Chapter 34
Chapter 34
Shen Yuan had an enormous headache.
This position was indeed a death trap. Shen Yuan could not be everywhere at once. Given how fast the refugees from each county traveled, he could persuade at most two counties’ refugees to turn back after they reached Jiangdu County.
While Shen Yuan was overwhelmed with work, Xie Chengze hid furtively behind a wooden corridor pillar and waved a small hand at him as he hurried past.
Shen Yuan meant to ignore him. Then Xie Chengze gave the sort of wolf whistle favored by capital dandies and called in a “delicate” voice, “Young Master Shen~ Come here~”
Goose bumps instantly covered Shen Yuan’s body, making him even less inclined to respond. But remembering Xie Chengze’s icy words and utterly disappointed gaze that day, he stopped and tightened his hand around the sword hilt at his waist. In the end, he turned and strode toward him.
With a crisis upon them, it was best not to fall out with Xie Chengze completely.
“If Your Highness has something to say, say it quickly. This subject is very busy.” His voice was low, carrying a hint of irritation at being forced to compromise.
“Ahem. Has Lord Shen devised a way to deal with those tens of thousands of refugees?” Xie Chengze cleared his throat and feigned solemnity.
“This subject is incompetent.” Shen Yuan lowered his head and eyes, resentment written between his brows.
Had Xie Chengze not called him incompetent? Then Shen Yuan would show him incompetence.
“Oh, I know you’re incompetent. You don’t need to remind me.” Xie Chengze could not resist running his mouth.
Shen Yuan: “…”
Shen Yuan turned and walked away.
“Hey, hey, hey!” Xie Chengze hurriedly grabbed him. Why could this man never take a joke? “Fine, I won’t tease you. As for the refugees, this prince has thought of a plan.”
Shen Yuan turned and regarded him suspiciously. “You?”
“That’s right. Beg me, and I’ll tell you~” Xie Chengze immediately put on airs again.
Shen Yuan’s expression changed at once. “If Your Highness is truly concerned for the people, do not assume this…”
Before he could finish, Xie Chengze shoved the end of his gold-threaded fan into his mouth.
Shen Yuan: “???”
“You should stop talking. Every day, all you do is use the people’s lives to morally blackmail me. Can’t you beg me simply on the basis of our pure relationship as sovereign and subject – and friends?” Xie Chengze frowned in disgust. After speaking, he withdrew the fan and wiped it on Shen Yuan’s robe.
Shen Yuan: “…”
Shen Yuan drew a deep breath and rubbed his forehead helplessly.
Sometimes Xie Chengze’s bizarre, deranged behavior truly angered him into laughter.
“Fine. You merely want me to beg, don’t you?” Shen Yuan stepped forward and braced himself against the corridor pillar. His tall, slender frame caged Xie Chengze between his arms, his dark gaze fixed upon him.
If Xie Chengze wanted to see it, Shen Yuan would show him. He wanted to hear what marvelous plan Xie Chengze had devised to settle thirty thousand refugees.
Yet when the words reached his lips, for some reason they became difficult to utter.
Perhaps it was the intense expectation shining in Xie Chengze’s brilliant eyes. Or perhaps the amusement and mockery on his face were too obvious, leaving Shen Yuan… inexplicably embarrassed.
Especially at such close range, he could see the slight, smug curve of Xie Chengze’s scarlet lips. Untouched by rouge, they were vivid and lustrous, as if waiting to be plucked. With Xie Chengze’s head tilted, the red-beaded tassel earring on his luminous white earlobe swayed gently, tugging strangely at Shen Yuan’s heartstrings.
He could not help retreating a step. But Xie Chengze noticed and advanced with him, raising his fan to bar the retreat. His voice was soft and delicate, threaded with teasing amusement. “Lord Shen?”
The beautiful young man arched a brow as if to say: Lord Shen, surely you are not incapable?
His heart pounded like a drum, making his ears ring. Shen Yuan’s previously clear gaze trembled slightly, and his eyes slid involuntarily from Xie Chengze’s lips to the floor beside them.
He parted his lips. His throat was dry, making his voice low and hoarse, unexpectedly tinged with a tantalizing allure. “Your Highness, help… help this subject. Please… I beg you…”
By the time he finished, the roots of Powerful Minister Shen’s ears were as red as dripping blood.
