The Prefect’s cold sweat flowed endlessly. He hadn’t expected that Zhou Weizhao had long since seen through the farce outside Yangzhou city, yet deliberately played along with them. Thinking of this, he was momentarily stunned again, unable to understand why, if Zhou Weizhao had already sent people to investigate Liang Shoufu’s account books and cash flow, and knew what was happening with the beggars outside, he still patiently wasted so many words on them.
Chen Ping didn’t wait for him to ask, nor did he wait for everyone to figure it out. He first kicked Liang Shoufu, making him stumble: “Knowing that Master Liang is difficult to deal with, if we hadn’t come to eat this meal of yours, I’m afraid you’d still have plenty of schemes up your sleeve. What did you say the night before last? That if we didn’t come to the banquet, worst case scenario you’d settle everything once and for all by simply burning down the official residence. Since your audacity has reached such a level, naturally we had to make some preparations to ensure His Highness’s safety completely. Isn’t that the logic?”
The words spoken the night before last—Zhou Weizhao actually knew about them too?!
Everyone’s hearts grew uneasy. Only now did they belatedly realize that this official who had entered afterward, though not wearing the flying fish robe, had an embroidered spring saber hanging at his waist. Their faces instantly turned pale.
The Imperial Guard’s fearsome reputation was known far and wide. Who didn’t know these people were almost omnipresent? Whether it was how much rice you ate, which concubine’s room you slept in tonight, or what private words were spoken—they could find out every detail.
They hadn’t expected the Crown Prince’s entourage to include so many Imperial Guards. Liang Shoufu was so angry his hands trembled. Having reached this point, he became even more determined not to give any silver. His face cold, he moved back several steps and got up, flicking his sleeves with a cold laugh: “I’ve never heard of the court taking people’s lives for not donating silver. So what if I just don’t donate?”
Even at this moment, he didn’t forget to incite the others, afraid they might give silver and leave him isolated alone.
Zhou Weizhao smiled slightly. Unfortunately, he had long since given up on getting Liang Shoufu to donate silver. He only wanted Liang Shoufu to do him a favor. Thinking of this, the corners of his mouth curved even more pleasingly: “Nothing much. Whether to donate silver is naturally your decision. After all, it’s your silver. Even the court has no principle of forcibly seizing people’s property. But the problem is, if you don’t want to donate, that’s fine, but you just had to harbor malicious intentions. Those refugees outside Yangzhou city—I heard the ringleader is from your family’s estate at Changshan Village. Obstructing the Crown Prince’s procession—that’s a capital offense.”
Zhou Weizhao spoke the two words “capital offense” lightly and weightlessly, as if merely joking. Liang Shoufu himself didn’t take it too seriously either, thinking Zhou Weizhao was still threatening him to donate silver. With a stiff face, he glanced at the people around him: “Then I’m afraid more than half of Yangzhou’s wealthy households will have to die.”
He wasn’t stupid. When he first came up with this scheme, he had used both soft and hard tactics to drag all these people down with him. If something happened to him, these people couldn’t escape either. And if Zhou Weizhao really wanted to pursue the matter, fine—don’t expect a single coin of Yangzhou’s silver. Moreover, he might not even be able to leave Yangzhou. Liang Shoufu still had some confidence, and even before Zhou Weizhao, his momentum didn’t weaken in the slightest.
Zhou Weizhao glanced at the crowd, already shocked pale with fear, and gently shook his head: “How could this involve them? I haven’t heard of any connection with them. The Prefect already told me long ago, and today the Prefect’s wife even invited the Crown Princess Consort to a flower viewing party—”
Liang Shoufu remembered—he still had another trick up his sleeve. Thus he became even less afraid, laughing: “Yes, that’s right: “And there’s the Crown Princess Consort too. You must also consider the Crown Princess Consort. If something happens to Her Ladyship, you won’t look good before all under heaven, will you?”
“What could happen to the Crown Princess Consort?” Zhou Weizhao seemed quite surprised. He raised his hand, and Chen Ping went out and brought Qing Ying in. Zhou Weizhao reached out to take Qing Ying’s box and smiled at the Prefect and Liang Shoufu: “This was sent by the Prefect’s wife. She said that though they are women, they also wish to share the ruler’s burdens. They generously contributed one after another. Inside here are the amounts of silver they donated.”
He looked at Liang Shoufu, who stood dumbfounded, completely unable to react, and added: “However, Master Liang can rest assured—Madam Liang didn’t donate any silver.”
Liang Shoufu had already sensed something was wrong. The uproar of sounds around him fell on deaf ears as he stared fixedly at Zhou Weizhao, completely unable to understand how the situation had suddenly become like this.
If Madam Liang hadn’t donated, then those madams should have gritted their teeth and held firm too. Besides, the Crown Princess Consort was just a woman—even if she had guards, how many could she bring? They had already made arrangements beforehand!
How did things suddenly change? How could those people loosen up and donate silver?!
He still hadn’t figured it out. But he would never figure it out.
Zhou Weizhao casually had Qing Ying take out the account ledger for everyone to examine. Watching as those people’s gazes gathered on the sachets and jade pendants at the bottom of the box, the smile on his face deepened even more. He turned to look at Liang Shoufu: “Now does Master Liang understand why I said they didn’t know about the refugees? They’ve all donated silver or decided to donate silver. Since they would donate silver, how could they still think to have refugees obstruct me? You’re really wronging them there. As for you—”
“Didn’t I just say that obstructing the procession is a capital offense? And you didn’t just obstruct the procession—you also spread deceptive words to confuse people’s hearts, privately bought office, and received bribes. These are all capital offenses.” Zhou Weizhao’s fingers lightly tapped on the table, each tap extremely slow and extremely patient: “Haven’t you been clamoring all day about not having Fenghuang Tower’s food to eat? But I heard your breakfast this morning was thirty-six exquisite small dishes from Fenghuang Tower. Why don’t we take a look, shall we? First, to broaden everyone’s horizons; second, to save the Prefect some trouble and spare him the difficulty of personally dealing with his father-in-law.”
His words had barely fallen, and he finally withdrew his hand and stopped tapping. Before Liang Shoufu could react, Chen Ping’s blade had already risen and fallen, cleanly and efficiently stabbing him once in the abdomen.
When the Imperial Guard wanted you dead, they could make you die without even managing a single cry. Liang Shoufu’s face still bore an expression of extreme shock and terror, his eyes hadn’t even closed, as he fell straight and stiff beside the dining table.
Zhou Weizhao, ignoring the cries of alarm and shouts around him, smiled and waved the stack of papers in his hand at everyone, asking very gently: “Well then, the silver amounts here—does everyone acknowledge them? Or should we call the coroner first and have him verify for everyone whether Master Liang ate Fenghuang Tower’s food or not?”
Where did the crowd have any mood left to care what food he ate? What they themselves had eaten for breakfast was by now churning violently, wanting to leap out of their throats. Looking at the paper in Zhou Weizhao’s hands, their faces were utterly colorless. No one dared to glibly say they wouldn’t give silver anymore. They had seen the amounts before—the wives at home all had a good grasp of the family assets, and the amounts reported weren’t too outrageous after all. At this moment, they couldn’t afford to feel heartache over the silver or haggle over the price. Desperate to save their lives, they could only nod frantically.