The gold and silver items confiscated from the homes of Chai Pengfei, Xu Huirong, and Hu Bingchen amounted to approximately thirty million taels of silver. With so much money, Shuangshuang naturally couldn’t manage it alone.

Shuangshuang verified, recorded, and sealed all the confiscated gold, silver, and jewelry, making copies of the account records to prevent any mishaps on the way to delivering the message.

These account books, along with those confiscated from the carriage shop, were handed over to the Hidden Guard. Shuangshuang wrote a memorial detailing the origins of the case and specially instructed Ying Yi to send several Hidden Guards to escort the books and memorial to the Capital City.

The Emperor had specifically instructed that Shuangshuang’s memorial could bypass any official and be delivered directly to him, and the Hidden Guard had unique ways to report to the Emperor.

Therefore, once Shuangshuang’s memorial was sent to the Capital City by the Hidden Guard riding swiftly, it was brought to the Emperor’s desk in the fastest time possible.

Upon seeing Shuangshuang’s memorial, the Emperor naturally prioritized reviewing it. After reading the contents, the Emperor immediately became furious.

These aristocratic families were unbelievably bold, daring to privately buy iron mines. And Hu Bingchen, Chai Feipeng, Xu Huirong, and others, despite being officials, caused harm to the common people!

The Emperor was so angry that he even overturned the table and immediately wrote on the memorial, essentially instructing Shuangshuang to execute them all. However, after finishing the memorial, the Emperor’s anger gradually dissipated, and a sense of joy arose in his heart.

These aristocratic families were always careful not to leave any evidence, making it impossible to find any misconduct. If they were truly abiding by the law, why would he bother to eradicate them?

The reason they couldn’t be caught was due to mutual protection among officials within aristocratic families, helping each other cover up any scandals, leaving even the Emperor powerless.

Now, he had caught a major case against them, with the Zhou Family leading among many aristocratic families. Eliminating the Zhou Family would severely weaken these families.

Moreover, many families were allied with the Zhou Family, and the Emperor did not believe that these families had nothing to hide from investigation.

He could use this as an excuse to clean up those families allied with the Zhou Family, possibly even eliminating a few more aristocratic families in the process.

The Emperor’s thoughts quickly turned, and he had already formulated a series of follow-up plans to use this incident to eradicate numerous aristocratic families.

......

At Qinglin County’s county government, as soon as the memorial was sent out, Shuangshuang collapsed onto the bed, feeling so exhausted she couldn’t get up, falling into a confused state of illness.

Previously, she spent a day struggling in the deep mountains and forests and caught a cold, then stayed up all night and half the day to handle everything, worsening her condition.

After finally completing all the tasks, when she relaxed, she fell asleep deeply, and soon after, people noticed she had developed a high fever.

This time, Shuangshuang was genuinely in danger. She underestimated the situation, thinking her Spiritual Power would prevent any significant issues. But unexpectedly, she fell unconscious, unable to absorb Spiritual Energy.

Heng Yue and Ying Chang’an, with reddened eyes from exhaustion, checked her pulse constantly. The two exhausted all their efforts and managed to stabilize Shuangshuang’s condition, preventing it from deteriorating further.

Three days later, under Heng Yue and Ying Chang’an’s combined care, Shuangshuang finally regained consciousness.

Though Shuangshuang woke up, the two were already too tired to reprimand her for not taking care of her health. While Shuangshuang was staying up late, they stayed with her to treat her.

Although both were skilled in medicine and had taken preventative measures, Shuangshuang’s body was too weak and eventually succumbed.

These two continued staying up late to treat Shuangshuang, only resting for brief moments, constantly worried, not daring to take a proper rest.

Now that Shuangshuang had awakened, the two seized the opportunity to take turns resting, but Shuangshuang was only conscious; her illness had not yet healed, and they could not let down their guard.

Fortunately, after Shuangshuang regained clarity, she immediately began absorbing Spiritual Energy herself, nourishing her body, and finally escaping the danger of potentially passing away.

By the time the person sent by the Emperor to inspect the iron and gold mines, and also deliver the Holy Decree, arrived, Shuangshuang was sitting under the porch at the back of the county government, wrapped in a mantle with white fur edges, holding a large bowl of medicine.

She sniffed the scent from the bowl lightly, and with a gentle smile, whispered to Ying Chang’an, who was staring intensely at her, "From the smell in this bowl, I gather there’s at least two jin of Huanglian boiled in it."

With crossed arms, Ying Chang’an coldly snorted, "Just drink it. Huanglian extinguishes fire; you’re overwhelmed with heart fire and need to reduce it. Any objections to my medical skills?"

Shuangshuang smiled helplessly, "Doctor Ying’s medical skills are unparalleled. How could I have any objections? But drinking this bowl of medicine might mean I won’t eat anything for the next three days."

In the end, Ying Chang’an grudgingly exchanged the medicine bowl in Shuangshuang’s hand, and Shuangshuang drank the medicine heartily just as the person sent by the Emperor to deliver the Holy Decree arrived.

The Emperor was no longer the impoverished ruler he once was. With Shuangshuang’s advisement, and with the Bai Family and Chu Family’s commercial roads, the wealth already began flowing like water into the Emperor’s private vault.

The reason it wasn’t placed in the National Treasury was that there were too many aristocratic officials on the court; placing it there would inevitably lead to them scheming to spend it.

It’s more convenient to use his private vault. The silver for the soldiers’ winter clothing, which was just supplemented for General Feng’s benefit, came from this vault. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Although the Emperor’s wealth wasn’t a lot now, it was bound to increase significantly in the future, so he didn’t mind the thirty million taels of silver.

He knew that Qinglin County was too remote for Shuangshuang to achieve political merit easily, so he instructed that the silver remain there for Shuangshuang to use.

As for the gold and iron mines, the Emperor sent specialists to take over, along with a group of criminals recruited nearby, tasked with mining, freeing Shuangshuang from managing them.

The thirty million taels of silver were stored in the county government’s silver vault. Shuangshuang’s first thought was to provide for those common people who had their tongues cut and bodies almost destroyed, needing care to restore their health.

Their household registrations had been canceled by Chai Pengfei and others, turning them into undocumented individuals. They now needed re-registration, and since their land was seized, this also required reassessment and redistribution.

Regarding accommodation, these common people were temporarily housed at confiscated properties of the carriage shop and the homes of Chai Pengfei, Xu Huirong, and Hu Bingchen. Though reluctantly housed, it was not a permanent solution.

However, the weather was still cold, unsuitable for constructing houses. They had to wait a while before arranging building projects.

For construction manpower, county soldiers would have to lend a hand as the common people’s health was too compromised for a quick recovery.

While Shuangshuang was contemplating this, a bowl of medicine suddenly appeared before her. Looking up, she found Heng Yue standing discontentedly in front of her, "Can’t your mind rest for a moment? I reckon you truly want to drink three jin of Huanglian to extinguish your fire."