Top Scholar

Chapter 311 A bolt from the blue
At the 'Luxury Prince's Mansion,' a grand banquet was held, and She Saihua lavishly entertained the Su family and their entourage.

During the meal, She Saihua frequently raised her glass to apologize to the men of the Su family, and kept toasting Su Youcai, her future in-law.

As she drank, her face became flushed, and the spring water in her peach blossom eyes almost drowned Su Youcai.

"Su Tai's mother has been gone for many years, haven't you ever thought about finding someone else?" She Saihua asked.

Su Youcai was stunned. He thought to himself, "Something's not right with my mother-in-law. Could she be trying to emulate Empress Wu Zetian?"

He quickly put an end to her hopes, saying, "I did find someone, and we got married last month. It's a pity I didn't know your mother-in-law back then, otherwise you would have been invited to a wedding banquet."

"Really? That's a pity... I mean, it's wonderful. Congratulations..." The light in She Saihua's eyes immediately disappeared, and her smile faded.

In the second half of the evening, she stopped offering toasts and began drinking alone, glass after glass.

"Mother, you should drink less." Even She Yunlu couldn't stand it anymore.

"If you won't let me manage you, then you shouldn't manage me either," She Saihua said irritably. "A well-fed woman doesn't know the hunger of a starving woman."

"Naiye is drunk," Arno said with a quick laugh.

"I'm not drunk. There's no wine in Lincheng that can get me drunk!" She Saihua said, her tongue slurring.

"That's because the governor hasn't tasted our Erlang Fine Wine!" Su Youma, already an excellent salesman, immediately chimed in, "After drinking our wine, you'll breathe freely and won't cough, and you'll dare to walk into the Tiger's Den alone!"

"Okay, let me try it," She Saihua said happily.

"Alright, we'll try to sell it another day." Su Youjin stopped Su Youma. This kid is obsessed with business now, no wonder he got tricked into coming here.

Seeing this, the Su family got up to take their leave.

She Saihua personally escorted them to the yamen gate, staring intently at Su Youcai's departing figure, and sighed, "Fool Arno, if you wanted to catch a horse, why didn't you do it a month earlier?"

"Ah..." Arno was speechless. How was I supposed to know you could fall in love with his brother at first sight?
~~
Su Lu and his party rested in Lincheng for one night, and set off on their return journey early the next morning, arriving back in Luzhou three days later.

The group decided to rest at home for the night and take a boat back to the Yangtze River the next day.

Su Lu could not rest yet. After bathing and changing his clothes, he went straight to the military affairs office to report the results of his trip to his father-in-law.

Huang Ke was very happy to hear that he had successfully persuaded She Saihua.

"Good job! The last obstacle is now over, and we can start construction as soon as the dry season arrives!"

"And what about the Yang family's side?" Su Lu reminded them.

"This river project is aimed at the Yang family; there's no way they'll support it." Huang Ke laughed indifferently, "Just consider them as obstacles that will be encountered during construction. We'll deal with whatever comes our way."

“Father-in-law is absolutely right. If you can’t farm just because you hear cicadas chirping,” Su Lu agreed. “Anyway, we’re doing this under the guise of improving people’s livelihoods, so they can’t openly oppose us. They can only try to sabotage us in secret.”

"Well, when we encounter difficulties, Hongzhi can't just stand by and do nothing," Huang Bingxian said, looking at Su Lu with hopeful eyes.

"What my father-in-law does is what I, his son-in-law, must do; it's my duty," Su Lu quickly and readily agreed. Actually, dredging the Chishui River was also his dream, but making his father-in-law happy certainly wouldn't hurt.

"Alright, I will rely on Hongzhi in the future." Huang Bingxian nodded happily and said, "Let's have dinner at home tonight. Let your father come over. I haven't met him yet."

"Yes, ma'am." Su Lu was also very happy.

The father-in-law and son-in-law were getting to know each other better when the clerk whispered at the door of the signing room, "Sir, the official report has arrived."

"Bring it in," Huang Ke replied.

