The Comeback of the Charming Farmer's Wife-Chapter 2212 - 2214: Plotting to Hire a Killer

Prefectural Magistrate Song thought for a moment and said, "How did he come up with the idea of having you lower the grain prices?" Since his own rice shops were few, and besides, these matters were managed by his wife, he hadn’t inquired much about them.

"He claims it was discovered by chance." Prefect Liu thought carefully, realizing something was amiss, "Could it be that he already knows these shops are run by us? He must have investigated us."

"If that’s the case, I’m afraid that affair won’t remain secret for long." Prefectural Magistrate Song said in a gloomy tone.

"Then what should we do?" Prefect Liu instinctively asked.

He hadn’t expected that as a Prefect himself, he would always defer to a Prefectural Magistrate’s opinion.

Prefectural Magistrate Song narrowed his eyes, thinking that since the issues with Great Qi likely wouldn’t be traced back to him, he might escape death by buying his way out of it. But those shops, profiting from power, were undeniable; if they found one, they’d find the other. With Ye Zi’an’s ruthless methods, even if he wasn’t put to death, he’d be sentenced to a decade or so in prison.

Moreover, no response came from his letters to that side, and he had no idea what had happened. He couldn’t escape to Great Qi.

In this situation, unable to flee to Great Qi and not wanting to be punished by Great Zhou, the only option was to silence someone.

Thus, he made a throat-slicing gesture toward Prefect Liu.

"Ah?" Prefect Liu was startled and then asked, "Do we really have to?"

"What else can we do? Do you want to be stripped of your rank or sentenced?" Prefectural Magistrate Song rolled his eyes, "Ye Zi’an is impartial and incorruptible. You mentioned trying to bribe him before, but I’m telling you, that won’t work. Would someone like him ever lack money? The result of doing so would only be to provide him with more evidence. We might as well go all the way."

"Could it be that we’re overthinking it, and maybe he hasn’t discovered us at all?" Prefect Liu hesitated, still reluctant to commit murder.

Prefectural Magistrate Song almost coughed up blood from his indecision, "Are you stupid? First, he has you lower grain prices, and then the court unifies the grain prices. Have you ever thought about why? He must have known these shops were ours. He feared you’d raise the prices again after he left, so he reported to the court to unify grain prices."

"If he can find out about these shops, why wouldn’t he uncover other things?" Prefectural Magistrate Song added, "Do you really think he’s just here looking for children? If I’m not mistaken, he must have received a secret order from the Emperor; otherwise, why would he come straight to Zhejiang? As far as I know, Zhejiang’s tax remittances have been decreasing over the years. Such a prosperous area, yet it turns over so little silver each year. Anyone with a brain can see there’s a problem."

"See? As soon as Ye Zi’an arrived, the issue came to light." Prefectural Magistrate Song said angrily, "When he came to our Xining, he had you adjust the prices; he must have investigated. Otherwise, if he was only here for personal matters, he wouldn’t have meddled in these affairs."

Prefect Liu thought for a moment and then said, "Alright, let’s do it. I’m used to my current life; I don’t want to go back to living humbly in my hometown or being locked in a cage. I can’t accept either of those."

"Remember not to use the guards from the prefecture. Don’t we have a group of bandits who fled here from other prefectures in our Xining?" Prefectural Magistrate Song narrowed his small eyes again, "Use those people. Let them fight it out with Ye Zi’an’s men. By then, both sides will suffer, and our Xining will be calm and safe."