Chapter 50 Ruler and Subject
The day after Sun Man was arrested, late at night, at the Cai residence in the capital.
The study light was still on when a secret letter was delivered to Cai Mingshu, who was still awake.
The message was extremely short, containing only the coded message: "Fire breaks out in the Western Hills, Sun and Du are captured, and the Five Palaces hold torches."
The study was deathly silent. Cai Mingshu stood there for a good while, clutching the note. After a while, she walked to the antique shelf, opened a hidden compartment, and took out a small sandalwood box.
When you open it, you'll find a stack of yellowed papers.
The top layer was a list recording the names of their own people in key positions in Fuling County and several surrounding prefectures.
Sun Man's name was prominently listed, with the amount of offerings made over the years noted in tiny characters next to it, along with the mark indicating that the accounts were processed through "Changrongji".
Her gaze lingered on "Sun Man" for a moment. The Fifth Princess Ling Wei... that princess who had pretended to be a useless person for three years had actually set fire to Xishan, and it looked like it was about to burn down to her feet.
Sun Man knows too much, but he doesn't know which fragments the Fifth Princess, who is hiding her true abilities, can uncover. If these fragments are pieced together, they could be fatal.
Cai Mingshu pulled out the list, lit a corner of it with the candlelight, and the flames rose up, burning part of her network that she had built up over many years into curled ashes that fell to the ground with a soft rustling sound.
The firelight reflected in her deep pupils, which held no sorrow, only cold resolve.
Don't panic.
She picked up her pen and quickly wrote a few lines in code, then summoned another trusted confidant: "Send it out immediately, via route number three. Tell Youde that the accounts must be clean, and if necessary, he can feign illness. Have those officials rest quietly and keep their mouths shut. In the palace... keep an eye out for any rumors."
The trusted confidant accepted the order and vanished like a shadow.
Cai Mingshu sat back in his chair, closed his eyes, and tapped his knuckles lightly on the armrest.
Now we can only wait; any further action would be foolish before the emperor sees those things.
They waited until the afternoon of the following day.
There were no unusual imperial decrees, but a verbal order quietly arrived: His Majesty summoned the Grand Secretary to the Warm Pavilion for a meeting.
What's meant to come will come.
Cai Mingshu changed into a simple dark purple official robe. As he adjusted his clothes in front of the bronze mirror, a warm jade thumb ring in his sleeve poked his fingertip.
She ran her fingertips over the cool jade surface, then pushed it towards her sleeve, revealing a small portion of it.
Then, with a calm expression, he boarded the carriage and entered the palace.
Warm room.
The earthen ceiling was burning warmly, and there was a faint scent of ambergris in the air.
Emperor Jinghe did not sit behind his desk, but leaned against the couch by the window, holding the specially made secret memorial in his hand. He had already finished reading it and was now closing his eyes.
"Your subject Cai Mingshu pays his respects to Your Majesty." Cai Mingshu bowed tremblingly.
"Hmm." Emperor Jinghe didn't open his eyes, only responding through his nose.
The "hmm" was cold and deep, and Cai Mingshu's heart tightened. She remained motionless in her bowing posture. The warm pavilion was eerily quiet; she could hear the sound of her own blood flowing.
After a long while, Emperor Jinghe slowly opened his eyes.
When those eyes looked at Cai Mingshu, there was no warmth in them, only a bottomless chill.
“Minister Cai,” Emperor Jinghe began, “I remember that Sun Man was someone you personally promoted back then.”
They've arrived.
Cai Mingshu's hand tightened slightly within her sleeve. The emperor didn't mention the Xishan case, nor did he provide any details; he directly pointed to Sun Man, indicating his intention to trace the matter back to its source and dig up her connections.
“Your Majesty,” she said, steadying her voice, “Sun Man is indeed quite capable. When he served as an auditor in the Ministry of Revenue, he was remarkably astute in matters of finance and accounting. I saw his potential and recommended him for a stint in a remote area.”
She didn't deny the relationship, but shifted the focus to talent.
Emperor Jinghe twitched the corner of his mouth, but there was no smile in it: "Perceptive? I think she's incredibly audacious!"
