Chapter 119 Wishful thinking
It was early August, and the sun was approaching dusk. The autumn wind was already blowing with a bleak feel. Many leaves on the big trees in the back garden were falling down before they even turned yellow.

Lin Daiyu sat alone on a stone, looking up at the distant sky with her head slightly tilted back, letting the fallen leaves flutter all over her body.

“Girl! Girl! There’s a letter from the master!”

Xueyan rushed in like a gust of wind and handed a letter to Lin Daiyu.

Lin Daiyu stood up suddenly, snatched the letter, tore it open and read it, then clenched the letter against her chest and coughed violently.

“girl.”

Xueyan hurried forward, helped Lin Daiyu sit down, and gently massaged her back.

Lin Daiyu’s coughing and wheezing subsided a little, and she said, “It’s all right.”

Xueyan: “How is the master?”

Lin Daiyu: “It’s okay, I just tore my clothes.” As she said that, she read the letter carefully again.

“Great!”

Xueyan smiled, then snorted and said, “It must be those stinky salt merchants. Second Master will be back soon, let’s tell him to beat those stinky salt merchants to death!”

Lin Daiyu glanced at her, then folded the letter carefully and put it into her sleeve.

The Lianghuai Salt Inspector was not only responsible for the collection and management of salt taxes, but also for the management of salt fields, and needed to inspect the salt fields regularly.

In the middle of last month, Lin Ruhai was assassinated while inspecting the salt field. The murderer was a salt cooker. The dragon sucking water not only caused great losses to the Lianghuai salt industry, but also drowned many salt cookers.

According to the practice of previous years, Lin Ruhai submitted a memorial to the court, requesting “to retain 20,000 to 30,000 taels of the remaining salt silver in Lianghuai to provide relief to the kitchen workers.” However, the national treasury was empty at that time, and the cabinet only approved 8,000 taels, which was only a little over 20 taels per person and was not enough to cover the family’s expenses for a year.

The cook’s family had died, and he thought that Lin Ruhai had embezzled the pension money issued by the court, so he took advantage of the time when Lin Ruhai was inspecting the salt field to assassinate him. Fortunately, the personal soldiers sent by Li Hu reacted quickly and only scratched Lin Ruhai’s clothes.

Originally, Lin Daiyu didn’t know about this matter. She heard it from Shi Xiangyun. However, Shi Xiangyun didn’t know much. She accidentally heard the conversation between the Baolinghou couple and mentioned that “Lin Ruhai was assassinated”. The next day she hurried to tell Lin Daiyu.

How dare a kitchen boy assassinate the salt inspector in broad daylight? No matter how you look at it, there must be something fishy going on.

Lin Daiyu believed Lin Ruhai’s judgment that this matter had nothing to do with the salt merchants. After all, they had the bloody lessons of those three families, so they had no choice but to be afraid!
As for the murderer behind the scenes, Lin Daiyu suspected that it was Li Hu’s enemy, and it was most likely the White Lotus Sect that assassinated Li Hu.

In addition, there have been people competing with the Li family for land and property recently. As long as the Li family takes a fancy to something, someone will interfere.

Not only that, tenants and villagers in several farms in the suburbs of Beijing, Daxing and Xiangshan were also attacked. The government had no idea what to do, and the people were in a panic.

Ni Er and Jia Yun had been guarding the place for several days but had not discovered anything.

As for those who competed with the Li family for the property, they were found out that they were not the real buyers. They all purchased the property for a man named Yang Qilong and managed the property for him. Someone would come to collect the interest after a year.

Ni Er’s men are looking everywhere for this man named Yang Qilong.

There are not so many coincidences in the world. Lin Daiyu believes that the mastermind behind these three incidents is the same person.

A gust of wind blew and the fallen leaves fluttered down.

Xueyan quickly brushed off the fallen leaves on Lin Daiyu’s head and body, and said softly, “Miss, go back to the room.”

Lin Daiyu said “hmm”, stood up and walked out of the garden gate.

What Lin Daiyu didn’t know was that the real Yang Qilong was also looking for the mastermind behind the incident.

Shui Rong was fishing by the pond again.

The old butler stood behind him with a gloomy face.

The line on the fishing rod suddenly became straight.

Shui Rong: “You’ve taken the bait!”

Shui Rong raised the fishing rod and pulled up a fat golden carp.

The old housekeeper walked forward, held the fish in both hands and placed it in a porcelain jar.

Shui Rong handed him the fishing rod and asked, “How’s it going?”

“All this was arranged more than a month ago, and there is no clue to be found. We can only wait a year!” The old housekeeper was so angry that his eyes turned red: “Who on earth did this thing that killed off the family line and put the blame on me? I know, I will tear him alive!”

