Chapter 1226 Cui Shao’s suspicion!
Yijing, Cui Mansion

At 1:05 a.m. in the morning, Cui Shao slowly got up from the bed and began to wash and dress with the help of his maid. Although he had a night's rest, the Minister of Revenue of the Great Zhou Dynasty still looked a little tired...

After washing his face and getting dressed, Cui Shao prepared to eat breakfast. Although he had not fully recovered yet, aware of the current situation in the court, Cui Shao had decided that today would be the last day of his sick leave. Starting tomorrow, he would go to the Ministry of Revenue to officially resume work and perform his duties as the Minister of Revenue!
Although he was the Minister of Revenue of the Great Zhou Dynasty, Cui Shao's breakfast was not luxurious. It was just a bowl of millet porridge, two steamed buns, and a few side dishes. When Cui Shao finished his breakfast, the butler Cui Fu handed Cui Shao a freshly baked Yijing Morning Post.

As the Minister of Finance of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and the former Chief of the Central Court of the Fengwu Army, Cui Shao was always very busy, dealing with memorials sent from below and various matters assigned by Ye Mingsheng every day, so he originally had no time or energy to pay attention to the newspaper matters!
However, with the support and promotion of Ye Mingsheng, the newspaper industry in Da Zhou has also developed rapidly. Especially in Yijing, the political and economic center of Da Zhou, reading newspapers every day has become a new trend!
The experienced Cui Shao quickly realized the important guiding role of newspapers in the direction of public opinion, and from then on he also attached importance to the role of newspapers.

Cui Shao also asked his butler Cui Fu to subscribe to Yijing Morning Post and Yijing Daily, the two newspapers with the largest circulation in Yijing area, on a monthly basis. After dinner every day, he would insist on reading the newspaper to understand what had happened in Yijing in the past period of time...

The more Cui Shao understood newspapers, the more he realized the significance and role of newspapers. For this reason, he planned to wait until Ye Mingsheng returned from his southern tour and then suggest to Ye Mingsheng to strengthen supervision of the newspaper industry!

Cui Shao looked at Cui Shao who was concentrating on reading the newspaper and bowed and said:
"Master, there is news from the Ye Mansion. At the hour of Yin, Madam Murong of the Ye Mansion gave birth to a son for the Marshal!"

Because the matter was expected, Cui Shao's expression did not change at all when he heard this. He continued to read the newspaper while speaking calmly:
"This is a good thing! Send a gift according to the rules!"

"Yes! Master!"

Cui Fu nodded but still looked hesitant. Although he wanted to tell Cui Shao something, he had not made up his mind yet.

Just when Cui Fu was hesitating, Cui Shao's calm voice came to his ears.

'How is Zibo doing?'

Hearing his master asking this, Cui Fu had no more hesitation and said in a deep voice:

"Doctor Wang, Doctor Liu, and Doctor Sun have all said that we have used all the tricks we can, but the young master's condition still hasn't improved. Now we can only rely on God's will!"

Hearing that the doctor had left it to fate, although Cui Shao had been mentally prepared, a trace of sadness still emerged between his brows. The saddest thing for a person in old age is to see his loved ones die, and Cui Shao had just sent off his own daughter-in-law some time ago...

Seeing Cui Shao's sad expression, the housekeeper of the Cui Mansion, who had been with Cui Shao for most of his life, immediately comforted him:

"Master, don't worry too much. Young Master is blessed by God. Moreover, you have done a lot for the people of the world. God has seen it all. He will definitely bless Young Master and our Cui family!"

Cui Shao did not speak after hearing this. After a moment of silence, he said in a deep voice:
"Zi Bo still doesn't want to see me?"

Facing Cui Shao's question, Cui Fu hesitated for a moment but still said truthfully:

"Master Zibo has calmed down a bit now, but he still doesn't want to see you, Master!"

Hearing Cui Fu's answer, Cui Shao sighed slightly, and he seemed to have aged a few years in an instant.

Seeing this, Cui Fu continued to comfort him:
"Master, I think Master Zibo doesn't want to see you not because he hates you, but because he doesn't want you to see him like this!"

Cui Shao smiled bitterly when he heard this and said quietly:

"Cui Fu, do you think I was really wrong?"

