The Prodigal Son

After giving him a dressing down, Qin Yu then took action on the spot against some officials whose crimes had already been investigated.

Several were punished with caning and had their salaries withheld, while others were demoted but retained.

Despite this, the officials who were punished were secretly pleased.

As long as Qin Yu doesn't punish them, they'll live in constant anxiety.

Although I've been punished, I finally feel at ease and no longer have to live in fear.

What they didn't know was that Qin Yu had already memorized the list of all the officials with shady pasts.

From now on, they will be the key targets for supervision and assessment.

Perhaps, when the right people come along, they will be replaced.

However, this was no longer within Qin Yu's considerations.

This must be the business of officials from the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Justice, and the Censorate.

Afterwards, Qin Yu discussed the matter with Fu Mingzhu and quickly promoted several people on the spot.

These are the same people who were so assertive just now.

Their audacity in insisting that the families of the two officials who committed suicide out of fear of punishment must at least suggest that there shouldn't be any major problems.

Otherwise, they would definitely be worried about their families being implicated!

However, to Qin Yu's regret, the officials who were framed by the Prefect of Fangzhou were either demoted to faraway places or exiled to remote areas to perform corvée labor.

Even if Qin Yu were to overturn their cases on the spot, he wouldn't be able to immediately bring them to his side and put them to use.

After dealing with these matters, Qin Yu ordered someone to bring over the files of major or important cases from Fangzhou in recent years.

"What do you need these files for?"

Nan Que'er asked Qin Yu, puzzled.

Qin Yu rubbed his head. "I want to look into the major case in Fangzhou, to see if Sun Min might have been murdered to cover up another crime! Since we can't find a breakthrough in the salt smuggling case, let's try looking in other cases and see if we can find one!"

Ruan Zhi's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly asked, "Does Lord Qin suspect that someone used Jia Dequan to get rid of Sun Min, so that when the court investigates Sun Min, other cases will be uncovered?"

"There are some doubts about that too!"

Qin Yu nodded slightly: "I can't find a breakthrough right now, so I can only use the process of elimination..."

In his view, there are three possibilities in the case of Sun Min.

First, Sun Min is involved in other major cases, and some people are afraid that if Sun Min is arrested for the salt smuggling case, other major cases will be uncovered.

Secondly, Sun Min possessed evidence of crimes committed by historians or other important officials in the court regarding salt administration, and was silenced by someone using a borrowed knife to kill him!

Third, the case is not as complicated as they thought; it was caused by Jia Dequan and Sun Min going all out!

He couldn't think of any other possibilities.

But no matter what, Sun Min's case needs to be resolved.

Unable to find a breakthrough, they could only eliminate them one by one.

If, after eliminating all possibilities, we still can't find anything suspicious, then we can only classify it according to the third possibility.

At dusk, a large number of files were delivered.

Looking at the mountain of files, Qin Yu was dumbfounded.

Depend on!

So many?

How long will it take to see that?

"Call a few more people to watch together! Invite Lü Si too!"

If something good happens, we certainly can't forget Young Master Lü.

Soon, Lü Si was summoned.

Looking at the mountain of files, Lü Si wanted to run away on the spot, but Qin Yu grabbed him and said, "Isn't your father the Minister of Justice? Now is the time for you, the son of the Minister of Justice, to show your power!"

"I……"

Lu Si glanced at the files with a wry smile, "How long will it take to finish this?"

"Nonsense! If there weren't so many files, would I need you to look through them with me?" Qin Yu rolled his eyes. "Stop talking nonsense and hurry up!"

After speaking, Qin Yu called over several quick-witted people, including Ruan Zhi, Di Rong, and Qin Xiong, to look through the files with them.

Helpless, Lü Si could only sit down dejectedly.

To improve work efficiency, Qin Yu ordered people to deliver food directly to his room.

Eat while you watch!

Once everyone had arrived, Qin Yu instructed, "Let's first divide these files. Separate each file, and each person will be responsible for one prefecture. We'll take our time reviewing them!"

Upon hearing Qin Yu's words, everyone immediately began sorting through the files.

After working for about 15 minutes, they finally sorted the files.

"I want this whole bunch!"

Before Qin Yu could even begin distributing the files, Lü Si cleverly set his sights on the smallest pile of files.

"You bastard, you really know how to pick things!"

Qin Yu chuckled and scolded, then asked with great curiosity, "Which prefecture's files are these? Is the prefecture so safe?"

The case files from other counties are huge.

The number of files in this county is pitifully small; a quick glance would reveal less than ten files.

Lu Si casually picked up a file, glanced at it briefly, and immediately gave the answer: "Xiaping County!"

"I see!"

Qin Yu smiled. "Sun Min seems to have served as the Prefect and Governor of Xiaping County, right?"

Ruan Zhi nodded slightly and smiled, "He's trying to showcase his achievements in governing Xiaping County!"

Other counties have a ton of cases.

In Xiaping County, which he governed, there weren't many major or serious cases.

The meaning couldn't be clearer.

"This whole pile is for Sparrow!"

Qin Yu pointed to the files from Xiaping County, "That whole pile, give it to Lü Si!"

As he spoke, Qin Yu pointed to the second largest pile of files.

"Can't you be a little less blatant about your favoritism?"

Lü Si was furious.

His behavior is just like that bastard Sun Min!

"How about we switch?"

Qin Yu pointed to the largest pile of files.

"..."

Lu Si immediately lost his temper and just looked at Qin Yu with a resentful expression.

Seeing Lü Si's resentful look, Ruan Zhi immediately smiled sweetly, "You are the son of the Minister of Justice. If you don't show your prowess now, when will you?"

"You're still someone close to His Majesty?"

Lu Si retorted indignantly, "If you're so capable, why didn't you look at all of these for me?"

"I'm not in charge of prisons!"

Ruan Zhi answered confidently.

"No wonder I'm in charge of criminal justice?" Lu Si snorted unhappily.

Ruan Zhixiu raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you still serving as an imperial censor?"

"I……"

Lu Si was speechless for a moment.

"Alright, you two can find a room later and argue yourselves. Let's get down to business!"

Qin Yuchong and the other person smiled like doting aunts.

Sometimes he really thinks the two of them are a good match!

Urged by Qin Yu, Lü Si walked up to the second largest pile of files against his will.

Qin Yu quickly distributed the remaining files, and then everyone began to examine the files in front of them.

Qin Yu assigned himself the files from Jiangning Prefecture, which was also the largest pile of files he had.

The cases in these files are all very strange.

Many of these are serious murder cases.

Such things as revenge killings and dismemberment, women conspiring with their lovers to murder their own husbands, killing entire families, and so on.

Other cases involved robbery, womanizing, corruption, and collusion between officials and businessmen.

Looking at these files, Qin Yu learned a lot.

But looking at them one by one, none of these cases seemed to have any major suspicious points that could have led to Sun Min's entire family being murdered.

"what?"

Qin Yu was flipping through the pages with a headache when he suddenly heard Nan Que'er's voice...