Chapter 16 Even if Shen Hegui had ten heads, he still wouldn't be able to find any evidence against Shen He...

Time flows like water, not only gentle and serene, but also treating everyone in the world fairly.

The first month of the twenty-fourth year of the Qinghe era was destined to be extraordinary. First, the Crown Prince returned and seized control of the court with overwhelming force. Then, Prince Su's attempt to assassinate the Emperor failed, and he fled in fear of punishment, his whereabouts unknown. In the court, anyone who had a word of criticism about the Crown Prince's regency was granted a favor: they could resign and retire to live out their days in peace, or they could choose to be sent to a post outside the capital.

All of the above is just empty talk to outsiders. All the officials deep in the center of power know the real truth, only ordinary people take it seriously.

Within days of the imperial decree being issued, more than half of the court positions were vacant, necessitating the transfer of officials from outside the capital to fill the vacancies. This transfer resulted in vacancies in local government positions as well, making it a logical next step to hold additional imperial examinations. Of course, the official reason was to select candidates to pray for the ailing Emperor Qinghe and to benefit scholars throughout the land.

Originally, the transfer of officials was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of War, but now there was a shortage of people, so Lu Wensheng and his group were conscripted and kept busy until the end of the first month.

On the second day of the second lunar month, when the dragon raises its head, the emperor is required to lead his civil and military officials in a ceremony of personally tilling the land. However, Emperor Qinghe is currently seriously ill, so this procedure is naturally being carried out by Shen Hegui.

Lu Wensheng stood in the crowd, watching from afar as Shen Hegui helped plow the field.

To be honest, Shen Hegui is quite fair-skinned, but his leg hair is a bit long, though thankfully not too thick. It's a shame that his face is so beautiful but his legs are so ugly. But I guess most boys are like that, like hairy yams.

Shen Hegui was extremely sensitive to gazes that shouldn't be there. He glanced around discreetly and finally locked his gaze on Lu Wensheng.

Having admired the legs enough, Lu Wensheng's gaze moved upwards, taking a few more glances at Shen Hegui's buttocks—perky and shapely! It was a pity they were usually covered by her robes, and she only noticed them today. Last time in the west corridor, she seemed to have grabbed Shen Hegui's buttocks; what a shame, she hadn't had a chance to properly experience them.

Although Shen Hegui is also a human being, as a descendant of the dragon and phoenix in feudal society, he grew up in a world of power and wealth, which makes him seem very different.

She heard that a few days ago, an official submitted a memorial requesting that Shen Hegui select a concubine. She wondered which noble lady would be chosen in the end. The Crown Princess should be the female lead, right? She would have to curry favor with her then.

Lu Wensheng's intense gaze was very noticeable, making Shen Hegui feel uneasy for a moment. He hadn't seen Lu Wensheng these past few days, nor had he thought of him, but at this moment, everything that had happened in the past flashed before his eyes like a scroll.

A few days ago, the newly appointed Minister of Rites proposed the selection of imperial concubines in court and listed a bunch of candidates. He instructed Lin Shoubai to investigate the movements of those women one by one. The news that came back included disgust, fear, disdain, and greed. But he did not see a woman like Lu Wensheng. Her liking and entanglement with him was simply because he was Shen Hegui, and had nothing to do with his status or the rumors from the outside world.

It's a real pity that Lu Wensheng wasn't a woman; otherwise, she would have been a perfect candidate for the title of imperial concubine.

Unexpectedly meeting Shen Hegui's deep eyes, Lu Wensheng hurriedly lowered his head, pretending that his official robes were disheveled and needed to be straightened.

It wasn't her, it couldn't be her! May the Bodhisattva protect her! She was now somewhat afraid of Shen Hegui.

The reason was that after offering her advice that day, she visited the homes of several officials she was close to, and what she saw was truly horrific. Some wounds were red, swollen, and foul-smelling; some were oozing pus and turning black; and some had coughed up black blood after only a few days of catching a cold. She knew these were all Shen Hegui's methods.

