Wilderness turned into fertile fields

Although it hadn't rained in Wanliang for several months, Xiling had entered the rainy season. Han Jiuhua sat in front of her dressing table, listening to Wang Mama standing at the door, knocking on the wooden plaque, "Jiuhua, are you taking a break today too?"

"Hmm... Mother, don't worry. Something happened back home these past few days, so I need to rest for a few days. The losses at Qinghui Fang these past few days can be deducted from my savings." Hearing Han Jiuhua speak from inside the house, the madam was still somewhat worried. She stood at the door, unwilling to leave, but dared not speak again. "Don't worry, Mother, I won't run away. The indenture is still with you, isn't it? What are you afraid of?" Qinghui Fang was no longer as glorious as it once was. Fortune changes every thirty years; in recent years, several other prestigious establishments had sprung up, each more successful than the last. Her own girls had become envious and several had run away. Now that Han Jiuhua suddenly said she wanted to leave, the madam was naturally afraid. Hearing Han Jiuhua's words, the madam felt much more at ease and nodded repeatedly. "Alright, alright, then go back home as soon as possible to handle things. Come back early; the establishments here can't be delayed!"

Hearing the sounds at the door, Han Jiuhua confirmed that the madam had left. She picked up a towel soaked in hot water and wiped away the heavy rouge and powder from her face, then removed the gold hairpin and hair ornaments from her hair. Looking at her handsome reflection in the mirror, Han Jiuhua disgustedly slammed the mirror face down on the table. She put on a white-collared, gold-patterned, belted martial arts uniform, picked up a long sword from the shelf and tucked it into her waistband, then scaled the roof through the back window. Han Jiuhua had walked the road to the Prime Minister's mansion many times; she could even find her way back with her eyes closed. Standing at the main gate of the Prime Minister's mansion, Han Jiuhua stood for a long time before lowering her head and walking towards the side gate, which was only used by servants.

"Why are you so late today?" Xu Chang'an was sitting in his study, admiring the calligraphy and paintings he had bought a few days ago. Han Jiuhua was kneeling on the ground, head bowed. "Your subordinate is late, please punish me, young master." Xu Chang'an was clearly in a good mood today, so he waved his hand and didn't hold it against her. He put away the calligraphy and paintings beside him and looked at Han Jiuhua. "Why hasn't Tang Feng been aborted yet? Her Majesty has urged him many times!"

Han Jiuhua lowered her head and said, "Before Tang Feng got married, I didn't expect him to send his younger brother. After the failure last time, he hasn't gone out alone, so..."

"Enough," Xu Chang'an stood up, put his hands behind his back, and walked to Han Jiuhua, saying, "I heard he went to Wanliang this time. Your Majesty's idea is that although Zhou Ziliang and the others went with him, since Lao Jiu and Lao San are both there, it's easier to make a move with more people. Even if Zhou Ziliang is very capable, he will definitely be too busy to take care of himself." Han Jiuhua lowered her head, thought for a moment, and quietly agreed, but then added, "I heard that Tang Feng is terminally ill. The Tang family has been looking for a doctor, and even Wu Hezou, the military doctor from the Dingbei Army camp, has been called over. With such a serious illness, he probably won't live much longer... Let him fend for himself, and there's no need to..." There's no need to hunt him down anymore. Han Jiuhua didn't dare to say the second half of the sentence for fear of angering Xu Chang'an. Xu Chang'an snorted coldly, squatted down to be at eye level with Han Jiuhua, and said, "What? Have you softened your heart?"

"Your subordinate... dare not," Han Jiuhua said humbly, afraid that a single word that displeased Xu Chang'an would provoke his wrath. Xu Chang'an stood up, sat back down at the table, leaned back in his chair, closed his folding fan, and tapped the wooden table lightly. "Get up. If Tang Feng were still the same Tang Feng who cried all day and accomplished nothing, even if he weren't seriously ill today, I wouldn't intend to continue pursuing him. Even if he had ten thousand lives, he wouldn't dare to utter a single truth before His Majesty. But now, he's shrewd and calculating, always on guard, and might even be involved in the struggle for the throne. Even if he were to die tomorrow, I'm afraid he'd turn around and bite me today. Therefore, Your Majesty must kill him."

