Chapter 507: Acting is tiring, but playing yourself is even more tiring

Cui Yi first strolled to Qianji Tower.

The most skilled proof-making master at Qianji Tower has already given some ideas.

Cui Yi gave some advice and asked the master to make it according to the modified pattern.

Afterwards, Cui Yi leisurely strolled to Zhaixing Tower and ordered a few signature dishes.

When he wanted to sit down to eat, he found it difficult to eat alone, so he simply asked Zhaixinglou to prepare the food and send it to Prince Ling's Mansion.

He went to Guihuafang, queued up, bought a bag of dim sum, and hummed a little tune as he went to Prince Ling's Mansion.

After arriving at Prince Ling's Mansion, the uncomfortable feeling of being stared at finally disappeared.

Cui Yi's face fell.

Who knows how weird it feels to be stared at and forced to act, forced to be lazy, and even forced to sing a little song to express that he is in a good mood?

Acting is so tiring.

It’s more tiring to play yourself.

Cui Yi did not go to look for Xie Yingmian. Instead, he asked Fufeng where Yu Lingye was and went straight to Yu Lingye's study.

Yu Lingye put down the document in his hand and said calmly, "Princess Mingyi's feigned illness was indeed unexpected and a brilliant move."

Cui Yi widened his eyes.

Only he and his mother knew that his mother was pretending to be sick.

How did Yu Lingye know?

Cui Yi looked at Yu Lingye with a strange look in his eyes: "You sent someone to lurk in my mother's room? Why are you lurking in my old lady's room? I thought you were a gentleman!"

Yu Lingye: ...

He gave Cui Yi a cold look and uttered two words softly: "Idiot."

Cui Yi: "Why are you still cursing?"

"Did I say something wrong?"

"Only my mother and I knew that my mother was faking illness. If you weren't lurking in the Cui family, how could you know that my mother was faking illness? I'm not wrongly accusing you. This is just a reasonable guess."

Yu Lingye was too lazy to argue with Cui Yi.

He said, "With Princess Mingyi's intelligence, she should have figured out the best way out."

"The best way out for Dunguo Prefecture is for Princess Mingyi to pass away, and for her descendants to carry the coffin back to her hometown for burial, thus leaving Shangjing."

Cui Yi stood there in a daze.

He remembered his mother's words.

His mother told him to come to Yu Lingye, saying that Yu Lingye would give him the answer.

"Has my mother looked for you?" Cui Yi asked.

Yu Lingye: "This is just a reasonable guess."

Cui Yi: ...

Are you trying to point the finger at him?

Cui Yi has always been thick-skinned and didn't care when Yu Lingye played tricks on him.

He sat down opposite Yu Lingye and sighed deeply: "Do you know why I don't like officialdom?"

"Because there are so many smart people like you in the officialdom."

"Everyone is always looking three, sometimes even five, ten steps ahead, and their conversations are always vague and confusing. It's exhausting to keep guessing."

"As for me, I'm a straightforward person, and I just can't understand those twists and turns."

"I look like a fool hanging out with you smart people."

"So, Your Highness Prince Ling, please don't beat around the bush with me. Just tell me straight up. Have you known for a long time that the Mu State Mansion was involved in the imperial examinations?"

Yu Lingye casually picked up another document, not even bothering to raise his eyes, and said two words lightly: "No."

Cui Yi: Pretending!

Just pretending to be dead.

Only my junior sister would fall for this.

If it were him, he would have kicked him away long ago.

Cui Yi only dared to think so, but did not dare to do it at all.

Yu Lingye said, "By chance, Liuguang Pavilion did get hold of some evidence against the Mu Mansion."

Cui Yi: Do you think I believe it?

Cui Yi: "Haha, what a coincidence! Shangjing is so big, how could it be such a coincidence?"

Yu Lingye: "Have you ever been to Zhaoyao Street in Shangjing?"

Of course Cui Yi had been there.