Driven by curiosity, she secretly took some of the dregs of the medicine to the clinic for the doctor to examine. Sure enough, it was all potent, deadly poison; the more she drank, the more likely she was to die.

After what seemed like an eternity, Feng Gou's familiar voice finally reached Lu Wensheng's ears.

It was the sound that signaled the end of the ceremony.

Shang Lian stepped forward and hooked his arm around Lu Wensheng's neck, saying, "There's a temple fair on the street. Little Lu, do you want to get a haircut? If not, let's go play together!"

Caught off guard by having her neck hooked, Lu Wensheng shivered in surprise. After regaining her composure, she slowly asked, "If we don't cut it, is Huo Qian going?"

"Of course I'll go!"

"Let's go then."

On the distant high platform, Shen Hegui slowly narrowed his long, narrow eyes, suddenly feeling that the sun was a bit too bright: "Feng Gou, go prepare some clothes for me. The streets are lively, let's go for a stroll together."

"Look." Why did I suddenly decide to go shopping? It's lively, but also too chaotic.

...

The streets were packed with people, a bustling scene of flower vendors, opera singers, dragon dancers, acrobats, and all sorts of other entertainment.

Lu Wensheng stopped in front of a kite stall. Seeing her hesitating between swallows and butterflies, Shang Lian suggested, "You buy one, and Huo Qian and I will buy one. That way, we won't have to choose. When your family goes out to fly kites in March, just remember to invite us to come along."

Lu Wensheng really wanted to buy kites for Yingniang and Song Zhiyun, but she hesitated not because she had difficulty choosing, but because she felt that the painting on the kites was rough and not worth the price the stall owner was asking for. She secretly thought it was too expensive.

Lu Wensheng carefully put down the kite in his hand: "It's only the beginning of February, and it's still a long way from March. Buying it would just leave it to gather dust, so let's not buy it."

As she spoke, her gaze shifted from the kite to a steaming stall not far away. "There's a spring pancake vendor over there. Are you two tempted? Shall we buy one and share it among the three of us?"

Huo Qian, holding three sugar figurines, squeezed back and chimed in, "Okay! Same rules as before, one sugar figurine each, Xiao Lu goes first, I'll go last."

Lu Wensheng chose a cat-shaped sugar figurine, and after one bite, the cat's tail disappeared: "I'm going to buy some cakes. You two go wait for me at the noodle stall in front of me. I want my dragon beard noodles with extra chili, scallions, and pepper!"

Huo Qian: "Okay."

Shang Lian: "I'll add extra bean sprouts to my pancake!"

Lu Wensheng waved to indicate that he had heard.

After they left, a cool and aloof figure stood in front of the kite stall, dressed in blue with a white crown, exuding elegance and outstanding temperament.

The stall owner was adept at reading people's expressions. After a quick glance at his attire, he made a plan and secretly raised the price of the kite by 30%.

"Pay up." Shen Hegui's gaze swept over the kite on the stall, his tone flat, and he said nothing more.

"Yes." Feng Gou raised his hand to adjust the slightly comical fox mask on his face, took out his money bag, and began counting out the copper coins to pay.

Shen Hegui bought the two kites that Lu Wensheng had his eye on.

A plainclothes Imperial Guard silently appeared beside Shen Hegui, bowing as he took the two kites shaped like swallows and butterflies from his hands.

"Wait a minute." Shen Hegui called out to the Jinyiwei guard with an extremely ordinary-looking face and asked, "Do you have paper and pen?"

"have."

The Imperial Guard took out a small cotton paper notebook and a wolf-hair brush from his bosom and presented them with both hands.

Shen Hegui's handwriting, like the man himself, appears gentle and refined at first glance, but upon closer inspection reveals a sharp and unyielding spirit.

'Any vendors at temple fairs who raise prices arbitrarily will be investigated and punished according to the law.'

