Help! The innocent prince always tries to seduce me clumsily

Song Nian approached mysteriously and said, "If nothing unexpected happens, I will have to go home soon. After I go back, I will not be as free as I am now, and I will not be able to accompany Xiaoqi all the time. As a brother, I am still very worried. You must keep this token I gave you well, and don't let others see it. It is a very magical thing. Even if you commit a big disaster and are about to be sent to the guillotine, as long as you take out this thing, the emperor will save your life when he comes."

Chu Shitong looked at the token in his hand, his eyes shining.

"So magical? Second brother, are you kidding me?"

"Can your second brother lie to you?"

Song Nian said: "Don't accuse me of bragging. This token has a great origin. I got it by chance."

Seeing that Song Nian was so serious, I thought it was probably not a lie.

Chu Shitong had never heard of this kind of token without words, and suddenly he felt that the token in his hand was too valuable to be lifted.

She handed the token back.

"This is such an important thing, you should keep it for yourself, second brother."

Although Chu Shitong treated Song Nian sincerely, he was embarrassed to accept such a valuable thing.

Song Nian pushed the token back and said, "We are brothers, why are you being so polite to me? Just keep it if I tell you to. If you keep hesitating, I will look down on you. Don't let others see it, put it away quickly."

"Okay." Chu Shitong put away the token with mixed feelings in his heart, "Thank you very much, second brother."

"Why are you being polite to me?"

Song Nian smiled, patted her head, and said, "When you have time, just bring your sister-in-law to play with me. By the way, my family is from Qinglian. If you need to find me, you can write a letter and send it to No. 12, Yuhua Road, Qinglian Tiancheng."

"I've got that in mind. Thank you, brother."

Chu Shitong only knew that Song Nian was a rich young man, but he never thought that he was Qinglian's man.

The Qinglian Kingdom is rich and powerful, and there are many wealthy families.

Chu Shitong thought of the hibiscus flower on the token and guessed that Song Nian's family must have received some reward from Emperor Qinglian, and this token might be a symbol of noble status.

Beiqing is not as good as Qinglian. If something happens to him and he takes out Qinglian's things, Beiqing will not dare to ignore Qinglian's majesty and choose to kill him.

Thinking of this, Chu Shitong was deeply moved.

Song Nian actually gave such a valuable thing as he said.

What a good brother.

The carriage slowly set off, heading eastward, towards Jingzhou City.

-

July twenty-nine.

Chu Shitong arrived at Jingzhou City.

Chu Shitong still used a fake identity on this trip in order to conceal his whereabouts.

She let her long hair down and checked into an inn as a woman. When Rushang received the letter, she immediately came to report what had happened in the past few days.

"Your Highness has already checked the accounts of Jingzhou two days ago. He spent a day checking the taxes, and every item is correct."

"If it is correct, why do they owe so much tax?" Chu Shitong said, "Before the epidemic, Jingzhou had not experienced any major incidents. Logically, the crops should be growing normally and the economy should be stable. But as I traveled along the way, I saw that the people in Jingzhou were working hard in the fields and the vendors in the market were working from dawn to dusk. But they all wore coarse linen clothes and ate sweet potato steamed bread. The money was not in the people, nor in the treasury."

If an animal does not gain weight even though it eats a lot, it must have parasites in its stomach.

If the people work hard but cannot get rich, then there must be a blood-sucking bug in the society.

Rushuang lowered her head and said, "His Highness suspected that the accounts were false and questioned the governor. Yesterday, he even ordered people to search the governor's mansion from top to bottom, but nothing was found."

Chu Shitong said nothing.

It would be strange if it could be found.

Jingzhou is far away from the capital, and the officials here have long since colluded to form a network. The people along the way are all poor, which proves that the people of Jingzhou have been plundered.

This is not something that can be done by just a governor. At least all the officials, big and small, in Jingzhou are involved.

Chu Shitong said, "Don't follow Si Jingli. Go find a steward of a bank named Liu Zeshan. Keep an eye on him for twelve hours a day. He may have a lot of secret guards around him. Find a way to monitor him without alerting him. He has an account book in his hand. Find out where it is."

Rushuang was stunned for a moment, then lowered her eyes and responded.

"Yes."

In her previous life, Chu Shitong focused all her energy on the fight for the throne in the last few years. Although she did not handle this matter in her previous life, she had read the case files and knew the general results and process of the handling. Chu Shitong remembered all the important informants and clues in this huge corruption case clearly.

This is also the reason why she was willing to come.

But it seems that it is because all my energy in the previous life was spent on various affairs in the court that my childhood memories seem to be becoming increasingly vague.

