Chapter 538： Different thoughts

 On the city wall.

Chu Heng looked at the porridge shop in Prince Rui's Mansion with cold eyes.

 After being banned for several days, he was finally released in the past two days.

 The price was that his uncle Qi Yansong admitted all the crimes and cleared the relationship between the matter and his mother and concubine.

 Despite this, the mother-in-law was demoted from a noble concubine to a concubine.

While he himself seemed not to have been directly punished, in fact he knew in his heart that he had lost the possibility of competing for the crown prince.

 Because his father would worry that once he ascended the throne, he would retaliate against people related to the Xu family and harm Prince Rui, who was born to him and Queen Xu.

 It’s ridiculous, so ridiculous.

He has been planning until now, step by step, but because of such an old incident, he completely missed the throne.

 The hateful Chu Lan took this opportunity to win over people's hearts and win over the ministers of the DPRK.

Even the Fan family, who had always stood by themselves, switched sides and began to move closer to Chu Lan.

 He can be said to have lost most of his chances of winning now.

In recent days, everyone in the government and the public was praising the good deeds of Prince Rui's Mansion, so he came to see for himself what the situation was like in Prince Rui's Mansion.

“Wei Qingruo is really a good wife, and it would be a pity to be paired with a sick man like Chu Yi.” Chu Heng whispered.

Beside him, Qi Shijing felt extremely harsh listening to Chu Heng's words, but did not dare to speak out.

She knew that something happened to the Qi family, which caused her to change from helping her cousin to dragging her down.

During this period, her cousin's attitude toward her was far worse than before, and he no longer even stayed in her room.

Chu Heng turned to look at her: "Shijing, as my princess, I hope you can be of some use. Today, my king brought you out to let you see what is happening outside. Time waits for no one. You and I no longer have time to immerse ourselves in the sadness of what happened to the Qi family."

 “Don’t worry, cousin, I can do it.” Qi Shijing replied firmly.

Qi Shijing knew that she could only answer this now. Her father was already in prison, and she could not let herself lose her final use value.

Qi Shijing's eyes also fell in front of the porridge shop in the distance. She also wanted to imitate Wei Qingruo, but unfortunately she did not have all the conditions now. She did have money. Although the Qi family was confiscated, the emperor wanted to remember that she was young when she was young. , and for the sake of Princess Yu, she was not disposed of, so her dowry was naturally preserved.

 But the current situation is that Qi's family has been ransacked, and she has no one available except her confidants in the palace. Even if she has money, she cannot dispatch a large amount of food and grass in a short period of time.

 It requires both resources and access to various transportation channels, which she currently does not have.

What's more, with Wei Qingruo Zhuyu in front of her, if she does the same thing again, no matter what the result is, she will be regarded as imitating others.

 And her dilemma doesn’t end there.

I heard that Princess Wenrui has recently been working with some noble ladies in the capital to form an organization called the Qunfang Society, which is specifically used to help victims of disasters. All the people participating in it are women from the powerful class.

 Many of her former close friends were involved, but she was left out.

Since the Qi family had been convicted of framed Xu Guogong's palace, she naturally became a person with a blood feud with Prince Rui's palace. Not only would Princess Rui not let her participate, but she would also isolate her.

So although she promised well, in fact Qi Shijing didn't know what else she could do now.

 Unless...she can help the court borrow food from the Tan family in the northwest.

The Qi family and the Tan family have some connections. She also had some friendship with Tan Xiaoxiao, the young lady of the Tan family, but she didn't know whether this friendship would be useful in such a big matter as borrowing food.

　　###

 Prince Jing’s Mansion.

 “These are the trends in Prince Yu’s Mansion in recent days.”

Xue Shaoyuan finished reporting the information about Prince Yu’s Mansion to Chu Lan. Chu Heng has been busy with a lot of things recently, but from the current point of view, these things have no substantive effect. Several families who had close contact with the Qi family in the past are now afraid to avoid Chu Heng, and the Lu family even refuses to see him. guest.

 He tried hard but failed to reverse the decline.

Chu Lan listened calmly after listening to this. There was no wave on his cold and angular face, as if everything was as he expected.

 Xue Shaoyuan then continued to report on the Tan family.

“We sent to Xi’an Prefecture to negotiate with the Tan family but failed. The Tan family said they had no extra food.”

“It’s not that they don’t have extra food, it’s that they don’t want to.”

According to Chu Lan’s understanding of that place, it’s impossible for them to have no food on their hands.

 But the Tan family refused to lend grain to the court, and the court could not force it.

Chu Lan said: "Send someone to try again."

"yes."

 “Where is Prince Rui’s Mansion?” Chu Lan asked next.

“Princess Rui has been giving porridge and rescuing people for ten days, day and night. Apart from this, she has not seen any other actions from Prince Rui’s palace.”

“Can you find out how much food and grass Princess Rui has on hand?” Chu Lan asked.

“My subordinates are incompetent and haven’t found out yet. We only found out that in the past six months, Princess Rui transported a total of 30,000 shi of rice, 30,000 shi of sweet potatoes, 10,000 shi of coal, and a large amount of cotton to Prince Rui’s Mansion.”

At that time, people in the capital thought that Princess Rui's move was a bit stupid. Now it seems that she is not only not stupid, but also very prescient.

Chu Lan paused, and then asked: "Did you find anything about the person named Wang Jin?"

“My subordinates have not found any information related to this person, and his route has not been found...”

“So I can understand that this person’s identity may be false, right?” Chu Lan said.

He once met Wang Jin in Taizhou Prefecture, and now this person has appeared in the capital. If he is a real person, he must have a road to guide him to various places.

 There is no road guide now which proves from the side that this person may not exist.

 “I don’t know,” Xue Shaoyuan replied.

Chu Lan was silent for a moment, and then asked Xue Shaoyuan to retreat.

　　###

 Zhongyi Bofu.

 Bai lay down for a while after being punished, but now she is able to get out of bed.

　　Sitting in front of the desk in his bedroom, flipping through the account books with one hand and doing calculations with the other.

 The more I calculate, the more annoyed I become, and the more I read, the more headache I get.

 Finally, he took out his anger on the abacus and knocked it hard a few times.

 “What are you doing? Why are you making such calculations?”

 Wei Mingyong saw Bai's irritable behavior as soon as he entered the door.

"What else can we do? The income of the shop is extremely poor this year, and the grain output of Zhuangzi is also extremely low. It is not enough for our family to cover our own expenses!" Bai Shi was very irritable.

“Weren’t the profits in the past two years bad? Life has passed as usual, why are you so worried?” Wei Mingyong said disapprovingly.

"Can this be the same? In the past few years, the income was poor, but the family's accounts were paid by the public, and the parents would subsidize the shortfall. This year, the unscrupulous people from the third house made trouble. From then on, each house's expenses are borne by themselves. Damn it." Bai gritted his teeth.