Li Shengan dared not think any further. Every step he took felt incredibly heavy. Yet, time did not stop, and he eventually arrived at Zhaochen Palace.
The Emperor was furious and wanted to give Li Shengan a sound thrashing. Thus, he instructed Li Shengan, "After dinner, go to the Punishment Department and receive ten heavy strikes!"
The cold sweat on Li Shengan’s brow finally dripped, and his heart settled back into his chest.
Ten heavy strikes! Not too bad, not too bad. I should be able to keep my life!
After expressing his gratitude for the mercy, Li Shengan withdrew.
Once outside the Imperial Study Room, Li Shengan slapped himself hard several times.
That’s for not being careful! That’s for causing the Emperor to be offended, for trying to be clever, for...!
But upon deeper reflection, this really wasn’t his fault! He had repeatedly instructed Little Zhuzi and the others beforehand to clear the area thoroughly, not leaving a single person behind. The Emperor hadn’t changed his route unexpectedly; by all accounts, there should have been no one there!
Yet, how did Honored Lady Jiang... how did she appear there?
Li Shengan was an old hand; such a simple question hardly required much thought to answer. There were two possibilities.
One is that there’s a traitor among my men! The other is that Honored Lady Jiang found an opportunity and slipped in herself!
Li Shengan mentally reviewed all the little eunuchs under him, but in the end, his suspicion fell on Lady Chiang.
It’s her! he thought. Does she desire favor? Did she see what became of Honored Lady Du and grow anxious?
Li Shengan sighed internally. Alas! What good would it do to be anxious? Even if you resemble Consort Xian Pin, what use is that? Is there any comparison? None at all!
However, Li Shengan knew he could only pretend not to know about this matter. After all, he had already received his punishment, and the Emperor hadn’t said he would pursue the matter further. It wasn’t a eunuch’s place to stir up trouble.
「Time flew by, and more than half of July had passed.」
The price of grain in Jiangnan remained exorbitant. Zhou Lin had been ordered by the Emperor to investigate the case in Jiangnan. But after extensive investigation, he found not a single clue. The officials hosting him all began to lament one after another upon seeing him.
"So many deaths! How are we to explain ourselves when we report back to the Capital!"
"If the performance evaluation fails, we can only be demoted!"
"These cursed grain prices! I’ve already issued edicts to bring them down, but it’s useless!"
"Those cunning and crafty traders, like slick old foxes, are only interested in profit, showing no concern for the common people’s lives!"
"When selling grain, it always goes to the highest bidder!"
They continuously drove up prices while desperately urging families with surplus grain to sell their stores.
"Some families, unable to resist the lure of high prices, sold all their grain to those traders!"
"And they used it to enrich themselves again!"
Several Prefects and Magistrates from Jiangnan Prefecture gathered, weeping and sniffling.
Zhou Lin’s lip twitched. No wonder the Emperor is so disgusted with those censors, calling them overly pedantic and prone to weeping like women, he thought. He himself hadn’t believed it. Now that he’d seen it with his own eyes... Heh, when these civil officials cry, it truly is dreadful.
Goosebumps rose on Zhou Lin’s skin.
"Uh!" he began, "You gentlemen... COUGH COUGH!"
Zhou Lin was so embarrassed he didn’t know what to do with his hands and feet.
As the officials cried, they actually knelt, one by one, clinging to his sleeves and legs.
"Lord Zhou, you must save us!"
"You must get to the bottom of this matter; otherwise, we’ll all lose our heads!"
Zhou Lin was left speechless. Alright then. From the looks of it, these officials likely weren’t heavily involved.
It made sense when he thought about it. Starving so many people to death would mean failing their performance evaluations and ruining their careers. Isn’t that digging one’s own grave? Surely... no one would be that foolish.
However, without substantial evidence, he wouldn’t jump to conclusions. He helped the officials up, offered some words of comfort, and then sent them away.
Next, he planned to go among the common folk himself to investigate the source of this problem. Someone had to be manipulating these abnormal grain prices from behind the scenes. His task was to trace these threads of evidence one by one, to unravel the mystery and find the true culprit.
「After observing for over half a month, Zhou Lin made a discovery.」
Grain prices soared ever higher, yet the amount of grain circulating in the market dwindled. So, where had all the grain gone?
After locating several grain stores, Zhou Lin spent days staking them out. Finally, he found a breakthrough.
It was a foul night, pitch-black without moonlight, making it impossible to see. Several carriages stopped at the back entrance of a grain store. A man who didn’t look like a merchant entered the store. Soon after, several men dressed in black emerged from the courtyard, carrying sacks. Clearly, it was grain.