Young Magistrate Boyong

[Main story complete, bonus chapters coming soon. My new novel, The Hundred Herbs Kindergarten, is updating next door~ My next book, Going Home to Die After Graduation, is open for preorders. Food and farming, renovating an old house. Please add it to your collection! The blurb is below. Thanks~]

Song Lingjun was renowned for his talent from a young age and passed the imperial exams as a teenager. He devoted himself to governing the country and serving the people, but one false move drew him into a factional dispute. He spent three years in prison and died in the Imperial Prison.

After dying, Song Lingjun finally understood: the capital's feng shui devoured people. Reborn, he planned to stay away from court politics, lie flat, and make a complete mess of things.

Baiyong is a scenic place, plagued by natural disasters, overrun with bandits, and dominated by powerful local families.

When Song Lingjun took office, he figured he couldn't control natural disasters or provoke the powerful, so he stopped caring about people's livelihoods and hearing lawsuits. He spent his days writing songs and poetry, lying flat in style, and became a corrupt official everyone wanted to see gone.

But then a weaving workshop wage dispute, a filial son fighting over a grave, the violent death of a virtuous woman, a miracle doctor killing a patient...

He only wanted to lie flat and make a mess of things. Why was life here such a chaotic whirlwind?

Money is hard to earn, being an official is hard, and Baiyong even has a beloved former magistrate.

What's worse, Song Lingjun gradually discovers that the former magistrate, whom everyone reveres like a deity, has left him an enormous mess to clean up...

In his previous life, the imperial court and his teacher hurt him deeply. Song Lingjun had always thought his wish to serve the people was long dead.

But how could a heart full of righteous conviction simply die?

A new magistrate has arrived in Baiyong. He doesn't turn down any flavor, and indulges in all manner of food and fun. The people are miserable and everyone is on edge, convinced Baiyong is doomed.

But then there are the weaving workshop case, the grave dispute, the virtuous woman's case, the miracle doctor's case... This failed opera singer can actually solve cases?

Later, he enlightens the people, controls the floods, promotes martial arts, builds academies, eliminates corrupt officials, and clears out the bandits. The "actor magistrate" becomes a true champion of the people.

What? Baiyong isn't doomed after all, and people's lives have improved so much that the whole region has escaped poverty and grown prosperous!

*

Cen Yu left home to make his way in the world as a boy. He had barely caught his breath after returning when his father sent him off to Baiyong.

The reason was that his father's favorite student had been sent to Baiyong as magistrate after being convicted of a crime. His father wanted Cen Yu to look after him.

Cen Yu did look after him, though perhaps things went just a tiny bit off course.

That night, Song Lingjun pinned Cen Yu down and demanded, "Now that things have turned out like this between us, how are we supposed to explain it to Teacher when we return to the capital?"

"Just say it was me..." Cen Yu's Adam's apple bobbed. "I couldn't resist the temptation."

A lazy, greedy, glib (not really) little magistrate who wants to save the world x a doting husband and provincial governor

Reader's Guide (Content Warnings)

Lawsuits, food, and farming. The lawsuits and farming are given roughly equal weight. The story is outlined.

Reborn in an imaginary ancient setting. One-on-one, happy ending.

A trio consisting of a magistrate, a provincial governor, and a legal advocate. The legal advocate is a woman.

Not a detective story. Episodic, with an ensemble cast.

I wrote several female characters with particular affection.

The gong appears at the end of Chapter 3.

I drew the cover myself =w= It's ugly, but what can you do?

Blurb for Going Home to Die After Graduation:

[Blurb]

Xu Duo is one of those people born at the wrong time, who have suffered from the era's many disadvantages. After living for twenty years, he just can't keep competing anymore.

During the job-hunting season, when graduates are running themselves ragged, he lies in his dorm bed for three months, planning to go home and wait to die as soon as he graduates.

Xu Duo has few family ties and no possessions to speak of, except for a run-down courtyard inherited from his ancestors.

After graduation, he drags his suitcase back to the village to farm, diving in headfirst with no plans to come back out.

-

There's a village called Shenwu Temple Village in Yuchuan Town. There's even an old, dilapidated temple there. No one remembers which deity it once worshipped, but every now and then, someone thinks of it and goes to pay their respects during a festival.

One day, just after Xu Duo has finished praying and stepped out of the ruined temple, a man clad in gleaming silver armor suddenly falls from the sky and lands right in front of him.

The handsome man knows nothing about himself and can't even remember his name. All he can say is that he's one of the hundred thousand heavenly soldiers sent to suppress the monkeys.

Xu Duo: ?

The tragic lessons from countless books and movies have taught Xu Duo never to pick up men he finds by the roadside. Those weirdos who like to cosplay are especially likely to bring ruin to their families.

But the deity flips his hand and conjures up more money than Xu Duo could ever spend, just as he's lying flat and waiting to die.

Xu Duo: ...

Well, what's done is done. Might as well go home and eat.

While his peers struggle their way through the rat race, Xu Duo works hard to renovate the old house. The garden is lush with vegetables, enough to feed him. He has cats and dogs, plenty to eat and drink, and at night he can get up to no good with the genuine deity he picked up.

If you can't keep competing, then don't. Life isn't that easy to ruin.

Wait... You're saying I accidentally picked up the God of Wealth's lucky cat? The basin I use to pickle vegetables is the Kitchen God's treasure basin? Hold on, you old man covered in antiques. Who did you say you are? My old house is haunted?

#Ever since I picked up a certain someone, my unlucky life has somehow started going suspiciously well#

-

One afternoon, a TV voice rings out through the bright, renovated house: An ancient tomb has been discovered in Yuchuan Town. After excavation and investigation, it has been identified as the tomb of Lu Huaiting, the Great General of Shenwu from the Sheng Dynasty.

Xu Duo arches his neck in discomfort and pushes at the person getting handsy with him.

Handsome, look! Are they digging up your grave?

The deity, who's always been troubled by his own past, ignores him and reaches out, swiping the curtains shut to block the sunlight outside.

Xu Duo struggles to get away, alarmed. "Why are you drawing the curtains in broad daylight? Lu Huaiting!"

There's no way he can escape from the Great General of Shenwu. From then on, he gets up to no good day and night with the deity he picked up ( ).

-

When Lu Huaiting first fell from the sky, all he remembered was that his childhood name was Yuanji, his Heavenly Soldier serial number was 077931, and before ascending, he'd been some kind of great general.

He couldn't remember the details. Partly because it had been so long, and partly because every one of the hundred thousand heavenly soldiers had been a great general in their previous life.

He'd spent thousands of years competing among a pile of generals, only to end up as a gatekeeper.

He had no idea how he'd fallen from the sky. All he could think about was getting back to Nantianmen to take his post.

The young man lifted his eyelids and asked coolly, "What would happen to Heaven if you weren't there?"

Yuanji was stunned.

Later, they renovated the old house together, raised pets, farmed, and explored new recipes... At last, he understood.

Heaven would be the same with or without him, but Yuanji and Xu Duo together would be different.

As always, if you can't keep competing, stop competing.

*

A laid-back genius shou x a divine handsome man gong

Food, food, food; farming, farming, farming; cats and dogs; renovating an old house

Job hunting is too hard, so I'm writing something light and healing.

Maybe it's my last fantasy before I die. Don't mind me (x

Love you all!

Theme: Devote yourself to the people