He held back the words he wanted to say and let out a long sigh, “Alas, forget about it!”

Not even good officials can settle family troubles. As an outsider, it was still not appropriate for Gu Tingye to give the comments. Then he changed the subject, “Luckily, His Majesty is a wise man. He ordered Brother Chengyong to lead a group of solders over so that the disaster could be avoided.” If the censor who went to inspect the salt affairs died before fulfilling his duty, the inspection job would be delayed for sure.

Seeing the sullen look on Gu Tingye’s face, Minglan walked over to touch his arms and tried to coax him, “Don’t be too anxious. The accumulated evil practices are difficult to remove so quickly.” With that, she sneered at herself, “I am still deal with our family affairs now. I guess the country affairs must be harder to cope with.”

Gu Tingye reached out his hand to touch Minglan’s belly with a tender look flashing in his eyes, “Don’t get too tired. Tell me about all your difficulties. I’ll help you.” Minglan was very touched. However, seeing that the man was staring at her belly with an affectionate eyes— right now she was standing and the man was sitting, she wondered if Gu Tingye had uttered those words to her or the baby in her belly.

The little one in her belly behaved well and would stretch his limbs in three periods, which were after the afternoon nap, after the teatime after dinner and around the midnight. After Minglan summarized this rule, Gu Tingye would make contact with the baby according to time. Sometimes even when he was in the middle of the conversation with Sir Gongsun, he would still go back to his room. He liked to attach his face to Minglan’s belly the most while feeling the strong and regular pump. Minglan leaned on the beside and stroked his bristle hair. Under the light, she only felt peaceful and sweet.

The situation at the outside was not stable and men were greatly needed now. According to Gu Tingye’s hot-blooded character, he must want to leave home and fight those bad buys long ago. She knew that he only hadn’t left the capital because of her.

“If… His Majesty needs you on something,… you, don’t need to worry about me. The important events matter the most.” Minglan felt her tongue weighing thousands pounds and had stammered those simple words with a bitter tone. She didn’t want him to leave.

Gu Tingye raised his head with a tender look on his calm face. Minglan felt as if she was seeing the splendor of spring gradually coming close from far away through the frozen river. He stroked her belly and smiled, “You are my important event.” She was the most important event in his life.

He stared at her, finding her eyes ablaze and a sudden enchanting look appearing on her tender face. There was a confused and even a bit frustrated look on her face as if she was a lost child who didn’t know where to go. While he gazed at her, there was an old figure occurring in his mind. Everyone said that he and his father were very alike in appearance and character. That thought gave him a bad feeling, then he pushed that it out of his head at once.

The situation at the outside was extremely dangerous. He only wanted to protect her under his wings and gave her a warm and safe place so that the wind and the snow outside wouldn’t startle her and she could stay safe and happy forever.

In April, the fight on the imperial court became fiercer. A few imperial censors submitted a memorial to the emperor jointly to accuse Shen Congxing, Marquis Weibei, of committing eleven crimes including seeking private gain through power, invading the civilians’ farms, taking away others’ property by force, forming a clique to pursue personal interests, etc. It wouldn’t matter if that was a false charge. However, Liu Suyang, the Left Imperial Censor, was known as an upright and fair person. This time, he had also censured Shen Congxing. The emperor ordered Liu Zhengjie to do a thorough investigation about this. Then, it turned out that those charges weren’t entirely misplaced. Shen Congxing’s eldest son had bullied people and his in-laws’ family, the Zou family, practiced usury and even killed someone.

For the moment, there were constant condemnations toward Shen Congwen.

“The person of complete integrity would target only at the affair instead of certain people. However, if the evil guys want to do some bad deeds, they would, on the contrary, target at the people instead of the affairs.” Gongsun Baishi stroked his sparse beard and said that.

“It means that those people are not satisfied with the measures that His Majesty has taken. However, hampered by the monarchy and cardinal principles, they couldn’t speak their minds out loud. So they targeted at the closest person to His Majesty.” To put it simply, since I couldn’t hold back your measures, I would slander the one who would bring those measures into force so that the established route could be ruined. Minglan touched her belly while feeling worried. The emperor truly was enraged this time and had already given the order to punish the Shen family. Little Shen shi came to Minglan to complain about this tearfully, so Minglan could only ask advice from Sir Gongsun.

Gongsun Baishi nodded with a smile while glancing at Minglan’s belly, hoping that the baby would be as clever as Minglan.

“So what’s so important?” Minglan got a heavy head. She remembered that Shen Congxing’s eldest son was only around twelve this year. Little Shen shi always praised her nephew to be an honest boy. What kind of trouble would that boy make anyway?

“Nothing, just the dividends.” Gongsun Baishi put on a sarcastic smile on his face, “The salt affairs, border trade, maritime trade, city ship division and the Six ministries and Nine apartments. His Majesty wanted those guy to replace those guys from those important positions with his own people. First, the national treasury could be refilled again. Second, it will be easier for His Majesty to give orders in the future. Those guys disagree with that, that’s all.”

“How can they do this! There are so many profitable positions? Why couldn’t they spit out some money?” Minglan only wanted a harmonious society where everyone could talk peacefully.

Gongsun Baishi snorted, “Take Duke Qian as an example. His son married the daughter of Empress Dowager Sheng De. Duke Qian’s family and the other families have been in charge of the maritime business for almost fifteen years. Each year, they would have an income of two to three million ounces of silvers. How much have they turned in? Puff, do you think they will be willing to spit out the money? Even if they do, every new sovereign brings his own courtiers. His Majesty also needs to give promotion to his own people.

Minglan saw silvers flying in front of her eyes again. After she finally cooled herself, she said in a low voice, “After so many years, they should have saved a lot of money. Why couldn’t they stop now?”

“If a man knows how to stop, there’s no such thing called insatiability.” Gongsun Baishi gave a resolute conclusion. Men’s greed had no end.

Minglan nodded resignedly. It was very rare to see a corrupt official admit his mistakes by himself. However, since Sir Gongsun could see this clearly, so could others. As long as the empress’s brother kept his equanimity and his father-in-law, Duke Ying, could help him, he would be fine.