The princess has super powers and space, so what's wrong with being a little arrogant?

After dinner, Mu Xiyue changed into women's clothes and went out shopping. Xiao Yibai had an inspection mission on his hands, so it made sense for them to go shopping together.

Mu Xiyue was very curious about his job. "What exactly does this job entail? Isn't it just a paid trip?"

"Paid trip?" Xiao Yibai pondered the words for a moment, and roughly understood what they meant. "That's right."

Since the current emperor ascended the throne, all adult princes have had the opportunity to conduct inspection tours every year. The purpose of the inspection tours is to understand the people's sentiments and also have a certain deterrent effect on local officials.

The Second Prince's party that was dealt with last month was a problem that Xiao Yibai discovered during his inspection in the first half of last year. It took nearly a year to sort out the entire network of relationships, which led to the arrival of those witnesses in Beijing last month.

In recent years, the annual inspections by the princes have more or less uncovered some problems. Since the emperor cannot make incognito inspections in person, the princes will inspect on his behalf. This is also a test for the princes from the current emperor.

Mu Xiyue listened to Xiao Yibai's stories of his inspection tours over the past few years, and she finally understood the true meaning of inspections. Only by going deep into the grassroots could one know whether local officials were truly doing practical things for the people, what kind of life the people were living, and what existing policies needed improvement.

It is said that potatoes were discovered by chance when the current emperor was still a prince, while on a business trip to a small mountain village. It was discovered that potatoes were not very picky about the quality of the soil, and only later were they promoted for cultivation nationwide. Therefore, it is really important to spread the potatoes to the people.

The prosperity of Yunyou City is second only to Shangjing City. The two walked in front, Xiaotao and Qiyun followed behind, and the other secret guards hid in the dark.

Mu Xiyue likes shopping, but she is not very keen on it.

As they were walking, they saw someone making trouble in a shop in front of them. Mu Xiyue was feeling bored as she was strolling around, so she went over to watch the fun. It took her a while to understand what was going on.

It turned out to be a blacksmith shop. The old blacksmith had two sons, both skilled blacksmiths. A year ago, a businessman from Minzhou came to the shop. He claimed to have a blacksmith shop at home, and business was booming, but the old blacksmith had suddenly passed away from a serious illness. Seeing that the two sons of this shop were both skilled blacksmiths, he wanted to ask if anyone was interested in working for him. He offered 20 taels of silver per month, with food and accommodation provided.

The business of this blacksmith shop was average, and the father and his two sons could only earn five or six taels of silver a month. After hearing what the businessman said, they became interested. After discussing it, the family decided to let their two sons go to Minzhou to work with the businessman. The old blacksmith would manage his own shop and take in an apprentice so that he could handle the business. Besides, Minzhou was only five or six days' journey by water from Yunyou City, which was not too far.

One of the two sons was married, and the other was engaged. They had agreed to send a letter every month, but they only received a letter once when the two sons were away for half a month, and there was no news after that.

There are also people who travel around Yunyou City for business. Two months ago, a businessman came to the old blacksmith to order two iron pots, saying that they were to be used on the ship. The old blacksmith talked with the businessman and found out that the businessman often went to Minzhou. The old blacksmith asked the businessman to help him find his son in Minzhou and bring a message to his son.

The businessman was also a trustworthy man. Half a month later, he came back and told the old blacksmith that he had searched all the blacksmith shops in Minzhou, but he couldn't find the old blacksmith's son. He also hadn't heard of any shop that had recruited blacksmiths from other places after their master blacksmith died of illness.

The old blacksmith's family panicked. The old blacksmith, feeling uneasy, personally went to Minzhou to search for his sons, but naturally, he couldn't find them. The news of his two sons' inexplicable disappearance somehow spread.

Today, the woman who had been engaged to his second son came to cancel the engagement. The old blacksmith, still eager for his son's return, naturally tried his best to persuade the woman not to cancel the engagement. Unexpectedly, the woman's mother was a rude and aggressive person. She started cursing in the blacksmith shop, which attracted a crowd of onlookers.

Mu Xiyue was just there to watch the fun, but after she knew the whole story, she chatted with Xiao Yibai about her own thoughts.

"The disappearance of these two sons is a bit strange. Think about it, most human traffickers wouldn't kidnap adults like these. One is married, and the other is engaged, so they must be at least 17 or 18 years old. Why would they kidnap them? Either they misheard and weren't going to Minzhou, or the kidnappers were attracted by their blacksmithing skills and took them to some undisclosed place to make ironware."

Mu Xiyue just casually analyzed it, not wanting to get involved in this trivial matter. Xiao Yibai pondered the meaning of Mu Xiyue's words and felt that the first possibility was more likely.

The two of them watched the excitement for a while and then left. When they came back after a walk, they saw the old blacksmith sitting on the threshold of the blacksmith shop, wiping his tears.

Xiao Yibai originally came down to understand the people's sentiments. He couldn't bear to see the old man's appearance, so he stepped forward, squatted down, and chatted with him to understand the situation.

What the old man said was similar to what they had just heard, but the blacksmiths recruited by the merchant in Yunyou City were not only his two sons, but also one of his sons who went to the blacksmith shop in the west of the city, and there was no news of him either.

As the old man spoke, he took out a letter written by his sons from his arms. The handwriting on the letter was crooked. The old man said that both of his sons had only attended school for one year and could only recognize a few words, so their handwriting was not beautiful.

Mu Xiyue leaned over to Xiao Yibai's head and took a look at what was written in the letter. There wasn't much content, just saying that the boss was a big businessman in Minzhou, and they had good food and accommodation, and asked their family not to worry. She also brought four taels of silver with the letter, saying it was the boss's advance payment for their wages.

There is not much useful information in the letter. The only useful information is that "the boss is a big businessman in Minzhou", but this is not necessarily true.

Xiao Yibai asked someone to check the situation of the son of the blacksmith shop in the west of the city that the old man mentioned. This matter was indeed very strange as Mu Xiyue said.

When the group returned to the house, the secret guard who had gone out to the west of the city to investigate another blacksmith shop also returned.

As the old man said, the blacksmith shop was also very tempted by the high wages, so they allowed their son to go to work with them. The son of the blacksmith shop was illiterate, so the old man's son wrote the letter on his behalf. The content was similar, and he also brought back two taels of silver.

Because of the silver they brought back, both families were very grateful to the merchant who took their son away. They thought that the boss was very generous to advance the wages before any work was done. If the merchant had not failed to find the old man's son, probably neither family would have thought about whether anything had happened to their son, and neither family had thought of reporting the case.

Xiao Yibai called two secret guards and gave them a few instructions. The secret guards took the order and retreated.

Mu Xiyue knew that Xiao Yibai was planning to help investigate, but she was not optimistic. This kind of thing was difficult to investigate in ancient times when there was no surveillance.