Broken Jade - Chapter 90

Chapter 90

Sheng Zhaoning looked at him, her gaze full of scrutiny.

Wei Heng did not speak at once. He stared at Shen Tongshu for a long while before saying, “I have already read the case files from the prefectural office’s earlier trial. Pinghe County was the place hardest hit by the disaster in Jizhou. The court allocated a total of forty thousand taels in disaster relief funds and grain payments to Pinghe County, and thirty-six thousand of those taels went straight into your pocket. What an enormous appetite you have.”

Wei Heng was rarely this severe in both voice and expression. Even his tone had turned icy.

Shen Tongshu flinched. His head was buried deep, and his body trembled faintly.

Sheng Zhaoning’s gaze moved away from him. Without a change in expression, she looked toward the prefect and saw his eyes flickering, his lips faintly pale.

“This guilty official knows his sins are grave. I ask only for death. Please grant it, Your Highness!”

Wei Heng’s brows lowered. The innate authority he carried as the Heir Apparent, formidable even without anger, was now fully revealed by his cold fury.

The prefect looked at Shen Tongshu with an ugly expression, both hands clenched tight.

Sheng Zhaoning took all of this in. Her fingertips resting on the table tapped a few times unconsciously. After a moment of thought, she said, “I read your case file. You still have a mother and a younger sister, don’t you?”

Shen Tongshu froze, then slowly raised his head to look at the person speaking from the side.

Wei Heng had not expected her to ask this so suddenly either. He immediately withdrew the pressure around him and waited patiently for what she would say next.

Shen Tongshu gritted his teeth. “Yes.”

Sheng Zhaoning pressed, “Where are they?”

After a long silence, Shen Tongshu’s voice sounded again.

“Dead.”

“How did they die?”

“Does it still matter?” Shen Tongshu gave a self-mocking laugh.

In a year of war, famine, and disaster, when human lives were worth less than grass, who would care if two lowly lives, cheap as mud, had died?

Sheng Zhaoning only looked at him, meeting his eyes as she said seriously, “It matters.”

She ignored the sudden flash in Shen Tongshu’s eyes and continued, “Your birth father died early. Since childhood, you depended on your mother and younger sister for survival. You studied diligently, earned an official degree, and became the magistrate of a county.”

“By rights, the two of them should have been the most important family in your life. So why is it that after you made a fortune from a national calamity, both of them died in silence instead?”

“Shen Tongshu, what exactly are you hiding?”

Below the hall, the strength holding up Shen Tongshu’s shoulders abruptly gave way.

He practically collapsed onto the floor, laughing bitterly and powerlessly.

Yes.

His mother. His younger sister.

The two most precious people in his life. How could they have died so quietly, without a sound?

He remembered his mother, starved until she had only one breath left, trembling as she brought the last bit of rice gruel to his lips.

He remembered his younger sister being dragged away and violated, then hanging herself before his eyes, dying with hatred in her heart.

Immediately after that, the people submitted a joint petition, listing his crimes one by one and presenting them to the censor.

From then on, the disaster in Jizhou was announced to the world.

“Your Highness, what does it mean to be clean, and what does it mean to be innocent?”

His eyes reddened as he asked Wei Heng, as though weeping blood.

Shen Tongshu truly no longer understood.

When he had been a good official, honest and incorruptible, unstained by even a single leaf, the people under his protection had starved to death one after another, and he could not even save the lives of those dearest to him.

Beneath the bright heavens and the clear way of the world, he could not protect peace in even one place.

Yet when he became a villain, reviled by the people and cursed to his very spine, the common folk were instead able to escape their suffering.

How laughable.

If Heaven had justice, why could it not tolerate his innocence?

The desolate light in Shen Tongshu’s eyes dimmed inch by inch. A mouthful of dark blood surged into his throat, and he suddenly choked it out.

The prefect paled in shock. “Quick, summon a doctor!”

A group of yamen runners hurried forward and carried Shen Tongshu away in a panic.

Sheng Zhaoning gripped the corner of the table, her brows drawn tight.

Wei Heng looked up and met her eyes, his gaze complicated.

The carriage drove toward the official post station.

The space inside was cramped, and the two of them were practically sitting shoulder to shoulder.

The carriage the prefectural office had originally prepared for Wei Heng was a two-horse carriage, spacious and imposing, the finest vehicle the yamen could provide.

But Wei Heng had found it too ostentatious.

When one went out to provide disaster relief, there was no distinction between Heir Apparent and commoner. Why insist on putting on the airs of a Crown Prince, making others go to great lengths to flatter him in food, clothing, and daily necessities just to display how different he was?

So he had asked only for a plain one-horse carriage, and as a result, the cabin was not large.

Sitting inside, Sheng Zhaoning could even hear his breathing clearly.

The atmosphere turned inexplicably awkward.

Sheng Zhaoning leaned against the side of the carriage, already doing her best to press herself toward the edge, but their sleeves still inevitably brushed together, the hems of their robes tangling.

She coughed uneasily. “Your Highness…”

After speaking without thinking, she suddenly had no idea what to say.

Wei Heng watched her quietly, his gaze calm as he patiently waited for her to continue.

After a moment of silence, Sheng Zhaoning steered the topic to Shen Tongshu’s case.

“What does Your Highness think of Shen Tongshu?”

Wei Heng: “…”

He let out a sigh so faint it was almost imperceptible, then followed her lead. “He is not as simple as one might imagine.”

Sheng Zhaoning nodded, deeply agreeing. “There may be more to the embezzlement case than meets the eye.”

Wei Heng thought back over the suspicious points in the case and said, “The memorial submitted by the censor mostly described the severity of the case and the enormous sum involved. The case files sent up from Pinghe County were all about Shen Tongshu’s life, but they contained nothing about his achievements in office or the people’s opinion of him.”

Generally speaking, when an official committed a crime, aside from his offenses, the locality or office involved also had to attach records of his life, his administrative achievements, and the people’s evaluation of him.

Yet in Shen Tongshu’s case, many things were missing.

Whether it was negligence and omission by the people below, or whether someone was deliberately trying to hide something, remained unknown.

“If we truly want to understand the inside story, I’m afraid we will have to make a trip to Pinghe County ourselves,” Wei Heng said.

Pinghe County was not exactly close to the prefectural office. The journey would take roughly three days.

If they were going, they would also have to travel light and keep the party small. They could not make too much of a spectacle.

It would be best to go quietly, without alerting anyone.

Sheng Zhaoning nodded. “I will accompany Your Highness.”

“All right.” Wei Heng’s brows and eyes softened.

The refugees in Jizhou had gradually been settled. The personnel brought from the Ministry of Works began busily rebuilding houses and constructing waterworks, while the people later dispatched by the court, along with the commoners from the surrounding areas, all joined in.

Only when the disaster had clearly eased did Wei Heng use illness as an excuse to shut his doors and refuse visitors.

In reality, he had already packed his luggage ahead of time and, bringing only a few attendants, set out for Pinghe County together with Sheng Zhaoning.

Several swift horses galloped along the country roads.

Because the Crown Prince had personally come to oversee this disaster relief effort, the grain and funds had been distributed smoothly. No one dared commit corruption or pervert the law right under his nose.

The surrounding counties and towns received grain, and the people finally had food to eat. Order was restored in the yamen as well, and the various counties began post-disaster reconstruction, cleaning up the territories under their jurisdiction and burying the dead.

The ghastly scenes of piled white bones they had seen all the way from Capital City no longer appeared.

By the time the group reached Pinghe County, three days had passed.