His entire face seemed to have been thrust into a furnace, burning hot and scarlet. Entirely unaware that he was cooked through, Shen Yuan composedly raised both hands in salute. “Is Your Highness satisfied? Will you now tell this subject the plan you devised?”
If Xie Chengze dared toy with him, Shen Yuan would certainly –
“Satisfied, very satisfied~” Xie Chengze was already squealing like a pig with laughter inside. He leaned close to Shen Yuan’s crimson ear and whispered for some time.
Shen Yuan’s expression shifted from speechlessness to stunned stillness, then from surprise to shock, before finally turning strange.
“You…” He hesitated, his gaze changing several times as he looked at Xie Chengze.
The plan was too astonishing. For a moment, he could not believe that the man before him was truly the same foolish, mediocre Second Prince from his previous life.
The Second Prince could never have devised something so thorough and even… excessively peculiar.
Had Xie Chengze been reborn too early and secretly recruited the talented people from his previous life to devise plans for him? Or was he fundamentally…
Shen Yuan suddenly remembered two things Xie Chengze had once said.
“Young Master Shen, oh Young Master Shen. I am not that vicious and ruthless Second Prince.”
“This prince has never owed Lord Shen anything, and Lord Shen has never had any grievance with me.”
What exactly had those words meant?
Shen Yuan dared not think further.
“Lord Shen, do you remember the wager I made with you?” Xie Chengze’s lips curved in a bright, springlike smile. On that radiant, blooming face, it was inexplicably mesmerizing and stirred the heart. “When the Min River obeys my command, do not forget to call this prince Daddy.”
Shen Yuan: “…”
Shen Yuan ruthlessly strangled the mortal desire that had stirred for one fleeting instant.
Even if he, Shen Yuan, starved to death, leaped from Mount Min, and drowned in the Min River, he would never harbor improper thoughts about Xie Chengze!
“Since you approve of this prince’s plan, I must trouble Lord Shen with the next step.” Mimicking Shen Yuan’s salute, Xie Chengze said with a smile, “I will have Wuji keep watch over Lizhou and Yuzhou. You need only delay the grain convoys approaching from the north and await this prince’s message.”
“Very well.” Shen Yuan gave him a long look. “I hope Your Highness keeps his word.”
…
After assembling the yamen runners and prefectural troops from across the area, Liang Wanda practically rolled and crawled to Xie Chengze. “Your Highness! The refugees are almost here! The scout says the first group alone numbers two thousand!”
“Prefect Liang, do not panic.” Xie Chengze patted his shoulder confidently. “Go do this and this, then that and that.”
He laid out the arrangements in detail. After listening, Liang Wanda looked both doubtful and worried. “Can this truly solve the problem?”
“Prefect Liang.” Xie Chengze stepped beside him and rested a hand on his shoulder, the smile on his lips laden with meaning. “How could the mere achievement of predicting a mountain flood be enough? This prince also intends to have the scholars of Jian’an paint your heroic figure as you rebuild the river embankment and look upon the magnificent embankment holding back the mountain flood.”
At those words, Prefect Liang’s face went pale.
“Your Highness, the matter of rebuilding the river embankment…” Horrified, he trembled as he spoke. “Might it not require further consideration?”
Only at that moment did Liang Wanda suddenly sense that the Second Prince was far from simple. Everything the prince had just said was shocking and unconventional. Liang Wanda finally came to his senses and realized something was wrong.
On the surface, the Second Prince appeared to be the same sort of man as him, yet everything he did benefited the people and the nation. His prediction of the torrential storm and mountain flood in particular had revealed breathtaking wisdom and decisiveness. Even Liang Wanda could not help being awed by his extraordinary ability to order the world.
How could such a man ever join a corrupt official like him in wrongdoing?
Liang Wanda had spent years in office. No matter how slow he was or how thoroughly profit had blinded him, he now realized that Xie Chengze was even more terrifying than Shen Yuan.
Shen Yuan might act arrogantly and forcefully, but he obeyed the law in everything and proceeded step by step. The Second Prince, however, was like a smiling tiger with a knife concealed behind his grin. With only a few words, he had made Liang Wanda spin in circles…
The Second Prince had likely seen long ago that he was colluding with those lords. He had merely seen through him without exposing him, waiting to finish using him before killing him as a warning to the rest – !
Liang Wanda dropped abruptly to his knees and cried, “Your Highness, spare my life!”
Xie Chengze arched a brow, snapped open his folding fan, and waved it gently. “Oh? Whatever do you mean, Prefect Liang?”