Shi Qingxue’s head popped out of Mo Junyang’s arms and she looked the father and daughter up and down curiously. Then she couldn’t help but ask, “What is so important?”
Was it so important that Ye Zhirong cared more about the stuff than his daughter after he saw her?
Ye Zhirong turned ghastly pale and knelt in front of Mo Junyang, kowtowing hard. “I am incapable. I thought that I had the evidence against Yan Xu who took bribes, bended the law and did harm to the common people, yet my disobedient daughter lost it in the end. I am guilty.”
Ye Zhirong had hidden himself everywhere in the past. Although he lived a poor life, he was confident and thought that he would defeat Yan Xu someday.
However, when this day came, he found that what he could rely on was missing, so he was desperate.
Mo Junyang calmly listened to Ye Zhirong’s regret and sorrow. After a long time, he looked up and gave Wei Ziye a hint with the eyes. The latter took a rectangle iron box out of his pocket and put it in front of Ye Zhirong.
“Lord Ye, is this the stuff you mentioned?”
When Ye Zhirong was speaking and tears almost fell from his eyes, he saw the iron box in Wei Ziye’s hand, so he looked as if he saw a ghost again, and he stared at Wei Ziye blankly, unable to say anything.
At the moment, Ye Zhixin rushed over and wanted to get the iron box, but Wei Ziye avoided her.
She goggled and censured in a rage involuntarily at last, “Why is this iron box in your hands?”
Wei Ziye replied, “I picked it up by accident.”
He said that with sufficient reasons.
Ye Zhixin restrained herself and her face blushed. She was enraged.
Because she had lost this iron box, she was worried and restless with fear all day long and thought that she let her father down, but unexpectedly, Wei Ziye took it away from the beginning, which made her sad for so long. He had gone too far.
Ye Zhixin glared at Wei Ziye with complaints and wanted to cry.
Wei Ziye wasn’t affected but responded impassively, “When you woke up that day, I asked you if you had lost something, yet you didn’t say anything…”
Ye Zhixin was stunned and remembered the incident then. When she woke up and found that the iron box was missing, Wei Ziye did ask her, but at that time, she didn’t trust the people who saved her, so she didn’t say anything. Later, she kept everything from them.
However, it was human nature.
How could she judge whether Wei Ziye and the others were good people then?
Ye Zhixin raised her tearful eyes and looked at Mo Junyang pitifully, silently denouncing as she was bullied by Wei Ziye, as if she wanted Mo Junyang to uphold justice for her.
Mo Junyang looked indifferent and said coldly, “Miss Ye, since you don’t trust my subordinate, it is a matter of course that he doesn’t trust you. Moreover, he didn’t know that this is yours, so he wouldn’t tell you frankly, right?”
Ye Zhixin was rendered speechless and couldn’t show a pitiful expression anymore. She stiffened and didn’t know whether she should answer or not.
After making Ye Zhixin shut up, Mo Junyang wasn’t in the mood to talk with her. He turned to Ye Zhirong. “Lord Ye, please continue.”
Ye Zhirong had been an official for so many years and acutely noticed that his daughter might have a vague relationship with King Rui’s heir.
However, it was not the time to talk about this matter. He coughed and responded to Mo Junyang, “Your Excellency, the stuff in your subordinate’s hand is the evidence against Yan Xu, and I want to accuse him of taking bribes, breaking the law and victimizing the common people in Jiangzhou. Please observe clearly.”
What?
Wei Ziye’s hand with the iron box trembled involuntarily, and he stared at the small box in surprise.
To be frank, if Mo Junyang hadn’t told him to put it away, he would have forgotten it earlier.
Although this small iron box couldn’t be ruined with a sword, there was similar ironware, so it was nothing uncommon after he felt surprised.
However, Ye Zhirong suddenly said that there was evidence against Yan Xu in this iron box, so Wei Ziye felt that his hands bore a lot of weight. His heart beat fast, and he couldn’t help but give the iron box to Ye Zhirong. “Lord Ye, why not take out the stuff in it quickly?”
Ye Zhirong got nervous because of the atmosphere on the verge of breaking out. His hand trembled when he received the iron box. He fumbled for a long time before he took a tiny key out of his pocket.
Mo Junyang suddenly said, “Since Lord Yan has woken up, how about we take a look at the iron box and see what it is hidden inside?”
Ye Zhirong paused when he opened the iron box and looked back with Wei Ziye, to see that Yan Xu who was scared to a coma had woken up.
Yan Xu was guessing secretly what evidence could accuse him as Ye Zhirong said and prepared to make a plan after Ye Zhirong took it out, but Mo Junyang saw through him at a glance.
Yan Xu had to get up from the ground, yet his face had returned calm. At least, he didn’t look as if seeing a ghost like before.
“Lord Ye, I don’t know what evidence against me you got. Take it out, so I can see it.” While speaking, Yan Xu flipped the inexistent dust on his clothes at leisure.
The breath that he put on airs overspread.
Shi Qingxue rolled her eyes but also looked at Ye Zhirong with curiosity, expecting the stuff that he could take out soon.
What Ye Zhirong had taken out was not something rare but just a small square notebook.
This small notebook should be hidden in such a solid iron box. Was it the evidence against Yan Xu who was corrupt and took bribes?
When Yan Xu saw the small notebook, he looked terrified. Obviously, he had the same guess as Shi Qingxue, yet soon he touched his chest and suddenly calmed down.