"Understood, I will head to Wanliang tomorrow." Seeing Han Jiuhua obediently agree to the task, Xu Chang'an smiled. "After all, you are my half-brother. Although your second wife came from a humble background, she is still the second wife of the Prime Minister's mansion. As for Father... I will naturally speak to him. It's not appropriate for you to stay in a brothel all the time. Back then, I only sent you into the Sixteen Riders of Yanshan to deal with Tang Feng. Who would have thought you would stay there for nine years?"

“I don’t care about Father… As for Master, it would be best if I could help Young Master. You have been kind to Feng Yan, so it is my duty to do things for you. Therefore, you don’t need to worry about me…” Han Jiuhua’s bangs obscured his eyes, and Xu Chang’an couldn’t even see his expression, but he didn’t care. He tapped the calligraphy and painting on the table with his folding fan. “Take it back.”

"I...I don't need the money."

"Take these back to the brothel. You'll be gone for at least a month in Wanliang. These are to put the madam's mind at ease." Han Jiuhua silently picked up the calligraphy and paintings, waiting for Xu Chang'an to speak. "Go back now. There's nothing else to do. Don't disappoint me again. We've tried so many times, and Tang Feng has always gotten away. If you fail again this time, Her Majesty will blame us both."

"Your subordinate will do his utmost," Han Jiuhua bowed, and was about to leave when he heard a voice behind him, "Don't die." Han Jiuhua froze, wanting to turn around, but then heard the cold second half of the sentence, devoid of emotion, each word like a plunge into an abyss: "You know too much, and your identity is sensitive. Dying will cause a lot of trouble." Han Jiuhua turned his back, giving a bitter smile. What was he even hoping for? Wasn't it enough that he had saved him? "I know, I won't let you down, young master."

Back at Qinghui Lane, Han Jiuhua didn't plan to linger long. She quickly packed her things and was about to leave when she saw the wooden hairpin on the table. She stopped in her tracks. Tang Feng had brought it to her when he returned from Lanxi. He had... it seemed he was thanking her. Han Jiuhua smiled bitterly. What was there to thank? She had simply projected her own inability onto Tang Feng and Zhou Ziliang, never expecting that her unintentional actions would yield such a positive result.

Tang Feng had originally planned to wait until after the autumn harvest before starting construction, to first carefully plan how to proceed. However, Shen Qinghang unexpectedly came to him in the middle of the night. "Can you please stop coming to me? The Ninth Prince lives right across the street from me. If he sees this, I'll be in deep trouble!" But Shen Qinghang ignored Tang Feng's complaints, slipping into the house and seeing Zhou Ziliang had the charcoal fire burning brightly. "Are you going to sleep?"

"Otherwise what?" Tang Feng sat at the table, holding a teacup in one hand and a book in the other. "Who's not sleeping in the middle of the night?" Shen Qinghang snatched the book from Tang Feng's hand and said, "Grand Tutor Tang, you're so busy with state affairs, why don't you tell me about the rice production increase? Let me hear your method of securing a guaranteed harvest."

"I don't care," Tang Feng shrugged, about to pull out the blueprints from his pocket when Shen Qinghang stopped him. "Grand Tutor, the night is lovely tonight. Interested in taking a walk together?" Tang Feng glanced at Shen Qinghang, then looked at Zhou Ziliang beside him. Zhou Ziliang nodded, took an outer garment from behind him, and draped it over Tang Feng's shoulders. "Be careful, I won't follow." Tang Feng nodded and followed Shen Qinghang straight out. "You're so obedient now? You weren't like this back at Lishan Academy."

Seeing Shen Qinghang mocking him, Tang Feng glanced at him and said, "This is just marital fun between us, what do you know?"

