Huo Fenglie was not interested in men. When he heard that a man wanted to marry Liu Zhenqing, Huo Fenglie had been disgusted.

He still had some sense at this moment and didn’t want to hurt the woman, so he just pounced on him instead.

Fortunately, he had only stayed in that room for a short time. If he’d been in there longer, he would likely be in a state of, “If there are no women, men are fine.”

“Calm down, ah, Brother Huo.” Liu Zhenqing pushed Huo Fenglie’s head. He could feel that he was resisting his body’s instincts, and his entire body was extremely stiff.

Liu Zhenqing was about to take out a detoxification pill for him, but Huo Fenglie jumped away from him and rushed toward the door.

The woman at the door thought she was being targeted again and was so frightened that her legs went weak, but in the next moment, Huo Funglie rushed past her and crashed through the door.

Startled by this turn of events, Liu Zhenqing stood up and hurriedly chased after him.

As soon as he went out, he saw Huo Fenglie standing in the moonlight. He seemed to be eating something with his head down, shaking all over and trying to endure it.

Just as Liu Zhenqing was about to approach, he heard Huo Fenglie say: “Don’t come over.”

“No, I have your antidote pills, Brother Huo.” Liu Zhenqing spoke quickly.

Huo Fenglie tensed and said: “I’ve taken the antidote. There’s no problem.”

In fact, it wasn’t a detoxification pill that he had taken. The smoke just now had the effect of making people lose their mind and stirring their blood up, which triggered his old injury. If he took the medicine to treat his old injury, the effects of the aphrodisiac could be completely eliminated by his internal strength.

Liu Zhenqing breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. When she saw this, the woman on the side finally collapsed onto the ground, sobbing quietly.

There was a sudden noise in the room. It seemed that the unconscious man had woken again due to the drug’s stimulation.

Liu Zhenqing hurriedly went to investigate. Taking advantage of Huo Fenglie’s absence, he felt his pulse and let out a sigh, then took out an antidote pill worth hundreds of taels and gave it to the man. After all, if he wasn’t saved, he would probably suffocate to death. 

Moreover, Liu Zhenqing just now recognized the man. After he killed the corrupt officials back then, among the remaining officials, this one was considered useful and was later promoted.

How had he ended up drugged here like this?

Liu Zhenqing couldn’t figure it out, and could only wait for the man to wake up.

At this time, footsteps came from behind. Liu Zhenqing glanced back and saw Huo Fenglie walking with a slightly stiff gait. Although he still had an upright body and was facing squarely ahead, he could sense the avoidance of his eyes.

Liu Zhenqing suppressed a smile and asked with concern: “Is Brother Huo feeling better?”

Huo Fenglie finally raised his eyes to look at Liu Zhenqing, but his gaze suddenly paused and his entire body froze for a moment. Then he lowered his eyes with even more embarrassment. “Apologies, Brother Liu. I offended you just now.”

Liu Zhenqing was confused. Was he looking at……his neck?

Liu Zhenqing couldn’t see it himself, but he was indeed licked by Er-gou before, and couldn’t be sure if he had been bitten or held in his mouth. However, it was normal for red marks to be left on the pampered white skin of a wealthy young master.

Liu Zhenqing couldn’t help but feel even more amused after thinking about it.

“Brother Huo, it was just a small accident. Everything is fine.”

Liu Zhenqing’s tone was normal. If Huo Fenglie continued acting bashful, it would be a bit embarrassing, so he adjusted his mentality and looked over again, only to see Liu Zhenqing put a hand on his neck as if rubbing it in the place he had just left a mark.

Huo Fenglie’s cheeks seemed to be set on fire instantly, and his body became stiff again.

Then he heard Liu Zhenqing say with a smile: “It’s only the effect of the drugs. I couldn’t possibly misunderstand Brother Huo because of this, right?”

Huo Fenglie didn’t speak. 

Liu Zhenqing did he utmost to push the corners of his mouth down.

