Chapter 69 - An Emperor Who Died of Illness

Ji Cheng helplessly discovered that when the sky really did fall, he was a little unable to hold it up.

The next instant, Ji Cheng suddenly whipped his head around to look at his son, Ji Wenxuan.

Being stared at like that by his old man, Ji Wenxuan was first stunned, and then also thought of something. In an instant, dense beads of sweat broke out on his forehead, and his body began to tremble involuntarily.

Song Yun was dead.

And he had taken people to beat up Song Yun last night.

Could it be...

A certain thought in his heart made Ji Wenxuan's face turn deathly pale.

Even though beating up Song Yun last night had been satisfying, that was just a scholar's fit of pique, anger rising to his head. No matter what, Song Yun was the legitimate son of a Duke's mansion.

If he was really dead, the matter would be huge. His father was, after all, only a Vice Magistrate. Although he held real power, in terms of status alone, he was far inferior to a Duke.

What's more, that Duke also had a younger brother serving as the Minister of Personnel. If this was traced back to him, let alone his father, he was afraid the entire Ji family couldn't protect him.

Beating and killing—the difference between the two was enormous.

Ji Cheng, however, quickly suppressed the agitation welling up from deep within his heart:

"Are you sure the dead person is Song Yun?"

"How did he die?"

At first, his voice was still a little strange, but by the end, it had returned to calm.

"It's been confirmed, it's the Seventh Young Master of the Song family."

The bailiff's face was also somewhat pale, as if thinking of the corpse's tragic state. His stomach churned, and he almost wanted to vomit.

"As for the cause of death, the preliminary judgment should be death by beating."

Ji Wenxuan's body trembled again, his face even paler.

"All four of his limbs were smashed and broken. His skin and flesh were torn. His chest was crushed by a rock. He must have suffered some torture before he died. And in the end, his head was cut off."

Hearing this, the originally very frightened Ji Wenxuan's eyes suddenly lit up:

"Father, that wasn't me..."

"Shut up." Before Ji Wenxuan could finish, Ji Cheng suddenly roared. Then he tossed an ingot of silver to the bailiff.

“Make a trip to Ningping and inform the Lord Duke."

The bailiff took the silver and left gleefully. Only then did Ji Cheng glare fiercely at Ji Wenxuan.

"Idiot! What should be said and what shouldn't be said, do I still have to teach you this kind of thing?"

"What exactly happened?"

Ji Wenxuan no longer cared about his father's scolding.

"Father, I just beat him up. I didn't smash his limbs, and I certainly didn't cut off his head. When I beat him, his head was covered with a sack. So he definitely wasn't beaten to death by me."

Ji Cheng's eyes narrowed to a slit, contemplating for a long while:

"Yesterday, besides you, did anyone else make a move?"

"There were. On the way, I even ran into two other groups. It was Wu Chen and Lu Tianrui. I heard that Fang Jun also made a move."

"Father, do you think it could be them..."

"Wenxuan, you must remember, you were just too tired, so you left the Qixi gathering early to return home and rest. You didn't meet anyone. Only by doing this can you be extricated?"

Ji Wenxuan was a little confused:

"And why is that? Perhaps the people after me…”

"No. The people after you will say that when they encountered Song Yun, his limbs were already broken and his head was already severed. They will say that they only concealed it for you out of friendship."

Ji Cheng sighed. This son of his was still a bit too simple-minded. He waved his hand, looking a little weak:

"Go to these few families and inform them of Song Yun's death. I believe these old foxes all know very well what to do."

Just then, another burst of hurried footsteps came. Looking up, it was another bailiff.

Ji Cheng's brow twitched.

"Lord Ji, it's bad..."

Sure enough. From a great distance, the voice carried over. Ji Cheng let out a breath. He was already too lazy to criticize this bailiff for not being steady.

"Speak. What has happened now?"

"Lord Ji, in the city, at the Youlai Inn, in the room where the Fifth Young Master of the Song family is staying, four corpses were discovered hanging at the door this morning!"

