Chapter 1014: Interrogation

Feng Hongde's heart leapt, but he steadied his nerves and said: "I came on official orders…"

"Whose orders?"

"Naturally, Commandant Cao."

"Oh? But Commandant Cao says he gave you no order, Commander Feng—where is your written directive?"

Feng Hongde's pupils shrank slightly and said: "I want to see Commandant Cao!"

Prefect Song's lips curled slightly as he waved his hand: "Bring Commander Feng to see Commandant Cao."

Cao Rong was in the dungeon.

These past two days he'd been dazed; since waking that day, he'd been brought here.

Overnight, the winds had shifted—he'd fallen from heaven to earth.

No matter how furious he became, no matter how he wielded his status to intimidate, no one paid him any mind.

He knew Xue Shao was determined to oppose him, and that Jiao Tong and Song Hao had somehow lost their minds and sided with Xue Shao, as if they feared no retaliation.

All day, he drowned in rage, mentally dismembering Xue Shao again and again, then escalating to shredding him into a thousand pieces…

But no matter how furious he grew, Xue Shao never appeared, and no one in the dungeon paid him any mind.

After venting all day, when night grew deep and still, Cao Rong's reason began to return.

First he thought of the missing items from his master bedroom, then of the emptied storage rooms, finally of the secret treasure vault—quietly, mysteriously, completely stripped bare.

The hidden compartment and storage rooms were one thing, but that treasure vault—no one, not even his own son, knew of it—how had Xue Shao found it, and how had he emptied it without a sound?

Cao Rong could only think of Xue Shao; in recent Guangzhou Prefecture, Xue Shao was the only anomaly—who else could it be?

To accomplish all this without a trace, how vast must his power be?

Cao Rong began to fear—and as the night grew deeper, longer, quieter, his fear grew with it.

The ledgers and letters from the hidden compartment, plus the treasure and records from the vault—entirely, the Cao family would die.

Xue Shao had left him to stew for a day and night, and finally today, he was willing to see him.

When Feng Hongde was dragged into the cell, Xue Shao was interrogating Cao Rong.

Mainly: who had paid him bribes, and who he had paid in return.

Even though ledgers already existed, some entries used coded language only a few could decipher, and he needed Cao Rong's confession to close the case.

"Hui Chu—does that mean the Chu family of Huizhou? They paid three thousand taels in silver in June—who is this Chu?"

Cao Rong said: "Chu Xiangsheng—a landowner. He has a son, twenty-three, but a fool—he failed the county exams ten times. He begged me, so I secured him a Licentiate slot. It was set in April, but the money didn't arrive until June—slow, sluggish, this deal was never smooth."

Xue Shao: "Three thousand taels for a Licentiate?"

Cao Rong smirked: "It's only a Licentiate—not even a Provincial Scholar or Metropolitan Graduate who can hold office. I didn't harm the people."

"Provincial Scholars rise from Licentiates. How many students toil in cold windows, only to have their slots stolen by men like you?"

Cao Rong: "The county exam isn't the provincial or metropolitan exam—it happens every year. If you fail this year, try again next year."

"This year you manipulated to take one slot—next year, who's to say someone else won't take another, or even more?"

Cao Rong grinned: "That's his bad luck. He doesn't blame his own fortune, yet he blames me?"

Xue Shao stared at him steadily, offering no rebuttal.

What use is arguing with someone whose values lie elsewhere?

Xue Shao only needed to punish him, to show the world what is right and what is wrong.