The girl who was awake during the whole process was still feeling grieved and upset, and couldn’t care about the situation around her. 

It wasn’t until the other man made a noise that the bullied Er-gou was rescued.

When the memories hit after waking up, the man was so upset that he burst into tears. He looked at the girl nearby and apologized while crying.

Although the girl didn’t dare to get close, she shook her head vigorously. “Prefect, I know you are a good official, it was because they wanted to harm you. I don’t blame you, I only blame myself for being ignorant and falling into this deep pit.” As she spoke, she began to cry again.

Hearing the girl’s address, Liu Zhenqing raised his eyebrows. Prefect? It was one level lower than he expected. According to his evaluation of this person back then, he thought he should be in the highest position of prefectural magistrate.

Once Prefect Wu overcame his grief and anger, he calmed down somewhat and used the moonlight to get a clear view of the two people in the room and saluted to express his gratitude. Naturally, he didn’t know Liu Zhenqing. After scanning over him with his eyes, he instantly focused on Huo Fenglie.

“You…..you’re…..the general of the country!” Prefect Wu’s eyes widened.

Huo Fenglie nodded.

Prefect Wu trembled with excitement. “Is the emperor finally going to help us?”

Huo Fenglie frowned. “The emperor doesn’t know what is going on here.”

Prefect Wu was stunned for a moment, then could only wipe away his tears and say with choked sobs: “Of course the emperor doesn’t know, because the news couldn’t get out at all. Any officials who dared to spread unfavorable news were sent to be dealt with by Magistrate Wang. They could only send disaster-related information and ask for relief money and food from the court.”

Liu Zhenging thought, surname Wang? It seemed that among the minor officials left behind in the same area as Prefect Wu, there was someone named Wang. If he was the same person, he could have climbed faster than Prefect Wu and his ambitions could have grown faster. He had even deceived his superiors and subordinates to such an extent. Was he planning to become the local emperor of Yanqiu Prefecture with one hand covering the sky? 

Huo Fenglie asked directly: “What is Magistrate Wang doing? What does he have to do with the Heaven’s Blessing Sect?”

Prefect Wu looked up at Huo Fenglie and said agitatedly: “He secretly embezzled the disaster relief funds for food and let his son start the Heaven’s Blessing Sect to launder the official money!”

As soon as these words were spoken, Huo Fenglie and Liu Zhenqing’s expressions shifted.

The total amount of official funds was usually not too large. Officials at each level took some of it, and the rest was used for disaster relief. After all, disaster relief used official funds, which were difficult to circulate in the market and easily traced. But if the official silver was broken down and turned into private broken silver, then no matter how much wealth the country distributed, it would be swallowed up endlessly by them.

In other words, they probably didn’t care about the disaster relief at all, and swallowed up all the money, allowing the common people to die in large numbers. In the end, they blamed the natural disasters and continued to ask for money from the court.

How dare they be so bold? Could it be that the Imperial court was incompetent and the current emperor was blind?

As Prefect Wu spoke, the truth about Yanqiu Prefecture in the last few years gradually emerged.

“There are natural disasters every year in Yanqiu Prefecture. It can be said that officials lead people to fight against the heavens, and the court often provides disaster relief. When the situation is good, we can live in peace for a year, but when the situation is bad, people starve to death everywhere. Since the death of Prime Minister Liu, the emperor has begun to support flood control, drought prevention, locust prevention, snow disaster prevention, and other construction projects. In fact, things got better in the first few years, but everything changed when Magistrate Wang became the magistrate of Yanqiu Prefecture through a promotion four years ago and became in-laws with the lieutenant in charge of the military.”

Huo Fenglie frowned when he heard about that lieutenant. No wonder they were lawless. This was collusion between civil and military officials.

“Magistrate Wang asked his son to found the Heaven’s Blessing Sect and then began to exploit the government’s disaster relief food funds. It was still a small amount at first, and the Heaven’s Blessing Sect still kept things mysterious, so the common people still had a way to survive. I was far away in another county and had incomplete information. Then two or three years ago, the Heaven’s Blessing Sect began to grow, and the money and food allocated to our county decreased each time. Only then did I realize there was a problem, and then I investigated with like-minded colleagues and discovered Magistrate Wang’s conspiracy.”

