Scare someone to death

  There are thousands and thousands of women named Liu Linglong in the world, but there is indeed one on Changping Prefecture's Flower Street who sells wine and does needlework. She had a past connection with Min An, and was known for her sweet words and soft hands.

  Apart from this Liu Linglong, Ma's concubine Liu Linglong is also a formidable figure.

  Li Peinan threw the household registration book to Min'an's feet, calling him to carefully examine Liu Linglong's life. The book only indicated that Liu Linglong came from Xiaozhuang, married into the Ma family as a concubine, but the subsequent notes written by Li Feige revealed: Before marrying into the Ma family, Liu Linglong worked as an embroiderer in Pengyin Xinfu, Changping Prefecture for five years, specializing in embroidery of flowers and grasses on collars and cuffs. Other processes such as pressing lines, stretching, cutting, and sewing were completed by different teams. She did light work alone, but received a salary of over ten taels.

  When it comes to Liu Linglong's master, Peng Yin Xin, who has been lingering in Changping Prefecture for half a year, Min An is not unfamiliar. This person is a third-class minister in the imperial court, serving as the Chu State Surveillance Commissioner, and his family can be said to be extremely wealthy. Wealth itself is not a crime, but exceeding the imperial palace's regulations would be considered overstepping boundaries. Moreover, the Peng family's extravagant lifestyle costs tens of millions of coins every day, equivalent to the total annual expenditure of fifty middle-class households. With so much money and silver flowing out continuously, the source of his wealth is worth investigating.

  Min An picked up the household register, read it through, and then closed the cover, placing it neatly on a nearby table. He didn't say anything, but his mind was racing like a merry-go-round, thinking that the young master had suddenly stripped off the new cocoon silk from Liu Linglong's body, probably intending to use the technique of "moving flowers and connecting wood" to send the greedy Peng Yinxin away for a beating.

  He, as a minor official, should get involved less in court affairs.

  Min An made up his mind and stood with his eyes fixed on his nose.

  Li Peinan remained seated in a chair two feet away from Min An and asked him, "What's your take on the case involving Liu Linglong?"

  "The steel needle has fallen to the ground, and the case is already very clear. I don't have any other views."

  "You mean—"

  Min An stiffened his scalp and replied: "The evidence is conclusive, it can be presented to the Ministry of Punishment now."

  Li Peinan suddenly changed his tone and said coldly: "You think you're tough just because you helped crack her case, so you can be arrogant in front of me?"

  Min An hastily knelt down: "Where does this come from? Please enlighten me, young master."

  Li Peinan said to Li Qun: "Go and bring the leopard here."

  Min An hastily grabbed Li Peinan's hem and exclaimed: "Young Master, please don't! I know I was wrong, I understand your meaning now!"

  Li Peinan brushed aside Min An's hand: "Speak!"

  Min An replied, "Liu Er and Liu Linglong committed a heinous crime, they were too reckless. I thought that as ordinary farmers' children, how could they be so ruthless? So I investigated their background. It turned out that both of them had worked for the Peng family and had been influenced by their wealth and luxury for five years, which made them arrogant. It's said that Liu Linglong even had an affair with Master Peng, but was discovered by Mrs. Peng and chased away. Liu Er had no means to make a living, so he went to Huangshi County to become a thief."

  Min An finished speaking and looked up at Li Peinan with a tight expression: "Does the young master still have any doubts?"

  Li Peinan saw Min An being scared to the point of sweating on his forehead, and his mouth corners moved slightly, but very quickly, he wiped away that not very obvious smile mark, and said coldly: "What else do you know? Say it all out."

  Min An immediately nodded and knelt upright.

  Li Peinan tapped his fingers on the armrest and said lightly, "I remember you said last night that if you're not convinced, I can let the leopard take a bite out of you."

  Min An felt a chill on his back and sweat seeped onto his forehead. His words were originally directed at the leopard, why come and bite me instead?

  Li Peinan continued: "It's now extremely dissatisfied, circling around the stone circle. Why don't you go and fight it to see who's more powerful?"

  Min An was about to cry: "Can I bring a cage in?"

  Li Peinan stood up: "Alright." He turned to Lijun and ordered: "Go empty out the tile house."

  Min An heard that the venue for fighting with the leopard was going to be moved to the tile house in the night market, and seeing that the young master was really coming, his heart became even more nervous, and he quickly moved to Li Peinan's side on his knees, grabbed his robe, and shouted in a hoarse voice: "I was wrong, I was wrong, please give me another chance, Young Master!"

  Li Peinan brushed aside Min'an's hand and sat down with his clothes open. "Speak."

  Min An knelt before Li Peinan's chair and said quickly, "Lord Peng has been greedy for over ten years, and he is closely related to the two sons of the Ma family. The current Chancellor is his close friend, and they are the ones who have connections with Liu Linglong behind the scenes. If one Liu Linglong dies, it won't hurt them at all; but if one Marquis Ma dies, it can be seen as the beginning of a split between Peng and Ma's party. Wang Xinyou has been in charge of Chu State for three years, but his connections and trusted forces are not enough to shake the foundation of Lord Peng. If Your Highness wants to get rid of this group of big corrupt officials, you must use the case of Marquis Ma as a starting point, peeling off layer by layer, and pulling out the main culprit; if Your Highness doesn't want to take action now, you can wait for them to rot from within, then cut off both ends with a knife, making it impossible for them to help each other, and finally capture them in a net - I'm not sure if this is satisfactory to the young master?"

