Chapter 56 Although he's not as rich or as brave as me...
Upon hearing footsteps coming from the cabin, the two of them simultaneously fell silent.
Although the man was nearing forty, he was still slender and had a very refined appearance. He seemed not to have expected anyone to be on the deck. He was taken aback for a moment, then cupped his hands in greeting and said with a smile, "Lord Shen."
Shen Guitang also put on a warm smile, "Lord Qiu, are you here to relieve your boredom as well?"
In the recent case involving the imperial tombs, Ji Run, the official in charge, escaped with his life but was ultimately charged with negligence. Ji Heng wouldn't punish him for this, but he would lose his position as the head of the Ministry of Works.
The person standing before them was Qiu Yun, the newly appointed head of the Ministry of Works who had ousted Ji Runxin.
Qiu Yun stroked his meticulously groomed goatee. "Although the waterway is fast, it's not a place for old bones like ours to get used to. I got really seasick as soon as I got on the boat, so I came over here to get some fresh air."
He then turned to Hengbo, who was standing next to Shen Guitang, and asked, "And who is this?"
Because Hengbo and Ji Jin looked quite similar, Shen Guitang specially had someone give her a simple makeover before heading to Quzhou, emphasizing the softness of her features. Therefore, at this moment, she appeared to be a rather beautiful and charming young woman.
Upon hearing this, Shen Guitang secretly glanced at Hengbo, then feigned shyness and stammered, "This is my cousin, Cuicui. Our wedding is approaching, and I don't know how long this trip will take. Cuicui doesn't want to be separated from me for too long..."
It was common for court officials to travel on official business, sometimes for a year or two at a time, so it wasn't unusual for them to bring their families along. However, it was rather frivolous for Lord Shen to bring his fiancée, who was not yet betrothed to him, along.
On the surface, Qiu Yun smiled like a considerate and tolerant elder, but in her heart, he was left with the impression of a mere young boy, and inevitably felt contempt for him.
As if to solidify his image as a "young upstart," Shen Guitang walked up to Hengbo, took her hand, and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, saying tenderly, "Cuicui, it's quite windy on the boat. Let me come inside with you for a while."
Hengbo looked at Shen Guitang, who seemed to be trying to sell something, and nodded gently, suppressing the urge to back away.
Shen Guitang smiled gently, put his arm around the man's shoulder, and was about to leave. Qiu Yun, who had come to see him, had not yet achieved his purpose. Seeing that the man was about to leave, he couldn't help but feel anxious and had to call out to him, "Lord Shen, please wait."
Upon hearing this, Shen Guitang stopped and looked at him in confusion.
Qiu Yun inwardly cursed this young man for his lack of tact. How could he leave so soon after his superior arrived? Wasn't that disrespectful? However, he could only get straight to the point: "Lord Shen, do you know what kind of place Quzhou is?"
“Quzhou?” Shen Guitang raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t Quzhou the place we’re going to?” Those who knew him well could hear the sarcasm in his words, but Qiu Yun couldn’t understand it at all.
He even felt that he had finally regained control of the situation, and his words were no longer as eager as before. "It's normal that you don't know, Lord Shen. That was more than ten years ago. Back then, the traitor Zhennan colluded with the Japanese in the south, allowing them to harass our coastal people. At that time, Quzhou was flooded. If His Majesty and the Prince Consort hadn't seen through their conspiracy in time, Quzhou would probably be in the hands of the Japanese pirates now."
After he finished speaking, he cupped his hands towards the horizon and said, "Your Majesty is wise!"
Shen Guitang felt the pressure on his hand and gently pressed it to soothe him. If he couldn't even bear to hear the words "traitor to Zhennan," he would have simply ended his own life back then, instead of lingering on until now.
"What does that have to do with our trip?" He looked blank, seemingly unconcerned about what he had just said.
His indifferent attitude made Qiu Yun, who had been observing his expression, frown. He wondered if the man was truly stupid or just pretending.
"Although Quzhou was fortunate enough to be recaptured by our Great Jin Dynasty back then, it has been harassed by Japanese pirates several times in recent years, and there are also traces of Japanese pirates roaming around in many places. I wonder if Lord Shen has made sufficient preparations for going to such a dangerous place?"
