There is a god in the sky

Chapter 273 The Xie Family, Imperial Merchants 4

"Old Chen, there's no need to worry about these things. There's no one else left in my family. If these medical skills can be passed down, our elders will be gratified in the afterlife."

Dr. Chen was extremely shocked; he thought the little girl had come to Bianjing with her parents.

"Have you encountered any difficulties?"

"No, it's getting late, I should go back. Goodbye." Shen Lan left the ward.

Doctor Chen chased after her, stuffed a purse into her hand, and said awkwardly, "Medical skills are priceless, but I don't have any more to offer. Take this money as payment for your prescription."

Shen Lan truly had no intention of selling the prescription for money; she only agreed to help because she could see that the old doctor had good medical ethics.

"Thank you." Shen Lan didn't even look at how much money was inside.

She didn't have a good first impression of the Xie family, but once she entered the pharmacy, she found that both the young assistant and the old doctor treated patients very well.

"My daughter's awake?" came the woman's surprised voice from the side.

It turned out that the little girl who had been treated earlier had woken up.

Doctor Chen rushed over to check, but Shen Lan didn't join in the fun and quietly left.

As I walked out of the pharmacy, I brushed past a young man in fine clothes.

Shen Lan's nose twitched as she smelled a medicinal scent. Behind her came the waiter's enthusiastic voice: "Young Master is here."

She glanced back at the young man and saw him take out a prescription for the waiter to fill out the medicine. She thought to herself: So the young master of the Xie family also has to come to the pharmacy to get medicine in person?

She didn't take it to heart and prepared to return to the Xiao family with the medicine.

The Imperial Guards were already patrolling the streets. When they saw Shen Lan, a lone woman, they ordered her to go home as soon as possible.

Shen Lan took a long detour back to the Xiao family.

It seems I won't have time to go to the City God Temple tonight; I'll have to wait until tomorrow.

She wanted to see what connection that place had with Li Ye, and what he was secretly plotting.

Oh, and those two men who were with him earlier, they were able to produce the Crown Prince's token, could they be from the Crown Prince's residence?

There were so many questions I wanted to ask, but the other party remained silent.

Back at the Xiao family home, Xuan'er was waiting for her with a table full of dishes.

"You haven't eaten yet?" Shen Lan asked in surprise.

When Xuan'er saw her carrying a medicine bag, she asked, "Sister is sick? It's all my fault, I didn't even notice."

"No, no, I just grabbed some medicine and kept it in case of emergency."

She washed her hands and pulled Xuan'er to sit down. She noticed the food was still hot and urged, "Eat quickly. I've told you many times, you don't need to wait for me to come back."

“I like eating with my sister.”

After the meal, Sui Feng came to invite Shen Lan.

"The master needs to speak with you."

“At this hour…” It was already past midnight. If there was no official business, Shen Lan did not want to spend the night with Xiao Ji.

"Ahem, the master said it's an important matter." When Sui Feng heard his master say this, he thought it was unnecessary, but he didn't expect that Miss Shen would avoid this topic.

However, given Miss Zhao's jealous nature, it's probably best to be a little discreet.

They all said privately that once the young mistress entered the family, things might not be so harmonious anymore.

Shen Lan lived not far from Xiao Ji's courtyard.

As the eldest son of the Xiao family, Xiao Ji naturally lived in the best courtyard, but he didn't have many servants to attend to him.

Shen Lan always went to the study when she came in, and never set foot in his bedroom.

When she entered, she saw Xiao Ji looking at the account books and assumed it was about his business.

"My lord," Shen Lan called out to him from ten paces away.

Xiao Ji put down the ledger and beckoned to her, "Come here, let's study how to use this thing to maximize its effectiveness."

"what?"

He pointed to the ledger. "Didn't you give me this?"

Shen Lan stepped forward and flipped through a few pages. They were records of income, starting from fifteen years ago and ending ten years ago. There were no names, only symbols that she couldn't understand.

"Where did this ledger come from? I didn't give it to you."

“It suddenly appeared on the floor of my study one night. I thought you had stolen it from the Tong family.”

Shen Lan thought of something.

Tong Juntao was once punished by his family, apparently for losing something important. Could this be it?

Oh right, and about Qingman's death, what they found out was that she stole Tong Juntao's things, could it be that too?

How could such a hot potato end up in Xiao Ji's hands?

Was he framed or was he considered reliable and wanted to be asked to testify against the Tong family?

“This alone is not enough to bring down the Tong family,” Shen Lan said rationally.

“Who said I was targeting the Tong family?” Xiao Ji wrote down a few numbers and handed them to her. “Take a close look at these pages of records.”

Shen Lan carefully flipped through the pages and found that the symbols on these pages were all the same, perhaps representing the same person.

"In the autumn of the twentieth year of Tianhe, ten thousand taels were deposited, and the title of Prefect was issued. Could it be that official positions were bought and sold?"

Xiao Ji disagreed. "I've looked at this ledger many times and thought so before, but later I felt it was more like a record of the Tong family accepting bribes."

For example, the one you just mentioned might refer to a prefect who gave the Tong family ten thousand taels of silver in the autumn of the twentieth year of the Tianhe era.

Shen Lan saw the last line of this symbol, which read: "In the autumn of the thirtieth year of Tianhe, 30,000 taels were received, and the exit position was drawn as an inverted three, somewhat resembling a mountain peak."

Why look at the record under this symbol in isolation?

In the thick ledger, there are more than a dozen entries with this symbol, with varying amounts, but they appear every year.

Perhaps this means that this person sends gifts to the Tong family every year.

"Because I suspect that this record is about the bribes Liu Engui gave to the Tong family."

Shen Lan hadn't noticed until he pointed it out, and after looking at the timeline more closely, she realized it was indeed very likely Liu Engui.

"Although the details are brief, we can speculate on why Liu Engui kept sending money to the Tong family."

"Naturally, it would be high-ranking official positions and generous salaries."

A prefect could casually give away 10,000 taels of silver a year; who knows how much he embezzled while in office.

"A clean prefect for three years can amass 100,000 taels of silver. Liu Engui stayed in Jianzhou Prefecture for nine years. How much did he embezzle?"

He had only been in the capital for a short time and probably didn't dare to make a move yet, but in Jianzhou Prefecture he was all-powerful and could have anything he wanted.

How many cases of encroachment on fertile land, disregard for human life, and embezzlement of public funds occurred during this period?

"Are you trying to bring up his past misdeeds from when he was an official in Jianzhou Prefecture? You were there back then, so you should have heard a bit about his reputation."

"Yes, I have some evidence, but it's not enough."

Shen Lan thought for a moment, "You should know that I want him to publicly admit to the massacre of the people of Guli Town, and I want him to give an explanation for this matter. I don't just want his life."

If her only goal was to kill, she had many ways to assassinate Liu Engui.

"Don't you think that only after he is completely disgraced will he have a chance to confess? Right now, he's living under the protection of the Tong family and is fearless, so why would he confess?"

Seeing that Shen Lan was persuaded, Xiao Ji took the ledger and said softly, "Leave the evidence collection to me. You just need to wait for the results."

"My lord..." Shen Lan didn't want Xiao Ji to get involved.

She has nothing to lose, but Xiao Ji has family and a promising future. What will happen to the Xiao family if she gets into trouble?

"I know what you're worried about. Don't worry, a mere Vice Minister of Revenue won't implicate the Xiao family."