What’s wrong?

If he could, he wished he could disregard everything and press the girl beside him into his very bones and blood.

“I think my cold poison is acting up again.” The young general said pitifully.

Qiao Zhao raised her hand to cover his forehead, murmuring, “That’s impossible.”

His cold poison was almost cured. In just a little more time, he wouldn’t even need acupuncture treatments anymore. How could it possibly flare up for no reason?

Shao Mingyuan closed his eyes, treasuring beyond measure the warmth from her hand, yet knowing that continuing like this would truly turn him into a ravenous wolf and frighten away his little girl. He hurriedly stepped back and withdrew from the artificial cave.

“Zhaozhao, the night is deep and the dew is heavy. Let’s investigate quickly.” He relit the lantern they had brought and turned his back, borrowing the light from the lantern that the panicked fleeing couple had left behind to see the patch of grass by the water pool that had been trampled flat.

The sounds he had heard earlier suddenly echoed in his ears again.

Shao Mingyuan took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

He had left home young and spent seven years in the Northern Territories. What kind of scenes hadn’t he witnessed? Not to mention lovers meeting in secret—he had even seen scenes of several men simultaneously violating a single woman.

Toward those scenes, aside from deep disgust, his heart had never stirred even slightly. But when he was alone with his beloved girl in the narrow cave, those sounds became the strongest aphrodisiac, causing his self-control to suddenly collapse.

He had once thought that the pleasures between men and women were nothing special. Having killed his wife with his own hands, he had planned never to become entangled with such things again in this lifetime. Why was he now beginning to feel anticipation?

His Zhaozhao was still far too young.

The young general thought with a heart full of melancholy.

Qiao Zhao searched every corner of the artificial cave but found nothing. She leaned against the cave wall and closed her eyes, allowing that sketch to appear in her mind exactly as it was, comparing it with the artificial mountain where she currently stood.

From the exterior appearance, every line and undulation was identical… wait—

A flash of inspiration suddenly struck Qiao Zhao’s mind. She opened her eyes abruptly and raised her hand to gently tap the cave wall.

She started tapping and pausing from one spot, moving along until she suddenly stopped at a certain place. After tapping twice more to confirm the sound was different, she lifted the air-death wind lamp to examine it carefully, finally discovering the secret.

Qiao Zhao applied force with her hands and pried up the stone block at that spot.

That place was hollow inside, containing a cloth bundle.

“General Shao, I found it!” Qiao Zhao’s slightly excited voice called out.

Shao Mingyuan bent down to enter: “Don’t rush to open it. Let me see it first.”

With things of unknown origin, it was better to be cautious.

“Let me handle it instead. I know what to watch out for in this regard.” Qiao Zhao took out a pair of thin silk gloves from her pouch, put them on, and opened the cloth bundle.

Inside the cloth bundle was a thin oilpaper wrapping. Only when the oilpaper was opened did the true contents reveal themselves: a thin ledger.

Qiao Zhao’s eyes contracted.

It was another ledger.

The ledger in her elder brother’s hands recorded evidence of General Xing Wuyang’s embezzlement of military funds. So what was recorded in this ledger?

Qiao Zhao picked up the account book and quickly flipped through it. Her expression gradually became grave, and the hand holding the ledger began to tremble.

“Zhaozhao, what’s recorded in it?”

Qiao Zhao turned to look at Shao Mingyuan and said word by word: “Records of some officials and wealthy households in the southern coastal regions colluding with Japanese pirates!”

A cold, fierce light suddenly flashed in Shao Mingyuan’s eyes.

So it was this kind of ledger. This was far more shocking than the account book his brother-in-law had presented to the Emperor.

If this ledger were presented to the Emperor, would that sovereign, who single-mindedly pursued immortality and was unwilling to see trouble, still put it aside with indifferent composure?

“Let’s go back first and discuss it.” Shao Mingyuan patted Qiao Zhao’s hand.

Qiao Zhao shook her head: “No, wait a moment.”

Shao Mingyuan turned his head to look at the girl so close beside him, raising his eyebrows questioningly.

Qiao Zhao had already lowered her gaze and begun turning from the first page of the ledger, saying, “I’ll memorize it before we leave.”

Having experienced so many events, she understood too well the meaning of “long nights bring many dreams.” Such important material would be safest nowhere else but stored in her own mind.

The girl extended her pale, slender finger, tracing over each character in the ledger.

“General Shao, move the lamp closer.”

Shao Mingyuan was reluctant to disturb her and silently brought the lamp nearer.

With brighter light, the girl’s reading speed also increased.

Shao Mingyuan gazed at her intently without blinking.

He thought there could be no girl in this world more intelligent than Zhaozhao.

Turning to the last page, Qiao Zhao closed the ledger and rewrapped it: “Let’s go.”

Returning to Tofu Beauty’s residence, Qiao Zhao handed the ledger to Shao Mingyuan: “I’ve memorized the ledger’s contents. You keep the ledger—it’s safer with you than with me.”

Although they had stayed up without sleep until now, both were completely awake due to obtaining the ledger.

“General Shao, what do you think will happen if the Emperor sees this ledger?”

Shao Mingyuan thought for a moment and said, “The Emperor’s heart is difficult to fathom. Though what’s recorded in this ledger is shocking, the Emperor might still think that as long as the southern coast remains untroubled, these small interests that he sees as needing to be given up are of no great harm.”

Qiao Zhao pressed her lips tightly together, anger surging in her heart.

Her father had served many years at court. As Left Assistant Censor-in-Chief, how could he not know the current Emperor’s temperament?

Yet he had still done what he did, taking on enormous risks to accept both ledgers, ultimately meeting the fate of a destroyed family and a lost life.

Was it because her father was foolish? Did he naively believe that the current Emperor would certainly bring these parasites of the nation to justice upon seeing the ledgers?

No.

Her father might not have had her grandfather’s carefree spirit, but he was not a foolish man.

He simply fulfilled his duties according to his position, adhering to the sage teaching of “ministers serve their lords with loyalty.”

But if ministers serve their lords with loyalty, when have lords ever treated their ministers with proper courtesy?

She respected her father’s choice, yet felt it wasn’t worth it for her father, wasn’t worth it for the Qiao family, wasn’t worth it for the countless ministers who served their lords with loyalty!

“Zhaozhao, don’t lose heart.” The man beside her gently patted her arm.

Qiao Zhao came back to her senses.

In Shao Mingyuan’s pitch-black eyes shone a light of determined success: “First, there’s the ledger of Xing Wuyang’s embezzlement of military funds, then there’s the ledger of southern coastal officials and wealthy households colluding with Japanese pirates. I think the current situation in the southern coastal regions may not be as peaceful and prosperous as the court believes.”

“You mean—”

Shao Mingyuan smiled gently: “It just so happens that you need to go to the South Sea to gather medicine. Let’s go see for ourselves what the situation there is.”

The Emperor fears trouble, doesn’t he? But what if the South has already fallen into chaos?

Cosmetic peace is ultimately not true peace. When the southern situation became serious enough to shake Great Liang’s foundation, he didn’t believe that the Emperor who pursued immortality and dreamed of enjoying the realm forever would remain indifferent!

“Good. Let’s first find the murderer that Tiezhu saw, then immediately set out for the South Sea.”

Early the next morning, Baiyun Village suddenly became lively.

Someone had died!