The Cold King Demands Love and Pleasure

The prefect immediately echoed Min You'an's words, "Yes, Your Highness, that must be it. Recently, due to the floods in Baiyue, many people have openly begun to rebel against the imperial court!"

Fearing that he would steer the conversation toward Gao Wei, Min You'an immediately said, "In that case, I order you to retrieve the stolen grain by noon the day after tomorrow, or I will punish you for negligence!"

"This, Your Highness!" Prefect Song was somewhat embarrassed. The grain was "stolen" by the prefect himself. Did he expect him to arrest himself?

"What difficulties? Do you expect me to investigate myself?" His voice suddenly turned cold, like ice and snow in the twelfth lunar month.

Then he took out a jade pendant from his pocket and shot it at a rat in front of him, pinning it to a pillar not far away. His chilling aura almost froze the blood of the prefect and the vice-prefect.

The prefect noticed the jade pendant with the rat nailed to the pillar, immediately realized something, nudged the prefect, and said to Min You'an, "No need, I'll investigate. This is a small matter, no need for Your Highness to trouble yourself!"

Having gotten the answer he wanted, Min Youan snorted coldly and turned to leave.

The prefect, Song, glared at the magistrate, his anger flaring. "Why did you take on this mess? You knew perfectly well..."

He didn't say the rest of his sentence because he was afraid Min Youan would hear it.

The magistrate frowned, gesturing for him to calm down. "Yes, of course I know. Didn't you see the jade pendant on the pillar? If he investigates, he'll definitely trace it back to us!"

Only then did Prefect Song notice the jade pendant on the pillar. "Didn't I tell you to be careful?"

The prefect frowned. "I've been very careful."

Prefect Song sighed, his gaze catching sight of the jade pendant on the pillar again. "What does Your Highness mean by this? Does he know about our affairs?"

"It shouldn't be that fast, right? He's probably just testing us. If he had evidence, wouldn't he have arrested us long ago?" This time, the prefect was too clever for his own good.

Min Youan wasn't testing them; he wanted to make them return the food they had eaten before dealing with them. Otherwise, they would be getting off too easily!

Prefect Song nodded. "That's true! But I wonder how Liu San's jade pendant ended up in the Prince's hands?"

It's strange that the prefectural magistrate did such a thing as moving the rice so perfectly; he doesn't know how Min Youan discovered the clues.

It was quite a coincidence that Prefect Song entrusted Liu San to sell disaster relief grain, and coincidentally, the merchant Liu San sold it to happened to be the Feng family's grain store.

Feng Yuhan also received the news that a huge batch of rice had been delivered to Feng's brand. Such a large quantity of rice was rare on the market, so he paid attention to it and unexpectedly found out the origin of the rice. He then immediately passed the news on to Min Youan.

Upon learning of this, Min You'an devised a plan to steal the jade pendant from Liu San, taking the opportunity to reveal that he already knew a little bit of the inside story. In order to avoid exposing themselves, Prefect Song and the Vice Prefect had no choice but to accept this difficult task!

Prefect Song clapped his hands, "What are we going to do? Where are we going to find grain? Are we going to pay for it ourselves?"

"Paying money is better than losing your life!" the magistrate said.

After leaving the granary, Min You'an said to Cang Jue, "When Gao Wei returns, have him transport the grain to solve the food problem first! Leave the rest to the Princess! You and Gao Wei will each keep an eye on the Prefect and the Vice Prefect!"

"Yes!"

Sure enough, on the afternoon of the third day, Prefect Song delivered the rice to the prefectural capital. "Your Highness, as you can see, I have successfully completed my mission and retrieved the grain!"

Min Youan pushed open the window and looked at the carts of grain outside the courtyard. He gave a faint "hmm" and saw that Prefect Song was still standing in the study, trying to annoy him. Did he want to take credit for his work?

He gave him a cold look and said, "Get down!"

Prefect Song left dejectedly, thinking to himself, "Alas, I tried to steal a chicken but ended up losing the rice instead!"

Sure enough, since the impact surface was reinforced according to Xia Tongsheng's drawings and the floodwaters were diverted by the landslide dam, the damage and death toll from the subsequent floods have gradually begun to decline.

The situation improved, and after a few days, the floodwaters began to recede and rainfall gradually decreased, as if the flood was about to pass.

Xia Tongsheng was starting to relax and was ready to go out and have some fun and rest. "Yingling, let's go for a walk!"

"Young master, didn't the prince forbid you from leaving?"

"He wouldn't let me out because the disaster was severe a few days ago, but now the floodwaters are receding and there's no danger anymore!" Xia Tongsheng explained.

"But..." Yingling was still a little worried.

"Little girl, stop dawdling. Just be straightforward, are you going or not?"

“Go!” Yingling answered quickly, afraid that Xia Tongsheng wouldn’t take her out to play.

Xia Tongsheng, with an expression that said he had seen through her long ago, smugly turned his neck!

The people of Baiyue Street also began to deal with the funeral arrangements, and there were one funeral procession after another. Of course, those who could afford to hold a funeral were definitely wealthy people. Poor people couldn't even afford to eat, let alone hold a funeral, so how could they bear to spend money on a funeral?

Just use a straw mat to wrap it up and bury it.

The good mood that had been there was ruined by the sound of the suona horns and the cries of loved ones. "Let's go to the riverbank, the atmosphere in the city is too oppressive!"

Yingling nodded and followed behind Xia Tongsheng.

After the flood receded, the water surface appeared exceptionally tranquil and beautiful. The shimmering water reflected the sunlight onto Xia Tongsheng's face. She looked at the sky, then at the water. Who could have imagined that the desolation around her was caused by this beautiful Wei River?

After enjoying the tranquility for a long time, Xia Tongsheng prepared to go back after the sun had set.

On the way back, I passed a riverbank and saw a rat gnawing on a corpse.

At that moment, Xia Tongsheng was startled.

She said somewhat flusteredly, "Yingling, let's go back quickly, the sooner the better!"

Yingling asked, puzzled, "Young master, what's wrong?"

Xia Tongsheng wasn't sure either, and could only say ambiguously, "Something big might be about to happen!"

Xia Tongsheng returned to the prefectural capital and found Min Youan. "Your Highness, something terrible has happened!"

"What's wrong?" Min Youan was quite dissatisfied with Xia Tongsheng's impulsive and unladylike manner.

"An infectious disease outbreak might be imminent!"

"Infectious disease?" Min You'an, being a true ancient person, naturally didn't understand modern terminology.

“It’s the plague!” Xia Tongsheng explained.

Min Youan was somewhat skeptical, "How could a plague appear so easily?"

Xia Tongsheng was furious at his nonchalant attitude. "It's a matter of life and death. Even if there's only a one percent chance, shouldn't you take it a little seriously? How can you be so nonchalant?"

Min Youan narrowed his eyes and said unhappily, "I just think you're worrying too much!"