After the death of the previous emperor, the Empress Dowager became arrogant

"Sir, we have found out the answer." An officer came in and reported.

Shang Ming nodded and signaled her to continue.

"That person's name is Wang Xiaoliu, she's a street thug, her neighbors describe her as someone who has no ambition, who steals and takes advantage of others all day long.

In recent days, he seemed to have suddenly become rich and was very generous, and everyone thought he had hooked up with some noble person.

They also brought people to search his home, but only found a few ingots of disaster relief silver, which was not a large amount.

As for the clothes in his arms, he insisted that…the clothes and the silver were given to him personally by the young lady, he could swear on it.”

Shang Ming was so angry that his face turned purple and the veins on his neck were exposed.

The next moment, he suddenly knocked the teacup on the table to the ground, and the porcelain shards broke into several pieces.

"You go down first and continue investigating!"

"Yes." The officer hurriedly retreated.

After a long time, Shang Ming gradually calmed down and turned to look at Yuan Qing, "What do you think, nephew?"

"Since that person insisted that it was a gift from the young lady, there are two reasons.

Or someone pretended to be a young lady and gave her money and clothes simply to destroy her reputation.

Either she was entrusted by someone behind the scenes, or the lady was just a cover, and the ultimate goal was you, sir.

You can also combine the two things into one to check. "

Shang Ming nodded with satisfaction. He was able to think of things to this extent with just a few words. He was a teachable boy.

The investigation results will take at least two or three days to come out. Yuan Qing is not in a position to get involved too much in the subsequent matters, so he can only stop here.

She's already in the spotlight enough, and if she intervenes openly, it might cause some unnecessary trouble.

She learned from the script in her previous life that around this time, most of the counties around Pingjin Prefecture began to show signs of drought.

As May approaches, there has not been a single rain and there is almost no green on the fields.

If this continues, the drought will surely sweep across the entire Pingjin Prefecture.

Drought did come in previous lives.

However, at that time, Emperor Gou had not yet passed away, and Pingzhou had not yet been renamed Pingjin Prefecture. It was an extremely remote and desolate border town. He only ordered the Ministry of Revenue to allocate 50,000 disaster relief silver and then left it alone.

The 50,000 taels of disaster silver were passed down layer by layer, and by the time it reached the hands of the prefect, there was less than 10,000 taels.

A mere ten thousand taels is not enough to share with even one-tenth of the victims.

Not to mention that there were some hungry wolves lurking in Pingzhou. After the last 10,000 taels were divided up, only inedible chaff and crumbs were left in the hands of the victims.

That year, 40,000 people starved to death in Pingzhou.

It was precisely because of this disaster that the Yuan Dynasty, whose people were already demoralized, was hit even harder.

Even though Empress Dowager Yuan tried her best to save it, the Yuan Dynasty still went downhill and became weaker year by year.

In this life, Shang Ming, as the prefect, reported to the court as early as March, saying that Pingjin Prefecture was about to face a drought and requested the court to allocate silver to purchase food.

Wen Chengyu attached great importance to this matter, so he ordered the Ministry of Revenue to allocate 100,000 taels for preparation, and the rest would be allocated according to the situation.

With a monarch who cares about the country and the people, and a prefect who cares about the people, as long as proper prevention is taken, tragedies like the previous life should not happen again in this life.

But who would have thought that the 100,000 taels of silver were snatched away by a group of mysterious people on the way before it reached Pingjin Prefecture, and its whereabouts are unknown.

Even though Wen Chengyu was biased, he still took the pressure off and gave Shang Ming a month to find out where the relief money went, otherwise he would be held accountable.

Now, by chance, Yuan Qing helped him find clues about the disaster silver, and Shang Ming was naturally very happy.

Speaking of Wang Xiaoliu, it was actually a coincidence.

Among those who embezzled disaster relief funds in the previous life, one of them was very close to Wang Xiaoliu.

Yuan Qing also wanted to try his luck and see if he could find any clues from Wang Xiaoliu.

Shang Ming actually found it.

If they act quickly enough, they can find out who Wang Xiaoliu has frequent contact with and then find the missing disaster relief funds. A month would be enough.

……

It was already midnight when Yuan Yi came back after finishing his work.

In fact, the Shang family arranged another place for him to live, but he was selfish and wanted to stay by her side every day, even if it was just to watch her.

Thinking of this, he changed direction.

When he pushed the door open, he vaguely saw the person on the bed sleeping soundly, as if he didn't care at all that he came home late. He was so angry that he glared at the person inside several times.

Looking at Yuan Qing sleeping soundly, he couldn't help but touch her cheek with his fingertips.

It's smooth and soft, with a comfortable coolness.

Yuan Qing felt his cheek tingling in his sleep. He slapped the annoying thing away with his palm, scratched it again, and then went back to sleep.

Yuan Yi stared at his beaten hand and felt depressed: How come it was different from what those people said? He would be beaten even if he approached, so why would he climb into bed?

You can no longer believe what he says, not a single word of it is reliable, they are all lies!

This time Yuan Yi did not leave before Yuan Qing woke up.

As soon as Yuan Qing opened his eyes, he saw the little guard lying on the side of the bed. He looked like he had just fallen asleep, and his tiredness had not yet dissipated, with a faint layer of blue on his face.

Before she could say anything, Yuan Yi woke up and was caught off guard by Yuan Qing's concerned gaze.

He felt uneasy, his half-open eyes trembled slightly, then he turned his head silently, pretending to be very tired and continued to sleep.

He didn't know how to explain to her that he had stayed in her room last night.

You can't honestly say that you followed someone's instigation and planned to have sex. If that were the case, maybe it wouldn't just be a slap in the face.

Yuan Qing saw that he had opened his eyes and thought that he was in a bad mood, so he leaned over and poked his head with his finger, "Oh, what's that attitude? Are you in a bad mood after waking up?"

"No."

Yuan Yi pulled her hand down and held it in his palm, but still did not turn his face.

The room was so quiet that only the sound of the two people's breathing could be heard.

No one spoke first, and they just remained silent.