Jiang Qinyu smiled and said, "It's leftover gunpowder from before. If you encounter any big guys that you can't handle, you can use this to help. But be careful, and it's best to give it to Brother Meng."

She taught Meng Tianze and the others how to use this kind of gunpowder last year, so they shouldn't have forgotten.

Seeing how considerate she was of the villagers, Village Chief Li was somewhat moved and said, "It's all thanks to you, my dear niece, for taking such good care of us and thinking of everything so thoroughly."

He left, thanking her profusely, and Jiang Qinyu returned to the house.

Her house already had a cellar that Lu Yanzheng had dug before. Jiang Qinyu froze many bottles of mineral water in the system's freezer, and then took them out and put them in the cellar after they were all frozen.

Therefore, her room is very cool, no worse than an air-conditioned room.

However, she could only enjoy this coolness by herself; she couldn't bring Old Man Lu and Madam Chen over, otherwise she wouldn't be able to explain it.

While Jiang Qinyu was enjoying her leisurely and cool days alone, a magnificent and luxurious carriage procession was slowly approaching Yongshan County on the official road from Yukang Prefecture to Yongshan County.

"Go to the back and get some more ice." Liu Ruyi sat in the second carriage, her forehead covered in a thin layer of sweat from the heat, and she gave the order to the maid beside her in a bad tone.

The maidservant quickly agreed, jumped off the carriage, and ran to the back.

The entire convoy consisted of more than twenty carriages, with the last ten carrying ice.

Now, having just entered Yukang Prefecture, there is only enough ice left for five carriages.

Only after the maid replaced the ice basin that had melted into water did Liu Ruyi feel a little bit of coolness.

"Is the Seventh Prince being taken good care of?" Once she felt less hot, Liu Ruyi felt like she had come back to life and asked about other things.

The maidservant respectfully replied, "Your Highness, there are five ice basins in His Highness the Seventh Prince's carriage, and they were changed an hour ago."

"An hour?" Liu Ruyi frowned. "How have you been serving me? Here, the ice is changed every half hour, and you've let His Highness go an hour without changing it?"

The maidservant immediately knelt on the ground, trembling with fear, and said, "Please forgive us, Your Highness! It was His Highness the Seventh Prince who forbade us to change them..."

Liu Ruyi recalled the Seventh Prince's reputation in the capital, and her cold expression softened slightly. "His Highness is considerate of you, but you cannot take it for granted. Send someone to change His Highness's ice basin. From now on, His Highness will change it whenever I do. Do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am!" The little maidservant left tremblingly.

Liu Ruyi leaned back in her comfortable chair again, closed her eyes, and rubbed her temples.

In fact, she did not want to come to Yongshan County this time, but in order to show her love for the people, she had to make the trip.

When she and Wu Jingyao returned to the capital to meet the emperor with sweet potatoes, she successfully convinced the emperor that she had discovered them, and was even granted the title of Lady of Yongshan County by the emperor.

She should have come to Yongshan County earlier to take the sweet potatoes she had collected to the capital, but after seeing that she had been granted the title of County Lady, Wu Jingyao immediately went home, divorced his first wife, and wanted to marry her as his first wife.

How could she possibly agree to that?

She was just a concubine's daughter in the Duke of Yun's mansion before, and she was unwilling to become a concubine. Now that she is a county lady, how could she be willing to become someone else's second wife?

So she feigned compliance with Wu Jingyao in the capital to preserve her reputation before leaving.

She was initially very impatient with Wu Jingyao's constant pestering, but this time she wanted to thank him.

The day before she was to leave the capital, the Emperor unexpectedly issued an edict ordering the Seventh Prince to accompany her to Yongshan County to investigate the sweet potato matter.

Liu Ruyi felt as if a huge pie had fallen into her lap.

As everyone knows, among the Emperor's adult princes, the Seventh Prince is the most innocent and kind, and he is also very virtuous. He is still unmarried at the age of twenty and has no concubines or maids in his household.

The Liu Ruyi of the past would never have dared to dream of having anything with the Seventh Prince, but the Liu Ruyi of today is different. She is, after all, a county princess of a certain rank. Even if she cannot become the prince's principal wife, she will certainly be able to get the title of a concubine.

Of course, her goal was not to become a concubine.

Throughout the journey, she took great care of the Seventh Prince, and whenever they stopped, she would take care of all his belongings perfectly.

Thinking of the Seventh Prince's praises to her and the smiles his handsome face had given her, Liu Ruyi felt a sweet warmth in her heart.

However, the Seventh Prince Xiao Rui, whom she had her eye on, said to his trusted eunuch Ping An after the maid changed the ice basin in the carriage: "This woman is too opportunistic and not worth getting close to."

“Your Highness is right,” Ping An echoed. “And in my opinion, this newly appointed county magistrate is not a person who cares about the people. There is probably another reason behind the sweet potato incident.”

The Seventh Prince smiled gently, “It was precisely because I doubted this matter that I specifically asked my father for permission to come along. After all, if the sweet potatoes really have such a high yield as she said, it would be a remarkable event for our Great Yue.”

“Your Highness is benevolent and cares deeply for the people. This servant also hopes that the sweet potato story is true, so that our Great Yue will no longer fear famine and war,” Ping An sighed.

He too came from a poor family; otherwise, he wouldn't have become a eunuch in the palace. It was precisely because of his humble origins that he understood even better what sweet potatoes meant to the people of Da Yue.

"The county magistrate has already sent a message to the magistrate of Yongshan County. I'm afraid we won't get any useful information even if we go," the Seventh Prince said thoughtfully.

Ping An shook his head. "Your Highness seems to have forgotten that the current Lady of Yongshan County is Wei Chengzhong, a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) of the eighteenth year of Fu'an. He is extremely rigid and an upright and honest official. Even if Lady of Yongshan County really did something underhanded, Lord Wei might not cooperate with her."

“You can’t be so sure,” the Seventh Prince said thoughtfully. “We’ll have to see it for ourselves.”

Knowing his master's thoughts, Ping An thought for a moment and said, "If Your Highness wants to know the truth, why not let Commander Xue cover it up for you for a few days?"

“You understand me best,” the Seventh Prince smiled. “I brought Zi’an out here specifically for this purpose.”

Xue Zian is his bodyguard commander, and also his double.

After they grew up, they deliberately kept their height and build similar, and even ate the same amount of food every day.

Every two weeks, he would be weighed. If he gained weight, Xue Zian had to gain the same weight within three days; if he lost weight, Xue Zian had to lose the same weight.

Because of this, he and Xue Zian almost never appeared in public together, so others naturally wouldn't know that he had a stand-in.

That night, after Liu Ruyi and her people fell asleep, the Seventh Prince broke away from the caravan and rode a fast horse directly to Yongshan County with Ping An.