After finishing his writing, he took out a bloodstone seal from the brocade pouch at his waist and stamped it with a vermilion mark at the end.

Gazing at the bustling crowd, Shen Hegui returned the notebook and pen to their rightful owner and calmly instructed, "Don't all stay by my side, go and do your errands."

"Yes, ma'am."

Feng Gou felt this was extremely inappropriate and couldn't help but step forward to advise, "Isn't this unsafe?"

Shen Hegui raised his thick, dark eyebrows and held out his hand, saying, "Give me the mask, and you can go back too."

Feng Gou looked troubled: "This..." His Highness is all alone; it's too unsafe.

"Don't make me say it a second time,"

"yes."

Across from Shen Hegui, Lu Wensheng hummed an unknown tune while waiting for her pancakes.

There are so many people in line, but according to the rule, food with lots of people must taste good.

She squinted her eyes, which were stinging from the sunlight, and her gaze involuntarily drifted to the seafood stall next door.

The carp's color is so perfect, it's a pity her yard is too small to have a pond. And that turtle in the wooden basin, it looks so much like the system that Shen Hegui confiscated, except the color is wrong, a dark yellowish-black, so ugly!

This stall owner has no common sense. Putting turtles and river shrimp together, if the turtles were bigger and there were more of them, this shallow basin of wild shrimp wouldn't even be enough to fill their teeth.

"My lord, your pancakes are ready." The stall owner's voice brought her back to reality.

"I've added three eggs, four portions of chives, and six portions of bean sprouts according to your request, and I've chopped them up."

Lu Wensheng paid and thanked him, but his gaze still couldn't help but drift towards the turtle. Such a small turtle, not even enough to suck a couple of bites of meat and shell, yet it was being sold as seafood—what a waste.

She turned around carrying the spring pancakes wrapped in oil paper, but after only a few steps, she was drawn to the bright red and tempting candied hawthorns on the street and bought two packs.

I plan to have the three of them share one bag, and take the other bag home.

The familiar aroma wafted from the noodle stall on the street corner. Lu Wensheng came to this stall every month, rain or shine, and had long become a regular customer. The owner was a dark-skinned, thin middle-aged man who looked to be around forty years old. As soon as he saw Lu Wensheng arrive, he greeted him warmly.

"The noodles for the three gentlemen are here! Be careful, they're hot!" he called out as he placed the bowls of noodles on the table. Then he leaned down and whispered in Lu Wensheng's ear, "Lord Lu, you can add the chili and pepper yourself. I've added extra meat to the bottom of the bowls, so don't tell anyone."

Lu Wensheng smiled knowingly and replied in a low voice, "May your business prosper, boss!"

A simple smile spread across the boss's dark face: "Thank you for your kind words!"

Shen Hegui lifted his robe and quietly sat behind the three of them. He ordered the same dragon beard noodles as Lu Wensheng, and put his mask aside.

After eating hot soup and flatbread, the three of them felt much better and began to whisper among themselves amidst the bustling market.

Shang Lian spoke first: "Are we still doing business in Yanjing this year?"

He asked cryptically, but both Lu Wensheng and Huo Qian understood that he was asking about this year's imperial examination business.

Lu Wensheng finished the pancake in his hand in a few bites, sipped the noodle soup, and then said, "Are you two short of money?"

Huo Qian: "Fortunately, the decree has been issued, but you haven't made a move, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to ask you."

Shang Lian: "I'm fine too."

He paused and then said, "My stepmother seems to be looking for a wife for me. If it works out, it will probably cost money."

Lu Wensheng ate until his nose was sweating: "What kind of good marriage could your heartless stepmother find for you? You actually thought about paying for the marriage yourself. If it were me, I would run away from the wedding."

When faced with family matters, Shang Lian was honest: "This isn't really appropriate, and Zhonggong will also contribute some money. I'm not young anymore."

Lu Wensheng raised her head. "Look at Huo Qian, he's three years older than you and he's not in a hurry, so why are you?"

