Red Mansion: Picking up a Lin Daiyu

Chapter 204 Close to the truth
This gloomy prison should be the worst residence in the government office, or even in Cangzhou city today.

The deep and narrow corridor only let in a little scattered light. Once you enter the main door, you will be overwhelmed by the foul air, the smell of decay and mold everywhere, making you feel sick.

The cell was as small as a cage, and the walls were damp, as if water droplets could be seen. The brick and stone floor, which had long been broken, was now uneven and muddy. There was no bed in the cell, only some straw scattered on the floor, and the smell was indescribable.

It was clearly noon, but the prison was extremely cold, as if a cold wind blew from time to time, making the ragged Pu Zheng and Ji Qing even more unbearable.

Perhaps they had embezzled the money for prison renovation, and now they are the ones to suffer the consequences.

Hearing the noise outside through the iron bars, Ji Qing raised his head listlessly, and saw that it was Yue Ling who came. His heart was dead, and he said weakly: "My Lord, our crime is not so serious."

It seemed like Yue Ling intentionally put them here to torture them so that they could experience firsthand the suffering of the disaster victims.

It is not only a punishment, but also a humiliation.

Yue Ling's expression was even more indifferent, as if he was treating her like a worthless person. "I didn't come to look for you because I haven't investigated your background thoroughly. Now that I'm here, you should know that something bad has happened. How can your sin be reduced?"

Ji Qing knew that he could not escape death, so he sneered and mocked Yue Ling, saying: "If you think that a Shanxi merchant's collateral branch descendant like me can be protected by the family, you are very wrong. This case was indeed committed by me out of greed, but it is not a major case concerning the court. What's the point of keeping me here?"

"I am not bait, I can't catch the big fish in your heart. Now it's just a waste of food, why not give me a quick death."

"There shouldn't be enough food in the city now, right?"

Ji Qing shook out his loose hair, revealing a pair of gray eyes. He looked straight at Yue Ling, feeling a little proud in his heart.

He had no intention of repenting and even gloated over Yue Ling's current situation.

In his eyes, the meals supplied in recent days have been more and more soup, and not much corn. Isn't this evidence of the shortage of rice in the city?
"How can he stabilize prices in Cangzhou City, which has enemies everywhere? This is not the capital."

Ji Qing was thinking this in his heart, and his thoughts were also radiating from his pupils. When Yue Ling saw this, he just thought he was pathetic.

"You are indeed not a direct descendant of a wealthy Shanxi merchant family, or even a collateral branch. You have worked hard to get to your current position by just pretending to be a big shot. But the more people like this want to prove that they are no worse than others, no worse than the direct descendants, the more they will stop at nothing."

"You have been working in Cangzhou City for so many years, how could you only have 20,000 or 30,000 taels of stolen money? You don't have anyone above you, so you won't give gifts to anyone. Or, where did you keep the rest of the money?"

Ji Qing's eyes flashed with astonishment, but he regained his composure after a moment and said, "In the eyes of the Marquis, twenty or thirty thousand taels is not a lot, right?"

Yue Ling ignored him and signaled to Jia Yun behind him. Then the jailer came in with good wine and delicious food.

Seeing the delicious food and wine in front of him, Ji Qing hesitated even more, "My Lord, you squeezed out some of your own rations to give the criminal a full meal. I am very touched."

Jia Yun stepped forward and explained, "This is just the normal food in the military camp. Do you think there are still refugees everywhere outside the city? I'm telling you the truth so that you can understand it. Order has long been restored in the city. The merchants' homes were confiscated, and those who were exiled were exiled. Sixty thousand dan of grain and one million taels of silver were confiscated from their homes."

"The city's northern granary is full of silver and grain, and two new granaries have been built. Do you still think that the Marquis cannot support the victims in the city?"

"Among the new inmates, aren't there any local merchants? If you had known a few words from them, you wouldn't be as ignorant and pitiful as you are today."

The words hit Ji Qing's head like a string of cannonballs, making him feel a little dizzy. It was as if the extremely serious problems in his mind were no longer problems at this moment.

Many people have indeed entered the prison recently, but he has no chance to meet them.

After placing the wine and food on the ground, Jia Yun withdrew.

The iron gate closed again, and Yue Ling said with a dull look outside: "In fact, even if you don't tell me, I know where your money is. On the road to the underworld, Huang Wenhua, the head of the Huang family, will soon accompany you, and you won't be alone."

Jiqing's eyes widened and his hands trembled. Faced with the delicious food and wine, he couldn't even lift the chopsticks for a moment.

Yue Ling continued, "You always have to have a motive for doing things. Look at Pu Zheng. He embezzled money to treat his daughter's illness. After his daughter died, he started to enjoy himself. The wine alley on Shili Street was the place where he enjoyed himself. But you, the judge, you don't live a luxurious life like this. Where did you save the money?"

"I remember that there are certain requirements for Shanxi merchants to return to their ancestral home. They must be officials of a certain rank and have hundreds of thousands of dollars in wealth?"

