Lord Cheng felt that Situ Sheng was making far too much of himself, and was even waving the banner of His Majesty to intimidate him.

He let out a cold, contemptuous laugh: “Do you know who Chen Yuanwai is? He’s not only the largest tea merchant in the capital—he also handles the imperial tribute procurement for the inner palace, with tens of thousands of taels of silver passing through his hands. How could a man like that stoop to abducting women? How much are a few maids from your household even worth? This is clearly a case of his tea house workers framing him. Are you forcing people in here to create a false case?”

With that, he shot a furious glare at the two subordinates who had been cooperating with Situ Sheng, making a mental note to deal with those two ungrateful wretches afterward.

Lord Cheng knew perfectly well how powerful Chen Yuanwai’s backing was. He had received a commission from the Crown Prince to get Chen Yuanwai out. After all, Chen Yuanwai’s business dealings were extremely varied, and it seemed he and the Crown Prince were on very close terms.

Never mind a botched attempt to abduct a lowly woman—even in a murder case, those people had the ability to have it suppressed!

The two colleagues who had been assisting with the case shot helpless glances at Situ Sheng, signaling that they had done their best and could only take things this far for now.

Situ Sheng said nothing. He merely lifted his eyes to look at the sundial in the center of the courtyard, quietly calculating the time in his mind…

Just as Lord Cheng was ordering Chen Yuanwai to be taken down and given some good tea to settle his nerves, someone suddenly reported that an imperial edict from His Majesty had arrived!

The eunuch delivering the decree announced that His Majesty had seen Lord Situ’s urgent memorial and had been greatly enraged—that such a shocking case existed in the capital was simply intolerable by heaven and earth. His Majesty therefore appointed Situ Sheng as supervising official for this case, with orders to personally investigate the kidnappers of the capital to the very bottom.

The Court of Judicial Review handling a kidnapping case was already a case of using a cattle cleaver to butcher a chicken.

Yet no one could have anticipated that His Majesty would issue such a weighty decree over it—this was not merely a cattle cleaver. It was practically using a dragon-slaying sword to kill a rat!

Chen Yuanwai, who had just been taken down from the rack and had not yet managed to put his clothes back on, was hung up on the punishment frame once more—and the branding irons used on him were exchanged for larger ones.

How imperious Lord Cheng had been moments ago when upbraiding others—how thoroughly crushed he was now when it all came crashing down! He had made a complete fool of himself in front of his subordinates, and he could see the eunuch speaking quietly with Situ Sheng, with no way for him to get a word in.

Yet this case had taken such a stunning turn that he had to inform Crown Prince Liuting at once.

And so after leaving the punishment hall, he immediately rushed to the Crown Prince’s residence.

There was no help for it—things had blown up this large, and it was no longer a simple matter of pulling someone out. He had to make clear to the Crown Prince that he had not failed to exert himself—it was truly that His Majesty’s imperial decree had come down, and the matter was plainly being escalated from a minor case into a major one to be handled with all due ceremony!

Crown Prince Liu Ting had not originally paid much attention to this affair—when the people who worked for him were undisciplined and overstepped in what they did, that was nothing unusual.

As long as it was not too much trouble, the Crown Prince would turn a blind eye and show his underlings a degree of favor.

Yet now this worthless piece-of-nothing case had been stirred up by Situ Sheng into something of this magnitude—it had clearly moved the Emperor’s ears—and he knew there was going to be trouble. His eyes narrowed with fierce intensity!

Before long, his eyes and ears in the palace finally got word to the Crown Prince’s residence.

As it turned out, the reason this affair could be blown up so large was thanks to his dear fourth brother.

Apparently his fourth brother had just received fresh lychees from the southern kingdoms and, wanting his imperial father and mother to enjoy the fresh flavor, had gone to the palace early that very morning carrying lychees with dew still clinging to their leaves, to see Noble Consort Jing—who happened to be attending His Majesty’s morning meal at the time.

The Fourth Prince had then peeled lychees and told His Majesty as a piece of interesting news about the previous night: how he had returned from a night of drinking and, by chance, run into Situ Sheng making arrests, and the night interrogation at the Court of Judicial Review.

