Forced to be a concubine? I turned around and married the scumbag's father.

Wang Heng sensed Gu Hua's attitude and felt relieved. He immediately wrote a memorial and sent it to the capital with the utmost urgency.

Then he went to see Jiang Ruoxi.

"Princess……"

Jiang Ruoxi looked at him with teary eyes.

Wang Heng was very impatient; getting assigned this task was truly the worst luck imaginable.

If it weren't for the rise of the Langya Wang clan, he would never have accepted such a humiliating task.

“Miss Jiang, the envoy from Dali Kingdom conveyed the King of Dali’s message that you are not suitable for a marriage alliance, and they have designated Gu Hua as the bride. This is a difficult situation for me, but I must report the facts to the court and await His Majesty’s decision.”

Jiang Ruoxi's mind went blank: "What did you say? Gu Hua? That bitch has already given birth to a child, how can she be worthy of a marriage alliance?"

"Whether someone is worthy or not is up to Duan Wang to decide."

Wang Heng was too lazy to waste time with her: "I have important matters to attend to. We'll discuss everything after His Majesty's decree is issued. I'll take my leave now."

Jiang Ruoxi sat blankly on the bed, while her wet nurse sighed repeatedly, and her maidservant, with red eyes, was at a loss.

She had no idea where to go and didn't even dare to leave the house.

"Granny, what should I do?"

The old woman hugged her tenderly and coaxed her softly, "Don't be afraid, Lord Wang will definitely persuade Prince Duan."

“But their envoys have all come, specifically asking for that slut Gu Hua! Wang Heng has already written a memorial and returned to the capital; he won’t help me.”

Jiang Ruoxi burst into tears, feeling wronged: "Why? That bitch only gained favor by sleeping with Mu Junyan, and she's worthless now that she's had a child. How am I inferior to her? Why are you insulting me like this!"

The old woman sighed, unsure of what to say, and blamed herself, saying, "It's all my fault, I couldn't..."

Jiang Ruoxi suddenly pushed her away forcefully and screamed at her, "Shut up!"

That's her reverse scale.

It was the thing she least wanted to remember.

Looking back now, she has no idea why she was so attached to her older brother and why she developed feelings for him that she shouldn't have.

But isn't the older brother right?

She was young then and didn't understand anything. She had no chance to meet outstanding young men. When she first fell in love, the only outstanding young man she met was her older brother.

Why didn't the older brother refuse her?

Why drag her down into the abyss with you?

After she realized what had happened, she felt ashamed and afraid, so she desperately wanted to marry Mu Junyan and escape that ill-fated relationship.

However, that bitch Gu Hua beat her to it and even plotted to put her in a position where she was despised by everyone.

Her parents and the Empress Dowager, who had always doted on her, banished her alone to this godforsaken place and forced her to marry the king of an enemy country.

They just abandoned her without caring whether she lived or died!

Where's my older brother?

Unharmed, they stayed home to avoid trouble.

Father is just waiting to bring the Mu family army under his control so he can help his eldest brother make a comeback.

What about her?

Who cares about her?

Seeing her crying so heartbreakingly, the nanny also started crying uncontrollably.

The maids also cried, but they cried because of their own miserable fate, following such a master with no future in sight and no hope at all.

After crying her fill, Jiang Ruoxi regained her composure and said, "You all leave."

Several maids quickly left the room.

The wet nurse knew she had something to say, so she sat down on the edge of the bed and hugged her: "Tell me what you want to do. I'll do everything I can to help you."

Jiang Ruoxi nestled in her arms: "I know that the people my parents sent are all monitoring me, but you, Granny, are the one who loves me the most. You love me even more than my parents do."

The wet nurse hugged her, feeling heartbroken: "This old servant raised you, young lady. If I may presume to say so, I have treated you like my own daughter."

“Granny, I have to find a way out myself. If Wang Heng reports the Dali Kingdom’s intentions to the Emperor, I will become a useless piece of trash. I believe the Jiang clan would rather I die.”

Jiang Ruoxi's eyes were filled with resentment.

The old woman was somewhat taken aback, and lowered her voice: "Then what do you want to do?"

"Granny, did you bring that thing I asked you to bring?"

"I have it with me. Who does the young lady want to use it on?"

