The rented oxcart entered the inner city. The further in they went, the harder it became to proceed.

Qun Qing lifted the carriage curtain to look outside, her palms beginning to break out in cold sweat. She was someone who had experienced the fall of a palace—what she feared most was precisely this kind of chaotic scene.

Common people queuing for grain clogged the streets, crowding in circles around the guards. The sounds of women and children crying and clamoring continuously rang out. These people were disheveled and filthy, looking even worse than those seen in the outer city.

Lu Huating said, “Liu Sijun must have concentrated the disaster victims from the outer city into the inner city to prevent Your Highness from seeing them.”

Li Huan’s body tensed, his mask concealing his expression. “Why the commotion?”

Zhu Su rode alongside on horseback. “It seems the grain distribution is uneven.”

Xiao Yunru said, “Your Highness, let’s get out and take a look.”

Qun Qing looked at her belly and stopped her. “It’s very chaotic outside. This minister will go in the Princess Consort’s place.”

Xiao Yunru suddenly grasped her hand in return, stroking it like an older sister would, comforting her. “Since I am a Princess Consort, this is something I should do. If I’m so easily injured or harmed, then it doesn’t deserve to be my child, Xiao Yunru’s child.”

Having said this, she resolutely supported herself against the carriage wall and descended. Li Huan immediately jumped down and carefully supported her.

The guard commander was already pointing at a woman’s nose and cursing. “What’s all this commotion! Wanting extra grain without having the manner of someone asking for grain—the more you make a fuss, the less grain you get.”

The woman held a child with one hand, her eyes already brimming with tears. “Is this your grain? This is relief grain from the Prefectural mansion! I already told you, there’s another sick person at home. It’s absolutely not me asking for extra. I’ve also studied—I can’t do such things. If you don’t give it to me, I’ll lie right here.”

“A scholarly family doesn’t know propriety?”

“So what if it’s improper? We’re about to starve to death—can propriety be eaten as food!”

The guard raised his hand and poured the rice gruel from the bowl back into the pot. “There’s none for you now. Leave!”

Despite being pushed and shoved, the woman’s tears suddenly fell. The common people behind couldn’t help speaking up for her, surging forward.

The guards were busy maintaining order when Xiao Yunru walked over, took the ladle and bowl, and scooped from the pot. Only at the very bottom did she get some rice, which she ladled into the bowl and handed to the woman. She said to the guard, “This porridge is too thin and can hardly satisfy hunger. Do I need to teach you how to serve it?”

The guard wanted to make trouble, but seeing she was a woman in brocade robes and heavily pregnant, he only walked a few steps closer to glare at her. Juan Su blocked in front of Xiao Yunru. “Show respect—this is Her Highness the Princess Consort of Prince Yan.”

The guard laughed derisively. “Prince Yan went straight to the Prefectural mansion upon arrival. You say she’s the Princess Consort of Prince Yan, so she is?”

Before his words finished falling, Li Huan strode over and kicked his knee, thrusting the fish tally before his eyes. “Open your dog eyes and look—if she isn’t, then are you!”

Having been struck, the guard didn’t dare speak and knelt down stiffly. Li Huan said again, “Go unload the grain we brought from the carts.”

Not all the common people had seen Li Huan, but some recognized the bronze mask and began pointing and discussing him.

Li Huan and Xiao Yunru personally directed the grain distribution. From the inn window, Qun Qing saw that the crowd of people temporarily restored order.

“Do you have experience with flood relief?” Qun Qing asked.

Lu Huating had been walking silently ahead. Hearing this, he turned his head. Qun Qing assessed this face—his expression was as usual, relaxed. “No. What, is my wife afraid? As a female attendant to Princess Bao’an, you should have studied policies for governing the people’s livelihood, shouldn’t you?”

Qun Qing admired this person’s composure. Armchair strategizing was one thing, but actually seeing it with one’s own eyes was another. “These are living people, without homes or grain. If not handled well, people will die.”

Lu Huating saw her face turn slightly pale and couldn’t help but pause.

