The tender, springy beef melted in the mouth; as the lips and teeth moved, its bursting juices blended with the sour, fragrant, slightly spicy broth, creating an exceptionally unique and delightful texture. The accompaniments inside were just as good—the mushrooms were fresh and tender, the tofu skin rich with a deep soybean aroma, and the cabbage had soaked up plenty of the broth. Every element worked in perfect harmony with that tangy, mildly spicy soup, making the overall taste truly exquisite.

This suancai niurou, with its broth mixed with rice, truly made up for their longing all morning.

The air in the Dali Temple’s kitchen was filled with that rich, tangy aroma. Wen Mingtang and the others sat behind the counter watching the constables, who had been busy all morning, eat their meals.

Once their stomachs, which had been empty all morning, were filled, they rose one after another, reluctantly sipping the last bit of suancai niurou before leaving.

As lunchtime drew to a close, Lin Fei and the others finally appeared in the kitchen.

Zhao Mengzhuo returned to the Dali Temple ahead of schedule today, and they should give him an explanation for their actions.

Regardless, although it was somewhat of a “premature execution”, the person was caught, and the evidence was complete. According to the constables who had just eaten, the body of the “woman of extreme yin,” Li Yin, was found on the spot—they had caught them red-handed.

If Li Yin was the first woman to suffer, her grandson, Li Zhou, couldn’t possibly be the instigator, since the case began before Li Zhou was even born!

Compared to the constables, Lin Fei and Liu Yuan naturally knew the details better. After receiving their lunch and sitting down, they chatted with Wen Mingtang and the others while eating.

“They believe that the corpse of Li Yin, a woman of extreme Yin, can absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, ensuring their eternal good fortune,” Liu Yuan said, taking a bite of rice smeared with soup. “If you ask me, when it comes to good fortune and merit, it’s far more reliable to do good deeds that benefit the world, the nation, and the people than to absorb the spiritual energy from the corpse of a woman of extreme Yin!”

These people, along with their ancestors, had exhausted all their good deeds, harming Li Yin’s family, their own clan, to obtain her corpse. They then spent a great deal of effort trying to preserve it, but… the corpse couldn’t be preserved as if she were alive. They had even seen Li Yin’s portrait; she was a beautiful woman. But look at the state of her body lying in the coffin!

She was still a member of the same clan! For that vague and illusory selfish desire, they disturbed her peace even in death. The key question is, was all this effort truly useful?

When they went in to arrest her, the “woman of extreme Yin”, Li Yin, didn’t appear or offer any help. Of course, perhaps she was just too annoyed by this group and felt that it would be better to have them arrested sooner rather than later so she could have some peace and quiet.

Compared to those young ladies who were buried alive to serve wealthy idlers, Li Yin became a vessel to absorb the “spiritual energy” of heaven and earth!

“Yang’s grandfather mapped out the place where those people had hidden Li Yin and then concealed the map,” Liu Yuan said, biting into a piece of beef and savoring the burst of juices in his mouth. “Although he worked for them, those fiends didn’t believe in any of this either.”

Seeing Liu Yuan speaking frankly about the inside story of the case, Lin Fei didn’t stop him. It seemed that the truth of the case had already come to light, and those “wealthy idlers” had their fill of idleness!

Wen Mingtang thought for a moment and asked Liu Yuan, “What about those thugs?”

This matter couldn’t be kept secret, otherwise Jiang Chengzhu wouldn’t have personally taken over the task of setting up the altar. He just didn’t know how those “wealthy idlers” had chosen these thugs to work for them.

“That’s exactly what I was talking about,” Liu Yuan said, swallowing a mouthful of juicy beef. “These Jianghu people, though they’ve always been in the Jianghu, weren’t originally Jianghu people. Their ancestors were henchmen and assassins kept by wealthy idlers, doing things for them that they couldn’t do openly.”

“These wealthy idlers are quite careful about their evil deeds and generally don’t easily provoke people in the court, but our Dali Temple isn’t the first to want to deal with them,” Liu Yuan said. “During the reign of the late Emperor, some ministers who couldn’t stand their behavior wanted to get rid of these idle, good-for-nothing wealthy idlers who did evil deeds in secret, but the late Emperor…”

At this point, Liu Yuan suddenly shoveled a mouthful of rice into his mouth and mumbled indistinctly, “The late Emperor… fatuous… benevolent…”

Wen Mingtang felt that Liu Yuan had meant to say the late emperor was fatuous, but since he was, after all, the Son of Heaven, he replaced it with a token “benevolent.”

In short, the late Emperor and this group of people were kindred spirits, so he naturally found them very “pleasing to the eye”, and it would not be easy to bring them down.

The officials weren’t stupid; they knew that once this matter began, there was no turning back. They needed solid evidence, but the investigation had barely started when the other side found out… These wealthy idlers were incompetent at doing anything productive, but they were adept at employing thugs to eliminate dissidents and spies to gather information.

“These people have never been reasonable people. This is where their hired thugs come in. Quite a few officials died in accidents while returning home or traveling back then!” Liu Yuan said, chewing on the refreshing, sour pickled vegetables, sighing, “They died before they even got started…”

How many fools could there be among those who made it to the court? Even without evidence, they had a vague sense of what was going on; thus, without absolute certainty, they naturally would not act against them lightly.

“Moreover, the late Emperor… was benevolent,” Liu Yuan said, “compassionate towards his own clan…”

To put it bluntly, if it weren’t for the new emperor’s ascension, even if they presented the evidence they had gathered to the late Emperor, it was uncertain whether the matter would be downplayed or even resolved.

But on second thought, those people had been arrogant for years, looking down on everyone; even the then-unenthroned Emperor had been repeatedly subjected to their harassment.

After all, once people start talking about “absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth”, it’s hardly surprising they would also chase immortality through elixirs. The late Emperor wished to remain emperor for all eternity, so even his own son, the Crown Prince, seemed unpleasant to him—he suspected the Prince of wanting to usurp the throne and harm him.

Given this, it would be strange if the Emperor, who had suffered greatly at their hands, didn’t want to eliminate these people after ascending the throne!

What was that saying again? “Whom the heavens wish to destroy, they first make mad!”

“Lord Zhao has been summoned to the palace by His Majesty. These people’s crimes will be punished as severely as possible,” Liu Yuan sighed. “They’ve killed so many people; it’s a case of good and evil finally being rewarded!”

Lord Zhao would personally handle the aftermath of this case; it was no longer their concern.

“It’s such a pity that so many young women have died over the years, at least a hundred,” Bai Zhu sighed, glancing at the melancholy Liu Yuan, but then thought of something else. “Those wealthy and powerful families who have extra money to buy human sacrifices will also have their property confiscated. In that case… the disaster relief funds for floods won’t have to come from the national treasury!”

After the new Emperor ascended the throne, he checked the national treasury and found that it was only 30% of what it was when the previous emperor took the throne. The 70% that had been taken away had naturally been “used” by the previous emperor.

Apart from a very small portion used for governing the country, the vast majority of the money spent was squandered by the previous emperor! The biggest part of this squandering was on “beauty” and “evil arts”.

Not to mention Liu Yuan wanting to call him fatuous—even the new Emperor, upon seeing a treasury stripped down to almost nothing, would have wanted to curse him as “fatuous”!

(End of this chapter)

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