Chapter 31: Undercurrents

For the next few days, the surface of Chang'an City remained calm.

The Court of Judicial Review went through the motions step by step, but Tao Si still wouldn't talk.

The document from the Chancellery had already been sent down. Vice Minister of Justice Han Ping'an took over the review of Fang De's case, but no news came out about how far he had gotten.

Lin Yuan knew very well that this was Zhao Chong buying time.

Buying time until everyone forgot about Huainan, until the evidence slowly grew cold.

So he had no intention of letting Zhao Chong get his wish.

After the morning court on the fourth day, Lin Yuan intercepted Han Ping'an under the corridor outside Xuanzheng Hall.

Han Ping'an was in his fifties, tall and thin, with a long face that clearly said "Don't come near me."

Seeing Lin Yuan approach, his gaze immediately began to wander, and a trace of true qi stirred under his feet as he tried to find an escape route.

"Reminder Lin."

Han Ping'an gave a dry smile, suppressing his qi aura.

"Something the matter?"

"I want to know how far you've gotten with Fang De's case."

The smile on Han Ping'an's face froze abruptly.

"Still sorting through the files. The evidence is overwhelming; it takes time. Please don't be impatient, Reminder Lin."

"The First Princess gave a one-month deadline, and six days have already passed."

Lin Yuan's gaze was sharp as a blade.

"Reminder Lin, rest assured. The Ministry of Justice will handle this impartially."

Han Ping'an backed away as he spoke, even his breathing becoming slightly erratic.

Lin Yuan kept pace with Han Ping'an, closing in step by step, stubbornly maintaining the distance.

"Vice Minister Han, did the Ministry of Justice receive the little notebook I kept in Huainan?"

"Yes, yes, we got it."

"Inside that notebook are the joint signatures and seals of victims from twenty-three villages, records of Fang De collecting silver chests six times, and a line-by-line comparison of the fraud committed by Tao Si, Qian Er, and Wu Liu during the disaster verification."

Lin Yuan spoke with a smile, his voice soft but every word cutting deep.

"If after a month of investigation nothing is found, I will recopy all of this and read it out loud in court before the full assembly of civil and military officials! Then everyone will ask: the Ministry of Justice has ironclad evidence, so why can't they act? Vice Minister Han, is your head enough to quell the fury of Huainan's disaster victims?"

Han Ping'an's long face twitched violently, cold sweat beading on his forehead.

"Vice Minister Han, do you think that question is easy to answer?"

Han Ping'an fell silent for a few breaths, then squeezed out a dry "This official understands," and hurried past Lin Yuan like he was fleeing.

Lin Yuan watched his retreating back, but he wasn't optimistic.

Han Ping'an's cowardice was well known, and with Zhao Chong's Grandmaster-level pressure looming there, just scaring him with words might not be enough.

It seemed he really needed to find a way to force him.

At noon, when he returned to his office, he was flipping through the files on the Ministry of Works' false reporting of project funds left by his predecessor when someone knocked on the door.

He opened it to see a stranger, a middle-aged man in gray cloth clothes, light on his feet, clearly possessing internal energy.

"Lord Lin, my master invites you to meet tomorrow afternoon at the Liu Ji Teahouse in Yong'an Ward on the west side of the city."

"Who is your master?"

"You'll know when you get there."

With that, the middle-aged man clasped his hands in a bow and disappeared into the crowd.

Lin Yuan stood at the door, thinking.

'Yong'an Ward on the west side. That area is mostly home to mid-ranking capital officials and some scattered officials. I've never heard of Liu Ji Teahouse.'

'Who could it be?'

A few guesses came to mind.

'A person from the Second Princess? The Third Princess? Or an assassin sent by Zhao Chong to test me?'

All were possible.

But he didn't mind. In fact, he was eager for someone to pick a fight and draw a blade.

When Zhou Zheng came in the evening to deliver medicine, Lin Yuan told him about it.

"Liu Ji Teahouse?"

Zhou Zheng thought for a moment.

"That place I know. It's been open for seven or eight years. The owner's surname is Liu, not a big establishment. At Yong'an Ward... there are a few low-ranking officials from the Censorate living in that area."

"The Censorate?"

Half of the Censorate was loyal to the Second Princess.

Lin Yuan narrowed his eyes.

"Forget it. I'll go check it out tomorrow."

"Aren't you afraid someone will ambush you with axes and chop you up in the teahouse?"

"Afraid of what? Being chopped to pieces is even better."

Lin Yuan didn't care at all.

Zhou Zheng looked at him, seemed about to speak, but shook his head and stayed silent.

