Chapter 14

Jiang Xiurun looked up at him with surprise written across her face.

Qin Zhao declared, “Having torn the lord’s attire, compensating with another is the least I can do!”

Taking his clothes, Jiang Xiurun swiftly draped them over herself, casting a puzzled glance in his direction. She struggled to grasp his intentions in that moment.

Qin Zhao emerged from the respectful room first, spotting Feng Liwu standing pensively in the courtyard. Without hesitation, he knelt down, allowing a brief pause before explaining, “There was a minor dispute between this subordinate and… Young Master Jiang in the respectful room just now, but it has been settled.”

Jiang Xiurun, upon hearing his words, found herself momentarily stunned—his address as “Young Master” indicated a reluctance to divulge his identity. But why keep it from his master?

Her mind raced, though her hands remained occupied. She tended to her torn neckline and donned Qin Zhao’s clothing before gracefully stepping out.

Strands of her hair hung delicately by her cheeks, and in Qin Zhao’s oversized attire, her countenance appeared even more petite, exuding an indescribable air of vulnerability.

Feng Liwu had lingered outside the respectful room, privy to the sounds of Qin Zhao’s altercation with Young Master Jiang. However, as the pair emerged, it was Jiang Xiurun who wore Qin Zhao’s clothes!

Observing this scene, the peculiar fit of the clothing sparked suspicions—perhaps it wasn’t a misunderstanding earlier. Could it be that Qin Zhao’s intent wasn’t to strike Young Master Jiang but to take advantage of this attractive young man?

Contemplating this, Feng Liwu’s brow furrowed slightly as he cast a profound gaze upon his cherished one.

Qin Zhao remained in a kneeling position, yet the Crown Prince remained silent. A sense of unease crept over him.

In truth, he couldn’t fathom why he had consciously concealed Jiang Xiurun’s identity secret. It had slipped out unintentionally.

Ever devoted to Feng Liwu, this marked the first time he had resorted to lying in the presence of his master. He felt a twinge of anxiety, refraining from lifting his head as he awaited Feng Liwu’s judgment.

Feng Liwu’s gaze fell upon the two figures, observing the disheveled appearance of Young Master Jiang. A distinct lack of masculine demeanor struck him, prompting him to wonder if this youth could shed some of his feminine traits as he matured.

However, today’s incident served as a lesson, tempering the arrogance of this haughty young noble and dissuading him from acting as recklessly as before.

Naturally, if this youth failed to learn from the experience and proved useless, then… Feng Liwu lowered his eyes, realizing there was no need for him to intervene. Bo State’s envoy, Shen Yong, would ensure that Young Master Jiang had no refuge.

At that precise moment, a guard approached Feng Liwu from behind, speaking in hushed tones, “The distinguished guests upstairs are already inebriated, and the merchant from Liang State is engaged by the prominent lady…”

Acknowledging this information with a nod, the Crown Prince spared a few glances at the young man, deciding it wasn’t worth being entangled in these ambiguous matters. Ignoring Qin Zhao, he turned to Jiang Xiurun and said, “After our lengthy conversation in the respectful room, you must be parched. Let’s have a cup of tea together.”

With those words, he proceeded towards the carriage, and Jiang Xiurun followed suit, boarding the carriage alongside him.

Pity fell upon Qin Zhao, as he had given his outer garment to Young Master Jiang. Moreover, because the Crown Prince did not instruct him to rise, he remained kneeling in the biting cold with only a single layer of clothing.

Qin Zhao understood that while the Crown Prince might preserve some face for him in public due to the Qin family’s influence, there was typically little regard for personal dignity in private.

Today, he violated the Crown Prince’s taboos. Although Jiang Xiurun was a fading guest, the cooling of relations did not excuse him from attacking without prior notice.

Since the Crown Prince didn’t allow him to stand, he could only continue kneeling.

Yet his gaze remained fixed on Jiang Xiurun, who trailed behind the Crown Prince. His throat trembled slightly in the cold wind.

Meanwhile, in the carriage, the earlier scuffle had turned the wine that Jiang Xiurun had consumed into a cold sweat. As the carriage approached the docks on the east side of the city, her heart pounded incessantly, uncertain of Feng Liwu’s intentions.