"Alright, alright, I don't understand. Shall we sit in that pavilion over there?" Shen Qinghang pointed to the small stone pavilion surrounded by the lake on three sides. Tang Feng naturally didn't say anything, sat down, took out the blueprints from his pocket, spread them out in front of Shen Qinghang, and pointed to the terraced fields that embraced the mountain like steps. "These are terraced fields. I asked the locals along the street. Although Wanliang has little rainfall, it still has a rainy season, just much less than Xiling. Moreover, the soil here is not only loose but also hard, making it very malleable. If we make the mountain into terraces, it can not only retain water better but also provide a better environment for rice to survive and grow. What do you think?"

Shen Qinghang nodded as he looked at the detailed blueprints. "So when do you plan to start?" "The autumn harvest," Tang Feng rubbed his hands together. Although it was only early autumn, the cold wind blowing across the lake was still unbearable for Tang Feng. He wanted to finish quickly and go back, but just as he was about to get up, Shen Qinghang pulled him back. "What's the rush?"

"I'm cold! I'm not in a hurry!" Tang Feng rolled his eyes. "Hurry up and cough... hurry up and say it, what else is it?"

"Why wait until after the autumn harvest to start construction? How long will it take to complete such a huge project? If His Majesty doesn't see results by next spring, your life will be in danger," Shen Qinghang said quickly, seeing Tang Feng shivering from the cold.

"Please, they've worked hard all year, and you want them to start construction now? What about the grain in the soil? Are you going to throw it away? They'll fight you to the death!" Shen Qinghang's words irritated Tang Feng, who was already impatient from being pestered for so long. But Shen Qinghang continued, "They've planted for a year, but the weather turned bad with a drought. How much grain can they harvest? Since you've already obtained so much from His Majesty, just distribute it to them. It's not much, but if it's finished before the beginning of spring, His Majesty can see the results then. It won't be too late for you to go back to court and ask for the donated grain." Tang Feng thought carefully and finally nodded. "Alright, I'll order people to do it tomorrow."

"You need to instruct His Highness not to do everything yourself," Shen Qinghang said, looking Tang Feng up and down and tapping his shoulder with the rib of his fan. "If you do everything, not only will His Highness not grow, but your body won't be able to handle it either."

Tang Feng nodded, yawned, and was about to get up when Shen Qinghang pulled him back again. Tang Feng's suppressed anger flared up instantly. "You told me not to waste time, and I agreed. You told me to let His Highness take on more responsibility, and I agreed that too. Cough cough cough... why aren't you letting me go back yet?!" Tang Feng's face was already blue from the cold, and his throat was itchy, but Shen Qinghang wasn't going to let him off the hook. He pulled Tang Feng back and said, "I have something more important to tell you."

"Why can't you say it at home instead of talking about it outside?"

Yes, it must be said outside.

Tang Feng lowered his head, watching Shen Qinghang sitting on the stone bench speaking earnestly, so he didn't insist any further. He sighed and slowly sat down. "What exactly happened? Why is it so serious?"

"I intend to have you defect to Li Yunye."

Tang Feng's eyes widened at first, then he lowered his gaze and pondered for a moment before bursting into laughter. "So this is why you instigated Li Yunye to come along. You really didn't hold back when you tricked me. Do you know what His Highness would do if I did something like this?"

Shen Qinghang stared at Tang Feng expressionlessly and said coldly, "I'm not seeking your opinion, but informing you that you must do this. You also need to get the Ninth Prince's cooperation."

"How can he cooperate!" Tang Feng slammed his hand on the stone table, stood up abruptly, and pointed at Shen Qinghang, asking, "How do you expect him to cooperate? He's just a greenhorn, what does he know? He's been kept in the Crown Prince's residence for over a decade, what has the Crown Prince taught him? Does he understand the power struggles and interests here? I've explained everything to him beforehand, afraid he'll make a mess of things because of his impulsive nature. And now you want me to tell him that his tutor wants to side with his brother, and that he needs to cooperate? Shen Qinghang, who do you think I am!"

"Just because you're his tutor!" Shen Qinghang stood up and looked Tang Feng straight in the eye, completely unfazed by Tang Feng's recent outburst. He spoke calmly, "Don't you think you've been too protective of him? He's a future ruler, not a young master! Don't use your spoiling methods on him. He needs to see the darkness of Yan Yun, to see the methods his brothers used. You're his tutor; you should teach him how to manipulate events and strategize, not how to deal with things as they come! Tang Feng, if you agree, sit down, and I'll tell you the details."