The next afternoon, Lin Yuan arrived at the Liu Ji Teahouse in Yong'an Ward.

The teahouse was small, with five or six tables on the first floor and three private rooms on the second.

The waiter led him to the innermost room on the second floor. When the door opened, sitting inside was a woman around thirty years old, wearing a dark blue narrow-sleeved long robe, her hair tied back at the nape of her neck, a bronze identification tablet hanging from her waist, and her entire aura restrained inward.

"Reminder Lin, please sit."

Lin Yuan entered the room and sat down opposite her.

"You are?"

"Su Wanqing, Supervising Censor of the Censorate."

Lin Yuan ran through his memories. There was no name like that in his predecessor's recollections, meaning she had no prior connection with him.

But as a Supervising Censor in the Censorate, where half the members were the Second Princess's people, which side was she on?

'Which side is she on?'

"What business does Supervising Censor Su have with me?"

Su Wanqing poured him a cup of tea. Her movements were brisk, and the tea filled the cup without a drop spilling.

"I've seen all the evidence you submitted regarding Huainan."

"How did you see it? That evidence is in the Chancellery and the Ministry of Justice."

"The Censorate has the authority to inspect it."

Su Wanqing picked up her own tea cup.

"Fang De embezzled 280,000 taels. Provincial Governor Zhou Rong and Prefect Cheng Yuanshan haven't been investigated yet. Zhao Chong set up a barrier in the Court of Judicial Review, and Han Ping'an is being suppressed in the Ministry of Justice, too afraid to act. You're an Inspector of the seventh rank junior grade plus a Reminder of the eighth rank junior grade, with no troops and no people. How do you plan to proceed from here?"

Lin Yuan took a sip of tea.

'This person really speaks bluntly.'

"Is Supervising Censor Su here to help, or to watch me die?"

"Both."

Su Wanqing put down her cup.

"I'm not from the Second Princess's camp, nor from the Third Princess's. Out of the twenty-six Supervising Censors in the Censorate, fourteen listen to the Second Princess, seven listen to Zhao Chong, and three are fence-sitters."

"What about the other two?"

"One retired to his hometown. The other is me."

Lin Yuan looked at her and suddenly grinned.

"Seems like Supervising Censor Su and I are just two people who've grown tired of living, solitary and alone."

"That's why I came to find you."

Su Wanqing's gaze did not waver.

"I have in my hands several sets of accounts Zhou Rong handled in Huainan over the past three years. Not complete, but enough to corroborate the numbers in your notebook. If used together, we can push Han Ping'an forward willy-nilly."

"What do you want?"

"I want Fang De's case investigated to the bottom. Not just Fang De, but Zhou Rong behind Fang De, and Zhao Chong behind Zhou Rong."

Lin Yuan slammed down his teacup heavily, his eyes blazing with fanatical light.

"Do you know what the consequences of investigating Zhao Chong are? One wrong move and we'll be crushed to dust!"

"I know."

Su Wanqing said unhurriedly.

"It's about the same as when you stood under the clubs of martial artists in Huainan and read out the accounts."

Lin Yuan stared at her for a long moment.

"Fine. Give me the stuff!"

Su Wanqing took a thin oilpaper packet from her sleeve and slid it across the table.

"Three copies of the accounts, involving the river embankment funds from last autumn's flood that Zhou Rong handled, and the tax on official farmland in Luzhou Prefecture from two years ago."

Lin Yuan took it and tucked it into his bosom, as excited as if he were carrying a death warrant.

"Supervising Censor Su, aren't you afraid of getting hacked to death by random blades for doing this?"

"Reminder Lin, when you stood in court and cursed Zhao Chong under the pressure of a Grandmaster, did you think about that question?"

Lin Yuan laughed heartily, stood up, and bowed deeply to the ground.

"Then I won't stand on ceremony!"

When he walked out of the teahouse, fine snow began to fall in the street.

He wrapped his clothes tighter and started back, but suddenly saw someone standing at the mouth of the alley diagonally opposite.

White robes, holding a sword, the person seemed to merge completely with the wind and snow, not a trace of qi leaking out.

It was Bai Heng.

The wandering swordsman who had listened to his poem recital at the Bright Moon Tower.

They exchanged a gaze across the street for a moment, and Bai Heng gave a slight nod before vanishing into the alley like a phantom.

Lin Yuan stood in the snow, rubbing his nose.

'Who is this guy?'

'How does he turn up everywhere?'

He didn't think much about it and quickened his pace toward Chongyi Ward.

The account copies tucked in his bosom were the treasures that mattered most to him right now.