After deceiving the villain, I was forced to love him.

Before the autopsy results were available, rumors spread throughout the capital that "officials in the court killed someone to cover up the crimes committed in Jiangzhou."

Even more extreme, some vividly described the tragic state of the ten prefectures of Jiangzhou, as if it had become a living hell, with mountains of white bones.

To prevent the situation from escalating and officials from various departments from becoming suspicious and attacking each other, Xue Fengshi had no choice but to go to the palace that very night to report to the Empress Dowager.

"Murder in the street? That's utterly audacious!"

"Your Majesty, please calm down. Although no evidence was found on Chen San, it is clear to all that he shouted for justice for the ten prefectures of Jiangzhou and was killed in the street."

"Therefore, I think the matter in Jiangzhou is probably true, but I... cannot produce any evidence."

"Any leads on the perpetrator?"

Xue Fengshi lowered his head with a blush on his face, "We're still searching. The Investigation Division has also assigned people to help."

"I am naturally at ease with Imperial Censor Xue's work, but surely you have come here for more than just this matter."

Seeing that the Empress Dowager had guessed, Xue Fengshi stopped beating around the bush.

He immediately cupped his hands in a bow and said, "Your humble servant wishes to make a trip to Jiangzhou."

Upon hearing this, the Empress Dowager's expression immediately changed, "Xue..."

He quickly regained his composure and sat down calmly. "Lord Xue, do you know what the situation is like in the court right now?"

"Of course I understand, but if the people of the ten prefectures of Jiangzhou are truly suffering, how can those in high positions remain indifferent?"

"To turn a blind eye and a deaf ear? Are you referring to me, or Your Majesty?"

Xue Fengshi was startled and quickly knelt down, "Your subject dares not! Your subject would never have such an intention!"

Seeing that she had subdued him, the Empress Dowager softened her tone, "What is there that you, Xue Fengshi, wouldn't dare to do?"

"His Majesty used to say that you only have the people in your eyes, not the emperor."

"Empress Dowager! Your Majesty... Your Majesty..." Xue Fengshi was even more terrified, fearing that the blame would be placed on him and that he would die here today.

Seeing Xue Fengshi stammering, the Empress Dowager flicked her sleeves, her brows furrowed and her eyes cold, "Fine, since Imperial Censor Xue wants to investigate, I will send a few people over to take a look."

"..." Xue Fengshi stretched, as if he wanted to say something, but was stopped by the Empress Dowager's sharp gaze.

"Does Imperial Censor Xue think that among all the officials in the court, only you are capable of investigating cases?"

"Your subject dares not!" Xue Fengshi hurriedly prostrated himself on the ground.

She felt like she was suddenly being targeted by the Empress Dowager, and her mind was filled with thoughts of whether she had done something wrong.

"Why is Lord Xue so alarmed?" His tone was still calm, but it sent chills down one's spine.

After a long while, just as Xue Fengshi's whole body was stiff and his neck was sore, the Empress Dowager's voice came from above again.

"The Fifth Master is now quite capable in battle. I will send him to lead the troops and act as I see fit."

"..." Upon hearing this, Xue Fengshi felt a great weight lifted from his heart.

A little while later, a eunuch hurried in and said, "Lord Xue, you may leave now."

Whew... With a sense of relief, Xue Fengshi finally sat down on the ground.

Wiping his sweat, he stood up with the help of the eunuch, saying, "Thank you."

"Slow down, adults"

Even after leaving the palace gates, Xue Fengshi was still filled with lingering fear.

Looking back, he was surprised to find that the Empress Dowager's aura was even more imposing than Lu Jian's.

And suddenly I realized that His Majesty seems to treat him quite well usually?

"Is Your Excellency returning to your residence or going to the Censorate?" The groom waiting under the palace wall asked.

Composing himself, Xue Fengshi looked at the dark sky, took a deep breath, and said, "General of the Cavalry's residence."

In the Changning Palace on the other side, after hearing the eunuch's report, the Empress Dowager also breathed a sigh of relief.

"This Xue Fengshi is really hard to deal with." Pretending to be fierce is really tiring for an old woman like her.

The eunuch was very sweet-talking, saying, "No matter how difficult they are to deal with, they still have to listen to the Empress Dowager and His Majesty."

"Yes, if it weren't for my son's brilliant strategy, I'm afraid we wouldn't have been able to stop him."

"only......"

"Your Majesty, rest assured, His Majesty is blessed with great fortune and will surely return to court in triumph."

The Empress Dowager nodded, relieved that something had finally been accomplished. She then turned off the lights and went to sleep, thinking that she would issue an imperial decree to the Fifth Master first thing in the morning.

......

