The autumn hunt finally ended with arrests, imprisonment, and conviction. The next day, the emperor led his ministers back to the court, although many of them had been captured the night before.

In the prison of the Imperial Court of Judicial Review, the scholar carried the medicine box and walked into a separate cell under the guidance of the prison guard.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

Compared with the gloom and filth of other prison cells, this place was obviously much neater and cleaner, just like an ordinary room.

The door lock was unlocked, and the middle-aged man lying on the wooden bed moved and made a sound.

“Lord Zhao.” The scholar placed the medicine box on the wooden table and stood beside it, “Is this prison time as painful as you imagined?”

The middle-aged man turned over, sat up slowly, and said hoarsely: “No.”

“I think so too.” The scholar smiled, “His Majesty is kind. Even if the lord has committed a major crime, His Majesty has not forgotten your assistance over the years.”

Zhao Mingde aged almost overnight. He looked at the calm scholar in front of him and laughed miserably: “But I will still die.”

The scholar’s finger pointed at the flap of the medicine box: “Yes, but how one dies is different for different people.”

Zhao Mingde sneered: “What do you want?”

The scholar smiled and said: “As long as the lord gives a clean account, His Majesty will let you go on your way peacefully.”

“Clean?” Zhao Mingde raised his head and let out a miserable laugh, “I understand!… Why he had only put anesthetic on the knife? He is kind? Hahahaha…”

Zhao Mingde stood up and looked at the scholar, “He wants my money. My Zhao family has existed for many years and can be considered extremely wealthy. There are Xirong in the west and barbarians in the north. How can he fight without my money? Hahaha… Little Emperor, it doesn’t matter that I, Zhao Mingde, am a prisoner, he still has to beg me…”

“So the lord just needs to come clean.” The scholar held up a small medicine bottle, “His Majesty will let you go on your way peacefully.”

Zhao Mingde seemed not to have heard at all, but still laughed and said: “The little emperor is nothing! If it weren’t for the help of the Gu family, the Gu family!” He said with a look of hatred on his face, “How can that incapable ruler be worthy! To have the Gu family from top to bottom go to such efforts…”

The scholar said: “Do you think you are worthy? There is a severe drought in the southwest. In order to make the emperor lose the support of the people, you cut off more than 200,000 silver taels worth of grains sent from the capital. How many lives were wasted?”

Zhao Mingde murmured: “Just him? Just him…”

“Because he is willing to open the southwest treasury and take out the imperial family’s money to help the people. Because he has been busy reading and handling documents from various places day and night in the past few months.” The scholar sat down at the table, “Because he strictly forbade the Imperial Army from disturbing the common people last night. That they must not kill or injure anyone, nor to bully women, children and the elderly, and anyone who disobeys this order will be killed.”

Zhao Mingde seemed to have exhausted all his strength and collapsed to the ground.

The scholar smiled: “Such an emperor, even if he is slightly clumsy and has done evil in the past, is still considered at least qualified.”

This settling of political upheaval brought about a major change of blood in the imperial court. More than half of the officials were arrested. Some of them had really done evil, and some of them were caught as part of the Zhao faction, but their crimes were not deserving of death. Whoever had done evil should be killed, whose home should be confiscated and exiled, and who should be imprisoned for a few years. Because there were too many special circumstances, the Imperial Court of Judicial Review could not make a decision and could only leave it to Jing Ye and a few trustworthy old ministers to discuss and solve the problem.

There were also Zhao Mingde’s accomplices and informants in various other regions that need to be dug out one by one.

Gu Hong was in charge of Qingyu Pavilion in the palace. Although he could help, Jing Ye couldn’t put all the responsibility on him.

The money taken from the houses of corrupt officials was organized by the Ministry of Revenue (in fact, there were not many people left in it) and transferred to Lin Xiaosheng for adjudication, because most of the people who could be used were transferred over by him.

Jing Ye lost weight rapidly.

He was not considered to be heavy to begin with and as he usually wore thick autumn clothes it was not obvious. But when Gu Hong hugged him to sleep at night, he could feel all his bones.

In the evening, Jing Ye changed his clothes and went to bed. Gu Hong hugged him and whispered in his ear: “There should be more people from the imperial kitchen in the prison. They serve you meals all day long but none of it can be turned into meat on your bones.”

Jing Ye laughed and said, “Then you have to see what the cook looks like. If he is also thin, he must be doing his job well.”

Although he smiled, there was weariness in his voice.

Gu Hong looked at him, moved closer, and the two became entangled in each other. Jing Ye said, “Sleep.”

“En.”

In this upheaval, the Xu family, who were in-laws of the Zhao family, did not suffer much loss. With Xu Ming suppressing the unrest in the northwest, even though the Xu shi was the eldest daughter of the Xu family, after simply cutting ties it allowed the Xu family to escape the disaster.

The second day after Xu shi was thrown into prison, Meng Qiucui came to see her.

Xu shi rushed over and clung to the iron bars, “Poisonous woman, poisonous woman!”

Meng Qiucui took a step back, supported herself on the maid’s hand and sneered: “With such strength, it seems that sister is doing well here.”