  Min An's conjecture was based on his years of experience as a staff member. Due to the sudden change in his family, he had been extremely sensitive to the direction of court politics since he started working as a gatekeeper. Firstly, it was for self-protection, and secondly, it was to better assist his masters in taking a firm stance. Take this case of Liu Linglong's husband murder, on the surface, it seemed like an ordinary public case, but in reality, the relationships involved were much more complex, just as he had proposed, that to effectively deal with these relationships, one must thoroughly investigate from top to bottom, using a layered approach, or wait for the right moment, starting from the middle and digging deep in both directions, persisting in this way would eventually lead to grasping their weaknesses.

  Li Peinan had considered these issues for a moment before silently answering: "The second one."

  Min An understood: "Has the king already done so?" Did he do it according to the second method he mentioned?

  Li Peinan did not deceive An Nan: "The emperor is in charge of state affairs, I have come to take over Chu Prefecture."

  Min An finally understood that the one who was going to take over Chu State was actually the Crown Prince Li Peinan. He wiped away the cold sweat on his forehead and suddenly thought, since the Crown Prince had already taken action, why did he still need to call him here and force him to say such "treasonous" words?

  Li Peinan soon revealed the reason: "You can see clearly, you must know how to do it. Many inconvenient situations for me to face, now let you intervene."

  Li Peinan's reason is even more necessary. His every move involves the direction of Chu State's officialdom, and if he openly intervenes in official affairs, it will give a signal to those hidden corrupt officials, and before he can investigate, they will all retreat into their shells and refuse to show their hands. Only by secretly investigating and collecting evidence from all sides can he make a final move to sweep away all the small pawns and hidden masters.

  But Min An didn't think so. His mind had already wandered, and he couldn't help but lower his eyes to ask: "For example...?" Hopefully it's something good, if they can take advantage of the benefits of a big girl's family banquet, that would be great, otherwise it would be a waste of the prestige of the word "interference".

  Li Peinan looked at Min An's pale face with an inexplicable flush and suddenly asked: "What do you want?"

  Min An responded by raising his head: "The frozen milk wine on Flower Street is really not bad—" After meeting the cold, dark eyes in front of him, he lowered his head and said: "It was my mistake, Young Master, please continue."

  "Thirteenth Granny is dead."

  Suddenly hearing such a brief sentence, Min An was shocked and raised his head. Li Peinan didn't even look at him, and said coldly: "He was bitten to death by a ferret badger, you go investigate the cause of the incident."

  Min Andou asked, "Why me?" He thought to himself, the crown prince summoning a low-ranking official from a lower county, it doesn't sound right, how could they leave Daigun Liang Qun idle?

  Li Peinan replied: "Investigate the case and watch the leopard, you and Lijun each choose one."

  Li Qun in front of the screen raised his hand and smiled: "Young Master, you choose first."

  Min An knew this was absolutely not a valid reason, but he couldn't resist. Last night, his master had warned him not to get close to the Li family, and yet here he was today, about to be sent as an attendant to Qingquan County to investigate the case. He wanted to shirk responsibility, but the Ma family's case was still in Li Peinan's hands, with his master's name on it; if he wasn't careful, Li Peinan could turn things around and add his master to the list of accomplices.

  Min An hesitated for a moment, then decided to yield to authority. He floated out with his feet, suddenly remembering something, turned around and bowed to Li Peinan, asking: "What is a wildcat?"

  Before the words had fallen, a chaotic footsteps came from the stairs outside the door. Lü Qún made way, two guards carrying a cage with golden copper locks walked in, half-kneeling to Li Peinan, and then quickly retreated to one side. Fei Yi finally walked in slowly, wearing narrow clothes and long pants, still holding a beast-catching hook in his hand. He lifted the black silk cloth on the cage, showing Li Peinan a large lynx with shiny fur, saying: "Is this enough?"

  Li Peinan lowered his head for a moment and immediately understood Fei's meaning. He smiled: "Alright."

  "Can he leave?" Fei Yi asked coldly, looking at Min An.

  Li Peinan's lips still held a hint of a smile: "Next time I will definitely treat your guest with courtesy."

  Fei Yi said to Min An, "Come." Min An was still standing in a daze, seemingly understanding but not quite getting the subtle conversation between Fei Yi and Li Pei Nan, and didn't quite comprehend why he was being dragged into this. Not willing to wait for even a moment, Fei Yi walked over and pinched Min An's ear, pulling him out of the door.

  As soon as Fei Yiran left, Li Peinan's smile immediately turned cold.

  Lü Qun caught a glimpse of something and fell silent, not even daring to breathe heavily.

  Li Peinan walked to the front of the cage, stood still for a moment, looked at the injured forepaw of the lynx that had been shot by the crossbow bolt, and said coldly: "The lynx can be caught again, but there is only one of you. You don't allow me to move your people? I just want to move."

  Li Qun hesitated for a moment before speaking up, "There are many capable people like Xiao Xianggong in Chu State, it's not that important, Young Master. Why don't you just let him go? The Second Young Master has never competed with you before, but he seems to value this one highly, so why don't you just humor him?"

  "It can only be him."

  Lai Qun didn't understand the reason, but he absolutely believed in his young master's claim. Since Young Master said it could only be Min An, then it meant that what followed was inevitable and could only be placed on Min An's shoulders to put some pressure on him.

  Author's note: ORZThis chapter had the wrong posting time set, it was supposed to be posted at 12:00 on December 22, 2014, but I brushed it off for half a day and wondered why it didn't come out ~~o(>_<)

  Insert Bookmark