"Father, something terrible has happened!" Upon receiving the news from the palace, He Congjun woke up He Shidao.

But after hearing what his son said, He Shidao felt relieved.

"Father, what are you doing? You must think of something quickly, what if..."

“Don’t worry,” He Shidao said with a sharp and firm gaze as he looked at his son. “Xue Fengshi will definitely go.”

“But…” He Congjun pondered for a long time, still puzzled. “Didn’t the Empress Dowager already decide to send that bandit?”

"I remember a few lowly commoners who ran away from Shancheng County?"

"Yes, the rest have been dealt with, except for three... Father, you mean they were the ones who committed the crime in front of the Censorate!"

"Do you think Xue Fengshi could still hold back if someone presented their grievances to his face?"

He Congjun frowned in confusion, "But they have no evidence."

"Isn't this the evidence?"

“No evidence...that is the greatest evidence,” He Congjun repeated in a low voice.

Then, understanding immediately, he stepped back with a smile, bowed deeply, and said, "Son will take care of it right away!"

......

"Roar—" On the quiet street, Xue Fengshi's carriage was moving along when suddenly a figure darted out and fell in front of the carriage, startling the coachman so much that he had to stop abruptly, almost throwing Xue Fengshi out.

"What happened?"

"Ahead...it looks like a woman has fallen to the ground." It was too dark for the coachman to see clearly, but he could vaguely make out that the outline of the person on the ground looked like a woman.

"Go and see"

"Yes"

Unexpectedly, just as the groom approached with his lantern, he was knocked unconscious by flying powder.

"Ma Da?" Upon hearing the muffled sound, Xue Fengshi immediately became alert, calling out while searching for something suitable.

As soon as he pulled out the dagger at the very bottom of the book, everything went black.

Half an hour later.

"hiss......"

In a farmhouse, Xue Fengshi had just woken up when he touched the bump on his head and saw a fierce-looking, dark-faced man standing in front of him, staring at him menacingly.

"What do you want to do?!" Startled, Xue Fengshi immediately stopped feeling dizzy.

Unexpectedly, the dark-faced man knelt down on the ground and asked, "May I ask if you are the Imperial Censor Xue Fengshi, Lord Xue?"

Xue Fengshi glanced at his accomplice keeping watch at the door and Ma Da snoring in the corner, and instantly realized that the other party meant him no harm.

However, her appearance is really...

He sat down, rubbing the bump on his head. "Since you've tied me up, you must have already found out everything. Why ask any more questions now?"

"Thump!" Upon hearing the official in front of him admit it, the dark-faced man kowtowed to the ground.

He added, "The one who killed people on Tongtian Street during the day was a villain."

? !

Even after handling so many cases, Xue Fengshi's eyes showed surprise and doubt.

Are criminals these days really this brazen?

"If you are trying to threaten me on behalf of someone else, you will be disappointed. Threats are the last thing I fear."

The dark-faced man shook his head, a hint of sorrow appearing on his fierce face. "The murdered Chen San was my sworn brother."

"If he was a brother, why did you kill him?"

"Seeking justice"

"Seeking justice?" Xue Fengshi's eyes lit up. "The ten prefectures of Jiangzhou?!"

"Yes"

"you......"

The dark-faced man kowtowed again, pleading, "Please, Your Excellency, do us justice!"

"..." Xue Fengshi, who was about to say something, was startled.

Suddenly I realized something was wrong... and my hand, which was halfway out, stopped.

Looking at his accomplice keeping watch at the door, and recalling everything that had happened that day, and how these two had managed to kidnap him so precisely...

After a while, he bent down and helped Ding Ping up.

"Present the evidence."

Ding Ping, however, was stumped. "I... have no evidence."

As expected, Xue Fengshi was not surprised by this. "Then tell me everything you know."

"Yes!"

“I am Ding Ping, and I live in Beishan Village, Shancheng County. It is a sparsely populated area with only six households besides myself. I make a living by selling mountain products. I also help my neighbors with whatever they need.”

“Last August I went to Lingshui County to do business, and I was stopped by several soldiers as soon as I arrived at the city gate.”

“They said there had been a murder in the city and they wanted to check my luggage. I thought they wanted to pay me, so I gave them some money to avoid trouble. But they didn’t want the money. After checking my luggage, they let me into the city.”

"At first I thought those officers and soldiers had changed their ways."

"You think? Is it common to receive wages in Jiangzhou?" Xue Fengshi couldn't help but interrupt Ding Ping.

"I don't know about other places, but in Shancheng and Lingshui counties, it's true that the practice of embezzling public funds is rampant."

Xue Fengshi took a deep breath, suppressing his anger, and said, "Continue."

