Chapter 98 Returning to the Capital (First published on Jinjiang Literature City)
After searching thoroughly, they found several letters hidden in the lining of Fu Mingfeng and Fu Zefan's clothes. Fu Mingzi took them and read them for a while before turning her cold gaze to Fu Mingfeng.
"Third Brother has quite the ambition. Not only did he betray the entire family, but he's even aiming for the title of Duke of Jingguo."
Upon hearing this, Fu Mingsong's eyes darkened, and he stared intently at Fu Mingfeng.
Fu Mingfeng merely sneered: "Since you've already started, why not go all the way? A dukedom—if Fu Mingsong can have it, why can't I?"
Fu Mingzi's expression changed, and he was about to curse, but was stopped by Fu Mingsong.
"It's rather pointless to talk about these things now, Third Brother. How long have you and the Xia family been planning this iron mine outside the city? Where are the iron stones that have been extracted?"
Fu Mingsong's question finally got to the heart of the matter, and Fu Mingzi immediately stopped talking.
Fu Mingfeng sneered, "Big brother is so capable, investigate it yourself. I'm busy, I'm afraid I've forgotten."
Fu Mingsong wasn't angry when he heard this; perhaps he had expected it all along.
"In that case, take Third Master and Fifth Young Master out." Fu Mingfeng waved his hand calmly.
The guards immediately swarmed forward and escorted Fu Mingfeng and his son Fu Zefan out.
After they left, Fu Mingzi couldn't help but say, "Big brother, are you just going to let him off so easily? You should at least have pressed him for answers."
Fu Mingsong chuckled lightly: "I know Lao San better than you do. Since he's made up his mind not to talk, I'm afraid you can't force him to say a single word."
Fu Mingzi pursed her lips, a hint of displeasure flashing in her eyes.
However, Fu Mingsong still looked relaxed: "But this kind of thing is easy to investigate. Transporting iron ore takes a lot of manpower and resources, so there will always be leaks."
Fu Mingzi sighed inwardly; this was the only way.
After they finished speaking, they came out of the house. However, as soon as they came out, Fu Mingzi thought of something and couldn't help but ask, "Should we also search Third Sister-in-law's place? What should we do about that?"
Fu Mingsong frowned: "I've already had people watching them. We'll search them again when we get back."
Fu Mingzi nodded, said nothing more, and followed them out of the Fu residence.
The group first met up, and then hired a carriage to send Fu Mingfeng, his son, and the women into two separate carriages. To prevent them from colluding, the two carriages were kept far apart, and guards were stationed around them to prevent them from having any chance to make any moves.
Fu Mingzi watched Fu Mingsong mount his horse and leave, but did not follow. Instead, he said, "Brother, you should go back first. Take this letter back with you. Although it doesn't specify where they transported the iron ore, it proves that Third Brother colluded with the Xia family to steal iron ore. It's like we've got leverage over the Xia family. But we can't leave Qinghe unattended. I'll stay here a little longer and clean up the mess."
Fu Mingsong frowned, thought for a long time, and finally nodded in agreement: "Alright, I'll leave you thirty men outside the city. Be careful, the new magistrate will probably arrive within three days."
Fu Mingzi smiled and said, "Of course I know."
Fu Mingzi stood outside the Fu residence and watched Fu Mingsong leave. Uncle Fu was still standing behind him, and it seemed that Uncle Fu really had no intention of leaving with Fu Mingsong.
"Uncle Fu, why aren't you leaving?" Fu Mingzi asked with her back to Uncle Fu.
Uncle Fu lowered his head, looking humble: "I have failed the old master's trust and failed to take good care of the third master. Now I have no face to go back to see the duke. I might as well stay here and help the fifth master deal with the aftermath and make amends for my sins."
He spoke very sincerely, though.
Fu Mingzi smiled and said, "This is not Uncle Fu's fault. Uncle Fu does not need to blame himself. However, Uncle Fu is an elder of Qinghe County. If you can help me deal with the aftermath of this, I will be extremely grateful."
Uncle Fu responded respectfully.
The two left the Fu residence together, first meeting up with the thirty guards left outside the city, and then going together to inspect the iron mine.
Upon arriving at the iron mine, the thick smoke and dust made Fu Mingzi frown. As soon as they reached the mine, someone stepped forward to stop their horses.
"This is a government-owned area; unauthorized personnel are prohibited from entering!" The leader looked extremely arrogant.
Fu Mingzi smiled, took out the token he had previously searched Fu Mingfeng's study from his pocket, and threw it over: "Look carefully, the county magistrate is ill and has left his post. Today he has entrusted me to handle this mine." After saying that, he threw the Fu family's nameplate over.
The man was initially wary, but upon seeing the Fu family's nameplate, his face immediately turned pale: "Fifth, Fifth Master!" As he spoke, his legs went weak, and he knelt down on the ground.
Fu Mingzi raised an eyebrow. Was this person actually a servant of the Fu family? He wasn't very familiar with him.
"Are you a servant of the Fu family?" Fu Mingzi asked.
The man hurriedly kowtowed: "I am Li San, a servant of Third Master. I was ordered by Third Master to supervise this mine."
Fu Mingzi glanced back. It looked like a medium-sized mine, but they had entrusted it to such a person for supervision. It seemed that Fu Mingfeng was also short-handed.
"How many people are supervising this area?" Fu Mingzi asked.
