Chapter 92 He seems to be alive
When she arrived at Fuqing Palace, Yan Ruyu was embroidering her big white goose again, as if she would never finish it.
Liu Zhiyuan explained his purpose, and Yan Ruyu raised an eyebrow, "You want to see Zhou Lang?"
"Well, where is he usually at this time of the day?"
"Why didn't you say so earlier? Zhou Lang just left."
Liu Zhiyuan, "..."
No, why would he go to the harem in broad daylight? Isn't he supposed to investigate a case?
Yan Ruyu understood her look and said, "He heard that I left the palace today and that Li Yingjun and I were causing trouble in Tianxiang Tower, so he came to see if I was hurt. If you leave now, he should be in the mansion."
"Then I'll go out and find him."
"Wait." Yan Ruyu put down the embroidery in her hand, "I'll go with you. It's dangerous outside the palace, and you don't know martial arts."
"good."
This secret passage is connected to Zhou Kang's bedroom. It would be so embarrassing if he is sleeping when I go out.
With Yan Ruyu present, things will be much easier.
Zhou Kang did plan to take a nap as he had to go out to investigate a case at night. However, before he fell asleep, he heard a crackling sound coming from the entrance of the secret passage.
His eyes lit up with joy, thinking that Yan Ruyu couldn't bear to leave him and had followed him out on purpose, and he was about to give her a big hug.
However, when the secret passage opened, Liu Zhiyuan came out first.
Zhou Kang, who had already opened his arms waiting for his wife's loving hug, suddenly froze.
"Why is it you?"
Yan Ruyu poked her head out from behind, "And me."
Zhou Kang stood aside and let the two of them come out.
"Xiaoyu, why are you here?"
"Yuan'er said she wants to see you, so I'm here with her."
"Oh." Zhou Kang was a little disappointed. It turned out that it wasn't his wife who missed him.
"You guys chat, I'll go outside to look at the flowers." Yan Ruyu said.
She was now dressed as a woman, so naturally she couldn't leave the inner courtyard. She could only enjoy the flowers and birds outside.
When Yan Ruyu went out, she closed the door deliberately and did not go far. She sat in the small garden outside to keep watch for them.
In the bedroom, Zhou Kang made a gesture of invitation, sat down and poured a cup of hot tea for Liu Zhiyuan.
"My lady, what do you want from me?"
Liu Zhiyuan took a sip of tea to moisten his throat. "How much have you found out about my father's case?"
Speaking of this, Zhou Kang's face was filled with worry, and he shook his head and said, "I still don't have a clue."
Liu Zhiyuan frowned slightly, "Didn't you say you memorized the entire text? You don't have any clues at all?"
"I memorized the entire text, but it didn't mention how Lord Liu was wrongly accused."
The book only briefly mentions the case of Liu Zhongyuan, without going into detail about how he was wrongly convicted. Even in the end, the verdict was not overturned.
The main purpose of this plot is just to add another crime to the villain's cruelty and ruthlessness.
"Then tell me the whole story of the case."
It’s not mentioned in the novel, so you’ll have to look it up yourself.
"Yuzhou is suffering from a severe drought, and the Emperor has allocated two million taels of silver for disaster relief. Minister of Revenue Li Gui and Vice Minister of Revenue Liu Zhongyuan are responsible for counting the two million taels of silver, and then Imperial Guard Wang Zheng will be responsible for transporting it."
After Li Gui and Liu Zhongyuan completed the inventory, they locked the two million taels of silver in the Ministry of Revenue's silver vault, waiting to hand it over to Wang Zheng the next day to complete the task.
At that time, the key to the treasury was kept by Li Gui. The door lock of the Ministry of Revenue's treasury was made by the most powerful mechanical master of Dayong. It was made of special materials and could not be opened in any way except with a key.
The key is also specially made, and there is only one in the world.
That night, Liu Zhongyuan asked Li Gui for the key to the treasury on the pretext of counting the amount of silver and money again.
Both of them were officials responsible for counting the disaster relief silver. In addition, Liu Zhongyuan was Li Gui's right-hand man. Therefore, Li Gui did not suspect anything and directly gave the key to Liu Zhongyuan. He told him that he did not need to return the key after the counting. He could leave it with Liu Zhongyuan. The next day, Liu Zhongyuan could hand it over directly to Wang Zheng.
Liu Zhongyuan agreed, and that night he counted the treasury silver and returned to the Liu Mansion with the key.
The next day, Wang Zheng came with his personal guards to take over, but found that the Ministry of Revenue's silver vault was on fire. The fire was so fierce that the entire silver vault was burned to ruins, and two million taels of silver were missing.
Two million taels of silver filled the entire warehouse. If one wanted to empty it overnight without anyone noticing, they had to move it out through the main gate.
The only key to the treasury is in Liu Zhongyuan's hands.
Liu Zhongyuan refused to admit to embezzling the disaster relief funds. His entire family was imprisoned and severely punished, but he still refused to confess.
The emperor was furious and ordered the Liu family to be confiscated and executed.
After hearing this, Liu Zhiyuan found it absurd. "So, without any evidence to directly prove that my father embezzled disaster funds, they're directly convicting the Liu family?"
"Yes," Zhou Kang said, "There's indeed no evidence to prove that Lord Liu did it, but there's also no evidence to prove that he didn't do it, because he had the key at the time, and no one else could open the vault door except him."
"What if there are other keys?"
"Absolutely not. The Ministry of Revenue manages the Dayong treasury and is extremely cautious in this regard. The lock to the vault was developed by Dayong's top mechanical master. It's extremely confidential and there's only one key."
After all, one more key means one more danger.
"What if someone copied it, or the master of the mechanism kept one for himself?"
"Impossible, Madam. You must understand that this is the world of a book. The author set up only one key, so there can only be one key. I have memorized the entire text, and I know this very well."
Liu Zhiyuan disagreed with this view. "The novel sets up Xiao Yu as a tyrant who is licentious, cruel, and merciless, putting the people in dire straits and causing them to suffer. Do you think he looks like a tyrant?"
"It's not like, Xiao Yu is a tyrant." Zhou Kang said.
"He is not." Liu Zhiyuan retorted. At least the Xiao Yu she saw after traveling through time was definitely not the cruel and bloodthirsty tyrant described in the text.
A tyrant will not care about the life and death of the people in Yuzhou, a tyrant will not diligently review memorials every day, and a tyrant will not insist on getting up at yin time every day to attend the morning court.
She had been here for so long, and Xiao Yu's daily life was simple and boring. He attended court, handled state affairs, and reviewed memorials.
No matter how she tried to change it, even if he was so angry that his lungs were about to explode, he would insist on reading the memorial to the end.
A tyrant cannot do this.
"If he is not a tyrant, where did the Liu family's injustice come from? Your Majesty, it was the Emperor who ordered the execution of the Liu family without solid evidence."
Liu Zhiyuan was speechless.
Zhou Kang thought for a moment and said, "Speaking of tyrants, there is one thing I find very strange."
"What's strange."
"I came here earlier than you, eight years ago. The emperor I saw during these eight years was different from the one you see now. It's like... like he's a completely different person."
Liu Zhiyuan was startled, "Don't scare me!"
There won’t be another person who comes through the book, will there?
"It's not really a replacement, it's just..." Zhou Kang's face was full of confusion, not knowing how to describe it.
"It's just... how can I describe that feeling? He used to be really cruel, beating anyone he disliked to death, and he didn't handle state affairs seriously. He was like an NPC in a book, never smiling, and he didn't have the emotions a living person should have. He was just a paper man. But now he seems to be alive. Do you understand what I mean? He's like a living person."
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