Chapter 440: The Marquis is truly a man of high moral character
"Miss, Miss, this is our Marquis's private vault, you can't--"
There was a maid holding on tightly.
Without even raising her eyelids, Cen Yueyi said in a cold voice: "The public accounts are currently heavily in debt, and the inventory in the public account warehouse does not match the accounts. Many account books contain fictitious amounts! Your wife is imprisoned in the prison, and since I am in charge of Zhongfu, I have the right to check these!"
Having said that, Cen Yueyi waved her hand and asked the maid to drag the maid away.
There was a huge copper lock on the outside of the private vault of Jiang Taihou's wife, Xiao Zhao. The maid who was in charge of the key refused to hand it over, so Cen Yueyi simply asked someone to chop it open with an axe.
As soon as they entered the warehouse, not to mention Cen Yueyi, even Xingxing, who had seen the dowry list, recognized that many of the things in here were from the dowry list of Cen Yueyi's biological mother.
In fact, Cen Yueyi was not that surprised about this.
"Cen Yueyi--" Marquis Jiang Tai hurried over upon hearing the news, with his crown and scarf untied. He wanted to get angry, but when he saw the daughter of the Yu family was also there, his tone suddenly changed, and he became gentle and annoyed, "... After all, she is still your stepmother. If you directly break into her private vault and spread it out, will you lose your good reputation?"
Cen Yueyi pointed at a glazed rockery on the shelf and said, "This glazed rockery, I needed something like this in my house before, so I asked Xiao Zhao for it. She said that my father had given it away a few years ago in order to smooth the way for the government... Then please tell me, what is this?"
Jiang Taihou was stunned and speechless.
He couldn't really remember, but there was a period of time when he did take a lot of his late wife's dowry to manage relationships. Maybe there was something wrong...
"I don't know if father knows," Cen Yueyi said coldly, "the bandits hired by Xiao Zhao asked for a high price, and Xiao Zhao sold a lot of my late mother's things to make enough money. It was also because of that that Cen Yuehua suddenly became frugal a few days ago. Father, instead of going to the prison to ask Xiao Zhao why she was so cruel, you are holding your daughter back here and not letting her open her private vault to check the accounts?"
Marquis Jiang Tai just felt a little embarrassed, especially since the daughter of his in-laws was still there.
He was very conflicted at the moment. On the one hand, he felt that he should be a kind father, after all, his eldest daughter had married into a very good family. But on the other hand, he was annoyed that the things his eldest daughter had done had brought shame to their family and made them a laughing stock in the capital.
Even though Xiao Zhao and Yuehua went a little too far, she is still fine!
Why do you have to make the relationship between the family so strained!
"After all, we are a family..." Jiang Taihou could only squeeze out these words with a stiff face.
Cen Yueyi glanced at Jiang Taihou indifferently and said nothing.
Xingxing's eyes widened: "My Lord, please don't blame me for being nosy. To put it simply, the Marquis' wife Jiangtai and the second young lady of your family are killing the Marquis' daughter; to put it in a medium way, they are colluding with bandits to commit evil; to put it in a big way, they are trying to destroy Sister Cen's reputation and then use someone else's as a substitute to take over the arranged marriage - what is this, this is the crime of deceiving the emperor! At this moment, the Marquis still refuses to cut off ties with the Marquis' wife and insists on being a family with that criminal woman. What kind of sentiment is this!" Xingxing praised sweetly, "My Lord is really a man of high moral character, willing to sacrifice his own life, and is admirable!"
The words "risk one's own life" made Jiang Taihou's face turn black. He no longer had the heart to care about Cen Yueyi. He made up an excuse and left in a hurry.
Cen Yueyi watched Jiang Taihou hurried away with his ferocious figure disappearing at the gate of the courtyard. Her expression did not change, but a hint of sarcasm flashed in her eyes.
She turned around and continued to calmly direct the maids and servants, taking the items from her biological mother's dowry list and comparing them one by one with the things in Xiao Zhao's private storehouse.
Xingxing also came to help.
The group worked hard for the whole morning, but they were really shocked when they compared the results.
In Xiao Zhao's private storehouse, all the treasures that were presentable were almost all picked out from Cen Yueyi's biological mother's dowry.
And these things were all marked as "arranged and sent" in the public accounts.
Sent it out to Xiao Zhao’s private vault, right?
In addition to these, there are many more that Cen Yueyi mentioned, which were sold by Xiao Zhao and used to hire assassins.
Cen Yueyi and Xingxing spent most of the day sorting out the accounts.
At dusk, under the cover of night, an unmarked carriage quietly entered the Jiang Taihou Mansion and stopped outside the Moon Gate in the inner courtyard.
Coincidentally, Cen Yueyi was just coming out to see Xingxing off, and saw the person in the carriage getting out with the help of a maid.
It was Mrs. Zhao, the assistant minister of the Ministry of War, who had previously wanted to connect Cen Yuehua with Yu Yonghuai.
Madam Zhao is Xiao Zhao's elder sister, and the purpose of her visit this time is self-evident.
As expected, when Mrs. Zhao saw Cen Yueyi, tears welled up in her eyes and she came up to hold Cen Yueyi's hand: "Good child, my ignorant sister has made you suffer."
She wiped the tears from her eyes with a handkerchief, then looked at Xingxing with a warm attitude: "Xingxing is here too."
Xing Xing politely bowed to Madam Zhao and said, "Hello, Madam."
Madam Zhao looked at Xing Xing inconspicuously and said, "Good girl, I heard everything. Did you really take down all those bandits by yourself?"
Xing Xing let out an "ah". She had been accompanying Cen Yueyi all day and had no idea how outrageous those rumors were. She also didn't know that now in the rumors in the market, she had become a legendary hero with three heads, six arms, a green face and fangs.
"Not really?" In the night, the little girl with three heads, six arms, a green face and fangs was wrapped in a fluffy hood, which covered most of her body. She looked a little chubby and cute. She said matter-of-factly, "I just happened to have some drugs with me for self-defense, so I took advantage of them."
Mrs. Zhao praised Xingxing a few more times.
Xingxing just stood there listening to Mrs. Zhao's praise, and then acted shyly and modestly.
Madam Zhao looked at Cen Yueyi again and hinted, "Yueyi, I have something to say to you..."
Cen Yueyi had already guessed the purpose of Mrs. Zhao's visit.
Mrs. Zhao would not come here to join her in scolding little Zhao.
"Mrs. Zhao, I'm just about to go to the Yu family. How about we talk here?" Cen Yueyi held Xingxing's hand.
Mrs. Zhao’s face froze.
Cen Yueyi was very considerate and said, "If it's not convenient for you, you can come and talk to me in two days when it's convenient for you and I happen to be at home. It will be the same."
Mrs. Zhao was anxious.
How can it be the same!
In two days, her sister might be tortured to death in prison!
What's worse, if the Ministry of Justice finds the case guilty, I'm afraid the opportunity will be over!
Madam Zhao gritted her teeth and said, "Yueyi, you are a good child, let's talk about it here. Anyway, I am here to apologize to you on behalf of my good-for-nothing sister. The things she did really made me, as her elder sister, hate her so much!"