Transmigrated into the Scumbag Ex-Wife of the Prime Minister - Chapter 89

Qingzhou.

Ruan Peng handed the final filtered list to Princess Changning, “Liu Qiao has confessed everything. This is the correct list.”

Immediately after Wu Shiwei’s death, Princess Changning sent people to supervise the military granaries. After cross-checking the previous manifest, Ruan Peng checked repeatedly and finally found a pattern in the accounts.

The grain mixed with pig iron was placed in specific warehouses and locations, and the granary official who recorded every entry and exit was the same person.

Each military granary bay was supervised by three granary officials, and each official managed at least three bays.

Normally, it was almost impossible for all the grain, which arrived at different times and through different channels, to be received and dispatched by a single fixed granary official.

Upon discovering this suspicion, Princess Changning immediately ordered the arrest and interrogation of the granary official Liu Qiao. In less than half a day, Liu Qiao confessed everything, and what he said was essentially consistent with the list Ruan Peng had filtered out.

However, apart from arranging the grain storage, Liu Qiao knew nothing else and had no contact with people from Dingnan Grain Store or the Wang family.

“These people are all from Binhe County.” Princess Changning glanced at the list and immediately noticed the pattern.

The list contained seven or eight shops and names, and Lu Huacheng was among them.

“Indeed,” Ruan Peng replied with a bow. “Binhe County is adjacent to Ma’zhou. Taking the waterway from Binhe County and then sending it directly to the military granary is indeed the most convenient route.”

The waterway of Binhe County.

Princess Changning pondered for a moment, and suddenly realized.

Isn’t Peng Wanchun, the Supervisor-General of the dockyard in Binhe County, Peng Changwei’s cousin?

With Peng Wanchun’s clearance, it would indeed ensure these grains an unimpeded journey to Qingzhou.

This batch of pig iron, from leaving Ma’zhou all the way to being delivered to the Qinzhou military camp, could completely bypass every checkpoint without any hindrance.

The fourth day of the seventh lunar month, Qingzhou.

The weather on a summer evening was volatile. One moment it was clear skies, the next moment it was covered with dark clouds, and a heavy rain was about to fall.

After a rumble of thunder, large raindrops poured down from the sky, splashing large areas of water upon hitting the mud ground.

“This awful weather. It was clearly fine just a moment ago.” Ruan Peng was splashed with water on her hand as she got up to close the window. She took a towel to wipe it, “This rain is too heavy.”

They were scheduled to finish work in another quarter of an hour, but it started raining heavily right then.

Qi Zhenshu took a tinder from a small side table, lit the lamps on both their desks, and looked out the door, “It might rain for half an hour.”

“Shall we go for Li Ji’s dalumian after the rain stops?” Ruan Peng suggested.

Since it would be past dinner time at home by the time the rain stopped, they might as well eat out before going back.

Ruan Peng’s home was also near Baihe Academy, conveniently on the way for Qi Zhenshu.

“It might not be convenient,” Qi Zhenshu said, looking outside the door.

“What’s not convenient? Has your wife arrived?” Ruan Peng asked, turning her head to look outside as well.

Indeed, a wife had arrived, but not Qi Zhenshu’s; it was hers.

“Eh?” Ruan Peng smiled at the oil-paper umbrella in her hand, “Did you come to bring me an umbrella?”

“I specifically reminded you this morning, and you forgot in a blink of an eye,” Fang Jing chided her.

“Thank you for coming all this way, my wife,” Ruan Peng smiled flatteringly at Fang Jing, “The rain is heavy now, did you get wet?”

“The rain started just as I arrived at the government office, so I didn’t get wet.”

Qi Zhenshu lowered her head and continued to process the documents in her hand, choosing not to look at the couple.

Ruan Peng was the same age as Qi Zhenshu, and her wife Fang Jing was her childhood sweetheart. They had just gotten married in March this year. The couple was deeply in love and inseparable, and Fang Jing would come to the government office to pick up Ruan Peng every few days.

