Take control of Wei Zhongxian at the start and confiscate 100 million from him!

Chapter 101 Acting eccentrically and disregarding ancestral rules

The night in Beijing remains as deep as a pool of thick, unyielding ink.

The wind blew through the tall corner towers of the imperial city without making a sound, yet it carried the chill deep into every mansion in the inner city.

Inside Qian Longxi's study, the warmth was palpable, yet it couldn't dispel the deathly chill on the faces of those present.

The flickering lights stretched and distorted people's shadows on the wall, making them look like ghosts.

Besides Qian Longxi, those seated included Qian Qianyi, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites; Wen Zhenmeng, the Chancellor of the Hanlin Academy; and several other influential figures from the Donglin Party.

These people can shake the entire officialdom with a stomp of their feet, and an article they write can be widely praised by scholars across the land.

But tonight, they were like a group of foxes trapped in a den by hunters, their breaths trembling with fear.

The oppressive silence lasted for an unknown period of time before it was finally broken.

Young Master Qian Shisheng suddenly stood up, his face flushed with excitement, standing out starkly against the pale crowd.

"My lords! We can't wait any longer!" His voice wasn't loud, but every word carried a resolute determination to fight to the death. "Rivers of blood have flowed in Jiangnan, and hundreds of members of Chen Wannian's family have been killed. How is the Emperor's action any different from that of Jie and Zhou? He is digging up the very foundation of the nation! We eat the Emperor's food and study the books of sages; how can we sit idly by and watch our monarch implement such tyrannical and cruel policies?"

He took a deep breath, his gaze sweeping over each of the seniors present, his eyes burning with the flame of idealism.

"The Book of Documents says, 'The people are the foundation of the state; when the foundation is firm, the state is at peace.' The emperor and the scholar-officials govern the country together; this is the rule established by our ancestors. Now His Majesty is using violence to oppress the gentry and disregards our honest opinions. Tomorrow morning at court, I implore you all to join me in submitting a joint memorial, to remonstrate with the emperor to the death! Let us use the laws of our ancestors and the justice of the world to force him to stop! Otherwise, after Jiangnan, the capital will be next! We will all be fish on the chopping block!"

His words were passionate and inspiring.

If this had happened during the Tianqi or even Wanli reigns, these words would have been enough to ignite the anger of the entire civil service and create immense pressure that would have given even the emperor a headache.

However, all that answered him at that moment was an even deeper silence.

Qian Qianyi's hand holding the teacup trembled slightly, and the scalding tea splashed onto the back of his hand, but he seemed oblivious, simply looking down at the tea leaves as they helplessly rose and fell in the water.

"Snapped!"

A sharp crack shattered the suffocating atmosphere.

Qian Longxi slammed the celadon teacup in his hand to the ground, shards flying everywhere. He slowly raised his head, his cloudy old eyes filled with bloodshot veins and a furious rage that Qian Shisheng had never seen before, a mixture of fear and sorrow.

"Foolish! Do you think... this is still the Wanli and Tianqi reigns?"

He stared intently at Qian Shisheng and said, word by word, "Do you think you can make His Majesty bow down with just a few words from the classics and the laws of our ancestors? Do you think our pens are faster than the knife in his hand?"

Overwhelmed by this imposing aura, Qian Shisheng stammered, "My lord, we serve our country and its people; what regret would we have even if we died? The emperor must consider the opinions of the people..."

"Public opinion?" Qian Longxi let out a shrill, dry laugh. "Faced with absolute evidence and the swords and spears of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, public opinion is nothing but a fart!"

With trembling hands, he fumbled in his wide sleeves and pulled out a neatly folded piece of paper, which he then gently placed on the table.

It was a very ordinary piece of rough-edged paper, even a little yellowed.

The eyes of everyone present were instantly drawn to this note.

Qian Longxi unfolded it extremely slowly with two fingers. There wasn't even a complete sentence on the paper, only a few lines of characters written in tiny, fly-like characters:
"In the 43rd year of the Wanli reign, in Suzhou, the Delong Trading Company sold 30,000 taels of silver."

"In the first year of the Tianqi reign, in Songjiang Prefecture, Rui Shengkui presented 800 bolts of silk."

