Chapter 24 The Ninth Prince
"Madam... your eight hundred thousand taels were wasted!"
Yan'er glanced over there angrily, and saw the victims huddled in the corner.
Pu Qiongzhi watched Chunjing come back with a box of snacks, opened the box, and took out several plates of pastries.
"Eat." She looked at the child with sparkling eyes.
Nangong Jiayu couldn't wait to take a piece and handed it to Zhiyun beside her.
Zhiyun glanced at Pu Qiongzhi and saw that she didn't mind, so he took it and said, "Thank you, young master."
"Aunt, you should try it too! Everyone in the library where I studied before had eaten the snacks from this restaurant, except me..." Nangong Jiayu said, but the joy in her eyes did not diminish at all.
Pu Qiongzhi shook her head. "Auntie doesn't want to eat. You eat it. Eat slowly, don't choke."
"Yan'er, if we go to distribute porridge ourselves, we can certainly spend our money wisely. But these people have fled all the way from Wanning Prefecture to Kyoto. They are not something that weaklings like you and me can handle."
"I gave the banknote directly to the Princess. Even she would have needed a team of guards to escort it. People like us who have nothing to offer would inevitably be exploited..."
"Now, these people are so rampant right under our noses, I guess they have some background! Fortunately, we didn't get involved in this mess!" Chun Jing was very angry at these corrupt officials who took their wives' money but did nothing.
"Originally, this was just a trial run to gain a good reputation. Now that I have officially received the imperial edict, what's the big deal?"
As he was speaking, there was a commotion over there. It seemed that some disaster victims were gathering together to beat up a woman.
Pu Qiongzhi frowned and watched from afar to see what was happening.
I saw a man with a noble temperament riding a horse. His cloak rustled in the wind. He jumped off the horse with a graceful turn.
The servant beside him spoke in a loud and imposing voice, "The Ninth Prince is here, who dares to cause trouble?!"
As soon as they heard the name of the Ninth Prince, everyone dispersed.
It seems that the title of royal family is quite intimidating, and it really shocked this group of people.
The ninth prince, Gongsun Huaili, took a few steps forward and personally helped the woman, who was huddled on the ground and covered in blood, to her feet.
"Madam, are you all right?" He said in a gentle voice. He then turned and called the servant, "Go and get the doctor to take a good look at this lady."
After he finished speaking, he looked at the group of people who had just caused trouble.
At this moment, they knelt on the ground trembling, fearing that the ninth prince would take their lives.
"Why did you guys hit her?" Gongsun Huaili's voice was completely different from before, cold and majestic.
One of the men then spoke in a tearful voice, "To answer... to answer the Ninth Prince, she... that woman... is the wife of a commoner... It's all the fault of that damn Wen Shu'an. She donated money to us, but then she came here pretending to give out porridge and secretly exchanged the money. We were so hungry that we had no choice... so we thought of giving the child... in exchange for food..."
Hearing his words, Gongsun Huaili frowned, "Who wants to exchange rations with you? If it's just for rations, why hit her? She's your wife, so you can hit her?"
"That disobedient woman won't let us touch the child! What can we do? We're almost starving to death!" The man yelled, "To answer... the Ninth Prince, I'll exchange with the Wang family..."
Just as he said this, a skinny man kneeling behind him came forward tremblingly, "Your Highness, Your Highness, it's...it's that my mother is really starving, but I can't bear to leave my own child...so I'm switching with Li Dachui's family...switching..."
After hearing what they said, Gongsun Huaili finally understood that what they meant by exchanging food was actually exchanging children for food!
"Nonsense! Ridiculous! You two won't starve to death under the Emperor's feet, how can you...how can you be so cruel!"
"As a parent, even a tiger wouldn't eat its own cubs!" Gongsun Huaili was furious.
However, he took a deep breath and calmed down.
"This prince promises you that you will all have your fill! You will never go hungry!"
"Your Majesty loves his people and cannot bear to see them suffer. With this prince here, you can rest assured!"
Having said that, he asked someone to mention the local officials responsible for disaster relief.
"This prince will not tolerate such treacherous villains who harm the people! Today, under your witness, this prince will be the executioner! Executioner, execute these two guys immediately!!!"
Not far away, Pu Qiongzhi lowered the curtain of the carriage and covered Nangong Jiayu's ears.
Zhiyun looked at her blankly, and she gestured to him to cover his ears.
The executioner here moved very skillfully, and his knife must have been sharpened frequently. With just a flick of his wrist, he dealt with the two corrupt officials!
When the execution was over, Chun Jing could no longer bear it, "Madam! How can this be blamed on us?"
"Madam, the old lady of the Duke of Anguo said earlier that Miss Pei was personally distributing porridge to the victims in the suburbs of Beijing. Why is she now throwing dirty water on us? Could it be that she is the one who withheld food?" Yan'er reacted very quickly.
"Logically, the Pei family shouldn't be short of these things, not to mention that she's a girl, why would she run here just to steal food?" After saying that, she quickly denied herself.
"Anyway, now that the truth has been revealed, she must be afraid of tarnishing her reputation, so she framed you."
Pu Qiongzhi thought for a moment and said, "That's a possibility..."
"It's a mess here, it's not peaceful. Let's go back to the mansion first and talk slowly."
The carriage slowly drove away. Gongsun Huaili, who was supervising the execution, subconsciously glanced in this direction.
He seemed to have just...seen a familiar figure!
…
Nangong Hua has been running around recently to clear obstacles for her.
According to his memories from his previous life, he roughly knew which families had the most aggressive tempers.
He had visited each of these families, offering nothing more than words of gratitude, or resorting to coercion or bribery. They were all people who valued their reputation, so in the capital, they were always around.
When he returned home, he saw his troublesome nephew Nangong Jiayu waiting for him with a food box.
Nangong Hua had been running around all day and didn't want to pay any attention to him, so he just walked away.
Seeing that her uncle ignored her, Nangong Jiayu was not discouraged.
He followed a few steps with the food box in hand, "Uncle, pay your respects to uncle!"
"Uncle, my aunt took Jiayu to the library today and also bought some snacks from Zhenxiangxuan! Would you like to try some?"
Hearing his words, Nangong Hua paused, reached out to take his lunch box, and strode towards the study.
"Uncle, uncle!" Nangong Jiayu chased after him, begging anxiously, "Today, outside the city, someone said bad things about my aunt. I must be very sad! Can you help me?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