“They won’t die.” He grew solemn. “Liu Sijun knows what he’s doing. Whenever the common people can’t endure it anymore and are about to revolt, he sends someone to deliver another bag of grain. This degree of thin gruel can barely sustain life, just not maintain it.”

After floods often came epidemics. If they couldn’t eat their fill, that was when the real problem would arise.

Lu Huating saw a dish of pastries on the table and pushed it toward her without much expression. “My wife cannot go hungry. Eat a bite.”

Qun Qing took a bite, but thinking of the scene she’d just witnessed, found it hard to swallow.

In the inn, both Yunzhou Vice Governor Xue Zhou and Zhang Qiru from the Ministry of Revenue came before them to report.

The current Yunzhou Vice Governor, Xue Zhou, had formerly been a registrar in Jiannan Circuit. He was the one who had exposed the matter of recommendations. After the Spring Examination case, he was promoted here by Prince Yan. Looking again at Zhang Qiru beside Vice Governor Xue—he was another candidate selected by Prince Yan’s mansion.

Seeing that Lu Huating’s chess pieces had long been planted in Yunzhou, Qun Qing felt relieved.

Lu Huating said, “The grain Prince Yan’s mansion brought can last at most three days. When will the stored grain be released?”

Registrar Xue hung his head. “The stored grain was used up long ago.”

“Then the disaster relief funds?”

Zhang Qiru said urgently, “This is precisely why this humble official memorialized Prince Yan, yet His Majesty has given no reply. His Majesty allocated the disaster relief funds down, but Prefect Liu to this day hasn’t purchased grain from merchants. The grain is sent bag by bag, just as you see—all thin gruel.”

Vice Governor Xue said, “This old minister earnestly requests Prince Yan to reach the Emperor’s ear and quickly raid the Prefectural mansion to uphold justice for the common people.”

Lu Huating said, “Even if I returned to the palace today to obtain an imperial edict, how do you plan to get through the next several days?”

Qun Qing asked, “Where else in the city is there grain?”

Zhang Qiru paused and turned toward her. “If we’re talking about places that stockpile grain and wealth, aside from temples and Daoist shrines, it’s the merchants in the outer city who have surplus grain, but… they want money.”

“It would be strange if they didn’t want money.” Qun Qing said. “Hoarding grain to raise prices—such is human nature. What’s the grain price in the outer city now?”

“A stone of rice has already reached about two taels of silver. We already went door to door knocking, but they’re unwilling to lower prices. If we ask again, they close their doors and say they have no surplus grain either.”

Qun Qing said, “Vice Governor Xue can have someone spread news to the outer city overnight.”

“What news?” Xue Zhou asked.

“Say that Prince Yan has brought grain and cloth, ordering subordinates to sell it in the inner city. Rice is one tael per stone, cloth is one tael per bolt—people are scrambling to buy it like mad.”

Before her words finished falling, both Lu Huating’s and Zhang Qiru’s gazes fell on her face.

“That’s not good, is it?” Zhang Qiru was astonished. “This—Prince Yan’s grain is clearly being freely distributed to the common people. The Princess Consort of Prince Yan, six months pregnant, is even personally distributing porridge… If this rumor spreads back to the palace, it would be disadvantageous to Prince Yan.”

Lu Huating looked at Qun Qing, then lowered his eyes to look at the water in his cup. “My wife, that’s not good.”

She only wore a double-loop hairstyle. Her profile was like porcelain, her lashes like butterfly wings—she looked dignified and pure, yet the scheme she devised contained hidden malice toward Prince Yan’s mansion.

Prince Yan’s reputation was the thing Qun Qing cared least about. “The common people are about to starve to death. Does the Chief Clerk want lives, or reputation?”

—

That night at the third watch, bells rang softly as an oxcart quietly entered the city gate.

The person holding a lantern and driving the oxcart was a wealthy merchant from Yunzhou itself. Upon reaching the inner city, he discovered two or three other oxcarts already crowding at the gate, their carts loaded just like his with rice and grain packed full.

Seeing each other, they all looked somewhat embarrassed and could only make sporadic small talk.

“Do you think this business of Prince Yan selling grain is real or fake?”

