The queen of the last days became a maid and just wanted to lie down

Wu Ping snorted coldly, "Brother Bai, were you hysterical last night? My granary was empty last night. The granary was only delivered this morning. You just entered the warehouse and you came here. Did you make a mistake?"

Bai Lingzhi realized that he might have fallen into a trap and turned to leave. However, Wu Ping was not going to let it go and immediately dragged him to the emperor to argue.

Bai Lingzhi could not escape. After hearing the report from the Dali Temple, the emperor immediately became angry and said that Bai Lingzhi had been doing his job less and less effectively over the years, and that he always had excuses to delay when asked for money. "This shows that you don't take me seriously!"

After the emperor took the elixir, his eyesight became a little dazed and he looked at people in a daze.

He ordered his men to arrest Bai Lingzhi and interrogate him strictly to find out whether Bai Lingzhi had been disloyal.

The Wu family took the opportunity to advise the emperor that Bai Lingzhi had relied on his majesty's favor to act arbitrarily and embezzle many people's businesses over the years.

Your Majesty needs money, but he keeps making excuses. I don't know where the money went. I hope Your Majesty will conduct a thorough investigation.

The emperor also thought so. He was very short of money. In this palace of alchemy and cultivation, what didn't cost money?

But the past two years have been quite uneasy, with disasters here and wars there, and everyone has been asking him for money.

He was very short of money. Bai Lingzhi was like an old hen that was about to be squeezed dry and could no longer lay eggs. Since he could no longer lay eggs, he would just kill him and eat his meat. He had to squeeze out every last bit of his value.

So the emperor gave an order, accusing Bai Lingzhi of embezzling military rations and putting him in prison.

The Bai family fell into decline overnight. Merchants in the capital city heard the news and were watching to see if something bad happened to the Bai family and how they could profit from it and seize their business.

The first to take action was the Wu family. The Wu family had long coveted the silk business, porcelain business, and tea business in the hands of the Bai family, and they basically did not miss any of these profitable businesses.

Soon, all of the Bai family's assets in the capital fell into the hands of the Wu family.

But what the Wu family didn't know was that the most valuable thing in Bai Lingzhi's hands was his fleet.

Those merchant ships that can go to Southeast Asia, as far as Dingnan, or even as far north as Beichen, generate millions of profits for the Bai family every year.

The Wu family had never known these things.

Pei Shuo acted quickly. As soon as something happened to the Bai family, he immediately attacked the fleet. By the time the Wu family had swallowed up the business in the capital and reacted to take over the Bai family's other businesses, the fleet had already fallen into Pei Shuo's hands.

They didn't even know that the Bai family had such a fleet.

When the news of Bai Lingzhi's arrest came back, Bai Lingzhi's mother fainted on the spot out of anger and died at night.

The Bai family's property was ransacked, and all the women and men in the family were thrown into jail.

Because of Bai Ling's special identity, he was held in solitary confinement and no one else knew where he was.

Many prisoners were crammed into the prison overnight. The prison was packed with prisoners and the cries of the prisoners were deafening.

Bai Lingzhi had been locked up in jail for several days. He had no idea what had happened outside, so he insisted on asking to see the emperor. He had something important to tell His Majesty.

But the emperor took drugs and was drunk all day long, and he had no intention of seeing him at all.

However, one night, the emperor suddenly woke up from a nightmare and ordered Bai Lingzhi to be executed immediately. As for the other members of the Bai family, those who could be redeemed would be redeemed, and those who could not pay would be exiled and sold.

Bai Lingzhi found it hard to believe when he heard the news.

I have worked so hard for the emperor, but in the end, his life and death were decided so easily.

Bai Lingzhi refused to accept the decision and insisted on meeting the emperor.

The jailer in the yamen ignored him completely, let him roar, and advised him to have his last meal early, as he would be on the execution ground the next day anyway.

Bai Lingzhi sat dejectedly in the prison, unable to understand how all this happened and how the sky fell overnight.

At night, a man came to the prison.

He entered Bai Lingzhi's cell carrying a food box and wearing a black robe.

Bai Lingzhi raised his eyelids and saw the man take off his hat, revealing a face he had not seen for a long time.

He widened his eyes and asked in disbelief: "A Shuo, you are still alive?"

Pei Shuo put the lunch box on the table, walked slowly to him, and looked down at him: "I haven't seen you for five years, you look much older, cousin."

Bai Lingzhi suddenly thought of something and stared at him, "You did all this? You framed me, it was all you did, right?"

Pei Shuo looked at him and smiled: "You must have been very confused when you came in. You had clearly served the emperor so much and devoted yourself to him, but he gave up on you just like that. You didn't even understand how you got to this point overnight, right?"

Bai Lingzhi looked at him dejectedly. Pei Shuo continued, "I was like this back then. I had just saved the late emperor and made great contributions, which could guarantee my family ten years of glory. But overnight, everything turned upside down. The royal guards rushed into my house, forced my mother to death, and confiscated our property and exiled our family. Cousin, when you betrayed us, did you ever think that this day would come? Do you regret it?"

Bai Lingzhi was silent for a long time, then smiled bitterly: "I regret it, of course I regret it. After my aunt died, I regretted it every day, but if I had to do it all over again, I would still make the same choice."

Bai Lingzhi looked at him and smiled, his smile was somewhat sad, even mocking: "If you were in my situation at that time, you would have no choice but to do so. I was surrounded by enemies at that time. If I didn't do so, I would have nothing. If it were you, would you be willing to do that?"

"Why don't you come to us? We'll help you."

"How do you know I didn't look for them!" Bai Lingzhi roared, "I was cornered. My father and my brothers wanted to eat me alive. I was the legitimate son of the Bai family, but my father favored his concubine and ignored his wife. He allowed those illegitimate sons to bully me. He didn't distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate sons in the family, and even trampled on my mother's dignity. Do you know how we lived in the Bai family all those years?

My mother is ridiculous. She clearly married down to a lower class, but she still managed to support the Bai family's business. Without the dowry my mother brought, how could the Bai family have had the foundation they had later on.

But when he became rich, he had three wives and four concubines, and gave birth to one bastard after another. Where did he put me, my mother?

I also begged your family before, and I begged my aunt, but she told me to leave the Bai family. Obviously, you can help us if you choose the third prince, but for the sake of the Pei family, she doesn't care about our life or death.

Leaving the Bai family, she said it was easy, such a huge family business, why should I let it go? That was my mother's dowry, accumulated bit by bit, why should I give it to those bastards, I won't resign myself to it. I won't resign myself to it! "

He roared at Pei Shuo, who watched his madness quietly.

"So, you choose to let us die?"

Bai Lingzhi shook his head. "That's not the case. The Third Prince told me at the time that as long as I cooperated with him, as long as I convinced the Pei family, as long as I convinced your father, we would all have a way out. It was your father who was too stubborn and didn't want to choose the Third Prince. I had no choice. My father and his people had pushed me to a dead end, and my mother was unhappy.

She was obviously the legal wife, but she was bullied by those concubines and bastards, and she cried all day long. My mother only has me, I can't let my mother be bullied by others, I want to take back everything that belongs to me, everything in the Bai family belongs to me and my mother.

I have no other choice but to make some choices. I just want to live a good life with my mother, is that wrong?

Isn't this how the world is? If I don't kill others, others will come to kill me. You don't know what's good for you. The Third Prince is very powerful, but you refuse to take sides. You are courting death."

Facing his roar, Pei Shuo was very calm: "Then why are you here now?"