In the past, Qi Zhenshu wouldn’t have felt much about other people’s affection, but now, occasionally seeing them, she always felt a little envious.

She hadn’t seen Lu Sheng for almost two months. Yesterday, she received a letter from Lu Sheng saying she might not come to Qingzhou until next month.

This left Qi Zhenshu quite disappointed.

If she weren’t afraid of delaying her daily schoolwork, she truly wished to return to Binhe County.

The thunderstorm came fiercely, but it gradually subsided after a short while, turning into a drizzle.

Ruan Peng and her wife shared one umbrella to go home, leaving the other one for Qi Zhenshu.

With no one waiting for her at home, Qi Zhenshu was not in a hurry and decided to finish reading the documents in her hand before going home.

After reading for a short while, footsteps sounded outside the door. Qi Zhenshu thought it was a colleague who had left and returned, so she didn’t look up.

But the sound came closer and closer, even crossing the threshold and entering the room.

“Did you forget something?”

Thinking Ruan Peng had forgotten something, Qi Zhenshu looked up just as she saw the person she had been longing for standing at the doorway.

She was momentarily stunned, and Qi Zhenshu quickly put down her pen and walked swiftly towards Lu Sheng.

“Why are you here?” Only when she held Lu Sheng’s hand did Qi Zhenshu truly confirm that she was not hallucinating from her intense longing, “Didn’t you say you were delayed by something?”

The person who had sent a letter this morning saying she wouldn’t come until next month suddenly appearing before her, how could she not be surprised?

Lu Sheng curved her eyebrows and replied, “I came as soon as I finished dealing with the matter.”

Liu Yun needed to rest and recuperate after the miscarriage, and Lu Sheng had originally intended to come back next month.

But after hearing Ruan Ru’s words the day before yesterday, she had no peace of mind staying in Binhe County. She quickly found Lu Hualin to arrange for someone to look after the shop again, boarded a boat the next day, and rushed to Qingzhou.

There were beads of water clinging to the hair on Lu Sheng’s forehead, and the edges of her clothes were also damp from the rain.

Seeing the umbrella in Lu Sheng’s hand, Qi Zhenshu immediately understood why Lu Sheng had rushed over.

“Why didn’t you wait for the rain to lessen before coming?” A beautiful curve formed in her eyes, and Qi Zhenshu quickly took out a towel to wipe the raindrops from her hair.

“It wasn’t raining when I came out.”

Qi Zhenshu’s movements were very gentle, carefully wiping away every drop of water.

“Wait for me to put away the paper and brush,” Qi Zhenshu finished wiping her hair and turned to tidy up her things.

Most of Lu Sheng’s sleeves were soaked, and she needed to go back and change out of the wet clothes as soon as possible.

Watching Qi Zhenshu’s visibly more anxious movements, Lu Sheng’s agitated emotions from the journey quietly subsided a lot.

When she first heard Ruan Ru’s words, Lu Sheng didn’t believe it, or at least not entirely.

Whether in the original owner’s memory or the novel’s original plot she knew, Lu Huacheng was never specifically mentioned as being involved in selling pig iron.

Of course, it was also possible that in the original book’s plot, there was no one left in the Lu family who could be implicated by Lu Huacheng, so whether he was involved or not didn’t matter.

Even so, when Lu Sheng recalled Ruan Ru’s sentence, “If you don’t want to drag her down, you should divorce her sooner,” it always choked her heart, leaving her unable to let it go.

Lu Sheng didn’t know much about Ruan Ru, but she could tell that Ruan Ru wasn’t lying or deliberately provoking her when she said that.

After much deliberation, Lu Sheng really couldn’t rest assured, so she could only make the trip and personally ask Qi Zhenshu.

However, before asking, she still needed to confirm whether the matter was true or false.

“What are you thinking about?” Qi Zhenshu finished tidying up the documents and stationery, and turned around to see Lu Sheng staring blankly at her.