His Majesty’s expression had grown darker and darker as he listened. When he heard the Fourth Prince say that Situ Sheng had wanted to investigate the matter thoroughly so that it would not fizzle out like the local kidnapping cases in past years, yet was hampered by the fact that he had been transferred out of the Court of Judicial Review and therefore had submitted a memorial to His Majesty—His Majesty’s expression became very unpleasant. He ordered the head steward of the inner palace to locate the memorial Situ Sheng had submitted overnight, and narrowed his eyes to read it.

One line within it—”the abduction of women appears to be a minor case, but is in truth a great case touching on the bonds of human relationships; if local authorities were to take it seriously, the suffering cries of the common people would be fewer”—caused His Majesty to suddenly shed silent tears.

And what followed was His Majesty dispatching someone to send that imperial decree.

By this point, the Crown Prince had a fairly clear picture. He waved his hand to send Lord Cheng back, telling him to keep close watch on any developments on Situ Sheng’s side at all times.

He had not taken this worthless matter seriously before—but now his expression had changed too!

That rubbish story of running into someone while returning drunk from a night out—and that godforsaken lychee tribute! Who lies awake bursting with filial devotion and rushes into the palace at the crack of dawn?

The Crown Prince clicked his tongue, and only then fully worked out the flavor of the thing: he had walked straight into a nine-ring chain puzzle.

It was obviously Situ Sheng who had defected to the fourth brother’s side and laid a trap for him!

He then summoned Chen Fang.

Chen Yuanwai had been seized by people from the Court of Judicial Review the previous night while drinking and carousing on a pleasure boat, so Chen Fang had only received word of it early this morning.

He had originally assumed that by having the Crown Prince drop a word and having Lord Cheng come forward, pulling the man out would be easy. Yet noon was approaching and still no one had been released. When the Crown Prince summoned him, he had assumed there was good news.

Little did he know that the moment he finished his bow to the Crown Prince and had not yet straightened up, the Crown Prince had already charged over and delivered a fierce kick squarely to his chest!

“Fool! What did you go stirring up Situ Sheng’s household manager for? Hands so dirty, and yet you let people catch you with a backside full of evidence!”

Chen Fang had always been in favor with the Crown Prince—when had he ever suffered such a kick to the chest?

He was momentarily horrified and immediately knelt: “That woman had no appreciation for what was being offered to her and refused to be of use to Your Highness. My uncle was angered on the spur of the moment and just wanted to teach her a lesson. This matter was done on my uncle’s orders—I don’t know the details. Even if I deny it to the death, what can Situ Sheng do? Surely he won’t resort to extracting a confession under torture?”

The Crown Prince was nearly fuming with rage. His eyes went round and wide, and he spat directly in Chen Fang’s face: “Pah! ‘Teach her a lesson,’ is it? Your uncle didn’t have the spine to hold up under punishment at all. Situ Sheng guided him through the questioning and got a full night’s interrogation out of him—he confessed everything. He said the woman had offended you, and you ordered him to abduct her and teach her a lesson!”

Chen Fang had not expected his uncle to be such a coward—and to finger him on top of it! Even less had he expected that Situ Sheng, whom he had always looked down on, would actually dare to act so recklessly and without any restraint.

Whatever vicious methods Situ Sheng had used, his uncle had not been able to withstand the punishment and had thrown him out to take the blame—it was infuriating beyond measure!

Chen Fang stood there with a face full of spit he dared not wipe, seething inwardly with hatred.

But he still felt the matter was not that serious, and hurried to admit his fault: “Your Highness, it was truly my uncle who misunderstood my meaning—how could I be the sort of person with no regard for the law? But for the moment, getting the man out first is what matters most. After all, my uncle has been handling several business dealings on Your Highness’s behalf, and if anyone with ulterior motives gets wind of it, I fear…”

Chen Fang cut himself off halfway through, suddenly jolted to the realization that he had said the wrong thing—because the eyes Crown Prince Liu Ting was fixing on him were coldly menacing.

He said, fingers rubbing his teeth: “It’s too late. That man cannot be pulled out anymore. His Majesty has already appointed Situ Sheng as supervising official with personal authority to oversee this case! Situ Sheng—that harsh official! When things pass through his hands, even a stone will be made to open its mouth and speak!”