Xu shi glared at her angrily and shouted at the top of her lungs: “Living off us while secretly helping outsiders…”

“I should give you a mirror so you can see what you look like now.” Meng Qiucui looked at her and smiled, her eyes curving delicately, “You are much uglier than I was back then.”

“Whore!” Xu shi breathed heavily, “I have known for a long time that you had ulterior motives. You, you entered the manor… just for…”

“I was sold to Zhao Mingde by my father, a beast.” Meng Qiucui’s smile disappeared, her expression cold and arrogant, and her voice trembling slightly, “I endured it. But since you poisoned my ten month old child to death, I have been waiting for this day.”

Xu shi seemed to have remembered something, and she stretched out her hands more violently: “What are you going to do! You dare to hurt Miao Ling, Yue’er…” Zhao Yue was the young son of Zhao Mingde and Xu shi.

“Go die, sister.” Meng Qiucui raised her head and stared at her, “When you die, I will live a good life, and my daughter will also live, and our lives will be thousands of times better than yours.”

Jing Ye was sitting on the couch, with one hand on the table placed on the couch and the other holding Jing Xiao Yun.

Jing Ye said: “The rising clouds cause rain.”

Jing Xiao Yun said: “The rithing cloudth cauth rain.” He held a toy tiger in his hand.

Jing Ye couldn’t help laughing, but still continued: “The dew turns into frost.”

Jing Xiao Yun said: “The dew turnth into froth.”

Jing Ye rubbed his tender face and said, “Uncle can even recite it, can you?”

Jing Xiao Yun’s eyes were wide and innocent: “No.”

The maid in charge came in and said, “Your Majesty, the young gongzi has fallen asleep.”

“Okay.” Jing Ye rubbed Jing Xiao Yun’s head, “Go and join your new little brother.”

Jing Xiao Yun opened his eyes wide, thought for a while, and said, “He’s stupid.”

Now this sentence was easy to learn. Jing Ye didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so he picked him up and went to the side hall.

Young children easily became sleepy, Jing Xiao Yun said no, but as soon as he lay down on the small bed, a few minutes later he gradually closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Jing Ye looked at him by the bed, then turned to look at Zhao Yue in the other bed.

This was a mentally disabled child.

The scholar said that when the imperial army broke into the Zhao Manor, all the maids and servants ran away, leaving only an old maid to protect the child. Young children could not handle being frightened. Someone knocked over the bronze cauldron for burning incense and made such a loud noise that the lively baby was scared into a retarded child.

The palace maid came over and said softly: “Your Majesty, Gu Gongzi is back.”

Jing Ye nodded and returned to his room. Gu Hong was sitting where he had just been sitting. When he saw him coming, he asked, “Your Majesty, are you going to take in the Zhao family’s child?”

Jing Ye said: “Children are ignorant, simply change his name and identity, and it is no matter to raise him here for the rest of his life.”

Gu Hong looked at him: “Your Majesty, are you still feeling apologetic? If this child is mentally well, there will be risks whether he is raised under you or released outside.”

“Zhen doesn’t believe you will do something to a child either.” Jing Ye sat down opposite him, “Besides, he is already like this. Zhen owes him this.”

Gu Hong laughed and shook his head: “Your Majesty is too soft-hearted.”

“Zhen is soft-hearted and soft-handed.” Jing Ye said, “As an originally foolish and stubborn person, it is better to obey my heart.”

Southwest, Gu Manor.

Gu Yun entered Lord Gu’s study, bowed his head and said, “Father.”

“En.” Prime Minister Gu turned around and said, “All captured?”

Gu Yun raised his head and smiled: “To capture the thieves, first capture the leader. Ah Hong has captured the Zhao family in the capital. It will be easy to clean up these remnants.”

“Good.” Lord Gu nodded, “You young people have finished your work, and I, an old man, still have to work hard.”

Gu Yun looked at him and saluted again: “Father… may I be allowed to come with you?”

Lord Gu said: “What are you going to the capital for?”

Gu Yun said: “I want to take Qi Chen to cure his illness.”

“The son of the Qi family.” Lord Gu thought for a while, nodded and said, “Fine, go together.”

Gu Yun smiled and said, “Thank you, father.”

The father and son discussed some more official matters, and suddenly a servant boy came from outside to report: “Third Young Master, there is a lady outside asking to see you, saying that she wants to find someone from you.”

Lord Gu looked at Gu Yun, who hurriedly lowered his head and said, “Then… This son shall go see them first?”

Lord Gu motioned for him to go, and Gu Yun exited the room and went all the way to the front hall of the manor where guests were entertained.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

There he saw a graceful woman sitting on a chair sipping tea. Two servant girls behind her got up when he came in.

Gu Yun glanced at her, stepped forward and cupped his hands: “How may I refer to the lady?”

The woman said, “I am Bai shi of General Zhenbei’s Manor. I am here to find Qi… Qi Gongzi.”

If you would like to show some ♡  then please consider supporting this translator! ლ(⌒εー)ლ