The clerk then entered, placed an unopened copy of the official gazette on the table with both hands, and then quietly withdrew.

Seeing Su Lu's gaze fall on the official gazette, Huang Ke asked with a smile, "Want to see it?"

"Yes." Su Lu said with an awkward smile, "I heard that things are in chaos in the court, and I've been quite worried about Headmaster Zhu."

"Yes. After the two gentlemen retired, no one in the court could restrain the Eight Tigers. They are now retaliating against officials at will—the other time, twenty officials from the two capitals were arrested by the Eastern Depot for trying to retain the two gentlemen Liu and Xie. It's truly worrying about their safety." Huang Ke agreed wholeheartedly, picked up the letter opener, opened the oiled paper envelope, and pulled out the official report:

"Then let's watch it together."

“Hey,” Su Lu then moved closer and stood behind Huang Ke, reading the official gazette with him.

As expected, there wasn't a single piece of good news—

In the year Jiaxu, Yang Shousui, Minister of the Ministry of Works, and Zhang Fuhua, Left Censor-in-Chief, were impeached. Both of them were high-ranking officials who had co-signed the impeachment memorial.

They were all doomed, and Han Wen, the Minister of Revenue who led the memorial, naturally couldn't escape it either. Liu Jin deeply hated Han Wen and sent agents from the Eastern Depot to spy on him for any wrongdoings.

However, Han Wen did not have twelve concubines as Liu Jin claimed; he only had one wife. Although he was the Minister of Revenue, in charge of the nation's finances, he was an incorruptible official with no surplus wealth. For a time, the Eastern Depot could not find any fault with him.

A month later, someone smuggled counterfeit silver into the imperial treasury. This was simply due to a minor official's negligence, and at most, the matter would be investigated up to the head official. However, Liu Jin used this as a pretext to punish Han Wen, and issued an edict in the emperor's name demoting Han Wen by one rank and forcing him to retire. He also demoted Chen Ren, a court official, to the position of Assistant Magistrate of Junzhou.

Xu Ang, a censor, pleaded for Han Wen's release, but the emperor reprimanded him for his favoritism. Not only was Xu Ang removed from office, but Han Wen was also demoted to a commoner and stripped of all his privileges.

When Han Wen and his wife left the capital, there were no buses available, so the two elderly people in their sixties and seventies rode on a single mule; they also could not stay at the post station and had to stay at a roadside inn...

Li Mengyang, who wrote the impeachment memorial for Han Wen, was also implicated and demoted to the position of Provincial Administration Commissioner of Shanxi Province, and was ordered to retire.

"How could the situation have deteriorated to this extent?!" Seeing this, Huang Ke was deeply distraught, sighing and looking up, "In the blink of an eye, the court has changed drastically, and all power, both domestic and foreign, has fallen into Jin's hands. The calamity for us civil officials has arrived!" "Yes, the Eight Tigers are truly too arrogant," Su Lu also sighed, "Is there no one who can control them?"

"Not at the moment." Huang Ke shook his head dejectedly and said, "That's why officials all over the country want to retain Liu and Xie."

"Does Liu Xie think he can just walk away? Once he gets back, he'll be facing Liu Jin's endless revenge." Su Lu said in a deep voice, "And there's Minister Han and Alliance Leader Li. The revenge against them has only just begun."

"..." Huang Ke nodded dejectedly. He agreed with Su Lu's assessment that Liu Jin, that old madman, would never let the matter rest.

It took him a while to calm down and continue reading the official gazette, but what he read only made him feel worse—

After twenty officials, including Dai Xi, a supervising secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue, and Bo Yanhui, an imperial censor, were imprisoned, Liu Jin had each flogged thirty times in court.

Dai Xi and several others died from being beaten with sticks; Jiang Qin was beaten three times and died in prison three days later…

More than forty officials, including Wang Shouren, a principal officer in the Ministry of War, and Zhu Liu, a junior official in the Hanlin Academy, submitted memorials to rescue the officials, but they were all punished with caning in court...