Chen Fang was completely stunned. His eyes went wide and he blurted out again: “This… this is a worthless piece-of-nothing case—how could it be worth His Majesty personally issuing a decree?”

The Crown Prince still was not satisfied, and charged over to deliver another fierce kick to Chen Fang, also letting loose a string of crude language: “And it’s not just Situ Sheng—even that meddlesome fourth brother got mixed up in it! This isn’t about the kidnapping case at all—you dimwit! How could you not deal with that woman any other way? You had to go with abducting her with kidnappers! Don’t you know our imperial father has an old wound in his heart? In past years, any time Father heard about kidnappers being caught in the capital, didn’t every single one of them have to pass through the Ministry of Justice for a hearing?”

Chen Fang had genuinely never paid attention to this, but hearing the Crown Prince say it now, it seemed that was indeed how things were.

He stared wide-eyed: “But why does His Majesty…”

The Crown Prince waved his hand, too tired to rehash old stories. After hitting and cursing someone, he gradually got his breath back.

When all was said and done, the reason a minor case had blown up so large today was simply that Situ Sheng had made up his mind to tear off the pretense of civility with him once and for all!

When Situ Sheng had gone to the forbidden temple multiple times to interrogate his uncle Prince Tai, he must have learned from Prince Tai’s mouth about past affairs of the Crown Prince’s residence, and moreover come to know His Majesty’s reverse scale.

So this time, Situ Sheng had simply used the pretext of his household manager nearly being abducted, waved the banner of the capital’s public security and the kidnappers’ arrogance, put the Fourth Prince out front, and stirred up His Majesty’s old wound from years past—and then that fellow could shelter under the tiger’s power and use Chen Yuanwai to strike a blow against him.

If Situ Sheng had not been scheming against him, the Crown Prince might have actually praised him for a fine stratagem—his reading of people’s hearts was rock solid and steady.

But now was not the time to dwell on a subordinate’s stupidity.

Abducting a woman was nothing—but Chen Yuanwai had been running large-scale business dealings on his behalf all this time. Once those dealings came to light, that would be an affair that would shake the pillars of the court.

The only option now was to cut off the tail to save the body!

Thinking this, he beckoned Chen Fang over and gave him a few more low instructions. Chen Fang listened with his head bowed, could not help but widen his eyes, and his arm trembled faintly—yet he also knew that if he bungled the job again, he himself would likely be the next tail to be cut off.

He dared not hesitate and immediately accepted the order and left.

That very afternoon, after being subjected to further punishment, Chen Yuanwai fell unconscious in his prison cell. But in the time it took a jailer to turn his back, Chen Yuanwai’s face was found submerged in the cell’s waste bucket—he had been suffocated and drowned in filth.

For someone who could not endure punishment to take their own way out—what a distinctive method of death that was!

But no one had seen anyone approach the prison cell, so it could only be concluded that he had drowned himself in the waste bucket.

Chen Fang was also formally summoned by Lord Cheng for a seemingly proper round of questioning.

Although there was Chen Yuanwai’s earlier testimony, Chen Fang firmly maintained that he had never had any dealings with Niangzi Chu and knew nothing of the matter—though his uncle had always been in the habit of using his name to carry out various schemes, and there was nothing he could do about that.

And so this kidnapping case concluded with the Crown Prince’s currently powerful imperial merchant dying by his own hand in the Court of Judicial Review’s prison in fear of punishment.

When Chen Fang was released, it was Situ Sheng who personally saw him off.

Lord Situ was most considerate, personally draping a cloak over Lord Chen’s shoulders.

But when tying the fastening cord, Situ Sheng kept his eyes fixed on Chen Fang, and said word by word with a smile: “In the future—stay away from my courtyard. Dare to reach your hand in again, and you won’t be leaving as easily as you are today…”

As he said this, he applied a little force with his hands—Chen Fang nearly had the breath choked out of him by the cloak’s cord.

In order to protect the Crown Prince, Chen Fang had ordered people to kill his own uncle. He had not tasted the meat and had instead gotten himself covered in a stench—a tremendous loss!

