Chapter 26: The Control Yuan

  Most of the government ministries that handle national affairs in Kyoto are concentrated in the area east of Tennoji-dori, where there are not many ordinary citizens living. The roads are exceptionally wide, and on both sides of the road are many beautiful or magnificent wooden buildings. These buildings are the dispersed centers of power that govern the country. For example, the old Ministry of War was located at the entrance to the street, with a huge stone lion placed at the gate, basking in the morning sun every day, its shadowy appearance somewhat strange, like a prehistoric giant beast, unable to embody the military might of Qingguo.

  The true center of power for Qingguo, however, lay within the deep and profound palaces in the northern city. The palace buildings were not taller or larger than those of various government ministries, except for that lofty tower that pierced the sky. But the thick palace walls and the vast and boundless squares inside created an extremely sacred atmosphere.

  The officials of Qing Guo actually knew in their hearts that the wise and capable Emperor would not bother with specific details on the official scene, so for them, the most terrifying place in the entire Qing Guo bureaucracy was not the various government departments or the imperial palace, but a square, gray-black building on the west side of the city.

  The Control Yuan is located here. Qingguo implements the three-yuan six-ministry system, and the three yuans are the Control Yuan, the Education Yuan, and the Military Yuan upgraded from the old military department. Among these three yuans, the most powerful one is the Control Yuan, which has independent investigation power, arrest power, and even trial power in some cases by imperial order. Moreover, no other institution has the power to supervise it.

  In a sense, it is an untamed beast, and also a secret agent organization in the hands of His Majesty the Emperor. No, it should be said that the Supervisory Yuan was originally a special agent organization placed by His Majesty the Emperor in plain sight.

  The officials of the Qing government were always worried, this emperor was talented and could tame that sinister Chen Director and the countless spies and terrible forces in the dark, but what if... who would pull the reins of this fierce beast in the future? Moreover, the officials who had suffered from the Supervision Department were secretly resentful, saying that the Supervision Department was not a fierce beast, but a sinister and despicable wild dog.

  At this time, in a room without a single ray of light in the Supervisory Yuan, there was a very secretive conversation going on.

  "The assassin in the fire at Dongzhou Port was indeed a member of the Institute, under the jurisdiction of the East Mountain Road. Affairs from outside organizations have always been handled by the Fourth Department. The Ministry of Internal Affairs investigated and found that an official from the Fourth Department is a distant relative of the second madam of your household, so this task should have been arranged in this way." Fei Jie said to the director in a hoarse voice.

  "What's his identity?" This was the old man's greatest concern.

  Fei squinted his eyes, the light brown pupils filled with uncertainty: "I believe that among the eight people who know about this matter, no one will leak it. And although Wu Daren is Miss's personal attendant, he rarely took action back then, and nowadays there is no one in the world who has seen him in person. The only one who had met him, Ye Liu Yun, is now a master of his generation, and it's even more impossible for him to go sightseeing in Danzhou. There are no such coincidences in this world, so don't worry about others guessing his identity because of Wu Daren."

  The Dean's fingers were thin and bony, with prominent joints, lightly tapping on the table top, as if in thought: "In those years I asked you to kill all the black knights who saw Wu Zhu that night, you begged for mercy from me, now thinking about it, it was still not right."

  Fei Jie smiled slightly, and in his eyes, which had turned a faint brown from being steeped in poison for too long, flashed a hint of something inexplicable: "Many people died that night."

  Fei Jie didn't seem to be intimidated by the old man's high status and authority, after all, his identity and experience were there for all to see. Smiling hoarsely, he said: "Unnecessary slaughter is extremely foolish. You've forgotten, Miss once said that."

  "Ah." The old man also smiled, as if recalling many pleasant memories, but in that smile, he issued a very ominous command.

  "Dongshan Road has done nothing wrong, since the documents are signed and the procedures are correct. So Dongshan Road doesn't need to take responsibility for this matter. As for the others, they can handle it as they please." He smiled to himself, muttering: "Using my own power to kill someone I want to protect - what a coincidence! Or is someone trying to test something? That second madam seems quite extraordinary..."

