Concubine Yang's pupils shrank sharply, and she felt as if she had fallen into an ice cellar. Her limbs felt cold, but she was unable to answer Gu Jue's series of questions for a while.

Now she was like a person walking on a tightrope, with an invisible bottomless abyss below. As long as a breeze blew, she might fall down and never recover.

Concubine Yang's fear and guilt were almost written on her face.

Seeing this from the three officials of the Three Departments and the four candidates, they all had a vague answer in their hearts: So that's it. Did the new emperor already know that Gu Ming had squandered the three hundred thousand taels? Gu Ming and his mother were also short of money, so they came here to file a complaint! Concubine Yang rolled her eyes and said vaguely, "The silver is needed at home." She didn't dare to elaborate. Even if she made up a lie now, she would need someone to help her cover it up.

Gu Jue smiled faintly and did not comment.

The closed folding fan in his hand turned twice quickly in his hand, with a graceful and relaxed movement.

Shen Qianchen looked at his hands. His skin was as white as jade, his fingers were long and slender with distinct joints, and his nails were always trimmed neatly. Now his nails were not as pale as before, but had a healthy blush.

His hands were very beautiful, so they looked particularly nice when he was playing chess, playing the piano, writing, and drinking tea. Even now, when he was holding a fan, there was an indescribable beauty in them. Shen Qianchen was inadvertently mesmerized by them.

Prince Li glanced at Gu Jue and Shen Qianchen, and seeing that both of them had smiles on their faces, he felt that they were really well-mannered. They were almost being called a witch queen and a tyrant, but they still managed to keep their composure.

Prince Li thought that he did not have such good self-restraint, and sneered sarcastically: "Yang, even if the family eats gold, it will not spend 300,000 taels in seven months. This is absolutely unreasonable."

"If something is out of the ordinary, there must be something wrong!"

Prince Li no longer cared to show any mercy to Concubine Yang.

As the head of the royal family, Prince Li could scold Concubine Yang, but the Minister of Justice and others all saw through the situation but did not say anything. Anyway, as long as the case did not reach the stage of trial by the three courts, they did not need to interfere. The new emperor asked them to watch, so they just watched.

Although they had only worked with the new emperor for a short three months, they had already begun to understand his style of doing things. If he did not take action, it would be fine, but when he did, he would make a big splash, such as forcing the emperor to abdicate and investigating the empty salaries.

Concubine Yang wanted to play tricks and use means in front of the new emperor, which was just like using a sword in front of Guan Gong. She overestimated her own abilities! The three adults had relaxed and just watched the show.

"Yes... the business failed." Concubine Yang said to Prince Li hesitantly, her eyes wandering again. She clenched her hands tightly and suppressed the urge to turn around and look at Gu Ming, fearing that someone would notice something.

The cold sweat on Gu Ming's temples and the back of his neck became more intense, and a few drops of sweat slid down his cheeks to his chin.

"You squandered all your family fortune on business?" Prince Li almost laughed out loud. He said coldly, "Because you squandered all your money, you set your eyes on your stepson's money and came to complain to the emperor? You have no shame!!"

Prince Li waved his sleeves heavily. He was a well-known good man in the royal family. It was rare to see him lose his temper so much and humiliate a woman in public.

Concubine Yang: “…”

Concubine Yang's face turned pale and blue, and her complexion was as ugly as a dead person. She gritted her teeth and said, "Gu Jin forced us to sell our property at a low price. It was originally our family that suffered."

Whenever she thought of how Gu Jin took advantage of the situation to rob the family when the family was divided, Concubine Yang felt so angry that she wanted to eat his flesh and drink his blood.

Gu Jin almost wanted to open his mouth to refute again, but finally gritted his teeth.

"Gu Ming," Gu Jue's eyes moved from Concubine Yang to the silent Gu Ming, and asked, "Is that so?"

Having said that, there was actually no room for Gu Ming to deny it.

If he denied it, it would mean that Concubine Yang was guilty of deceiving the emperor, so he could only follow Concubine Yang's words and respond: "Yes, it is my incompetence."

Even if the whole capital would know tomorrow that Gu Ming lost 300,000 taels of silver in business failure, he would have no choice but to accept it.

Gu Ming still kept his head down, maintaining the posture of bowing, and didn't even dare to wipe the sweat that was running down his chin.

"So what kind of business are you in?" Gu Jue asked, casually turning his folding fan again.

Shen Qianchen was so excited by his spinning that he couldn't help but take the folding fan from his hand and started spinning it like him. He was a little unfamiliar with it at first, but after spinning it three or four times, he became very good at it.

