Chapter 57

Stockpiling rice was not as smooth as they imagined, but it wasn’t too difficult.

Su Huaijing bought ten thousand bushels of polished rice relatively lower than the market price, and purchasing all that the merchants were willing to sell.

Rong Tang calculated that with thirty people eating one bushel of rice a day and stretching the porridge during the disaster period by dividing one portion into three, one bushel of rice would cover ninety people. Suzhou Prefecture has a total population of five hundred thousand. Subtracting those with surplus grain at home and the wealthy, the disaster-affected population is estimated to be one-quarter, which amounts to one hundred and twenty-five thousand people.

Such a large number of people would need nearly one thousand four hundred bushels of grain per day. Even if all ten thousand bushels of grain were used to make porridge, it would only last for seven days. Moreover, dividing one person’s portion into three is inherently unreasonable.

After Rong Tang finished quantifying this account, he stood there frowning and said nothing for a long time.

And this is only Suzhou Prefecture.

Even if the basic issue of food is marginally solved, a series of consequential problems such as countless diseases, rebellions, property losses, and the inability to cultivate the land will appear later.

Jiangnan has a total of twelve state capitals, hundreds of counties, and a populace exceeding twenty million……

He stood in front of the barn, staring at the heaps of polished rice—of which he could barely spot the top—and a sense of powerlessness washed over him.

Rong Tang couldn’t help but wonder, compared to the lives of millions of people, what did all the intrigues he stirred up for Sheng Chengli in the court and harem in his previous two lives truly amount to?

He couldn’t understand. The evening wind breezed past, dissipating the sultry summer heat. Su Huaijing came over, held his hand, and asked warmly, “Shall we return home?”

Rong Tang was stunned for a moment, turned around, and nodded. “Ng.”

He initially intended to store the grain in their newly purchased residence, but Su Huaijing firmly stopped him. The reason was simple. No one knows what kind of drastic actions people would take to survive in the face of natural and man-made calamities.

Their residence is already wealthy. If they store so much food, even with government troops dispatched to guard it, its safety may not be ensured.

As such, all the rice was secretly transported to an estate in Suzhou under Rong Tang’s name and was guarded by a trustworthy steward. Su Huaijing secretly sent Liu Yun to supervise it.

Rong Tang lowered his head and walked ahead. Su Huaijing did not say anything to disrupt his thoughts, until the young prince suddenly called him “Huaijing.”

“I’m here.” Su Huaijing responded softly.

Rong Tang’s tone was bland: “I’m hungry.”

“What do you want to eat?” Su Huaijing asked and subsequently gave him another option: “Furong Restaurant’s squirrel mandarin fish? You ate it the day before yesterday and said it was pretty good. Or perhaps Zuiyue Pavilion’s fish head topped with chopped chilli peppers? It’s spicy and might suit your palate.”

Rong Tang shook his head. The sunset’s afterglow spilled across the sky, the clouds forming scales like fish and descending upon the misty Jiangnan landscape. It was exceptionally beautiful. In the distance, the pond was filled with blooming lotuses, both elegant and abundant.

“I want to eat flaky lotus pastries.” He counted in a daze, “I also want to eat hibiscus cakes, Longjing tea crisps, osmanthus sticky rice lotus root, with a small pot of green plum wine.”

After Rong Tang mentioned the last one, his voice noticeably dropped a little, and he didn’t appear very confident after he’d spoken. He raised his eyes to look at Su Huaijing and asked in a low voice, “Alright?”

Su Huaijing was startled, then laughed in a low voice: “Alright.”

He used to think that Tangtang didn’t like sweets, but it turned out to be because he didn’t find things very bitter.

As someone who has experienced hardships and who feels a bitter taste in their mouth even when speaking normally, how could they not like sweets?

His little Buddha, who drank several large bowls of bitter medicine every day, only wanted a little candied fruit to suppress his throat, but after seeing the foodstuff in the barn, he named a list of pastries.

Su Huaijing inwardly shook his head, unable to help feeling soft-hearted. He once again lamented what kind of beauty with the heart of a glazed Buddha he’d married, dressed in his dark green wedding robes.

He’d been traversing in the deepest, murkiest darkness for many years, but when he saw such a clean and pure light, he still couldn’t resist wanting to get closer and possessing it.

–

It was the ninth day of the sixth month, high summer.

Rong Tang felt dizzy after waking up early in the morning and didn’t want to go out. Su Huaijing had someone prepare ice slabs in advance and place them in several corners of the study. The two of them nestled deep in their Suzhou garden residence, playing chess all day.

As always, there was no victor. The black and white pieces criss-crossed, scattered like countless sands of the Ganges in the world of mortals, one by one.

Until there was a knock on the courtyard door. Someone had come to visit in the evening sun. He was wearing a rich apricot outfit, stained with the dust of travel. He stood outside the door and said with a smile, “Biao xiong, you came to Suzhou without informing me. If I had known, I would have arranged for you to travel south with me.”