He snorted at Ye Zhirong. “Ye Zhirong, do you think that you can say that a random account book from nowhere has the records of my corrupt practices?”
Because Yan Xu and Ye Zhirong had different ideas, they were not close all the time, and they seldom contacted each other in private at ordinary times except for business. Not to mention such an important account book, Ye Zhirong might not see anything private of Yan Xu.
After Ye Zhirong showed this account book, Yan Xu was sure that it was fake even before he had a look at it.
“You take bribes, which is cast in stone. How would we need an account book?” Ye Zhirong casually glanced at the big boxes on the ground, and what he meant was self-evident.
Yan Xu’s confident face stiffened.
Right. Why did he forget that he was so stupid as to bribe Mo Junyang with gold, silver and treasures? He didn’t make it but Mo Junyang caught him and took it as the evidence against him to threaten him.
Yan Xu was so angry that he gritted his teeth and struggled. “I said that they were gifts from the common people in Jiangzhou. Even if I shouldn’t accept the common people’s money, the imperial court will depose me at most. What can they do to me?”
Moreover, there was a rule in Mo Country that people could pay money to atone for their crimes. As for the ordinary behavior of taking bribes, as long as he gave the bribes to the national treasury and was suspended for a period, after it was over, he could pay some money, and it was not a big problem to regain the position of magistrate in Jiangzhou.
Ye Zhirong, Mo Junyang and all the people with the common sense of officialdom knew that.
Yan Xu became complacent again, looking hateful.
Ye Zhirong was irritated by Yan Xu’s complacency yet soon calmed down. He snorted. “The stuff in my hands is not the evidence against you of taking bribes, but it is something that can take your life, too.”
“What? No way. Stop talking big!” Yan Xu was in panic for a moment yet soon returned composed.
He thought by instinct that Ye Zhirong intentionally talked big to make him restless, so he held his head high in front of Ye Zhirong, hinting that he wouldn’t be frightened easily.
Ye Zhirong didn’t keep Yan Xu in suspense anymore this time. His eyes became deep and he howled in a cold voice, “Yan Xu, do you remember how many innocent people’s blood stained your hands?
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t remember. It was recorded clearly in this book for you, which waits to skin you and draw your blood to pay for their injustice.”
Ye Zhirong’s voice was forceful, and each word struck Yan Xu’s heart, exposing all the dirty things he had done.
It turned out that what Ye Zhirong had was not the evidence against Yan Xu of taking bribes but the “raw materials” that Yan Xu used to provide porridge.
The source of every dead body, where they handled it and sent it to were recorded clearly in the book.
There was no accurate name in each record but simple numbers of 1, 2, 3. Till now, perhaps nobody could say who the people were after Yan Xu killed and “recycled” them.
Yan Xu had never expected that the fact that he made porridge with dead people’s flesh would be exposed in this way. He was scared and denied in a trembling voice, “I didn’t do it. It was not me. You are talking nonsense.”
“Every dead body is recorded, and their sources and whereabouts are clear. Do you want to deny it?” Ye Zhirong questioned coldly. He bared his teeth, as if he wanted to skin Yan Xu alive.
After all, Yan Xu had a guilty conscience and didn’t dare to meet Ye Zhirong’s eyes. He shrank his neck with guilt yet still refused to miss a chance to indulge in sophistry. “Even if there are records, so what? Who knows if you have made it up and intentionally frame me?”
Ye Zhirong snorted. “You have done so many evil things. Do others need to frame you?
“You crave for greatness and success and recorded each place in detail where you provided porridge, wishing to write an autobiography. The information can accord with the records in my book. What can you say to explain away?”
“Even if it can accord to your records, so what? It can’t prove anything.” Yan Xu still struggled desperately and didn’t admit it. “I am a magistrate. Even if I help the common people, I won’t do it in person. I want to do good to the civilians. Even if I didn’t do it perfectly, it must be that the subordinates complied in appearance but opposed in heart. What does it have to do with me?”
He even put the blame on the subordinates shamelessly.
Ye Zhirong laughed even though he was angry because of Yan Xu’s shamelessness. “Fine, Yan Xu, you really won’t give up till death. Since you insist that everything was done by your subordinates, let’s see what they will say, okay?”
He turned around and bowed to Mo Junyang, begging, “Your Excellency, please send some people to capture Yan Xu’s lackeys now. We will know who is right after asking them.”
Ye Zhirong was afraid that Mo Junyang didn’t believe him, so he added, “To be honest, I could get the book about the dead people owe to his good subordinate’s help.”
Yan Xu looked cold and asked in a hurry, “What do you mean?”
Ye Zhirong’s smile was frightful. “I mean that if not for your subordinate Tian Ping, this notebook couldn’t fall into my hands.”
Yan Xu finally remembered that he told Tian Ping to arrange the disaster relief, including choosing the sources and whereabouts of the “food”. Tian Ping got involved in almost everything. If Tian Ping betrayed him, then…
Yan Xu quivered.
However, he soon thought that he found the disclosure of his crimes a few days ago, so he gave Tian Ping some money in advance and told him to go away. Later, he told somebody to kill Tian Ping.
So many days had passed. Even if his assistant couldn’t take actions in time, Tian Ping must have fled.
Yan Xu suddenly had courage again. “Fine. You can confront Tian Ping. Tell him to come.”