Seeing that Yan Xuening had already started packing her things, Shang Shaoyan didn't plan to stay any longer.
She walked out of the prefectural government office and leisurely found a well-regarded security escort agency—this agency was a chain store, generally responsible for transporting things that the imperial court did not allow, and even providing prison break services. People without connections usually did not know of their existence.
Shang Shaoyan learned about this through Madam Xie, who had previously used this escort agency to transport weapons to the Northwest.
She arrived at a jewelry shop, where the shopkeeper, a middle-aged woman, was fiddling with an abacus. Seeing Shang Shaoyan enter, she quickly greeted her with a smile, "What does this young lady need? We have many fine things here."
Shang Shaoyan smiled and said slowly, "I'd like a set of headdress made with East Sea Dragon Pearl and West Mountain Jade, a pot of wine from the South City, and a dish of side dishes from the North Region."
These words seemed to come out of nowhere, but the middle-aged woman's expression remained unchanged. She glanced at Shang Shaoyan a few times and said, "These things that the young lady wants are not easy to obtain. Please come with me to the private room to discuss them in detail."
Shang Shaoyan nodded and followed the middle-aged woman into the private room on the second floor.
As soon as the door closed, the middle-aged woman took out a tray of wooden plaques, placed it in front of Shang Shaoyan, and said, "Please choose, young lady."
Shang Shaoyan looked around and picked up a wooden plaque that read "Xiaoyao Youjia": "This one."
"Xiaoyao You" is a service that escorts the person; those with martial arts skills are called "A," and those without are called "B." "Li Sao" is for breaking someone out of prison, and other services also have different codes.
The middle-aged woman took the wooden plaque, picked up a carving knife, and wrote down today's date and time: "What kind of material would you like, young lady?"
"Northwest," Shang Shaoyan replied, "outside the Shang army camp."
The middle-aged woman carved "Dry, Gold" on the wooden sign without her hand trembling.
"Gan" represents the northwest direction in the Bagua, but "Jin" here does not refer to the Bagua attribute of the region; rather, it alludes to a military camp.
After the carving was finished, the middle-aged woman asked again, "Would you like to set a time to pick up the goods, young lady?"
Shang Shaoyan: "This afternoon, about two weeks ago."
The middle-aged woman nodded, and then her stern face finally broke into a smile: "Please wait a moment, young lady, I'll make the arrangements right away. Two thousand taels of silver, in banknotes or silver."
Shang Shaoyan knew this was a reasonable price, so without further ado, he took out a silver note from his pocket and handed it to the middle-aged woman.
Watching the middle-aged woman leave with the silver notes, Shang Shaoyan suppressed her heartache—this was half of her travel expenses. If she hadn't been worried that the Prince of Nan'an or the Crown Prince's men might try to steal the Tiger Tally along the way, she wouldn't have hired a security escort agency to protect her. After all, no matter how capable she was, she couldn't possibly fight against the thousands of guards under the Crown Prince's command alone.
That would be exhausting.
...
The Southern Chen Dynasty, the imperial palace.
Zhao Ming was playing chess with the Crown Prince in the Eastern Palace. The Crown Prince was a few years younger than Zhao Ming, but his tyranny and ruthlessness were no less than his. The two had always gotten along well.
Both men were preoccupied with their own thoughts, and they were somewhat distracted while playing chess. After a long while, the Crown Prince finally couldn't sit still any longer. He looked at Zhao Ming and asked hesitantly, "Cousin, do you know that Father Emperor intends to make Princess Heyang a concubine?"
Zhao Ming stared at the Crown Prince for a moment, then smiled casually: "What, you're not happy? You've taken a fancy to He Yang?"
The Crown Prince shook his head: "How could I possibly be interested in such a fierce young lady? I was just thinking that the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion has been attracting too much attention lately."
As he spoke, his eyes darkened: "Shang Yunlan has made a lot of money recently, and Father Emperor has given him a sinecure as Grand Tutor. Although he has no real power, his reputation is good... Now, only these two siblings are left in the entire Duke of Zhenguo's mansion. Shang Yunlan is sickly, and Heyang is a young lady. They cannot return to the peak of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion through military merit. It seems that they want to take the path of becoming a favored concubine."
After a pause, he finally voiced his concern: "Heyang is young and beautiful, and will surely be pampered. What if she gets pregnant..."
Zhao Ming raised an eyebrow, unconcerned: "I've met that girl He Yang. She's a bit dim-witted. If she enters the palace, it's uncertain whether she can keep the pregnancy."
Zhao Ming was still a little worried: "The younger brothers are still young and their maternal families are not prominent. Even if He Yang doesn't have a child herself, it's still feasible to register one of them under her name."
Zhao Ming pondered for a moment and felt that what the Crown Prince said made sense: "Although the two siblings cannot personally control the Shang family army, if they have offspring, regardless of whether they are biological or not... the Shang family army will eventually return to their hands."
Zhao Ming was very concerned about the merchants' army in the Northwest, but the Crown Prince was more concerned about his own secure throne: "If He Yang has children after entering the palace, with her maternal family, my position as heir apparent will probably be in jeopardy."
Although the two had different focuses, they both felt a sense of worry at that moment.
As the two were lost in thought, a young eunuch entered, knelt before the Crown Prince with his eyes lowered, and said, "Your Highness, there is news from the Qianqing Palace."
The Qianqing Palace was the residence of Emperor Chen, and unbeknownst to him, the ambitious crown prince had already infiltrated his palace.
The crown prince thought it was no big deal and said casually, "Speak, my cousin is not an outsider."
The young eunuch hesitated for a moment, then lowered his voice and said, "His Majesty has been frequently summoning the imperial physicians these past few days. It seems, it seems... that he has injured, injured his very core."
Crown Prince and Zhao Ming: "...?"
The crown prince was stunned for a moment, then looked sharply at the little eunuch: "Do you know what you're saying?"
The young eunuch quickly kowtowed: "This servant dares not, this servant heard it clearly—this servant heard Physician Chen say that His Majesty will be unable to visit his concubines in the future."
The crown prince then realized what was happening, and his eyes lit up with joy: "Good, that's wonderful!"
His lips curled into a wild smile as he looked at Zhao Ming: "Cousin, we don't need to worry at all now."
Then he asked the young eunuch, "What exactly happened?"
The young eunuch thought for a moment and said, "It seems that there was a problem in Consort Shu's palace, but His Majesty investigated and found that the Empress was the culprit. She instructed Hongye, who served the Third Princess, to sneak into Consort Shu's palace and poison her. Hongye has now committed suicide, and His Majesty is preparing to depose the Empress."
The two people who had been pressing down on his head collapsed in an instant. The Crown Prince felt refreshed and deeply believed that he was the chosen one of Heaven. Otherwise, why would Heaven be helping him?
Zhao Ming frowned, sensing that things weren't so simple: "Empress has also confessed?"
The young eunuch said, "The Empress refused to confess, saying that Hongye framed her. Hongye then committed suicide by hitting her head against a pillar, saying that only death could prove that the Empress had ordered it."
Zhao Ming felt something was amiss, but there was nothing suspicious about the matter. He had no choice but to suppress his doubts and said to the Crown Prince, "Given what has happened, Your Highness must have many matters to attend to. I shall take my leave now."
The crown prince waved his hand in a good mood: "Take care, cousin."
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