The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 912 - 890: Prelude

Chapter 912: Chapter 890: Prelude

County Magistrate Tang and County Magistrate Yang hadn’t told Lord Tang about Bai Shan and Manbao, but they had told Lord Tang that Wei Zhi had been investigating the Prince of Yizhou ever since the flood disaster in Yizhou.

Lord Tang and the Emperor both knew that because of the breach of the Qianwei Weir, Wei Zhi had always felt that the Prince of Yizhou should bear the primary responsibility. He thought the court’s punishment was too light, so him keeping an eye on the Prince of Yizhou didn’t surprise the Emperor and Lord Tang at all.

But what did surprise the Emperor was how he had managed to make contact with the descendants of Bai Qi so quickly?

So how much had he uncovered?

Wei Zhi didn’t hide anything; he recounted in detail how he had occasionally come across the Bai Family and the contact he had made with them over the past four years.

To be honest, Wei Zhi had never suspected that the Prince of Yizhou was planning a rebellion; he merely wanted to find evidence that the Prince of Yizhou had murdered Bai Qi twelve years ago and to obtain evidence of the Prince’s embezzlement of funds for the Qianwei Weir twelve years prior.

Unlike the families of Yang and Tang, Wei Zhi came from a humble background. He didn’t think that such extensive embezzlement by the Prince of Yizhou could be absolved with just the confiscation of some fiefdoms. The reason he had accepted the Emperor’s punishment four years ago was that he lacked crucial evidence; he couldn’t prove that the flood disaster in Yizhou was instigated by the Prince. Otherwise, with the hundreds of thousands of people in the Jiannan Road, he didn’t believe they couldn’t take down the Prince of Yizhou.

What he hadn’t expected was that the actions of the Prince of Yizhou were far greater than he had imagined, which was also why he tacitly agreed to ally with the Tang Family.

After finishing his recounting, the Emperor asked, "What is the name of Bai Qi’s son?"

"His name is Bai Shan."

The Emperor suddenly realized, for he had just remembered those three interesting children, "That child named Zhou Man..."

Wei Zhi paused momentarily; he hadn’t mentioned Zhou Man’s name just now, but after a brief pause, he said, "She is the orphan of Zhou Yin. However, it is said that she has been raised by her uncle since she was young and was unaware of her own background. She only found out about it recently."

The Emperor then remembered what she had said about the Prince of Yizhou when he met her in the temple. He couldn’t help but sigh. Was this not a natural-born enmity? Even before she knew the truth, she already disliked the Prince of Yizhou.

The Emperor waved his hand and said, "I understand. Once you reach Yizhou City, Courtier Wei, act as you see fit. It’s best to bring them into the capital."

The Emperor spoke with an underlying purpose, "The Empress Dowager has aged, and her health isn’t as good as it used to be. If there are no concrete proofs, it’s always difficult for me to make Her Majesty overly worried."

Was this really about needing concrete evidence or just about needing a catalyst to bring the case to the forefront?

Wei Zhi thought about how both Bai Qi and Zhou Yin had only these children left in the world and remained silent without speaking.

The Emperor frowned and asked, "Why don’t you respond, Courtier Wei?"

"Your Majesty, they are just two youths of twelve or thirteen years old. Such a significant matter shouldn’t involve them." Wei Zhi had already begun to regret mentioning them.

The Emperor then laughed and said, "What, are you afraid I might devour them? Rest assured, once they enter the capital, I will naturally ensure their safety."

Wei Zhi pursed his lips. That was before they served as a catalyst, wasn’t it?

Once they had served as a catalyst, would the Emperor still remember them? Even if he did, by then, they would have been embroiled in such a significant matter, who knows how many would want their lives, and how much was the Emperor willing to sacrifice to protect them?

But these concerns Wei Zhi couldn’t voice. After weighing his options, he could only bow his head in agreement.

Because his official mission was to conduct inspections, and his secret mission was to investigate evidence of the Prince of Yizhou’s rebellion. Others had set off before him, and at best, he was only there to provide cover.

Therefore, Wei Zhi was in no hurry, packing up his belongings leisurely before leading his subordinates out of the capital. He planned to inspect each place one by one, with Yizhou City midway through the itinerary.

To enter Yizhou, one could first take a detour to inspect Mianzhou, and then take the opportunity to visit Old Madam Liu and those two children.

Manbao and Bai Shan were completely unaware of this, as they were still standing in the spring breeze, enduring the pain and pleasure of reciting their lessons.

After repeatedly memorizing over half the book, Manbao and Bai Shan finally recited all the articles and passed the check a month after being punished, and Mr. Zhuang finally allowed them to attend classes in the study.

As for Bai Erlang, he was still three texts short, but considering it was his first offense, Mr. Zhuang graciously allowed him to join as well.

Bai Shan and Manbao were astonished and whispered together, "Had we known it would turn out like this, we should have asked the teacher to check us right after we had memorized them a few days ago."

"Exactly, we delayed four days just because we were waiting for you."

"Well, if you’re so capable, you should have delayed until I had memorized all the textbooks. Today you’re asking the teacher to check so that you can leave me behind, huh? I am not touched at all."

"That’s because you’re memorizing too slowly. It’s just four short texts, and we’ve explained all their meanings to you, yet you still couldn’t memorize them."

Bai Erlang: "You think everyone is like you, familiar with the texts after going through them twice, I..."

"Ahem," Mr. Zhuang finally found the papers he had written up during this time. He turned around and saw them chattering away without restraint and couldn’t help but cough loudly twice. He cast a warning glance at the three of them and said, "Since you’ve all memorized them, we’ll do a set of tests today, and continue with classes tomorrow."

Each of them received a tailor-made test paper, filled with the articles they had recited, including silent writing, interpretation, and composition questions.

Bai Erlang felt uneasy upon seeing the test paper, but Bai Shan and Manbao were accustomed to this and glanced at the questions before putting down the papers, musing over the subsequent composition while grinding ink.

Each of their test papers was different, and even if they opened them for each other to see, it was of no use.

Of course, it could be helpful, for example, Bai Shan and Manbao could occasionally give Bai Erlang some tips.

However, Bai Erlang had just offended them, so the two decided to ignore his pleading looks, focusing intently on their own papers.

Bai Erlang bit the end of his pen and sighed, furrowing his brows in thought. He could silently write most of it, but the interpretation... especially the composition...

Only a rough explanation of the interpretation had been given to him by Bai Shan and Manbao, and he barely remembered any of it, let alone the composition.

Bai Shan and Manbao also felt it was difficult since all the books had been read and the classics analyzed by themselves. Mr. Zhuang had never taught them, so the composition was quite challenging.

The three spent the whole afternoon in the study completing their separate tests, and it wasn’t until a servant came to announce that dinner was ready that Mr. Zhuang knocked on the desk and said, "Manbao, collect the papers."

Manbao put down the pen he was chewing on and dawdled a bit to squeeze out some more time for his junior brothers before collecting the papers.

With the papers under his hand and fanning himself with a fan, Mr. Zhuang asked them, "Have you learned your lesson this time?"

The three of them nodded repeatedly.

Mr. Zhuang: "Do you dare to commit the same mistake in the future?"

The three of them shook their heads repeatedly.

Mr. Zhuang looked at them seriously for a while and waved his hand, "In that case, you can go out. Oh, and today there are guests at the residence, so don’t be too lively. Show some restraint and manners, understand?"

The three of them, who were about to jump up and cheer, held back and nodded their heads incessantly.