Now, looking at this young man he had once been able to mock as he pleased, the cold viciousness in his eyes was something Chen Fang found he could not directly face.

Over one lowly female servant, Situ Sheng had made such a great commotion? Chen Fang felt that this was Situ Sheng using her as an excuse to bare his teeth at the Crown Prince—a warning: don’t provoke him unnecessarily, or he has the ability to turn your world upside down!

Situ Sheng was now a fourth-rank vice minister, a full rank above him. Who knew what more deadly evidence he held. Chen Fang dared not provoke him again, and could only manage to squeeze out a thin smile: “It was all a misunderstanding. A small military officer like me—how would I dare provoke a lord vice minister such as yourself?”

This case was not a large one in itself, but the bizarre way it had unfolded from start to finish was something people could not help but discuss in private.

No one could fathom why Situ Sheng had made such a grand production of it all.

From the day after the incident, a strange new face appeared in the Vice Minister’s residence courtyard.

According to what Situ Sheng said, this short, thin old man whose face looked like dried tree bark had the surname Sui—Chu Linlang could just call him Sui Qiye.

Sui Qiye did not like to talk, and no one knew whether he was hard of hearing—in any case, from this point on he would be driving the carriage whenever she went out.

The former carriage driver Ji Cang, along with the cook Nanny Wang, had both disappeared without a trace. Chu Linlang was unclear why Situ Sheng had suddenly changed carriage drivers, and the attendants who accompanied her when she went out remained Xia He and Dongxue, with the young manservant still being Wang Wu.

She just didn’t know what kind of shock the boy had received from following Lord Situ out that day—he had become somewhat jittery and nervous ever since. Even at mealtimes he didn’t dare reach his chopsticks out to grab the meat.

When accompanying Niangzi Chu out on errands, Wang Wu would stretch his neck out very long and survey the surroundings with vigilance, looking every bit like someone terrified of a stranger coming near.

Chu Linlang found his reactions amusing and asked him what he was so anxious about.

Wang Wu said with great anxiety: “The lord told this servant to be sharper and more alert in the future. If anything goes wrong again with Niangzi Chu… the lord… will actually cut off my fingers!”

By the end of saying it, the half-grown boy actually had tears and snot streaming together, leaving both Xia He and Dongxue staring at him blankly.

As for passing over a young and vigorous carriage driver in favor of an old one—there was surely something behind it.

Chu Linlang later asked Situ Sheng about it. Situ Sheng was silent for a moment and then said: “Sui Qiye was the personal guard of an old friend of mine. He is highly skilled in martial arts—you can trust him.”

Chu Linlang looked at how the old man’s back was slightly unable to straighten, and genuinely had her doubts—was the exceptional martial prowess something from several decades ago?

But since Situ Sheng had made the arrangement and spoken about it, she would simply follow his lead. The other matters, she needed to handle appropriately herself.

By now, all the servants in the Vice Minister’s residence had had their native places and backgrounds registered by Chu Linlang in a record book. Perhaps because of Wang Wu’s harrowing experience at the wild gravemound, the remaining servants in the courtyard had all become considerably more careful and cautious, and would no longer be as easily bought off as the former carriage driver Ji Cang had been.

This minor disturbance in the Vice Minister’s residence courtyard was quickly submerged by a larger upheaval sweeping through the capital.

As it turned out, though Situ Sheng’s investigation of the kidnapping case had fizzled out, it had pulled on a thread that led to a case against Chen Yuanwai: using the signage rights for the northern trading routes—ostensibly for transporting grain and tea, but actually for the secret sale of prohibited goods.

The Chen Family Tea House vessels that had already set sail for the north were subjected to a surprise inspection without any warning, and a great many prohibited goods such as sulfur and saltpeter were uncovered.

It was not only Chen Yuanwai’s own fleet carrying these items—the vessels that had in turn rented signage rights from him were also not clean, and many of those boats had been packed with prohibited cargo as well.

When the officials and soldiers of the Maritime Trade Office came to conduct the investigation, a great many managers and workers of the Chen Family Tea House were also taken away.

Chen Yuanwai’s original backers this time refused to show themselves, intent on cutting ties with the corrupt merchant.

