As she spoke, she had already risen from her seat.

Only then could he see that she wore a robe of wormwood-green Xiang skirt with a rolling grass pattern. With each step forward she took, the hem of her skirt swayed like fine ripples of water. She walked directly to his side, circling around him as she paced, examining him from top to bottom.

Wei Liang only felt his hair standing on end.

When she stood before him, he dared not raise his head. When she stood behind him, his spine went rigid as a stone pillar.

Jiang Xuening’s acquaintance with Wei Liang in her previous life was purely a misunderstanding.

At that time, Prince Linzi Shen Jie had just ascended the throne and was taking her to tour the markets and shops in the capital when they encountered a group of deep-eyed, high-nosed merchants who had come by sea, hawking some oddly-shaped fruits right on the street.

Quite a crowd had gathered to watch the excitement.

But those willing to spend money to buy were very few.

She and Shen Jie were just watching the excitement from the side. Just as they were about to leave, they unexpectedly saw a scholar of neither tall nor robust build struggling to push through the crowd and approach those merchants, opening his mouth to say that he not only wanted to buy those fruits but also wanted to buy the seeds of these fruits.

Thus followed a torrent of jabbering back and forth, yet they couldn’t agree on a price.

This scholar became so angry his entire face turned red, yet he seemed extremely persistent about these fruits and seeds, standing in the street and refusing to leave.

In the end, it was still Zheng Bao who had sharp eyes and remembered people. He quietly leaned close to Shen Jie’s ear and said: “Isn’t this the Wei Tanhua whom Your Majesty personally selected this year?”

Only then did Shen Jie examine him seriously.

Jiang Xuening couldn’t help but be surprised as well.

After Shen Jie pondered for a moment, he had Zheng Bao resolve the situation for this odd and eccentric tanhua, paying the money, and finally having someone bring him over to talk.

Shen Jie, noble as the Son of Heaven, didn’t remember people well. But as tanhua, even if Wei Liang didn’t remember what Shen Jie looked like, he still recognized Zheng Bao who had stood at the steps during the palace announcement ceremony that day, so he immediately tried to come forward to bow in greeting.

Fortunately, Shen Jie stopped him in time.

Then, utterly baffled, he asked him what he wanted to do buying all this heap of worthless things.

Cold sweat broke out on Wei Liang’s head. He only said he had some hobbies that couldn’t be brought to light, habitually enjoyed researching matters of fields and farmland, and hoped Shen Jie wouldn’t take offense.

Shen Jie looked at those fruits he clutched in his arms and shook his head repeatedly.

Whether he felt this tanhua was neglecting his proper duties or had some other thought, he ultimately didn’t punish him, only saying: “Having some pastimes outside of proper business is not unreasonable. Take them back to study if you want to study them. At least I paid for them, so if you truly do research something worthwhile someday, remember to send it into the palace as tribute. Though I don’t care for such things, the Empress is quite gluttonous—who knows, she might love eating them.”

Standing behind him, Jiang Xuening felt utterly embarrassed and wanted to object, but couldn’t speak up, so she could only swallow a mouthful of stifled anger.

Wei Liang, however, seemed to have escaped disaster and let out a long breath.

Afterward, Shen Jie and Jiang Xuening returned to the palace, and the matter came to an end. Inside the palace, people fought with people and ghosts clashed with ghosts. Before long, she had completely forgotten about this matter.

But no one expected that the following year in midsummer, while she was teaching those mynah birds to talk under the corridor outside Kunning Palace’s main hall, she saw the chief eunuch from the Office of Internal Affairs leading several eunuchs carrying something in.

Looking closer, they were all oddly-shaped fruits.

There was even one covered in spikes that looked exactly like a giant morning star flail.

When she inquired, she learned that it was said to be a special tribute from a compiler in the Hanlin Academy named Wei Liang, who had asked the Emperor for permission and had them sent to her.

Jiang Xuening couldn’t recall the original matter at all. After the eunuch from the Office of Internal Affairs left, she spent half the day studying these fruits with the palace maids.

Some tasted good; for others, they hadn’t found the right method.

In the end, everyone’s attention focused on that fruit covered in spikes. Hearing it was called durian or something like that, and that one had to open the outer shell to eat the flesh inside, she had a young eunuch fetch a knife and open it with great difficulty.

The result…

That smell practically knocked out everyone in Kunning Palace from top to bottom, leaving Jiang Xuening with a lifelong unforgettable memory!

This thing was supposed to be edible?

She flew into a rage, thinking that this man surnamed Wei looked honest, but turned out to be even more excessive than those upright old ministers in court who opposed her—this was obviously using the opportunity to humiliate her!

Therefore, one day when the Emperor held a banquet in the Imperial Garden, Jiang Xuening found an opportunity to pull Wei Liang aside alone to speak.

Wei Liang seemed completely unaware of the trouble he had caused, and even asked Jiang Xuening how those fruits tasted.

Jiang Xuening nearly had someone drag him away to be beheaded.