"Cough, cough, cough..." Zhou Ziliang pulled the handkerchief from the cold water, wrung it out, and placed it on Tang Feng's forehead, scolding him playfully, "If you knew it was cold, why didn't you come back? You had to make yourself sick." Tang Feng lay on the bed, his face flushed from coughing, dizzy, but he still tried to justify himself, "Was it that I didn't want to come back? He should have told me to leave."

Yesterday, Zhou Ziliang waited and waited in the room, but Tang Feng didn't come. It was almost midnight when he heard movement outside. Opening the door, he found Tang Feng, pale-faced, clinging to him, complaining of the cold. Even after Zhou Ziliang tucked him into bed, Tang Feng didn't improve. As expected, he fell ill early this morning. While waiting for the doctor to prescribe medicine and for Zhou Ziliang to prepare it, Tang Feng spoke in a hoarse, trembling voice, "Call...call the Ninth Prince over." Zhou Ziliang sat by Tang Feng's bedside and tapped his forehead. "You're in this state, why aren't you getting some sleep? What are you thinking about? The Ninth Prince isn't going anywhere. We can talk about it this afternoon."

"It's very important, and we can't delay." Seeing Tang Feng's insistence, Zhou Ziliang stopped talking and resignedly got up to call for someone. By the time Li Yunyu came in, Tang Feng was already sitting up, with the blueprints spread on his lap and a book in his hand. Seeing Li Yunyu come in, he waved and said, "Your Highness, please sit down. There are some things I need to discuss with you today."

Li Yunyu sat down and saw that Tang Feng hadn't gotten up and his cheeks were flushed, so he raised his hand to touch his forehead. "Sir, are you ill?" Tang Feng turned his head away, avoiding Li Yunyu's hand, and said gently, "Your Highness, there's no need to worry." He then pointed to the drawings beside him. "This is more important. The northwest and northeast of Wanliang have suffered severe disasters. I inquired along the streets a few days ago. It's not that Wanliang doesn't have a rainy season, but it's different from Xiling's. Xiling's rainy season is in April, May, August, and September, while here it's in March, April, June, and July. So because the seasons are wrong, especially after the rainy season begins in June and July, it's summer, and the rainwater can't be retained. This directly leads to the soil lacking moisture, and the crops can't grow. This... do you understand?" Seeing Li Yunyu nod, Tang Feng pushed the drawings beside him in front of Li Yunyu and said, "This is a method I thought of a few days ago: abandon the farmland." "We'll clear land on the hillside, harnessing the rainwater and preserving the land's bounty. We'll create terraces, digging several tens of centimeters down each terrace to effectively retain rainwater, enough to last through the summer. This will solve most of the problems. As for the large-scale irrigation before the autumn harvest and planting, we can collect rainwater from the beginning of the year. Therefore, we need to build many water cellars." Tang Feng took out new blueprints from the other side of the bed. "Because the soil here is too hard to dig wells, we can only store water manually. But the water can't be left outside to avoid evaporation, so... this is the water cellar. It's actually a deeper cave. During the rainy season, we'll collect water by placing containers outside and storing it in tanks inside the water cellar. We'll use it when needed." Tang Feng put away the blueprints and handed them to Li Yunyu. "I'm currently ill and unable to supervise the construction, so I'm entrusting these to Your Highness."

Li Yunyu hadn't expected Tang Feng to send him to supervise the construction alone. Staring blankly at Tang Feng, he finally managed to stammer, "What if I don't do a good job?" Tang Feng knew this might be a lingering psychological trauma from the Luohe Bridge incident, and smiled, "Your Highness, just do it. Even if you make a mistake, I won't blame you." Hearing Tang Feng's words, Li Yunyu took the blueprints from his hand. "Don't worry, sir, I will do my best and not let you down." Seeing Li Yunyu leave, Zhou Ziliang was somewhat worried. He knew Tang Feng had made a solemn promise to the Emperor. If things weren't handled well, it could cost Tang Feng his future or even his life. "Xiao Feng, isn't this too risky?"

