That night Xu Jingzong didn’t sleep well. News came back that Dong Xiaoyi visited Yin Family Village with his men.

Although Dong Xiaoyi gave good justification for visiting, Xu Jingzong still smell something fishy and was even more determine to get rid of Li Yuanying. The Wu family is not the only family that has lost their father in the past two years. He told his men to spread rumors by randomly picking a few villages that Prince Teng had visited. After all Prince Teng gives away money when he finds someone pitiful and is very generous!

Xu Jingzong felt that the rumor he is spreading will turn into fact, after all isn’t Li Yuanying royalty and isn’t it normal for relatives of the Emperor to have some romantic stories? I’m not accusing him of adultery. At most, people will just say that Prince Teng is not very particular about social decorum and went after a lady who was in mourning.  By then, his superiors will realize that letting Li Yuanying out was a mistake and recall him back early!

Even though he had made preparations, Xu Jingzong still feel uneasy. He send people early the next morning to Yin family village to tell them not to disclose too much infomation to Dong Xiaoyi.

The Yin family was a little confused. Dong Xiaoyi wanted to inspect their village and asked how many were working on their land. He even had an expression of “everyone knows” so the manager thought that Li Yuanying is here to help them make money and happily disclose their background clearly!

Could it be that Li Yuanying is trying to investigate? Everyone should be wearing the same pants ^[1]standing on the same side, how can he be so shameless? !

The steward hurriedly wrote a letter to Chang’an, asking for opinion.

Yuanying found out all about Yin Family Village because of Dong Xiaoyi’s great skills in trickery. He found all the hidden households and hidden fields.

After reading the letter, Yuanying was sure that Wu Zhiyuan was telling the truth.

If the Yin family doesn’t have that many hidden households, they wouldn’t be afraid when someone wanted to become a proper citizen. Although not everyone is willing to become citizen and live the hard life of paying taxes and labor, if they are persuaded collectively who is going to farm and take care of their daily life? Therefore, when people’s hearts are wavering, they will be cruel so that no one dares to mention this again!

Unfortunately, this caused the family of the young lady who Wu loves to become victims.

These are dark days where registered slaves can be killed or beaten as long as their masters had a justifiable reason. What more if you’re a hidden household without any rights.

Yuanying stayed quiet while looking at the records before asking for pen and paper. He wrote a letter with all the evidence and sent it to the Ministry of Household Affairs. This matter is too offensive and he cannot harm his eldest nephew or Wei Zheng. Household registration matters are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Household Affairs, so this matter should be reported to them!

Li Yuanying believed his actions is reasonable.

Before he could finish writing his letter, a spy came back informing that Xu Jingzong had sent someone to Yin family village and also sent people back to Chang’an to spread rumour about Li Yuanying.

Yuanying asked strangely: “What rumors?”

The guard also had a strange look on his face: “Something about you having a crush on a peasant girl who is still in mourning.”

Yuanying couldn’t help but glance at Wei Shu sitting next to him. Sister Shu is so adorable how can he fall for anyone else!

“In the morning, the rumors had changed to something about Your Highness liking a newly widowed widow! The rumor became even more convincing, saying that the widow’s husband had just been buried and the soil on the grave was not even dry yet. In order to marry Prince Teng, she kept fanning the grave with a fan. When people asked her what was going on, she said that she had an agreement with her dead husband that she will wait until the soil on his grave had dried up before remarrying!”

After hearing this, Yuanying felt that the person who came up with it was quite creative. He said enthusiastically: “Do you know who made this up? Did you write it down?  Go find the person so that he can write stories for me!”

Wei Shu was nervous for Li Yuanying when she heard that Xu Jingzong  wants to harm his reputation. Seeing Yuanying listening with great interest wanting to recruit a storyteller, she felt that her worries were in vain.  She grabbed his hand wanting to pinch him but didn’t feel like she could do it hard and so she lightly pinch the palm of his hand.

Yuanying felt his hand being pinched by Wei Shu. When he lowered his head, he saw that it was true. He got interested and squeezed her palm back, causing Wei Shu’s ears to turn red. Only then did Li Yuanying let go with a smile and calmly ended the little interaction and continue writing his letter. He sent Dong Xiaoyi and the guard back to Chang’an. Let’s file a lawsuit early!

How thoroughly will the case be investigated is no longer his problem. After all, Yuanying is not keen to make friends with people like Xu Jingzong. He initially just think that the man was not good looking and he tried to see his inner qualities but he uncover all these dirt within a few days.  

After Dong Xiaoyi left, Yuanying shut his door and refuse guests.

The others were also in a bad mood as they had read through all the evidences. Everything points to the fact that Wu Zhiyuan is not lying.

Since Dong Xiaoyi was preparing to open a library for Hu County, there were many books at their temporary residence including local newsletters about Hu County. The group would be occupied even if they refuse to meet guests.

In history books, Xiao He relied on the knowledge he got from books and helped Liu Bang to govern the Qin Dynasty. They should also read local records and not rely solely on Xu Jingzong and his men’s words. If you believe everything that people tell you, you’ll be led by the nose and your every move controlled!

When it comes to reading, Wu Mei is simply the best. She quickly sorts the books into categories and assigned everyone to their own tasks. In the blink of an eye the group switched from not wanting to receive guests to studying behind closed doors. When Chang’an is ready to deal with matter, then it’s time to show off their skills!