"In the third year of the Tianqi reign, in Hangzhou, Jiyuan, seven land deeds were issued."

……

Qian Qianyi's face turned deathly pale in an instant, devoid of any color. Wen Zhenmeng leaned back abruptly, almost collapsing to the ground if not for the armrests of his chair.

Qian Shisheng couldn't understand it, and he asked in confusion, "Sir, what... what is this?"

Qian Longxi didn't look at him, his gaze fixed blankly on the note, muttering to himself, "This is the deepest and best-hidden mole I planted in the Imperial Inquiry Bureau, the last bit of information I had someone send out this morning." He raised his head and looked around at everyone, his eyes filled with endless despair.

"These are some of my early, casual dealings with people in Jiangnan through my family. I believe I handled them perfectly; the accounts have all been burned, and the people who handled them are long gone. Yet they are written here so clearly."

He pointed to his heart and then to the piece of paper.

"Do you understand? Every single detail about each of us, every single thing, has probably been thoroughly investigated by that 'Imperial Inquiry Bureau,' categorized and compiled into a book, which is now placed on His Majesty's desk!"

"The Jiangnan grain merchant case and the Shanxi merchant case are like two poisonous vines; their roots have long since entangled each and every one of us here through money and connections!"

"At this point, who dares to jump out and talk about 'dying for one's life'? Who dares to mention 'ancestral laws'?!"

Qian Longxi's voice grew softer and softer, finally turning into a long, powerless sigh.

"So-called public opinion and the integrity of scholars are nothing but a joke in the face of the absolute evidence of guilt in His Majesty's possession."

No one spoke in the study anymore.

The flush on Qian Shisheng's face faded, replaced by a pale and dazed expression, as if his ideals had been utterly shattered by reality. He slumped down, his eyes vacant, as if his soul had been ripped away.

This is not a debate between righteousness and profit, but a choice between life and death.

And they seem to have long since lost the power to choose.

After an unknown amount of time, Qian Shisheng's voice, like a dream, echoed faintly in the deathly silence: "Then... what should we do?"

This question pierced everyone's ears like a cold needle. Yes, what should be done?

Should I offer my neck for execution, or...?

Qian Longxi, who had been resting with his eyes closed, slowly opened them. In his cloudy old eyes, the fear and despair had subsided, and the coldness and viciousness seeping from the very marrow of his bones began to surface.

He uttered a single word, his voice as soft as a breeze, yet it sent a chill down the spines of everyone present.

"Wait."

Qian Qianyi pressed on, his voice trembling slightly: "Waiting for what?"

Qian Longxi's lips curled into an extremely eerie and cold smile, not like a smile, but more like a crack in a withered mask.

"Two things are pending."

His voice was deep and clear: "Let's wait and see whose neck His Majesty's sword is about to fall on, and see how much flesh he wants us to cut off and how much blood he wants us to bleed before he will give us a way out."

The air in the entire study seemed to freeze at that moment.

“Secondly,” Qian Longxi’s voice lowered even further, like a snake crawling on the sand, “we are also waiting for an opportunity…”

"Opportunity?" Wen Zhenmeng repeated subconsciously, his heart pounding.

Qian Longxi's gaze slowly swept over everyone present, his eyes as deep as a bottomless ancient well, full of hints and seduction.

"Since the founding of our Great Ming Dynasty, have there not been many unpredictable events?" he said quietly. "Emperor Guangzong was a man of great talent and ambition. Why did he pass away after only one month on the throne? Wasn't it all due to the coincidence of a red pill? How did the previous emperor ascend the throne? The case of the club attack in the previous dynasty is still an unsolved mystery."

Every word he uttered was like a pebble thrown into stagnant water, stirring up the deepest and darkest ripples in everyone's hearts.

“Our Emperor,” Qian Longxi said, each word deliberate and chilling enough to freeze a charcoal fire, “acts eccentrically and disregards ancestral rules. Who can guarantee that such an unruly monarch won’t encounter some unpredictable coincidence?”

He emphasized the words "divine will" very heavily.

Everyone fell silent instantly, even their breathing stopped.

(End of this chapter)