A crown princess who doesn't do infrastructure construction isn't a good doctor.

Knowing that the Zhenbei Army had returned to the capital several days ago, Xu Huai also returned to receive his reward.

There was some controversy when Xu Huai was awarded a title, stemming from his original identity as one of Beitang Yan's personal guards.

Some of Beitang Yan's personal guards often followed Hua Yuanshan and had already been granted minor official positions due to their military achievements. Xu Huai, as one of the most outstanding among them, was bound to be promoted, and now he faced two choices.

Firstly, he could be dismissed from Beitang Yan's personal guard and devote himself to the imperial army, thus being directly appointed as a fourth-rank general.

Secondly, he would remain Beitang Yan's personal guard, but could only be promoted by half a rank from his original position, from deputy captain to sixth-rank captain.

In the end, Xu Huai chose the second option amidst the incomprehension or disdainful gazes of the crowd in the court.

In the restaurant, the three of them ordered a private room and each occupied one side of a square table.

"What brings you to Dongzheng Street? Haven't you been busy these past few days?"

Xu Huai has his own residence, but in the few days since he returned, he has been staying at the Hua residence to accompany Hua Yuanshan in handling military affairs.

“I went to the Ministry of War to discuss the soldiers’ rewards. I saw you at the intersection as soon as I came out of North Street, so I followed you all the way here. I didn’t expect you to not notice me.”

Gao Yu turned to look at Jin Wen, and after seeing him shake his head to indicate that he hadn't noticed, she said to Xu Huai, "You should have called us earlier. You've been busy all morning, and you've followed us all this way. Aren't you tired?"

Xu Huai curled his lips into a slightly wicked smile.

"What's the big deal? It's just that those old-fashioned men in the Ministry of War are a bit difficult to deal with. Overall, it went smoothly. Anyway, let's not talk about that. What are you doing coming all this way?"

Gao Yu pointed at Lan Feng and said, "I'm going to help out at Zhengjun's bookstore. We're out shopping together today."

Xu Huai raised his hand and poured a cup of tea for Gao Yu and Lan Feng. "West Zheng Street is the most complete street in Yejing. What rare things do you want to buy? Why do you have to come all the way to the poorest East Zheng Street?"

Xu Huai moved very quickly, but his tone was somewhat nonchalant, not at all like the brilliant and insightful strategist he was rumored to be.

Gao Yu said, "There are indeed relatively few items. If you are interested, you can go to the bookstore when you have time. It's near Sanweixuan and is called Southwest Bookstore. Do you remember the way there?"

Xu Huai frowned as if deep in thought. After a moment, he said, "I haven't been back to Yejing for several years. I'm afraid I might have gone to the wrong place."

Gao Yu: "Then after we finish eating, you can come with us, and I'll take you to see it."

Xu Huai nodded, "Okay."

Lan Feng: "..."

Only then did Gao Yu realize that he had forgotten to ask Lan Feng's opinion, since they had come out with a mission today.

So Gao Yu asked in a low voice, "Can I take him with me?"

Lan Feng smiled with narrowed eyes and said, "No problem, our shop isn't anything shameful."

When the group returned to the bookstore after buying the books, it was almost evening. However, it was getting dark later and later this season, and they hadn't really realized how much time had passed.

Looking at the two people chatting happily beside him, Lan Feng asked listlessly, "Gentlemen, do you know what time it is?"

Gao Yu was carrying a bunch of food and trinkets that Xu Huai had bought for him as they walked around. He looked like a little kid who had played for half a day and was so full of stuff that he couldn't carry it all, but he still insisted on carrying it himself.

With a few peeled roasted chestnuts still stuffed in her mouth, Gao Yu mumbled, "What time is it?"

Lan Feng, in a fit of rage, disregarded whether they were familiar with each other or not, grabbed a handful of roasted chestnuts from the oil paper bag in Xu Huai's hand, and said, "It's almost dusk!"

As he spoke, Lan Feng violently crushed a chestnut, roughly shoved it into my mouth, and then spat out the chestnut shell that hadn't been cleaned properly, still frowning as he did so.

"What! It's so late! Let's hurry up and go!"

While expressing her surprise, Gao Yu called out to the two people beside her to start running together.

Xu Huai was quite cooperative, even helping Gao Yu pick up a few things she was about to drop. Lan Feng, however, pursed his lips, his mouth turned down, and looked rather strange as he slowly walked a few steps behind, muttering, "The world is going to the dogs, people's hearts are no longer what they used to be. The two of them are being all lovey-dovey, do they think I don't exist? Tch, just wait until I find one too."

After venting his frustration, he looked at the two figures that were almost out of sight and called out, "Wait for me! There's no need to rush, we're almost there..."

When the three of them arrived at the street in front of the bookstore, there weren't many people queuing, but there were still some people in line, and a few of them seemed to be arguing with the shopkeeper about something.

After a period of operation, the nearby market has become saturated. As for stationery, a relatively expensive business that is not consumed too quickly under normal circumstances, there are probably only a handful of stores in the entire Beiqian that can achieve the level of long queues that Southwest Bookstore has from time to time.

The three of them entered through a side door and sat down in the lounge on the second floor to rest for a while. A sharp-eyed waiter brought over a pot of tea. Gao Yu thanked him and asked, "Why are there still so many people queuing up now?"

The shop assistant replied with a smile, "We've signed contracts with several novelists one after another. The one who became a sensation a few days ago sent over a new manuscript. We printed it today and brought it to the shop. A lot of people rushed to buy it, and it sold out in less than two hours. There are still many people outside asking when we'll print more."

These days, Gao Yu has been following his father and hasn't heard anything about what's happening outside, so he's still a bit confused when he hears it.

"Novel? Author?"

Lan Feng went to the door to talk to the persistent person. The waiter was a kind-hearted man, so he replied, "It's a storybook. The author is the person who writes storybooks."

Xu Huai, who had just returned from walking around the first floor, asked, "Do you still have those storybooks? I'd like to take a look."

After looking around, the man whispered, "The ones that were originally for rent or sale are all gone, and there's always a line of people in the reading room."

Seeing the waiter's tone, which suggested there was still a twist to the story, Gao Yu, who was also somewhat interested in the popular novel, joked, "Did you secretly buy a few?"

The shop assistant shook his head and then his hands, saying, "How could that be? I would never dare to do such a thing. A few days ago, one of our shop assistants, Wang Mazi, stole a few popular novels to resell at a high price. He got caught, had his hands crippled, and then our shop manager threw him into the government office."

Wang Mazi was referring to the short shop assistant who tried to be a troublemaker when Qin Suiyou first came to the Southwest Bookstore, but failed. He was related to the original manager, Wang, and always acted arrogantly and took advantage of others.

After being sent to the government, Manager Wang had been wanting to do something, but he couldn't find an opportunity. After Qin Suiyou reformed the bookstore and Jinwen found several people who could write novels to sign contracts for publication, he felt that he had a chance to make money. So he stole some books and went out to resell them. As the shop assistant said, he was caught by the guards sent by Shuo Han before he could succeed.