Just as Wanwan was feeling shy, Zhang Xiu suddenly pushed the door open and came in, holding an account book in his hand. He flipped through it and muttered in confusion, "Wanwan, come and take a look. The amount of grain and the amount of silver invested don't match the account."

"really?"

Wan Suizhou lowered his gray eyebrows. He had been an official for many years and knew the importance of provisions for military operations. Provisions were also the easiest place to tamper with. Many battles that elite troops and generals were confident of winning in history were lost because of provisions.

Upon hearing this, the girlish shyness that had been on Wanwan's face vanished instantly. She strode over to her aunt, and Wan Suizhou also came over, the three of them huddling together.

“Look here,” Zhang Xiu pointed to an account book, “100,000 taels of silver were used to purchase 100,000 catties of grain, but when it arrived, more than half of it was missing!”

Zhang Xiu was completely baffled. "I know that some provisions are consumed during transport, so how could there be so much less? It's more than what we used in the war!"

The three of them looked at each other, a sense of foreboding rising in their hearts.

"Perhaps the people transporting the grain did something wrong along the way." Wanwan's youthful face was full of seriousness and earnestness, her obsidian-like eyes flashed with determination, and her delicate eyebrows were slightly furrowed.

Wan Suizhou remained calm and composed, reaching out to stroke Wanwan's head, and said earnestly, "Wanwan, we can't let the bad guys get away with this."

"What tricks? What did they do?" Wan Yuechi asked, holding a book in one hand and an apple in the other, looking at the three serious-looking people with a puzzled expression as he ate.

With a glint of mischief in her eyes, she reached out and hooked her arm around her second brother's, saying with a smile, "Brother, we have another case to investigate."

Thus, Wan Yuechi boarded the pirate ship with doubt and went to escort grain with Wanwan that very day.

Wan Yuechi also brought his deputy Cao Chengye along. Cao Chengye's face, which had been accidentally injured by Wan Yuechi last time, had recovered. The three of them disguised themselves and easily blended into the grain transport team.

That night, Wanwan and her two companions gathered together, discussing how to find the traitor, when they suddenly heard the sound of cart wheels outside the military camp.

The three became alert and immediately pricked up their ears to listen.

The military camp was stationed by the river, where the current was turbulent. If someone were to tamper with the supplies here, it would be very difficult to find evidence.

The three understood each other and secretly slipped out of the military camp. Sure enough, they found a convoy of supplies heading towards the river. They quickly followed.

By the light of the moon, the three of them spotted the leader of the caravan, who turned out to be a former subordinate of the Marquis of Xining.

This Marquis of Xi Ning is truly an evergreen tree!

The group exchanged glances and hurriedly followed behind the convoy.

In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the caravan reached the riverbank. The river was still surging and turbulent at night, and the stones on the bank were so smooth from being washed that the carriages could not pass and had to be moved by manpower.

The leader stood on a tall rock and gave an order. The people in the caravan dismounted and threw bundles of grain into the river.

Like a hungry lion, the river devoured all the grain and fodder thrown into it in the blink of an eye.

"Quickly throw all this grain in! Let those sons of bitches starve! Let them know what happens when they offend Marquis Xining!"

The leader shouted enthusiastically, but did nothing himself; his voice almost drowned out the sound of the surging waves.

The others threw even more enthusiastically after hearing this.

"Stop!" Wan Yuechi and Cao Chengye shouted at the same time, their voices piercing the air and reaching everyone's eardrums. Everyone present was shocked and looked up in fear at the source of the sound.

The leader squinted and made out the three men's faces. He immediately leaped down from the high rock, nearly falling flat on his face. "Run! They're government officials! Smuggling military rations is a capital offense!"

Upon hearing this, everyone scattered like birds and beasts, but many of them were standing on the smooth rocks by the river. In their haste to run, they were just making no progress. Wanwan and her two companions captured them all without breaking a sweat.

When this matter reached the Emperor's ears, he immediately ordered a thorough investigation of all the officials escorting the grain, and then appointed Lin Lan as the new escort officer.

Wanwan and her group completed an extra task and should have headed home, but she used a little trick to slip away from her brothers' noses and secretly followed Lin Lan's group all the way to the vicinity of Jiangnan.

But she was still a girl after all. Her fair and delicate skin was very different from that of a group of burly men who were exposed to the wind and sun. Soon, she aroused the suspicion of some of the more perceptive soldiers.

Taking advantage of Wanwan's momentary lapse in vigilance, they swarmed forward, attempting to subdue her. However, Wanwan, being of mermaid blood, possessed greater strength than the average person, and was as agile as a bird. She easily broke free from their grasp and escaped to the side.

The soldiers, who had been hesitant, seemed to have been confirmed by what they saw. Some even drew their swords and pointed them at the curved nose, shouting, "I knew it! He's either a spy or a remnant of the Marquis of Xining! Attack!"

Ignoring Wanwan's explanation, everyone rushed forward again, and in the struggle, they accidentally tore off the headscarf that Wanwan was using to disguise herself.

Her long, flowing black hair cascaded down like a black stream, reflecting the sunlight so bright it made one's pupils shrink. Her pretty and delicate face was unlike that of an ordinary person. Even though there were still some black dirt and grime on her face, it only added to her fragile beauty.

The soldiers who had taken it upon themselves to make the arrest were stunned, and the man holding the headscarf was so frightened that he dropped his sword with a clatter.

"It's...it's a girl..." The group stared at each other for a while before finally coming to their senses. They then chattered amongst themselves for a while before going to notify the escort officer.

When Lin Lan heard the report that a girl was following at the end of the group, she felt a pang of anxiety and rushed over.

Such a bizarre incident could be the work of either an enemy spy or a refugee who appeared out of nowhere; either way, it would be very difficult to deal with.

When he saw that the girl was Wanwan, he felt both relieved and angry. He adopted the airs of an sworn brother and began to lecture her, "Wanwan, how did you manage to keep up with us? Do you know how arduous the journey is?"

Lin Lan's lips tightened; her adopted sister's personality was becoming more and more willful as she grew up.

Wanwan remained calm and composed. Meeting Lin Lan's worried and annoyed gaze, she even waved to him casually and said straightforwardly and playfully, "Wanwan's fiancé, Brother Xiao, is still fighting on the front lines. There are always problems with supplies, so Wanwan was worried and came along."

Fiancé? Xiao Qi?

The soldiers present were shocked once again. Was the girl in front of them the Miss Wan who had exonerated Prince Sui'an's family a few days ago? Now she was disguising herself as a man and following the group despite the dangers. She was truly a heroine among women.

The crowd's gazes immediately shifted from suspicion and disgust to admiration and respect, and they all pleaded for Wanwan's life. Lin Lan had no other choice; they had already been gone for so long, and sending her back would only make things more dangerous. So she had no choice but to let the little girl come with her.