At dawn, Princess Lin’an awoke, feeling warm and comfortable. She stretched lazily, her foot accidentally kicking the table leg with a thud.
She opened her hazy eyes in confusion, seeing the pale sky. The sun hadn’t risen yet.
Biaobiao felt like she had a hangover from a night at a club. Her gaze went from confused to bewildered, doubting if she was seeing things correctly. Why was she seeing the breaking dawn sky instead of her embroidered bed canopy?
She let out a soft, slightly coquettish groan.
Scenes from the previous night flashed through her mind like a lantern show. She remembered boating on the pond with Xu Ning’yan, drinking and chatting.
Having never experienced anything like this before, she had readily agreed to the young constable’s suggestion. For an unmarried princess, such a bold act could ruin her reputation if word got out.
Later, perhaps due to the alcohol, she had let her guard down even more. Following his words, as if possessed, she had lain down on the boat’s deck.
When she saw the starry sky, Biaobiao’s heart was completely intoxicated. Her mind was filled with the poetic image of “Drunk, unaware the sky is in the water, a boat full of pure dreams pressing down on the Milky Way.”
She was utterly mesmerized.
Not wanting to get up, she had fallen into a deep sleep, aided by the alcohol.
It was so warm. Even though it was the dead of winter, sleeping on the boat, she hadn’t felt cold at all. Instead, there was a warmth like returning to the womb.
But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. Biaobiao sat up in a panic, discovering she was covered with a brocade quilt. She instinctively wanted to lift it but stopped, nervously feeling her body under the covers, confirming her clothes were intact and her body had no unusual reactions.
Such as the pain of defloration often mentioned in books.
Biaobiao let out a relieved sigh. Looking around, she saw the palace maid standing guard on the shore. With that, she transformed from the hungover club girl Biaobiao back into the dignified Princess Lin’an.
She called for the guard waiting on the shore, asking him to jump onto the boat and help row it to the bank. She casually asked, “When did Lord Xu leave?”
“He left before dawn,” the palace maid answered in a soft voice.
Lin’an nodded somewhat wistfully, recalling the warm feeling from yesterday. After careful comparison, she realized it wasn’t from the quilt. She asked sternly:
“Did he do anything improper last night?”
“Yes, he did,” said the palace maid with dark circles under her eyes, who hadn’t slept all night, taking the opportunity to tattle. “He took liberties with the Princess.”
“What?” Lin’an’s expression became alarmed.
“He held the Princess’s hand the whole time,” the maid said resentfully. “And before he left this morning, he even slapped my… bottom, threatening me not to tell the Princess.”
How could he be so outrageous? Lin’an’s eyebrows shot up, feeling a mix of shame and anger at having misjudged him.
“Second Princess…” the guard hesitated.
“Stop mumbling,” Lin’an looked at him with displeasure.
“It was bitterly cold, and the Princess was sleeping on the boat. A single quilt wouldn’t have been enough to ward off the severe cold,” the guard explained. “I saw last night, that Lord Xu didn’t sleep at all. He was holding the Princess’s hand to transfer his qi to you, dispersing the cold.”
Transferring qi… not sleeping all night… Biaobiao was stunned. Recalling how comfortably she had slept last night, she asked suspiciously:
“I’ve never heard of such a thing, and no one has ever transferred qi to me before.”
“Well…” the guard smiled bitterly. “Transferring qi all night without rest is extremely draining. Who could endure that? Unless they were a middle-tier or high-tier martial artist. Besides, Princess, you’re used to the finest things in life. You don’t need such measures.”
Biaobiao bit her lip and probed, “How exhausting is it?”
The guard replied, “If it were me, I would have died from exhaustion long ago.”
Her moist peach blossom eyes suddenly rippled with emotion, becoming soft and tender.
“Lord Xu seemed… very tired when he left,” the maid recalled. “But why didn’t he want me to tell you?”
Lin’an didn’t answer this question. She suddenly walked out, “He’s leaving for Yunzhou this morning. What time is it now? I want to see him off…”
For some reason, her heart was stirred by unexplainable waves of emotion. She just really wanted to see that dog servant.
“Your Highness, it’s already past the fifth watch…” the maid chased after her. “Besides, it’s unheard of for a princess to see off a mere constable. If word gets out, it would be bad for both you and him.”
These words stopped the willful Lin’an in her tracks.
For me, at worst I’d be scolded by Father Emperor… but if it concerns my reputation, he, as a mere constable, would surely face persecution… Lin’an glanced at the maid and guard, her round oval face rarely showing the imperial family’s authority:
“This concerns my reputation. You are not to speak of last night’s events to anyone, or you’ll all be beaten to death.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
…
The journey from the capital to Yunzhou was long. To save time, this team of imperial envoys bound for Yunzhou chose to travel by water, forgoing the land route.
The official ship plowed through the waves, its sails billowing in the wind.
Xu Qi An stood on the deck, facing the wind blowing from the river. Ships of all sizes sailed on the water, both official vessels and merchant ships.
“You look unwell as if you’ve overexerted yourself,” Jiang Luzhong came to the deck and stood beside him, glancing at Xu Qi An with a light chuckle. “Did you visit the pleasure houses yesterday?”
“…Mm,” Xu Qi An was at a loss for words.
He had indeed gone to the pleasure houses and had a farewell tryst with Fuxi. But the real reason for his exhaustion was having his energy drained by Biaobiao. However, this was something he couldn’t speak of.
“Look at you, still too young, with shallow eye sockets,” Jiang Luzhong leaned on the railing with both hands, wearing the smile of an experienced man. “There are pleasure houses in Yunzhou too. The women of Jiangnan have soft bodies and gentle voices, a different experience from the capital’s women. I’ll take you to try it out later.”
