In the carriage at the dock.

Seeing the couple of Magistrate Lou groveling to the beautiful woman who came down from the boat, Ye Xixian couldn't help but sigh in amazement, "Whose family is this? Prime Minister Li's daughter-in-law? Why do they look at the couple of Magistrate Lou and want to kneel down to them?"

As he was talking, he realized that his cheap brother-in-law beside him had stopped moving. He tilted his head and saw that Mr. Zhao, who was usually a crab, couldn't help shaking.

"Why did she come to Yangzhou? What is she doing here..." Zhao Liben curled up in a corner of the carriage, murmured pitifully, weak and helplessly: "The ghost is still here, those who come are not good, and those who are good will not come, alas..."

"Old man, do you know her?" Ye Yanshang had never seen Old Master Zhao look so timid, so he couldn't help but ask curiously.

"I would recognize it even if it was burned to ashes." Zhao Liben didn't want to tremble, but it was a conditioned reflex that was deeply rooted in his bones and could not be changed by his will.

Whenever he saw that woman, he would recall the time when he was tied to a stone and thrown into the cold lake. He would be overwhelmed by fear and resentment...

"Then who is she?" Ye Xixian asked with increasing curiosity.

"You don't need to know who she is, just know that she is the most vicious woman in the Ming Dynasty!" Zhao Liben clenched his fists tightly, finally suppressed his fear, calmed down, patted the wall and said, "Leave here, the air is poisonous!"

The driver quickly drove the steerable four-wheeled carriage and slowly drove away from the dock.

~~

There is no other person in the world who can make Mr. Zhao so scared except Princess Ning'an.

In fact, she wanted to go south as soon as autumn came, to see her lover Zhao as soon as possible. But her hateful brother, the emperor, who couldn't bear to see others reunited, refused to allow her to leave Beijing. It was delayed until the beginning of October, when the Grand Canal would freeze over if she left any later, so there was no reason to stop her.

Emperor Longqing issued an edict the day before, and the eldest princess left the capital early the next morning. She was so sad that she felt like she had eaten ten lemons in a row.

Ning An was accompanied by her two... oh no, three children.

Ning An has already adopted Zhang Xianggong's only daughter Xiao Jing as his goddaughter, and took her on the journey with him on the pretext of keeping her as a companion to Lanling County Lady Li Mingyue.

Zhang Juzheng and his wife were actually quite reluctant, but there was nothing they could do. They had to give face to the eldest princess, so they had to repeatedly warn Xiaojing to abide by the family rules when she went out, not to embarrass the Zhang family, and not to suffer any loss.

Seeing that Zhang Xiaojing could actually leave home and go out to play for several months, her brothers were extremely envious.

Xiuxiu and the others also wanted to go to Jiangnan, but they didn't dare to mention it because Bugu had a serious double standard in disciplining his children and would never allow them to neglect their studies.

In fact, Ning An also wanted to keep Li Chengen in Beijing. First of all, he was grown up and should learn to do some serious work. At least he could represent himself and go to Xishan Company to hold a board meeting and listen to reports.

Secondly, this kid is really a hindrance. If I keep him around, he will always compete with me for Zhao Lang.

But Li Chengen really missed his old senior and insisted on following him. The princess had no choice but to leave the eunuch behind and quietly set off with her little friend.

She was going to meet her lover, so naturally she didn't want to make a big fuss and attract everyone's attention. What difference would that make from being in the capital?

So Ning An ordered everyone to change into civilian clothes. Captain Niu became the head of the bodyguards, and Lady Liu became the housekeeper. She and her three children also dressed up as the family members of a high-ranking official who were returning home to visit their relatives. They only brought two or three hundred people with them, divided into five official ships, and traveled south in a low-key manner.

However, in the eyes of officials along the way, this fleet of official ships was already very large. Everywhere they went, local officials kept asking who was on the ship. When they knew it was the princess's phoenix ship, they became even more fawning and flattering, and insisted on showing their sincerity before they were willing to leave.

The princess was so annoyed that she had to let Captain Niu go ahead and inform the local prefect of her itinerary in advance and order him to stop the county officials from harassing her. Only then did the situation calm down a lot.

Of course, they had to deal with the prefect. Although His Highness hoped that they would not show up, how could the prefect dare to do so?

Without exception, they all wore casual clothes to greet the princess at the dock, cordially inviting her to come to the city for a reception.

Therefore, Yangzhou's Magistrate Lou and his wife also came to the dock early to welcome them.

This is also the reason why the painted boats of the Qinhuai courtesans were expelled. Otherwise, if the princess saw them, she would definitely regard Yangzhou as the "Flower City".

In fact, the civilian boats on the dock and the busy civilians on the shore were mostly officials and civilians from Yangzhou Prefecture in disguise. They did this to make sure everything went well and create a perfect trip to Yangzhou for the princess.

There can be no mistakes in the reception work, otherwise it is better not to provide reception at all.

~~

The Magistrate Lou and his wife respectfully welcomed the princess off the boat, and said earnestly, "I have ordered people to clean up the Wanhua Garden by the Slender West Lake, and will temporarily serve as your place of residence in Yangzhou. Please come and enjoy your stay."

The princess had no intention of honoring him. She sat in the sedan chair and said calmly, "Don't bother me, my Lord. I have relatives in Yangzhou."

"Ah?" Prefect Lou was surprised. He had never heard that there were royal relatives in Yangzhou?

"Which royal relative is this?"

"Master Zhao Yuan." Ning An said with a half-smile, "My godson is his grandson."

"Oh, old Minister Zhao?" Magistrate Lou suddenly realized and looked around, "I saw him just now."

But he couldn't find the unique four-wheeled carriage.

"Hey, why did you leave without saying hello?"

"Hmph, you old bastard, why are you hiding?!" Ning An secretly gritted his teeth and said hatefully, "I'll leave you nowhere to hide!"

"What did your Excellency say?" Magistrate Lou felt that he was hallucinating and asked again.

"Oh, I mean, Minister Zhao is still so polite. He must be in a hurry to go home and prepare." Ning An grinned and said, "Please trouble Magistrate Lou to lead the way."

"Oh, okay." Although the arrangement failed, Magistrate Lou still went there happily.

Because he has a very good relationship with Zhao Liben, he didn't expect that the old man had this kind of relationship. He won't have to worry about not being able to get in touch in the future. It's really a huge profit!

~~

The eldest princess now focused all her attention on competing with Zhao Liben, but she didn't notice that the three little guys didn't get off the boat at all.

Zhang Xiaojing stood in the cabin, watching her godmother's sedan chair gradually go away, and couldn't help but asked anxiously: "Is it appropriate for us not to get off the boat?"

"It couldn't be more appropriate." Li Mingyue smiled and said, "Do you think my mother has a good relationship with Grandpa Zhao?"

"What a bullshit." Li Chengen crossed his legs and sat in a chair in a sloppy manner, saying, "I don't know what hatred or grudge there is, but my mother gets very angry when she mentions the father of the old senior. If we go to his house now, it must be to cause trouble."

"So as the younger generations, it's better for us not to get involved." Li Mingyue nodded and said, "It's embarrassing to watch."

"Then shall we wait on the boat?" asked Xiao Zhuzi.

"What are you waiting for? Let's go first!" Li Mingyue declared brazenly, "Let's leave for Nanjing now!"

ps. This update is to pay off the chapter I owed the day before yesterday.