Chapter 238
Chapter 238
By the time Shen Si carried her from the bathing room, Ji Hanyi was nearly asleep.
The moment he placed her on the bed, she curled beneath the quilt.
Through half-closed eyes, she watched the tall figure beside the bed blur before her.
Her thoughts wandered. Since bringing her back, Shen Si had not asked a single question.
She had worried that knowing she had been drugged with an aphrodisiac and abducted by bandits would make him suspicious.
Would he think too much of it?
She parted her lips, her voice faint. “Did you see my cousin? He…”
Halfway through, she caught the darkness in Shen Si’s gaze and fell silent.
His face was grim and frightening. Shen Si himself did not realize that he always looked this way when thinking seriously.
His phoenix eyes turned to her. “Changling took him away. Whether he will survive is uncertain.”
The concise answer told Ji Hanyi enough. Something lodged painfully in her throat, and she did not want to think about it.
Lowering her lashes, she buried her clean, pale face in the brocade quilt. Her voice grew hoarse. “My cousin said someone was watching my courtyard even before my marriage.”
Shen Si looked down at her eyes, moist and fragile, and heard the caution in her voice. His tight lips loosened, and his tone softened. “You needn’t think about it. I will investigate everything.”
Ji Hanyi spoke weakly. “I want to tell the Marquis everything I know.”
“Cousin said the person’s rank was very high. He was afraid to name them because the Gu Family might suffer retaliation.”
“You can question him. If he refuses, I can persuade him.”
“If he is still alive…”
Sorrow rose within her. She blinked, closed her eyes, and disappeared beneath the quilt.
Shen Si looked at the pale curve of her cheek and neck beneath her dark hair. Her wounded posture softened his heart.
He did not know how to coax anyone. All he could do was ensure that those who harmed Ji Hanyi suffered the consequences.
As he reached to draw the rabbitlike figure into his arms, her muffled voice came from beneath the quilt. “The man who abducted me seemed to bear a grudge against the Marquis. I remember his face. I can draw him.”
She revealed a pair of crystal-clear, watery eyes. “I can do it now…”
Shen Si interrupted by pulling her into his arms. His long fingers covered the corner of her eye, then slipped into her loose hair.
Her eyes were reddened and her expression fragile enough to break. Pity and pain filled him.
He sighed. “Hanyi, leave everything to me.”
Patting her back, he continued, “The man you described now calls himself Wei Wu. His former name was Sun Pingzhong.”
He looked into her eyes. “His father had been a Section Director in the Ministry of Personnel. He was the family’s only son, held no degree, and enjoyed unorthodox hobbies, though they were initially harmless.”
“Later he began doing business with officials who came to the capital for court audiences. They needed connections to make visits and seek patronage. He used his father’s office to introduce them and accepted large bribes.”
“My men had already been watching him. I personally tried the case three years ago and convicted both father and son. His father was dismissed and demoted, then died in prison. Sun Pingzhong and the rest of the Sun Family were exiled to the frontier, and their property was confiscated. Under the law, the women entered slave registers or the Music Bureau. His wife was indeed unyielding. She jumped from an upper floor of the Music Bureau and died with barely any clothing upon her. I ordered that she be properly buried.”
“Sun Pingzhong later escaped during exile. After wandering through several regions, he became a bandit on Dawang Mountain.”
Ji Hanyi immediately understood that Sun Pingzhong’s family had not been wronged. Their punishment was deserved.
Her father had once said that years of court audience became harvest years for officials in the capital. Provincial officials brought gold and silk to secure patronage, and those who ultimately suffered were the common people.
Without Shen Si correcting such corruption, what purpose would the audiences serve? How could ordinary people ever receive officials who truly governed for them?
Yet the evildoers considered themselves victims.
Ji Hanyi clutched Shen Si’s sleeve and buried her head against him, overwhelmed by emotion. “He harmed his own wife and children. It wasn’t the Marquis.”
Shen Si paused, then held her more tightly and rested his chin upon her hair. “Hanyi, it is over.”
She murmured agreement and closed her eyes in peace.
Outside, the light slanted westward. It was nearly time to light the lamps.
Shen Si remained at the bedside until he was certain her breathing had deepened into sound sleep. Then he bent to stroke her cheek, brushed stray hair from her face, watched her for another moment, and left.
Night had fallen. Under the corridor lanterns, Shen Si’s long shadow swayed in the cool darkness.
Wen’an had been waiting outside. He immediately handed over two letters delivered by fast courier.
Shen Si skimmed the first and tossed it back.
The second reported that the palace informant had been found: Chen Kang of the Earth Battalion, now detained in a Censorate interrogation room.
Shen Si’s expression shifted, and he departed.
The Censorate’s interrogation room was unlike an imperial prison filled with screams. The room holding Chen Kang was clean and orderly, without racks, braziers, or blood. There was only one table and two chairs.
Chen Kang sat in the lower chair, his back already soaked with sweat.
The door opened. He looked up and saw the Lord Left Censor-in-Chief standing beside the table, his face hidden by dim backlighting. Only those calm, incisive eyes were visible, watching without the slightest ripple.
Chen Kang knew how terrifying Shen Si was. His body began to tremble.
The tall figure approached slowly. The heavy authority of a man long accustomed to command nearly drove Chen Kang to his knees to beg for mercy.
Shen Si watched the sweat upon his face with eyes that saw through everything. His cold expression was sharp as a blade.
He sat and leaned back. “Chen Kang. You entered the palace in the ninth year of Jingyuan. Your father died young, your mother is often ill, and you have a younger sister awaiting marriage and one son. The entire household depends upon your wages.”
“You earn five taels and seven mace a month. Your rented room outside the palace costs two taels. You gamble and owe ninety-four taels to Ruyi Gambling House. On the twenty-seventh of last month, their men injured your leg. Yet four days ago you cleared the debt, bought your mother five packets of medicine, and two days ago purchased your wife a silver hairpin.”
Chen Kang’s face grew grayer with every word.
Shen Si continued coolly. “Yesterday, the day of the runaway horses, you were assigned to Xihua Gate from a quarter past three until three quarters past-the precise time my wife left through that gate.”
“Whom did you notify during that interval?”
Sweat soaked Chen Kang’s clothes. He could not believe Shen Si had identified him so quickly and uncovered everything.
He had foolishly hoped he would never be discovered.
Shen Si had not asked why he did it, only whom he had informed.
Under those all-seeing eyes, Chen Kang nearly confessed everything.
But knowing the consequences, he stammered, “I… I merely needed to relieve myself. I didn’t…”
Shen Si’s cold gaze silenced him.
A gesture brought a jar onto the table. It shattered with a clear crack, spilling bright silver across the surface.
Chen Kang’s eyes widened and reddened. His body shook uncontrollably.
The Censorate had dug up the silver hidden beneath his house.
He had hoped that even if something happened to him, his family could live on it. Now he felt true terror.
Shen Si’s icy voice sounded again. “Your wife and child are next door. You need not confess. But if you cannot explain this silver, I can convict you of stealing palace property through your position and selling it.”
“As for your wife, child, and mother, I will not spare them.”
“They will also be liable for the value of what you stole. Think carefully, Chen Kang. Your entire family depends upon you.”
Shen Si leaned closer, his voice a cold blade. “What you stole is whatever I say it was.”
“Execution, punishment of your family, or a path of survival for your wife and child. Choose.”