Zheng Sansi didn’t carry his name for nothing—he was called Zheng Sansi precisely because he thought thrice about everything. Since he had openly complained to Song Chengru about the officials in Jiujiang’s insatiable greed, this was already a signal. He was telling Song Chengru that if the timing was right and the Song family had the capability to save Cui Yingshu, he would extend his hand when appropriate.

Advisor Chang couldn’t help but shudder, as if suddenly understanding what his Sixth Young Miss intended to do. He stared at Song Chuyi in astonishment: “Does Sixth Young Miss intend to personally take action against the Jiujiang Prefect? But this isn’t appropriate, is it? Although the matters of Huangjue Temple and Old Master Chen have nothing to do with our household, there are other clever people in this world besides our family. I’m afraid quite a few have already noticed our family’s shadow in these affairs. To act again, and against the entire Jiangxi official circles at that, I fear…”

Emperor Jianzhang wasn’t ignorant—he was pretending to be confused. The assassination attempt on the Crown Prince at Huangjue Temple, whether it was the work of Prince Duan’s remaining followers or related to other matters, was an unpardonable crime, and he needed an excuse to clean up this group of monks at Huangjue Temple who harbored treacherous hearts. As for Old Master Chen’s side, because of his schemes against Song Yan, although the Song family had done extremely well in the capital previously, leaving no traces behind, Fang Xiaoru’s promotion instead of demotion already spoke volumes—after all, the one managing official promotions and demotions was Song Chengru.

If Fang Xiaoru hadn’t aligned himself with Song Chengru or if Song Chengru hadn’t gained some benefit from him, how could he help someone who was originally one of Old Master Chen’s trusted subordinates?

Regardless, Old Master Chen had lost the struggle and was outmaneuvered. The matter of Cui Shaoting back then had actually involved the Chen family to some extent. Because of this, Emperor Jianzhang turned a blind eye, treating it as watching two old foxes fight—and he was even happier that Old Master Chen lost. After all, compared to the Chen family, the Song family’s stance was much more resolute. Old Master Chen had placed his bets far too early.

“No, this matter cannot be done by us, nor will we get involved.” Song Chuyi shook her head and glanced sideways at Advisor Chang, suddenly curving the corners of her mouth: “In Advisor’s opinion, what if this matter were done by Prince Dongping instead?”

Unless Prince Dongping had lost his mind, how could he possibly offend the entire faction of Jiujiang officials? They were all in cahoots together—whose hands were clean? The silver allocated by the court, after layers of embezzlement, probably only two or three parts out of ten reached the common people. These people stood united in their interests, already forming a network of fish caught in the same net.

“If it could be accomplished, it would naturally be for the best. With Prince Dongping as the supervising inspector, he would bear the responsibility. But how could he be willing to shoulder this responsibility?” Advisor Chang shook his head with a bitter smile: “Forgive my incompetence—I cannot see how this plan could be feasible.”

“Advisor is not incompetent.” Song Chuyi tugged at the corners of her mouth, thought for a moment, then said to Song Chengru: “Grandfather, is there any news about the matter I asked you to handle last time?”

Song Chuyi had asked Song Chengru to send people to Jiujiang to gather information. From the day Song Chuyi returned, Song Chengru had already dispatched people. He nodded: “There’s already been a reply. Everything has been handled according to your instructions.”

He paused, and seeing that both Advisor Chang and Advisor Ying looked bewildered, he told them: “This girl had me send people down to find those who were originally arrested—the escort agencies and trusted subordinates under Cui Yingshu who were supposedly assigned by him to transport silver back home.”

This should have been done from the start. When news of Cui Yingshu’s case first reached the capital, the two of them had already suggested Song Chengru do this. But finding these people was useless—they had all signed confessions and been bribed. How could their mouths be pried open so easily?

Song Chengru coughed and rolled up his sleeves: “Also, to find the two Vice Ministers from the Ministry of Works who accompanied Cui Yingshu down there, along with other Ministry of Works personnel. Collect the blueprints Cui Yingshu used to construct the dike and find the group responsible for procurement.”

Advisor Chang immediately understood Song Chengru’s meaning. His eyes widened as he looked at Song Chuyi: “This is… to have the Ministry of Works stir up trouble over this matter?”

Song Chuyi pursed her lips matter-of-factly: “It’s not necessarily that the Ministry of Works must come forward to cause trouble. It’s just that construction blueprints and procurement of materials are two entirely separate matters. No matter how capable my uncle is, could he both draw blueprints and simultaneously handle procurement? If his subordinates were muddle-headed and embezzled materials, what does it have to do with him? So many people from the Ministry of Works went down there—were they all eating for free? How is it that apart from my uncle, no other accomplices from the Ministry of Works have been arrested? Could it be that from top to bottom in the Ministry of Works, only my uncle was responsible for building the dike? This obviously doesn’t make sense, does it?”

Of course it didn’t make sense. Cui Yingshu was the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, responsible for the Construction Department’s duties—managing blueprints and supervising construction. So how could procured materials fall under his jurisdiction? What were the two Vice Ministers who went with him doing?

The people in Jiangxi probably listened to Old Master Chen and believed the Song and Cui families would fall, pushing down walls that were already falling, so they didn’t even make their trap particularly thorough—though naturally, it was actually already quite thorough. There was witness testimony and physical evidence, plus people sent by the Jiujiang Prefect had intercepted the Cui family’s carriage, caught red-handed with irrefutable proof, and there were even Cui family servants coming forward to testify…

But Sixth Miss Song wasn’t easy to fool. She keenly discovered the loopholes. Most of the other Ministry of Works officials who went down weren’t implicated much—at least the two most important ones, Cui Yingshu’s left and right deputies, weren’t implicated at all.

There were only two possible reasons for this phenomenon: either these two people were incredibly lucky and the Jiujiang people didn’t want to deal with them, or they had originally accepted bribes. The former possibility was naturally less likely than the latter—anyone with a brain could figure that out. So these two deputies were worth investigating thoroughly. Following the trail from them might even uncover even bigger fish.

Song Jue glanced at Song Chuyi. This little girl had an expert advising her from behind. Of course he knew Song Chuyi was clever, but this move to drag the Ministry of Works into the water was far too precisely targeted. Song Chuyi, as an outsider to official matters, obviously shouldn’t have known this. Just a few days ago she was still worrying about this matter…

He rubbed his nose, thinking about whom Song Chuyi had seen these past few days—only the Crown Prince remained. He couldn’t help feeling a bit jealous. Zhou Weizhao had thought everything through for her and handled everything in advance, making him, her older brother, seem rather useless in comparison. And they hadn’t even made things official yet—the imperial marriage decree hadn’t been issued either. Flattering her so early—never mind, he thought to himself that this was actually a good thing. It showed Zhou Weizhao kept Song Chuyi in his heart and was anxious about what made her anxious, didn’t it?