Rong Tang blinked gently and looked at Sheng Chengming, feeling that he was much more dishevelled than when he’d seen him at the flower-picking festival, but his eyes were bright.

There were several officials following behind him. Scanning around, Rong Tang noted that among them were some very talented and knowledgeable newcomers from the Ministry of Works. They may not have shown their talents yet, but in two years, when Su Huaijing becomes the Imperial Censor, each one of them will be a mainstay of the Dayu imperial court.

Rong Tang couldn’t help but glance back at Su Huaijing. The latter gave a light smile, bowed slightly in greeting to Sheng Chengming, and welcomed him into the courtyard.

Rong Tang took a closer look and found a little tail at the end of the group, wearing a grey-brown Confucian robe.

He was stunned for a moment and walked over to Lu Jiaxi. “Why are you here too?”

Lu Jiaxi’s face was pale. It was unclear whether it was due to acclimation issues or fatigue from travelling too long. Hearing this, he smiled feebly: “Hello, Your Highness, long time no see……”

Hearing his weak, feeble voice, Rong Tang was extremely worried that he would faint in his courtyard right away. Momentarily confused, he dragged Lu Jiaxi to the side courtyard.

Sheng Chengming asked to borrow a hall for discussions, and Rong Tang couldn’t follow. Su Huaijing said he wanted to check how the kitchen was doing with the dinner preparations, but Rong Tang didn’t care what he intended and turned around to find Lu Jiaxi.

Young Excellency Lu drank a cup of hot tea and ate a few pastries. He finally recovered a little and sat hunched on the chair, unable to stop his hands from touching his legs.

Rong Tang understood clearly and said directly, “Does it ache a lot?”

Lu Jiaxi was stunned for two seconds, then lifted his head with a sad expression: “We’ve been travelling for a long, long time.”

He is only sixteen years old. Before the fourth month of this year, he was still the son of a merchant who could only recite literary jargon in school. Now that two months have passed, he’s been in and out of the Imperial Academy, navigated official circles, attended banquets, and been brought all the way to Jiangnan by the Second Prince from the imperial capital where he’d grown up.

Rong Tang got up and went out to ask Shuang Fu to bring in some moxibustion sticks, so that he could use them for Lu Jiaxi.

Young Excellency Lu was shocked and flattered, asking why they had such things at home.

Rong Tang smiled and said, “I’m not in good health. I get tired when I go out occasionally. Huaijing learned moxibustion techniques from the doctor and taught Shuang Fu. I use them sometimes.”

Lu Jiaxi was exposed to the hot mugwort, and his fatigue slowly dissipated.

However, he felt that it wasn’t very refined to hold up his trousers. Although Rong Tang didn’t mind, he still had a short screen brought over to obscure Lu Jiaxi’s feet. As the two of them chatted through the screen, the room filled with the fragrance of mugwort.

Rong Tang asked why they had come to Jiangnan. Lu Jiaxi said: “In early the fifth month, before it rained, His Highness handled several cases in the capital and trained a team of soldiers at the Ministry of War. His Majesty felt that His Highness had progressed significantly of late and asked if there was any place he wanted to inspect, considering it an inspection on His Majesty’s behalf.”

Rong Tang was stunned for a moment upon hearing this. The treatment Emperor Renshou gave to the Second Prince was really enviable, even hinting at the vague impression of appointing an heir.

Compared with Sheng Chengming, Sheng Chengxing, who had just entered the court last month to observe politics, was simply trampled into the dust.

Rong Tang knew that Sheng Chengming’s coming to Jiangnan was most likely Su Huaijing’s suggestion, but it was shocking that Emperor Renshou would take the initiative to propose the idea of “inspecting.”

He unconsciously suspected that Su Huaijing actually had influence in the harem.

Rong Tang frowned slightly and then heard Lu Jiaxi say: “His Highness said frankly that he grew up in Jiangnan with his emperor father and concubine mother. Now that he is eighteen years old, he misses his hometown quite a lot. He also said that he is really stupid and reckless and cannot bear the consequences of the great honour of patrolling on behalf of his imperial father. Therefore, he only requested His Majesty for a group of bodyguards, plus a few officials from the Six Ministries, to set off south.

Rong Tang: “……” Since when did you become so eloquent?

Lu Jiaxi looked around to make sure there was no one else nearby, then leaned closer to the screen and whispered: “They say they are travelling lightly, but in fact, before leaving, His Majesty still gave His Highness an imperial edict, stating that if he encounters corrupt officials on the way, he can punish them on the spot.”

Rong Tang took a sip of tea and murmured, “That is indeed quite a sizeable authority.”

Lu Jiaxi nodded hastily. “During the time before His Highness left, everyone in the imperial court was talking about this. Even my colleagues in Hanlin Academy would mention it while on duty. I originally thought it had nothing to do with me. But on the seventeenth of last month, His Highness suddenly came to Hanlin Academy and ordered me to go south with him.”

