Madam, don't do this!

Chapter 70 An Emperor Who Died of Illness (4)

When Ji Cheng helplessly discovered that the sky had collapsed, he could hardly bear it anymore.

The next moment, Ji Cheng suddenly turned his head to look at his son Ji Wenxuan. Being glared at by his father, Ji Wenxuan was stunned at first and then he thought of something. Beads of sweat instantly broke out on his forehead and his body trembled unconsciously.

Song Yun is dead.

And he, along with some others, beat up Song Yun last night.

Could it be that……

A certain thought in his mind made Ji Wenxuan's face turn pale.

Don't think you felt good about beating up Song Yun last night. That was just a moment of scholarly rage. Song Yun was, after all, the legitimate son of the Duke's family. If he died, it would be a huge commotion. His father was only a magistrate, after all. While he held real power, his status was far inferior to that of the Duke. Furthermore, the Duke had a younger brother who served as the Minister of Personnel. If this were to be investigated, not only would his father, but the entire Ji family wouldn't be able to protect him.

There is a huge difference between beating and killing.

Ji Cheng quickly suppressed the restlessness that was rising from deep within his heart: "Are you sure the person who died was Song Yun?"

"How did you die?"

At first, the sound was a little strange, but it returned to calm in the end.

"It's confirmed. It's the Seventh Young Master of the Song Family." The officer's face turned pale, and as if thinking of the tragic state of the corpse, his stomach churned and he almost vomited. "As for the cause of death, the preliminary judgment is that he was beaten to death."

Ji Wenxuan's body trembled again, and his face turned even paler.

"His limbs were all broken, his flesh torn, and his chest was smashed by a rock. He must have been tortured before his death, and then his head was cut off."

Upon hearing this, Ji Wenxuan, who was originally very scared, suddenly brightened up his eyes: "Father, that's not me..."

"Shut up." Before Ji Wenxuan could finish his words, Ji Cheng suddenly shouted, then threw a silver ingot to the officer: "Go to Ningping and inform the Duke."

The officer took the silver and left happily. Ji Cheng then glared at Ji Wenxuan fiercely: "Idiot, what are the right and wrong words to say? Do you still need me to teach you this?"

"What's going on?"

Ji Wenxuan no longer cared about his father's scolding: "Father, I just beat him up, but I didn't break his limbs, let alone cut off his head. When I beat him, he had a sack on his head, so I definitely didn't beat him to death."

Ji Cheng's eyes narrowed into slits, and he thought for a long time: "Yesterday, besides you, was there anyone else who took action?"

"Yes, I met two groups of people on the way. They were Wu Chen and Lu Tianrui. I heard that Fang Jun also took action."

"Father, do you think it could be them..."

"Wenxuan, remember, you were just too tired, so you left the Qixi Festival party early and returned home to rest. You didn't meet anyone. Only in this way can you be picked out?"

Ji Wenxuan was a little confused: "Why is this? Maybe it's the person behind me..."

"No, the people behind you will say that when they met Song Yun, his limbs were broken and his head was separated from his body. They just kept it a secret for you out of consideration for their friendship with you." Ji Cheng sighed. His son was still too simple-minded. He waved his hand helplessly and said, "Go to these people's homes and tell them about Song Yun's death. I believe these old foxes know exactly what to do."

Just then, there was another burst of hurried footsteps. Looking up, it was another officer.

Ji Cheng's eyebrows twitched.

"Master Ji, something bad has happened..."

Sure enough, the voice came from a distance. Ji Cheng let out a sigh. He was too lazy to accuse the officer of being indecisive. "Tell me, what happened?"

"Master Ji, there's a room in the city where the fifth son of the Song family lives. This morning, four bodies were found hanging at the door!"

Damn, why is it the Song family again?

……

"Cure mercury?"

In Songzhou City, a small shop selling tofu pudding wasn't busy due to yesterday's heavy rain, but there were still some people. "This is the silver used for flood control." Luo Tianyi sprinkled some coarse salt on the tofu pudding. Song Yan's mouth twitched slightly. Adding salt to tofu pudding was a strange idea.

"Does Ningguo have this tax?"

Luo Tianyi shook his head, his face indifferent: "Of course not. Flood control and river dredging have always been funded by the Ministry of Revenue."

Now it is clear that he took advantage of both ends. He embezzled the money from the Ministry of Revenue and the money from the mercury control department.

"This mercury treatment has a long history. It's been around since at least the Luo family moved to Songzhou Prefecture. They collect it every time there's a heavy rain, one ounce of silver per person. They say it's used to dredge rivers and reinforce embankments."

"Is it dredged?"

"If the flood had been dredged, the damage would not have been so severe."

Luo Tianyi glanced at the vast expanse of ruins in the distance. The houses and shops along the river had been practically wiped out, leaving nothing behind except a mountain of rubble and debris. As for the people swept away by the flood… who would care about those lives? To the government, these lives were merely figures to be used to extort money from the imperial court.

Song Yan was silent. Before this, he was imprisoned in the Duke's Mansion and had very little contact with the outside world. After entering the Luo family, he enjoyed the ancient life that only appeared in TV dramas.

He was hit by a disaster, but there were no soldiers to rescue him, no supplies to be delivered, no clean water, and only officials to collect mercury. It was not until this moment that he felt the cold cruelty of this world.

The cruelty of treating human life as worthless.

Seeing those people paying money numbly and familiarly, similar situations have probably happened many times and they have long been accustomed to it.

One tael of silver is already a huge sum of money for ordinary civilians.

Don't they know the dangers of the Yiluo River? Of course they know it, but because there are a lot of cruise ships and a lot of customers along the Yiluo River, doing business here can keep them alive.

"This is still inside the city. The situation in the villages outside the city is probably even worse."

Luo Tianyi spoke to himself, "Actually, Songzhou City has already been calculated. At least it's considered the inner city of Ningguo. It's not close to the border, except for the coastal area. It's said that the more remote the place, the more exorbitant taxes there are. Songzhou Prefecture may have thirteen or four kinds of taxes that exceed the regulations of Ningguo, and at the border, there may be thirty or forty kinds..."

"I've never been to a prefecture near the border, but I've heard that bones are everywhere in those places, and selling children and even pawning wives is a common practice."

"Pawning a wife?"

Another term I have never heard of.

"It's when the husband puts a straw on his wife's head. It costs eight cents per time, and ten cents for a more elegant one..."

His heart felt a little blocked, and a figure suddenly appeared in his mind. It was a middle-aged man:
"Does the emperor know nothing?"

Luo Tianyi's lips curled up into a scornful smile: "So what if I know? His decrees cannot even leave the palace."

"He ordered that a son-in-law could take the imperial examination..."

"That's because this imperial decree won't affect the interests of too many people, so it slightly maintains the emperor's dignity."

The tofu pudding in my mouth lacked flavor and had a slight bitterness.

He saw the hustle and bustle of the Songzhou City Night Market and the prosperity of the Qixi Festival. That was the bright and beautiful side of this world, but it was the first time he felt the filth buried beneath this prosperity.

"No one wants to change anything?" Song Yan muttered to himself for a long time.

"Yes...The person who recently wanted to change this situation is Emperor Yuan Jing." Luo Tianyi smiled and said.

"and after?"

"Then he died."

"He was on a boat tour in the palace and fell into the water. He then fell ill and died."

Chapter 4 is here, and four more chapters have been updated today

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(End of this chapter)