She suddenly slammed the secret instrument she was holding onto the small table beside the couch with a loud thud, which made the teacup tremble.
"The Xishan black mine! Collusion between officials and bandits! Harm to miners! Smuggling of mineral profits! One by one..." Emperor Jinghe sat up straight, his gaze like a knife, piercing Cai Mingshu, "Minister Cai, the talent you recommended! The good student you trained!"
An undisguised killing intent instantly enveloped the entire warm pavilion.
Cai Mingshu's back was instantly soaked with cold sweat. She was all too familiar with that look; Emperor Jinghe had looked at those who were about to die in the same way when he was purging them.
The Fifth Princess... just how much did she actually find out?!
Her heart pounded, but years of experience kept her expression completely calm. Instead, when the emperor's murderous intent was at its peak, she bowed deeply, touching her forehead to the ground.
"Your Majesty, please calm your anger!" Her voice trembled just the right amount, not from fear, but from heartache and remorse. "Your subject... deserves to die!"
As she bent down, the jade thumb ring on her sleeve slid out slightly, its warm jade color gleaming faintly in the dim light of the warm room.
Emperor Jinghe paused slightly, his gaze falling on the jade thumb ring.
That happened many years ago. The northern border was suffering from a food shortage, and the border troops were about to run out of food. The court was in an uproar. The upright officials criticized the situation, while the nobles shirked their responsibilities. It was Cai Mingshu, who was then the Vice Minister of Revenue, who withstood the pressure from all sides and joined forces with the canal transport department to transport the last batch of grain before the river was sealed off, thus relieving the urgent crisis in the northern border.
Afterwards, when it came to recognizing her merits, Emperor Jinghe casually rewarded her with this thumb ring, which she wore ever since.
This wasn't the only incident. During the floods in Jiangnan, she sent her most capable river inspector to spend three months immersed in mud and water, overseeing the repair of the dikes; during the salt tax reform, she promoted a transport commissioner who recovered a million taels of evaded taxes in a year...
Cai Mingshu is good at using people; she can always find a few truly capable and courageous people to get things done from a pile of rubbish.
Those people may not be honest and upright, but they are certainly capable of handling things that the emperor wants to do but cannot say openly, and doing them perfectly.
The murderous intent in Emperor Jinghe's eyes flickered slightly.
The political situation is like a net. The upright officials are the bright and shiny warp and weft, seeking fame and respectability; the nobles are the heavy weights at the bottom, only concerned with their own wealth and status; and Cai Mingshu and her subordinates are the shuttles that weave through the net, connecting the bright and the wealthy, keeping the net intact.
Even the shuttle itself was covered in stains.
Now, are we going to break the shuttle just because of this damage to Xishan?
What happens after it's broken? Who will do the dirty and hard work? Who will balance the interests of the honest officials and the nobles? Who will repair the southern dike and collect salt and mining taxes?
Emperor Jinghe's fingers tapped unconsciously on the edge of the couch, and the rapid rhythm gradually slowed down.
After a long silence, she spoke again, the coldness in her voice fading slightly, leaving only a deep scrutiny: "You say you deserve to die ten thousand times... then tell me, how much of what Sun Man did you know?"
That's a dangerous question.
To say one doesn't know is to be negligent and incompetent; to say one knows is to be complicit.
Cai Mingshu lay prostrate on the ground, his voice low and hoarse yet clear: "Your Majesty, I am ashamed. I knew his talent and recommended him for a post outside the capital, but I failed to supervise his conduct at all times. Now that this disaster has occurred, I cannot shirk my responsibility. This is not an excuse; my failure to properly select personnel is a grave offense. I... beg Your Majesty to punish me severely!"
She still insisted on "oversight," but framed the responsibility within the scope of "failing to properly select personnel," which she considered a dereliction of duty as the Grand Secretary, rather than a crime of accomplice.
Emperor Jinghe stared at her gray hair and hunched back for a long while, then suddenly reached out and threw the secret memorial on the bed in front of her.
"See for yourself. Xiao Wu brought it over, saying there were some things inside that she didn't dare to say."
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