Chapter 21: Why don’t you tell me now?
How do I tell the tyrant that someone is embezzling food and wages?
In the Wenhua Hall, Chu Liuzheng, who had recovered from his hand injury and returned to work, was holding a mahogany tray and thinking hard.
As long as Qu Tao was brought down, Yan Kang would lose his backing. Then she could have someone anonymously report Yan Kang for gambling and not repaying his loans. According to the military regulations of the Imperial Guard, it would be impossible to recover him.
Although this would not take Yan Kang's life, as long as he stayed away from the palace he would not be a threat to himself.
Embezzlement of food and wages?
Behind the desk, Xiao Jingfan paused with his pen, and a murderous look flashed in his cold eyes.
He looked up at the woman leaning against the wall, "Who embezzled my food and wages? Tell me now!"
[Holy crap! I was caught slacking off by the tyrant!]
Chu Liuzheng immediately stood up straight, lowered his head and pretended nothing had happened. He was so nervous that even his inner voice disappeared.
Xiao Jingfan: "..."
I'm not going to hit you, so just tell me what you're talking about!
He took a deep breath and tapped the table with his fingers: "Add water."
[It turns out that I just finished the tea. I was so scared! ]
Chu Liuzheng exhaled lightly, picked up the small copper kettle and walked over quickly to add water to the teacup.
Xiao Jingfan picked up the teacup, drank while glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, wishing he could grab her shoulders and shake her.
I don't care about you being absent from duty, but you should tell me who embezzled my food and wages!
I'm going to chop that daring fellow into pieces!
Chu Liuzheng was also secretly glancing at Xiao Jingfan. The danger of being caught slacking off was over, and she began to think about the question again.
Qu Tao was a deputy minister of the Ministry of War, and I was just a little palace maid. If I told the tyrant that Qu Tao was embezzling grain, he wouldn't believe me. And I couldn't even explain how I knew. Given his intelligence, he wouldn't believe me if I told him I was dreaming. He might even think I was talking nonsense and have me dragged out and beaten to death.
It turned out to be him!
Very good!
Xiao Jingfan gritted his teeth, wishing he could chop that old bastard to pieces with a knife right now!
[Right Deputy Censor Cao Jian was Qu Tao's accomplice. It was he who helped Qu Tao conceal his identity from the Censorate and the Imperial Guards. Otherwise, Qu Tao's embezzlement of over 70,000 taels would have been discovered long ago.]
[Tsk tsk, who would have thought that the court's recognized upright minister, one of the most iron-headed men, would actually be a corrupt official? Even if I told the tyrant, he wouldn't believe it.]
With a "crack", the tea bowl in Xiao Jingfan's hand broke.
Chu Liuzheng was shocked.
[Holy crap! I checked it carefully before brewing tea, and there's no cracks. How did this tea bowl break?]
"I have failed in my duty. Please forgive me, Your Majesty."
Although she couldn't figure it out, the sudden breaking of the tea bowl must have been her fault as the palace maid who served tea.
[Boohoo, tyrant, please don't beat me to death! ]
At this moment, Xiao Jingfan's mind was full of the two treacherous ministers who embezzled food and wages. He had no time to pay attention to her and waved his hand to ask her to make another cup of tea.
[Hey, the tyrant is so easy to talk to today? ]
Chu Liuzheng felt that he was extremely lucky and was afraid that the tyrant would go back on his word, so he quickly slipped away and went back to the tea room to make tea.
As soon as she walked out of the Wenhua Palace, Xiao Jingfan ordered someone to summon Xie Hui, the commander of the Jinyiwei, to come for an audience.
Zhou Yuande drove out all the palace servants, closed the palace door, and personally guarded the palace gate to prevent anyone from eavesdropping on the conversation between the emperor and his ministers.
Xie Hui happened to have something to report to the emperor, but he didn't expect that he would be severely scolded before he even opened his mouth.
Commander Xie was completely bewildered.
What did he hear?
