Ma Changjiang and Ma Wangkun had probably been idle for too long without tasks. This time, upon hearing they had an assignment, they worked extremely diligently. These two had even followed Han Zhi before. At their furthest point, they had even watched Han Zhi fake his death and deceive Liangdi Fan’s people. Now they were merely dealing with a young lady, so originally there was no need to be so cautious and careful. However, having followed Song Chuyi for so long, caution had become their natural instinct. They followed Chen Mingyu for over ten days straight, and only after confirming that they had gathered very detailed information did they return to report.
At that time, Song Chuyi had just gone to Princess Duanhui’s residence—Cui Yingshu had been released. Well, this time there was Elder Du, that door god who couldn’t wait to make trouble for the Eastern Palace. With evidence and everything already collected long ago, Meng Jiming and Prince Dongping had worked themselves to exhaustion for another period. The case was tried and concluded in much the same way as Elder Chen’s case.
Jiujiang reported needing two to three hundred thousand taels every year for dike repairs, yet every year Jiujiang still suffered from flood breaches. The best stretch had only been three years, but that particular prefect was still impeached for being unfilial and disloyal to his brothers, for mistreating his legitimate mother and legitimate elder brother, and was imprisoned and dismissed from office. Without anyone needing to say anything, Emperor Jianzhang knew there was something fishy about this upon hearing it.
When it was discovered that of the silver allocated by the Ministry of Finance, the governor took thirty percent, the prefect took ten percent, and only about twenty to thirty percent actually went to dike repairs, Emperor Jianzhang truly became so enraged that one Buddha ascended to heaven and another was born into the world. He even had the heart to flay alive the Jiangxi Governor Yang Yunyong, and having this intention, he naturally acted on it—ever since the Yangzhou case two years ago, the two words “corruption” had been like a curse clinging to officials everywhere. Emperor Jianzhang had been shocked time and time again. Now he suddenly felt that what his ancestors had done back then, executing corrupt officials so absolutely and hanging their flayed skins at the city gates, was actually excellent—these parasites were hollowing out his very empire.
As these officials successively fell from power, Cui Yingshu was naturally cleared of the injustice against him. The Minister of Works personally cried out on his behalf, calculated a cost estimate for what the dikes required and submitted it to Emperor Jianzhang, along with Cui Yingshu’s blueprints, proving that if construction had been done according to Cui Yingshu’s blueprints, such tragic consequences would never have occurred, and the newly built dikes, government offices, and ancestral halls would not have collapsed at the slightest touch. The memorial was submitted, and considering that Cui Yingshu had himself previously submitted reports saying that Jiujiang’s officialdom was chaotic and many were accepting bribes—all of which had been intercepted by Elder Chen who was still in office at the time—Emperor Jianzhang felt particularly guilty toward this prince consort and loyal subject, and declared him innocent.
Upon seeing Song Chuyi, Princess Duanhui’s tears immediately streamed down her face. She grabbed Song Chuyi’s hand, crying and laughing: “At the time, Little Yi, you said you had a method, but it took so long without any movement that I was terribly anxious, thinking something must have gone wrong in between. Only now do I realize how complex the matters involved were. I truly must thank you and Old Master Song!”
Song Chuyi quickly smiled and shook her head: “Family doesn’t speak of two separate accounts. When Uncle has trouble, how could I not help? If I were in trouble, Uncle and Aunt would treat me the same way.”
Although Cui Yingshu had spent some time in the Ministry of Justice’s prison, because Meng Jiming was a clever person and both the Cui and Song families had made arrangements, he had lived relatively well inside. Though he had lost some weight now, his spirits still seemed quite good. Seeing this, he said: “It’s also fortunate that you thought of starting with my two deputy assistants, and thought to obtain my blueprints and materials one step ahead. If these things had been lost, the matter would have been in jeopardy.”
Song Chuyi didn’t claim all the credit and mentioned Huang Yuanhou’s contribution: “Fortunately, Young Master Huang’s father happened to be your direct superior. I thought that probably no one knew better than him what procedures you would have to go through if you were to embezzle silver. After consulting with him, I roughly knew how to clear your name. What was rare was those two vice ministers who remained in Jiujiang. Perhaps they were still waiting for the next allocation of dike repair silver to arrive. Having probably spent too long happily drinking and making merry with the Jiujiang officials day after day, they actually had no sense of crisis at all. The people Grandfather sent out spent only half a month obtaining the account books from them. As for the servant by your side who testified against you, following the vine to find the melon, he was also quite easy to find. The escort agency people were even more readily available. After interrogating and bluffing them, everything was bluffed out of them. Speaking of this matter, we must still thank Minister Huang and Young Master Huang, as well as Grandfather.”
Before Cui Yingshu went to Jiujiang, he had heard Song Chengru say that Jiujiang was not a good place to go. However, he was single-mindedly determined to achieve some results, and in the end couldn’t afford to heed Song Chengru’s concerns. Only after arriving in Jiujiang did he discover the extent of the corruption there. He sighed to Song Chuyi: “Over there, it’s no longer about officials serving the people, let alone anything about serving the country and the people. It’s purely for the purpose of amassing wealth. Year after year, using the floods as an excuse, how many common people’s lives have been delayed? In their eyes, these common people’s lives aren’t lives—they’re money. The more people die, the more silver the court allocates. I truly had no other option—”
Song Chuyi laughed once, interrupting Cui Yingshu’s words. She followed her uncle to the study and said softly: “Because you truly had no other option, you resolved to expose this matter. But because the Jiangxi Governor was a person of His Highness the Eastern Palace, that’s why you used this self-inflicted suffering scheme?”
Given Cui Yingshu’s shrewdness, there was no reason he wouldn’t know that his trusted aide was playing tricks under his command, colluding with the vice ministers to embezzle silver, much less that he would fail to maintain good relations with those officials who only knew how to covet money. The only reason was that he had used the situation to his advantage, deliberately falling into someone else’s trap—otherwise, how could the evidence that Old Master Song found in Jiujiang have been so easy to find? Was it just that coincidental? The blueprints, account books—without exception, all were found.
Cui Yingshu touched his nose, feeling that he couldn’t hide anything from his niece, and nodded: “I just didn’t expect this was a linked stratagem, that the root cause was actually with the Grand Prince and you. Originally, according to my plan, those things were meant to be kept for my teacher to retrieve and help me with. The method was not much different from what you devised, except that when the matter was brought before the Emperor, the presiding official would have been my teacher.”
That old fox Chief Minister Chang—so he had known all along that his student was playing a self-inflicted suffering scheme. And yet he pretended to be lifeless day in and day out.
After a while, having finished discussing his own affairs, Cui Yingshu turned to ask about his niece’s matters: “I heard from your aunt that you’re entering the palace the day after tomorrow?”
His wife and daughter had both told him about Song Chuyi and Zhou Weizhao’s situation. He was an uncle who only wished to see his niece happy. If Song Chuyi truly liked Zhou Weizhao, he naturally felt the two of them were extremely well-matched.