“Then, for this servant offering counsel to Your Highness, shouldn’t that deserve a reward? Hong Mei has a bitter fate—originally a lowly life. I dare not ask Your Highness for rank or position, only request that when Your Highness uses Hong Mei’s strategy tomorrow and earns His Majesty’s praise, you can cherish Hong Mei a few more days.”

As her words fell, Hong Mei’s boneless little hand slipped into the Crown Prince’s robes.

The Crown Prince hurriedly caught Hong Mei’s small hand, his voice suggestive: “You couldn’t bear it just now, yet now you come to tease me again—what for?”

Hong Mei bit her lower lip, feigning shy annoyance, her face and ears flushed red as she turned around, pulled the blanket over herself tightly, and sulked, ignoring the Crown Prince.

The room filled with the Crown Prince’s laughter and his soft, coaxing words to the little lady in the bed. But Quan Yu, standing guard outside, had his heart entirely occupied with thoughts of Bai Qingyan’s frail, delicate body.

The next day, while the sky was still dim, Shen Qingzhu had already galloped swiftly to the gates of Princess Zhenguo’s mansion, knocking on the tightly closed doors.

The gatekeeper opened the door just a crack, peering out through the gap.

The sheep-skin lanterns outside Princess Zhenguo’s mansion had not yet been extinguished, their warm, gentle light illuminating Shen Qingzhu’s face, which had turned blue from the cold wind, her lips cracked from lack of water. The gatekeeper quickly opened the door wide: “Miss Shen!”

Shen Qingzhu casually tossed her riding whip to the gatekeeper, stepped through the threshold, and said: “Take good care of that horse at the gate. I’m going to see the eldest miss!”

When the young gatekeeper went outside, he saw that the horse Shen Qingzhu had ridden was drenched in sweat and had collapsed on the ground, its belly heaving violently, steam rising from its entire body.

The young servant was immediately at a loss, turning to call for help.

This was a precious steed that the eldest miss had once given to Shen Qingzhu—how noble it was, yet Miss Shen had ridden it to this state.

Shen Qingzhu, carrying Ji Tingyu’s letter in her chest, dared not delay and ran to Qinghui Courtyard, knocking on its door.

The servant woman of Qinghui Courtyard was awakened by the knocking. She put on her slate-blue padded jacket, got up shuffling in her shoes from the side room, fastening her cloth buttons as she asked: “Who is it?”

“Shen Qingzhu!”

The servant woman of Qinghui Courtyard certainly knew Shen Qingzhu. She said respectfully, “Miss Shen, please wait a moment. This servant will immediately inform the eldest miss and the second miss!”

Last night, Bai Jinxiu had stayed the night at Bai Qingyan’s Qinghui Courtyard, dismissing the night-watch maid, saying she would personally care for Bai Qingyan through the night.

Hearing the commotion of Shen Qingzhu’s knocking, the lamp in the main room of Qinghui Courtyard had already been lit. The servant woman walked to the window and said in a low voice: “Eldest Miss, Second Miss… Miss Shen Qingzhu has arrived!”

“Let Qingzhu come in!” Bai Qingyan’s voice came from inside.

“Yes!” The servant woman responded and trotted over to open the door for Shen Qingzhu.

Bai Jinxiu draped an outer garment and was about to help Bai Qingyan up, but saw she had already sat up.

Soon Shen Qingzhu lifted the curtain and entered. Having ridden hard through the cold, she was surrounded by frigid air. Afraid of passing the cold to the eldest miss, she stood behind the screen and took out a small bamboo tube from her chest, saying: “Eldest Miss, Second Miss, Ji Tingyu has sent a message back!”

Bai Jinxiu and Bai Qingyan exchanged glances. Bai Jinxiu hurriedly came out from behind the screen, took the extremely thin bamboo tube, and said to Shen Qingzhu: “There’s hot tea on the small stove—drink some tea first and eat some snacks to fill your stomach.”

Shen Qingzhu nodded.

Having galloped hard all the way, Shen Qingzhu hadn’t dared drink even a sip of water, fearing to waste time.

