Page 255

"Are you sure it’s them who don’t fancy me?" Xia Zheng suddenly turned and raised an eyebrow at her, suggesting something with his glance.

Lin Yuan’s face darkened in an instant, "Don’t tell me you actually have some rotten admirers!"

"Admirers would be overselling it, at most they’re just budding flowers." Seeing Lin Yuan’s face was about to change, Xia Zheng quickly added, "That’s why, my dear, you have to work harder to expand your shop to the capital city and chop down all those rotten admirers for your husband."

Lin Yuan snorted loudly and turned her head away, ignoring him.

Xia Zheng’s eyebrows lifted triumphantly; it seemed the little girl truly believed him, not even catching his hidden barbs in the conversation.

"But why do they need you for disaster relief?" Lin Yuan recalled the previous question. Since he wasn’t a prince or an official, why would they need a shopkeeper for disaster relief? Could it be the Imperial Court had no one else?

Xia Zheng shrugged his shoulders: "You haven’t been to the capital city, you don’t understand those officials. They’re all plump and well-fed, but when it’s time to actually do something, they all turn into shrinking turtles."

As Lin Yuan listened, she pictured in her mind the bloated, large-eared officials who did nothing but eat, making Xia Zheng seem truly handsome in her eyes.

Xia Zheng let out a sigh and continued, "Moreover, the Imperial Court doesn’t have much silver tael available for disaster relief, so they have to requisition it from the homes of various officials."

Lin Yuan nodded, so the Imperial Court was out of money.

It made sense; if the Imperial Court ran out of funds, it was the common people who suffered, left unaided in disasters.

If by chance the Court allocated funds, and if the local authority was honest, that would be one thing, but if they were like Li Chang, life would indeed be misery itself.

"No wonder you’re in such a rush to make money; it turns out your family is out of silver too."

Xia Zheng was momentarily taken aback and looked at her puzzledly.

Lin Yuan said with a smile, "If your family had silver to submit to the Imperial Court, would your father be so urgently summoning you back? Surely he would have handed over the silver himself."

Xia Zheng blinked; actually, his family wasn’t short on silver, it was just that his mother held tight to the purse strings. Surely the old man must have done something to displease her again, which was why he was now turning to his youngest son for help.

"Oh right, I heard something about a Little White Rabbit and picking a flower. Do you need to bring rabbits for disaster relief? And why wear a flower? Is it some kind of medicinal herb?"

Lin Yuan didn’t quite catch the last thing Xia Zheng and Lao Fan said, so she had been rather baffled.

Xia Zheng wanting to bring Lao Fan along most likely was just caution against disease outbreak following the floods.

If that were the case, then the flower must be some sort of medicinal herb, right?

She wasn’t too clear on medical knowledge, just curious.

Xia Zheng, however, was speechless. It turned out the girl mistook "scheming for the throne" as "picking a flower". He wondered how that genteel and easily toppled Little White Rabbit from the capital city would look with a flower on; it was bound to be quite ladylike.

Well, well, he had already bled out so much silver tael for him, asking him to wear a flower for his own enjoyment wasn’t asking too much, was it?

A certain someone in the capital city suddenly sneezed, rubbed his nose, and continued to bury his head in organizing the disaster relief plan.

Meanwhile, in the military camp, a certain older brother was furiously crushing a freshly received Flying Pigeon Letter. His rare outburst of temper took the nearby guard by surprise. It seemed that only the second young master could provoke the Great Commander into such an uncontrollable rage.

"Damn brat, damn brat! I really want to chop you up with a knife! Was it just some silver you needed from me? That alone would’ve been fine, but you even demand my Hidden Guards from the military camp!

How outrageous, how outrageous! Are Hidden Guards something you can just transfer at will?

Huh? They’re meant for the battlefield, to fight against enemies!

Damn scamp! You’re killing me! You’re killing me! "