Chapter 65 A Smell Reveals a Corrupt Official's Secret Chamber

Jiayu Commandery, the territory of the Marquis of Suiyuan.

In the main hall of the prefectural governor's mansion, there was no wailing or lamentation as one might have imagined; instead, a strange tranquility permeated the air.

Prefect Sun Dehai did not kneel down, but simply stood bowing below the hall.

He was indeed stout, but his face showed no sign of panic; instead, it carried a perfectly measured air of sorrow and respect.

The ledgers behind him were piled up like a mountain, each one meticulously organized.

"Your Highness, General Mu, you have come from afar and must be tired from your journey." Sun Dehai's voice was steady and powerful. "I have prepared a welcoming banquet, but the county is currently facing difficulties, so we can only offer simple tea and food. I hope Your Highness and all the officials will understand."

He spread his hands, pointing to the spotless treasury ledgers, his tone heavy with sorrow.

"Your Highness, it is not that I am unwilling to open the granaries and distribute grain. In order to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of disaster victims who fled from upstream, the granaries in the prefecture have long been empty. My colleagues and I have been subsisting on thin porridge for a month, and have even sold our personal belongings to fund the public. All the accounts are here, clear and simple. Please take a look, Your Highness."

He behaved impeccably, like a devoted and virtuous minister, not a corrupt official.

Chu Chongjin tapped his fingers lightly on the armrest of the wheelchair, looking at him calmly.

Yan Ziche remained silent, comparing the Ministry of Revenue's ledgers brought from the capital with Sun Dehai's ledgers line by line, his brows furrowing more and more deeply—the accounts matched perfectly!

Holding the sleeping Mu Yu in his arms, Xiao Beichen chuckled, breaking the false peace: "Lord Sun's residence is quite austere. When I passed by the kitchen of the government office just now, the aroma of roast suckling pig I smelled must have roasted the pig's soul out of the oven, right?"

Sun Dehai didn't even lift his eyelids, calmly replying, "General Xiao is too kind. I had just heard that Your Highness was coming, so I specially slaughtered the last living creature in the manor to welcome Your Highness. However, thinking of the starving refugees outside the city, I couldn't eat, so I ordered the meat to be distributed to the soldiers guarding the city to replenish their strength. This is just a small gift, and I failed to present it properly because I was not thoughtful enough."

His words not only transformed his enjoyment into showing consideration for his subordinates, but also turned the tables on Xiao Beichen, making him appear to be making a mountain out of a molehill.

The lobby was at a standstill.

Legally, Sun Dehai's case is flawless.

His accounts were perfect, his words were sincere, and his attitude was neither servile nor arrogant. He was like a fortress built with official rules and hypocritical etiquette, making you know that filth and corruption were hidden inside, but you couldn't find a door to breach it.

He felt confident.

This is Jiangnan, the foundation of His Highness the Second Prince.

Even if you are an imperial envoy, without irrefutable evidence, you can forget about doing anything to him.

He even straightened his back slightly, preparing to face the embarrassment of Chu Chongjin's fruitless return.

In the midst of this suffocating standoff, Mu Yu, nestled in Mu Fang's arms, stirred.

The little one had a good sleep, and sniffed the air with his tiny nose, as if something had disturbed his peaceful slumber.

"Daddy..." Mu Yu's childish voice was like a pebble thrown into stagnant water, "It smells so bad here."

Mu Fang immediately lowered his head, his murderous aura instantly transforming into a gentle one: "Little Fish, what did you smell?"

"Hmm..." Mu Yu wrinkled her small nose, her dark eyelashes fluttering. She stretched out her chubby little finger and first pointed at Sun Dehai, who was standing bowing.

"This fat old man smelled of lots and lots of rotten copper coins on him."

For the first time, the smile on Sun Dehai's face froze, and his fat twitched involuntarily.

Mu Yu didn't stop. She turned her little head to the east wall of the lobby, sniffed twice more, and her little face was full of disgust.

