Chapter 15: That Spanking Was Totally Worth It!

The Censor-in-Chief was waiting outside the Imperial Study for the Emperor to summon him.

A few days prior, someone had secretly sent him a note. The handwriting was scrawled, clearly meant to conceal the sender’s identity.

But after he finished reading the contents, he immediately dispatched men overnight to Fei Yan’s hometown to investigate.

Sure enough, the information written on the note was true.

The Censor-in-Chief chose not to raise the matter publicly in court, but instead decided to submit a confidential report in person after the morning assembly.

After waiting outside the palace hall for a short while, an attendant soon summoned him into the Imperial Study.

He entered and bowed.

Once the Emperor motioned for him to rise, the Censor-in-Chief respectfully presented his memorial. “Your Majesty, I have an urgent matter to report. Prime Minister Fei’s paternal uncle, Fei Gang, forcibly took possession of the Lin family’s ancestral soy sauce recipe. The head of the Lin family went to the county office to file a complaint, but was forced into a false confession under torture by the county magistrate, and tragically died from the injustice. I request to impeach Prime Minister Fei for poor oversight of his family.”

The Lin family patriarch had originally intended to report Fei Gang’s coercion to hand over the secret recipe.

But instead, he was tortured into confessing that the deal had been a mutually agreed-upon transaction.

Chief Eunuch Feng stepped forward to take the confidential memorial from the Censor-in-Chief and respectfully handed it to the Emperor.

Ling Guyong opened the memorial. It included not only a detailed account of the entire incident, but also the collected evidence.

He scanned it quickly, then ordered someone to summon Fei Yan immediately.

After all, Fei Yan had been promoted to the position of Prime Minister through the joint efforts of the Emperor and the Imperial Tutor—someone must have gotten impatient.

Ling Guyong set the memorial aside and granted the Censor-in-Chief a seat while they waited.

At that moment, Fei Yan’s carriage had just exited the palace gates when he saw an imperial eunuch rushing over with a summons from the Emperor.

The carriage turned back around and reentered the palace.

—

Meanwhile, another carriage had stopped outside the gates of the Prime Minister’s Residence.

Inside sat Tang Chaoyang, calmly reading a medical book.

“Miss, we’ve arrived at the Prime Minister’s Residence,” said the servant.

Madam Wu stepped down first.

Tang Chaoyang closed her book. This was perfect—Fei Yan wouldn’t be home at this hour, which made it the best time to act.

She stepped out of the carriage as Madam Wu held an oil-paper umbrella over her.

Wearing a hat and a red fur cloak, Tang Chaoyang looked up at the plaque bearing the Prime Minister’s Residence’s name.

She had only lived here for a few days before leaving.

Madam Wu shielded her with the umbrella. “Miss, it’s cold outside. Let’s go in.”

Today, Tang Chaoyang was here to retrieve her dowry.

The Censor-in-Chief had likely already uncovered Fei Gang’s crimes.

She wondered what kind of punishment Fei Yan would receive.

This was her little “gift” for him.

Tang Chaoyang had once analyzed the new emperor’s methods. She believed Fei Yan had been promoted to Prime Minister precisely to counterbalance the influence of noble families and aristocrats.

Therefore, over something like Fei Gang stealing a secret recipe, the Emperor might only issue a minor punishment.

Still, her objective had been achieved.

In her previous life, when Fei Yan eventually learned that Fei Gang had abused his power to seize the Lin family’s ancestral soy sauce recipe, he dramatically denounced his own uncle on the Golden Throne Hall, pleading guilty for failing to manage his household.

The Emperor, moved by his supposed righteousness, merely docked his salary for three months—a slap on the wrist.

But this time, Tang Chaoyang had reported the matter to the Censor-in-Chief in advance.

Now, in this life, who knew how Fei Yan would be punished?

—

In the Imperial Study, Fei Yan received the memorial from Chief Eunuch Feng and unfolded it.

He quickly skimmed the contents.

His uncle, Fei Gang, had not only stolen the Lin family’s soy sauce recipe, but also caused the wrongful death of the Lin patriarch.

Fei Yan hadn’t expected that fool to so blatantly exploit his name to commit crimes so soon.

The Censor-in-Chief glanced at Fei Yan. Seeing his calm, expressionless face, he sneered inwardly.

Fei Yan folded the memorial and knelt. “Your Majesty, this subject has failed to properly discipline his family.”

The Emperor nodded slightly and looked at him. “Beloved subject, as Prime Minister, you could not even manage your own kin. In consideration of your ignorance of the matter, I shall punish you with twenty strokes as a warning. As for Fei Gang’s crimes—there must be no cover-up. Issue my decree: Magistrate Huang of Tiancheng County is dismissed for negligence and dereliction of duty, effective immediately.”

Fei Yan accepted the decree and went to receive his punishment.

The Censor-in-Chief also bowed and took his leave.

“Prime Minister Fei, I apologize for offending you today,” the Censor-in-Chief said with an apologetic expression.

In a matter like this, the Emperor didn’t even need to verify it himself. If it had been a false accusation, Fei Yan certainly wouldn’t have let the Censor-in-Chief off so easily.

No one in the court was a fool.

Fei Yan nodded slightly. “You did the right thing. I failed to rein in my family.”

Inside the Imperial Study, Ling Guyong smiled faintly. The Censor-in-Chief’s memorial had arrived at just the right moment.

He took a document from his desk and placed it in a box. “Deliver this box to A-Yan. He’ll know what to do.”

Chief Eunuch Feng respectfully took the box and left to deliver it to Fei Yan.

Fei Yan, looking slightly pale, climbed into his carriage. Those administering the punishment had gone easy on him.

Still, those twenty strokes hurt like hell.

Though he appeared somewhat disheveled, his cold, noble aura remained intact.

After settling into a comfortable position, he opened the box from Eunuch Feng and pulled out the documents inside.

After reading them, his eyes flickered slightly—so the Emperor wanted to use this “beaten for poor family management” incident to clean up the chaos in the capital.

The late emperor had left behind many issues. In the capital alone, the misconduct of noble scions, imperial clansmen, and officials’ children had made life miserable for commoners.

Come tomorrow’s court session, everyone would see a Prime Minister who, humiliated by a public flogging, launched a wave of retaliatory crackdowns.

He’d drag them all into the mud with him, and the Emperor would be “forced” to punish the scoundrels.

Fei Yan almost laughed from anger. The new emperor, his power still unstable, was truly playing the innocent well.

He returned the documents to the box and closed the lid.

That flogging?
Totally worth it!

“Send someone to investigate how the Censor-in-Chief found out about Fei Gang’s actions.”

Fei Gang and the magistrate couldn’t have been stupid enough to leave such obvious evidence behind.

It was too detailed—even the witnesses and physical evidence were complete.