After the New Emperor Ascended, He First Demoted Me to Farming - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Three ledgers were found in Prefect Liang’s carriage.

One was real. Two were fake.

The real ledger recorded three years of grain shortages in Qingzhou.

The false ledgers claimed harvests were abundant year after year, the granaries full, and the people at peace.

Pei Yan sealed the prefectural treasury on the spot, and Prefect Liang was escorted back to Qingzhou under guard.

Before he left, he looked at me with venom in his eyes.

“Jiang Wan, do you really think His Majesty is protecting you?”

I said nothing.

Prefect Liang sneered.

“Chancellor Zheng helped him ascend the throne, and the entire court is filled with Chancellor Zheng’s protégés. If he were truly protecting you, he never would have let you leave the capital bearing the name of a traitor’s daughter.”

The words stung.

And they struck exactly where it hurt.

Pei Yan frowned and moved to silence him.

I stopped him.

“Let him speak.”

Prefect Liang looked as though he had seized his chance.

“Your father’s treason case was personally decided by the Late Emperor, with Chancellor Zheng presiding over the trial. If the New Emperor wants to overturn the verdict, he has to slap the Late Emperor in the face and shake half the court.”

“Does he dare?”

I looked at him.

“Why don’t you guess whether he dares or not?”

Prefect Liang laughed.

“If he dared, you wouldn’t be here farming.”

I took a step closer.

“Prefect Liang, do you know why I’m willing to farm?”

He froze.

I said, “Because fields don’t lie.”

“However much you plant, however much grows, whether the harvest is good or bad-it’s all there in the earth.”

“Ledgers can be forged. Testimonies can be changed. People can change their stories to save their own lives.”

I looked toward the sealed grain carts.

“But when grain is short and the people are starving, that can’t be lied away.”

Prefect Liang’s expression turned ugly.

I lowered my voice. “My father’s case is the same.”

“Who took the grain, who sold military intelligence, who caused thirty thousand people in the northern borderlands to starve to death-sooner or later, it will all grow out of the soil.”

Prefect Liang stopped laughing.

That night, Pei Yan came to see me.

He was Xie Xuan’s cousin, and one of the few people back then who hadn’t kicked me while I was down.

He sat in the dilapidated hut, staring at the leaking roof, and said nothing for a long while.

I poured him some water.

“Too shabby for you?”

“No.”

“Then what are you looking at?”

“His Majesty said you were doing all right.”

I pointed at the roof.

“His eyesight may not be very good.”

Pei Yan lowered his head and gave a brief laugh.

I asked, “Why didn’t he come?”

Pei Yan’s smile faded.

“Zheng Chong is watching him too closely.”

“Is it hard for him right now?”

“Very hard.”

“And what about me?”

Pei Yan looked up.

I said, “Commander Pei, things are very hard for me too.”

“I know.”

“He sent me here without asking whether I wanted to investigate Qingzhou, without asking whether I wanted to become this nail he drove into the board.”

“Did he send you with a message?”

Pei Yan fell silent.

I smiled.

“So he didn’t.”

Pei Yan took a small cloth bundle from inside his robe.

Inside were a few pieces of osmanthus candy.

“His Majesty said you used to eat this when you were upset.”

I looked at those pieces of candy, and suddenly I was even angrier.

He remembered that I ate candy.

But he didn’t remember to ask whether I was willing.

I pushed the candy back.

“Please take it back with you, Commander Pei.”

Pei Yan did not move.

I said, “Tell him I will investigate the grain case.”

“And I will investigate my father’s case too.”

“But I am not a piece on his chessboard.”

Pei Yan slowly put the bundle away.

“I will deliver the message.”

When he rose to leave, he suddenly stopped.

“Jiang Wan, His Majesty coughed blood last night.”

My fingertips trembled.

Pei Yan said, “On the day he ascended the throne, he stood on the city tower and watched you leave the palace for two full hours.”

“The rain was heavy.”

“His old wounds hadn’t healed.”

I lowered my eyes to the bowl of water on the table.

“Pei Yan.”

“Yes?”

“Playing for sympathy won’t work.”

Pei Yan sighed.

“I know.”

After he left, I sat there for a long time.

In the end, I still unwrapped a piece of osmanthus candy and put it in my mouth.

It was very sweet.

So sweet it was annoying.