Disguised as a man, she became the biggest villain in the book.

Wen Yixuan left in anger, and Zheng Luoqi immediately stopped, regained her serious demeanor, dismissed everyone except Boyu and He Jinyu, and said, "There are some things you need to do in private, away from Wen Yixuan."

"The first thing is to send a few spies to Prince Gong's fiefdom to find out if he has been privately mining iron ore or recruiting soldiers. This must be done in secret from Wen Yixuan."

"The second thing is that you need to find things related to the previous dynasty, such as books or other items, but you must avoid Wen Yixuan in this process."

"The third thing is that I want you to investigate the backgrounds of each aristocratic family, what they have done, their population size, their assets, and as much detail as possible. In addition, I will send Wen Yixuan to investigate this third matter with you."

“However, you only superficially investigated the affairs of the aristocratic families, but in private, you found opportunities to slip away and investigate the other two things I told you to do. Since you were away for a long time, Wen Yixuan wouldn’t suspect anything.”

"Understood!" Boyu and He Jinyu replied respectfully.

Zheng Luoqi stayed for a while longer before leaving Nanfeng Pavilion with her entourage. Wen Yixuan was waiting for them downstairs at Nanfeng Pavilion.

The moment Wen Yixuan saw Zheng Luoqi, his face immediately darkened. He finally understood why his cousin disliked Zheng Luoqi so much; she was truly annoyed.

Zheng Luoqi saw his dark face, but pretended not to see it and walked right past him.

Zheng Luoqi and her group strolled down the street. Zheng Luoqi randomly found a noodle stall and sat down. The stall was run by an old woman. Zheng Luoqi said, "Grandma, four bowls of vegetable noodles here!"

"Okay!" the old woman replied.

As Zheng Luoqi spoke, he looked at the men sitting next to him and said jokingly, "This meal is on me today, you can all eat as much as you want!"

"Thank you, young master!" Boyu and He Jinyu replied respectfully.

Only Wen Yixuan remained silent.

Wen Yixuan sat at the stall, feeling uncomfortable all over. He had grown up in the Grand Commandant's mansion and had never eaten at a street stall before. He had always been a pampered young man. He couldn't understand how Zheng Luoqi adapted so well.

Seeing Wen Yixuan's awkward and hesitant demeanor, Zheng Luoqi understood why he was uncomfortable, but she ignored it.

People like this should be thrown into a famine; starve them for a couple of days, and they'll behave themselves.

Soon after, the old woman brought out bowls of noodles, which Zheng Luoqi ate with great relish.

Wen Yixuan hesitated to pick up his chopsticks. He looked at the bland noodles and then at Zheng Luoqi, who looked like she was eating something really delicious. Wen Yixuan couldn't help but wonder, was it really that delicious?

Wen Yixuan picked up his chopsticks, took a bite and felt that there was no taste at all, no salt and no oil. He didn't understand what was so delicious about it, so he stopped eating after one bite.

While eating, Zheng Luoqi chatted with the old woman and asked, "Grandma, have you been running this stall here for a long time?"

“Yes, it’s been decades. You must be from out of town!” the old woman replied.

“Yes, we are merchants passing through here,” Zheng Luoqi replied.

"I see. Indeed, merchants from other places often pass through here, all heading to the capital. Are you one of them?" The old woman said with a smile as she busied herself.

"Yes, Mother-in-law, how much are these four bowls of noodles?" Zheng Luoqi asked.

"Sixty coins," the old woman quoted the price and continued her work.

Upon hearing the number, Zheng Luoqi frowned: "Sixty coins, Grandma, why are you selling these noodles for so much money!" He was quite surprised.

The old woman stopped what she was doing and explained, "Young man, you don't know this, but grain here is very expensive. Coarse flour costs fifteen coins a pound, and fine flour is even more expensive, selling forty-five coins a pound." Her tone revealed helplessness and regret.

Zheng Luoqi asked in confusion, "Why is the price of grain so high, Grandma?" He felt that the price was outrageous.

The old woman sighed and said slowly, "In the past, when we owned our own land, things weren't like this. But now, we don't own the land; it's all leased. The little grain we grow all year round isn't even enough to cover the rent. We can't even feed ourselves, so who would want to farm? If no one farms the land, there will naturally be less grain, and when there's less grain, the price of grain will naturally go up."

Zheng Luoqi understood the reason for the incident, left the money, and then left.

Then she continued to stroll around, but Zheng Luoqi didn't plan to continue exploring the city. Instead, she decided to go to the fields on the outskirts of the city to see how the harvest was.

The group rode their horses directly out of the city and headed to the fields outside the city.

Zheng Luoqi and his companions spurred their horses forward and soon arrived at a vast field. He dismounted and strode into the field, carefully inspecting it. The grain harvest here was decent; while not exceptionally good, it was certainly not bad. Moreover, the neat rows of crops and the fertile soil showed that the crops had been well cared for.

Just as Zheng Luoqi was standing by the field observing, he suddenly heard an old man calling out from not far away: "Young master, young master!" Zheng Luoqi turned his head and saw an old man with a terrified face walking towards them.

When he saw Zheng Luoqi and the others arriving on horseback, his expression became even more panicked. He rushed over and knelt down with a thud, a move that startled Zheng Luoqi.

The old man trembled as he said, "Gentlemen, please spare me! I depend on the harvest from this field to survive! This year's grain harvest is not very good, and the autumn harvest is just around the corner. If this field is damaged again, my whole family will starve to death!" After saying this, he kept kowtowing, his forehead was broken and bleeding profusely.

Zheng Luoqi quickly stepped forward to help the old man up and comforted him, saying, "Grandpa, please get up. We're not here to destroy the farmland."

"We just came out for a trip. We saw that the scenery here was beautiful, so we thought we'd come and take a look. We didn't mean to destroy any farmland," Zheng Luoqi explained.

Seeing that Zheng Luoqi and the others really didn't mean it that way, the old man breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Is that so? Then I misunderstood."

"Old man, does it seem like people usually come and destroy your fields?" Zheng Luoqi asked.

"Sigh!" The old man sighed and asked, "Are you from out of town?"

"Yes, we're just passing through here!" Zheng Luoqi said with a smile.

The old man glanced at Zheng Luoqi and the others a few times, hesitated, and then waved his hand, saying, "Never mind, since you're from out of town, it's fine to talk to you."