Lu Sheng’s expression changed slightly, then he smiled and said: “In response to Second Young Master’s question, didn’t it rain several times in recent days? I suppose this book was placed somewhat close to the window, so it got a bit damp.”

“I see.” Saying this, Li Shimin handed the register back to him and said: “It’s nothing then. Take everything down. As for Wu Laosan, he’ll come to the county office the day after tomorrow.”

A trace of relief flickered through Lu Sheng’s eyes as he bowed and said: “Then this humble official will take his leave first.”

Watching Lu Sheng’s departing figure, Yunyi said thoughtfully: “Second Young Master, he…”

Li Shimin made a silencing gesture to her, then called Duan Zhihong over and whispered a few words in his ear. After the latter nodded and left, he said: “Do you find Lu Sheng somewhat suspicious?”

Yunyi nodded: “Yes, although I don’t know whether ink marks would deepen after getting damp, when he said that, his expression seemed somewhat uncomfortable. He must be hiding something.”

“I noticed it too, so I had Zhihong secretly follow him. I expect we should be able to find out something.” As he spoke, he extended both hands in front of Yunyi and said: “What do you smell?”

After smelling each hand, Yunyi said: “One hand has the scent of ink, the other…” She frowned and thought for a moment, then shook her head: “Meixue really can’t smell anything.”

“Not being able to smell anything is correct.” Li Shimin said calmly: “Just now these two hands separately touched the register recording Uncle Wu’s information and another register. The result is that Uncle Wu’s register still has the scent of ink, while the other few don’t. Meixue, do you know what this means?”

Yunyi pondered for a moment, then shook her head: “That’s not right. According to Lu Sheng, that register is already over thirty years old. How could it still have the scent of ink? Unless…” Her eyelids jumped as she blurted out: “That register was recently written.”

Li Shimin smiled slightly: “Correct. I looked carefully just now, and there are no traces of alterations on it, yet it has the scent of ink. Comparing afterwards, I indeed found that this book’s ink marks are deeper, as if newly written. So I became suspicious—could it be that someone re-copied this household register? Because only this way could Uncle Wu’s age be changed without leaving traces. However, Lu Sheng has never had dealings with your Wu family. If he really did such a thing, he must have been acting on someone’s orders.”

His words reminded Yunyi of something: “I remember that day when we came out of the county office, I saw Feng Cheng hiding sneakily in a corner. Could this matter be related to Feng Cheng?”

“Him?” Li Shimin frowned: “He’s just a butcher. How would he dare do such a thing? Moreover, once this matter is discovered, it would cost him his head. How could he persuade Lu Sheng to help him?”

Yunyi naturally couldn’t answer this. Li Shimin had someone bring the recent registers of conscripted soldiers and laborers for him to review. The conscription had been going on for over ten days, with soldiers and laborers recorded totaling nearly twenty thousand people. By rights, this wasn’t a small number, yet Li Shimin was frowning tightly.

Seeing this, Yunyi said softly: “Second Young Master, you look troubled. Is there some problem with this conscription?”

Li Shimin sighed deeply and closed the register: “Half the time limit given by the court has passed, yet we’ve only conscripted twenty thousand people—far from enough.”

Yunyi said in surprise: “As far as Meixue knows, all of Honghua Prefecture has only tens of thousands of households. Excluding the widowed, orphaned, and elderly, sick, and disabled, being able to conscript twenty thousand is already quite good.”

Li Shimin smiled bitterly: “Honghua Prefecture has a total of fifty thousand six hundred households. The court requires conscripting—fifty thousand people.”

Yunyi was startled by this number and instinctively said: “Fifty thousand people, this… how is this possible?”

“Originally the requirement was eighty thousand. My father repeatedly petitioned, stating that Honghua Prefecture didn’t have so many men, and only then was it reduced to fifty thousand. But even this number is quite troublesome.”

Yunyi said incomprehensibly: “But unless all the men in Honghua Prefecture are conscripted, there’s no way to gather so many people. Doesn’t the court know this?”

“The court won’t care about such things. Now that His Majesty wants to campaign against Goguryeo, the court naturally does everything possible to gather military forces and laborers to transport grain and build walls.” He looked at the register in his hands: “There are still over ten days left. If we can’t gather fifty thousand, I don’t know how we’ll answer for it.”

Yunyi bit her lip tightly and said with a trembling voice: “His Majesty… does he truly not care about the people’s suffering?”

Li Shimin’s expression changed as he quickly looked around. Fortunately, no one was paying attention to them. He relaxed and scolded quietly: “Never say such things again. Remember that, understand?”

Yunyi lowered her head without speaking. In fact, she least wanted to ask this question of anyone. All along, she had felt that though Father Emperor wasn’t a good father, he was a good emperor. Who knew… since leaving the palace, everywhere she went, complaints were everywhere, all denouncing Father Emperor’s wrongs. Even the originally peaceful Honghua Prefecture was now seething with popular resentment because of this conscription.

Just then, noisy sounds came from outside, followed by several people being escorted in by bailiffs. Walking at the front was County Magistrate Qin. Seeing Li Shimin there, he quickly stepped forward and bowed: “Greetings to Second Young Master.”

“County Magistrate Qin, no need for ceremony.” Li Shimin looked at the several dejected people being held by the bailiffs and said: “What’s happened here?”

County Magistrate Qin sighed: “Same as before—trying to slip out of the city and got caught. By law… these three should all be executed!”

His words made those several people tremble. The old man on the left said in panic: “Great Master, have mercy! This was all this old man’s idea. If you want to kill someone, kill this old man. Don’t blame them—they were incited by this old man to momentarily do something foolish. Please spare them!”

“Uncle Fang?” Yunyi recognized the speaker in surprise. Without needing to ask, the other two beside him must be Aunt Fang and their only son.

Fang Datong now also saw Yunyi and Li Shimin, and quickly said: “Girl Meixue, quickly tell Second Young Master and County Magistrate Qin that this was all my idea and has nothing to do with your aunt and Brother Fang. Don’t implicate them.”

Aunt Fang urgently said: “No, it was me. I couldn’t bear to let Brother Fang be conscripted, so I incited them to escape from the city. All the wrongs are my wrongs. Just kill me—it has nothing to do with the father and son.”

“No, it’s my fault. I was afraid of fighting, so I wanted to escape. Actually… actually Father and Mother wanted to pull me back at the time.” Brother Fang had always been filial—how could he bear to see his elderly parents die for his sake? For a moment, all three competed to confess, each hoping to save the other two.

Though County Magistrate Qin felt compassion, the law was the law. How could a small county magistrate like him dare violate it? He sighed inwardly and waved his hand: “Take them to the marketplace for execution!”

“Wait!” Yunyi couldn’t bear to see the Fang family of three lose their heads, so she urgently called out to stop them. County Magistrate Qin frowned, somewhat displeased: “This is imperial law—it cannot be violated.”