But no matter what, this was the tanhua whom the Emperor had personally selected—it wasn’t her turn to openly make a move. So she merely smiled without warmth and told him she very much liked what he had sent. Since he was so devoted to matters of melons, fruits, and vegetables, staying in the Hanlin Academy was truly a waste. Why not let him go out to be a local official for the common people and teach them to farm? She could even help him bring it up with the Emperor.

Logically speaking, any official in court with even half a brain would be frightened into trembling legs and cold sweat upon hearing these words.

Because the words themselves were an obvious threat.

Staying in the Hanlin Academy meant being a “minister in reserve,” and most would be able to remain in the capital as officials in the future. Being sent out to the provinces before one had made a name for oneself—that was for those who weren’t doing well, lower officials, thankless positions.

But unexpectedly, after Wei Liang was stunned for a moment, he actually became full of joy, his eyes brimming with light, and even his entire face turned red. Stammering, he bowed and said: “How, how could I dare trouble Your Majesty like this?”

At that time, Jiang Xuening truly couldn’t understand what kind of reaction this was.

She sarcastically made a few more openly praising but secretly mocking remarks, but Wei Liang, whether truly confused or pretending to be confused, thought she was praising him and smiled even more brilliantly.

In the end, it was Jiang Xuening who was utterly baffled. Seeing he wasn’t the least bit angry, she herself became annoyed and left with a flick of her sleeves.

That night, she went and tattled to Shen Jie.

She said how Wei Liang was such and such, single-mindedly flattering her, wasn’t any good official, and they should simply send him to a remote province to let him properly reflect—if he loved farming so much, let him farm to his heart’s content.

Shen Jie inevitably comforted her, coaxed her, told her not to be angry.

At the time, Jiang Xuening thought Shen Jie was still favoring this annoying tanhua after all.

But the next day, she heard that during morning court, Shen Jie with a single transfer order directly pulled Wei Liang out of the Hanlin Academy and tossed him to Gaoyou to be a county magistrate.

This made Jiang Xuening happy.

Shen Jie said nothing, and at dinner that evening merely looked at her with a smile, asking if this counted as satisfying.

Jiang Xuening’s tail went straight up to the sky.

She thought, with Wei Liang as a cautionary example—a perfectly good tanhua going to be a county magistrate, living who knows how miserably—surely no one else would dare provoke her in the future.

However…

After barely a year passed, when the Ministry of Revenue organized tax revenues from the various provinces, they were shocked to discover that Gaoyou County’s field taxes and grain tribute had actually doubled compared to the previous year!

For the first time, Jiang Xuening began to suspect Heaven was deliberately messing with her.

The entire court of civil and military officials was shocked by Gaoyou County’s situation. Some suspected he had increased the tax burden on the common people; some suspected there was some unspeakable scheme involved. Shen Jie was naturally also greatly surprised and sent people to investigate.

The investigation results slapped everyone’s faces.

The man relied on pure skill. Since Gaoyou County had been farming alongside County Magistrate Wei Liang, one mu of field produced two mu of rice. It was their own grain that had doubled first, which was why they paid more grain to the court.

Needless to say, the capital urgently summoned Wei Liang to the capital.

If the increase in Gaoyou County’s rice yield per mu could be extended throughout, wouldn’t the entire Great Qian dynasty no longer have famines?

Those two days, Jiang Xuening was extremely worried.

Thinking that Wei Liang gaining power was definitely not good for her, she was just pondering how to deal with this person when the eunuchs from the Office of Internal Affairs came rushing in carrying something again.

Those were three full baskets of the finest Gaoyou salted duck eggs.

The eunuch said they were from Gaoyou County Magistrate Wei Liang, who on this trip to the capital had especially entrusted someone to present them to her as tribute, specifically expressing gratitude for Her Majesty the Empress’s grace of recommendation back then.

Jiang Xuening was simply dumbfounded.

For a moment, she couldn’t distinguish whether this was mockery or mockery.

But in any case, Wei Liang seemed not to have noticed her previous humiliation and malice at all. He had practically engraved her “kindness” in his heart. Therefore, even after jumping three ranks to hold an important position in the Ministry of Revenue, he still told everyone he met that Her Majesty the Empress was a rare good person, and others truly misunderstood her far too deeply. Moreover, he constantly sent fresh seasonal melons and fruits to the capital—during that period, the imperial kitchen didn’t even need to purchase anything from outside.

Just like that, Jiang Xuening inexplicably won over a capable minister whom the common people revered as a true “provider of food and clothing.”

She couldn’t help but think—

Others’ views of this palace lady truly aren’t misunderstandings—Wei Liang, your view of this palace lady is what’s deeply misunderstood!

But in any case, one doesn’t refuse pie falling from the sky. Moreover, Wei Liang’s brain was probably only used for two things—reading and farming—and truly had not the slightest acuity for court struggles.

Others all thought he was her trusted confidant.

Jiang Xuening also had to rack her brains to mediate for him. Whenever he rashly offended someone or blocked someone’s path and was schemed against, she had to follow behind working like an ox and horse to clean up the aftermath or protect him.

Sometimes she wondered: Between this palace lady and Wei Liang, who is whose ancestor?

In any case, over time, this person who was missing a string in his brain became utterly devoted to her.

Whether it was initially a misunderstanding naturally no longer mattered.

