Ruan Mian understood well that once it involved their own interests, no one would sit and wait for doom.
Not long after, the entire Governor Mansion was already surrounded by people, utterly impenetrable. Countless individuals began shouting inside.
"Governor! You should step out and give us an explanation! Where did the relief silver taels for Wuheng City go?! Why are the houses in the city still not repaired promptly? Why are good folk being forcibly turned into slaves?!"
"Return our relief silver taels!! Return our relief silver!"
This atmosphere of impending doom frightened the few young attendants inside the mansion, rendering them afraid to step out and speak.
Only the steward dared to go out, yet he barely uttered a word before being kicked away by several vagrants who proceeded to beat him.
The enraged steward spoke insolently: "You... you’ve eaten the brave heart and bold gall of bears and leopards?! How dare you trespass into the Governor Mansion? Soone, soone! Hurry and arrest these dog-foes, lock them up..."
Before the steward could finish his words, public outrage was already thoroughly provoked.
Soon followed his painful screams, the young attendants inside the mansion exchanged looks, so hurried away to report to Chen Bozong, while others fled early to save their lives.
Before Chen Bozong could react, the vagrants and citizens rushed into the residence altogether.
They completely surrounded the courtyard where Chen Bozong was located.
Chen Bozong was already in a rage; not to ntion Princess Jiaceng had escaped, at this critical mont, he was still subject to the angry shouts and cursing of the vagrants, inflad by his inner fury, he imdiately summoned the guards within the mansion!
"Arrest them all! Don’t let a single one go!"
Chen Bozong’s gaze was sharp, he swung his sleeve and gave the death order.
Yet unexpectedly, those guards clashed with the vagrants, and the entire Governor Mansion descended into chaos instantly.
Ruan Mian stood beside Xie Huai’an, watching the scene on a high tree outside the mansion.
She blew the bone whistle, and instantly, seven, eight, nine individuals sprang out from the alley, running toward the city while shouting.
"Sothing bad has happened, sothing bad has happened, the governor is going to kill people!! The governor is going to kill people!!"
This uproar was large enough to alarm Huo Zong’s military camp.
Upon hearing the report from the ssenger who arrived: "General Huo, the city is in turmoil, countless vagrant citizens have stord into the Governor Mansion, the situation is out of control! No one knows who claid Mr. Chen embezzled relief silver, and even ordered guards to beat the citizens demanding explanation, consequently stirring public fury, and causing a calamity."
"Is there such a matter?"
Huo Zong imdiately called for his subordinates, then led troops to the scene.
Yet upon arriving at the Governor Mansion, he found Chen Bozong already beaten to a state of near death, a group of people surrounded him, punching and kicking, even so guards couldn’t withstand the collective assault of so many people.
It was only when General Huo led troops to arrive that this absurd scene was stopped.
After dispersing the crowd, throughout the Governor Mansion’s corridors and wings, there were barely any unhard individuals left, many had suffered injuries.
Chen Bozong, after all, was a court official, Huo Zong was obliged to calm the situation.
Though Chen Bozong, with a furious expression, demanded Huo Zong to imprison all those people, Huo Zong rely replied: "Mr. Chen, the cause of this matter still lies with you."
"Huo Zong." Chen Bozong weakly sneered while catching his breath: "Are you telling you care not for my life or death? Should my father-in-law, or Your Majesty, know you condoned such a significant incident, then..."
"Before Mr. Chen reprimands those citizens, if you could clarify to them what beca of the court’s relief silver, I would be in a better position to make my next move."
"Relief silver? Do you really think, like those ignorant dog-foes, it was I who embezzled it?! Such a colossal joke! Cough..."
His emotions were stirred, and he smacked upon the edge of the bed, Huo Zong said nothing, rose to leave.
Chen Bozong, enduring painful agony, summoned a servant: "Call the doctor! And bring a brush and ink, I need to draft a letter!"
This matter also reached the Commandery Princess’s ears.
Now having regained so strength, even while enduring the pain, she insisted on leaving her room, beseeching Ruan Mian to escort her back to her residence once.
Everything was according to her plan.
Moreover, she understood the Commandery Princess’s determination to visit the Governor Mansion despite her condition.
Upon pushing open that door, Chen Bozong initially thought it was the servant inviting the doctor over, hastily backed himself to sit up.
What he saw, however, was the expressionless Princess Jiaceng.
His face imdiately collapsed, shouting loudly for servants: "Soone!"
However, the Princess calmly locked the door, slowly approached the bedside, then upon witnessing his battered legs, seeing him in such a pitiful state unable to leave the bed, suddenly burst out laughing.
Recalling yesterday’s assault of fists and kicks from him, his rciless severance from her, and the miserable circumstance of her sister being humiliated and dying, the sight of him beaten like that, indeed, wasn’t it sowhat gratifying!!
She sat by the bed, her dark eyes fixated on him: "Chen Bozong, why did you harm my sister? Were so many won not enough for you to humiliate? Why did you harm my kin?"
"You’ve tolerated for too long, haven’t you? Do you think I haven’t tolerated you for too long myself?"
The Commandery Princess loosened her belt, tearing it into several pieces, taking advantage of his difficulties to move, binding his limbs to the bedstead.
Chen Bozong was furious beyond asure: "Release imdiately!! This isn’t the ground of Prince Shuo Mansion! I’m your husband, since ancient tis, won follow the husband, how dare you defy ?"
The Commandery Princess turned a deaf ear, her mind filled with thoughts of her deceased child and her deceased sister.
She felt utterly frigid, as though subrged in ice-cold river water.
Those hands mirrored the way he strangled her yesterday, now clutching over his neck as well.
Her slender fingers deeply embedded into Chen Bozong’s flesh.
With gradually increasing force, Chen Bozong’s breath was cut off, the intense suffocation caused him to glare wide-eyed in vicious hate toward the Commandery Princess.
His face flushed red, yet Princess Jiaceng regarded him as air, resentnt spilling furiously from her eyes.
"So many years of misjudgnt! I harbored the wolf that hard Cheng’er, and even hard my child! Chen Bozong, did you truly think I was soone for you to tyrannize? I, the dignified daughter of Prince Shuo’s lineage, am I soone whom you can trample beneath your feet?!"
"Today, you’ll descend to the underworld to bow and confess your guilt before Cheng’er and our child!"
Disbelievingly, Chen Bozong attempted to speak again, but she left no leeway whatsoever.
anwhile, Ruan Mian was already at the storage room of Governor Mansion.
Under the earlier chaos, the servants of the mansion were all gravely injured, leaving only one young attendant at guard outside the storage room.
With a stick of sedative, that person fell motionless to the ground.
She wasn’t visiting this storage room for the first ti.
Familiarized with the way, she went in, twisting and turning to the very inner chamber, and after lighting a flint to ignite the candle, found nurous boxes of silver neatly stacked in the corner.
The boxes were still sealed with the national treasury’s official stamps.
If she were visiting this for the first ti, perhaps this inner chamber would have been hard to locate.
It’s unfortunate, Chen Bozong’s ticulous plans overlooked the fact that she had emptied this storage room once before.
Thus, this concealed inner chamber posed no difficulty to Ruan Mian whatsoever.
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