"What Shen Qinghang means is..." Tang Feng leaned against the bed, closing his eyes to rest. "If he can't do it well, I can only cover for him. I can only place my hopes on His Highness." Zhou Ziliang held Tang Feng's cold hand, feeling a little sorry for him. "I'll go keep an eye on things for you. His Highness the Ninth Prince..." "If even this doesn't work, what will we do in the future, Ziliang... I have some things I need to tell you in advance..."

Li Yunyu returned to his room and, looking at the two drawings Tang Feng had left him, couldn't help but praise, "As expected of a teacher, your words flowed eloquently, and you were so confident. You were able to devise a solution to the drought in just a few days." Ning Wan covered her mouth and chuckled, "His Highness's tutor was carefully selected by His Majesty, so naturally he possesses exceptional abilities."

“Miss, I’ll trouble you to make a trip to the government office tomorrow and ask the prefect to come see me. I have something to discuss with him.” Ning Wan nodded. “Of course, I will go to the government office tomorrow and ask the prefect to come see you. How is the Grand Tutor’s health?” Hearing Ning Wan’s question, Li Yunyu shook her head. “I’m not sure… The Grand Tutor won’t tell me, so I can’t speculate.” Recalling that day at the Luohe Bridge, Li Yunyu roughly knew about Tang Feng’s health condition. So it was normal for him to be sick on weekdays. In addition, she had just met Zhou Ziliang and saw that he looked normal, so he probably just had a fever. “The Master has always been somewhat distant from me. Perhaps he feels that I am inferior to my elder brother in terms of status and qualifications. My elder brother grew up by Father’s side. He is intelligent, sensible, and knows his place. Unlike me, it’s normal for the Master to look down on me.”

Ning Wan pointed to the drawing and said, "Probably not. Perhaps the Grand Tutor cares about you a lot? When he was serving under the late Crown Prince, you didn't know the nature of their relationship, so there's no need to speculate. After all, it's all in the past. Besides, the Grand Tutor marked this drawing in such detail for you, probably hoping that you can grow up quickly. After all, if it were just for the Grand Tutor to read himself, there would probably be no need for him to go to so much trouble to write so much."

Although it took some time to figure things out, the work started quickly, which relieved Tang Feng a lot. However, Zhou Ziliang hadn't been having a good time these past few days. Tang Feng's confession that day had made him uneasy. Tang Feng had not only told him about Shen Qinghang's request for him to feign allegiance to Li Yunye, but also about his own thoughts: "You want to stage a self-inflicted injury?! No way! That's unacceptable. I won't agree to it. I won't stop you from doing anything, but this is not something we can discuss." Tang Feng knew this would happen after talking to Zhou Ziliang, so he could only comfort him, "Don't worry, I don't even know what kind of injury it is or how serious it is. Besides, I haven't decided when to make my move..."

"Does His Highness the Ninth Prince know about this?"

Tang Feng sighed. "He'll find out eventually, because this... requires his attention."

Although Tang Feng managed to smooth things over, Zhou Ziliang kept it in mind and wanted to dissuade him several times but couldn't bring himself to do so. Li Yunyu visited Tang Feng several times in between, and seeing Li Yunyu's diligent and hardworking demeanor, Tang Feng felt somewhat gratified and couldn't help but praise him, saying, "Your Highness's diligence has indeed benefited the people of Wanliang."

"It's a good idea, sir. I don't have your sharp mind, so I can only work on the time."

Tang Feng waved his hand, "Perhaps Your Highness has misunderstood. I am Your Highness's subject, and offering advice is my duty. You are the monarch, and listening to suggestions and making clear judgments is your duty. We each have our own responsibilities, and there is no distinction between them. To turn the barren weeds of Wanliang into fertile fields, it's not just my blueprints that matter; Your Highness also approved my proposal, didn't you? This process—surveying, planning, and supervising—is indispensable. Without your approval of this proposal, my blueprints would probably just be worthless pieces of paper."