Translated by Pure

Edited by Leilaz and cookiecrunch

Chapter 5: A Deep Pit

In the inn, Tang Tianyuan stared dazedly at a piece of brocade spread out in front of him. The brocade was covered with small letters, with a red seal in the lower left corner: Treasure of life and virtue. This was one of the twenty-four seals belonging to the Emperor.

That's right. Currently, spread out in front of him, was a secret decree.

On the day he returned from the Gutang Bookstore, he met Sheng gonggong, the chief eunuch of the inner court, who came to deliver the decree. Tang Tianyuan was very surprised. Sheng gonggong arrived the second day he arrived in Tongling County… They seemed to have left as soon as he did. Tang Tianyuan was unsure why the Emperor was in such a hurry.

When he had deciphered the imperial decree, Tang Tianyuan felt that he accidentally fell into a deep pit.

The secret decree explained the matter very clearly: According to the preliminary investigation, the Emperor suspected that someone in Tongling County was stealing gold, and a conservative estimate was around 100,000 taels[1]. It just so happened that Tang Tianyuan was in Tongling County, so the Emperor wanted him to investigate this case further as a magistrate. At the same time, in order to prevent Tang Tianyuan from being unable to use his hands and feet, the Emperor secretly entrusted him with the post of an imperial envoy. He was to patrol on behalf of the sky (the Emperor) whenever necessary and to lead all affairs in the Southern Zhili Provinces. In addition, there was a friendly reminder that the former magistrate of Tongling County may have to do with something about this case.

The reminder was obvious. Even without thinking, he had already figured that out. Tang Tianyuan thought silently, what kind of reminder is this?

100,000 taels of pure gold was equivalent to one million taels of silver. This amount was very large. It almost made him doubt the authenticity of this matter. Tang Tianyuan felt that there could be another possibility: the Emperor was thinking about money so much that he became paranoid and crazy...

He shook his head, carefully put away the secret order, and opened another bag on the table. In the bag was the imperial envoy's large purple seal, as well as a citation issued by the Ministry of Personnel. The Emperor was a thoughtful person. Considering Tang Tianyuan's reputation was too great and because his identity was rather special, it would be too ostentatious to use his real name, so he forged a new identity for him. Tang Ge was also the Head of the Ministry of Personnel, so it was convenient for him to forge official files. So Tang Tianyuan turned into an ordinary jinshi[2] from the bureau of officials, waiting to be dispatched. There were always hundreds of jinshi, so no one would check them one by one. Very good, very good…

Tang Tianyuan opened the citation, and when he saw his new name, he felt an ongoing headache.

Tang Feilong[3]...

He felt that the Emperor must have done it on purpose. The Emperor had long expected that he would slander him, so he deliberately chose such a name to suffocate him.

Tang Tianyuan wanted to crumple the paper and throw it out, but in the end, he held back. Having said that, it is precisely because the names Tang Tianyuan and Tang Feilong have a subtle connection, so probably no one in this world would believe that Tang Tianyuan would be stupid enough to swagger through the streets under the pseudonym of Tang Feilong. The Emperor also took advantage of this and did this. Of course, the biggest reason lies in the Emperor's bad taste.

Tang Tianyuan sorted everything out and lowered his head to think about the situation he was currently facing.

To be honest, if gold theft was real, then the water in this case would be very deep. How many people knew about the gold? How many people were involved? Who was the mastermind? How was it kept a hidden for so long? How did they divide the spoils? Were there high-ranking officials involved? How many?

And most importantly, where did all the stolen gold go?

All of these were unknown.

There was a positive correlation between the amount of stolen money and the amount of people involved. If so much gold was stolen, it would be hard to count how many people would be implicated.

Tang Tianyuan was very self-aware of his own situation. He had only been in the officialdom for two years, and the government office he stayed in was the leisurely and aloof Hanlin Academy. He had very limited experience with the feuds involving officialdom. In the capital, others were polite to him because of his father’s position. When he arrived in Tongling, he was unfamiliar with the locals and had no foundation; and he could not casually ask his father to aid him. Wanting to fight with the cunning local snakes was easier said than done. There were many unknown situations to face, and it was very likely that a large number of people with intricate relationships will be involved. This gave him another headache.

In short, this pit was unfathomable.

There was a source of his thousand mistakes: he shouldn't have rushed to Tongling impulsively. Because of this, his father and the Emperor logically dumped such a troublesome matter on him.

And the blame to his thousand err’s: it was all Miao Miao Sheng’s fault.

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Footnotes:

[1] Taels- Ancient measurement. Equal to 50 grams

[2] Jinshi- successful candidate in the highest imperial civil service examination /or a palace graduate

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