I woke up as the Villainous Empress

After bidding goodbye to His Majesty, Zheng Liang left the study and headed to the tea room, where Zheng Xiang was waiting for him.

"What is so important that you couldn't say it in front of His Majesty and didn't even bother to come and greet His Majesty?" Zheng Liang asked as soon as he entered the tea room, sitting opposite Zheng Xiang, who was drinking his tea.

Zheng Xiang pursed his lips and was silent for a moment before responding, "I came here to talk to you about an important matter. Last time, when you appointed me as the Financial Inspector, you asked me to keep an eye on Minister Yang."

"Your suspicion was correct. This man is such a snake. Under the mask of a hard-working and diligent minister, he was the monster devouring the Empire's treasury. Here are the documents proving his greed." Zheng Xiang threw a rolled stack of documents tied with a ribbon onto the table.

"This stack contains documents he had hidden from the officials. He was about to destroy these, under the pretense of them being unofficial and unstamped. But in reality, they are the true evidence of the money he embezzled from the treasury."

"While he smuggled the financial aid sent to various places, the gifts received by the empire from other kingdoms, and even the revenue earned through taxation, this man used his cunning ways to steal everything and only showed reduced amounts in the official records, while keeping a good enough portion for himself."

"The wealth he has shown to the court is nothing compared to what he holds. This data is just from this past year. I am sure he has amassed a huge fortune over the past few years. If this continued, he would have become the richest man in the Empire within a few years, taking control of many things in the capital.

I am surprised that he has been corrupting so much while holding such a significant position, and no one ever complained about him. What has been going on?" Zheng Xiang asked while showing Zheng Liang the results of his investigation.

He was glad that he didn't limit himself to just auditing the documents sent by Yang Luoyang. Instead, he raided his office and found a basket of torn documents that were meant to be destroyed. After connecting the pieces and spending days and nights examining the documents, he finally discovered what Yang Luoyang had been doing behind everyone's back.

Zheng Liang carefully read the documents, and his face turned colder and darker with each page. This man was stealing so much from the royal treasury right under everyone's noses without anyone suspecting it.

He clenched the documents in his hands and took a deep breath to calm his anger. Gritting his teeth, he said, "It's not that no one knows about it, it's just... Yang Luoyang never let anyone get hold of the evidence against him before. His background was too clean to be true."

"Even I failed to accumulate evidence against him and was punished by His Majesty when I tried to go against Yang Luoyang." He recalled the time when he failed to expose Yang Luoyang's involvement in the illegal operations of brothel houses disguised as inns and restaurants and the corruption involved in the famine financial aid sent by the palace.

Zheng Xiang pursed his lips and snorted, "What can you expect from His Majesty? Rather than punishing the criminals, he would rather punish his sons, his own blood, to show a good image of himself in front of the world."

Zheng Liang stayed silent because part of it was true. Though their father had improved a lot in the past year and had become more bold and supportive of their ideas, he used to be an ignorant man who would rather punish his sons to avoid conflicts with the ministers. He feared creating a situation where the ministers would turn against the royalty and raise a rebellion.

He used to be the kind of ruler who believed in his cabinet's words more than anyone else's and followed their lead to maintain harmony between the throne and the royal court. However, he forgot that just because he followed their lead, it didn't mean they would do the same. Instead, they would strive for more power and wealth.

Enjoy new tales from empire

It was only after Yang Ning came to the palace that His Majesty changed significantly. After going through life-and-death situations, his perspective shifted considerably as well.

Zheng Liang nodded and said, "Thanks for bringing these documents. I will look into this matter and find a way to handle it. Don't worry, this time I won't let Yang Luoyang get away. That bastard deserves to be punished for his cruelties."

Zheng Xiang nodded, but before leaving, he asked with curiosity, "But... if you reveal his crimes and this evidence, the whole Yang clan will be implicated. What about—"

Before he could finish, Zheng Liang interrupted him, "Yang Ning has nothing to do with him. Don't worry. She will be fine," he said with determination.

Zheng Xiang raised his brows and stared at Zheng Liang in puzzlement, not sure what he meant, but he knew that Zheng Liang would not let Yang Ning be harmed by any of this. Moreover, even though she belongs to the Yang Clan, she is now the Crown Princess of the Zheng Empire and the future Empress.

No one would dare to raise a finger against her, and if anyone did, Zheng Liang would never let that person go unpunished.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

With this, Zheng Xiang left the documents with Zheng Liang and returned to the Jade Pavilion to rest. Because he hurried to complete the investigation in such a short time, pulling off days and nights of work, he had a pounding headache and dark, heavy under-eyes.

He needed to rest!

Well, now he had a legitimate reason to call for Hou Wei and ask her to brew tonics for him and take care of him. It was the best situation for him.