Chapter 122 was a punishment for others, but a reward for her.

"Greetings, Your Majesty; Greetings, Your Majesty the Empress; Greetings, Princess."

Yu Zhiyi bowed to each of them.

Princess Fengxiang stared wide-eyed in surprise, then pointed at Yu Zhiyi and complained, "Father, Mother, you see! I wasn't wrong, was I? She clearly knew my identity, and she deliberately disrespected me before! If she disrespected me, she disrespected you!"

The emperor frowned and looked at Yu Zhiyi: "Minister Yu, is what the princess said true?"

Yu Zhiyi sighed: "Your Majesty, the princess just shouted 'Father and Mother' so loudly that I heard it from outside the palace. It's hard not to guess her identity."

"In the Great Sheng Empire, Princess Fengxiang is the only princess who has come of age, and it is said that Princess Fengxiang's favorite color is bright red..."

The emperor and empress remained silent.

Princess Fengxiang also looked at Yu Zhiyi with surprise.

She glared at her for a moment: "Don't change the subject. I'm asking if you knew my identity outside the palace!"

Yu Zhiyi remained silent for a moment before saying, "A monk does not lie, I truly do not know."

Monks don't lie, but she's not a monk.

Princess Fengxiang choked for a moment, clearly disbelieving: "You're lying! You clearly know, otherwise why would you say those things to me! You're clearly certain that I understand Father Emperor's temperament!"

Yu Zhiyi retorted, "Aren't you a princess? Even knowing His Majesty would be angry, would you still go and cause trouble?"

Princess Fengxiang choked again, then burst into fury a moment later: "Who told you I would definitely cause trouble! I am a dignified princess, how could I be such a person with disorderly conduct!"

Yu Zhiyi looked at her calmly: "Then please tell me, Princess, if you knew there was a gang of kidnappers in the city who made a living by abusing kidnapped children and enslaving them to beg on the streets, what would you do?"

Princess Fengxiang gasped: "You mean..."

He immediately replied matter-of-factly, "Of course we'll lead men and charge in, catching them completely off guard!"

Yu Zhiyi said to the emperor, "Your Majesty, this is why I do not want the princess to go. The princess is undoubtedly kind-hearted, but she holds a high position and will not obey my orders. Although the princess grew up in the deep palace, she is pure in nature and is no match for such a fierce and cunning person."

"Today we sent men to catch those thieves red-handed in their attempt to kill us to cover it up, but they still deny it to the death. Moreover, they were colluding with the local county magistrate. If we didn't have many witnesses to prove that they did intend to kill us, they would probably have had the opportunity to destroy the evidence by now."

“The princess is kind-hearted. If she saw the fierce, vicious, and cunning faces of those thieves, she would definitely be very angry.”

"Your Majesty, I only persuaded you to return because I didn't want you to be angry. I didn't mean to look down on you at all."

emperor:"……"

Look how nicely they put it.

He kept calling his princess "pure and kind," to the point that he could hardly distinguish the word from "stupid and reckless."

"Did you hear that? Yu Qing doesn't look down on you, much less on me. You can go back now."

Princess Fengxiang was praised a lot, but she still felt something was off.

I feel like this compliment is a bit odd.

She didn't want to go back, so she continued to shake the emperor's sleeve: "No, Father, I want to hear how she still wants to argue."

The emperor sighed helplessly and said to Yu Zhiyi, "This child has been spoiled by me. Please don't laugh at him, Yu Qing."

Yu Zhiyi, who is a year younger than Princess Fengxiang, said: "...I dare not. I just wanted to explain the situation to Your Majesty regarding the events of the past two days."

The emperor raised an eyebrow: "What's going on?"

Yu Zhiyi organized her thoughts and began by talking about Yi Luan Charity.

After explaining the structure and initial purpose of Yi Luan Charity, she said, "Old Zhang was our first beneficiary, but we never expected him to get involved in so much trouble. In the past two days, I have repeatedly used my power as a senior official in the Ministry of Justice to resolve personal matters, which is really overstepping my bounds. I know I was wrong and am willing to hand over my official seal and Ministry of Justice token and demote myself to a commoner."

The emperor raised an eyebrow: "Oh? You actually know you've made a mistake?"

Yu Zhiyi said, "I have been reading the 'Sheng Law' these days and know that my behavior is an abuse of power. However, in urgent situations, one must act expediently. Both the bandits in Wuliang and Gaoliang counties are very cunning. If we release them, we will not know where they will go next time we look for them. Therefore, I had no choice but to use this power."

"But I know that my merits and demerits cannot offset each other. If I am wrong, I am wrong. If all officials in the world acted like me and did not follow the rules, the world would be in chaos."

"Therefore, we must not tolerate this."

emperor:"……"

She said everything, even thought of such a severe punishment as dismissal for him.

For a moment, he didn't know whether to praise or scold.

After a moment, he shook his head and laughed, "Don't think I don't know. You're just a lazy sly fox. You never wanted to work in the Ministry of Justice in the first place; you're just going with the flow. Dismissal is a punishment for others, but a reward for you. Do you think I'd fall for that?"

A crack finally appeared on Yu Zhiyi's blank face.

Was she making it that obvious?

Seeing her like this, the emperor almost rolled his eyes in a compromising manner, and said irritably, "Let me tell you, don't even think about it. Starting tomorrow, except for your days off, you must solve a case for me every day, otherwise... you can just stay in the Ministry of Justice reviewing case files all day!"

Yu Zhiyi was dumbfounded.

Wait, how come this involves forced crime solving?

In the past, when she read storybooks, she thought it was quite absurd that the officials would order the county magistrate and the constables to solve the case within a few days.

I never imagined that reality would be even more outrageous than the stories in the novels.

She tried to advocate for her rights: "But Your Majesty, although I can deduce most of the causes and effects, the matters of the Ministry of Justice are different from other matters. Solving cases requires evidence."

Before the emperor could say anything, Princess Fengxiang said, "Then there's no evidence for Wu Liang's matter, is there?"

Yu Zhiyi sighed: "Yes, there is no evidence for Wu Liang's matter, but coincidentally, there are two people in the capital who are related to him and Ma Bocai respectively. In addition, he does not know every detail of Ma Bocai's life, so I was able to deceive him. But in this world, how can there be so many coincidences?"

"Which of those old cases in the Ministry of Justice was left unsolved because no evidence or clues could be found? Even if I deduce the truth through various clues, it will still take some time to find the evidence in cases where the incident occurred in a remote location or where the evidence is obscure."

"One piece a day is really not enough."

"You're quite something, Grand Preceptor of the mighty Sheng Kingdom."

The emperor made the final decision.

Yu Zhiyi: "?!"

Wait, where did this imperial advisor come from?!

Wasn't she here to resign from her official post?

How did he become the Imperial Advisor?!