☆, Chapter 121 Is Lord Chen a villain?
Twenty years ago, Lingnan was hit by a once-in-a-century flood. The imperial court ordered the second prince to be an imperial envoy to escort a million taels of silver and supplies to Lingnan for disaster relief. As soon as they entered Lingnan, the supplies were robbed by bandits, the second prince was seriously injured, and the million taels of silver disappeared without a trace.
Supplies and money were gone. The people had lost their homes and were surviving on the daily porridge provided by the government. Due to the severity of the flood, countless people and livestock died in the flood, and after the waters receded, a plague quickly broke out.
As the governor-general, Lord Li was naturally anxious. He personally led the prefectural guards and doctors, along with the county magistrates and prefects, and the doctors of the entire Lingnan region, working tirelessly on the front lines every day, often unable to return home for five or six days at a time.
Even so, countless people still died from the floods and plagues, but overall the battle against the disaster and the plague was won. Lord Li did not want any reward from the court; he just wanted to rest and spend more time with his two sons and only daughter.
Unexpectedly, after the Second Prince recovered from his injuries and returned to the capital, he immediately shifted the blame for the loss of the disaster relief funds and the robbery of the supplies onto Lord Li.
The Emperor was furious and ordered a thorough investigation. In the end, all the evidence pointed to Lord Li embezzling the million-dollar disaster relief fund. Lord Li was unable to defend himself. To make matters worse, his only beloved daughter was kidnapped and disappeared without a trace. Lord Li then confessed to the crime and offered a reward in the name of the million-dollar disaster relief fund in the hope of finding his beloved daughter.
How did Chen, a junior official who had just entered the officialdom, become involved in a corruption case in Lingnan?
“It’s probably because of me,” Jiang Wuyu said.
Jiang Wuyu came from a prominent family in the capital. Before Lord Li became the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, the two families were neighbors. Jiang Wuyu grew up with the two young masters of the Li family. When Jiang Wuyu was six years old, he welcomed his daughter, Li Luo. When Li Luo was six, Lord Li was sent to a post outside the capital, so the two families arranged a marriage between them.
When Jiang Wuyu was a teenager, he was a prominent figure in the capital. He was excellent in horseback riding, archery, and both literary and martial arts. Lord Chen regarded him as his role model since childhood. At the age of 22, Jiang Wuyu became the youngest leader in the history of the Six Doors. Three years later, Lord Chen also passed the imperial examination and officially entered the officialdom.
When news of Lord Li's embezzlement case reached the capital, Jiang Wuyu rushed to Lingnan without saying a word. During a banquet, Lord Chen overheard the host talking to someone about killing Jiang Wuyu so that he would be cursed even after death.
He then devised a plan to sneak into the host's study. In the study's secret room, he found many letters and documents. He originally intended to send those things to Jiang Wuyu, but he inadvertently discovered that there was a traitor within the Six Doors.
Later, news came that Li Luo had disappeared and Jiang Wuyu had left the Six Doors. So Lord Chen volunteered to be sent to a post outside the capital, taking these things with him, thinking that he would meet Jiang Wuyu one day and give them to him. During this time, he saved Li Luo, who had been passed around two or three times and was finally taken to Yuzhou by the Peach Blossom Monkey Spirit.
At that time, Li Luo had lost her mind in extreme panic, resulting in amnesia. Lord Chen also thought that it was not worth it for Jiang Wuyu to give up his promising future for this woman, so he decided to betroth Li Luo to Zhou Wenchu of Peach Blossom Village. Later, Zhu Yan was tricked by a mole in the Six Doors, and Lord Chen tricked her into coming to Peach Blossom County with the whereabouts of Li Luo and trapped her in the brokerage firm.
He explained the past events clearly, but he didn't mention at all whether he was the one who did it to those two students. He only instructed that the information must be handed over to Zhao Yunjing and Zhou Mujiao.