“He pretty much only gave us a little perfunctory silver for disaster relief and kept the rest for himself, and also only gave us a little bit of the food. It was enough for the victims of disaster clinging to life in the cities and towns on the official roads, and the rest was taken away by the Heaven’s Blessing Sect and re-sold to other disaster-ridden prefectures to make money.”

“He is truly a heartless person.” Hearing this, Liu Zhenqing had to sigh with emotion. He was not such a ruthless person when Liu Zhenqing was ruling the country, or why would he have left him behind in the first place?

At this point, the girl next to him began to weep. She had only discovered the truth after she had come in.

It turned out that it wasn’t that the Imperial court refused to save them, but that these villains sucked the blood of the common people regardless of their lives or deaths. However, they were so stupid that they kneeled down and worshiped the Heaven’s Blessing Sect every day.

The girl said: “All the men they arrested are locked up next to the furnace in the back mountain and forced to work day and night. The women they arrested are all young and good-looking, just to…..to accompany those officials and merchants. Some of the sisters were defiled and committed suicide directly, while others had to endure hardships and stay in order to have a bite of food for their families. I just arrived. In order to force us to be their accomplices, Magistrate Wang had us drugged and locked up together. They are all beasts! Beasts!”

Seeing the girl weep as she thought about the plight of the people here, Liu Zhenqing sighed and took off his cloak, stepping forward to place it on the girl.

The girl cried so hard that she leaned against Liu Zhenqing. He couldn’t bear her sobs, so he patted her and said: “Don’t be afraid. You heard it just now, hasn’t the general of the country come? You are all saved.”

He glanced at Huo Fenglie as he said this, only to find that Huo Fenglie was also looking over with an unhappy expression on his face. It was evident that he was also angered by these things.

Upon hearing Liu Zhenqing’s words, Prefect Wu nodded firmly and said: “Right! We are saved. I haven’t persisted for so long in vain. General Huo, I have evidence that can be handed over to the court to sentence them to death! Over the years, some of us have been responsible for making appeals, while some have been responsible for collecting evidence. In the end, the people who made appeals died, and those collecting evidence were either caught or threatened with their families. And people like me who controlled important evidence were locked up here. Because they don’t know where I hid the evidence, they tried their best to make me complicit.”

In fact, before Prefect Wu opened his mouth, Liu Zhenqing had pretty much guessed that he had evidence in hand. Magistrate Wang and others hadn’t found it yet, so they had no other choice but to entrap him.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense for Prefect Wu to have appeared here.

Prefect Wu was quite cautious, and was only willing to let Huo Fenglie listen. When he finished speaking, Huo Fenglie nodded.

He immediately decided: “You two just wait here, we will return quickly. Also, write down all of the officials involved that you are aware of.”

Prefect Wu hurriedly said: “I have written down the names of all those officials. They are in the evidence.”

“I also want the military officials under the lieutenant. Write down everything you know.”

Hearing this, Prefect Wu immediately nodded in agreement.

Liu Zhenqing considered for a moment and finally suggested that they go back to the previous room.

When he mentioned this, the victims became frightened.

“If someone comes to investigate, you won’t be safe. As long as you stay in that room, you will be safe at least until dawn, which will give us enough time to act. Besides, what are you afraid of? We can just take away that poisonous smoke.”

When Liu Zhenqing went next door to get started, Huo Fenglie had to stay with him. In fact, Liu Zhenqing knew this drug well, and if he held his breath, it would naturally have no effect. After the smoke was extinguished, it dissipated quickly. Liu Zhenqing motioned for Huo Fenglie to take a breath and act as a guinea pig.

Huo Fenglie hesitated for a moment, but seeing that Liu Zhenqing couldn’t hold his breath any longer, he had no choice but to try it himself to prove that there was no problem before letting Liu Zhenqing breathe.

