The empress disliked my achievements for overshadowing her own, so she turned her attention to the N

The air was still for a moment.

A short while later, Xiaoyue came over carrying several teacups.

They placed the teacups on the table one by one, filled them with tea, and stood respectfully behind Minister Qian without saying a word.

Chen Nan picked up the teacup, drank the tea in one gulp, and looked at the teacup in his hand with great interest.

"Minister Qian is really quite frugal. He can't even bear to take out teacups when guests come. He's just using bowls to serve them?"

Minister Qian smiled awkwardly: "Your Highness, my family does not have those things."

"I have no friends in the court, and I usually don't have guests visiting me, so I haven't prepared those things."

After speaking, Minister Qian picked up the teacup on the table, but before he could take a sip, he heard Chen Nan speak.

"Oh? Is Minister Qian blaming me for coming uninvited? Perhaps next time I should ask the Empress Dowager to issue an imperial edict before I come?"

These words startled Minister Qian so much that he dropped the teacup in his hand and it shattered on the ground.

Seeing this, Chen Nan smiled knowingly: "What's wrong? Why is Minister Qian so nervous?"

"Xiaoyue, go and clean up the debris." Minister Qian did not answer, but directly changed the subject.

Chen Nan didn't want to dwell on the matter any longer, so he spoke again: "Minister Qian, could you tell me why Your Excellency appeared in Gejia Village?"

When he returned to this issue once again, Minister Qian's expression changed.

After hesitating for a long time, he stammered, "Well, a friend of mine came to see me the other day and said that there was something going on in Gejia Village and he hoped that I could do him a small favor."

His seemingly reasonable explanation is actually full of loopholes.

Chen Nan raised an eyebrow, surprised, and said, "Oh? Minister Qian doesn't have many friends in the court, but he has quite a few friends in Gejia Village?"

"Then, can you tell me why the land deeds for Gejia Village ended up in the hands of a powerful family?"

"As far as I know, our Northern Wei does not seem to allow the forced buying and selling of land, does it?"

"Furthermore, why is it that when the people of Gejia Village go to the government to file complaints, no one dares to accept them?"

Chen Nan's voice grew louder and louder until it turned into a question.

Under his pressure, sweat poured down Qian Shangshu's forehead.

"Your Highness, I am unaware of this matter."

"Moreover, Your Highness is merely the Prefect of Weidu. Handling cases should fall under Your Highness's jurisdiction."

"Furthermore, I am a first-rank official of the Imperial Court. Even if there is to be an interrogation, it should be conducted by the Court of Judicial Review, not by Your Highness."

Minister Qian knew he couldn't avoid it today, so he could only bring up his official position.

However, when he mentioned this, Chen Nan was clearly puzzled for a moment.

He turned around and glanced at Mo Bai behind him.

The latter answered honestly, "Your Highness, the imperial court stipulates that officials of the third rank must be interrogated in the presence of officials from the Court of Judicial Review."

"Does this mean that even with my titles as Prefect of Weidu and Censor, it's still not enough?" Chen Nan's expression turned somewhat grim.

He had already determined that Minister Qian must have been involved in the land sale.

But now the other party is telling him that they have no right to interrogate him.

Mo Bai smiled helplessly: "Your Highness, in principle, that is indeed the case. There must be people from the Dali Temple present for the interrogation to take place."

Upon hearing this, Minister Qian finally smiled and stood up, saying, "Since Your Highness has no right to interrogate, then please return. When accompanied by personnel from the Court of Judicial Review, I will certainly tell you everything I know."

Seeing Minister Qian's smug smile, Chen Nan chuckled and said, "Minister Qian, what's the rush?"

"Are you sure you can conduct an interrogation as long as someone from the Dali Temple is present?"

Minister Qian nodded affirmatively: "Of course, even if I am not the best official, I am still a first-rank official of the court. As long as there is a reasonable procedure, I will naturally accept all interrogations."

"Alright!" Chen Nan suddenly stood up and slammed his hand on the table. "Wu Xu, go and invite the head of the Dali Temple over."

Upon hearing this, Minister Qian's smiling face immediately darkened.

He realized that Chen Nan had come today with the intention of interrogating him.

Moreover, judging from the other party's demeanor, they were determined to achieve their goal at all costs.

His voice turned colder: "Your Highness, the Dali Temple is now closed. Even if we were to invite the abbot over, he would have to wait until tomorrow to interrogate me."

Chen Nan snorted coldly: "Wu Xu, didn't you hear what I said?"

"Go to the Dali Temple and invite the abbot over. If he doesn't come, go outside the city and gather a large army."

"I don't care what methods you use, the temple head must come today!"

Now that things had come to this, Chen Nan made up his mind to not only invite people from the Dali Temple over.

Even if he was told that the Empress Dowager had to be summoned for questioning, he would not hesitate to go to the palace to find her.

Wu Xu solemnly replied, "Don't worry, Your Highness, I don't need a large army; I can capture the temple abbot all by myself."

Before Wu Xu could even take a step forward, Mo Bai pulled him back and whispered a reminder: "First, go outside the city to gather a large army, and then go to the Dali Temple to ask for help."

Wu Xu nodded and quickly ran out.

Although he didn't understand why Mo Bai would say such a thing, he knew that Mo Bai was much smarter than him.

He sent him to gather a large army outside the city, so it must have served the purpose of gathering a large army.

The group watched Wu Xu walk out the gate, and in an instant, Minister Qian's calm and composed expression vanished.

He kept looking around and rubbing his hands together from time to time.

Chen Nan, on the other hand, remained calm and sat back down in his chair: "Go, pour me a glass of water."

His voice wasn't exactly quiet, but at that moment, Minister Qian was in no mood to take care of Chen Nan.

Mo Bai silently picked up the kettle on the table and filled Chen Nan's cup with tea.

After Chen Nan finished his drink in one gulp, he said, "Minister Qian, now that things have come to this, are you still not going to confess?"

"Your Highness, I truly do not understand what you mean."

"Tell me honestly, where did you hide the money from the land sales? Tell me now, and I can guarantee that no one else will be implicated."

"If we really have to wait for the people from the Dali Temple to come, I won't be able to say much more."

He didn't want to implicate others; he only sought out the shady dealings in the land transactions to serve as a warning to others.

However, Minister Qian was completely ignorant of numbers and did not take him seriously at all.

"Your Highness, I am an honest and upright official. Do you think I am a corrupt official in your eyes?"

Minister Qian gave a wry smile: "Your Highness can see that the most valuable items in my household are all out in the open."

"Does Your Highness intend to turn my house upside down?"

As he said this, his eyes kept glancing towards the inner room.

This little trick naturally couldn't escape Chen Nan's notice.

Chen Nan got up and walked towards the inner room.

"Your Highness, it's just where I sleep; there's nothing to see inside!"

In an instant, Minister Qian panicked and quickly caught up with Chen Nan.

However, because of the other party's identity, they dared not stop them and could only follow closely behind.

The two of them entered the inner room one after the other.