He practically said that Shen Guitang might not return this time, and the reason he threatened her like this was simply to see Shen Guitang's reaction.
Shen Guitang naturally couldn't let him down. He saw his face flush red and took Cui Cui's hands and placed them on his heart.
“Cui Cui,” he said with a sorrowful voice, “I didn’t expect this trip to be so dangerous, and it even dragged you into this mess.”
He then turned to Qiu Yun, his expression sincere and full of expectation: "Lord Qiu, this boat has been traveling for less than half a day. May I ask the boatmen to turn around and send Cuicui back first?"
Qiu Yun: ...
He twitched the corner of his mouth. "Lord Shen, please stop joking. This is a task assigned by His Majesty. There's no turning back. Even if we're heading to a dangerous place, we can only forge ahead."
Shen Guitang felt as if she had been struck by lightning. She buried her face in Cui Cui's hands, her voice choked with sobs: "Cui Cui, I was thinking that if you could return to Yujing, even if I were to suffer misfortune, I could still entrust you to your childhood sweetheart who would pester you every day, even though he is not as rich as me, not as handsome as me, and doesn't even love you as much as I do..."
"But now it seems that even God couldn't bear to separate us, letting us die together."
Hengbo:……
Qiu Yun: ...
Unable to bear Shen Guitang's affected manner any longer, Hengbo, feeling the slight trembling on his face, simply pressed Shen Guitang's face against her shoulder and dragged him back to the room.
Qiu Yun watched the two figures walk away with a complicated expression. Before leaving, His Majesty had specifically instructed him that Shen Guitang was quite shrewd and that he should keep an eye on him to avoid causing any unnecessary trouble.
But in his current view, this boy is so engrossed in romantic love that he is not a cause for concern.
Inside the house, after finally getting inside, Hengbo immediately pushed away the Shen Guitang cloth covering her. Seeing this, Heifeng, who was guarding inside, immediately withdrew under the pretext of fetching water.
Looking at Hengbo's resentful yet reproachful eyes, Shen Guitang couldn't help but laugh: "Good Cui Cui, if you hadn't brought me back, I really wouldn't have been able to keep up the act."
Hengbo didn't believe his nonsense at all; she could tell from his eyes that he was enjoying himself.
Shen Guitang was afraid of angering him, so she quickly straightened her expression and said, "Qiu Yun is Ji Heng's confidant. Letting him know that I am incompetent may not dispel his suspicions, but it will save him a lot of testing."
Hengbo understood immediately; Qiu Yun was Ji Heng's man. On the deck, Qiu Yun had deliberately walked quietly, yet feigned surprise upon seeing them, leading Hengbo to guess that he was after Shen Guitang. His subsequent words were partly a test, and partly a warning.
"Besides us and that old man surnamed Zhang, everyone else on this boat is Ji Heng's men. Let's hide for now and discuss everything further once we reach Quzhou."
The old man surnamed Zhang was another official from the Ministry of Works, named Zhang Mutou. True to his name, he was eccentric and aloof, and once he boarded the ship and entered his room, he never came out again. Apart from him, everyone on the ship, including the crew, was a martial arts practitioner, especially the five men Qiu Yun had brought on board, whose auras were particularly restrained, and whose martial arts skills were somewhat accomplished.
Hengbo nodded; she certainly wouldn't go looking for trouble. However, if Shen Guitang had any other plans for coming to Quzhou, he would inevitably clash with these people.
Shen Guitang seemed to know what she was thinking. "I have made arrangements. I will tolerate them for the rest of the journey."
In the days that followed, Qiu Yun did try to probe Shen Guitang again, but Shen Guitang always managed to cleverly steer the conversation toward his love story with Cuicui. After several such attempts, Qiu Yun even remembered exactly what the weather was like when Shen Guitang and Cuicui first met.
"Lord Qiu." On this day, Shen Guitang ran into Qiu Yun outside the room again. However, as soon as Qiu Yun saw the sweet and bright smile on his face, he immediately turned around and walked back, his steps hurried as if he were fleeing in panic.