Seeing that Ji Qing's face had turned pale and his lips had turned purple, Yue Ling said again: "Don't worry, you won't be able to return to your roots. In the end, you will end up being eaten by dogs in a mass grave."

"It's not like I didn't give you a chance. If you had confessed everything during this period, your wife and children might have survived. However, now that things have come to this, after your death, they will also be exiled two thousand miles away. Whether they can survive depends on their fate."

"As for the money you saved, it has already been squandered by the Huang family. Don't even think that he can help you accomplish anything."

At the right moment, Ji Qing could no longer suppress his emotions, so he climbed up to the iron railings and kowtowed, saying, "My Lord, I am still useful. The human trafficking case hasn't been solved yet, right? It was the Huang family that was in charge, and we were just making things easier for them." "My Lord, whatever you want to know, I will tell you everything I know. I don't ask you to spare my life, I only ask you to leave a descendant for my family!"

Yue Ling raised his foot and was about to leave, but when he heard Ji Qing's words, he turned back.

"If you want to tell me, I'll give you a chance to tell me something I don't know."

Hearing this, Ji Qing's breathing became heavy as he hurriedly recalled what had happened.

Yue Ling frowned and said, "My patience is limited."

Ji Qing said, "What the Marquis said just now is almost the same. I am not a branch of the Shanxi merchants, but an illegitimate child. When I was young, he was unkind to my mother and me. When my mother died of illness, he still had resentment in his eyes. I was only fifteen or sixteen years old at that time. I made up my mind at that time to go back to Jinzhong and confront that heartless and ungrateful person face to face."

"My mother's long-cherished wish was to be buried in Jinzhong, but I don't have a family identity. I can only be included in the family tree after I recognize my ancestors. The threshold for joining the Jin merchant family is indeed very high. I..."

Yue Ling added: "I am not here to hear about your miserable life story. Who doesn't have difficulties? If you have difficulties, you have to exploit the poor people to satisfy your own selfish desires. People like you are even less worthy of sympathy!"

Ji Qing kowtowed again and again, "Yes, I have been a little long-winded. I will start from before you took office. The food shortage in Cangzhou is also related to you."

Hearing him say this, Yue Ling really became interested. What does his work in the capital have to do with Cangzhou?
"Go ahead."

Ji Qing explained, "There was originally grain in the city, which was relief grain from the surrounding prefectures. The eight counties had been holding back on it and only a small number of them were distributed. At the time, there should have been about 5,000 dan."

"Because of my identity, I attracted a group of merchants who said they were also Shanxi merchants and had a big business to make a fortune. They wanted to take advantage of the pressure from the northern barbarians on the capital to stockpile goods and sell them at high prices. The food in the city was swindled away by them, and then they could give me several times the profit."

"The total amount is nearly 100,000 taels. When the silver comes back, I will go to the south to buy some grain to replenish the granary. This is a foolproof method."

"Shaxi merchant?"

Yue Ling repeated in a low voice.

Yue Ling could roughly guess what would happen next.

This group of merchants must have smelled a business opportunity and thought that there was profit to be made as the city was short of food.

But who would have thought that Yue Ling, who was making his debut, would use an iron fist to crack down on illegal merchants. Once anyone was found raising the price, the offender would be punished with a light punishment or even with a heavy punishment, and all their goods would be confiscated.

It was a direct political intervention, and at that time the military and politics in the city were integrated. Once Yue Ling issued an order, no one could make any waves.

In the end, of course, all the money was lost.

The large amounts of grain that were temporarily transported into the city had no suitable storage space and would rot and mold faster.

Jiqing should be panicking as his efforts were in vain.

Then, Ji Qing said, "Prefect Park and I have cooperated with the Huang family many times. Huang Wenhua, the head of the Huang family, proposed a suggestion, which is human trafficking. The officers and soldiers helped to catch some homeless refugees, and then they sold them."

"This is a very profitable business. Besides, with fewer refugees in the city, the food pressure is less..."

Yue Ling angrily said, "Beast."

Ji Qing sighed and said, "It was a helpless solution at that time. Later, a troublemaker appeared in the city, that Young Master Liu."

"Perhaps he is good at martial arts and has a careful mind. He discovered the human trafficking during his own investigation in the city. Then we realized that this matter might not be concealed anymore, so we wanted to kill him and then frame someone else."

"Also, there is a traitor in the Yunxing Escort Agency. I don't know who it is because I have never seen his face. I only know that he is good at martial arts and is probably in the same group with the Huang family. The military officer I sent to commit the crime died at his hands."

Yue Ling signaled to the jailer beside him to open the cell and came to Ji Qing. Yue Ling narrowed his eyes and asked, "One last question. Who is the Huang family trafficking people to? In a year of poor harvest, who can take in so many people and so many mouths?"

As Yue Ling approached, Ji Qing only felt a huge pressure pressing on his body, making it difficult for him to breathe.

His back unconsciously sank down, with his head just touching the tip of Yue Ling's shoes.

With trembling lips, Ji Qing replied: "I don't know the details of who the buyer is..."

(End of this chapter)