“It must be real. My household servants investigated for several days. A few days ago, people kept trying to break out to seize grain, but last night it became extremely quiet. They must be full, which is why they’re not making trouble.”

“Prince Yan came from the palace for disaster relief—he won’t let even this bit of mosquito leg meat go?”

“Mountains of gold and silver are also accumulated penny by penny. Moreover, Prince Yan supports an army—how many mouths below are waiting to be fed? Even the Yunzhou Prefect knows to extract wealth. Why should a prince be clean?”

The several people all laughed for a while, then someone said, “If it’s truly as the rumors say, the inner city’s famine can be resolved in a few days. How much grain must he have brought to fill so many bellies? Did he only bring a little, or is it being continuously transported?”

The atmosphere suddenly became somewhat heavy and tense. Someone complained, “This Prince Yan is really a fool. The rice price was raised with such difficulty, and he ruined it at one tael of silver.”

“If we let Prince Yan sell enough grain, the grain we’ve hoarded becomes a stinking stone in water. Forget two taels of silver—we couldn’t even sell it for half a tael. We can’t wait any longer. Whoever can get in early can lose less.”

Speaking to this point, the city gate opened a crack, and several oxcarts rushed toward the inner city, competing with each other.

Yunzhou Vice Governor Xue Zhou held up a torch. “What are you doing?”

“We’re going in to sell grain.”

Vice Governor Xue said with a wooden face, “Now isn’t the time to open the gates. Don’t cause trouble. Besides, the common people don’t lack grain—what are you selling? Go back.”

This Vice Governor Xue was flanked by several tall hidden guards from Prince Yan’s mansion, completely different from his bowing and bending appearance a few days ago when begging them to sell grain. This made the wealthy merchants even more convinced that Prince Yan must have brought sufficient grain, and this money would never be theirs to earn.

Instantly, the several people grew anxious. “There’s enough grain today and tomorrow, but surely not enough in a few days. It’s all to relieve the common people’s distress—isn’t more grain a good thing? Let us in.”

“We guarantee we absolutely won’t disturb the common people.”

Qun Qing lay on the bed and heard the sound of cart bells, followed by clamoring voices. She had already been sleeping in her clothes. She threw off the quilt and looked out the window.

On the inner city streets, clusters of bonfires burned—disaster victims had lit them under makeshift shelters for warmth and cooking rice. The firelight illuminated swaying human shadows. Hearing they could buy grain, the disaster victims surged toward the oxcarts one by one, and the silent streets suddenly became as bustling with voices as a marketplace.

Qun Qing moved through the crowd, hearing the curses of those wealthy merchants in her ears. She turned her head—Lu Huating followed behind her. When she stopped, he stopped too. Firelight illuminated his jade-white face. “Where is my wife going?”

Qun Qing walked extremely quickly, looking around as she went. “I’m going to buy cloud brocade.”

Lu Huating looked to the side. “What was chosen to sell to disaster victims were cheap items for covering the body. How do you know cloud brocade merchants would come?”

Qun Qing said, “Cloud brocade is produced in Yunzhou. Just as fish are cheap by the sea and cattle and sheep are cheap on the plains, in Yunzhou, ordinary cloud brocade isn’t an expensive item.”

As she spoke, she saw the silk merchant selling cloud brocade. That silk merchant glared at her coldly.

Tonight the common people could buy grain and were naturally happy, handing over all their remaining silver, but they couldn’t come up with the one tael price for a stone of rice. When these merchants heard that Prince Yan selling grain was false, their expressions changed. They wanted to drive their carts out of the inner city, but Yunzhou Vice Governor and Prince Yan mansion’s people had already locked the city gates tight, blocking the doorway with their bodies.

The grain and cloth they’d brought were surrounded by disaster victims on all sides. If they didn’t sell at low prices, there was the possibility of being looted.

At this moment, the silk merchant was angry but didn’t speak. The expression with which he looked at Qun Qing was as if he wanted to devour her alive.

Qun Qing glanced at him, her expression unchanged as she began examining the cloud brocade, probing, “This cloud brocade—how much per bolt?”