Jiang Ruoxi's gaze turned sinister: "Right now, use whoever is most useful."

……

Wang Heng returned to the yamen and began investigating taxes.

The King of Ping'an specifically instructed the Mu family army to control a large number of mineral deposits in the area under their jurisdiction. He was to find a way to obtain the mine accounts and then manipulate them to seize control of the mines.

King Ping'an even sent a trusted confidant who was good at accounting, but the group searched through all the account books and files left by Prefect Wu, and turned everything upside down, but they found no tax ledgers and not a single account related to the mines.

Enraged, he slammed the thin ledger on the ground: "Bring Prefect Wu here!"

Prefect Wu was eating and drinking with a group of former government officials when he was suddenly summoned. He asked in surprise, "We are all commoners now, and we have not committed any crime. Why are we being summoned?"

The Imperial Guardsman said coldly, "Does the Imperial Envoy need a reason to summon you? Come with me now."

Prefect Wu stood up and said, "Very well, Your Majesty the Imperial Envoy, do as you please."

"We'll go together, all of us brothers."

A group of people entered the courtroom amidst laughter and chatter. Wang Heng sat upright in his seat, holding the gavel, and slammed it down heavily.

"Wu Qiming! You are incredibly audacious to have dared to hide the government office's account books!"

Wu Qiming cupped his hands and raised an eyebrow: "Lord Wang, yesterday you were holding a memorial saying I had committed a whole host of crimes. What, before the evidence has even been found, you're adding more charges?"

“Your ledgers are all here. There are no records of tax revenue from the territory under the jurisdiction of the Mu family army in Southern Xinjiang for two years, and the accounts for the mineral deposits are also missing. How do you explain this?”

Wu Qiming smiled and said, "Lord Wang, border taxes have always been managed by the garrison troops. Indeed, no taxes have been levied in the southern border for two years. The people are already suffering from the war, so whose taxes are we collecting? As for the mineral resources, you don't understand. They have always been under the jurisdiction of the Mu family army. The Mu family army personally guards the mineral resources and also has special personnel escorting them to the court. You should ask the Mu family army about these issues."

Wang Heng died of anger. To this day, none of the Mu family's generals have shown their faces, and he cannot directly go to the military camp to arrest people.

He doesn't dare.

Wu Qiming remained calm. Chi Yu told him that the imperial edict only ordered Lu Lei to temporarily take over the affairs of the prefectural government, and that he was only suspended from his duties, not dismissed from his post.

Therefore, Wang Heng dared not reveal the contents of the imperial edict.

Lu Lei roared, "Wu Qiming, stop being so arrogant! Do you think you can deceive the Imperial Envoy just because you have the Mu family army behind you?"

"Lord Wu is telling the truth. How is that arrogant?"

"Exactly, we still don't know who's acting so arrogantly. They don't know anything, yet they come up here and start labeling people and making baseless accusations."

A group of officials and yamen runners, the prefectural governor, were indignant and began to speak out.

Lu Lei grabbed the gavel in front of Wang Heng and slammed it down hard.

"Inverted!"

Wang Heng was so shocked that his heart pounded, and he glared angrily at Lu Lei.

Lu Lei, relying on being a trusted confidant sent by the King of Ping'an, had not shown him much respect along the way, and now he was even openly challenging his official authority.

Wu Qiming sneered: "The word 'rebellion' is the most taboo word in our southern border region. Because from the Mu family army to the common people, everyone has paid a heavy price to defend the border. Lord Lu can just shout it here, but don't shout it outside the prefectural government office, or you'll be beaten up by the mob."

Lu Lei jumped up in anger: "Wu Qiming!"

"Why are you yelling at me? I'm not deaf. Once you've finished questioning me and I'm found innocent, you can leave, right?"

"Yes, let's go. Why waste time talking to them?"

"You know nothing, yet you come here and start giving unsolicited advice. If you're so capable, go find the Mu family army."

"Exactly. What are you being so arrogant about in front of us?"

A group of people started chatting and wanted to leave.

Lu Lei couldn't stand it any longer. Seeing that Wang Heng didn't say anything, he roared, "Guards, lock them all up in the dungeon!"

The Imperial Guards swarmed around them.

Wu Qiming and the others exchanged glances, pretended to struggle for a moment, and were all locked up in the dungeon.