Chapter 431
Yue Fuguang saw that aside from a weary expression and some mud splatters on his clothes, he was otherwise fine, so she relaxed and asked, "General Shen, did everything go smoothly on this trip?"
"Reporting to Your Honor, all went smoothly. We successfully rescued Cao Dajun and arrested Hao Ren along with all the officials of Pinglang County and their families. I brought Hao Ren and his two sons back first to report; the rest will arrive in Yingzhou City a bit later."
Yue Fuguang nodded, highly approving of Shen Jian’s arrangements. "How is Cao Dajun’s health? Is his life in danger?"
The daughter-in-law of the Cao family had already died from humiliation. If the eldest son’s health were also compromised, Yue feared Cao Xiwang might not be able to bear it.
"Your Honor, rest assured. Cao Dajun’s life is not in danger; he just needs proper rest and recovery." However, due to the severity of the torture he endured, his body was damaged, and he might no longer be able to perform heavy manual labor as before.
But Shen Jian thought such minor details weren’t worth troubling the Grand Tutor with. He had already left money for Cao Dajun’s medical treatment, enough to help the family get through this crisis.
"Since you’re here, bring the Hao father and sons up now," Yue Fuguang said. Upon hearing that Cao Dajun was out of danger, she set the matter aside. She believed that after the Sun family’s assets were confiscated, Prefect Huang would provide sufficient compensation to the Cao family.
There was also the Yu family, a major local clan whose members held considerable land. Once those were freed up, countless landless commoners would benefit.
Yue Fuguang intended to finish the interrogations all at once; eating could wait.
Shen Jian went to retrieve the prisoners. When Li Qingxue heard that Hao Ren and his sons had been captured, her face turned even more sour than Yu Wei’s.
Half of her energy and spirit drained away. She had thought that if she stalled long enough, Ating might hear the news and escape in time. But she had not expected that this famous Grand Tutor Yue would be so meticulous, having sent men to Pinglang County early on.
Li Qingxue stared earnestly toward the door. When she finally saw the familiar, handsome figure appear at the courtyard entrance,
her hanging heart died completely—or rather, there was a secret flicker of relief inside. Although she wished Ating could survive alone, now that he was trapped alongside her, she thought perhaps they could die together. If they accompanied each other on the journey to the Yellow Springs, they might even reunite in the next life.
If Yue Fuguang knew what she was thinking, she would call her infatuated and naive—a hopeless romantic through and through.
Not to mention that both of them had blood on their hands, which might make it uncertain whether they could even be reincarnated.
Moreover, this Hao Fangting was no good man. On one hand, he kept his beautiful, devoted fiancée dangling before him, using her to carry out shady deeds.
On the other hand, he was entangled with his delicate maternal cousin, and without his fiancée’s knowledge, he had secretly pledged himself to the cousin, promising to take her as a secondary wife in the future.
Hao Fangting’s plan was to enjoy the pleasures of a wife and a concubine at the same time.
If it had been the Li Qingxue of the past, she would never have agreed. But after the Li family fell, she became a pariah. Had he not taken her in and given her refuge, her current status would mean she should even be grateful to become his concubine.
That’s exactly what Hao Fangting thought behind the scenes.
Now, playing the lovestruck hero, Hao Fangting’s face filled with heartache when he saw the beautiful but haggard Li Qingxue, showing no trace of his earlier schemes. It could only be said that wearing a mask and acting had become second nature to him.
The Hao father and sons, shackled at the ankles, now had disheveled hair, their fine clothes wrinkled and stained with mud.
Their shackles clanked loudly as they moved.
Seeing Hao Fangting so beaten, stripped of his former elegance and grace, Li Qingxue’s tears uncontrollably streamed down her face. Her Tinglang had never suffered such hardships before!
"Ah Xue!"
"Tinglang!"
‘Holding hands, gazing at each other through tear-filled eyes, they were speechless, choked with sorrow.’ Yue Fuguang’s mind involuntarily recalled those words as the two exchanged soulful looks.
"Hao Ren, do you admit your guilt?" Yue Fuguang had no desire to watch the passing lovers’ longing glances and directly pressed Hao Ren below.
"Your Honor, this subordinate admits guilt!" Hao Ren, seemingly aged years overnight, saw his would-be daughter-in-law Li Qingxue and the four others.
His pupils shrank, a weight like a thousand-pound stone pressing down on his heart as his kneeling body trembled slightly.
But as his eldest son spoke with Li Qingxue, he hurriedly racked his brain for a way to save himself.
When Yue Fuguang asked if he knew his crime, Hao Ren’s eyes flickered. As a man well-versed in Dayan law, he confessed immediately.
As expected, after his confession, the Grand Tutor asked the question he had anticipated.
"Then tell me, what crimes have you committed?"
Yue Fuguang naturally noticed the flash of calculation in Hao Ren’s eyes, but she didn’t mind there was a saying: brute force can break ten ingenious moves. She held the upper hand, so she would play along with these people for a while.
"Your Honor... I should not have shielded the nephew of Prefectural Vice Commissioner Sun and wrongfully imprisoned Cao Dajun. I should not..."
His eyes shifted to Li Qingxue, who was kneeling aside, her face wet with tears. "I should not have, out of lingering affection, harbored the descendant of a criminal."
He seemed to gather his courage as he raised his head to look at Yue Fuguang, “Your Excellency the Grand Mentor, please see clearly. The betrothal between our two families was decided long ago. If not for the death of Fang Ting’s mother, which required him to observe a period of mourning, the two would have been married long ago.
When Your Excellency saw that His Majesty did not punish the daughters who had already married into other households, I presumed that Li Qingxue, who was already my Hao family’s future daughter-in-law…”
Hao Ren bowed deeply, pressing his forehead to the ground. “Thus, it was out of foolishness—I was unable to endure my son’s persistent pleas—that I officially recognized Qingxue as our daughter-in-law.”
Behind him, his two sons, Hao Fangting and Hao Fangyuan, also knelt and kowtowed.
But Yue Fuguang remained unmoved. She slowly stroked the teacup in her hand and said coldly, “And what else?”
Hao Ren was stunned for a moment, then gritted his teeth. “I also accepted lavish gifts from Vice Prefect Tong, as well as tributes from the gentry of Pinglang County.”
“Continue!” Yue Fuguang urged him when he paused.
Hao Ren then confessed one by one some offenses of varying severity, even recounting how, during the imperial examinations, he had placed a cursed doll to harm the classmates ranked above him. But he did not utter a single word about his connection to the illegal mine.
When Yue Fuguang pressed him on why Cao Dajun had been thrown into death row, he merely claimed it was a mistake by the prison guards and that he had known nothing about it.
[Host, I’ve discovered that this Hao Ren is not the biological son of the Hao family. And the iron ore from the Yu family’s mine has not been transported far.]
The timely information from the system gave a boost to Fengtang, Huang Xie, and the others who overheard it.
[Host, they sent everything to the neighboring Xin Prefecture, where the Yu family owns an estate spanning several large mountains at the border between the two prefectures.
The Yu family set up a smelting site on the mountain. The iron ore was turned into pig iron and sold to the Ouyang family. You may not know this family, but if I mention the Tong family, it may ring a bell.]
The Tong family? Two years ago, Emperor Mingxi had already purged most of the former imperial clan members who had plotted rebellion.
However, from what the Tong family themselves had revealed, there remained another branch of the Tong clan within the Great Yan territory—including the youngest son of the last emperor.