Huo Qian remained expressionless and spoke of his past for the first time: "Actually, I got married when I was eighteen, but my wife was tortured to death by my stepmother, resulting in the deaths of both mother and child. At that time, I was useless, just a son of a concubine, without any official rank or title."

Lu Wensheng fell silent for a moment, not knowing what to say, so he thought of using pain to relieve his pain and talked about his childhood experiences.

"I'm luckier than you guys. My father separated from the family early on, and my mother was the legal wife. It's just that my father, who died young, was too good at making money. After he left, the uncles and elders in the clan were like irrational jackals, eyeing my family's assets. I'm only successful because I was forced into it."

Huo Qian ate a sweet and sour hawthorn. Before meeting Lu Wensheng, he didn't like these snacks and once thought that only girls were worthy of eating them.

Huo Qian: "They want to kill you and seize your family fortune?"

Lu Wensheng shook his head and offered a gender-swapped explanation: "They wanted to force me to marry an old and ugly woman and conspire to seize my family fortune. I struggled and refused, so they manipulated things to force me to serve in the military. Then I studied hard and eventually passed the imperial examination."

Shang Lian's thoughts were still on the family fortune: "Can marriage lead to the acquisition of the family fortune?"

Lu Wensheng: "Sure! Let me give you the simplest example: On your wedding night, give your husband poison, and the next morning, start crying and saying that he has suddenly fallen ill and needs to rest. Then, take control of the household affairs and the land deeds. In less than three months, your bedridden husband will be beyond medical help and die."

"Of course, this is the worst method. If I were to seize someone else's property, I would have to go to the gambling den to clean up the mess."

Huo Qian: What does "wash it" mean?

Lu Wensheng: "Money laundering? Don't you understand?"

Huo Qian and Shang Lian shook their heads together.

Lu Wensheng patiently shared his experience: "For example, if you bribed me with 10,000 taels of silver today, well, 10,000 taels of gold would be more appropriate. As for me, I am a hypocritical and corrupt official. In order to turn the ill-gotten gains into legitimate income, I spent all the money on my own winery. After paying the taxes, my mother took the remaining money to her own gambling den and deliberately lost it all. The next morning, I went to check the accounts and took out all the silver to deposit in the bank."

"And coincidentally, Yingniang wanted to go to Jiangnan for fun at that time. When she arrived in Jiangnan, she found that she did not bring enough money. So she took out the voucher that I had given her before she left home, withdrew all the silver and spent it. She bought gold jewelry, land, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, whatever was valuable. In the end, she brought it all back by waterway in a legitimate way."

"I thought she was wasteful, so we had a big fight. That day, I consigned all the valuables to a shop. Of course, given my stingy nature, I would never choose to consign them; I would probably sell them in my own shop."

"Money laundering can be summarized in three steps: disposal, separation, and consolidation. It turns black into white and illegal into legal. As long as the embezzled funds go through this process, Shen Hegui won't be able to find any evidence even if he has ten heads. Do you two understand?"

Shang Lian was completely out of sync with Lu Wensheng's train of thought, still bewildered by the ten thousand taels of gold and the law. He remembered that embezzling more than sixty taels of silver could result in severe punishments such as beheading and skinning, and that Lu was just using an analogy, yet he complained that ten thousand taels of silver was too little.

Huo Qian hesitated before nodding: "I think, maybe, I understood."

"You two are both graduates of the imperial examinations, so your comprehension skills should be very strong." Although the concept of money laundering doesn't exist in this world yet, she should be able to explain it very clearly.

Lu Wensheng: "Shall I explain in more detail?"

"No need, I understood."

Lu Wensheng took a hawthorn ball and popped it into his mouth. "I knew it, you two are both Jinshi... Shishi..."

She slowly turned her head and looked behind her.

A note from the author:

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His Highness the Crown Prince has inadvertently discovered the little deer's usefulness again, hahaha!