“Is the Prince planning to lead by example? To charge at the forefront?” Shen Xihe asked.

Bu Shulin silently nodded.

Everyone was afraid to take responsibility. Since the embezzlement wasn’t excessive, they all planned to endure it. But the Prince of Shunan had a fiery temper – he couldn’t stand this humiliation, and who knew if there would be a second time after the first?

“I’ll give you an idea.” A faint smile curved Shen Xihe’s lips.

Bu Shulin’s eyes lit up as she stretched her neck forward, leaning closer to Shen Xihe.

Shen Xihe’s smile deepened: “How will you thank me?”

Bu Shulin: …

“What’s our relationship that you’d hurt our friendship like this?” Bu Shulin was accused with deep anguish.

Shen Xihe stroked her short-life cat: “You and I, what friendship is there to speak of?”

Bu Shulin clutched her chest: “Oh my, you wound me so – have you taken a fancy to some young man?”

Shen Xihe spoke leisurely: “The method I’ll give you won’t just keep your father from offending others, it will also prevent the Emperor from holding a grudge, and can even recover all the embezzled military funds.”

“Really?” Bu Shulin pressed both hands on the table.

“Why are you so excited?” Shen Xihe looked her over. “You should know that the better the method, the more precious it is.”

Bu Shulin paced back and forth several times in front of Shen Xihe before asking: “Tell me first, what do you want?”

“In a few days, it will be the autumn hunt. At that time, you’ll help me do something.” Shen Xihe’s smile was light.

Though the beauty was so enchantingly lovely, her smile so captivating, Bu Shulin inexplicably took a step back.

“Don’t worry, it won’t endanger your life, nor will I make your small frame hunt tigers or kill bears.” As Shen Xihe spoke, she revealed a slightly disdainful look.

Feeling looked down upon, Bu Shulin declared: “I’ll hunt a tiger for you at the autumn hunt!”

“Good, I’ll be waiting.”

Bu Shulin: …

She coughed lightly twice: “The wind was so strong just now, I didn’t say anything…”

This caused Biyu and the others to cover their mouths in laughter.

Shen Xihe stopped teasing her and simply asked: “Will you agree or not?”

“Yes, yes, yes!” Bu Shulin nodded. She trusted that Shen Xihe wouldn’t put her in danger. As for embarrassment, she didn’t care – she took pleasure in being embarrassed.

As long as she didn’t feel embarrassed, all the looks she received were jealousy and praise!

“Have your father unite people to expose this, but leak news of the intended exposure to the Minister of Revenue,” Shen Xihe said.

Bu Shulin’s head sprouted question marks: ???

“If we leak the news, how can we expose anything?” Bu Shulin thought Shen Xihe was teasing her.

“This time the military funds being embezzled from various regions doesn’t seem like the Revenue Ministry’s doing.” Shen Xihe lowered her gaze, her soft hand gently stroking down the short-life cat’s spine. “It seems more like someone trying to drag the Revenue Ministry down. Look carefully – aren’t all the places that weren’t embezzled from somehow connected to the Revenue Ministry?”

“Isn’t that favoritism?” Bu Shulin and the others had always thought it was preferential treatment.

“No, it’s to prevent information leaks.” Shen Xihe said with certainty. “The autumn grain being stolen at this time, someone deliberately creating confusion, causing the Revenue Ministry to be too busy to attend to other matters, plus you all being afraid to expose it – the Revenue Ministry probably doesn’t even know about this yet.

Once Dong Biquan knows, he will investigate thoroughly, then find ways to fill in the holes for you all.”

“Is it that simple?” Bu Shulin felt that things couldn’t be so simple, but she couldn’t figure out what might be wrong. She didn’t believe Shen Xihe would mislead her or set her up in such an important matter.

“It is that simple.” Shen Xihe’s smile was sweet.

Bu Shulin was somewhat skeptical but knew Shen Xihe wouldn’t say more.

“Princess, are you trying to cause trouble for the Crown Prince?” After Bu Shulin left, Biyu asked softly.

“No, I’m helping him.” Shen Xihe smiled faintly. “Making his fabricated charges even more ironclad.”

In the autumn chill, Biyu inexplicably felt sorry for those targeted by the Crown Prince and their Princess…

After returning home, Bu Shulin pondered deeply but couldn’t figure it out, so she transmitted Shen Xihe’s words exactly to the Prince of Shunan. Let him make his own decision, to avoid being blamed later.

When the Prince of Shunan received his daughter’s message, his face darkened. He said to his confidant: “Look, both are daughters, yet how is it that Shen Yueshan’s daughter can manipulate events in the capital while my Bu Tuohai’s daughter can only be led by the nose!”

Growing increasingly angry, Bu Tuohai couldn’t help putting his hands on his hips and cursing: “By the ancestors, can’t this sea drown that mountain?”

The confidant thought to himself: Don’t you know best whether you can defeat the Prince of the Northwest?

“Your Highness, please calm down. Right now we need to decide whether to follow the Young Miss’s words?”

Bu Tuohai paced back and forth with his hands on his hips. If Shen Xihe had seen this, she would have thought he looked exactly like Bu Shulin.

This was no small matter. Since they were uniting to expose this, yet leaking the news to the Revenue Ministry, this was equivalent to informing others. If anything went wrong, he, Bu Tuohai, would become known as a treacherous person who harmed his peers and broke faith.

He would also be labeled as the court’s collaborator, and future regional military groups would surely ostracize him. If Shunan faced warfare in the future, they would likely end up isolated without aid.

But if they didn’t trust this advice, damaging the relationship between Shunan and the Northwest was one thing, and they might fall into unknown dangers as well.

“We have no one in the capital, but Lin is shrewd beneath her simplicity. Since she trusts Princess Zhaoning, let’s trust her judgment for now.” He knew his daughter – though she appeared careless, she had good judgment.

Through his daughter’s message and this unusual military fund embezzlement incident, he vaguely sensed that something major and unknown must have happened in the capital.

At this moment, one wrong move could lead to destruction. To avoid becoming others’ pawns, he decided to trust Shen Xihe once.

When news of the military fund discrepancies reached Dong Biquan’s ears, he was so angry he smashed his favorite crystal bowl and kicked his confidant: “Are you trying to rebel? How dare you touch military funds!”

“Lord Dong, the grain the Emperor wanted was stolen, we had no choice, didn’t dare make it known, and had to make up the shortfall…”

Since what the Emperor needed was privately diverted, even if it was stolen they didn’t dare make it public, much less openly pursue compensation.

“Even so, when something went wrong you dared not report it and took it upon yourselves to divert military supplies – who gave you such brazen courage!” Dong Biquan’s veins bulged in anger.

The confidant remained prostrate, not daring to speak.

Dong Biquan’s steward bowed and said: “Master, what’s urgent now is how to resolve the immediate crisis.”

“The autumn grain was stolen, and the Emperor is anxious. If we report now that military supplies were withheld, we’ll all be sacrificed to appease anger.”

At this point, how could they dare let the Emperor know about such a huge discrepancy?

Dong Biquan was so anxious he developed heartburn. The steward said: “Master, why not replenish the military funds for each region?”

“Replenish? Where do we get the grain to replenish it?” Dong Biquan demanded harshly.

“We don’t necessarily need to replenish it all at once. We can buy grain cheaply from outside, replenish some first, and let all the military regions know the court will compensate them. They definitely won’t cause trouble then. After we get through this crisis, we can plan another way out?”