If you know the outcome when you're dealing with something, it will be easy to work backwards.

Chu Shitong then ordered Jianying and his other secret guards to monitor some people. For a while, there was only one secret guard left by his side.

However, I have not been exposed yet, so there should be no danger.

……

midnight.

After taking a bath, Chu Shitong sat at the head of the bed, where only a white candle was lit.

The dim light illuminated the simple furnishings in the room and a few letters in her hands that had just been sent from the capital.

The person stationed on Chu Shifeng's side sent a message saying that Chu Shifeng had already taken action.

It seems that a lot of people were sent here.

It took Chu Shitong a long time to finally plant a man under Chu Shifeng's command. Chu Shixuan's defenses were so tight that there was no chance for him to plant anyone inside.

I heard that Chu Shifeng took ruthless measures this time and used three methods to deal with Chu Shixuan.

One is to arrange people to mix in and find ways to replace the things that Chu Shixuan comes into contact with on a daily basis so that he can be infected with the epidemic.

This is the most normal and gentle method.

The second is to send people to infiltrate the infected population, stir up public anger, plan a large-scale reaction, and insert people among them. When public anger is aroused, they will take the lead in taking action and lead the infected people to resist and vent their anger with violence, so as to strangle Chu Shixuan in the chaos.

This epidemic was a lung disease, and the symptoms of the infected were very similar to tuberculosis, first with a fever, then coughing up blood and developing sores on the body.

The prescription for the epidemic in the previous life was developed next month. The first batch of prescriptions had problems and could not cure the disease, but could only delay the symptoms.

Three months later, the second batch of prescriptions were improved and could completely cure the epidemic.

By the time the second batch of prescriptions were developed, most of the people in the hardest-hit areas had died from the epidemic. Fortunately, they were isolated in time and the disease did not spread on a large scale. Only a few surrounding counties were endangered.

Although this method does make sense, it is not very likely.

Those infected with the epidemic are very weak, so it would be difficult to get them to resist or even riot.

The third is a complete strangulation. If the first two times fail, more than 20 groups of assassins have been arranged for Chu Shixuan on his way back to Beijing. No matter which route he takes, he will have to endure at least five or six robberies and killings. No matter how lucky Chu Shixuan is, he will not be able to escape.

Chu Shifeng's move was indeed ruthless and courageous.

The death of the prince in a robbery and murder is a big deal. It is equivalent to someone directly slapping the royal family in the face. Even for the sake of the royal dignity and the stability of the people's hearts, Chu Shiyu will definitely get to the bottom of it.

This kind of investigation is not just collecting evidence and questioning passers-by. This kind of investigation is equivalent to directly investigating the place of the murder and all the surrounding towns and even the entire state.

Dogs’ stomachs had to be cut open, flying birds had to be shot down, and ant holes had to be poured with boiling water.

If they really succeed, Chu Shifeng will inevitably be found out.

If it was discovered that brothers had killed each other, the lightest consequence would be to be stripped of the throne and sent to the clan house for confinement. Once in the clan house, it would be equivalent to directly removing the name from the royal family's clan files, stripping the identity and title, and there would be no chance to get out again in the rest of his life.

Chu Shitong could easily arrange a few people to do something like robbery and murder, but this was not the most important thing. The most important thing was that it must not be discovered, otherwise he would not have racked his brains to kill two people in his previous life.

After reading the plan description in the letter, Chu Shitong could not help but sigh.

As expected, it’s Chu Shifeng.

How vicious.

He was so cruel to himself that he even dared to kill Chu Shixuan at the risk of dying together with himself.

It seems that Chu Shixuan's death is a foregone conclusion.

Once Chu Shixuan died, Chu Shifeng would most likely be gone without him having to do anything. In the end, the one who benefited from the fight between the two was still Chu Shitong.

Chu Shitong was in a very good mood. He put away the letter he was writing and read the next one.

The next letter was written by Ji Shu, which was roughly a detailed list of the recent expenses of Prince Qi's Mansion.

Ji wrote in the letter that the zither that Li Nu usually used was broken, and he wanted Li Nu to use the Liuxian zither in the treasury of Prince Qi's mansion in the future. He said that Li Nu had borrowed it first to play a song and found it very easy to use.

In his previous life, Chu Shitong gave the Liuxianqin to Li Nu, and Li Nu also died while playing the Liuxianqin.

Although Chu Shitong could play the piano, she always felt that there were very few men who could play the piano, and most pianists were women. In order to avoid suspicion, she seldom played.

The Liuxianqin wasn't a particularly valuable item, just a few tens of thousands of taels of silver, so I gave it away.

Ji Shu talked a lot and mentioned the Michelin restaurant.

