As expected, the area below was riddled with traps, and it took Yi Wu and the others considerable effort to bring the corpse up.

Xiao Qingyin carefully examined the document and confirmed that it was indeed the Wise Prince.

He was still clutching the little bird that had just screamed in his hand.

The little bird was already half dead.

Xiao Qingyin was very curious about the relationship between the little bird and the seed, and gave it first aid.

Yi Wu and the others collected all the seeds from the banquet hall, filling a jar to the brim, weighing about eight or nine pounds.

The guests were all stunned, sitting frozen in place, not daring to breathe.

Of course, they had all drunk the spiked hangover soup, so they couldn't move even if they wanted to.

With the wise king dead, his followers must naturally be eliminated.

Yi Shuihan spent several days finding all of the Wise King's men, killing those who deserved to be killed and exiling those who deserved to be exiled.

He was still hiding his identity, doing all this under Zhao Xu's name.

Zhao Xu submitted a memorial to the emperor, telling him about his grievances and the evil deeds of the virtuous king.

The emperor appointed him as the new Prince of Dai.

Like a new broom sweeping clean, Zhao Xu, on his very first day in office after inheriting the title, issued a ban on opium, raided all opium dens in the southeastern prefecture, and launched a full-scale operation to apprehend those who sold tranquilizers.

They also ordered the Iraqi sellers of tranquilizers to hand over all their products and sign a guarantee that they would never smuggle tranquilizers onto future ships. If any such smuggling was discovered, the goods would be confiscated and the individuals involved would be executed on the spot.

More than one million tranquilizer pills were confiscated.

It took half a month to destroy them all.

That's a story for another time.

Now that Zhao Xugang and Yi Shuihan have finished purging the Xianwang's henchmen, they have given themselves a day off.

He decided to go out for a walk and unknowingly walked to the front of Huajia Tofu Shop Alley.

The sound of firecrackers rang out, and the smell of gunpowder filled the air. He stopped in his tracks, and only after the firecrackers finished did he realize that they were set off by the Hua Family Tofu Shop.

He really wanted to go over and ask why they were suddenly setting off firecrackers, but his feet seemed to be nailed to the spot, unable to move an inch.

What right does he have to go and ask?

Although he did not kill the wise king, he did contribute to the cause.

He personally tried Zhao Hao and his more than one hundred younger siblings.

To Fangniang, he was the culprit who murdered her father and brothers and sisters. Even if she had no feelings for them, she would definitely blame and resent him.

When he appears before her, what will he receive besides a cold shoulder and a disdainful look?

Zhao Xu felt increasingly sad, yet he couldn't bear to leave. So he stood at the alley entrance, greedily watching Fang Niang busy in the shop.

An older woman came in to buy tofu and asked Fangniang, "You set off such a long roll of firecrackers! Is there something happy happening?"

Fangniang smiled and said, "Yes, there is great news. My old enemy has passed away."

The old woman took it as a joke and said with a smile, "It is indeed something to be happy about to avenge your great grudge, but I don't believe that you two, who are such kind people, could make enemies with others."

“Kind people are easy to bully,” Fangniang laughed. “It’s five coins in total.”

The old woman was stunned: "How come it's only five coins? I bought two catties of tofu. Fangniang, you can't believe you can miscalculate."

"You're right. I'm in a good mood today, so everything in the shop is half price."

"Then I'm really lucky."

After paying, the old lady happily carried the tofu home, praying as she went that the Hua family's old enemy would die a few more times.

After listening in, Zhao Xu felt even more distressed.

He had been seeing Fangniang for so long, yet he had no idea that her family had an old enemy.

Was Fangniang keeping it from him because she was afraid of implicating him?

Or is it because they are not close enough?

Zhao Xu was lost in thought. He stared at the screen for a long time until his legs went numb before turning to leave.

What he didn't know was that Fangniang breathed a sigh of relief as soon as he left.

Aunt Hua moved the freshly pressed tofu onto the counter and looked at the empty alleyway, saying, "He's gone?"

"Um."

"This child is quite loyal, what a pity..."

Fangniang lowered her eyes; she knew what her mother was regretting.

If Zhao Xu were not a prince, but an ordinary commoner, my mother would feel at ease marrying her off to him.

Unfortunately, Zhao Xu is not one of them.

No customers came yet, so she counted the copper coins she had just received over and over again. There were only a few dozen coins, but for some reason, the number she counted was always wrong.

After a day of rest, Zhao Xu got back to work.

He used to be a prince in name only, with little experience in the affairs of the royal palace and its territory. Even with the help of Chief Secretary Cui, he was still overwhelmed and stressed.

As if he hadn't noticed how busy he was, Chief Secretary Cui even gave him a stack of portraits of women, urging him to decide on a queen as soon as possible.

"With the princess in charge, you'll have someone to manage the household affairs, making things much easier for you, Your Highness."

That's what Chief Secretary Cui said.

Upon seeing these portraits, Zhao Xu immediately thought of Fangniang and said irritably, "If you keep pressuring me to get married, I'll dismiss you from your post."

Chief Secretary Cui is quite old and should have retired long ago to enjoy his grandchildren. Zhao Xu's words have no effect on him.

"Fine, then. Even if you dismiss me from my post, I will still try to persuade you to."

Zhao Xu: "..."

It's not that he doesn't want to get married, it's that the woman he wants to marry won't marry him.

But he couldn't say this to Chief Secretary Cui.

This old man definitely wouldn't agree to him marrying the virtuous king's daughter.

In a moment of frustration, the butler suddenly came to report: "A young lady surnamed Hua has come looking for you, saying she has something urgent to discuss with you. I noticed that she seems to be..."

Before the butler could finish speaking, Zhao Xu swept past him like a gust of wind and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Chief Secretary Cui smiled and said, "Go on, I'm listening."

housekeeper:"……"

Can you please stop being so gossipy?

Zhao Xu rushed to the gate of the mansion and saw Fang Niang waiting outside. Before he could even greet her, Fang Niang knelt down.

"Your Highness, I am sorry. I know that I have gone back on my word and that I am shameless. But I have no other choice but to beg you to uphold justice."

Zhao Xu pulled her up from the ground with a dark expression on his face.

"Why are you kneeling before me? Stand up and talk properly. What happened?"

A hint of hesitation flashed across Fangniang's face, but she forced herself to remain calm and said, "A rich young man wants to take me as his concubine, but I refuse. He said I will definitely come to his door to beg him."

"The day after he said that, someone reported to the authorities that our tofu pudding was poisonous and people had died from eating it."

“My mother was arrested. I went to the yamen to appeal, but I couldn’t even see the magistrate. I found out that the rich young man was the magistrate’s nephew.”

The other party was clearly forcing her to come over; if she obediently complied, her mother would naturally be able to return safely.

She even rejected Zhao Xu, how could she possibly become a concubine to such a wicked man?

But she couldn't leave her mother unattended, so she gritted her teeth and went to find Zhao Xu.

“My mother is innocent,” she choked out. “Our family has run a tofu shop for so many years, using only the best soybeans and water, and no one has ever had any problems eating it. If you would be willing to give my mother justice, I…”

She wanted to say that she would do anything, but she felt it would be too shameful to say it and would be too disrespectful to Zhao Xu, so she couldn't bring herself to say it.

Tears suddenly welled up in my eyes.