Chapter 129 Meeting
Marquis Cheng'en quickly said, "Your Majesty, I am not qualified to be the commander-in-chief of the Grand Canal Transport..."
Emperor Jing'an interrupted, "Lord Shen, I will not misjudge a person's ability. Today I appoint you as the commander-in-chief of the Grand Canal Transport because I believe you are capable of doing this."
At this point, how could Marquis Cheng'en dare to refuse? If he continued to resist, Emperor Jing'an would accuse him of disobeying the emperor's order, and he would be in big trouble.
What's more, Emperor Jing'an clearly didn't give him a chance to refuse.
After the court was dismissed, Marquis Cheng'en was in great sorrow. Facing the congratulations from his colleagues, his expression became increasingly stiff and he forced a fake smile.
It was not until this moment that he truly realized a problem - imperial power can kill people.
No matter how clean he is, if Emperor Jing'an becomes suspicious of him and wants to take action against him, he will have hundreds of ways to do it.
Now that he has been appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Grand Canal Transport, it is like putting him on the fire.
Perhaps Emperor Jing'an was secretly arranging people to monitor him.
Thinking of this, the fake smile on his face could no longer be maintained.
When he hurried back to the Cheng'en Marquis Mansion, he saw Madam Shen coming towards him with a happy face.
"My Lord, congratulations on your promotion." Madam Shen said with a smile, "Early this morning, the palace sent an imperial decree to promote you to the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Canal Transport."
At this point, she said with a displeased expression, "That playboy in the mansion has actually become a tribute student and can go to the Imperial College to study."
Madam Shen was filled with resentment: "How much of the mansion's resources has our Huai'er used? In order to pass the imperial examination, he studied hard since he was young and never dared to slack off. Only then did he become a Shujishi and enter the Imperial College for further studies."
Shen Shaoheng simply donated food and easily entered the Imperial College.
She felt really upset.
After hearing what Madam Shen said, Marquis Cheng’en knew that he was really finished.
Before the morning court session, the emperor ordered someone to draft an edict, indicating that he was determined to take action against him.
"This official is a lethal official. What's there to congratulate?" After explaining the interests involved to Madam Shen, Marquis Cheng'en said with a sad face, "From now on, we must be humble and behave ourselves. We can't make any more mistakes, otherwise we will all lose our heads!"
Mrs. Shen's heart sank: "How could this happen..."
They had clearly already cleaned up the mess, so why were they still being targeted by Emperor Jing'an?
She was afraid that the wife of the Marquis Yongyi would drag the Marquisate into trouble, so she promised Runiang that after the matter was accomplished, she would cancel Lin'er's slavery and even donate an official position to him.
Runiang didn't believe it and was afraid that she would burn her bridges after crossing the river, so she suggested transferring Lin'er's indenture out of the Yongyi Marquis's Mansion first, so that if anything happened to the Yongyi Marquis's Mansion, Lin'er would not be implicated.
She asked Runiang to steal Lin'er's indenture and made a fake indenture to fool Runiang.
After all, how could she dare to touch anyone from the Yongyi Marquis's Mansion during this sensitive period?
They originally thought that Earl Yongyi and his wife were dead, and that Lord Cao and the grain chief took the blame, so they rested easy.
The result is endless trouble!
"Isn't your sister-in-law's dowry in your hands? When did you give it to Shaoheng to buy grain and donate it to Guanzhou?" Marquis Cheng'en's face darkened as he said, "He donated a hundred thousand dan at once."
"One hundred thousand dan?" Madam Shen's face changed drastically: "All the property of the eldest wife is in my hands. If I didn't give him any money, how would he get the money to buy food?"
Marquis Cheng'en had a bad feeling in his heart because Shen Shaoheng went to the Liu family's ancestral home in Guanzhou...
If Shen Shaoheng dug out the silver from the stable to buy food, where did the silver come from to fill the government granary?
The more Marquis Cheng'en thought about it, the more anxious he became, as he always felt that there was a hidden danger left.
His intuition told him that sooner or later someone would come to him to ask for the money he spent on buying food to fill the granary.
Mrs. Shen didn’t think too much about it, but instead suspected that Mrs. Shen used her dowry to buy food for Shen Shaoheng and donated it to the victims.
Shen Shaoheng deliberately said that he had sold his deceased mother's dowry, so that he could take the eldest wife's property from her naturally.
Mrs. Shen thought about her sister-in-law's generous dowry, which had to be given entirely to Shen Shaoheng, and her heart ached.
——
Shen Qingtan went to Old Madam Zhao every day to learn how to be a housekeeper, and made an appointment to meet Gu Zongci at noon.
As soon as she came out from Old Madam Zhao's place, she took Tingxue and Liuyue to the restaurant.
After getting on the carriage, Liu Yue told Shen Qingtan the news outside.
The title of the Earl of Yongyi was stripped away, his entire family was executed, and no one from the Liu family would be employed again.
All the officials in charge of grain were dismissed from their posts and their entire families were executed.
Shen Shaoheng went to Guanzhou to donate grain and became a tribute student, able to enter the Imperial College.
Marquis Cheng'en was promoted to commander-in-chief of the grain transport system.
After hearing this, Shen Qingtan thought about it and knew that Marquis Cheng'en was about to face a disaster.
Liu Yue said worriedly, "Second Madam, I'm afraid the Marquis' Mansion is about to be in trouble. What should you do?"
Shen Qingtan pursed her lips and said softly, "Leave the Marquisate as soon as possible."
Her fingers gently touched the filigree gold bracelet on her wrist.
After replying to Boss Qin's letter yesterday, she took out the pair of gold bracelets and accidentally discovered an ingenious hidden buckle that could shrink or enlarge them.
After the gold bracelet was enlarged, it was just right for her to wear.
Today I specially wore the gold bracelet to meet Gu Zongci, intending to try my luck and see if he could recognize me.
Because the Gu family is a wealthy family in Nanlingzhou, he should have met all the prominent people in Nanlingzhou.
Her biological parents were able to create such an exquisite gold bracelet, which shows that they were from a wealthy family.
Maybe the two families had some dealings with each other?
The carriage stopped at the door of the restaurant. Shen Qingtan put on a veil hat, got off the carriage, and went to the private room reserved on the second floor.
Two attendants were guarding the door of the private room. When they saw Shen Qingtan stop at the door, they asked, "Are you the second wife of Duke Zhao's mansion?"
Shen Qingtan nodded slightly: "Exactly."
The attendant immediately opened the door and said respectfully, "Please come in, our master has arrived."
Shen Qingtan stepped into the private room and saw Gu Zongci sitting in front of the window.
The moment Gu Zongci saw Shen Qingtan appear, he inexplicably felt a sense of nervousness.
He quickly stood up and said, "Second Madam Zhao, I have something I want to discuss with you, so I took the liberty of handing you a note."
Shen Qingtan lowered her head and took off her veil, then handed it to Liu Yue beside her. When she turned around, she saw Gu Zongci staring at her face without blinking.
She was originally in a relaxed attitude, but seeing Gu Zongci's increasingly serious expression, her heart began to beat fast.
Could it be that Gu Zongci really knew her biological parents?
Shen Qingtan called out, "Boss Gu?"
Gu Zongci stared at her beautiful features, then slowly came back to his senses. His throat tightened as he asked, "You look familiar to me."
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