As she twirled her folding fan, she also had time to give Gu Ming below a look: This person, once he tells a lie, he will tell more lies to cover it up. If you don't have the ability, it's better not to lie.

Gu Ming was sweating profusely and his eyes rolled around several times. He had never thought that Gu Jue would ask this question and was too panicked to think calmly.

After a while, he stammered and replied, "A ship."

"I invested my money in maritime trade, but something went wrong..."

For a moment, Gu Ming couldn't think of what business he could do to lose three hundred thousand taels of silver, and intuitively thought of the incident in which Li Er's ship capsized at sea.

The four candidates were stunned. For scholars like them who came from ordinary families, three hundred thousand taels was an unimaginable amount of money.

Gu Jue's eyes were on Shen Qianchen's hand spinning the fan, but he was still talking to Gu Ming: "Are you sure you are doing this for maritime trade compensation?"

Gu Ming nodded: "OK!"

"Gu Ming, kneel down!" Gu Jue's tone suddenly turned cold, "You still don't plead guilty!"

Gu Ming was already feeling nervous, and his legs went weak, his knees bent, and he knelt directly on the gold brick floor, which hurt a little.

Concubine Yang was afraid that Gu Ming would say something nonsense, so she rushed to say, "Your Majesty, what do you mean?!"

"My son was careless and paid for the damage, but Gu Jin took advantage of the situation and bullied my younger brother. Isn't that a crime? Your Majesty, instead of upholding justice for us mother and son, you are throwing a bucket of dirty water on my son!"

Concubine Yang's voice became increasingly shrill. In her nervousness, she completely forgot the pain from the caning.

"Bullying?" Gu Jue raised the corner of his mouth with a smile, facing the aggressive Concubine Yang, he smiled instead of getting angry, "Gu Jin is still too tolerant."

If it were Gu Jue, he would never let his daughter be harmed like that, nor would he give up the title of Prince in vain and retreat again and again.

Since Gu Ming refused to speak, Gu Jue spoke for him: "Gu Ming, didn't you use the three hundred thousand taels to fill the 'deficit'?"

Concubine Yang: “!!!”

Gu Ming: “!!!”

Anyone could see that Gu Jue had hit the nail on the head about what he was thinking.

Gu Jue simply snapped his fingers. For Gu Jin, this seemed to be a signal. He suddenly became energetic and stroked his sleeves casually. It was finally his turn to make his debut.

Gu Jin curled his lips and smiled, looking like an elder brother who was like a father to him. He sighed helplessly, "Third brother, I have already advised you not to touch usury money."

When he heard the word "loan sharking", Gu Ming felt as if all the bones in his body were pulled out, and he almost fell down. One thought kept circling in his mind: How did Gu Jin know about the loan sharking? !

In the second half of last year, the late Emperor Gu Lang ordered the Ministry of Works to repair the Taimiao and allocated 300,000 taels of silver from the inner treasury for the repair of the Taimiao. At that time, Gu Ming was in charge of supervising the work at the Zongrenfu.

The three hundred and twenty thousand silver coins were used to pay for stones, wood and craftsmen's wages.

He deliberately took out the 300,000 taels of silver from the inner treasury a month in advance and secretly lent them out at high interest, thinking that as long as he could pay back the money before the end of the year, he could get 50,000 taels of interest.

This is a full 50,000 taels, and it’s a business with no capital investment.

Gu Ming was tempted, as he thought he could recover the usury in time. However, Li Er, who wanted to borrow money from him, ran away, and 300,000 taels of silver were wasted.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

For this reason, Gu Ming had to sell his property to Gu Jin at a low price when the family was divided. Only then did he collect 300,000 taels to fill the hole and finally get an explanation to the late emperor Gu Lang.

Later, Gu Ming also kept sending people to look for Li Er's whereabouts, but because it involved his secret case of embezzling public funds, and the imperial court had issued a clear order prohibiting usury, he did not dare to look for anyone openly and could only keep a low profile.

Later, the late emperor Gu Lang passed away.

To be honest, Gu Ming was relieved at that time, thinking that no one would investigate this old account anymore, and no one would find out that he had advanced the money a month in advance.

Who would have thought that half a year later, this old incident would resurface without warning. The more Gu Ming thought about it, the more uneasy he became.

Gu Jin bowed solemnly to Gu Jue, his expression straightened, and his handsome face, which was usually a bit careless, suddenly became righteous and dignified, and explained the whole story: "Your Majesty, my third brother took advantage of his job to secretly embezzle money to lend to someone at high interest, but the other party absconded with the money, and the 300,000 taels of silver should have been used to make up for the shortfall in his job."