Li San continued to reply while lying on the ground: "Reporting to Fifth Master, there are a total of ten guards, all of whom serve by your side. The remaining junior stewards were all selected from the miners."
"How many miners are there?"
"There are probably a hundred or so."
Fu Mingzi: …………
After a long while, Fu Mingzi finally came to his senses and said in a deep voice, "Send those ten guards to see me."
After saying that, he turned and went into the room where the overseer lived.
Li San didn't dare to delay and hurriedly ran to the mine.
Fu Mingzi stayed in the room for less than a quarter of an hour when Li San arrived with the ten guards.
"Fifth Master, everyone has arrived," Li San announced respectfully from outside the door.
"Come in."
Li San then led ten guards in.
The ten men, dressed in the same black uniforms as the Fu family guards, bowed to Fu Mingzi as soon as they entered: "Greetings, Fifth Master."
Fu Mingzi waved his hand, dismissing their formalities: "Alright, I'm just here to wrap things up. Third Brother has already been taken back to the Fu family today. You don't need to worry about the mines here anymore. The next county magistrate will take over. Now, immediately explain the situation to the miners' managers, pay them severance pay, and send them far away."
The ten guards looked at each other, surprised that they had been summoned for this reason.
"Excuse me, may I ask if this is Third Master's idea?" one of the guards asked cautiously.
Fu Mingzi glanced at him and sneered, "It's the old master's idea."
The man's expression immediately hardened, and he dared not ask any more questions.
Fu Mingsong had already explained the handling of this matter to Fu Mingzi. When the old master reported Fu Mingfeng's serious illness, he also reported the discovery of an iron mine in Qinghe County. However, he said that after discovering the iron mine, Fu Mingfeng was too excited and had a seizure, so he was unable to submit a report. It was his wife who informed the family that they found out.
Although this explanation seemed to cover things up on the surface, it couldn't be examined too closely, as any examination would reveal numerous flaws. The old man was thinking of discreetly sending one of his own people to cover up the matter.
However, Fu Mingzi was now thinking that the old man didn't need to go to such trouble. She was afraid that the emperor wanted to cover this up even more than the old man. After all, after reading those letters, Fu Mingzi finally realized that the iron ore was not only being sent to the Xia family, but also to the fourth prince.
Fu Mingzi was surprised that the Fourth Prince was so bold as to do such a thing. If he were discovered, he would be in serious trouble. However, Fu Mingzi knew that with the Emperor around, his family could not take out these letters. Otherwise, given the Emperor's protective nature, the Fu family would be the first to suffer. These letters could only serve to restrain the Xia family.
"Go do it." Fu Mingzi waved her hand.
The guard dared not disobey any longer and hurriedly took his leave.
It took three whole days to deal with this matter. In order to prevent these people from suddenly flooding into Qinghe County and causing turmoil, Fu Mingzi even paid out of his own pocket to send many people away far away, and subtly persuaded many people to go to the countryside to buy houses and land.
Anyway, these people were either unemployed or vagrants, and they didn't have any property in Qinghe, so things went relatively smoothly.
After seeing off most of the people, Fu Mingzi prepared to leave Qinghe.
Of the thirty guards, only five remained besides Uncle Fu when he left. The rest were sent out to deal with the displaced people and scattered people, trying their best to keep them away from Qinghe.
They didn't travel very fast on their return journey, but because Fu Mingzi was always thinking about Zhou Xiaoyan, whom she hadn't seen in a long time, she couldn't help but urge him a few more times.
Unexpectedly, just as they left Qinghe and reached the outskirts of Beijing, Fu Mingzi suddenly reined in his horse and stopped.
"Fifth Master, what's wrong?" Uncle Fu couldn't help but ask. He had been urging Fu Mingzi on these past few days, so why had he suddenly stopped?
Fu Mingzi did not answer Uncle Fu's question; her eyes were fixed on the figure in the roadside tea stall.
The figure was so familiar that even if it were torn to shreds and crumpled up, Fu Mingzi would still recognize it.
He dismounted and trotted towards the teahouse.
The person seemed to sense something and turned around.
"Your Highness!" Fu Mingzi whispered the name as she hugged the person in front of her.
Zhou Xiaoyan was stunned for a moment. He turned around and was immediately enveloped in a warm and familiar embrace, which caught him off guard. However, when he came to his senses, he immediately felt a little shy and hurriedly patted his shoulder, whispering, "Everyone is watching."
Fu Mingzi didn't take it to heart. Those present were either Zhou Xiaoyan's attendants or his guards; none of them would dare to speak out of turn. However, considering Zhou Xiaoyan's shyness, he reluctantly let go.
After being released, Fu Mingzi carefully examined Zhou Xiaoyan: "Your Highness looks thinner. Did you have a hard time in Yuntai?"
Zhou Xiaoyan turned his head away somewhat embarrassedly and said softly, "I returned to the capital from Yuntai a few days ago. Everything is fine, and I haven't lost weight."
Fu Mingzi couldn't help but chuckle, finding his shy demeanor quite adorable.
However, out of consideration for Zhou Xiaoyan's feelings, he did not say anything, but simply bowed formally: "I was caught off guard by seeing Your Highness just now and offended you. Please forgive me."
Zhou Xiaoyan's ears turned even redder, and he waved his hands awkwardly, saying, "I don't blame you, don't be like this."
Fu Mingzi finally couldn't hold back and burst out laughing, then suddenly whispered, "Your Highness is still so gentle."
Zhou Xiaoyan blushed and was speechless for a moment.
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