Tianliangyuan

Chapter 401 The Pressure from Xu Zhaozhao

One sentence left Li Shun completely bewildered.

After about two breaths, Li Shun took a deep breath, bowed his head and replied, "I failed to fulfill my promise to the county princess, that is my first mistake; I failed to restrain my family members, that is my second mistake."

This answer is fairly fair.

However, Xu Zhaozhao was not satisfied.

"Haitang, please invite Lord Li into the pavilion to speak."

"Yes, master."

Li Shun naturally heard it too. He glanced up cautiously, then went into the pavilion. At Xu Zhaozhao's prompting, he sat down at the lower end, but didn't dare to sit too firmly.

I'm mainly scared!

The fear of power is ingrained in their very bones.

The key point is that he had met Princess Anle a few times. She had always appeared very dignified and composed, and even now, sitting here, she had never shown a trace of anger, yet she still made people unconsciously feel their hearts in their throats.

The last time I was this close to Princess Anle, there was a Lieutenant General sitting next to me. This time, without that young master, why do I feel even more pressure?

Is it my own illusion?

Li Shun felt like he had gone astray, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what exactly he had done wrong.

“Lord Li, what you just said is barely tolerable. But your biggest mistake lies in the unrest within the household. I know your mother is kind and gentle, but remember this: kindness means being soft-hearted; gentleness means acting without discipline. Although the household may be peaceful most of the time, that does not mean we can be careless.”

Li Shun felt that what was said made sense; his mother was indeed easily swayed and soft-hearted.

“The county princess is right. When I return, I will certainly have a good talk with my mother and will not do anything wrong again.”

"Lord Li, this is the first point."

The half-breath that Li Shun had just managed to take was instantly lifted again.

Xu Zhaozhao didn't make things difficult for him. With a wave of her hand, Shaoyao handed him a few sheets of paper.

Li Shun only knew that his uncle had passed away. He had even gone to pay his respects, but he was on official business and could not stay in Lantian County for long.

Moreover, he never imagined that his aunt could do something so significant.

"This? This, where did the county princess get it?"

"Early on, after this mother and daughter moved into your Li family's house, I sent people to investigate their true nature. They didn't disappoint me. Your aunt is truly cunning. She was the one who angered her husband to death, but in order to seize the entire Qian family fortune for herself, she not only reneged on her previous promise to adopt a son, but she even dared to turn around and frame me!"

Li Shun never expected that his aunt and cousin's crying earlier was all an act.

Therefore, the Qian clan never bullied the mother and daughter. On the contrary, the aunt was unwilling to fulfill her promise, so she distorted the facts and deliberately pinned the blame on the entire Qian clan!

This is truly outrageous!

"Little Zhou, oh, that is, your aunt, has quite the scheme. She plans to liquidate all of the Qian family's assets, and then bring her daughter to the capital to seek refuge with you. If her daughter can become your beloved wife, that would be the best, but if not, she can still become your concubine. In this way, she will have power in the capital, and will she still be afraid of the Qian family forcing her to hand over her assets?"

According to the Daxing Law, if a family has no sons, a female household can be established; if there are neither sons nor daughters, an adopted son can be adopted; if there is no adopted son, then the distribution of family property shall be presided over by the family members.

Unless a member of the clan goes too far, the authorities will generally not be alerted.

Xiao Zhou's actions clearly crossed the bottom line for the Qian clan!

The family fortune was all earned by the deceased Mr. Qian, there's nothing wrong with that.

Moreover, it seems that the elders of the Qian family have no intention of seizing the family property. They only want to follow the wishes of the previous patriarch and adopt the orphan so that he can continue the Qian family line.

The so-called orphan was actually a member of the Qian family, named Qian Yaozu. It is said that the name was given to him by Master Qian. However, because his parents died early, he was raised by the charity of many families.

Many years ago, Qian Yaozu had been working steadily by Master Qian's side and was quite filial to him. After discussion among the elders of the clan, they made this decision, and Master Qian himself agreed and had already drawn up an adoption document.

Unexpectedly, before the ceremony could even take place, Mr. Qian died.

The matter was thus put on hold.

Madam Qian, also known as Xiao Zhou, actually berated the Qian family elders for being heartless, saying that they were the ones who forced Master Qian to be adopted, which caused him to suffer a sudden heart attack and die.

In short, this is a complicated case, with each side presenting its own arguments, but neither side can provide concrete evidence.

However, the Qian clan patriarch possesses the adoption document originally drawn up by Master Qian. Based solely on this document, the entire Qian family property can be transferred to his adopted son, Qian Yaozu.

"When Master Qian fell ill, Madam Zhou did not care for him. Instead, she took the opportunity to sell off the Qian family's property. It was only after Master Qian found out that he was so angry that he suddenly fell ill with a heart attack. Lord Li, do you now know what mistake you have made?"

Although his words were just a simple statement, Li Shun discerned many hidden meanings in them.

He really is thinking too superficially!

If he had known this would happen, he should have found out about it sooner, so that he wouldn't have been deceived by his aunt.

Madam Qian's actions have clearly violated the law, and if the Qian family pursues the matter, she will surely be imprisoned.

Xu Zhaozhao is now reminding him that Xiao Zhou is vicious and scheming, but Li Shun, as a seventh-rank official, fails to investigate matters and only listens to one side of the story, which is obviously unfair.

In other words, it was fortunate that Li Shun was not a local official, nor did he have the authority to handle criminal cases; otherwise, wouldn't there have been a constant stream of wrongful convictions?

At that moment, Li Shun felt as if he were drowning in water. He didn't know how to move his hands and feet, and it seemed as if water was being poured into his mouth and nose, causing him to cough incessantly.

Seeing Li Shun's disheveled appearance, Xu Zhaozhao knew that she had achieved her goal.

Li Shun's mistake, in essence, was not that he indulged his mother, but that he was too shallow in his thinking and did not think deeply about things.

This is such a big problem, it needs to be corrected!

If he doesn't change, how can we promote him in the future?

If it is changed, what kind of effect it will have remains to be seen by Xu Zhaozhao.

In short, Li Shun's status with Xu Zhaozhao was clearly inferior to that of Zheng Tuo.

At least Zheng Tuo is obedient.

In Xie Zheng's words, he never made a mistake in the tasks assigned to him, so his superiors could rest assured and would naturally trust him more and more. In that case, how far away would a promotion and a raise be?

So, even though Zheng Tuo is a rough man with little education, he has his own merits.

At least for now, Zheng Tuo is clearly more useful to Xu Zhaozhao than Li Shun.