When Yuan Xi heard that Chu Shitong's birthday was just a few months away, he ran back from afar to celebrate Chu Shitong's birthday.

Chu Shifan has been staying at Michelin recently, under the pretext of watching over the store, but in reality he's just eating and drinking for free in the store every day.

Xie Chuchu and Chu Shifan don't see eye to eye and their relationship is very strained.

On the surface, Xie Chuchu looks like a weak woman who is alone with a child, but in fact she is extremely stubborn and has her own ideas in her mind, otherwise she would not dare to come to the capital city alone with her child.

The disagreement between the two seemed to be because Xie Chuchu made pastries for everyone in the store. Chu Shifan still remembered the awful peach blossom pastry from a few years ago. He hated it so much without even trying it, and Xie Chuchu has held a grudge against him ever since.

When Chu Shitong saw this, he could almost imagine how Chu Shifan was yelling like a loud speaker that the pastries made by Xie Chuchu were terrible.

One can also imagine Xie Chuchu smiling on the surface but actually holding a grudge in her heart.

Ji Shu said that Xie Chuchu put croton seeds in Chu Shifan's food, causing Chu Shifan to run to the toilet every day. The key point was that he himself was very slow and didn't know why.

"Tsk." Chu Shitong said to himself with a smile, "My cousin is so pitiful."

Ji Shu added one more sentence at the end.

On the day when Chu Shitong secretly left the capital, Princess Linglan had no idea that she was secretly investigating the affairs of Jingzhou. She thought that Chu Shitong was waiting to go to Quanzhou the next day, so she went to visit him, but was stopped by Ji Shu.

When Princess Lily of the Valley came, her eyes were swollen, probably because she had been crying for a long time.

The wedding date of Chu Shihuan and Princess Linglan was set for the fifteenth day of next month, August 15th, which happened to be the Lantern Festival of Beiqing Kingdom, so it was an auspicious day.

Chu Shitong would definitely not be able to make it back in time, and Ji Shu had already prepared the wedding gift that Prince Qi's Mansion would send to Prince Duan's Mansion.

Thinking of this, Chu Shitong felt that Chu Shihuan was really lucky as he was able to save his life because of ling of the valley.

As Chu Shitong was watching, he heard some noise coming from the window.

It seems there is someone there.

She stood up quietly and prepared to go forward to take a look.

It seemed that Ah Miao was the only secret guard with a crossbow by his side. If there was really any dangerous person approaching, Ah Miao should have shot him to death with one arrow. Why was there no movement for such a long time?

Chu Shitong walked to the window and listened to the noise outside. It seemed that someone was climbing up along a ladder or something. His movements seemed clumsy and he didn't seem to be able to perform light skills like the secret guards.

Could he be a flower thief? Or a particularly stupid one?

Fortunately, the window of Chu Shitong's house faces the wall of the alley behind. The alley is deep and long, and it is pitch dark at night. Normally no one would notice it.

Hearing that the man had reached the window, Chu Shitong pushed open the window to see who this idiot was, but as soon as he opened the window, he scared the person outside the window.

"Why aren't you asleep yet?"

Chu Shitong saw Si Jingli standing outside the window, like a little thief, dressed in black and even wearing a black veil. His peach blossom eyes were wide open with surprise as he stared at Chu Shitong without blinking.

When Chu Shitong saw Si Jingli, he raised his eyebrows slightly, thinking that Rushang must have said something to Si Jingli before leaving.

"Your Highness the Crown Prince doesn't follow the usual path."

Si Jingli felt a little embarrassed standing on the ladder, and was frantically thinking of excuses to exonerate himself.

Chu Shitong glanced down at the ladder under Si Jingli's feet.

Sure enough, several secret guards from Prince Rong’s Mansion were seen supporting him from below.

"..."

Chu Shitong asked, "Why don't you let the secret guards send you up directly?"

Si Jingli said confidently: "What if they wake you up by touching you?"

"So His Royal Highness chose a more noisy method."

Si Jingli blushed and said embarrassedly: "This prince didn't mean it... Who told you to stay up so late? If you had come to Jingzhou City earlier, I wouldn't have come to you secretly at night..."

"Okay, blame me, not His Royal Highness."

Chu Shitong chuckled, reached out for Si Jingli, and helped him jump through the window into the house.

If the secret guards around Si Jingli were not placed by himself in Prince Rong's Mansion, Chu Shitong would never have allowed Si Jingli to come to him so boldly.

As soon as he entered the house, before he could even close the window tightly, Chu Shitong was hugged tightly by Si Jingli.

"Chu Shitong, I haven't seen you for several days. I miss you so much."