"Father, the smell is even stronger behind that wall!"

"So many rotten copper coins and so many moldy white rice piled up like a mountain, covered in black mold!"

Her little mouth pouted, as if she had smelled the most awful thing in the world.

"It stinks! It's a hundred times worse than the stench of the Second Prince!"

"boom!"

That last sentence struck Sun Dehai like a thunderclap.

His composed face instantly lost all color, his eyes widened like copper bells, and all the blood in his body seemed to rush to his head and freeze into ice in an instant.

That wall!

Behind that wall was his study, which contained a secret passage disguised as a bookshelf!

It not only contained the wealth he had plundered from the people, but also a huge sum of money secretly allocated by the Second Prince to plunder the land of disaster victims under the guise of "work relief" during famine years!

This blind baby... how could she possibly know?!

"Nonsense!" Sun Dehai finally lost control and screamed, "How can you take the ramblings of a four-year-old seriously! Your Highness, you must do me justice!"

Chu Chongjin smiled; the flaw he had been waiting for had finally appeared in the most unexpected way. He didn't look at Sun Dehai, but turned to Mu Fang.

Mu Fang didn't even need a command. He carefully handed Mu Yu, whom he was holding, to Yan Ziche beside him, and said only one word to Xiao Beichen.

"Smash it."

"Understood!"

Xiao Beichen had been waiting impatiently for a long time. He excitedly took the eighty-pound giant hammer, which was specially used for attacking cities, from his personal guard.

"Stop! What are you doing!" Sun Dehai was terrified and scrambled forward to grab Xiao Beichen's leg. "You're trespassing on the residence of an official! This is an abuse of power! I'm going to report this to His Majesty! I'm going to the Censorate to impeach you!"

Xiao Beichen kicked him away, a sinister grin spreading across his face: "Get out of my way! If you delay this general's 'smell of rotten copper coins,' I'll kill you!"

He strode to the wall, his arms bulging with muscles, and swung the giant hammer in his hand.

The first strike!

With a muffled thud, the wall shook violently, and spiderweb-like cracks spread instantly.

The second blow!

A gap was smashed in the center of the wall, and a mixture of the cold smell of gold and silver, the musty smell of grain, and the stale smell of paper rushed out.

The third strike!

The entire wall collapsed with a roar, revealing a deep and narrow secret passage behind it.

Mu Yu immediately covered her nose and mumbled indistinctly, "That's the smell! It's so strong and stinky!"

Sun Dehai lay sprawled on the ground, his face ashen and his eyes vacant.

It's over.

Everything is over.

Xiao Beichen selected two personal guards, who rushed into the secret passage with torches in hand. A moment later, he emerged with a livid face and a voice filled with suppressed rage.

"Your Highness, General! Inside... is a huge secret chamber! It's filled with gold, silver, jewels, grain, and cloth! The grain alone is enough to feed hundreds of thousands of people in the entire Jiayu County for three years!"

"Moreover, we also found this in a box."

Xiao Beichen opened his palm, and a pure gold wolf-head token lay quietly in his hand.

Chu Chongjin's gaze fell on the token, and his entire aura suddenly turned icy.

"A token of the Northern Frontier Wolf Guard."

That was a token of loyalty from the assassins secretly raised by the Second Prince Sikong Ming in the Northern Frontier, never to be shown to anyone. Now, it had appeared in the secret chamber of the Prefect of Jiayu County.

The suspect was caught red-handed, and the evidence was irrefutable.

Chu Chongjin's gaze slowly shifted back to Sun Dehai, who was limp as a rag doll, his voice devoid of any warmth.

"Sun Dehai, what else do you have to say?"

Sun Dehai raised his head in despair. His gaze swept over everyone and landed on the little girl who was being held by Yan Ziche and was curiously "watching" everything.

It's her! It's all because of that vixen!

I am certain to die, but I absolutely cannot let her get away with it!