Cao Jian is corrupt!
Cao Jian actually embezzled money! !
Are you kidding him?!
"Investigate this thoroughly!" After scolding his ministers, Xiao Jingfan's anger subsided and he leaned back on the dragon throne. "I want to see the results before tomorrow night."
"I obey your order." Xie Hui knelt down to receive the order.
"Go and do your work." Xiao Jingfan waved his hand at him, but Xie Hui said, "Your Majesty, I have something important to report."
Xiao Jingfan's eyes flashed, and he sat up and said, "Speak."
"Your Majesty, the Imperial Guards have received news that remnants of the Fifth Prince's group are still active in the capital. We have already tracked their whereabouts. Your Majesty, please advise us on what to do next."
"They're just a bunch of clowns trying to survive." Xiao Jingfan's lips curled slightly, a cold glint flashing in his eyes. "Take them all to the imperial prison and torture them severely. We must find out the whereabouts of the Fifth Prince's wife and son."
"only."
*
"Miss, are you busy?" Xiao Anzi walked into the tea room with a smile, followed by a girl in green palace dress.
The girl has fair skin, big round eyes, a turned-up nose, red lips and a pointed chin. She is a little beauty.
Chu Liuzheng put down the enameled teacup he had examined, a smile on his face. He looked at the girl and asked, "Who is this?"
"Her name is Caiyue. Master personally went to the Imperial Household Department to select her the other day. She has good manners and etiquette. She will serve tea in front of the Emperor from now on. Please take the trouble to teach her a few things."
Caiyue stepped forward and bowed to Chu Liuzheng. "Caiyue greets you, sister. I may not be good at speaking, but I'm quite clever with my hands and feet. Please feel free to give me your orders, sister."
"Miss, you are too polite. There is no such thing as an order or not. We are all servants in front of the emperor. From now on, you just have to follow my instructions."
Chu Liuzheng took her hand and returned the greeting, saying with a smile, "Serving tea doesn't require eloquence; being nimble and deft is already excellent."
Caiyue nodded and responded softly.
If it were anyone else, after hearing Chu Liuzheng say this, they would probably climb up the pole and ask Chu Liuzheng to teach them something. However, Caiyue did not continue the conversation, but just stood beside Chu Liuzheng with her head slightly lowered.
It's just as she said, she's not good at speaking.
Seeing that the two of them were getting along well, and Caiyue didn't seem to be acting like a troublemaker, Xiao Anzi felt relieved and said to them with a smile, "I still have to go and report to Master. You two girls, please be busy. I'll be leaving first."
"Take care, father-in-law."
After Xiao Anzi left, Chu Liuzheng briefly explained to Caiyue the rules of serving tea in front of the emperor.
Caiyue listened attentively, taking notes one by one. Seeing Chu Liuzheng's patience, she also boldly raised the points she didn't understand separately and asked again. He seemed to be a capable person.
"Just now, a teacup was broken. Thankfully, His Majesty was lenient and didn't hold it against me. To prevent this from happening again, we're going to check all the teacups today."
Chu Liuzheng led Caiyue to the cupboard where the teacups were placed. He took the key from his waist and opened the cupboard. He took out the white jade green lotus cups on the top and said as he demonstrated:
"Mainly check the teacups for stains and cracks, and to see if the patterns are intact. Any that are even slightly damaged must be placed in the basket over there and cannot be used by Your Majesty."
Caiyue nodded obediently, reached out and took down a set of pastel porcelain cups, lowered her head and repeated what Chu Liuzheng had just demonstrated, and asked, "Sister, can you see if I did it right?"
"It's like this." Chu Liuzheng ran his finger over the cabinets on one wall. "We'll each be responsible for one cabinet. We have to check each one carefully. Don't rush. If there's anything we can't finish, I'll tell Sister Moxiang when we hand over the shift and have them continue checking."
"Okay." Caiyue agreed, put the one she had checked back in her hand, and took down another teacup.
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(End of this chapter)
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