Song Xiuyuan stood before the sandalwood desk in the study, handing a red-lacquered secret letter to Count Jingwen, who stood beside him. "Count, you might want to take a look at this," he said, his tone heavy with meaning.
Count Jingwen bowed to accept it. Upon seeing the dark, intricate seal of the Supreme Court of Justice stamped into the wax, he felt a jolt of alarm.
As he unfolded the letter, the color drained from his face. The yellowed rice paper detailed how, during the plague last year, Wang Shijie had taken advantage of his temporary post at the Ministry of Revenue to replace government-procured astragalus and atractylodes with mildewed dregs. Furthermore, it contained evidence of him colluding with the Canal Gang to embezzle five million taels of disaster relief funds. At the bottom were two characters written in vermilion ink: "Thoroughly Investigate," a direct imperial decree.
Chapter 43