……

If this was in the past, Xu Jingzong’s dirty tricks might have worked but not now. After the big storm that drove Li Tai to his fiefdom, no one would be stupid enough to publicize the discord between the royal family. Xu Jingzong had been spending all his time away in a county and did not have a chance to find out about how Li Tai was sent away.

According to Xu Jingzong’s logic, isn’t it normal for traders who visit Chang’an to pass on local gossip?  

Xu Jingzong  not only told people to spread rumors, he made them stay for 2 more days to fan the flames. As a result, the rumors intensified and his people were quickly taken away to the Imperial department of Justice (Dalishi).

Is this a place that ordinary people can enter? It is the highest judicial authority in the country and those who enter would have committed grave crimes. The person spreading rumour was so frightened that he confessed on the spot and accused Xu Jingzong of being the mastermind. He is not the creator of the rumors but just the carrier!

As for why Xu Jingzong did so, he didn’t know. He just did what his superiors told him to and didn’t as why.

After the interrogation, the results were handed directly to His Majesty.

His Majesty showed neither joy nor anger, no one could read the Emperor’s mind.  He only asked who the magistrate of Hu County was.

His men instantly understood that he wants to investigate Xu Jingzong and immediately shared his name without hesitation.

“Thorough investigation.” (Li Er)

His men accepted the order and retreated, all secretly thinking about how unlucky Xu Jingzong was. This was a trick that Prince Wei had previously used that resulted in him being kick away to his fiefdom. Using this same trick will make the Emperor think about his son Prince Wei.

Why are you so bad at scheming? You actually picked the same trick that had failed! You are not a beloved son of the Emperor! Well now, just wait for death!

In reality not many officials have really “clean” records. When his Majesty added the word thorough, it means to find out everything so that Xu Jingzong can die without struggle.

Just as the justice department officials left, Tang Jian requested a meeting with the Emperor with a serious look. Sensing that the Emperor is in a bad mood, Tang Jian looked really bitter as Li Yuanying threw him a hot potato ^[2]troublesome tasks. Prince Teng is Wei Zheng’s future grandson-in-law, so why did he look for the Ministry of Household Affairs and not him?!

If nothing else works, can’t Prince Teng reach out to the Emperor directly?

Surely, if you’re not part of a family you will not enter the same door. Prince Teng is so clever that he knew how not to get his loved ones in trouble.  

Tang Jian brought evidence about Yin family’s hidden household and fields and a case personally written by Prince Teng himself.

If this matter hadn’t been sent directly into his hands, he could have turned a blind eye but Li Yuanying obviously didn’t like to keep things low-key. If things got serious and the Emperor confront him, that boy might just say that he stopped him from whistle-blowing!

In order not to get into trouble, Tang Jian made a trip personally to meet the Emperor to show him the hornet’s nest that his brother had dug up in Hu County.

If we were to thoroughly investigate all the hidden households, it wouldn’t just be one or two families. It may even offend all wealthy families! A person like Li Yuanying who first sends spies to the door and then send evidence to the boss, is guaranteed to be blacklisted  by all aristocratic families!

After reading the evidences, the Emperor still had no expression on his face. If he didn’t already know about these unregistered household, he wouldn’t have ordered the homeless to register citizenship last year.

After reading Li Yuanying’s investigative report, the Emperor’s  expression changed a little. Yuanying clearly wrote about how he met Wu Zhiyuan, how he got the whole story and how he induced all parties to take action.

After reading, Li Er realized that the source of rumors is actually Li Yuanying himself. He deliberately praised the young lady in front of others!

The case is well written with clear statements and sincere emotions. If such evil things could happen at the feet of the Emperor, it is betrayal to the name of Zhenguan! ^[3]Zhenguan is the reign title/years under Li Er’s rule

 “Go get Yin Yuan to come into the palace.”

If Yin Yuan knew about this, he is to be blamed; if Yin Yuan did not know about it, then he failed to manage his family and should be punished. Why are all the other villages well but yours has a murder case?

When the people sent to summon Yin Yuan arrived at the Yin family residence, he was describing his late uncle Yin Kaishan’s great deeds to Yan Liben. Although he has never meet his uncle in his youth, this was a treasured story by the Yin family and he shared Yin Kaishan’s proudest achievements to Yan Liben.

Lately Yan Liben has been tortured by all these talk about past heroes’ achievements that his brain ached. He really think that he was crazy to have picked a fight with Li Yuanying.

Both men were stunned when they heard that His Majesty has summoned for Yin Yuan. Yan Liben even suspected that the person who delivered the order had heard wrongly and is summoning for him instead! After all, Yin Yuan doesn’t hold much power, so why would His Majesty want to see him?

But Yan Liben didn’t ask any question. Yin Yuan was going to the palace so he didn’t want to stay any longer. Before returning to his mansion, Yan Liben heard that there were rumors about Li Yuanying being attracted to a pretty widow. The story was vivid, but he didn’t know if it was true!

Yan Liben had chills.

Who has such short memory and dares to mess with Li Yuanying?

Like his brother said, someone is about to be very unlucky?!

Notes from the author:

The young prince sneezes several times!

What are you guys talking about behind my back! (pointing)

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