Old Madam Song couldn’t help but laugh, recalling Imperial Censor Shi’s glorious history of carrying a coffin to submit his memorial in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, nearly causing His Majesty to cough up blood in rage. She felt a bit of toothache on behalf of Minister of Justice Meng Jiming. With Imperial Censor Shi around, even if Meng Jiming, that slippery character, wanted to be slippery, he’d probably have to weigh his own worth—in fact, he didn’t have much worth at all. This Minister of Justice had already gotten on Emperor Jianzhang’s blacklist last time during the spring examination leak when he pretended to be ill. If he tried to court death again this time, the position of Minister of Justice might need to be filled by someone else.

Thinking of this, she couldn’t help but praise Song Yan: “I really don’t know where Yan learned to be so shrewd… I don’t know which of you two taught him this mischievous streak, but he specifically found this god of death.”

Compared to those censors who spoke with fierce words and激烈 rhetoric, Imperial Censor Shi was the truly lethal one. Single-mindedly stubborn to the end, once he decided on something, ten oxen couldn’t pull him back. His indomitable courage made even Emperor Jianzhang have to give him wide berth. That Elder Chen’s matter happened to be encountered by him and exposed by him was truly the most wonderful approach possible.

Song Jue and Song Chuyi exchanged glances and pointed at each other in unison: “Her! (Him!)”

This delighted Old Madam so much. She held Song Chuyi’s hand and refused to let go for even a moment, then instructed Yushu to have the kitchen bring up some soup for Song Chuyi to drink first.

But Song Jue shook his head: “Grandmother, Grandfather is waiting for us over there. Why don’t we go over first, and come back this evening to accompany you in hosting a welcoming banquet for Maternal Aunt Cui and our cousins.”

Song Chengru had his day off today, having specifically arranged the time with Elder Du. Old Madam Song had no choice but to agree, while instructing Song Jue: “Don’t let your grandfather keep her too long. She just got back—how can she withstand such exhaustion? She hasn’t even had a bite to eat yet.”

Song Jue nodded in agreement, lifted the curtain himself, and led Song Chuyi out. After passing through the covered walkway, he turned to look at her: “You’ve lost weight. It’s ugly.”

Actually, she hadn’t lost much weight before boarding the boat, but after boarding, she received news of Cui Yingshu’s incident, then heard about the trouble in Jinling. Between worry and rushing, she had indeed slimmed down. Song Chuyi honestly touched her own face and nodded: “I’ll try to gain it back quickly.”

Song Jue glared at her, then asked: “Do you know your sister-in-law gave birth?”

Song Chuyi truly didn’t know. On the boat, she had indeed been through storms and waves the entire journey. After returning to Tianshui Town, encountering danger and being rescued by Zhou Weizhao, she never received any more letters from the Song family—they had been rushing too urgently, making letter delivery extremely inconvenient. Hearing that Li Qingzi had already given birth, she couldn’t help asking: “Sister-in-law has already given birth? Is it a little nephew or little niece?”

A smile appeared on Song Jue’s face: “A daughter. She looks like your sister-in-law.”

While speaking, they had already reached the study. When Advisor Chang and the others saw Song Jue and her, they quickly stood up. Since Old Master Song valued this granddaughter, the advisors naturally didn’t dare look down on her either. Moreover, this Sixth Miss truly didn’t allow one to look down on her—just the fact that she could work with Song Jue to push Elder Chen from his position while in Yangquan was already frightening enough in terms of capability.

Neither Song Jue nor Song Chuyi acted arrogant. They paid their respects to the advisors with proper courtesy before sitting down below Old Master Song.

Old Master Song first asked Song Chuyi about Zhou Weizhao’s assassination. Song Chuyi truthfully recounted it, then added: “The previous attack in Yangquan was carried out by Huangjue Temple’s San Nan leading people. Unfortunately, San Nan was ruthless enough toward himself—he disfigured himself beyond recognition before dying, so even Commander Lai had no way to deal with him. On the return journey, no one really anticipated that Huangjue Temple would dare come a second time.”

Logically speaking, since they had already been discovered the first time, no matter what, survival should have been the priority. Huangjue Temple clearly could have first cleared their tracks while the Imperial Grandson hadn’t returned to the capital or launched his offensive, moved their forces, or simply fled. Yet they chose mutual destruction instead, bringing out all their strength, as if this time it was success or death.

Song Jue had never liked San Nan. In his view, this young monk had been thoroughly corrupted by others, not at all like a real monk. What kind of monk was full of murderous aura? Hearing this, he snorted coldly.

Advisor Chang furrowed his brow tightly. After understanding the whole story, he nodded: “They were probably instigated by someone.”

Advisor Ying also nodded: “After Prince Duan’s death, whom Huangjue Temple pledged allegiance to—we all know this in our hearts…”

For a moment, no one in the room spoke. The matter involved the Eastern Palace, which was never easy to handle—after all, the Imperial Grandson was also from the Eastern Palace! It’s just that the Crown Prince had gone too far in favoring his concubine over his wife. Continuing this way, sooner or later his household would have no peace.

Song Chengru coughed once and lightly diverted the topic, turning the conversation to the Jinling matter: “Yan’s trip to Jinling was full of suspicious matters everywhere.”

Speaking of Jinling, both Advisor Chang and Advisor Ying’s eyes practically lit up, smiles hanging on their faces—truly, Fourth Young Master had delivered this slap so beautifully this time, extracting and beating at once, practically stripping away both the Chen family’s inner lining and outer skin.

Previously, regarding the imperial examination fraud case, the Song family had schemed against Elder Chen but ultimately couldn’t appear in person, much less be connected to it in the slightest. This left them quite constrained, and in the end, Elder Chen had made it to Jinling completely intact, which was truly somewhat infuriating.

But Song Yan had sent Elder Chen, who had just barely escaped death in Jinling, right back into the Ministry of Justice’s prison, and this time he probably would never come out again.

“Last time when Sixth Miss encountered river bandits on her way to Jinxi, it was connected to the Chen family and Huangjue Temple.” Advisor Chang stroked his beard: “This matter, as you said, Teacher, came far too suspiciously. If Fourth Young Master truly had an incident in Jinling, could Sixth Miss not go to rescue him? If Sixth Miss really brought those hundred or so people and went to Jinling together with Second Young Master Ye, then the Imperial Grandson, whose strength had been weakened on the road, would be in jeopardy. And Sixth Miss herself might not have been able to reach Jinling either—her being attacked on the road is proof of that. As for Fourth Young Master… if things had gone according to what those people planned, Fourth Young Master would naturally have been burdened with the crime of murder…”

Seeing Advisor Chang pause, Advisor Ying picked up the thread: “At that time, Teacher might have had to write a letter to intercede with the Jinling Prefect—after all, you couldn’t truly watch Fourth Young Master trapped in prison without taking action. Then Elder Chen could probably have instigated the Jinling Prefect or Imperial Censor Shi to impeach you with the very charges he himself now faces, accusing you of interfering in government affairs, treating human lives as grass, and bullying others with your power.”