Hengbo, who was following behind Shen Guitang, happened to see this scene and even felt a little sorry for Lord Qiu, whose ears were suffering so much.
Thus, with Qiu Yun unilaterally evading the situation, the ship finally reached the territory of Quzhou.
Quzhou is located in a low-lying area and is surrounded by rivers on all sides. After several days of continuous heavy rain, the water level of the canal has reached close to the banks, and the silt on the riverbanks is showing signs of collapse.
Since entering Quzhou, Shen Guitang's brows have always been shrouded in a faint cloud of worry. He had not been unaware that this year's floods would be more severe than those of fourteen years ago, but seeing it for himself, he realized that the situation had become so dire.
On the day they disembarked, Li Jian, the prefect of Quzhou, sent a servant to invite them to his residence for a chat.
Inside the prefect's mansion, Li Jian, the host, and several officials from the Ministry of Works from the capital toasted each other. Whenever someone's cup was half empty, a beautiful concubine would refill it.
Zhang Mutou was already quite impatient with these banquets, and seeing Li Jian and Qiu Yun chatting more and more happily at the head of the table, he simply stood up and said, "The water in the canals is about to flood the people's fields, yet you two gentlemen still have the leisure to chat here. I will not keep you company any longer."
Leaving those words behind, he ignored Li Jian's livid face and left the banquet hall. As the saying goes, the nail that sticks out gets hammered down. Since someone had already stepped forward, Shen Guitang took the opportunity to excuse himself, leaving his family to catch up.
"Who are these two people?" With no outsiders around, Li Jian's tone towards Qiu Yun became much more casual.
Qiu Yun sipped the grape wine in his glass. "The Ministry of Works recently lost a number of officials and now has no one to use, which is why this old man was selected. As for this Shen Guitang, His Majesty wants to use him but also has some concerns. It's good that we investigate his background along the way."
When Ji Heng ascended the throne, he promised those old foxes many benefits, and now these people almost control the selection and appointment of talents in the court, which has resulted in Ji Heng having no one to rely on. If it weren't for this, he wouldn't be so eager to gain Wen Jie's loyalty.
However, Wen Jie has the Wen family's connection with the late Crown Prince. "What does Shen Guitang have that His Majesty would find appealing?"
Qiu Yun was also puzzled by this. "His Majesty seems to admire this person very much, but along the way," he recalled the probing of Shen Guitang, and for a moment he was quite speechless, "I think His Majesty may have misjudged him."
Li Jian glanced at him and, out of consideration for their years of working together, gave him a word of advice: "His Majesty's instructions must have a profound meaning; let's just do as he says."
After he finished speaking, he summoned the most beautiful woman among the group of beauties, "Plum Blossom, I remember that Young Master Shen seemed to have glanced at you twice."
The beautiful woman named Plum Blossom smiled shyly, "When I was pouring wine for him, Lord Shen did indeed glance at me."
Li Jian's eyes showed satisfaction. "Since Lord Shen likes you, you shall serve him tonight. Remember, you must satisfy our Lord Shen."
Qiu Yun wanted to advise him not to go to such lengths, since Shen Guitang was so fond of his fiancée Cuicui that he probably wouldn't even let this woman into the house. However, remembering Li Jian's advice just now, she couldn't help but wonder if she had really been deceived by him, so she didn't say anything more.
"Yes, I will certainly live up to your expectations, sir." Plum Blossom lowered her head and smiled sweetly, her eyes filled with both shyness and anticipation, which made her small, delicate face appear even more beautiful, as if waiting for someone to come and pluck her.
Li Jian's heart stirred. This plum blossom was the most beautiful among the beauties he had raised, and he couldn't help but feel a pang of regret at giving it away so easily. However, beauties are easy to find, but power is hard to come by, so he suppressed the urge in his heart and said, "Go."
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Author's Note: Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2024-03-11 23:15:35 and 2024-03-13 23:43:54!
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: 20 bottles of Magic Scallion; and 2 bottles of Lucky Charm.
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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