C132

Empress Dowager Wei's expression faltered as she asked in disbelief, "What did you say? Ten chests of gold and silver?"

"Yes." Wei Wenbin braced himself and agreed, "Everything was going well at first, but before we entered the golden tomb, we were swept up by a group of blind robbers and disappeared without a trace."

Empress Dowager Wei's eyes drooped. "If it wasn't for the robbers plundering you, are you still planning to keep this matter a secret from This Dowager?"

"Nephew …" Wei Wenbin held the fine cracks in the brick and broke out in a cold sweat. "How could my nephew dare to hide this from my aunt? The reason why I didn't mention it earlier was to give my aunt a surprise."

"I felt it, but I didn't feel any joy at all," Empress Dowager Wei said with a cold laugh. At this point, her voice turned cold, "Wen Bin, how dare you lie to me!"

When Wei Wenbin, who was already in great fear, heard this, he immediately became scared out of his wits and repeatedly kowtowed, "Nephew knows his wrongs and asks for forgiveness, Aunt!"

"Before we left for Jiangning, This Dowager told you something. The Wei family doesn't lack money, they only lack the prestige and prestige of an official. You can stay in Jiangning and be an official in Jiangning and receive praises from others." Empress Dowager Wei said coldly, "Before we left for Jiangning, This Dowager said something to you. For more than ten years, the Wei clan had expanded too quickly, and appeared to be stable on the surface, but there were actually a lot of problems among them. It was just that with her as the empress dowager, they did not see it clearly for a while, but it would be difficult to say in the future, so all these years, she had been focused on nurturing the clan's younger generation with potential. Wei Wenbin was one of the people she had high hopes for.

Wei Wenbin said with a bitter face, "Nephew also didn't want to do that. It's just that the situation back then... Nephew was really helpless. " Seeing that Empress Dowager Wei's expression was uneasy, he hastened to add, "It's all your fault that your nephew's mind wasn't firm and that she made a mistake. Your nephew won't dare do it again, please forgive me, aunt."

After all, she was her nephew. Empress Dowager Wei couldn't bear to reprimand him too harshly, so she eased her tone a little. "So what if those possessions are gone? Just pretend like nothing happened. The Wei family doesn't lack these. Don't do such things in the future."

"Nephew doesn't dare." With that, he revealed a look of hesitation. Empress Dowager Wei frowned and asked, "What? Is there something else?"

Wei Wenbin swallowed his saliva and carefully said, "The escort said that those robbers seemed to know that it was your nephew's money. Your nephew is worried that they would use it as an example!"

"What?" This time, even Empress Dowager Wei's expression couldn't help but change. "How did they know?" She pondered for a moment: "Did the escort said so?"

"Nephew doesn't know, but the escort had already received orders from nephew according to their own rules. Even if they had a knife placed on their neck, they would never have said it." With that, Wei Wenbin walked forward and grabbed the empress dowager's sleeve, crying, "Once this matter gets out, your nephew will be in big trouble. Aunt, you have to help your nephew this time."

"Help?" Empress Dowager Wei shook off his hand and said angrily, "Before, you were carrying This Dowager in your back. Now that something has happened, you want This Dowager to help you take care of things. Wen Bin, your idea is really quite good."

Wei Wenbin trembled as he said, "Nephew knows he has committed a grave mistake and doesn't dare to ask for your forgiveness. If it wasn't for the fact that I had no other choice, nephew wouldn't dare to come and trouble aunt.

When she heard him mention her elderly elder brother, Empress Dowager Wei's heart skipped a beat. She supported Yin Qiu by the hand to sit down in the chair and said coldly, "Tell me the details of the matter to This Dowager."

"Yes." Since she wanted to interfere in this matter, Wei Wenbin quickly explained in detail what he knew.

After the escort received Wei Wenbin's dart, they went all the way from Jiangning to Jinling. In order to avoid drawing attention and raiding bandits, they walked along remote alleys, and even though it was a bit slow, they were still safe and sound. In the past two days, some of them had been ill and had not been able to sleep in the open, so they had stayed at the inn for two nights, with Jinling on watch, and had asked the doctor to come and see them. Everything had been normal until yesterday, when a group of masked bandits had suddenly appeared and injured a group of bodyguards, taking away the silver darts.

After listening to Wei Wenbin's narration, Yin Qiu frowned and said, "In other words, from the beginning, they were here for Lord Wei."

Wei Wenbin said bitterly, "If I want to catch this group of people, I'll have to skin them alive."

Empress Dowager Wei swept a glance at him and indifferently said, "I'm afraid they're the ones peeling your skin right now."

Upon hearing this, Wei Wenbin immediately became withered as he timidly said, "Aunt, what should we do now? If this matter were to be exposed, not only would nephew be unable to take over the position of the head of the Board of Justice, but also might not be able to hold onto that position. "

"At least you know your own limitations." Although the Wei clan controlled more than half of Northern Zhou, they still had to follow the laws of the Zhou on the surface. It wasn't easy to overdo it; once Wei Wenbin's acceptance of the bribes was exposed, he would be completely destroyed and would no longer be an official.

After thinking for a moment, Empress Dowager Wei asked, "Has anyone been sent to the inn to investigate?"

Wei Wenbin quickly said, "Yesterday afternoon, my nephew received the news and immediately led people to search the entire inn. Unfortunately, those robbers' hands and feet were abnormally clean and nothing was found. I only picked up a crappy sign."

Empress Dowager Wei's eyes shifted. "What kind of brand is it, did you bring it with you?"

"Here." Wei Wenbin took out a brown wooden token from his sleeve and handed it over. He dejectedly said, "Nephew has seen it long ago. Other than a picture that looks like a talisman drawn on a ghost, there's nothing else."

Just as Wei Wenbin had said, there was nothing on the wooden tablet other than a pattern shaped like a flame. However, the expressions of Empress Dowager Wei and Yin Qiu changed drastically. Yin Qiu asked in surprise, "Empress Dowager, isn't that the symbol of the Sect of Fire?"

Seeing that she recognized the picture on the wooden board, Wei Wenbin was both surprised and happy. "What Fire Cult?"

Yin Qiuding became determined and said: "The Fire Cult is a cult that has sprung up in recent years. They use an evil method to attract their disciples, they worship the Fire God, so they named it the Fire Cult, believing that only fire could cleanse the world. Starting from last year, His Majesty ordered the Beijing Yamen to go all out to capture the Fire Cult. In the first two months, the Beijing Yamen received a secret report that when the Fire Congregation gathered at a lair in the capital, it would destroy them in one go. Unfortunately, no one knew that there is a secret passage in the mansion, causing many of the followers to escape through the secret passage.