Li Shu immediately fell silent.

Like a thief caught in the act, she quickly turned her head and looked to the right where Cui Jinzhi was.

Cui Jinzhi was sitting on a camp cot watching her, a smile on his face. His right sleeve had been rolled up high, and Physician Xue was in the middle of binding the wound.

Li Shu said: “Lord Shen, were you not promoted to the Ministry of Finance? What brings you to the Yongtong Canal?”

Her face was turned toward Cui Jinzhi, but she was addressing Shen Xiao.

Cui Jinzhi’s smile faded at once.

Shen Xiao noticed that the side of Li Shu’s face had gone slightly flushed — whether from the scorching heat, or from something like… embarrassment.

He raised an eyebrow slightly.

Having had several encounters with Princess Pingyang, he had never seen her like this — so anxious and unsettled. The way she had burst into the tent just now, firing off those questions one after another — it was entirely out of character with the woman he knew.

She was always cold and shrewd, looking at others with nothing but mockery and contempt — as though what beat inside her chest was not a heart but some precise and intricate mechanism.

So it turned out she was capable of such rich, overflowing emotion after all.

But if she cared so deeply for Cui Jinzhi — why had she, in the first place, summoned him to serve as her… consort companion?

Shen Xiao could not work it out. He turned his gaze away, offered Li Shu the formal court salutation, and said evenly: “This official pays his respects to the Princess.”

He explained: “Lord Cui has been sending demands to the Ministry of Finance every single day. So today the Second Prince dispatched this official to come and assess the situation — to determine exactly how much grain the Ministry of Finance ought to allocate to the Yongtong Canal.”

Cui Jinzhi was a Left Deputy Minister of the Ministry of War, third rank.

As Shen Xiao spoke, his gaze came to rest on Cui Jinzhi’s injured arm, and a note of cold disdain crept into his tone. If his gaze had any physical weight, it would have been enough right now to press open Cui Jinzhi’s wound.

From the camp cot, Cui Jinzhi shifted his gaze from Li Shu to Shen Xiao. He fixed Shen Xiao with a cold, hard stare. “As Lord Shen surely witnessed just now,” he said, “the workers constructing the Yongtong Canal have been going so long without grain that they have gotten to the point of taking a swing at me with a hoe.”

By this point Physician Xue had finished binding the wound. Cui Jinzhi raised his arm and gave it a demonstrative wave in Shen Xiao’s direction.

“If the Ministry of Finance delays the grain any further, I fear the Yongtong Canal will erupt into open unrest. Unrest within the capital itself — I trust the Second Prince understands… what the consequences of that would be.”

Cui Jinzhi locked his gaze on Shen Xiao, his words laden with warning. “I know that Lord Shen has no authority over the Ministry of Finance. Then allow me to trouble you to go back and relay a message to the Second Prince — tell him to quickly dispatch some grain to the Yongtong Canal. If the grain is delayed any further, I fear the Ministry of War… will also be unable to keep the Yongtong Canal under control.”

With that, he withdrew his gaze and ceased to look at Shen Xiao.

Cui Jinzhi had not expected that the Ministry of Finance’s envoy today would be Shen Xiao.

A mere eighth-rank Superintendent of the Ministry of Finance comes to inspect the grain usage at the Yongtong Canal? What a joke. The Second Prince must think Cui Jinzhi was a beggar.

Shen Xiao held Cui Jinzhi’s gaze steadily, standing at attention in his eighth-rank cerulean official’s robe. He considered for a moment, then chose not to get drawn into the grain dispute with Cui Jinzhi, and shifted to a different subject instead, speaking slowly: “There is one matter this official does not fully understand, and would ask Lord Cui to enlighten him.”

Cui Jinzhi’s reply was crisp and straightforward: “He escaped.”

Escaped?

Not only Shen Xiao, but even Li Shu was surprised by this.

Cui Jinzhi had one thousand soldiers under his command to supervise the construction of the Yongtong Canal, and on top of that, he himself was of a military family background and had quite respectable skill in combat.

A laborer wielding a hoe — and this man had escaped right out from under the noses of the Ministry of War?

Li Shu looked at Cui Jinzhi, and furrowed her brow.

Shen Xiao was no longer just himself — he was now one arm of the Second Prince’s power. And Cui Jinzhi had happened to get himself injured precisely while one of the Second Prince’s men was present…

This was not simply a case of a laborer causing a disturbance. It felt more like… a deliberate scheme engineered by Cui Jinzhi.

The purpose: to extract as much grain as possible from the Ministry of Finance, to drain the Ministry of Finance dry as quickly as possible.

The same thought struck Li Shu and Shen Xiao at the same moment as they stood side by side.

This morning, when Shen Xiao had arrived at the Yongtong Canal, he had barely begun his inspection rounds alongside Cui Jinzhi before the incident of the laborer’s attack had occurred.