As for the Crown Prince—though he was not directly dragged out this time, His Majesty summoned him alone into the palace and had him kneel in punishment before his late mother’s spirit tablet. It was not until the following day that he was helped out by eunuchs, his knees swollen red.

This affair stirred up a great clamor, and merchants throughout the capital were affected to varying degrees.

Chu Jinyin was left with nothing but lingering terror, furiously praying to the Buddha at home and repeatedly thanking the heavens for blessing her with a good sister like Chu Linlang.

If Chu Linlang had not issued stern words that day, she would not have mustered the determination to stop her husband from boarding Chen Yuanwai’s ill-fated ship. If their vessels had taken on cargo, there was no question that Chen Family Tea House’s “private goods” would have been stuffed aboard as well.

That was a capital crime punishable by death! In those days, the execution ground at the capital’s market district never had its earth dry. An affair that alarmed the court on this scale naturally called for making an example to deter the rest.

Many of the merchant associates who were on familiar terms with her husband were caught up in it. Many wealthy households were raided and confiscated overnight until ruined and destitute.

This left Chu Linlang’s brother-in-law feeling like a man reborn after narrowly escaping death—beyond grateful to his younger sister-in-law—and yet so frightened by what might have been that he fell seriously ill, running a fever for a full three days.

One other person as fortunate as Chu Jinyin was Chu Linlang’s friend across the gap in years—Madam He.

Madam He had originally been among the most eager about doing business with the north, and had later found her way to a connection with Chen Yuanwai.

But before that, when she had come to the capital to have tea with Chu Linlang and asked her whether she wanted to join the venture, Chu Linlang had casually dropped a remark.

She had said that the first principle in business was not profit, but stability. Otherwise one was not a businessperson at all, but a gambler at a table betting until they went bankrupt. If one’s own business accounts were clear and one could advance or retreat freely, why bind oneself together with some large merchant? Occasions to ride along on a big player’s coattails and get a taste of the soup were rare—but situations where a great structure collapsed and dragged everyone along with it were common occurrences.

At that time, Chu Linlang had not yet had any dealings with Chen Yuanwai and was only speaking from her own experience in business.

Madam He had turned it over in her mind and found it very sound. She had noticed that Chu Linlang had bought new boats and still wouldn’t go north, which had given her a nagging sense of something being off. Hearing her say this now, she also called to mind how her husband, while serving as prefect of Lianzhou, had been implicated through his association with Prince Tai’s faction.

Was business not the same principle as officialdom? To commit early and lock in—that was nothing but a gamble! Her husband currently did not dare to take sides, and in business she also needed to be steady.

Besides, if someone as shrewd and business-savvy as Chu Linlang refused to go near it, there was surely a good reason.

Thinking this, Madam He reined in her greed, honestly and dutifully tended to her own trade, and did not go to throw in with Chen Yuanwai.

So when the Chen Family Tea House affair broke, Madam He was busy chanting her prayers to Amitabha Buddha, while of course needing to invite Chu Linlang for a cup of tea so she could properly thank her for her far-sighted vision.

Chu Linlang was currently being watched over very closely by Situ Sheng—except for the women’s academy, he wouldn’t let her go anywhere.

Having received Madam He’s invitation, she still had to consult with her employer and see whether he would permit her to go out for this social engagement.

Situ Sheng looked at the invitation and said: “Isn’t Madam He’s husband, Lord Li, serving as county magistrate in Qianzhou near the capital? Tomorrow I happen to be bringing colleagues from the Ministry of Finance to Qianzhou to look into the public service fields. You can come along with me, and that way you can also have tea with Madam He.”

He said this while they were on the road back from the women’s academy to the residence.

Recently he had been personally coming to fetch Linlang from school, and it had caused Linlang to lay down a few rules with him: coming to fetch her was fine, but he absolutely could not show his face—to avoid being seen by her classmates.

And so on several occasions, Situ Sheng had sat behind the carriage curtain and watched with his own eyes as a few male students from the academy next door to the Rongling Women’s Academy came out through the main gate at the same time as Niangzi Chu.

Those young men would occasionally, with conveniently trembling hands, drop a poetry-inscribed folding fan or a piece of jade they were carrying, landing without fail right at Linlang’s feet.