“It’s not the same,” Xu Qi An shook his head.
“Are you such a devoted lover?” Jiang Luzhong asked in surprise.
This has nothing to do with devotion, it’s about freeloading… Xu Qi An said solemnly, “Unless Senior Constable Jiang is treating.”
“What?” Jiang Luzhong was taken aback.
“If you’re paying, then it’s the same,” Xu Qi An said with a serious face.
Jiang Luzhong thought for a moment, then pointed at the river: “What do you think of the water here?”
Xu Qi An looked down at the river and answered honestly, “Not great, it’s quite dirty.”
Jiang Luzhong nodded, “Good that you understand.”
Xu Qi An: “…”
After a moment, Jiang Luzhong said, “Following the canal south, when we reach Qingzhou, we’ll have to switch to land travel. About ten days on land, and we should reach Yunzhou.”
“Senior Jiang, is it appropriate to tell me about these secret routes?” Xu Qi An asked.
“It’s fine. With your talent, you’ll be a gold-level constable sooner or later,” Jiang Luzhong smiled nonchalantly.
Friends are friends, but I’ll still be annoyed if you try to plant flags… Xu Qi An returned a smile, “Thank you for your kind words. Um, why do we need to switch to land travel?”
“It’s called the land route,” Jiang Luzhong corrected, then explained, “Although Qingzhou and Yunzhou are neighbors, there’s no connecting canal between the two provinces. If we were to go by water, we’d have to go around the neighboring Shazhou. It’s faster to go by land.”
The previous dynasty had greatly developed water routes, digging canals, including two main canals running north-south and east-west, with countless tributaries, leading to the current developed canal transport system of Great Fan. Yet Qingzhou and Yunzhou weren’t connected by a canal?
“There’s no water route?” Xu Qi An expressed his confusion.
“There used to be one. Yunzhou and Qingzhou were connected by a tributary, but about a decade ago, the river suddenly changed course,” Jiang Luzhong explained.
Changed course, huh… Xu Qi An nodded slowly.
Water conservancy projects have been a headache for governments throughout history, with frequent flooding and course changes. Even in his previous life, flood disasters were still troublesome. It’s better when men change course, at worst it just goes through the gut. But when rivers change course, it affects thousands of miles and harms countless people.
At this moment, a plume of black smoke rose in the distance. Xu Qi An strained his eyes and saw a small boat docked on the shore, with several people burning cargo.
“What’s going on? Why are they burning cargo?” Xu Qi An asked gravely.
His first thought was that someone was up to no good, destroying merchants’ goods.
Jiang Luzhong looked for a while and realized, “Usually in this situation, it’s merchants who don’t want to pass through the customs checkpoints. They burn their goods and prepare to return.”
“We’re almost at the capital, why would they do this?” Xu Qi An didn’t understand.
“Heh, the court has set up numerous customs checkpoints along the canal. You pay taxes at each checkpoint. As they keep paying, many merchants realize that even if they reach their destination and sell their goods, the money earned isn’t enough to cover the taxes. So they simply burn the goods and return them. Because if you carry goods on the return trip, you still have to pay taxes again. Empty boats don’t need to,” Jiang Luzhong sighed. “Burning goods along the river is a common sight.”
“Such blatant greed,” Xu Qi An raised an eyebrow.
“There are even worse cases. Because small merchants can’t afford the canal transport taxes, they have to rely on transport guilds. These guilds buy the goods at low prices and sell them at high prices. Take the saltpeter mine you once handled in Taikang County as an example. The local gray households mine stones and burn lime, but Beijing can’t consume such a large quantity, so it has to be transported to various provinces for sale. But the taxes are so heavy that they can’t afford it.
“The guilds take advantage of this to buy the lime at low prices and transport it through their channels. The gray households can only get one-tenth, or even less, of the profits. Barely enough to feed themselves.
“The interests involved behind this are unimaginable. Even Minister Wei has to be cautious about it.”
Xu Qi An fell silent.
He thought of another matter. Emperor Yuanjing’s pursuit of Taoism and alchemy came with enormous expenses, and this money didn’t come from the Ministry of Revenue, but from his private coffers.
So where did Emperor Yuanjing get so much money to spend so lavishly?
He didn’t ask this question, instead returning to his cabin to meditate and recover his energy. By noon, he was starving.
He left his room and heard lively chatter on the deck. It turned out the boatmen had caught many plump river fish, scattering them on the deck where they flopped about vigorously.
Led by Jiang Luzhong, Song Tingfeng and the other twenty constables gathered around, excited about having fresh fish soup for lunch.
The Provincial Governor leading this mission, hearing the commotion, came out with a frown.
He was a Censor of the Censorate, a fourth-rank official. In the Great Fan officialdom, Provincial Governors were usually held by Censors and wielded great power.
The Censorate was controlled by Wei Yuan, and the Grand Eunuch also held the position of Left Censor-in-Chief, a second-rank official.
This Censor, who could be considered one of their own, had been seasick all morning, dizzy and nauseous. He had been resting when these brutes woke him up, much to his displeasure.
“Pick out a few of the fattest river fish to make soup for the Governor,” Jiang Luzhong said with a smile.
The Governor, a man with a goatee and scholarly demeanor, waved his hand, his brows furrowed, “River fish are too fishy. I have no appetite.”
After refusing Jiang Luzhong’s goodwill, he looked at the constables with displeasure, “Be quiet, all of you. How unsightly, all this shouting and commotion.”
With that, he returned to his cabin, visibly irritated.
“Tsk tsk, these scholars are so weak. He can’t even handle this much,” one constable joked, earning a glare from Jiang Luzhong.
Fresh fish soup to eat… perfect for adding some chicken essence for flavor… The hungry Xu Qi An looked forward to lunch with anticipation.