Upon seeing the names of Wang Shouren and Zhu Liu, Su Lu felt a chill run through him from head to toe, and for a moment he had to hold onto the table to stand.

"Hongzhi, are you alright?" Huang Ke asked anxiously, quickly getting up to offer him a chair. "Please sit down."

"Father-in-law, I'm fine." Su Lu composed himself and said with a bitter expression, "This is the first time I've seen Headmaster Zhu's name in the official gazette."

“Alas, he should not be involved in these matters as a junior scholar,” Huang Ke said. “The court has the same requirements for junior scholars and scholars; neither is allowed to make irresponsible remarks about politics.”

"It might be because of Wang Yangming..." Su Lu said softly, "They were close friends. I wonder if their lives are in danger..."

"It shouldn't be a big problem," Huang Ke quickly reassured him. "So many people were killed in the first round of floggings, the second round should be a bit more restrained."

"I hope so." Su Lu nodded, his voice thick with emotion, "Father-in-law, we won't be having dinner tonight."

"Hmm, let's do it another day." Huang Ke patted his shoulder and said softly, "I know you want to go to the Zhu family, go ahead."

"Yes. Father-in-law, please tell Xiumei that I won't be going to see her." After saying this, Su Lu took his leave.

"Wait a moment." Huang Ke called out to him, picked up a pen and quickly wrote a note, blew the ink to dry it and handed it to Su Lu, saying, "Give this to Master Zhu and tell him that if needed, he can take this note to the courier shop to send documents."

"Yes." Su Lu hurriedly took it, carefully put it away, bowed deeply to his father-in-law, and turned to leave quickly.

Huang Ke watched his retreating figure and let out a long sigh.

~~
'Click!'
A bolt from the blue struck, and a torrential downpour began.

The rain came suddenly and fiercely, weaving a dense, impenetrable gray curtain that absorbed all the light from the sky and earth. The distant houses and treetops were all soaked in the moisture, leaving only blurry black shadows.

The sound of rain mixed with the sound of wind rushed into Su Lu's ears, making him jolt and finally wake up from his state of stress.

He then realized that he wasn't wet at all. Looking up, he saw an oil-paper umbrella covering his head.

Huang E appeared beside him without his noticing, silently holding an umbrella for him, but her left sleeve got wet in the process.

"Ah, Xiumei, when did you come out?" Su Lu quickly pushed the umbrella towards Huang E.

Huang E looked at him with a worried expression. "I was waiting for you right outside the signing room, but you didn't even see me."

"Sorry, I was lost in thought..." Su Lu realized that he had already walked to the entrance of the government office.

"It's nothing, I was just worried about you," Huang E asked softly.

"Both Zhu Shanzhang and Wang Yangming have been flogged in court," Su Lu said in a low voice. "Their fate is now unknown."

He knew, of course, that Wang Yangming would not die, but Zhu Liu knew nothing about it.

"Ah?" Huang E was also stunned. She knew that Su Lu was going to the capital to study under Wang Yangming...

She also knew that Wang Yangming might just be a name to Su Lu at the moment, but Zhu Liu was the one who shaped Su Lu into who he was today, and his kindness to him was like a second birth...

Given Su Lu's loyal and sentimental nature, he would naturally be extremely worried.

Huang E quickly grasped Su Lu's cold hand, wanting to offer him some comfort.

Su Lu also held her hand tightly, looked up at the road ahead, the heavy rain made everything blurry and he couldn't see the road ahead.

With a whoosh, Little Fish opened its shimmering silver tin-topped umbrella and came to greet them.

Su Lu said to him, "Go, run home and tell my uncle and father that Zhu Shanzhang is in trouble. Tell everyone in the family to go to the Zhu family mansion!"

"Hey!" Little Fish quickly disappeared into the rain.

"Let's go back, I need to go and inform my senior master." Su Lu tried to let go of Huang E's hand.

Huang E shook her head firmly, gripping his hand even tighter.

“Alright, let’s go together then.” The two shared an umbrella and hurried towards Zhujia Mountain…

P.S. This is a post I'll edit later. Please vote and subscribe!

(End of this chapter)