Lu Yi went out to make arrangements and strode straight to the Empress Dowager's residence.

  The Empress Dowager listened attentively to Lu Yi's account of the entire matter, looking very moved. After a moment, she lightly sighed and said, "I understand. I won't interfere with this matter anymore. Let your brother handle it himself. If there's anything uncertain, come find me immediately. Such an evil spirit... Alas! Go!"

  Lu Yi bowed his head in response and backed out with his hands hanging down.

  "Lao Huang, did you hear all of that?" The Empress Dowager asked as she watched Lu Yi leave.

  Behind the curtain, Huang Taijian flashed out and responded with a bow.

  "Brother's case is actually like this... it's really..." Empress Jin looked like she had a lot on her mind.

  "This is heaven's will." Huang Taijian immediately picked up the sentence.

  The Empress Dowager didn't say a word and remained silent for quite some time. "You take a good look, after all, it's the first time for your brother."

  "Yes."

  "Go investigate that Guo Sheng, find out why Guo Sheng went to the Zixi Salt Yard and what he did there. From today on, send a few more people to keep an eye on Jiangning Prefecture." The Empress Dowager's voice grew colder, and Eunuch Huang bowed his head in response.

  ………………

  Li Wenshan finally calmed down, and Jin Qianshen, who rarely spoke warmly, comforted him a few more times. The King of Qin asked Gu Liu to take Li Wenshan back to their mansion for a two-day rest before returning to the academy, inviting a doctor to diagnose Li Wenshan's pulse and prescribe some soothing medicine to calm his nerves.

  Gu Liu took Li Wenshan out of the Chuihua Gate, and Jin Zuyan looked at Qin Wang with a smile, "This Li Wu, is really lucky, he can even bump into such a thing..."

  "This matter has not been investigated clearly, let Feng Ge investigate it first." The Qin King's face was gloomy, "If someone else had initiated this matter, the Ministry of Justice and the Salt Official County Magistrate, as well as the Hengshan County Magistrate, would definitely be implicated."

  Magistrate of Hengshan County... Jin Zuo's eyebrows furrowed, then relaxed. "It's easy for Hengshan County to get out of this, but if Lin Mingsheng is held responsible again, the two provinces will be somewhat unbalanced."

  "I and my mother have taken refuge in this city of Hangzhou to avoid the disaster star. It's better to remain calm and not make any moves." Qin Wang seemed to have not heard Jin Xun's words, lost in his own thoughts, slowly fanning himself with a folding fan, after a long while, he slowly continued: "Since you don't want one person to dominate everything, this important matter can only be handed over to Lin Ming Sheng. Let him take the lead, even if it doesn't bring any credit, this blame will definitely disappear."

  "Hmm." Jin Shu responded with a single word, his brow furrowed even tighter. "If it falls into Lin Ming-sheng's hands, I'm afraid he'll use it as an excuse to make a big deal out of it, starting from Hengshan County, using the Magistrate of Hengshan County as a stepping stone, pulling down Li Xue-zhang and who knows, maybe even implicating Ming Zhen-bang. Hengshan County..."

  "Don't worry, this matter is ours to give him, and it's in our hands first. One county of Hengshan, we can still protect it." Qin Wang shook his fan back and forth, "You heard what Li Wu said, his father is stupid and useless, as long as we protect it, that's all that matters."

  Jin Zhiyan wanted to laugh but couldn't bring himself to, this Li Wu, this case...

  ………………

  Guo Sheng ran back to the Hengshan County government office in one breath, led the horse to the stable, and had just taken two steps towards his own residence when he suddenly stopped, turned around and went back into the county government office. He had told County Magistrate Li yesterday that his uncle had something to attend to and he needed to go to Hangzhou City for a trip, but now he was back. Firstly, he wanted to greet County Magistrate Li, and secondly, he also wanted to see if there were any matters concerning his cousin.

  Guo Sheng and County Magistrate Li greeted each other, saying they were back. As soon as they left the signature office, they saw Ermenli, where Li Xia was jumping with a rope, bouncing out all the way.

