Government Office, he was the only one qualified to open the court to try the case. Today, I don't know whether it was Zhang County Magistrate or Wang County Lieutenant who dared to take over his duties while he was away. It's fine that they have joined hands to squeeze him these days, but today they completely ignore him!

Pei Zhe strode into the court with a gloomy face, looking at the figure under the "clear mirror hanging high". After a slight pause, the anger on his face turned into a smile in an instant, and he raised his hand and said: "Mr., good morning..."

...

Pei Zhe has seen countless children of officials in Chang'an.

Some of them like to visit prostitutes and are guests of honor in major brothels in Chang'an. Some like to gamble and hang out in major casinos in Chang'an. Some love to eat and drink and hang around in various restaurants. Some like to be domineering on Chang'an Street with a group of lackeys...

Of course, there are also young talents who are proficient in the six arts at a young age.

But I have never seen someone like Li Nuo.

As the son of a top official in Chang'an, he has no other hobbies but to go to court to handle cases and deal with the trivialities of the people's daily lives.

As the magistrate of Chang'an County, Pei Zhe himself feels a headache for these trivial matters.

How does he enjoy it?

The habits of these powerful children really cannot be judged by common sense...

From the heart, Li Nuo is also unwilling to deal with these daily disputes.

This morning, he handled a total of five cases.

But they were not big cases, either fighting, property disputes, or marital disputes. The most serious cases were just a few lashes and a few days in jail. After working all morning, he didn't even get half a day's lifespan longer.

The cases that could extend his lifespan were at least cases that could be sentenced to imprisonment.

After handling the last case, Li Nuo looked at the Chang'an County Magistrate standing next to him and asked, "I took over the magistrate's nest and sentenced Lord Pei's case. Lord Pei won't be angry, right?"

Pei Zhe waved his hands repeatedly and said, "No, no, how could it be..."

"That's good." Li Nuo smiled and asked, "Besides these, are there any other cases?"

Pei Zhe shook his head and said, "No today."

He was not as idle as Li Nuo.

As a county magistrate, his duties included educating the people, arresting thieves, encouraging farming, hearing lawsuits, collecting taxes and labor service, promoting education, caring for the orphans and widows, building bridges and roads, and providing disaster relief and poverty relief... and so on and so forth.

Hearing cases and judging cases is only a small part of his duties. It is good enough to take some time to do it every few days.

Unless it is a special case such as a serious murder case, under normal circumstances, the number of cases to be tried today and which cases to be tried are all determined at least two or three days in advance. It is necessary to notify the relevant people in advance and let the yamen runners conduct a preliminary investigation. All the cases today have been judged by Li Nuo.

But it must be said that Li Nuo judges cases in a methodical manner, more like a parent official than Pei Zhe.

Although he is not very familiar with the laws of Daxia, and he needs to look up the legal provisions in the book for each case, the confidence revealed when judging the case always gives Pei Zhe a feeling that he has been immersed in this for many years.

Li Nuo and the magistrate of Chang'an County are also half colleagues and know the process of this line.

In the future, court sessions are not held as soon as they are scheduled. A lot of preparations need to be made before the court session. However, he cannot be idle in the afternoon, so he asked the magistrate of Chang'an County to move the case to be tried tomorrow to this afternoon, and asked the constables of the county government to notify the relevant personnel.

Pei Zhe did not say anything about this.

Although he was not an official of the Chang'an County Government and had no power to judge cases, he could not afford to offend his father. Moreover, this was also for the people. As the top dignitaries in Chang'an, he was not like other dandy boys. He did not harm the people or the court, did not go to prostitutes or gamble, and did not bully others. What's wrong with a positive and special hobby?

Since this young master likes to judge cases, let him judge, which can also reduce his burden.

However, it takes some time to arrange these things. It was lunch time, so Pei Zhe asked politely, "It's almost lunch time. My wife made dumplings today. Do you want to eat with me?"

In his opinion, a noble man like Li Nuo should be very particular about food and would not agree.

He just wanted to eat, so he said something polite.

"Dumplings?" Unexpectedly, Li Nuo raised his eyebrows and said immediately, "I left in a hurry this morning and didn't have time to eat breakfast. I'm a little hungry..."

Pei Zhe was stunned and asked tentatively, "Then... let's go to the back office to eat together?"

Li Nuo was hungry, and couldn't wait to say, "Let's go. I like dumplings very much. It's a good opportunity to try your wife's cooking..."

Pei Zhe looked at Li Nuo, who was very straightforward, and suddenly felt a little uneasy.

He couldn't guess for a while whether he liked dumplings or something else...