After the morning court session ended.

Yun Chu summoned a group of trusted confidants to discuss matters at Kunning Palace.

Chu Hongyu obediently attended his lessons at the Imperial Study. The class ended after half a shichen.

Ouyang Ye’s teaching style had always been like this—he only taught for half a shichen, leaving more time for students to think and comprehend on their own.

“All of you, come here.” Chu Hongyu crooked his finger. “How about sneaking out of the palace?”

Upon hearing this, the group of half-grown children all became excited.

Last time they had followed the little emperor sneaking out of the palace every day to play at the Minister of Works’ house. They had thought they would be punished when the adults found out, but incredibly, each of them had been praised instead, because the things they had researched with the emperor were actually used on the Eastern Mausoleum battlefield and played a significant role.

They still wanted to accomplish another great undertaking.

“Your Majesty, where are we sneaking to?”

“What are we going to do this time? Tell us quickly, Your Majesty!”

“I’ll go tell my father first, have the Imperial Guards not stop us from leaving the palace.”

The group of children gathered together, whispering non-stop.

Before long, nine little eunuchs appeared in the palace, pushing carts loaded with vegetables, and left through the palace’s side gate.

Once outside, several people climbed onto a prepared carriage and changed into coarse cloth garments. If not for their faces being too pale, they would look like ordinary commoners.

Chu Hongyu rubbed his hands on the ground and smeared his face with dirt.

The other eight student attendants immediately followed his example.

The group walked to the city gates, only to discover they were tightly shut.

Lin Dongdong patted his chest. “I know the person guarding the city—he’s also from our Lin family. I’ll have him…”

Chu Hongyu shook his head. “We’re traveling in secret. The fewer people who know, the better. Follow me. I know a place where we can leave the city.”

The nine people walked to the west side of the city. This area was generally inhabited by relatively poor commoners and appeared somewhat chaotic. Many commoners gathered at street corners discussing matters.

“When exactly will the city gates open?”

“We commoners just want to drink some sweet dew. Why is the court doing this?”

“If only the Heavenly Maiden could fly—she could fly into the city and bestow sweet dew upon us.”

“…”

Lin Dongdong asked Chu Hongyu in a low voice: “Does Your Majesty also want to drink sweet dew?”

Chu Hongyu shook his head.

He knew what the sweet dew really was. He had specifically left the palace to test the effectiveness of the antidote, to ensure absolute certainty.

He led the group to the city wall. Lush vegetation grew here. He pushed aside the wild grass and kept walking inward, then saw a low dog hole.

“Heavens, there’s actually a small opening here!”

“How did Your Majesty know there was an exit here?”

Chu Hongyu coughed. “I discovered it by chance.”

In truth, when his father was still a prince, he sometimes wanted to sneak out of the capital to play, so he secretly dug this dog hole and then used a few bricks to block it from inside. It wouldn’t be discovered at all, and even if someone found it, the hole was so small that adults couldn’t crawl through.

He spoke: “Lin Dongdong, move the bricks aside.”

Lin Dongdong immediately squatted down, stuck his bottom up, and pulled the bricks out one by one from inside.

Then he crawled through first, and the other several people immediately followed.

The last student attendant bringing up the rear, also with his bottom stuck up, put the bricks back in place. The weeds concealed them, showing no signs of disturbance.

After emerging, they were in the outskirts on the west side of the capital. Trees were everywhere. The children couldn’t distinguish directions, but Chu Hongyu had been here before and led the group of student attendants with practiced ease toward the direction of the capital’s main gate.

The children’s pace was too slow. Fortunately, Chen San knew his family had an estate here, so he went to borrow a carriage. It took them a little over half a shichen to reach Prince Cheng’s encampment.

A large expanse of tents, densely packed with people everywhere. The adults stood numbly, not knowing what they were doing. Children in groups of three or five played with mud together.

Chu Hongyu rested his chin on his hand and spoke: “You few, find a way to trick that group of children over here.”

Lin Dongdong’s eyes widened. “What does Your Majesty want to do?”

“I brought so many pastries—of course I’m going to share them with them.” Chu Hongyu smiled. “These are all my subjects. I must treat them well.”

Among the eight student attendants, two slightly older children had been carrying bundles. The bundles were filled with all kinds of pastries.

These had all been made overnight by the Imperial Kitchen at Chu Hongyu’s request last night. While the imperial chefs were busy, he had secretly sprinkled medicinal powder into the flour. Now was the time for verification.

Before long, the student attendants brought over more than twenty children.

Those children had traveled all the way from Ningzhou. The clothes they wore had long since become tattered and torn. Their parents had brought their own provisions, but those had long been consumed. Each day besides one bowl of sweet dew, they hadn’t been given any food. These past few days they had been digging up wild vegetables to eat every day, dizzy and lightheaded from hunger…

When they saw Chu Hongyu take out a bundle of pastries, all those children’s eyes lit up, and they couldn’t help but swallow their saliva frantically.

“All of you come here.” Chu Hongyu smiled and beckoned. “I’ll ask you a few questions. If you can answer truthfully, I’ll give you pastries to eat.”

The children immediately nodded their heads like pecking chickens.

“Why did you follow everyone to the capital?”

“Don’t know.”

“What do your parents and all these people do every day?”

“Don’t know.”

“Has Prince Cheng said what you should do next?”

“Don’t know.”

Chu Hongyu: “…”

No matter what he asked, these children didn’t know anything.

Chen San said quietly: “They’re just a group of ignorant commoners who were bewitched by the Heavenly Maiden and followed along.”

His father had a headache at home every day. So many commoners—they couldn’t be driven away or struck. They had become the most thorny problem the court currently faced.

Chu Hongyu couldn’t get any information out of them, so he had everyone distribute the pastries. Each child received five or six pieces. Some were reluctant to eat them and hid them in their clothes.

After eating the pastries, those children’s gazes clearly changed. Previously they had been dazed, filled with confusion. Now they gradually became clearer. Looking at their surroundings, they seemed to be wondering why they had come here.

“Next, there’s something I hope you’ll cooperate with.” Chu Hongyu stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the people before him. “Help me secretly spread a message through the crowd—starting tomorrow, someone will be distributing porridge on the west side of the city.”

Hearing there would be porridge distributed, the children couldn’t help but lick their lips one by one. It had been a long time since they had eaten rice.

After finishing these matters, Chu Hongyu prepared to return to the palace. He needed to quickly pass down these instructions. As long as everyone could drink the porridge, they would be detoxified. Prince Cheng naturally wouldn’t be able to bewitch these commoners anymore.

Just as he was about to enter the city, he heard a voice behind him: “Isn’t that the Emper—mmph!”

He turned his head and saw Xie Xian’s mouth being covered by Concubine Jiang. Beside them was also Concubine Jiang’s adopted son, Xu Ti.

Seeing Chu Hongyu dressed in commoner’s clothes, Concubine Jiang knew the little emperor had come on a private inspection visit and naturally couldn’t reveal his identity.

Her expression was somewhat anxious. “Could we speak privately for a moment?”

Chu Hongyu nodded and said to the student attendants beside him: “You all wait for me over there.”