“Nothing,” Lu Sheng smiled, and casually asked, “Is the government office very busy these days? Why haven’t you finished processing your work yet?”

“It’s okay,” Qi Zhenshu took her hand and walked out the door, “Not very busy. I just wanted to wait for the rain to lessen before going back since it was still raining.”

“You say it’s not busy, but I see you’ve lost some weight again,” Lu Sheng looked at her sideways and chided, “Did you not eat on time?”

“I haven’t lost weight,” Qi Zhenshu squeezed her hand, “I should have grown taller again, that’s why I look thinner.”

“Nonsense,” Lu Sheng rolled her eyes at her, as a twenty-one-year-old wouldn’t grow taller anymore.

“You definitely haven’t eaten properly.”

Qi Zhenshu opened the umbrella, pulled Lu Sheng closer, slightly tilted the umbrella towards her, and whispered, “Maybe it’s for another reason.”

Upon learning that Lu Huacheng might be involved in selling pig iron, Qi Zhenshu was shocked but also filled with complex thoughts.

With the evidence they had, it was almost certain that the batch of grain Lu Huacheng delivered was, in all likelihood, mixed with pig iron.

Fortunately, Lu Huacheng only delivered one batch of goods, so at most, he would be considered an accomplice, not a principal offender like the Wang family.

According to the laws of Xiliang, at the conclusion of the case, the most he would face would be the annulment of his academic status, but it wouldn’t involve Lu Sheng and Lu Qi being punished.

When she first heard the news, Qi Zhenshu was indeed distressed and sleepless for several days.

From the moment she knew she could study again, Qi Zhenshu had been thinking about one day taking the imperial examination and entering officialdom, so she would have the opportunity to fulfill her mother’s last wish.

Later, when she met Princess Changning and knew that she shared the same political views, Qi Zhenshu gained even more confidence.

But if her father really was involved in selling pig iron, let alone entering officialdom through the imperial examination, she was afraid she wouldn’t even be able to continue as Princess Changning’s advisor for long.

Aside from her mother’s last wish, Qi Zhenshu had not learned anything else besides studying all these years.

With the plan to enter officialdom through the imperial examination disrupted, she felt somewhat lost and completely unsure of what to do in the future.

After much thought, Qi Zhenshu comforted herself that with Princess Changning’s capability, her mother’s last wish would likely be fulfilled.

If she didn’t enter officialdom, perhaps she could open a private school in the village, or maybe help Lu Sheng sell wine, which should also be good.

Of course, Qi Zhenshu still held a final shred of hope: perhaps her father was not truly involved in the pig iron selling incident.

Based on her understanding of her father, he had always supported her education, and his greatest wish was for her to enter officialdom in the future and protect Lu Sheng throughout her life.

Qi Zhenshu didn’t believe he would do anything that would implicate Lu Sheng and her daughter.

“What other reason?” Hearing Qi Zhenshu’s words, Lu Sheng looked at her a little nervously.

Was Qi Zhenshu going to tell her the truth?

After lightly pursing her lips, Qi Zhenshu leaned down and whispered into Lu Sheng’s ear, “Pining away for her.”

Hearing such an answer, Lu Sheng was momentarily unsure how to react.

She was angry that a certain taciturn person still kept her troubles bottled up inside, but also felt lively joy that this blockhead had learned to say sweet nothings.

After all, she was still a little upset about Qi Zhenshu’s concealment, so Lu Sheng deliberately said the opposite, “Now that you mention it, I realize I’ve gained quite a bit of weight these past two months.”

Such a big thing happened, and she didn’t tell her, so she wouldn’t tell Qi Zhenshu that she missed her too.

“Is that so?” Qi Zhenshu sized her up and disagreed, “I don’t see it. You look thinner, too.”

“I’m not thin,” Lu Sheng stubbornly refused to admit it.

The two were playing a game of implicit understanding, which, in turn, made Qi Zhenshu feel a unique sense of fun in her heart.

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