Rong Tang raised an eyebrow and said with a smile, “This is a good thing.”

In this way, even if young Excellency Lu has had outside experience, if this flood can have a favourable outcome, the officials who accompanied Sheng Chengming will undoubtedly be rewarded. Lu Jiaxi entered Hanlin Academy as a newcomer, and if he contributes in the face of a natural disaster, his future career will only rise meteorically and be smooth sailing.

Ke Hongxue’s junior may indeed be able to advance all the way to a PhD position.

Rong Tang chuckled lightly, but Lu Jiaxi blushed, realising that luck was truly on his side.

He paused for a moment, then added, “We set out on the eighteenth of the fifth month. Along the way, everyone thought that His Highness might take a leisurely tour. After all, with an imperial edict in hand, there was a high probability that he would conduct inspections along the way. But we travelled day and night. His Highness suffered from motion sickness and vomited many times without stopping to rest, as if something was pursuing him.”

“……” Torrential rain is waiting overhead, Rong Tang thought.

Lu Jiaxi said, “We walked along the river. Excellency Zhou Zihai is an official of the Ministry of Public Works and excels in water conservancy mapping. Whenever we reach a place, His Highness first goes to the dyke and has Excellency Zhou lead a team to conduct surveying and mapping. Along the way, a total of seventeen large dykes and thirty-two small dykes were plotted. Even today, on the way from Hangzhou to Suzhou, we first went to the river mouth to draw the dyke before coming to your residence.”

Rong Tang was stunned for a moment and widened his eyes in disbelief.

Lu Junxian, the Governor of Jiangnan, was a disciple of Senior Official Zhang. This flood was a severe blow to the Second Prince’s party. In the previous two lives, Sheng Chengming and Senior Official Zhang quickly reacted and tried every means to remedy the situation because of Su Huaijing, but in no other life had they made so many preparations in advance.

In the character setting of the main villain, there is no such classification for loving the people of Dayu. Rong Tang never thought of imposing his own ideas on him, but Su Huaijing had changed.

He’d taken the initiative to stock up on foodstuffs and asked Sheng Chengming to come to Jiangnan with an imperial edict in advance. No matter how many people they could save after this disaster, at least things were progressing for the better.

Rong Tang felt a slight sting in his nose and glanced at the door. The dusk outside the courtyard had passed, and the stars had appeared. As the dim light fell, summer cicadas began chirping.

He suddenly wanted to see Su Huaijing and hug him.

Rong Tang squeezed his hands and asked, “What were you all doing in Hangzhou Prefecture?”

Lu Jiaxi slowly recovered, his eyes lit up, and he flaunted like a child who had just done something particularly great: “To arrest Governor Lu!”

“What?”

Lu Jiaxi: “His Imperial Highness didn’t hide the truth from the officials on the way south, but we basically didn’t pass through any major state capitals. When we arrived in Hangzhou, Lu Junxian thought we were still far away. So His Highness went directly to the government office with people and happened to encounter some subordinate officials who had come to pay their respects. His Highness immediately flew into a towering rage and ordered them all arrested and thrown into prison.”

“?”

“!”

As expected of him!

Sheng Chengming truly deserves the title of the most reckless person in the entire story. Even with the strategist, Su Huaijing, backing him, he still doesn’t care about what he does and pays no mind to the principle of how a small action can affect the entire situation.

Regardless of the consequences, just do it and get it over with. If Lu Junxian isn’t doing his job, then arrest him. As for what to charge him with—

Just use whatever is available. After all, if you have too many debts, you don’t worry about them.

Rong Tang was speechless for a long time before asking, “Then who is sitting in the governor’s office now?”

“This is the reason why we came to Suzhou,” Lu Jiaxi said. “We met Excellency Jiang Shanxing at the dam in the morning. His Highness sent him to the governor’s office to manage it temporarily.”

He frowned, and his inexperienced face showed a hint of weariness as he spoke worriedly: “I heard from Excellency Zhou along the way that the situation at the river mouth this year is unusual, and there is a fear of flooding. Before coming, His Highness issued an order with his prince’s authority for government troops to go to low-lying areas to organise people to evacuate, but we don’t know how well it’s being implemented.”

He had been exhausted just now, needing moxibustion to recover. But as he talked about this, his expression turned terribly anxious. He patted his face to bolster his spirits, then bent down to remove the moxibustion stick and got up to go out.

Rong Tang: “Where are you going?”

Lu Jiaxi scratched his head shyly, with a hint of pride: “I’m going to see if there’s anything His Highness needs me for. I drew a lot of maps along the way. They may not remember some details as clearly as I do!”

Rong Tang was stunned for a while, then laughed softly: “Thank you for your hard work, young Excellency Lu.”

The author has something to say:

Thank you for your hard work, reckless people. – Let me tell you in advance: there will definitely still be casualties in the disaster. Everything that is being done now is to minimise the losses. As Huaijing said, As long as you can save one person, it’s not meaningless. This little fish cares. I wish you all happiness every day!