Su Qingtian left, and the 'father and daughter' on the other side paid no attention.
Only Li Wan went out to see him off.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Su Yunmo flipped the page back: "Godfather, these characters are so difficult. Mo Mo can't remember them. Can Godfather teach Mo Mo a few more times?"
Xie Zhengping was always patient with children, so he earnestly pointed at the characters and flipped back and forth, teaching them one by one.
After flipping through twice, he suddenly stopped, his expression gradually becoming solemn.
Su Yunmo knew that she didn't need to let him continue teaching anymore.
"Guards! Bring all the accounts that His Majesty has reviewed!" Xie Zhengping commanded sternly.
He then put Su Yunmo down: "Mo Mo, be good. Godfather has important matters to attend to. Play by yourself for a while."
"Okay~" Su Yunmo stood obediently in the corner, saying no more.
When the servants brought out all the account books, Xie Zhengping scanned them page by page, his expression growing uglier.
Every few pages, the missing page was either completely torn off or had some very small, inconspicuous items added.
In short, the content was missing, but the final sum of the accounts was correct.
Such subtle accounting errors could only be discovered by someone extremely meticulous.
Su Yunmo watched from the side as more than a dozen people flipped through the account books, increasingly feeling that Ye Jingyu was cunning and resourceful.
To be able to find clues in such difficult accounts, if Su Siyuan said he hadn't planted people in the Ministry of Revenue, he wouldn't believe it himself.
When Li Wan returned, Xie Zhengping had finished checking all the accounts and looked at him coldly: "Vice Minister Li, please accompany this official to the palace!"
Seeing the account books in his hand, Li Wan felt his vision go black, his legs went weak, and he fell to the ground.
It was over. His entire family's lives were now forfeit.
As Xie Zhengping was going to the palace, he had Su Yunmo sent back to her residence.
Not long after Su Yunmo arrived at the residence, a message came from the palace ordering Li Wan's house to be confiscated and his family exiled, with all his assets to be sold and confiscated.
Since Li Wan was someone recommended by Ye Jingcheng before, Ye Jingcheng was also summoned to the palace.
It was likely that even if Ye Jingcheng could shirk responsibility this time, he would still suffer greatly.
In the afternoon, starting from the hour of Shen, it began to rain intermittently, and the rain grew heavier.
By dusk, the sky had completely darkened, with black clouds pressing down on the city.
Such heavy rain was unusual for autumn.
Su Yunmo stood by the window and looked out, feeling that something bad was about to happen.
The rain continued to pour, and it showed no signs of stopping even as night fell.
The General's Mansion closed its candles early, and Su Yunmo also went to bed.
In the latter half of the night, thunder suddenly roared outside.
She woke up abruptly, vaguely seeing a figure standing at the door.
At this moment, the candle in the room was blown out.
The door was blown open by the wind.
The figure stumbled in.
Su Yunmo rolled over, her wrist turning, and a silver dagger appeared in her hand.
Just as the silver dagger was about to fly out,
The figure collapsed directly, falling heavily onto Su Yunmo.
Thunder roared again outside.
In the brief flash of lightning, Su Yunmo saw the person's face clearly and exclaimed, "Ye Jingyu?!"
She struggled to push him away, quickly got out of bed, closed the door, lit a candle, and brought it to the bedside: "What's wrong with you?"
The man frowned deeply, his eyes tightly closed, and he did not respond.
His clothes were soaked, and there were faint red bloodstains on his back, caused by the water seeping through his clothes.
Damn it, he was injured!
Su Yunmo quickly placed the candle on the bedside table, and without further ado, forcibly pulled open his outer garment.
The inner garment was covered in blood on his back.
Su Yunmo couldn't figure out where he was injured, so she took out scissors and cut open his inner garment.
As the inner garment was removed, his strong yet pale back was revealed.
His back was covered in crisscrossing whip marks, his skin split open and bleeding, with at least one to two hundred lashes.
When Su Yunmo first established Manlou, she would also capture people for interrogation to complete missions. She was no stranger to such whip marks.
However, interrogations were primarily for extracting information.
The whip marks on Ye Jingyu were deliberately layered on top of each other, with salt crystals in the outward-curling wounds, clearly indicating deliberate abuse!
The person who whipped him was simply venting their anger!
Who could it be!
"Ye Jingyu, get up!" Su Yunmo wanted to ask what had happened.
Ye Jingyu's eyelashes fluttered, but he didn't open his eyes. His consciousness was unclear, and he murmured something softly.
Su Yunmo leaned closer and heard him call out "Mother Consort" in a very soft and helpless tone.
This call was filled with grief and suppressed emotion, like an abandoned child.
Su Yunmo's heart trembled violently.
This was the first time she had ever seen him in such a pathetic state.
Even when he was surrounded by dark guards in the General's Mansion, poisoned and severely injured, he had remained calm and composed.
At that time, she knew he was an incredibly strong and proud person.
A person like him would never give his enemies a chance to look down on him, no matter how dire the circumstances.
But who could have reduced him to this state this time!
After murmuring once more, Ye Jingyu tightly pursed his lips and stopped babbling, but the furrowed brow revealed his pain and endurance.
Su Yunmo touched his forehead.
He had a high fever.
The rain outside was still falling heavily, and even shouting would not be heard.
Su Yunmo put on her shoes, went out to fetch hot water, and then, with her hair still wet, helped Ye Jingyu clean his body and apply medicine. xxs1
There were fever-reducing pills in the glazed lock.
Su Yunmo took one out and fed it to him.
Even in his sleep, he kept his lips tightly closed, refusing to open them.
Su Yunmo forcefully pried open his mouth, shoved the pill in, and then bit his lips to lick the medicine down his throat.
"Cough!" Ye Jingyu choked and coughed, and the pill went down.
Su Yunmo then released him and threw him back onto the bed: "Where are your usual tricks for dealing with me!"
To be bullied like this by an outsider, where was her dignity!
If she found out who did this, she would make that scoundrel's head bleed!
The rain outside had lessened a bit.
Su Yunmo sighed, took off her shoes, got into bed, and burrowed under the covers.
It was a bit cold tonight.
She wrapped the quilt around Ye Jingyu, squeezed her small body into his embrace, and gently patted his uninjured back.
Just as Zhou Wanyou had sung her to sleep, she softly recited.
"The blue sky is quiet, the little boat rocks gently, the birds don't fly or chirp, baby sleeps soundly..."
Her voice was soft and delicate, as if trying to soothe his emotions with a lullaby.
It was effortful and somewhat clumsy, but very sincere.
The rain outside gradually stopped, pattering on the eaves and windows.
On the bed, the two leaned against each other, the candle extinguished.
The lullaby grew fainter and fainter until it disappeared.
When Su Yunmo woke up again, the person by the bed was gone.
She touched the quilt; it was cold underneath. He must have left at least half an hour ago.
"Ye Jingyu..."
Su Yunmo softly uttered the three words, feeling inexplicably a little sad.
What had he gone through?
Su Yunmo was not a person with an overly strong curiosity, but at this moment, she desperately wanted to know everything about Ye Jingyu.
She had to go find him.