36: wedge

"My father was an upright official his entire life, even if he made a mistake in the end. The Late Emperor, how could the Late Emperor..."

He felt guilty even saying these words himself, but he simply could not reconcile with it.

Even though the governance of the Daxing Dynasty was already excellent, corrupt officials were a problem that no dynasty from ancient times to the present had ever been able to completely solve.

It was merely a difference between stealing more or stealing less.

It wasn't as if there hadn't been larger cases before his father's.

In the late years of the Founding Emperor, there was a corruption scandal regarding the imperial examinations that implicated numerous officials.

In a fit of rage, the Founding Emperor not only mobilized the entire Pacification Bureau but also deployed the army, executing tens of thousands of people.

But what did that change?

Which generation of emperors after the Founding Emperor had not produced corrupt officials?

Even now, with the New Emperor on the throne, corrupt officials had never ceased to exist in the entire officialdom of the Daxing Dynasty.

Otherwise, The Emperor would not have scolded the officials in the court by saying, "Three years of being a clean prefect, one hundred thousand silver ingots."

"Are you trying to say that your father was just confused for a moment, that it was just a temporary greed, and that given his past achievements and reputation, he didn't deserve to die?"

Mo Yingqi suddenly laughed out loud.

"It seems that in order to raise you as a good dog, your uncle really didn't tell you anything. Then again, people need a goal to have motivation, even if that goal was wrong from the very beginning."

Mo Yingqi's gaze suddenly turned icy cold.

He took out a separately prepared file and threw it hard onto Zhou Jinan's face: "This is the evidence of your father's crimes that I specifically asked the Clerk to transcribe. Read it, and then talk to me about who is innocent or not!"

"Ten thousand disaster victims were eating the chaff that only pigs eat, and in the freezing cold, the government couldn't scrape together money to settle them, resulting in thousands freezing or starving to death. And you want to talk to me about the punishment not fitting the crime? You want to talk to me about achievements and reputation?"

Zhou Jinan tremblingly opened the scroll.

It detailed all the evidence of his father's crimes, as well as the victims involved in the cases.

"Perhaps, to Temple Official Zhou, the number of people who died is nothing more than a few strokes of a brush, right?"

Tang Jingzhong walked in from outside with a dark expression, clutching a wuchang register in his hand.

Throughout the Pacification Bureau, excluding those who did odd jobs, everyone from the Pacification Commissioner down to an ordinary Flying Fish Guard carried a wuchang register to record cases and testimonies at any time.

"The two Captains, this subordinate went to the Dali Temple to retrieve the files. Fortunately, I had the order from Commander Qianhu, otherwise, I fear the Dali Temple would not have let me see these so easily."

Tang Jingzhong waved the wuchang register in his hand.

"I already have some leads. This Temple Official Zhou handled a case previously that looked seamless, but..."

At this point, Tang Jingzhong looked at Zhou Jinan's face with utter contempt: "Seven months ago, the Dali Temple accepted a case, and the one responsible for handling it was Temple Official Zhou Jinan. I won't go into the details; it's troublesome."

"It has all been recorded, and I have sent someone to the yamen to report it to Commander Qianhu. By the looks of it, this Temple Official committed his own sins, and it is highly likely that these people are retaliating against him."

Mo Yingqi took the register handed over by Tang Jingzhong and flipped through it generally.

In truth, it was not a complicated case.

A plaintiff from another province had come to the capital to file a complaint at the Dali Temple, but after reading the petition, Zhou Jinan had directly ruled the defendant innocent.

This was because the defendant was a Disciple of Grand Chancellor Zhou.

A mine had collapsed, but this Disciple had actually concealed the casualties to maintain the appearance of peace.

As a Temple Official of the Dali Temple, Zhou Jinan, after weighing the situation, deemed the case insignificant.

Furthermore, since the other party was his uncle's Disciple, he naturally chose to cover it up.

"It is already extremely difficult for commoners to sue officials. The other party clearly knew this and only chose to file a complaint at the Dali Temple out of desperation. Unfortunately, the whole matter was covered up tightly by this Temple Official Zhou."