  Guo Sheng hastily stood up, turned a corner and headed towards the tea room. When he arrived at the entrance of the tea room, he looked around and saw that there was no one nearby. He quickly slipped away from the side of the tea room and entered through the back door.

  Li Xia jumped right in front of him and stopped, "Go to Jiangning Fu, tell Fifth Master's words, Mother asks for guidance from Eldest Paternal Aunt on how to prepare the festival gifts to be sent to the capital city's manor, go immediately and return immediately."

  Li Xia finished speaking, swung the rope and jumped back all the way.

  Guo Sheng swallowed a mouthful of saliva, but before he could swallow it all, he raised his hand and slapped himself on the forehead, filled with regret. He was so stupid, he hadn't thought of it, and needed the girl to remind him.

  There are many clever people in Mingtao Mountain Villa who are intelligent and sharp-minded.

  Wu Ye and Wang Ye talked about the case of licentious sacrifice, in Mingtao Mountain Villa, I'm afraid it's just a matter of time before they investigate themselves first. They will definitely find out that he went to Xigou Town and asked around Old Zhao's house first. He followed Old Zhao's lead and discovered the licentious sacrifice case. He also went to Qiaotou Town... This pot, someone has to take responsibility for it.

  Kuang Sheng rushed to the signing room, with a look of regret, just in time to use it. He repeatedly bowed his hands and apologized to County Magistrate Li, saying that he had been too hasty and had left the bag containing the seal at his uncle's place, and now had to rush back to retrieve it.

  Magistrate Li is a broad-minded and magnanimous person. Let him be patient, if he can't make it today, there's no need to rush back; he can come to the yamen again tomorrow.

  Guo Sheng came out and rushed straight to the stable for another horse. He left Hengshan County and headed straight for Jiangning Prefecture.

  ………………

  The residence of Jiangning Prefecture's Grain Intendant, Mrs. Yan was watching people carry lanterns for the Lantern Festival when she heard that Wu Ye from Hengshan County had sent someone to request a meeting with her, and hastily ordered him to be let in.

  Kuo Sheng hurried back to Hengshan County from Hangzhou City early in the morning, and then rushed to Jiangning Prefecture on horseback, covered in dust and sweat.

  Mrs. Yan saw him in such a hurry, her heart was lifted, and she quickly had someone pass him a pot of warm tea water, watching with bated breath as he drank cup after cup until the whole pot was empty.

  Guo Sheng drank enough tea, let out a long sigh, stood up, bowed his head to thank him, and then said what Li Xia had instructed.

  Mrs. Yan listened and stared at Guo Sheng, "Is that all? You said you saw me? Didn't you say you saw the master?"

  Guo Shengjue felt something was off and lowered his head, "That's what Fifth Master instructed."

  "Please sit for a moment, I need to ask our master about this matter. As you know, the old master of the Beijing manor is quite particular about these things. Our master knows best about this. Please wait for a moment." Madam Yan said as she stood up and smiled politely at Guo Sheng before exiting the flower hall.

  Mrs. Yan walked out several dozen steps in one breath, turned two corners, and hastily called someone over to instruct, "Immediately go to the front hall and tell Master to come back right away, no matter what he's busy with, immediately come back once."

  The old woman hastily went off, and in a short while, Li Cuishi followed her with big strides.

  Mrs. Yan signaled to Li Chuo, and they stepped into a small warm pavilion next door, dismissing the maidservants. She spoke in a low voice: "Sir, just now that Guo Sheng came, saying he was following Fifth Brother's orders, asking to see me. He said Fifth Brother ordered him to come over and ask for my advice on how to prepare gifts for the Beijing Duke's mansion."

  Li Chuo's eyes widened, and Mrs. Yan looked at him, "I was also startled, the festival gift for the third house, we had prepared it, ten days ago, it was sent out together with our festival gift, this matter, someone had been sent to tell Mr. Qin about it earlier, could it be that Mr. Qin didn't tell Fifth Brother about this?"

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