Chapter 985: Starved to Death?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Hearing this, Jiang Yue immediately remembered that Fang Yiming had told her and Xue Yan in the county office that he only recently became an official before this matter arised.
It must have been bugging him this whole time, and now he was able to do something about it.
At that time, Fang Yiming said that he just wanted to be an official who could focus on doing things that would benefit his people. However, it was too difficult to manage that without the right funds. He couldn’t hold on anymore, but he still persevered for his people.
He felt that as long as Xue Yan was recognized as the Crown Prince, then Xue Yan’s schoolmates didn’t need to care about anything anymore. They would just ask him for favors and live off that. Wasn’t this the easy way in life?
Now, look, wasn’t Xue Yan already starting to escort those schoolmates of his to a life of comfort?
“However, Fang already secretly investigated this matter.” Xue Yan continued, “He discovered that it was not like what the Magistrate said. The other counties did not receive any relief money, so he went and asked the Magistrate again what happened. The Magistrate asked him to think before saying anything. Otherwise, who knows what might come to him when he goes to sleep at night.”
In his previous life, it was because of this relief money and food that Yiming refused to join the evil side. That was why he was almost killed and almost lost his life.
In his previous life, although Yiming became a teacher and no longer wanted to be an official, he still wanted to do something for the people…
In this life, he would naturally not allow such a thing to happen again.
This was Yimings ambition. Xue Yan knew that he treated his father and mother well. Whether it was for his brother, or for the people, he would always do his best to solve the problem.
Since Yiming was tired of fighting and cheating in the officialdom, he would let him live a life of peace and kindness. Xue Yan would try to clear the path for him to rid all evil so he could focus on helping his people. “Preposterous!” Empress Dowager Yunzi was furious.
She slammed the table and stood up.
Her son, Emperor Hao, was a kind soul. The first imperial edict he gave after he inherited the throne was to distribute relief food and silver to all the places no matter how little the national treasury had. He wanted to help those who had lost their ability to work but had no one to rely on so that no one in Da Ling would starve to death. However, because of corrupt officials, the relief food and silver did not reach those who actually needed it. Zhu Laicai and Zhu Xiuhua did not starve to death, but that was only because they received countless of help from the people in Zhu Village. However, those who did not have the help of the villagers, others, or the relief food and silver from the national treasury would have starved to death!
Empress Dowager Yunzi was so angry that she wanted nothing more than to kill all those corrupt officials immediately.
However, she was only the Empress Dowager. The Emperor was her son. Even if she had the power to govern on behalf of the Emperor, she would never actually abuse that power…
Empress Dowager Yunzi held back her anger and slowly sat down again. The atmosphere around her was tense. After a while, she said to Xue Yan, “You and
Jiang Yue should send Zhu Laicai and his wife first. When I return to the capital, I will tell your father the truth. Your father is the Emperor and is benevolent. He stands with the people and will give them a proper sentence.”
“Yes, Grandmother. Thank you.” Xue Yan agreed.
Jiang Yue was still eating quietly and did not speak.
Shao Youyue hesitated for a moment before asking, “Mother, you… When will you be returning to the capital?”
“Tomorrow.” Empress Dowager Yunzi said. “Originally, I came to Xinyuan to find someone, but I wasn’t able to, so I might as well just give up. There are too many things at hand that needs attention, so I must return to the capital at once.”
This was especially so for the matter regarding Prince Ying. She had to go back and discuss it with her son..