Zhu Jiayu glanced at him: "What's your hurry?"

Wei Qinglou sighed, "It's all because of that day. I got so angry with the two officials in court that I blurted out that I had someone I liked. When I got home, my parents almost scolded me to death because I kept our relationship a secret from them. Now it's not just me who's anxious; my parents are getting anxious too. They can't wait for me to bring you into the family."

"What happened to those two gentlemen afterward?"

"Unfortunately, after Chang Beiqiu was imprisoned, one day they both tripped and fell on their way home from court. The two officials were quite old, and this fall terrified them. Fearing that something might happen to them, they wrote down their resignations."

After saying that, Wei Qinglou frowned and said, "Why do you care so much about these irrelevant people? Why don't you care about me too?"

"That won't do. What if I get flustered and make a mistake?" Zhu Jiayu closed the book in her hand. "I still need to go to the Ning residence to see my aunt today. Minister, please do as you please?"

After she finished speaking, she got up to leave, showing no intention of talking to Wei Qinglou any longer. This angered Wei Qinglou, who squatted on the courtyard wall and shouted angrily, "Zhu Jiayu, are you hiding a wild man in the Ning Mansion? I've never seen you go to the Ning Mansion so often before!"

Zhu Jiayu stopped and turned to look back.

Wei Qinglou immediately changed his story: "It was me! I was the one who hid a lover!"

...

When Zhu Jiayu arrived at the Ning residence, she saw Xiao Wan sewing clothes for her unborn child. She sat down next to her aunt, and the servants immediately brought her jade and carving knife.

She's been learning jade carving lately, which isn't very convenient at home—if her father saw her, he'd inevitably be heartbroken and ask her why she's going through all this trouble, and if necessary, he could carve one for her.

So she brought jade artifacts to the Ning residence, partly to keep her aunt company.

"I heard that Grand Tutor Chang has been imprisoned. Do you know the inside story?" Xiao Wan put down her needle and thread after sewing for a while and began to chat with Zhu Jiayu.

As her pregnancy progressed, she rarely went out lately, so she didn't know much about the things that were circulating in the streets and alleys. In addition, Ning Han was not often in the mansion lately, so she couldn't find anyone to ask and could only get news from Zhu Jiayu.

"I know some." Zhu Jiayu told Xiao Wan what she knew, as well as what Wei Qinglou had told her, while carving the jade.

"...Hu Wangzu was originally a scholar, but he was not very well-behaved. Perhaps he read too many storybooks, so he used the hard work that should have been put into studying the classics and historical texts to study unorthodox and unorthodox methods."

"He originally left home to take the imperial examination, but instead of studying hard, he dreamed of getting rich without working and wanted to seduce the daughters of officials and wealthy families so that he could become rich and successful without taking the examination."

Xiao Wan scoffed coldly, "Disgusting."

She poured Zhu Jiayu a cup of tea: "Take your time speaking, have some tea to soothe your throat."

Zhu Jiayu took the drink and continued:

"He was quite handsome when he was young, so he actually managed to hook up with a rich girl. However, their affair was quickly exposed. The girl's father disapproved of their relationship, so the girl claimed that she had been seduced by Hu Wangzu. Her father then beat Hu Wangzu up and kicked him out of Qingcheng."

"Later, Hu Wangzu harbored resentment and secretly returned to Qingcheng. He wrote a letter to the young lady, asking her to come out for one last meeting. Then, taking advantage of her unpreparedness, he knocked her unconscious and sold her to a brothel in another place."

"This... is too cruel!" Xiao Wan exclaimed, covering her mouth. What surprised her even more was what Zhu Jiayu said next:

"Because this young lady was young and beautiful, and had been taught by famous teachers since childhood, she was proficient in all kinds of arts, including music, chess, calligraphy and painting. As a result, Hu Wangzu obtained a huge fortune that he had never seen in his life. From then on, he embarked on this path."

"Chang Beiqiu, by chance, met him and instead of punishing him according to the law, he provided him with convenience and protection. He turned Hu Wangzu into a means of making money."

Zhu Jiayu sighed: "Who would have thought that this renowned and incorruptible Grand Tutor Chang would have such a filthy heart?"

Perhaps because this fact is so unbelievable, even now, many people in the court still believe that Wei Qinglou framed Chang Beiqiu.

However, besides this case, Wei Qinglou also found solid evidence in two other cases: one was that Song Baopu accepted bribes at the time, which was actually at the instigation of Chang Beiqiu. After all, the two had been friends for many years, so in the end, Song Baopu took full responsibility and did not implicate Chang Beiqiu; the other was that the Lin family also fell into Chang Beiqiu's trap in the palace incident.

The combined punishment for multiple crimes is the fundamental reason why Chang Beiqiu's years of hard work were ruined in an instant.

With his downfall, Song Baopu was finally exonerated, and no one in the capital city would criticize him for being unworthy of his position. The Lin family was naturally exonerated, and the emperor ordered the national treasury to be liquidated, returning all of the Lin family's land and assets to Lin Zhi, and retracting the statement that three generations of the Lin family's descendants could not hold official positions.

Xiao Wan sighed, "In that case, it's truly remarkable that the Wei family's patriarch has achieved so much at such a young age. Anyone else would probably have already been dragged to the underworld with these incriminating facts..."

After she finished speaking, she realized her mistake and quickly spat a few times, "Look what I said! Minister Wei is a man of extraordinary talent. Such a person deserves to live to be a hundred years old and establish lasting achievements."

Zhu Jiayu smiled and said, "I only hope that he is safe, well, and free from worries."

"Now you're not hiding it anymore?" Xiao Wan glared at her. "When I asked you before, didn't you deny it?"

Zhu Jiayu smiled, pursing her lips: "But you still found out, didn't you?"

“Yes, the Emperor has already told me to take you to the palace to meet him. If I don’t know now, wouldn’t it be too late?” Xiao Wan said with a smile. “The young master of the Wei family is of very good character. If you two can get along well, your aunt will be at ease.”

"However, if you are with him in the future and suffer any injustice, remember to tell your aunt. Your aunt, the Ning family, and the Xiao family will all stand by your side."

Zhu Jiayu smiled and agreed, "Okay."

"I haven't even asked you yet, how did you end up becoming a jade carving master out of nowhere?"

Zhu Jiayu paused in her work. Just as she was about to speak, she suddenly saw a familiar figure walking towards her.

She hid the jade carving knife, then stood up and asked the man, "Why are you here?"

Wei Qinglou's expression was upright: "I didn't come here with you!"

Zhu Jiayu: ?

"What?"

Wei Qinglou said, "I'm here to see Lord Ning, of course. But you, why are you so excited to see me?"

He glanced behind her, puzzled. There wasn't a man hiding there, was there? Why was Zhu Jiayu so guilty?