Chapter 150
Xie Chengze slipped the letter into an envelope, sealed it with wax, and called, “Wuji.”
A faint breeze stirred. A dark figure landed silently. “Your Highness.”
That wasn’t Wuji’s voice. Xie Chengze turned and saw Wuhen. So he hadn’t misheard. “Why is it you? Where’s Wuji?”
“He’s caught a slight chill and is recovering,” Wuhen said evenly. “If you have anything important to attend to, Your Highness, please give me your instructions.”
“All right.” Xie Chengze handed him the letter. “Go back to the capital and deliver this to Father. And while you’re there…”
He gave further instructions in a low voice. Wuhen listened quietly, then held the letter and considered for a moment. “Actually, Wuji’s illness isn’t serious. Perhaps he should go after all.”
Xie Chengze: ?
“Either way is fine. Decide between yourselves.” Xie Chengze stretched. “I’m going to check the progress at the rink. If you need me, look for me there.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
After Xie Chengze left, Wuhen went to another room. Wuji was sitting on the bed, regulating his breathing and practicing his internal arts. There was nothing much wrong with his body, but the bruises all over his face had yet to fade. He was quite a sight.
“Wuhen!” Sensing him enter, Wuji stopped practicing and glared at him. “You have the nerve to come here?! Look what you did to me! We agreed not to hit the face!”
Just because his martial arts were better, he had viciously targeted Wuji’s face, leaving him unable to show it before His Highness!
“You crossed the line first. If I ever did the same, you would be welcome to beat me into this state. I wouldn’t fight back.” Wuhen held out the letter. “His Highness wants you to deliver this to the capital and take care of a few things there.”
Wuji took it dubiously. “He didn’t tell you to deliver it, only for you to dump it on me, did he?”
“How could he have?” Wuhen’s voice was steady, his face betraying nothing. “His Highness specifically called for you to deliver it.”
There had been a few twists afterward, but that didn’t count as a lie, did it?
…
Everything at the ice rink was proceeding in good order.
The standing troops had also begun treating Xie Chengze with courtesy, stopping to salute whenever they met him. They were full of affection and respect for this approachable yet unfathomable Second Prince.
After becoming brothers with the soldiers, they learned that the Second Prince had helped bring about the Xiongnu surrender. Even as bandits, they had heard of the Xiongnu’s ferocity and cruelty. Yet this delicate-looking prince had frightened their king into retreat from a thousand li away. Truly, appearances could be deceiving.
Nothing like that Vice Minister Shen, or whatever his title was: scheming, cunning, and utterly unforgiving. He had requested two national laws that tricked the bandits at every turn, ultimately forcing them into the standing troops to do hard labor here!
If you asked them, rather than work for that Shen fellow, they would be better off following this Second Prince with his extraordinary abilities. Perhaps they could earn merit someday and become great generals!
So thought the former bandits, utterly unaware that those nasty tricks had actually been Xie Chengze’s ideas.
Xie Chengze knew nothing of their private calculations either. Standing on the ice, he surveyed the beginnings of this feast of ice and snow and nodded slightly.
The Second Chief was cutting ice with all his might, exhausting every bit of strength to make the largest possible ice statue of Xie Chengze. Su Qinghe followed Elder Gu, learning to carve while calculating the amount of ice needed for each sculpture to avoid waste. Sheng Yiren’s portable abacus never stopped. Its beads clattered as though throwing off invisible sparks, and her slender fingers had developed fine calluses. Every movement meant money slipping away. It was painful to watch.
But however painful it was, there was no avoiding what must be faced.
“Your Highness!” Meeting Xie Chengze’s eyes and seeing that he meant to slip away, Sheng Yiren sprang straight up like the weeping willow uprooted by Lu Zhishen. She caught the back of his collar with perfect accuracy. “Where do you think you’re running off to now?!”
She had warned him several times that they were running out of money, but he kept avoiding her. Forced to hunt him down at the rink, she had finally caught him!
“Ahem.” Xie Chengze covered his lips and coughed lightly a few times, looking as though nothing was wrong. “This memory of mine! Once I get busy, I forget.”
Sheng Yiren narrowed her beautiful eyes, her expression saying, “Do you really expect me to believe that?”
Guiltily, Xie Chengze looked away.
“If you’re short of money, you can borrow through me. I can persuade lenders to offer you an interest rate of just one fen.” Sheng Yiren shook her head helplessly. “Why hide from me? Unless you don’t consider me one of your own?”
“Of course I do!” Xie Chengze promptly raised his voice in denial. “I’ve long considered you one of my own. It’s just… just…”
He looked troubled, shaking his head and sighing, which greatly piqued Sheng Yiren’s curiosity. “Just what? Please speak plainly, Your Highness.”
“Ah, very well. I’ll tell you.” Xie Chengze leaned toward her ear and lowered his voice. “You know the Jiang family of Yangzhou? Yes, Consort Rou’s maternal family, the wealthiest family in Yangzhou and in all Jian’an.”
“Their young master wrote to me. He says he’s being tested by his family and needs to find a business opportunity on which to establish himself, proving he can inherit the family enterprise someday. He offered to sponsor me with thirty thousand silver taels. But afterward, his family must finance and run Liaozhou’s Ice Sculpture Festival every year, and receive eighty percent of the proceeds.”
“The money’s on its way. Just wait a little longer. It’ll be here soon~” Xie Chengze reassured her gently.
“What?!” Sheng Yiren’s beautiful eyes widened, blazing with anger. “Outrageous! That young master has the nerve to demand so much! A mere thirty thousand silver taels, and he wants to buy out every future Ice Sculpture Festival and take eighty percent of the profits? Shameless!”
“Your Highness! You haven’t agreed, have you?!” She looked urgently at him. “It’s bad enough that the Jiang family monopolizes trade in the south. Now they’re turning their attention north. If they succeed, Jian’an will be in danger!”
The Jiang family’s wealth already rivaled the state’s. Had Consort Rou not loved Emperor Jian, their fortune alone would have been enough to recruit troops, buy allegiance, and overthrow all of Jian’an. But Consort Rou disliked war, and Jiang Henan was utterly devoted to his sister. That was why Jian’an, which had seen only two emperors, had not fallen into turmoil again.
Wealth concentrated in a single person’s hands was hardly good for Jian’an.
If Consort Rou died someday and a new emperor passed away, no one could guarantee that the Jiang family wouldn’t become a tiger eyeing that lofty seat.
As an official’s daughter, Sheng Yiren naturally understood these workings. That was why she urged Xie Chengze never to give the Jiang family the right to run the Ice Sculpture Festival.
“Alas, the festival takes a great deal of manpower and money. I can’t come here every year to pay for it and oversee it myself. We’ll have to find a wealthy merchant capable of taking on the responsibility, but no merchant in Liaozhou can shoulder it…”
Xie Chengze stole a glance at Sheng Yiren. Seeing that she seemed moved, he made his expression even more bitter and sorrowful. His already gorgeous face looked so pitiful that even a woman couldn’t help aching for him. “Most importantly, I really am short of money. Those thirty thousand silver taels would undoubtedly solve my most urgent problem!”
He gazed worriedly at the sky and said softly, “Thirty thousand silver taels… If that money reached the common people, couldn’t it revive the north’s withering finances?”