Even at the time, he had felt that this situation was not as straightforward as it appeared on the surface.

It was as though this had been staged as a performance, put on deliberately for the benefit of whoever had come from the Ministry of Finance.

Cui Jinzhi was trying to push the Ministry of Finance to the point of no return, on behalf of the Crown Prince.

Yet the man had fled and was gone — and from this point on, hunting down the suspect and conducting the manhunt were matters for the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of War. Both ministries happened to be firmly in the Crown Prince’s territory.

Whether the laborer’s attack had truly been orchestrated by Cui Jinzhi — that truth could never be uncovered.

And so Shen Xiao set it aside and moved on. “There is one more matter this official does not understand,” he said.

“Half a month ago, as soon as the Crown Prince proposed the scheme of ‘substituting grain for money,’ the Ministry of Finance allocated a shipment of grain to the Yongtong Canal. By my calculations, that shipment should have been sufficient for at least one month. Yet now, less than half a month later, the grain has already run out.”

Cui Jinzhi replied readily: “Oh — is that so unclear? Lord Shen arrived only this morning, and I showed you all the ledgers at the outset. The flow of funds is laid out clearly, without a single discrepancy.”

As he spoke, he patted the thick stack of account books on the desk in front of him. “Oh? Does the Superintendent believe… these account books have some irregularity? Or does he believe that this Deputy Minister has been embezzling grain and money, and fabricated the accounts?”

He rose from the camp cot, stepped forward several paces, and came to stand before Shen Xiao. His phoenix eyes unfurled slightly; Cui Jinzhi fixed him with a cold stare, exerting an invisible, crushing pressure.

Shen Xiao pressed his palms together in a bow and replied with formal, measured words: “This official would not dare make such an insinuation. The account books are in order — this official has examined them. It is only that…”

“Only what?”

“Only that Lord Cui has been rather too generous.”

Shen Xiao said: “The Ministry of Finance allocated one month’s supply of rations to the Yongtong Canal — yet Lord Cui has used up that grain in half the time. This official checked the ledgers and found that Lord Cui was distributing two or three days’ worth of rations in a single day. That is why the grain has run out before its time.”

Shen Xiao understood perfectly well what Cui Jinzhi was doing.

He was burning through the grain with no restraint, deliberately speeding the rate of consumption, so that the Ministry of Finance would be forced to send more shipments sooner. But the Ministry of Finance’s reserves were finite — sooner or later Cui Jinzhi would drain it hollow.

When that day came and the Ministry of Finance had no grain left — and if the Yongtong Canal was still not completed — it would be chaos under the very feet of the Emperor. And the one held responsible for that chaos would be the Second Prince, overseeing the Ministry of Finance.

That was the plan of the Crown Prince and Cui Jinzhi.

Shen Xiao continued: “With Guanzhong suffering severe drought and the court’s resources stretched thin, grain is in finite supply. I would ask Lord Cui to be more sparing in its use from now on. If Lord Cui truly wishes to show compassion for the welfare of the people…”

His voice turned cool. “Your household surely holds considerable grain stores as well — it would be better not to use the Ministry of Finance’s grain to purchase the goodwill of others.”

Blades drawn, the two men clashed.

Cui Jinzhi let out a cold laugh at that and said mockingly: “Lord Shen is truly worthy of his humble origins — the way you speak is really something: pinching every penny, counting every grain.”

Hearing those words, Li Shu furrowed her brow.

In his younger days Cui Jinzhi had been the wayward scion of the Cui Family, having run with all manner of characters from every stratum of society. He was the one person among the aristocratic elite who never judged others by the circumstances of their birth.

What had come over him today?

Cui Jinzhi had been keeping Li Shu in his peripheral vision the entire time. He noticed her brow furrow — the look of displeasure.

What was she displeased about?

Was it because he had mocked Shen Xiao for his humble origins?

For no apparent reason, the dark fire smoldering in Cui Jinzhi’s chest burned higher and higher. Even the sight of Shen Xiao standing in front of him was becoming increasingly difficult to bear.

Shen Xiao stood quietly in the tent. He had heard Cui Jinzhi’s mockery — and his face remained utterly unmoved, not even a single flicker of his brow.

He had heard words like this too many times before.

Seeing how perfectly composed Shen Xiao remained, Cui Jinzhi pressed on: “This official is well aware that the Ministry of Finance’s grain is limited. But when you do your calculations over at the Ministry of Finance, don’t forget — building the Yongtong Canal is grueling, back-breaking work. What you allocate can fill stomachs, but can it truly sustain the workers so they can labor well? The actual daily grain consumption is far greater than your projections.”