After reviewing the information, Zhou Mujiao felt conflicted.
Everyone thought Lord Chen was the villain, but he risked everything to steal the case files for Jiang Wuyu. Knowing there was a mole in the Six Doors, instead of carelessly discarding the files for safety, he volunteered to leave the capital and take the files with him, preventing the real mastermind from manipulating the files.
If you say he's a loyal and righteous person, then why did he imprison Zhu Yan for over a decade, and selfishly marry her off while Li Luo was suffering from amnesia, artificially rewriting her entire life, causing Zhou Mujiao and Xiao Wu to have a miserable childhood? And now, the two students have died tragically, and it's still unknown whether it's related to him.
She turned to look at Young Master Chen, who pursed his lips and remained silent, his hand holding the paper trembling slightly.
Zhao Yunjing snatched the papers from his hand and patted him on the shoulder: "Brother Chen, you—"
"Do not touch me!"
Young Master Chen suddenly broke down, pointing at Zhao Yunjing and then at Zhou Mujiao: "It's all your fault! It's all your fault! If it weren't for you, my father wouldn't have died! You forced him to his death! I will never forgive you! I will never forgive you!"
Young Master Chen ran out, and Lord Zhao shook his head, asking Jiang Wuyu how to deal with Lord Chen's matter.
Jiang Wuyu did not answer immediately, but looked at Zhao Yunjing: "What does Young Master Zhao think?"
"If it is found that the deaths of my two classmates are unrelated to Lord Chen..." Zhao Yunjing thought for a moment, "then we should announce to the public that it was a sudden illness. But if Lord Chen did commit murder..."
Zhou Mujiao interjected, "If a prince breaks the law, he shall be punished the same as a commoner."
Lord Zhao and Jiang Wuyu exchanged a glance and nodded secretly. They thought that Zhao Yunjing was talented and principled. If he could find a good mentor and maintain his original aspirations, he would definitely be a good official in the future.
As for Lord Li's 'embezzlement case'...
Lord Zhao said he would submit a memorial to the court requesting a reinvestigation, but: "These case files were brought out by Lord Chen at the risk of his life. I will not easily submit them. Lord Chen specifically asked you to handle them... Young Master Zhao, I will wait for you for three years. If you do not reach your post after three years, I will have no choice but to submit the case files to the Six Doors. I cannot guarantee whether the Six Doors will suppress them in the future."
He then looked at Zhou Mujiao: "You are Miss Li's daughter? I have heard of Miss Li's reputation as the most beautiful woman in Lingnan. Although I have never had the chance to meet her, looking at you now, I can imagine how beautiful your mother must have been back then."
Then, let's look at Jiang Wuyu: "Lord Jiang was once a man of great ambition and spirit, and he and Miss Li were a perfect match. Unfortunately, life is unpredictable, and fate plays tricks on us..."
Jiang Wuyu said expressionlessly, "Instead of wasting time being sentimental, Lord Zhao, you should spend more energy investigating the real culprit who killed those two students!"
Lord Zhao took back the case file: "If I were Lord Jiang, I would immediately investigate Lord Li's matter and clear his name as soon as possible. The reason you are here now, besides Miss Zhou's influence, must be for a deeper reason. Lord Jiang—oh, you left the Six Doors a long time ago, so I won't call you Lord Jiang anymore."
Brother Jiang, take my advice: in this life, you must live with clarity and distinguish between what's important and what's not. To put it bluntly, if I were in Lord Chen's position back then, watching my role model ruin his future, I would have made the same choice.
Jiang Wuyu turned and left, this time ignoring Zhou Mujiao, and walked away as soon as she left the yamen.
Standing in front of the yamen, Zhou Mujiao thought about how Lord Zhao, who had shown his villainous side just a few nights ago, had not only passed away a few days later, but also had a complicated relationship with her family.
"Let's go to Sister Hu's place first, I need to talk to Xiao Ran for a bit."
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