Liu Zhenqing smiled and made up a lie: “I happened to see my two cousins collect this thing before, so I know how to deal with it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never used it myself.”

Of course, he couldn’t say he knew this because of his “medical skills.”

Huo Fenglie didn’t question him further. He simply called the two people over and left a skylight for them. Then Huo Fenglie carried Liu Zhenqing and flew out the skylight, locking the door from the outside.

After flying up to the eaves again, Huo Fenglie suddenly said, “Is it cold?”

Why did he ask this suddenly? It was fine for Huo Fenglie not to ask, but really a bit of a surprise when he did. In the end, the wind above was stronger, and although he wasn’t cold when he was wrapped in the cloak before, now he felt chilly. But the places where Huo Fenglie was holding him were quite hot.

Liu Zhenqing once again said things he shouldn’t say: “It’s not cold. A martial arts practitioner like General Huo has a strong body, full of fire and warmth. How could I be cold?”

Sure enough, Huo Fenglie looked a little tense again when he said this, and looked like he didn’t know how to answer.

Liu Zhenqing really felt that Er-gou was more fun as an adult than he was as a child.

Of course, teasing him all the time wasn’t good. Liu Zhenqing also brought up serious matters and said: “Is the evidence hidden here?”

Huo Fenglie nodded, otherwise he would have just gone down the mountain to mobilize his troops. But now, it was best to collect the evidence first and then mobilize the troops, so as to avoid the trouble of accidentally losing the evidence during the battle.

“He hid the evidence in three places, one of which is on the main beam of the main courtyard hall. When he was hung up for questioning, he climbed up the rope when no one was around and placed it there. One place is under the screen in the guest room where Magistrate Wang stayed last time, where he hid it while being questioned by the magistrate alone. The other place is in a crevice in the stone wall next to the furnace in the back mountain.”

Liu Zhenqing said with a frown: “He was dragged to the furnace and questioned?”

“No, to let him see how much money he could get for being obedient.”

Liu Zhenqing shook his head and chuckled: “He is truly a good and mighty official who cannot be compromised by wealth or lust. He’s also a very lucky person to hide things like this without being discovered. I fear Magistrate Wang never expected that he would dare to carry the evidence on him and hide it everywhere in his lair. It’s rather amusing.”

Huo Fenglie analyzed: “Let’s check on the situation in the main hall first. Only his son knows which guest room Magistrate Wang had last time. Magistrate Wang usually comes with his own people to protect him, and other officials don’t know where he is. Then we’ll check the back mountain. They only rest for an hour late at night, so we can sneak in then.”

With this said, they arrived on the roof of the main hall of the main courtyard. There seemed to be some kind of party going on below, which was in sharp contrast to the dead silence of the city in the distance.

Huo Fenglie lifted up a tile and took a look. His expression gradually became ugly when he saw the lively atmosphere inside, but his eyes soon lit up.

“Found it.”

“Really?” Liu Zhenqing said in surprise.

Huo Fenglie stepped back a little to make room for Liu Zhenqing to look. “The third beam in the southeast corner.”

Liu Zhenqing took a closer look, and sure enough, he saw the gray pamphlet just under the junction of several beams. It was hidden very well.

Liu Zhenqing had just glanced at it when his attention was diverted by the excitement below.

They were drinking wine and chatting happily, complimenting one another and imagining a bright future. Almost everyone had their arms around a scantily-clad beauty. He could tell that some were officials and some were merchants. The person sitting at the top should be the leader. He looked like a fat man in his thirties, and was surrounded by many women. There were musicians playing in the center of the hall, with women in white dresses dancing. The tables were piled with delicacies, with food enough for five people at each table, exceedingly extravagant and wasteful.

Liu Zhenqing’s eyes darkened uncontrollably upon seeing this scene, and suddenly, he caught a flash of a familiar figure in the crowd.

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Chapter Thirty-Seven << Table of Contents >> Chapter Thirty-Nine