These were the common tricks of romantic young scholars. If the beauty was agreeable and helped pick things up, they would usually exchange a word of thanks, then find an opportunity to ask her name.

The next time they met, they could be familiar enough to make eyes at each other, and then drop something again.

As for why they chose to drop things precisely in front of Linlang—they were simply reading their audience.

The other female academy students all came from illustrious families, with not only maids but also older serving women keeping a close eye on them.

Even if those young men deliberately dropped something, the serving women would recognize the ploy and kick the dropped item away with a foot, allowing no room for such second-rate tricks.

But Niangzi Chu was different—a little asking around would reveal she was not from a distinguished family, and there was no fearsome dragon of a serving woman at her side.

Most importantly, although this Niangzi Chu was a bit older, her figure was that of someone fully ripened and all the more graceful for it, and her features were drawn as beautifully as a painting, carrying an indescribable charm and vivacity.

It was said she was also a woman whose marriage had broken apart—naturally such a woman was easier to approach and considerably simpler to get entangled with.

And so in recent days, the “chance encounters” involving dropped items that Niangzi Chu experienced outside the academy gate had become rather frequent.

Today, Situ Sheng, sitting in the carriage, again watched a few self-styled gallants of about eighteen or nineteen years of age—using the pretext of picking things up—block Niangzi Chu’s path and chat her up.

Situ Sheng decided he had seen enough of this trick. He tossed Niangzi Chu’s instructions straight to the back of his mind, stepped out of the carriage with a composed and solemn expression, walked up behind the young men who were still pestering Niangzi Chu, and said coldly: “So young, and already suffering from some ailment? If your hands keep trembling like that and you can’t hold onto things, you’d best go home and see a doctor rather than waste your time here at school.”

The young men who had still been pestering Niangzi Chu with introductions of themselves were startled, and when they saw clearly that the speaker was the capital’s feared harsh official, their expressions shifted slightly. They made embarrassed excuses that it had been an accident, then bolted away in fright.

Situ Sheng looked at the backs of those flustered young men, turned his head, and asked Linlang: “You told me not to show my face—was it because you were afraid of scaring them off?”

Chu Linlang hurriedly looked back, and, taking advantage of the fact that her classmates had not yet come out, pushed her lord into the carriage, then said: “They’re just a bunch of young kids who don’t know any better. They drop their things—it’s not as though I’m going to bother picking them up.”

Situ Sheng said blandly: “Why not bother? I can see some of them are talented young men from fine backgrounds—some with considerably better origins than mine.”

Chu Linlang caught the unmistakable sourness in the air, and could only smile helplessly: “They’re all younger than me. I really have no interest in playing big sister…”

For some reason, on hearing this, Situ Sheng’s eyes narrowed slightly. Chu Linlang glanced sideways at him, and suddenly recalled his thin and frail appearance when he was young—he had looked as though he might even be younger than her. So she asked offhandedly: “Speaking of which, my lord, how old are you?”

Situ Sheng was quiet for a moment and said: “…Twenty-five. Why?”

Chu Linlang remarked casually: “A year older than me then. You used to be so short—it really didn’t seem like…”

Situ Sheng seemed not to want to continue this particular topic, and steered the conversation toward the matter of accompanying her to Qianzhou the following day to see Madam He.

This round of public service field reforms had not met with unanimous opposition in the court. Many newly appointed officials had been allotted very little public service land to begin with. After the fields were equalized, they would actually stand to benefit.

So Situ Sheng’s reform push this time was not a lone campaign. Since Situ Sheng had last “bumped into” the Yongning Ducal House’s public service fields, the officials of the court had also seen the scale of His Majesty’s determination to clean things up, and the resistance Situ Sheng faced had eased considerably.

His Majesty had also issued a further decree: as long as officials proactively returned over-reported public service lands before the Ministry of Finance’s audit, the matter would be forgiven and not pursued. And so in recent days, the number of officials who “understood which way the wind was blowing” had grown more and more.

This time Situ Sheng had come to Qianzhou to inspect the public service fields, accompanied by the local county vice magistrate, to examine the situation with returned lands.

After this was settled, the next day Chu Linlang went along with Situ Sheng to Qianzhou.