Shen Qingzhu couldn’t be bothered about not having washed her hands or changed clothes yet. She picked up the teapot herself, poured a cup of tea, blew on it, and drank.

Bai Qingyan poured out the letter from the small bamboo tube and unfolded the fine, soft paper inside. There were only a few words: “Yanwo snow disaster, Huwei Ridge lacks grain.”

Bai Qingyan’s palm tightened. Huwei Ridge was between Hushui and Yanwo.

Ji Tingyu’s lack of grain was presumably because he had been providing relief to Yanwo’s disaster victims.

Indeed, Yanwo had suffered many disasters in these past two years.

The year before last, Yanwo had a great drought in the seventh month, followed by snow disasters in winter. The next year brought a month of torrential rains, causing floods, drowning fertile fields, and turning Yanwo’s people into refugees.

Just last year, Ji Tingyu had raided three military supply points. Because the authorities kept sending people to search… he had no choice but to hide in the deep mountain mazes. Later, Ji Tingyu had his people spread rumors everywhere, portraying the incident as ghostly phenomena. Local officials dared not investigate thoroughly. The news had only reached the capital at the end of October, and before the court could send people to investigate in detail, the Wude Gate incident occurred.

Later, after the Wude Gate incident was quelled and the capital returned to calm, the Crown Prince dispatched three officials in mid-November to investigate the matter at three different locations. But these three officials were also fearful of supernatural claims and dared not investigate deeply.

This matter dragged on until the New Year, showing signs of causing public panic. Families whose husbands and sons had been conscripted into the army even caused disturbances at government offices. The Crown Prince feared that prolonging this matter would make things worse.

Moreover, since no other military supplies had been lost elsewhere, the Crown Prince discussed with Old Fang—the number of lost troops wasn’t too large, so they devised a strategy claiming the military forces had been found. Thus… the provisions for these soldiers could all go into the Crown Prince’s pocket, and this money could be used to curry favor with the Emperor.

Furthermore, the Crown Prince had this convenient condition—after all, the Bai Family Army now belonged to the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince could completely give Shen Kunyang a secret order, claiming these troops had all been transferred to Nan Jiang, having Shen Kunyang acknowledge this, thereby calming domestic panic.

The Emperor was obsessed with elixirs and pursuing immortality, having no time for this matter, so the Crown Prince proceeded accordingly.

The Crown Prince first issued a proclamation claiming the new soldiers had been sent to Nan Jiang. By the time the secret order reached Shen Kunyang, the matter was already a done deal. When Shen Kunyang sent word back to Shouyang, and Bai Qingyan learned of it, she said nothing, only sending word to tell Shen Kunyang he could legitimately bring the troops under Bai Qingjue to the military camp, calling them recruits to be properly trained.

“Yanwo snow disaster?!” Bai Jinxiu was quite shocked. “The capital hasn’t received any news!”

“The last time Yanwo had a great famine, if the imperial examination fraud case hadn’t been exposed, Li Mao wouldn’t have chosen to release the information either. Now with Yanwo’s snow disaster, presumably… the news is still being suppressed.” Bai Qingyan frowned tightly, beginning to ponder the grain situation.

“Elder Sister, I can find a way to handle the grain matter. Shouyang is currently training troops, and I am a daughter of the Bai family—it wouldn’t be surprising for me to purchase grain and send it there. But… how to get it to Ji Tingyu still requires careful thought.” Bai Jinxiu said.

“If you handle this matter, it would attract too much attention. I’ll take care of it…” Bai Qingyan’s fingers tapped intermittently on the sandalwood table. “With the great epidemic in Huayang and Qinhuai cities, plus Yanwo’s snow disaster, if the Bai family were willing to use their private assets to purchase and donate a batch of grain, the Crown Prince would surely be very pleased.”

Bai Qingyan thought of someone—Shouyang Prefect Shen Tianzhi.

Since Shouyang Prefect Shen Tianzhi claimed he was the backup route father had arranged for the Bai family in Shouyang, then… this time Bai Qingyan would make use of him.

That place called Yanwo could be considered the fertile land of the Jin Kingdom. Because the soil there was rich, grain production was abundant. During Empress Ji’s regency, that place was called Yanwo, and this place name continues to this day.