“The Yongtong Canal has been under construction for so long now, and it still has not been completed — why is that? When grain is scarce and no one is willing to work, the Emperor will apportion blame; when grain is plentiful and the project falls on schedule, the Ministry of Finance turns around and accuses me of waste!”

Cui Jinzhi raised his voice. “Lord Shen the Superintendent — do you have any idea that I pledged a military oath to the Crown Prince: that by the end of the sixth month, the Yongtong Canal must be completed without exception? Only then can the grain from the south be transported in, only then can the drought in Guanzhong be relieved, and only then can the Ministry of Finance… breathe a little easier.”

“Three short months, a construction project of such monumental difficulty — if you want the laborers to push hard, there is no other way to do it except to make sure they are well-fed and well-rested. This official cannot think of any other method.”

He looked at Shen Xiao, and said mockingly: “If Lord Shen the Superintendent has some brilliant scheme that saves grain while still meeting the deadline, by all means — enlighten this official. After all… you are the number one top scholar of the Great Ye dynasty.”

Shen Xiao was silent. He could sense the enormous hostility radiating from Cui Jinzhi — and that hostility seemed to go beyond purely court-related matters.

After a moment, Shen Xiao spoke: “This official has no alternative scheme to offer.”

No alternative scheme.

To truly relieve Guanzhong’s drought, either heaven would have to send rain, or a massive supply of grain would have to be transported in from the south.

Cui Jinzhi let out a contemptuous snort, casually lifted his right arm, and tugged carelessly at the bandage there. “Oh… so this is the number one top scholar of the Great Ye dynasty.”

Li Shu furrowed her brow again.

Something was off about Cui Jinzhi’s temperament today.

Li Shu knew him well. He was the quintessential son of an aristocratic family in its finest tradition — he had been wayward in his younger years, but once he entered the officialdom, that layer of cultivated, refined aristocratic bearing had closed back around him, tight and secure.

Yet today he was behaving with remarkable irritability — short-tempered and impatient.

As though he had it in for Shen Xiao, specifically.

What had gotten into him today?

Cui Jinzhi glanced sideways and once more caught Li Shu’s furrowed brow.

Li Shu and Shen Xiao stood in a line together, while he stood on the opposite side facing them both. As though they were the pair, and he was the adversary pitted against them.

Cui Jinzhi did not like what he saw.

“He served as my consort companion in the past.”

“I always treated my lovers with gentleness.”

These two sentences had been circling in Cui Jinzhi’s head for days. Together with Li Shu’s inexplicable tolerance toward Shen Xiao, it was all like a thorn lodged under his skin, making Cui Jinzhi thoroughly uncomfortable wherever he turned.

Cui Jinzhi stood with languid ease, head slightly bowed, tugging once more at the bandage on his right arm with a detached, idle air. He seemed to have already dismissed Shen Xiao entirely from his attention.

He was twenty-five years old now. The wild years of his youth — racing his horse down Chang’an’s broad avenues, the beauty of sleeves glimpsed in every upstairs window — had long since been cast aside entirely. Like any steady-handed official, he had fitted himself within the confines of a crimson gauze single robe, moving by the rules, listening for the meaning behind the meaning of every word spoken at court.

Yet every now and then — at the rarest of moments — Li Shu could still catch in him a glimpse of the elegant, free-spirited young man he had been.

Like right now, when he stood in that languid, unhurried way, picking absently at the bandage on his arm.

The figure of Shen Xiao standing in the tent, by contrast, was grave and solemn — spine perfectly straight — forming a sharp and striking contrast with Cui Jinzhi.

At last, having finally managed to work the bandage loose, Cui Jinzhi raised his head, turned to Shen Xiao, and said: “Lord Shen, you have seen what you came to see today, and checked what you came to check. If there is nothing further, please make your way back to the Ministry of Finance at your earliest convenience, and see that some grain is dispatched without delay.”

Cui Jinzhi smiled slightly, stepped a few paces toward the tent entrance, and stood at the flap. He extended his hand in a sweeping gesture of invitation. “Lord Shen, please.”

Cui Jinzhi had issued the order to leave. Shen Xiao had no choice but to go. He turned, gave Li Shu a bow of salutation, then walked toward the entrance.

Shen Xiao and Cui Jinzhi stepped out of the tent one after the other. The tent flap fell closed behind them, and then Shen Xiao heard Cui Jinzhi say something in a low voice.

“Stay away from her.”

Shen Xiao turned around, and saw Cui Jinzhi’s phoenix eyes filled with ice, staring at him coldly.

Having said what he had to say, Cui Jinzhi turned away, drew back the tent flap, and went inside.

Shen Xiao could see that inside the tent, Princess Pingyang had bent down to pick up the account books from the desk — and then the flap fell shut, cutting off his line of sight.

A single curtain separated the inside of the tent from the outside — as though two different worlds.

He had always been far from her to begin with.

Shen Xiao thought to himself.