The name Zhaoyao Street doesn't sound serious, but it is actually a serious street.

The whole street is filled with vendors selling flowers and plants.

Flowers, plants, insects, fish, birds and various animals are also sold there.

When he was young and rebellious and wanted to be a playboy, he would often go there to look for some strange and eccentric little things.

Yu Lingye: "There's a flower shop on Zhaoyao Street. It's located in a very remote corner. The flowers there are very ordinary, but the prices are extremely high."

"A plate of Clivia worth ten taels would sell for ten thousand taels of silver in that flower shop."

"The cheapest pot of ordinary flowers and plants costs between three thousand and five thousand taels."

Cui Yi tutted his words twice: "You could have just snatched it away, but you chose to give me a flower pot instead."

"Does anyone go to this kind of shady shop?"

Yu Lingye: "Yes, and quite a few people went there."

Cui Yi: "It seems that there are a lot of stupid people with a lot of money."

"If I can earn that much, I won't be a doctor anymore. I'll just open a flower shop."

Yu Lingye narrowed his eyes, and for a moment he couldn't tell whether Cui Yi was really stupid or just pretending to be stupid.

Cui Yi felt uncomfortable being stared at by Yu Lingye: "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Yu Lingye: "That flower shop belongs to the Mu Mansion."

"Most of the people who buy flowers are students. Why do you think those students spend huge amounts of money on a cheap pot of flowers?"

No matter how slow Cui Yi was, he understood what Yu Lingye meant.

Buying flowers is not the point.

The point is to give money.

The Mu government was accepting bribes in this way.

This way of accepting bribes is not new. There was once a corrupt official who made a huge fortune by selling calligraphy and paintings.

A painting worth not even one or two taels of silver was sold for one hundred thousand taels of silver.

On the surface, the transaction seems normal, but in fact it is a disguised form of bribery.

Yu Lingye: "The flower shop is being watched by other forces, and Liuguang Pavilion didn't investigate further."

"It wasn't until Ji Yunzhang arrived a few days ago that I was able to determine what kind of flowers the Mu Mansion was selling."

Cui Yi's back was covered in cold sweat.

He almost slumped in his chair.

Before, he always held a glimmer of hope, hoping that Junior Sister and Yu Lingye had made a mistake.

After hearing what Yu Lingye said, he knew that this matter was inevitable.

Ji Yunzhang said that the evidence was conclusive, indicating that the flower shop had been targeted for a long time.

Before the autumn examination, there will be more students sending money, and the network of relationships will be more clear, which will be a good opportunity to catch them all in one fell swoop.

The Mu family is on the verge of death.

"How dare they?"

"This is a heinous crime that will implicate all nine generations of your clan. How could they be so bold?" Cui Yi muttered. "It's the imperial examination. It's the imperial examination. How could they do such a wicked thing?"

Cui Yi covered his face and it took him a long time to calm down.

He said, "My mother's plan was to fake her death after the birthday banquet, leave Shangjing before the Autumn Examination, and return to her hometown in Luoqing County for burial."

"In this case, there is a very important problem. If the Mu Mansion's affair is exposed, even if we return to our hometown in Luoqing County, we still won't be able to escape."

"I couldn't figure out how to break the deadlock, and my mother said, 'You can give me the answer.'"

"Your Highness Prince Ling, please teach me." Cui Yi humbly accepted the advice.

Yu Lingye brought out a map: "The Cui family's old house is in Luoqing County."

"Luoqing County is only thirty miles away from Tangyuan County."

"Tangyuan County belongs to my fiefdom. My fiefdom is an extremely poor place, and extremely poor places are full of bandits. As a wealthy family, you were targeted by bandits. The bandits killed people and robbed them. It is normal for you all to disappear in the territory of Tangyuan County."

"If the Emperor doesn't believe me, I would suggest he send troops to attack the bandits."

"It just so happens that bandits are rampant in my territory. If the emperor is willing to send troops to suppress them, I would be more than happy to do so."