"Family disgrace should not be made public. There are some things that I am not comfortable talking about. In fact, I am afraid that my third brother has too much money and will lend money at high interest rates, squandering all the assets of the Prince's Mansion. That is why I changed the assets of the Prince's Mansion to my name at a discount."

Gu Jin spoke the story with a sincere look on his face, almost saying that he had no choice but to do so in order to protect his ancestral family property.

Prince Li actually believed it to some extent, and nodded and stroked his beard. Selling off the property was the behavior of a prodigal son. Gu Ming could not keep the family business of the Prince's Mansion, so it would be better to sell it to Gu Jin at a low price.

"No, Your Majesty, I have not lost anything." Gu Ming raised his head and shook his head in panic to deny it. A large patch of cold sweat broke out on his back. He looked like he had been fished out of the water. He was terrified, embarrassed, and regretful.

Gu Ming didn’t know how much Gu Jin knew, but he knew that he could not admit to the crime of “deficit”, as deficit was much more serious than lending money at high interest.

That's right, he absolutely couldn't admit it! Concubine Yang also knew that her son had lent money at high interest, and her heart sank, but she still refuted with a strong appearance: "Your Majesty, you have no evidence to say that my son embezzled public funds, which is really disheartening!"

In Concubine Yang's view, her son had "borrowed" the three hundred thousand taels of silver, but hadn't they sold their property to pay the money back? No one else suffered a loss except their family, so how could this be called a "deficit"?

Gu Jin curled his lips sarcastically, not surprised by the reaction of the mother and son. Like mother, like son, this mother and son never cry until they see the Yellow River! "No evidence?" Gu Jue said as he put down the teacup in his hand. The bottom of the cup hit the table with a clear thumping sound, and that sound made Gu Ming's heart tremble.

Gu Jue looked at Gu Ming and said, "On the ninth day of the winter month last year, you lent 300,000 taels to Li Er. Li Er promised you to return it within a month and gave you 50,000 taels of interest."

"On the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month last year, Li Er left the capital without saying goodbye."

Gu Ming: “!!!”

Gu Ming's heart plummeted.

When Prince Li heard "the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month", he had an idea. The date of the division was written on the document. Prince Jing's mansion was divided on the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month last year.

Looking back now, it should be that Gu Ming knew that Li Er had escaped that day, so he suddenly changed his attitude and sold the property to Gu Jin at a low price just to raise money to fill a deficit somewhere.

The other people around were also thoughtful. Even if they didn't know the ins and outs of the matter originally, after hearing this, they almost knew everything.

So the key to the problem is, where did the 300,000 taels of silver that Gu Ming gave to Li Er come from? Gu Ming's heart sank even lower. The more he listened, the more panicked he became. A desperate and shocked voice echoed in his head: Gu Jue actually knew everything, and knew it in such detail.

He felt as if he was struck by thunder and his head was buzzing.

He could feel his whole body trembling slightly, and even if he used all his strength, he couldn't suppress it. The only thought left in his mind was: I can't recognize it.

He gritted his teeth and said, "Your Majesty, it was really because I lost the three hundred thousand taels in my maritime trade business."

"I lost all my money after paying the compensation. I can no longer make ends meet in my mansion, so I wanted to ask my second brother for some help."

"I didn't know that my mother would come to file a complaint with the emperor..."

Gu Ming spoke intermittently, completely distancing himself from the issue, not daring to look at Concubine Yang.

In fact, he had advised Concubine Yang once, thinking that it would be better not to make such an ugly scene, but Concubine Yang insisted on coming, and he couldn't stop her.

"..." Concubine Yang felt a chill in her heart, and she didn't know whether the pain in her heart or the pain in her body was more tormenting.

In fact, Gu Jin and others all knew that Gu Ming was just making excuses and struggling in his last moments. He was a seven-foot-tall man, yet he had the guts to embezzle public funds to lend money at high interest rates. Now that he had incurred public outrage, he could only make excuses and push his mother out to take the blame. This man was greedy, timid, and cowardly.

A loving mother often spoils her son. Concubine Yang also contributed greatly to the fact that Gu Ming was raised to have this kind of character! Gu Ming kowtowed heavily and knelt humbly on the ground: "I cannot protect the family property of my ancestors. It is because of my incompetence."

Gu Ming felt extremely heartbroken. He knew that after today’s incident, Gu Jue would use the excuse of his own “incompetence” to suppress the petition for a title.

However, he could only admit that he was "incompetent".

Under the current circumstances, if Gu Jue continued the interrogation, he would definitely be charged with embezzlement of public funds.

(End of this chapter)