In fact, she had never received the imperial edict to go to the imperial farm, so she guessed that the emperor would not go. But she still wanted to ask Yuan Bohua, "Why?"

Zhou Qiongyue thought, if there was no water in the city, what would happen to so many people? Nothing was more important than survival.

"There are too many uncertainties outside the city. There are more and more refugees at the city gate, and people are getting visibly impatient. Yuan'an can still defend itself with the city walls, but Huangzhuang doesn't have any walls, so the defense won't be as good as it is now.

When people get angry, they can do anything.

Although the emperor had been prepared for this drought, the Tianyuan Kingdom had a limited foundation and could only allocate so much food. He couldn't ignore the lives of the people in other places and had to ensure that the soldiers at the border had enough food.

So many people outside the city are lucky to be able to hold on."

After all, Yuan Bohua had been dealing with people outside Yuan'an City for a long time, so he had a clearer understanding of their real situation. Although it had not yet reached the legendary level of cannibalism, there were already many people selling their daughters and children.

Since we've come to this point, Yuan Bohua couldn't help but remind him, "You'd better call Gulan back as soon as possible. Something will happen outside the city sooner or later."

Zhou Qiongyue opened her mouth in shock. She had never experienced such a big disaster, so it was inevitable that she had not considered things carefully.

"Okay, I'll send someone out of the city to bring back Gulan and the others, and then arrange for the rest of the people to stay in a farm. As for the things over there, they're almost done. The main reason is that my food reserves are almost gone."

At this time, Zhou Qiongyue still felt a little regretful that she had stored too little food, but when she saw Gulan and Guju were injured at noon, she no longer thought so.

Yuan Bohua actually admired Yue'er. She could feed so many people and even pay them with food. Basically, as long as the disaster victims were honest, she would accept them. He could already imagine how many people and families Zhou Qiongyue had saved so far.

The food she had stored lasted until now, and Yuan Bohua was no longer shocked.

After all, before Yue'er got married, she only had two or three small farms. Even if she started hoarding as soon as she got the news, she couldn't have hoarded so much.

People outside always thought that it was the industry of Fu'an Palace that supported the palace, but in fact only Yuan Bohua knew that Yue'er did not touch anything in the palace.

He hadn't even worried about where the food and water for so many people in the palace would come from. With a wife like this, the couple had nothing to worry about.

Yuan Bohua thought about it and wanted to ask a few more questions, "Is there enough food and water in the mansion? If not, I can find a way for you."

"The water comes from the well in the mansion, which is enough for now. There's also enough food." After Zhou Qiongyue finished speaking, she got off the bed and said, "Your Highness, you haven't seen the food I've stored, right? I'll take you to see it."

Zhou Qiongyue felt like showing off at this moment.

Although Yuan Bohua was pressed for time, he was curious about how much food was left in the palace. So he obediently followed Zhou Qiongyue into the courtyard.

When the two of them arrived at the main courtyard garden, Yuan Bohua saw Gumei lifting up a piece of grass underneath, or to be more precise, hay.

Yuan Bohua took a closer look and found that this piece of grass had been planted on a wooden board before, so no one could tell what was different about this ordinary place.

Even though he had been going in and out of the main courtyard many times, he had never noticed anything unusual here.

Then Gu Mei took the lead and went down with a lantern, followed closely by Zhou Qiongyue, and then Yuan Bohua.

After Yuan Bohua went down, he suddenly felt that his eyes were not enough to see enough. The place below was extremely large. He estimated that half of the palace had been hollowed out.

He even doubted whether this place was his palace.

As for the large part of the palace that had not been excavated, Yuan Bohua observed that those places were where the load-bearing walls were located, or where the viewing lake was located, and could not be excavated.

The food inside was enough for the palace to eat for a year without any problem, and there were also some dried vegetables, mushrooms, etc. There were also some closed boxes, which should be the palace's valuables.

"When did Yue'er dig the secret room underground?" Yuan Bohua was sure that there was no secret room there before. It must have been dug after Yue'er got married.

This wasn't something she couldn't say. Zhou Qiongyue explained truthfully, "Oh, it was when you went south to buy grain for the emperor! I was bored at home, so I had someone dig it up."

"Then where did all this soil go?" Yuan Bohua asked this question out of pure curiosity.

"It's the martial arts training ground built on the lake that was filled in at the back! Doesn't the prince often go there to practice martial arts?" Zhou Qiongyue said it so matter-of-factly that Yuan Bohua fell silent.

Yuan Bohua hadn't imagined that Yue'er had to fill the lake in the martial arts arena. When he returned from his errand and saw the new martial arts arena in the mansion, he thought Yue'er had built it especially for him! He was delighted for a long time.

Finally, Yuan Bohua praised, "Yue'er is really smart."

Zhou Qiongyue raised her head childishly at this moment and happily accepted the evaluation, "That's right!"

When Yuan Bohua came up from below, he was once again stunned by Yue'er's execution. He didn't ask Yue'er where she got all the food. Who doesn't have a secret?

Zhou Qiongyue saw Yuan Bohua in a daze. She waited for a while and saw that Yuan Bohua didn't move. She didn't know what he was thinking.

She could only interrupt and ask, "Would your Majesty like to have breakfast with me?"

Yuan Bohua came back to his senses and quickly said, "No, I have to go back!"

He had originally left time to have breakfast with Yue'er, but Yue'er suddenly dragged him to see the secret room downstairs, and the time was already gone.

"Remember my instructions. If you can avoid leaving the house, do so, and especially do not leave the city. If anything happens, send someone to find me at the city gate immediately."

Yuan Bohua was still worried about Yue'er staying alone in the palace. If the city gate was not inconvenient, he would have wanted to take Yue'er with him...

Seeing that Yuan Bohua was about to start a long speech, Zhou Qiongyue immediately interrupted him, "If your Highness is busy, just go! I've remembered everything you said, so stop nagging."

Seeing this, Yuan Bohua could only walk away, looking back every few steps.

As soon as Yuan Bohua left, Zhou Qiongyue immediately dispatched a team of elite soldiers from the palace to the farm outside the city to pick up Gulan and Guju. If it weren't for the prince's special instructions today, Zhou Qiongyue would probably have sent a servant directly.

Zhou Qiongyue didn't know yet that when she thought about it in the future, she would sigh, "Listen to others' advice and have a full meal."

Originally, Zhou Qiongyue’s farms were not far away, and the team Zhou Qiongyue sent came back when Zhou Qiongyue was about to take a nap.

It was Gu Yu who ran in and reported, "Princess, please go and see Sister Gulan. She has been carried back."