Cui Fu immediately shook his head and said firmly:
"Master, everyone knows that you are doing this for Master Zibo's own good, but Master Zibo may have been a little disappointed at the moment, and coupled with some bad luck, things eventually turned out like this!"

"None of this is your fault, sir, please don't blame yourself!" Cui Shao was silent for a while after hearing this, and then said to Cui Fu:

"Zi Bo was raised by you, Cui Fu. Please take good care of him for me now!"

“Master, please rest assured and leave this matter to me. I will take good care of Master Zibo…”

After finishing his breakfast and calming down, Cui Shao came to his study.

Although he would not start work until tomorrow, Cui Shao decided to get into work mode today. He read some memorials to learn about the major and minor events that had happened in the Yijing court during his absence. The first of these was the transfer order sent from Huainan!
The specific content of this transfer order is to suspend Cui Zibo, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice, and to temporarily replace Zhang Mang, the former doctor of the Ministry of Justice.
Cui Hang, formerly a Langzhong in the Ministry of Personnel's Jixun Division, was transferred to the Ministry of Literature Selection Division as a Langzhong. Wei Qing, the governor of Huainan, was dismissed from his post, and the Ministry of Personnel was ordered to draw up a list of alternate candidates.

This transfer order was sent to the Ministry of Personnel three days ago. On the day the order arrived, the Minister of Personnel Gu Sansi quickly executed Ye Mingsheng's order and asked the former Langzhong Wang Xiu De and Cui Hang of the Ministry of Selection to make the handover, and asked Zhang Mang to temporarily take over the position of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice!
This order from Ye Mingsheng also caused quite an impact in the Yijing court. Compared with Wei Qing and Cui Zibo's two expected things, Ye Mingsheng's transfer of Cui Hang to the Wenxuan Division as a doctor was more eye-catching and intriguing!
As the actual controller of the Yijing court, although Ye Mingsheng holds the personnel power very tightly, the Langzhong of the Ministry of Personnel is a fifth-rank official and can be said to be insignificant in the entire Yijing court. In simple terms, he is just a person who does the work.

Therefore, Ye Mingsheng was basically not very concerned about the transfer of officials of this level in the past. Therefore, when Ye Mingsheng specially sent a transfer order from the south at this critical juncture to transfer Cui Hang to the Ministry of Personnel's Wenxuan Division as a doctor, this move also attracted the attention of many people...

As the "crown prince" of the Cui faction, Cui Zibo's every move is watched closely. So when he was infected with syphilis this time, many people were waiting to see Cui Shao and the Cui faction make a fool of themselves. Some people even thought that the Marshal would use this as an excuse to attack Cui Shao, and the Cui faction would go from prosperity to decline!
With this point of view, some people in the Cui faction were feeling insecure, and some people in the court were ready to divide up the power vacuum left after the withdrawal of the Cui faction. Ye Mingsheng's transfer order targeting Cui Hang came at a very timely moment. Although the transfer order had little practical significance, it sent an important signal, that is, even if Cui Zibo was abolished, Ye Mingsheng still trusted Cui Shao and the Cui faction behind him!

After Ye Mingsheng showed his attitude, those people with evil intentions immediately stopped their actions and disappeared, as if they had never appeared!
Ye Mingsheng's attitude also made Cui Shao convinced that Cui Zibo's infection with syphilis had nothing to do with Ye Mingsheng!
After learning that Cui Zibo was infected with drugs, Cui Shao was shocked and angry, but he also wanted to know what was going on. After all, in his opinion, Cui Zibo had only been in the brothel for a few days, and the brothel had licensed employees and physical examinations. So it was strange that he got infected in just a few days!
So although Cui Shao never said it, in his heart he also suspected that there was a conspiracy behind this. Some people with ulterior motives wanted to attack himself and the entire Cui family by attacking his son...
With a skeptical heart, Cui Shao also asked some people from the Cui family to investigate the matter privately. The people Cui Shao sent out were quite capable and quickly got to the bottom of the matter!
These people reported to Cui Shao that the brothel Cui Zi Bo went to was called Manchunyuan, which was a relatively high-end entertainment venue in Yijing. It would cost at least five taels of silver to just drink some tea and listen to some music.

There are a total of 31 registered practitioners in Manchun Garden. These 31 people undergo an inspection every month. According to the inspection report from Yijing Yamen, all of these 31 people passed the inspection and none of them were infected with syphilis!