Damn it, why is it the Song family again?

……

"Flood control silver?"

In Songzhou city, at a small shop selling tofu pudding. Because of yesterday's downpour, there weren't many people doing business, but there were still some.

"It's the silver used for managing the flood disaster." Luo Tianyi sprinkled a little coarse salt on the tofu pudding. The corner of Song Yan's mouth twitched slightly.

Adding salt to tofu pudding, what heresy.

"Does the Ning Kingdom have this tax?"

Luo Tianyi shook her head, her expression indifferent:

“Of course not. Managing floods and dredging rivers has always been funded by the Ministry of Revenue."

So he understood. They were eating from both ends. At the top, they were embezzling funds from the Ministry of Revenue; at the bottom, they were eating the 'flood control silver.'

"This 'flood control silver' has been around for a long time. At least, it already existed when the Luo family moved to Song Prefecture. It's collected every time there's a downpour. One tael of silver per person. They say it's to dredge the river channels and reinforce the embankments."

"Have they been dredged?"

"If they had been dredged, the destruction from this flood would not have been so severe."

Luo Tianyi glanced at the vast expanse of ruins in the distance. The residences and shops along the river had been almost completely swept away. Besides a large amount of debris and rubble, nothing was left.

As for the people swept away by the flood…

Who would care about these lives? To the government, these lives were just numbers used to ask for money from the imperial court.

Song Yan was silent. Before this, he had been imprisoned in the Duke's mansion and had very little contact with the outside world. After entering the Luo family, what he enjoyed was mostly the kind of ancient life that would only appear in TV dramas.

There was a disaster, but there were no soldiers for rescue, no airdropped supplies, no clean water sources. There were only officials collecting 'flood control silver'. It wasn't until this moment that he felt the ice-cold cruelty of this world.

The cruelty of human lives being treated as worthless as grass.

Seeing those people numbly and familiarly taking out their money, this kind of situation had probably happened many times. They were already used to it.

One tael of silver was already a very large sum for an ordinary commoner.

Did they not know the dangers of the Yi-Luo River? Of course they knew. But because there were a large number of pleasure boats and a large number of customers on the bank of the Yi-Luo River, doing business here could allow them to survive.

"This is still within the city. The situation in the villages outside the city is probably even more tragic.”

Luo Tianyi said to herself:

"Actually, Songzhou city is already considered good. At least it's an inner city in the Ning Kingdom, and apart from the coast, it's not near the border. It's said that the more remote a place is, the more exorbitant taxes there will be. Song Prefecture might have thirteen or fourteen types of taxes beyond what is stipulated by the Ning Kingdom. At the border, it might be thirty or forty types..."

"I've never been to the prefectures at the border. I've heard that in those places, white bones can be seen everywhere. Selling one's sons and daughters, and even 'pawning one's wife,' are common practices."

"Pawning one's wife?"

Another term he had never heard before.

"It's when a husband sticks a stalk of straw in his wife's hair. Eight copper cash for one time, ten for a prettier one..."

His heart felt a little heavy. An image of a middle-aged man suddenly appeared in his mind:

"Does the Emperor not know any of this?"

Luo Tianyi's cherry lips curled into a disdainful smile.

"So what if he knows? His decrees can't even leave the imperial palace."

"He ordered that live-in son-in-laws can participate in the imperial examinations..."

"That's because this edict doesn't affect the interests of too many people, so it was just to maintain the emperor's dignity a little."

The tofu pudding in his mouth had lost some of its flavor, carrying a hint of bitterness.

He had seen the hustle and bustle of Songzhou city's night market, had seen the prosperity of the Qixi gathering. That was the bright and beautiful side of this world. But this was the first time he had felt the filth buried beneath this prosperity.

"Doesn't anyone want to change any of this?" After a long while, Song Yan murmured to himself.

"There have been... The most recent person who wanted to change this situation was Emperor Yuanjing," Luo Tianyi smiled and said.

"And then?"

"And then, he died."

"While boating in the imperial palace, he carelessly fell into the water, and then died of illness.”

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