In the years of famine, I led a comfortable life with my husband

Seeing Su Zhizhi's smug look, Chef Su still kept a straight face and warned, "This is a serious crime punishable by beheading. His Majesty didn't punish you this time, but don't think that acting this way is right. If His Majesty gets angry this time, I won't be able to protect you. Don't take such a risk next time."

Su Zhizhi knew that the other party was doing this for her own good, so she nodded obediently and agreed, "I understand. Don't worry, I won't do that again next time."

In the imperial study, after Su Zhizhi left, the emperor fell into deep thought, looking at the memorial in his hand. If it was mentioned once or twice, it would be fine, but the repeated mention made the emperor more suspicious. What's more, Su Zhizhi came to hint at it, and the emperor began to consider this matter even more.

The ministers on the list were from more than ten years ago. After they were dealt with, Xu Chao climbed up. The emperor didn't think there was anything wrong before, until Xu Chao was brought down not long ago. The emperor connected the two things and suddenly came up with a horrifying inference.

To confirm his thoughts, the next morning at court, when Xie Chengjin and Shen Wenjun again mentioned the matter of investigating the cases, the emperor finally made the final decision, "Since that's the case, then you two will go investigate these cases."

Xie Chengjin originally thought that this matter would take some time to resolve, but he didn't expect the emperor to agree so easily. Even Shen Wenjun was a little surprised.

But no matter what, the two of them had achieved their original goal. After leaving the court, Shen Wenjun followed Xie Chengjin back to Xie Chengjin's residence.

"What should we do next?" Shen Wenjun asked straight to the point when he arrived in the study.

Xie Chengjin thought for a moment and said, "Now that His Majesty has spoken, let's investigate this matter. We should start from the capital. Many people in the court know about what happened back then. Why don't we start from this point? I think those people should come to us on their own."

Xie Chengjin and Shen Wenjun joined forces to solve the case, which was not too difficult. After deciding on the next course of action, the two began investigating without stopping.

As Xie Chengjin had expected, just a few days after the two began their investigation, many officials came to them privately to chat and arrange dinners. In the final analysis, they were just trying to get close to the two and avoid being implicated.

Xie Chengjin just looked at this coldly. It was almost the same as what he thought. These people must know something about what happened back then. Perhaps, they not only knew, but also played some role in it, which is why they are so panicked now.

Xie Chengjin disdained to be involved with these people, but for the purpose of investigating the case, he had to endure it. Fortunately, Shen Wenjun was good at socializing, and when he was with the fifth prince, Shen Wenjun was able to find out a lot of information.

Xie Chengjin let Shen Wenjun maneuver among the many ministers to obtain useful information, while Xie Chengjin kept to himself and sat on the sidelines, enjoying the leisure and comfort.

Shen Wenjun was extremely dissatisfied with Xie Chengjin's carefree behavior and complained about it in private, but Xie Chengjin just smiled and casually brushed it off. Then Shen Wenjun went to investigate again.

If Su Zhizhi was here, she would not be able to bear it and would stand up for Shen Wenjun.

However, Shen Wenjun's hard work was not completely in vain. At least, from the information he received, these executed ministers, headed by Su's father, had more or less had conflicts with Xu Chao. At that time, Xu Chao was not yet the prime minister. It was not until these people were imprisoned one after another that Xu Chao's status rose.

As Xie Chengjin looked at the investigation results and case files, his face became increasingly darker, until it turned as black as the bottom of a pot.

Shen Wenjun, who was standing by, also had a very grim expression on his face. "This Xu Chao truly deserves death. I never thought he would dare to do such a thing so long ago."

"It's all about power, tsk." Xie Chengjin's expression was full of disdain. "Alright, now that it's proven that Xu Chao is involved in all this, let's start with Xu Chao. Capture him, torture him thoroughly, and make him confess everything he shouldn't have said!"

Xie Chengjin now almost wanted to kill Xu Chao, but since he was under the emperor's feet, he couldn't be so presumptuous, so he thought about arresting Xu Chao first.

However, what no one expected was that Xu Chao, having heard the rumor from somewhere, was actually planning to quietly transfer his property and then leave.

However, Xu Chao has a large family, and if he wants to take them all with him, it will inevitably hinder his progress.

Xie Chengjin first took the investigation results to the palace to see the emperor. After obtaining the arrest warrant, he and Shen Wenjun prepared to capture Xu Chao.

By the time the two arrived, Xu Chao's mansion was already deserted. In the huge mansion, there were only old, weak, sick and disabled servants.

Xie Chengjin's face looked very ugly. Shen Wenjun went to ask and found out that Xu Chao had run away with his men earlier.

Shen Wenjun glanced at the sky, then whispered in Xie Chengjin's ear, "What do you think? Should we chase him now?"

Xie Chengjin nodded, "Of course we have to chase him. The Xu Mansion has a large population, and Xu Chao can't move fast with so many people. He has just left the capital at most. Now that things have come to this, we must not let him get away!"

The two men, accompanied by a group of yamen runners, quickly rushed out of the city gate.

But they didn't see any human figures outside the city, only the scattered traces of carriages on the ground.

Xie Chengjin's face looked extremely ugly. Shen Wenjun seemed to have thought of something and went to ask the guard at the city gate.

After a while, Shen Wenjun came to Xie Chengjin with the news. He pointed in a direction and said, "I asked, and they said they were heading that way, but we can't say for sure if they'll change their route. How about we split up into two groups? I'll lead this way, and you lead that way. If that doesn't work, we can just encircle them. We can't let them get away."

Xie Chengjin thought for a moment and agreed with Shen Wenjun's idea.

The two men each brought some people and headed in their respective directions.

Just as Xie Chengjin had thought, Xu Chao and his group had not gone far at all and were still moving through the woods. Xie Chengjin and his men were waiting ahead of them.

Seeing this, Xu Chao gritted his teeth and didn't want to get entangled with Xie Chengjin here. When he was about to change direction, they were blocked by Shen Wenjun from behind.

"Lord Xu, I hope you are well. Why did you leave in such a hurry? If I hadn't gone to the mansion to find you, I probably wouldn't have known that you had left. If I didn't know, I would have thought that you ran away because you were guilty." Xie Chengjin said slowly.