Cui Zibo stayed in Manchun Garden for a total of three days. On the first day, he ordered a mainstay of Manchun Garden and spent 150 taels of silver. On the second day, Cui Zibo changed to another mainstay and spent 200 taels of silver. On the third day, Cui Zibo did not order anyone, but only ate some food and drank some tea in Manchun Garden, spending 30 taels of silver!

If things ended here, at most Cui Zibo would have spent three hundred and eighty taels of silver and spent three nights in debauchery!
Although he spent 380 taels of silver in three days in a brothel as a vice minister of the Ministry of Justice, it would be against morals and rather extravagant if it got out.

But he was not the only gay who went to the brothels to seek pleasure. Besides, the Cui family was wealthy and powerful, and 380 taels of silver was just a drop in the bucket, so overall it was not a big deal.

But the problem is, although Cui Zibo only ordered two pillars of Manchunyuan, he did not sleep with only these two people······················
According to the investigation, on Cui Zi Bo's first day at Man Chun Yuan, he was dissatisfied with Man Chun Yuan's requirement to use fish soaking bath as a safety measure because he felt that the fish soaking bath was too fishy. In addition, he also felt that although the pillars of Man Chun Yuan were beautiful, they were not open-minded enough and were not S enough, so he also made a small disturbance in Man Chun Yuan.

On the next day, Cui Zibo met Pan Haide, who was also a guest in Manchun Garden. Pan Haide was a wealthy businessman in Yijing City. He had met Cui Zibo at a banquet before and knew that Cui Zibo was the eldest son of Cui Shao, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice and the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue!

So in order to cling to the Cui family, he also deliberately tried to please Cui Zibo. After learning that Cui Zibo didn't like to use fish bubbles and felt that the main actress in Manchun Garden was not sexy enough, he actually brought one of his mistresses to Manchun Garden for Cui Zibo to enjoy!
Therefore, on the third day in Manchun Garden, Cui Zibo fooled around with Pan Haide's mistress. It was said that this mistress was very good at martial arts, and the process of their fighting made Cui Zibo very excited. In order to achieve the final victory, he even took the tiger and wolf medicine provided by Pan Haide.

On the fourth day, when Cui Zibo was about to fight him again for three hundred rounds, he was captured by the people sent by Cui Shao.

So after finding out who Cui Zibo had contact with, the investigators continued their investigation and found out that the two pillars that Cui Zibo had contact with in Manchun Garden two days ago are still in good health and have no problems··························

Therefore, according to the process of elimination, the people investigated by Cui Shao narrowed the suspicion to Pan Haide and his mistress. In the process of investigation, it was also determined that Pan Haide was infected with syphilis, and as for Pan Haide's mistress, she was killed by Pan Haide!

It turned out that after arriving at Manchun Garden, Pan Haide discovered that he had contracted syphilis, and that the disease was transmitted to him by his mistress Wang. It turned out that although Pan Haide was old at heart, he was old and frail, and even if he took strong medicine, the effect was minimal and unsatisfactory!
So his mistress Wang cheated on him and hooked up with a young gangster, making Pan Haide a cuckold, and was also infected with syphilis by this young gangster!

After learning what had happened, Pan Haide accidentally killed Wang and the gangster in a fit of rage. Just as he was about to leave Yijing for fear that the matter would be exposed, he was captured by Cui's men!

Cui Shao found this investigation result very bizarre, so he ordered his men to torture Pan Haide. However, even under torture, Pan Haide kept saying the same thing, which made Cui Shao doubt the truth!
Cui Shao once suspected Ye Mingsheng, and thought that this might be an action taken by the Coordination Office at the instruction of Ye Mingsheng!

But reason told Cui Shao that as the world was unified, Ye Mingsheng became more and more careful about his reputation, and he began to disdain to resort to such dirty and filthy means!
What's more, if Ye Mingsheng really wanted to take me down and attack Cui's people, he could just give an order and I would have no way to resist!
So based on these, Cui Shao quickly dispelled his doubts about Ye Mingsheng and began to suspect the possibilities of other people!
He had suspected the Murong family, Gu Sansi, Li Jian, and even An Miaoyi and Zhu Xiaowen!
But after thinking about it carefully, Cui Shao felt that these people were not likely. Could it be that Cui Zibo’s infection with syphilis was really just an accident?

(End of this chapter)