After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine Chapter 44
Jiang Suizhou initially wanted to ask Huo Wujiu why he was angry, but when the words reached his mouth, he couldn’t utter them.
After all, Huo Wujiu was poker-faced every day. In real terms, no one could tell whether he was happy or angry. What if he wasn’t angry at all when Jiang Suizhou asked? Wouldn’t that be too embarrassing?
Thus, Jiang Suizhou gave him a couple of glances, but swallowed the words that wanted to escape from his lips.
After eating breakfast and changing clothes, he went straight to Gu Changyun's courtyard.
Like every time before, Gu Changyun and Xu Du were waiting in the room together.
They were about to get up and salute him when they saw Jiang Suizhou waving his hand and sitting down at the main seat.
"Sit," he ordered lightly.
The two looked at each other and sat down on the chairs beside him.
"Yesterday, Lord Ji was arrested for embezzlement. You both should have known about this, right?" Jiang Suizhou said.
The two nodded.
Next to him, Gu Changyun said with a smile, "Your Highness, there is no need to worry. This Lord Ji has never stood on our side, and we have persuaded him several times to no avail. Now that Pang Shao has disposed of him, there is no damage to us, so you don't need to take it to heart."
Jiang Suizhou looked at him and said bluntly, "I want to save him."
Gu Changyun was stunned.
Then, he smiled and said, "I’m naturally happy that Your Highness is kind-hearted. It's just that..."
"Xu Du," Jiang Suizhou abruptly interrupted him.
Xu Du answered, "Your Highness."
Jiang Suizhou looked at Xu Du: "Did you still not tell him anything?"
Xu Du was taken aback, and then understood what Jiang Suizhou was talking about. Xu Du gently smiled and said, "Without Your Highness’s order, I don’t dare to speak."
Jiang Suizhou hummed and said, "Gu Changyun, now that you are under my command, your grandmother and younger sister will also be kept in the mansion, which is safer."
Gu Changyun froze, and the smile on his face also gradually disappeared into thin air.
“Your Highness?”
Jiang Suizhou raised his eyes and looked at him.
"I, unlike him, have no intention of detaining your family. But since they are already living in the royal residence, there is no need for them to move out. From now on, if you want to see them, you can just go to that courtyard," Jiang Suizhou said.
Gu Changyun went rigid for a moment, and gradually, his eyes turned reddish.
He had never mentioned it to others, but since his family was threatened and forced into the royal residence by King Jing, he had not been able to see his family again until now.
“...Your Highness is kind-hearted and wants to save him, so naturally I will do my best.” A few moments later, Gu Changyun said to Jiang Suizhou with red eyes and a smile.
Jiang Suizhou nodded.
His two subordinates were smart people. He didn’t have to be too direct. Pointing them to the destination would suffice.
The two had guessed that he wasn’t the original owner, and now, Jiang Suizhou had confessed the bargaining chip that the original owner had used to blackmail Gu Changyun, which was a way to show the latter his sincerity: Jiang Suizhou would help him take care of his family, and would not use them as blackmail.
After all, Gu Changyun had already entered his house and had become tied to him. At this juncture, there was no turning back for him. Only with this arrangement could he get the best result for himself.
Seeing that Gu Changyun understood, Jiang Suizhou said bluntly, "It's not just my kindness."
He looked at the two of them.
"Pang Shao now covers the sky with one hand, and if he wants to deal with any minister, he can do so without effort," Jiang Suizhou said. "I thought that if we let him kill Ji You today, he can kill whoever he wants tomorrow. Today, many ministers are waiting for my protection. If I can’t even protect one person, I'm afraid that the others, too, will become dissidents."
After a pause, he continued.
"Of course, deep inside, I also want to save one and count one. I can't let Pang Shao keep getting what he wants."
Hearing this from him, Xu Du frowned.
"It is naturally a good thing that Your Highness can think this way," he said, "However... Does Your Highness have a solution at present?"
Gu Changyun followed suit and nodded.
“Pang Shao’s faction has no shortage of people in the Ministry of Rites. Contriving a fictitious sum of embezzled money and blaming it on Lord Ji is as easy as a pie. However, if we want to exonerate Lord Ji from it, there is still nowhere to start."
Jiang Suizhou paused. "It's easy to pin the blame on him, but the whereabouts of the stolen money...should we also check it?" he asked.
Gu Changyun nodded. "That goes without saying. But according to the Great Jing’s current laws, even if the whereabouts of the embezzled money cannot be traced, the perpetrator must be convicted when he should be convicted.”
Jiang Suizhou pondered for a moment.
Gu Changyun was right. Throughout the ages, there had been countless cases of corruption, of which many people had been convicted in careless search for a lead.
So, what advantage did he have as a latecomer?
Jiang Suizhou fell silent for a long time, and his two subordinates also looked grave. For a while, no one spoke.
After a long time, Xu Du spoke unhurriedly. “Now that the case has reached this point, the only way to save Lord Ji is to find a scapegoat," he proposed, “But...you can no longer frame a good man.”
Hearing this, Jiang Suizhou's eyes lit up.
A scapegoat?
He had an epiphany.
Of course the court couldn’t trace the whereabouts of the imposed embezzled money. However, what if he could find the money for the court?
After all, he studied the history of Jing. Although he couldn’t recite the biographies of the officials in the dynasty backward by heart, he was still clear about what kind of things each of them had done.