Tang Jingzhong stared fixedly at Zhou Jinan.

"Temple Official, it must have been hard for you. Out of so many cases, you chose this one to engage in malpractice for personal gain. I suppose you didn't feel you were wrong at all, did you?"

Mo Yingqi closed the wuchang register and handed it to Tang Jingzhong, then turned to Lu Qianyuan and said: "Investigate according to the records and see if it was them. Is the evidence for this case accurate?"

"There is no substantive evidence for the time being, but we caught one of his underlings, a yamen runner, and had someone beat him up. It turns out that person was involved in the matter."

Tang Jingzhong nodded.

"I have already arranged for people to investigate, but he..."

"Find a few brothers and guard this small courtyard. Wait until the people over there are apprehended and interrogated before deciding."

Mo Yingqi turned back to look at Zhou Jinan.

"You are both a victim and a perpetrator, Magistrate Zhou. I fear this matter of you being castrated... tsk tsk tsk."

"You don't have to keep bringing this up to humiliate me!" Zhou Jinan completely lost control.

"Mo Yingqi, now that things have come to this, you don't need to act like a victor..."

"Temple Official, I think you are mistaken." Mo Yingqi suddenly interrupted him.

"Between you and me, it is merely me executing my official duties and you obstructing them. If you must go deeper, I fear we can at most be considered fellow officials in the capital. You committed a crime, and I arrested you. Where is there any talk of victor or loser?"

"If you are referring to Sister Yongan... cough, cough, the matter of the Eldest Princess, that is even more nonsensical. I grew up with the two sisters as childhood sweethearts. The things between us... you don't understand."

Mo Yingqi was not showing off at all; he was simply stating facts.

But the more he did so, the more Zhou Jinan felt provoked, especially when he saw the plum blossom mark on Mo Yingqi's neck.

He was not a fool.

Mo Yingqi was now summoned to the Imperial Palace by the Princess every day, and after the Polo Match ended yesterday, he even shared a carriage with the Princess to return to the Princesss Residence.

How this mark came to be seemed to need no explanation.

In other words, while he was being harmed by someone last night and losing his manhood, Mo Yingqi might have been... intimate with Luo Yongan.

This made Zhou Jinan feel incomparably painful in his heart.

In Luo Yongan's eyes, there was only ever Mo Yingqi.

Even if it meant risking being mocked and discussed behind her back, even if it meant being made a big deal of by the Censorate, she did not care.

He never had the slightest chance, because Luo Yongan had only chosen Mo Yingqi from the very beginning, and she would only ever choose Mo Yingqi.

A victor?

No, Mo Yingqi was not a victor.

He was simply the one uniquely favored by the two sisters, and everything now was just... a matter of course.

"I was naturally doing it on purpose. First, I love Yingqi very much, and second... after Zhou Jinan's incident, it would definitely be handled by the Pacification Bureau."

Luo Yongan rubbed her left leg, which was still sore beneath her dress, and couldn't help but feel a wave of... sweetness in her heart.

Luo Yongning frowned and suddenly laughed out loud: "Sister, you really are wicked..."

"Likewise. If it were you, I fear Zhou Jinan's corpse would have been scattered in the moat by now," Luo Yongan rolled her eyes at her.

"Leave the rest to Yingqi. Whatever he likes to do, we just need to help him accomplish it."

"But that Zhou Jinan... I fear he won't be so easy to make talk," Luo Yongning frowned.

"Besides, that Old Scoundrel may seem to have countless trusted aides around him, but I fear no one can truly be trusted by him?"

"He doesn't need to say anything. Yingqi is so smart; he naturally knows that once a wedge is driven into the heart, leaving a mark is enough."

Luo Yongan suddenly licked her lips.

"Yongning, that is not important. What is important is... do you still want to tonight?"

Hearing her sister say this, Luo Yongning blushed for a moment, but her eyes held an inexplicable light, and then she nodded gently.