Lan Songquan was stunned by Lan Shan’s blow.

Lan Shan pointed at Lan Songquan’s nose and cursed loudly: “What kind of people have you provoked? All brainless ruffians! You’re even more foolish—since you knew they were people who risked their lives for work, you should have happily paid them off and sent them away. But what did you do? You reneged on the debt! Now look—a dignified Vice Minister of Works being sued by bandits. How glorious!”

“What, reneging on debt? What, being sued by bandits?” Lan Songquan was even more confused. After asking for clarification, he jumped up: “Father, someone is scheming against me!”

He hurriedly summoned his trusted aide to get to the bottom of it. After understanding the situation, he went to find those three men, but they had already left the capital.

Lan Songquan had been domineering both in and out of court for years. How could he suffer such a loss? He paced back and forth in fury.

“This is nothing. Who would take a bandit’s word seriously? They have no evidence!” After calming down slightly, Lan Songquan pounded the chair’s armrest.

But Lan Shan wasn’t as optimistic as his son, sighing: “I’m afraid others will use this to cause trouble.”

Having controlled the government for so many years, especially in the early days, quite a few so-called loyal ministers and good generals had impeached father and son, but they had always remained unharmed.

What did they rely on? Imperial favor, of course.

In recent years, fewer and fewer dared to challenge father and son, but Lan Shan felt somewhat heavy-hearted. He had keenly sensed that the Emperor’s favor toward him over the past year or two was far less than before.

For that person, right and wrong often didn’t matter—pleasing him was what mattered.

Several consecutive rebukes and salary cuts made Lan Shan vaguely feel something was amiss.

Lan Shan’s premonition was soon proven correct. Lan Songquan being sued by jianghu people was just the beginning. Although that person was quickly thrown into prison to await execution, soon someone else impeached Lan Songquan.

The person impeaching Lan Songquan was none other than Chi Can, son of the Eldest Princess Changrong.

Chi Can could be said to be like a fish in water in his position as Supervising Secretary of Works. In less than a year, he had become a famous “troublemaker” whom no one dared approach.

There was no choice—facing a censorial official who impeached someone every three days and filed complaints every two days, they all felt great pressure.

This time, Chi Can’s impeachment of Lan Songquan was for secretly harming former Censor Ouyang Hai and selling his daughter, Ouyang Weiyu, to a brothel.

Ouyang Hai had originally been a censor of the Censorate. Two years ago, he was demoted to Beiding City for impeaching the Lan father and son, but he died suddenly half a year ago, after which his family disappeared without a trace.

Emperor Mingkang had been in a melancholy mood due to Prince Rui’s uncertain fate, never expecting that Lan Songquan would be connected to this matter. Whether it was true or not, he didn’t care—he found Lan Songquan disagreeable now.

Why didn’t those bandits implicate others, but specifically implicate Lan Songquan?

It could be said that Chi Can’s timing for the impeachment was perfect. Upon hearing it, Emperor Mingkang barely lifted his eyelids and waved his hand, ordering the Three Judicial Offices to thoroughly investigate the matter.

In the courtroom, Ouyang Hai’s daughter, Ouyang Weiyu, dressed in plain clothes, tearfully accused Lan Songquan of his crimes.

“Miss Ouyang, you say your father was harmed by Vice Minister Lan. Do you have evidence?”

Upon hearing this, bone-deep hatred flashed in Ouyang Weiyu’s eyes.

She had no concrete evidence—obviously, those who killed her father wouldn’t leave behind incriminating evidence. But she was certain her father had been killed by that beast surnamed Lan.

Ouyang Weiyu looked toward Lan Songquan, sitting to one side.

Lan Songquan showed Ouyang Weiyu a disdainful smile.

That’s right—Ouyang Hai was indeed killed by people he sent. He wanted those who prided themselves on being tough to think clearly about the price before provoking father and son, to come only if they could bear having their families destroyed.

Killing Ouyang Hai was merely making an example of him—to Lan Songquan, it was just routine. How would he leave behind evidence?

He wanted to see how this little slut would accuse him.

“That day, Father returned from the private school perfectly fine, but at night, he suddenly began vomiting blood profusely. Before dying, he left one sentence—there was something wrong with the rice cake given to him by a student named Cui Jia…”

Ouyang Weiyu wiped her tears and continued: “Father only had time to say that before passing away. Mother fainted on the spot. The next day, Brother went to inquire about that student named Cui Jia, only to learn that this student had only been at the private school for a few days, but when they tried to find him again, he had already disappeared.”

Speaking to this point, Ouyang Weiyu bit her lip hard, her whole body trembling slightly: “Cui Jia claimed to be from a poor family and knelt outside the private school for two hours to arouse my father’s pity before being accepted. Father even waived all his fees and personally provided his brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone. Poor Father—he invited a wolf into the house…”

Ouyang Weiyu raised her tearful head and looked directly at the chief judge, Justice Vice Minister Yang Yunzhi: “Sir, Cui Jia came suddenly and disappeared suspiciously. Before dying, my father specifically pointed out that there was something wrong with the rice cake he gave. Doesn’t this prove that Father was harmed by someone?”

Hearing this, Lan Songquan sneered and casually glanced at Justice Vice Minister Yang Yunzhi.

Yang Yunzhi felt some sympathy for the girl kneeling on the ground.

Such a young girl, even younger than his granddaughter, yet she had experienced these things. Her circumstances were truly tragic. However, she was still naive after all—how could she bring down Lan Songquan without evidence? In the end, she would probably be punished for false accusations.

“Miss Ouyang, according to what you said, that student named Cui Jia might have been problematic, but what does this have to do with Vice Minister Lan?”

Ouyang Weiyu smiled bitterly: “How could it have nothing to do with him? Afterwards, my brother and I handled Father’s funeral arrangements while reporting to officials and searching for Cui Jia. Who knew that one day I would be knocked unconscious, and when I woke up, I was already in the largest brothel in Beiding City!”

The people in the courtroom looked at Ouyang Weiyu with pity and strange expressions.

Once the daughter of a censor, now fallen into a brothel—such circumstances were truly lamentable.

But Ouyang Weiyu seemed completely unconcerned about the subtlety in everyone’s expressions. She straightened her back and stared fixedly at Lan Songquan: “I lived a fate worse than death in the brothel for three days, finally receiving my first client. That person was him—Lan Songquan, son of Chief Minister Lan Shan!”

As soon as these words were spoken, the entire hall erupted, with everyone looking toward Lan Songquan.

Lan Songquan didn’t even twitch an eyebrow, saying coolly: “If casual words could convict people, who knows how many wronged people would be in prison. Master Yang, are you just going to let a little girl speak nonsense in court and slander court officials?”

So what if he slept with Ouyang Hai’s daughter? He wanted to kill those who opposed him and sleep with their daughters, making those who went against him regret and fear even as ghosts, yet being unable to do anything about it!

This would also make the living carefully weigh the consequences of offending him.

“Indeed, Miss Ouyang, saying these things without evidence is a false accusation against court officials, which is punishable,” Yang Yunzhi said gravely.

Ouyang Weiyu’s whole body trembled continuously, her gaze at Lan Songquan almost able to spew fire.

Under everyone’s gaze, she suddenly smiled: “Who says I have no evidence? I do!”