The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 718

Wang Zhi was determined to give his father a grand funeral, firstly to bring honor to his ancestors and announce to the people of Shexian that he had returned, and secondly to bury his father in an auspicious burial site to bless his descendants.

With Wang Zhi around, things in Wangzhen were basically done smoothly. When they wanted to buy that piece of land, no one dared to raise the price. Soon, the Wang family chose a feng shui treasure site and prepared to place Wang Zhi's father's grave there.

On the day of the Wang family's funeral, all the prominent figures in Shexian County, big and small, came to pay their respects. Even the prefect of Huizhou Prefecture and a host of its officials attended the funeral.

This made the people of Shexian County directly feel the power and influence of Wang Zhi.

"Lord Wang, please accept my condolences. The dead cannot be brought back to life."

The prefect approached Wang Zhi and said...

"Thank you, Lord Prefect."

Wang Zhi returned the greeting.

The prefect gave the magistrate a wink, and the magistrate immediately understood. He ordered his men to bring Wei Zhengxian and Wei Shu'er over, bound hand and foot, and make them kneel in front of the grave.

"Lord Wang, I took it upon myself to arrest the entire Wei family. The Wei family is utterly wicked. Wei Zhengxian bullies men and women and deserves to die."

The prefect looked at Wang Zhi and bowed.

"My lord, I know I was wrong. Please forgive me as if I were nothing."

Wei Zhengxian was bound with his hands behind his back, but he didn't care about anything else. He started banging his head on the ground. The ground around him was paved with bluestone bricks by the Wang family. Wei Zhengxian's head was bleeding. He just wanted Wang Zhi to forgive him.

Wei Zhengxian knew very well that as long as Wang Zhi forgave him, everything would be fine; otherwise, the Wei family would be doomed no matter what, including himself.

Wang Zhi coldly observed Wei Zhengxian's behavior and sneered.

"If you do something wrong, you have to pay the price."

After saying this, Wang Zhi turned to look at the prefect standing to the side.

"I am deeply grateful for the Prefect's favor. If I have the opportunity in the future, I will certainly put in a good word for you before His Majesty and Lord Zhou."

Wang Zhi naturally knew why the prefect was doing all this, but he didn't care. As long as he could avenge his father, Wang Zhi was willing to risk his reputation and say a few words for the prefect.

Upon hearing this, the prefect was overjoyed. He had done all this just for this very sentence.

"Thank you, sir."

The prefect bowed and said.

"My lord, how should we deal with the Wei family? Please make the decision."

The prefect said with a somewhat obsequious expression.

"You can decide as you see fit. Today, all I want is to hold a funeral for my father."

Wang Zhi said that he would no longer look at Wei Zhengxian and his daughter, nor at the prefect and other officials.

Upon hearing this, the prefect immediately understood what Wang Zhi meant.

The Wei family must be dealt with, and dealt with severely, but we can't dirty Lord Wang's hands, so I have to handle this matter myself.

"Take them all away, don't let them offend the adults' eyes."

The prefect looked at the county magistrate and said.

Ignoring the conversation between the prefect and the magistrate, Wang Zhi went to the grave and knelt down.

“Father, back then you told me that I must make something of myself and bring honor to our ancestors, and now I have done it.”

As Wang Zhi spoke, tears streamed down his face uncontrollably, and Wang Zhen and the others beside him also broke down in tears.

Wang Zhen was genuinely sincere, while the other members of the collateral branches of the Wang family were mostly half-hearted. They were certainly saddened, but not too saddened. They were mostly happy, happy that the Wang family had produced a great figure, and that they would probably rise to prominence along with him.

The funeral etiquette was very elaborate, but neither Wang Zhi nor the Wang family members showed any impatience, because they all understood that the more elaborate the funeral, the more it represented the Wang family's current status.

Ordinary people's funerals are not elaborate even if they want to.

After the funeral, Wang Zhi invited Wang Zhen and his son to his home. Although Wang Zhi had been away from home for more than ten years, his old house had not been abandoned. Wang Zhen had been taking care of it for them.

For this alone, Wang Zhi was extremely grateful to his uncle. You see, when he and his father left their hometown, his uncle gave them almost all of their family's meager savings.

Over the past ten years, Wang Zhen must have encountered difficult times, but even so, he never thought of selling Wang Zhi's old house.

How could Wang Zhi not be moved?

"Uncle, here is 100,000 taels. Take it and buy some shops and estates."

As he spoke, Wang Zhi took out a stack of silver notes from the Royal Bank and placed them in front of Wang Zhen.

Most of Wang Zhi's silver was stored in the royal bank, with only a small amount packed in boxes and hauled back along the way. The reason for hauling this silver was to parade it around and show the people of Shexian how prosperous he had become.

As the saying goes, "Wealth and honor should not be returned to one's hometown, for it is like wearing fine clothes at night." Wang Zhi was young after all, so how could he let go of such an opportunity to show off in front of others?

"This...this is too much! How do you have so much money?"

Wang Zhen said with a worried expression.

He was truly afraid that his nephew might make a momentary lapse in judgment and ruin his future because of money.

Wang Zhi naturally noticed his uncle's worries.

“Uncle, there’s no need to worry. This amount of money is nothing. When I was in Japan, I made countless amounts of money for the court. Ship after ship of silver was transported to the Ming Dynasty. His Majesty knows about what I took.”

Wang Zhi did not believe that he could hide the money he had taken from the emperor.

Upon hearing this, Wang Zhen breathed a sigh of relief.

"This is too much. You don't need this much to build up your family fortune. With your current power, you can buy back all of our Wang family's assets back then for less than 20,000 taels."

Wang Zhen said.

"Not only do we want to buy back the family property from back then, but we also want to buy some more. With me here, our Wang family will be the only one of its kind in Shexian County."

Wang Zhi said with high spirits.

"Okay, I'll do it."

Upon hearing this, Wang Zhen no longer declined.

"Let my elder brother come with me later. There's no fun in Shexian. Come with me to Japan, earn some military merits, and becoming a centurion won't be a problem in the future."

Wang Zhi looked at Wang Zhen and his son and said.

Wang Zhen's eyes lit up immediately upon hearing this.