BXBX NOVEL Chapter 144: [Father-In-Law’s Story 20] Plan
Chu Jiao harshly shooed away the thick-skinned man that wanted to make a move on her, out in the open hall and could be said to have been extremely ruthless and callous in her rejection.
To put everything into perspective, her waist was still aching from last night and this man still had to take care of official business, yet his thoughts were only filled with earnest love making desires during the day. It completely vexed her.
As for Shen Zhen, he honestly didn’t want his precious little daughter-in-law to know too much of his plans. Because the more one knew, the more one had to worry about.
He only wanted to settle everything as soon as possible before possessing her through just and honorable means.
Poetically, both people hid something in their hearts but their goals were no different from each other.
Before coldly kicking the man out, Chu Jiao’s heart still warmed up a bit.
She slowly took something out from her embroidered purse and stuffed it into Shen Zhen’s hands secretly.
“Take care of your work-related affairs first,” Chu Jiao’s dainty fingers softly brushed across his palm, appearing hesitant, “Once you’ve finished…then we can talk about our own matters…”
Shen Zhen felt his heart bounce with excitement but still suppressed himself, oddly feeling a key being slipped into the palm of his hand.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something to her, but the little girl in front of him quickly covered his mouth before he could do so.
“Daughter-in-law had already said this back then,” Chu Jiao’s tone hinted that she wouldn’t tolerate any refusal, “Jiao’er has already married into the third household and as such, everything I own belongs to the third household.”
“Although Jiao’er is just a simple woman and is not skilled or knowledgeable enough to help father-in-law with any matters, I will still put in my best efforts.”
“This daughter-in-law’s dowry is all here, so father-in-law can deal with it as he pleases.” Her message was clear.
Shen Zhen’s heart swayed considerably.
His original plan was to disguise himself as bait and have Chu Dahai be the mere introduction to the storm he was brewing. For Chu Jiao’s sake, he didn’t want to put Chu Dahai in harm’s way, only wanting him to suffer some hardships.
But Chu Jiao’s behavior of wholeheartedly trusting him was something Shen Zhen had never imagined before.
As expected.
She also had him in her heart.
Shen Zhen couldn’t help but feel a powerful urge to hug the girl and give her a passionate kiss, temporarily joining them as one. But in the end, since it was currently broad daylight, he only settled for a quick peck at the corner of Chu Jiao’s lips and left in a hurry.
He couldn’t wait for his revenge to finally end since it was constantly preoccupying his mind all this time.
Because now, he had found more important things to think about.
※
Shen Zhen’s plan soon bore sweet fruit.
After a few days of attending morning court, he was finally arrested by someone.
The person who arrested him was none other than the supervising imperial censor, Gongsun Mu, who was also the iron-fisted head of the Gongsun clan.
Gongsun Mu immediately impeached Shen Zhen for abusing his powers, arbitrarily arranging an official position for his nephew and appointing people to high positions through favoritism as well as bringing disorder to the laws and discipline of the imperial court.
Emperor Xie Yu was furious when he heard about this.
Shen Zhen had achieved the position of a fourth grade official at such a young age, and so, he had undoubtedly become an irksome thorn in many people’s eyes. Moreover, the reforms that he often proposed in court benefited the common people but subsequently harmed the interests of the conservative faction and noble families.
Shen Zhen had always kept out of trouble. He always dealt with matters in a low profile and was very cunning at his work. His political opponents, who loathed him, had never been able to get a hold of his weakness, that was until Chu Dahai had appeared from out of the blue.
As such, Gongsun Mu immediately seized this golden opportunity to take Shen Zhen down.
Everyone still vividly remembered when the consorts intervened and outright took control of the imperial court. Emperor Xie Yu, who was still a young prince at that time, was persecuted and had nearly lost his life. After Emperor Xie Yu ascended the throne, the first thing he did was punish the former Empress Dowager’s clan for bringing absolute disorder and calamity to the imperial court. His methods were bloody and merciless, making people stricken with horror at the word of this news.
Hence, when Gongsun Mu mentioned Shen Zhen’s unauthorized use of power, his intentions were obviously to push Shen Zhen to die a tragic death.
He had no idea that this was a sly trap that Shen Zhen had skilfully set on his doorstep.
Ever since Emperor Xie Yu succeeded the throne, the Xie Dynasty had gone through four generations of emperors.
During the last reign of the late emperor, that emperor had completely immersed himself in a far-fetched quest for immortality and neglected the imperial government. This blatant ignorance led to the originally rich national treasury to be easily embezzled by the princes, officials, as well as the noble families under the pretext of ‘borrowing.’ It was only when Emperor Xie Yu ascended the throne that the national treasury’s extreme deficit became evident to the public eye, losing almost millions of taels of silver.
After Emperor Xie Yu assumed the throne, he had always wanted to get these “debts” back, but these nobles acted in collusion and were extremely stubborn. As if already determining that Emperor Xie Yu would not dare stir the public’s ire, they all acted like dead pigs that didn’t fear scalding water1Dead pigs that don’t fear scalding water means being undaunted or unaffected by the issue. .
The Shen family was one of these families and had borrowed a large sum.
And had nearly even exhausted all of it.
After several years of tireless ruling, Emperor Xie Yu’s methods gradually became shrewder and more ruthless. The trusted officials he had trained gradually revealed their true talents in court and slowly gained power and better political standing, with Shen Zhen being one of them.
The emperor’s patience with the old arrogant families had already been wearing thin. He wanted to quickly exterminate the parasites in the court at once and Shen Zhen was the sharpest sword in his hand.
And when this sword was unsheathed, cold blood would certainly be spilled.
Shen Zhen had nothing to worry about. He had thoroughly planned long ago to use the Shen Family as a test to see how sharp his sword was, ready to punish this family when justice demanded it and come forward to recover the national debt on behalf of Emperor Xie Yu.
But now that he had faithfully encountered Chu Jiao, he had one thing to worry about and was no longer a person without any weaknesses.
As such, he made slight changes to his plan at the very last moment.
Author’s note:
Working 9 hours a day and returning home to continue writing novels for 2 hours…
I’m going to die from excessive ejaculation. (T/N: Author’s joke on exhaustion.)
Why does it feel like it’s getting more and more depressing… Am I writing too much plot? Is there too little meat(smut) or is it not fragrant anymore? Comments are welcome~
T/N: Lolol yeah the recent arcs are pretty much more plot based than smut-based, it’s also partly because we’re nearing the end of the story. What do you guys think? Do you prefer the first few arcs or the recent more arcs?
Translation status of advanced chapters:
4th and 5th world Completed
6th world Ongoing