No matter how the court situation changed, such people were what those in power most favored and what the common people couldn’t do without. So Jiang Xuening thought, even if she had fallen and collapsed in her previous life, Wei Liang’s ending should still not be bad.

At worst, he’d just return home to farm.

He liked it anyway.

At this moment, staring at him, Jiang Xuening’s mood became extremely complicated. After a long while, she pulled at the corners of her mouth and smiled with seemingly pure innocence: “Young Master Wei, I’m asking you a question.”

Wei Liang shuddered: “This, this one…”

Jiang Xuening brought out the patience she had used to coax fools in her previous life: “Who told you?”

Wei Liang wished he could dig a hole and bury himself: “It’s, it’s this one who had such worries myself. No, no one has told me.”

Jiang Xuening: “…”

Don’t anyone stop me—I want to beat this person up!

Her eyelids twitched several times. She raised her fingers to press on them lightly, barely managing to maintain a benevolent facade about to tear apart, praising against her will: “Young Master Wei truly is a thoughtful person with comprehensive considerations.”

Wei Liang didn’t hear the implication and thought she was truly praising him.

He actually said earnestly: “I dare not accept such praise. This one merely thinks of the common people. If the five grains are abundant but the family and nation are in chaos, wouldn’t that be gaining nothing while losing everything?”

“…”

Jiang Xuening took a deep breath.

“Then you can rest assured. This young lady would have to be blinded by lard to dare associate with the Celestial Doctrine. Young Master Wei’s worries are truly like worrying the sky will fall.”

Wei Liang immediately breathed a long sigh of relief: “In that case, it was Wei who overthought things. Since Miss says so, then Wei will believe it.”

He untied the account book from his sleeve and presented it.

He only said: “This is the grain account for the current season’s harvest that Wei presumptuously withheld. Please forgive this one’s rash and impulsive behavior, Miss.”

The account book had been tied to his arm earlier and still carried a trace of residual warmth.

Jiang Xuening looked at him like looking at a fool.

Wei Liang was puzzled: “Is something wrong?”

After a very long time, Jiang Xuening finally said quietly: “You came all this way just to ask this one question, and whatever I say, you believe, without even asking for any proof?”

“Oh.” Wei Liang seemed to have just realized this, but contrary to Jiang Xuening’s expectations, he didn’t ask her for further evidence. Instead, he smiled at her, bowed with a long salute, and said: “To be honest, this one feels that Miss is not someone who would lie and deceive others. Although the tenant farmers on the estate have never met Miss, Miss has never treated them poorly and doesn’t collect heavy rent from them. When this one came, I was still torn and conflicted, only thinking that if such a good person as Miss truly served the Celestial Doctrine, this one wouldn’t know how to choose. Now that you’ve said you don’t serve the Celestial Doctrine, this one dares to believe.”

“…”

That this person didn’t get killed by someone in the previous life—that truly relied on me looking after him from behind.

Jiang Xuening looked up at the sky speechlessly.

She decided to send several more capable people to Wei Liang’s side later, lest he go out one day and get beaten up by someone. Then, bringing past this topic, she only asked: “Since you’ve come all this way, what tea would Young Master Wei like to drink?”

Wei Liang hastily said: “No need, this one still has matters to attend to.”

Jiang Xuening thought for a moment: “Is it to prepare for the autumn provincial examination?”

Wei Liang was stunned for a moment, as if trying to process what exactly “autumn provincial examination” was. Then he smiled and said: “The autumn examination isn’t that important—just take it casually. But the rice has been harvested, and Wei must return to ponder whether some wheat can be planted in winter, or try planting something called potatoes. They grow very quickly, and moreover…”

Jiang Xuening felt a weariness rising from the depths of her heart. She only felt hundreds of birds chirping in her ears, making her head dizzy and swollen. She had no idea whether she was in Shu region or in Jiangning—she practically felt her feet slipping beneath her.

After a long while, Wei Liang finished speaking.

Then, with some brilliance in his eyes, he asked Jiang Xuening: “What does Miss think?”

Jiang Xuening came back to her senses. Not daring to say she hadn’t understood anything, she thought of the routine for dealing with this person in her previous life, curved her lips into a smile, and worked hard to make herself look extremely delighted, saying: “I think it’s excellent!”

Wei Liang immediately became excited: “Then I’ll go back and do just that!”

Having said this, he bowed once, actually bid farewell, and left, without the slightest intention of staying.

Lian’er and Tang’er in the back were both stunned.

The smile on Jiang Xuening’s face instantly dropped. She only asked them: “What did he just say he was going to plant?”

The two looked at each other and shook their heads.

Fine, none of them understood.

Let him plant whatever he loves.

Jiang Xuening opened the account book Wei Liang had presented and merely glanced at those few figures recorded at the end. Her two willow-leaf eyebrows slowly knitted together: Two years had passed, and the situation with the Tatars should also be showing signs. In business, although she wasn’t as skilled as You Bancheng from her previous life, she didn’t need to hedge her bets on both sides like her to stay safe—secretly aiding Yan Lin alone, the pressure was half as much. She only wondered, was it enough, and would it be in time?