  He continued: "The four places are like the Hai Monitoring Force, which is not supervised, and they sign arbitrarily. If it's not their own son, they kill him indiscriminately. What a mess! Suspend his salary as the head of the department for three years, and then send his eldest son, that is, Yan Bingyun, to the north. Only when he gets two high-quality goods can he come back."

  After finishing this sentence, the dean picked up the document already prepared by the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the desktop, wrote down the final conclusion, and signed his own name - Chen Pingping.

  Every time Fei saw the principal's shriveled signature, he wanted to laugh but had to hold back. He knew that this feminine signature would make several high-ranking officials die, and would make a higher-ranking official's son miserable sneak into enemy country, and only allow him to return home with extremely valuable intelligence, which was even more terrifying than death.

  The old man smiled self-deprecatingly: "I grew up with Fan Jian since childhood, and I didn't expect to be so worried about his family's affairs now. Let someone capable investigate the relationship between that second wife and him."

  Fan Jian is the courtesy name of the Earl of Nanbu, who is precisely Fan Xian's father.

  Fei furrowed his brow, his light brown eyes trembling slightly: "Impossible, they should have thought that the baby had died long ago."

  "You misunderstood what I meant, and I also believe they can't possibly know that Fan Xian is Miss's son."

  The director smiled: "Your Majesty has always required the nobles, officials and us to keep a distance. When you were sent to Tan Prefecture that year, although it was very hidden, there is still a possibility of being discovered by the other party after all. It seems that whether it's the Empress Dowager or the Prime Minister, they are curious about the relationship between our hospital and the Viscount of South County. Those hidden forces borrowed the hands of the second lady to test our reaction to this matter with Mr. Fan, which is also a matter of course. So we don't want to overreact, do you understand?"

  Fei suddenly had doubts about the assassination of Danzhou, perhaps it was because Dean had intentionally leaked some rumors.

  ……

  ……

  The old man pushed the wheelchair to the window, lifted a corner of the black cloth and looked out the window, saying faintly: "Also, about the box, no matter whether Wu Zhu told the truth or not, as long as it doesn't fall into the hands of the enemy in the north, that's all that matters."

  "Unfortunately, we don't know what that box looked like or how big it was." Fei came to his side and gazed out the window along with the old man.

  "After I go to hell, you come and keep me company playing cards." said Director Chen with a smile.

  Fei Jie knew that the Dean's age was far from being as old as his appearance, and smiled: "I'm a good person, I'll go to heaven in the future."

  A black shadow floated over from the corner of the room like the wind, pulling down a black cloth to block the overly strong sunlight from shining on the old man's body. This person's movements made not a single sound, precisely the master who had beheaded the staff-wielding Taoist with one sword stroke many years ago outside the capital.

  Fei pointed at the black wind shadow and said: "I reckon he'll come to play chess with you."

  ……

  ……

  Outside the window is a sunny day, and in the distance, the glazed tiles on several large halls of the imperial palace are shining with golden light.

  People passing by the gate of the Procuratorate on the road in front of the window would subconsciously detour to the other side of the street, as if afraid of being contaminated by the dark atmosphere here.

  At the entrance of the Control Yuan, there is a stone monument with several sentences written on it. The golden characters read: "I hope that all people in Qingguo can become unbridled citizens. When subjected to cruelty from others, they have an unyielding heart; when invaded by disasters and evils, they have an unbroken heart; if there are unjust things, they have a fearless heart to correct them; do not fawn on jackals and tigers..."

  The signature consists of three characters: Ye Qingmei.

  No one knows who Ye Qingmei is, but all the residents of Kyoto know that when the Inspectorate was established, this stone plaque stood here, forever shining with golden light, a piece of brightness, and echoing with the golden eaves of the distant imperial palace... as if hiding all the darkness within those two buildings.

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