"After I entered the city, I had just started selling mountain products at the market when a customer came and bought most of my goods. Without even asking any questions, he gave me ten taels of silver."

“I found it a bit strange at the time, because there was nothing rare in that batch of goods, and the total value was at most three ounces.”

“I intended to return five taels to him, but the man was in a hurry to go home and left before I could give him the change.”

"I figured that person was just generous."

"As night fell, the remaining goods could not be sold, so I found a place to rest. Little did I expect that I would be arrested and imprisoned by the yamen runners in the middle of the night."

Xue Fengshi frowned. "What crime?"

"murder for money."

He only figured it out later.

The soldiers at the city gate, the buyers who paid high prices for goods but didn't buy them all, the wife and daughter who were poisoned after eating the mountain produce, the seemingly fair and just county magistrate, and even the doctor who helped him test whether the mountain produce was poisonous—they were all in cahoots!

Seeing that Ding Ping didn't seem like a fool, Xue Fengshi asked again, "Didn't you ever have any doubts? Or perhaps you could have a doctor check it again yourself?"

According to the laws of the Great Wei Dynasty, in poisoning cases, both the plaintiff and the defendant may apply for a re-examination.

Ding Ping travels all over the country and must know about local conditions and municipal affairs, so he should know this.

"The doctor who tested my remaining mountain produce and found it to be poisonous was someone I hired myself."

When Ding Ping saw that the mountain products the customer bought were all poisonous, and that they were all the same kind of poison, he was completely dumbfounded.

I once thought I had misjudged the situation and accidentally poisoned someone.

Even when the buyer asked him to pay 100 taels of silver instead of his life, he secretly rejoiced that at least he wouldn't die.

"So how did you eventually realize you'd been scammed?"

“One hundred taels is all my savings. After I exchanged it from the money shop to pay the customer, I didn’t have a single penny left. So I thought I’d go to Chen San to borrow some.”

It wasn't until Ding Ping saw what Chenjia Village looked like that he realized how badly he had been deceived.

But compared to the villagers there, he didn't seem to be in such a terrible situation.

Some of the villagers there accidentally "killed" someone.

In some cases, family members "went missing," and when they were found by officials, they had to pay exorbitant search fees.

Some people encounter "kind-hearted" doctors who offer free medical treatment and medicine, unaware that the medicine contains addictive drugs...

In short, the final result was that every household "voluntarily" incurred a huge debt.

The villagers were either forced into slavery by signing death contracts or forcibly dragged to the streets by their creditors to be bought and sold at will.

Selling children and using wives to pay off debts was common practice.

"Damn it!! You bastards! I... I'll kill them all! Kill them all!" Xue Fengshi was so angry that he pounded his chest, stomped his feet, gritted his teeth, and paced back and forth.

Turning back, she didn't forget to instruct Ding Ping, "Continue."

"Being enslaved or slaved isn't the worst thing; being robbed of your houses and land, freezing or starving to death, being driven to the point of committing suicide..."

Ding Ping calmly recounted the tragedies he had witnessed, each and every one of them replaying before his eyes every day.

"Has no one ever resisted?"

Ding Ping shook his head, his eyes filled with an extremely complex mix of emotions.

“They would select so-called village security officers and neighborhood security officers from among the villagers and have them exploit the villagers. They would then take one or two percent of the money and grain collected by these people as their corresponding compensation.”

"And encourage villagers to report on each other."

“Several families managed to hide some grain, only to be reported by acquaintances they had known for many years, and the whistleblower ended up getting a good meal.”

"There was also an orphan and widow who had been supported by their neighbors for years. But after their son became a village security officer, they turned around and bullied their neighbors, currying favor with the wicked..."

Don't assume that ordinary people at the bottom of society are of high quality.

When everyone else is starving, your family or his family gets to eat meat because they reported others, so why can't I do the same?

Moreover, the promised commission was indeed delivered.

What is the bottom line? What is unity? What is understanding?

In the face of those who have suffered greatly, all conscience and righteousness are not as tangible as a meal or a piece of meat.

Especially when everyone is doing it.

Perhaps some people did manage to stay true to their conscience, otherwise Ding Ping would never have met him.

But one can only imagine what became of those kind-hearted people who couldn't escape.

When people see what happens to those who uphold their conscience, will anyone still be willing to stick to their principles and be a good person?

When there's no profit left to be squeezed out, all that's left is soaring prices and widespread famine.

"My lord, you..." Ding Ping asked timidly as he watched Xue Fengshi stand silently by the window for a long time after hearing the story.

Surely this official wouldn't be afraid to intervene?!

Just as Ding Ping was about to kneel down and beg again, he saw Xue Fengshi turn around sharply—

"I'm determined to take charge of this matter."

......