Shui Rong put his hands behind his back and walked back and forth.

Yang Qilong: “The Li family is looking for me everywhere now. If things keep going like this, something bad will happen sooner or later. It doesn’t matter if I live or die, but if I delay the young master’s important matter, I will die.”

As he spoke, Yang Qilong’s eyes turned red again.

Shui Rong stopped and looked at him: “Do you think it could be the White Lotus Sect Leader?”

Yang Qilong was confused because of the situation, and was shocked by Shui Rong’s little knowledge!
Not many people know his true identity, not even Princess Beijing, and the White Lotus Sect Leader happens to be one of those few people.

Ever since Zhen Fu killed the Right Protector of the White Lotus Sect, the resistance at the White Lotus Sect headquarters has been much smaller. The White Tiger Hall Master successfully bribed the vast majority of the middle and high-level leaders and basically sidelined the White Lotus Sect Leader.

The White Lotus Sect leader is old, but not stupid. After so long, he must have guessed that it was the White Tiger Hall Master they supported.

So, this is the revenge of the White Lotus Sect leader, who wants to use the Li family and the court to take revenge?

Fortunately, the leader of the White Lotus Sect only knew his name, had never seen him, and did not know who the “young master” was.

Yang Qilong’s face turned ugly again, and a cold light flashed in his eyes: “The White Lotus Sect Leader cannot be kept, let the White Tiger Hall Master take action.”

After a pause, he said, “A divided White Lotus Sect will be more conducive to our control!”

Shui Rong paced back and forth for a few steps, then said to Yang Qilong, “Think of a way to let Zhen Fu make another contribution and go one step further.”

Yang Qilong pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said, “I think it’s better not to let Zhen Fu get involved. It’s easy to make things worse. Why? First, there are not so many coincidences in the world. If there are too many, it will arouse suspicion in the palace. Secondly, if Zhen Yingjia is pushed to the limit, he might kill his own relatives for the sake of justice.”

The reason why Zhen Yingjia chose to conceal the matter was not only because he was worried about implicating the Zhen family and the father-son relationship, but also because Zhen Fu vowed not to associate with Shui Rong anymore and to help him manage clan affairs honestly.

Of course Zhen Fu would not break off his relationship with Shui Rong. After regaining his freedom, he immediately wrote a letter to Shui Rong to explain the reason.

As for oaths, if oaths are really useful, what is the point of having rules and regulations?
The affair between Zhen Fu and Shui Rong was soon discovered by Zhen Yingjia. Before he could react, traces of the eunuchs from the Imperial Household Department were discovered in Jinling City. For the sake of the Zhen family, he could only grit his teeth and swallow his anger.

Not only that, he also has to cooperate with Zhen Fu in acting to remove the suspicion on himself.

The head of the Right Protector of the White Lotus Sect not only dispelled the suspicion in the palace, but Zhen Fu was also conferred the rank of Sixth-Rank Cloud Cavalry Captain by the Emperor.

Shui Rong: “Okay.” Then he turned and walked out.

The old housekeeper touched the porcelain jar and said gloomily: “Don’t let me catch you, or I will make you wish you were dead!”

In the study, the abacus made a crackling sound.

Bai Hongzhi sat at his desk, fiddling with the abacus beads with his left hand while drawing circles on the account book with his right hand.

After a while, Bai Hongzhi stopped and glanced at the abacus beads. He had lost a lot of money in the capital this month, but he was in a good mood because all the money belonged to the third prince.

It feels so good to spend other people’s money for revenge!

Suddenly, Bai Hongzhi shuddered with a chill.

Bai Hongzhi frowned and asked, “Who is talking about me?”
The old steward came in excitedly, greeted Bai Hongzhi, and then said, “Master Sun, everything has been arranged.”

Bai Hongzhi put down his pen and asked, “Nothing will go wrong, right?”

The old steward said, “Master Sun, rest assured. Our people are doing business with those ruffians under the guise of a businessman named Yang. We let them set the fire in order to buy the farm at a low price. They have seen this method many times and will not be suspicious.”

Bai Hongzhi thought for a moment and said, “Just in case, let them go to Shaanxi to avoid the limelight.”

Elderly steward: “Yes.”

Bai Hongzhi stood up and walked to the door. A gust of wind blew, and his clothes were blown up high. A smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. What a nice wind!

The old steward also laughed: “The wind will be getting stronger and stronger at this time. If a fire is lit, it will burn down at least half of the farm.”

Bai Hongzhi smiled. This was a surprise for Li Hu. By the way, he could also use Li Hu to force Yang Qilong out and then find the Zhu family.

He not only got his revenge, but also avoided a direct confrontation with Li Hu, and he also created a powerful enemy for Li Hu.

Get it in one fell swoop!
(End of this chapter)