When the carriage finally stopped at the dock, Feng Liwu descended first.

Jiang Xiurun should have followed suit, but the force behind Qin Zhao’s punch had been unrestrained. Her abdomen now ached, and the slightest movement caused her to draw sharp breaths.

Feng Liwu turned to see the young lady struggling to sit up on the cushion. He couldn’t fathom what Qin Zhao had done to her. Observing her tightly bitten lips due to the pain, he coldly inquired, “Shall I assist you down from the carriage?”

Jiang Xiurun dared not trouble the distinguished guest. Enduring the pain, she slowly managed to stand and move down from the carriage.

The setting sun cast long shadows as Feng Liwu, draped in a black fur cloak, stood on the wooden planks of the dock.

Several advisers from the Crown Prince’s residence, who had arrived earlier, were already waiting at the dock.

Feng Liwu spoke with a slight parting of his thin lips, “I don’t keep useless individuals. However, your talents, aside from engaging in verbal sparring with a few scholars, seem to be devoted mainly to indulgence in food and drink. Today, if you seek my assistance, it depends on whether you are worthy of salvation.”

After uttering these words, he pointed to the bustling dock filled with boats: “Lately, Liang State has sent many merchants to Great Qi to purchase grain. It was said that some people secretly wanted these merchants from the state of Liang to buy refined iron from other countries and ordered the sale of refined iron from Great Qi to be prohibited. Liang State and Great Qi have enjoyed generations of friendship, and these grain merchants carry ship seals directly supplied by the Liang royal family. If the intelligence is false and we investigate without evidence, it will undoubtedly lead to false accusations, disrupting the alliance between the two nations. However, allowing them to proceed unchecked poses a risk of leaking iron, compromising Great Qi’s advantage in weapon manufacturing.”

At this point, Feng Liwu paused, not looking at Jiang Xiurun. He continued, “If you were to oversee this matter, how would you handle it?”

Jiang Xiurun tightened the clothes on her body to prevent the collar from opening in the strong wind, cursing the ancestors of the Feng family in Great Qi in her heart.

Initially, it was this Feng surname who actively sought her, not minding her focus on eating and drinking. When did she ever boast about having any other talents?

Now, at this critical juncture, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince leisurely set up a question.

Jiang Xiurun gritted her teeth, feeling the need to delay time. She raised her voice to the Crown Prince and said, “Just now, I only drank alcohol at the banquet and spoke with General Qin in the respectful room for a long time. Now I am really hungry. Could I have a warm meal first to comfort my stomach before offering advice to Your Highness?”

Feng Liwu found it interesting that, after hearing his words, this young man, who clearly had a rebellious demeanor, pretended to be calm. The normally proud youth now appeared completely wilted, evoking a rare sense of pity in Feng Liwu’s heart—dying of hunger was not an option, right?

However, where could they find a restaurant on this dock? A guard summoned an old lady who usually cooked for the shipworkers on the dock to prepare some food for this young master.

The old lady was quite skilled; she quickly boiled water, sliced ginger, added salt, and cut the coarse leftover pancakes from the daytime shipworkers into small pieces, making a bowl of soup and pancakes.

The dock, dependent on the water, was extremely cold. Jiang Xiurun’s robe was oversized, with the collar open to the cold wind. She had to tuck her hands into the sleeves, feeling the onset of a runny nose due to the cold.

When she received the bowl, Jiang Xiurun felt the steaming hot soup with a hint of ginger to be extremely comforting.

At this moment, her usually discerning taste buds weren’t picky. She slurped the soup and started eating the soft pancakes, chatting with the old lady who was replenishing her soup.

The conversation covered trivial matters, such as how busy the dock was on normal days, what kind of cargo was mostly transported, how the ship fees were paid, and the tasks the shipworkers usually did.

By the time Feng Liwu’s warm stove began to gradually cool down, Young Master Jiang’s bowl of soup and pancakes was considered finished.

With no handkerchief around, she wiped her mouth with her sleeve. She borrowed the abacus that the old lady used for dock accounting, asked for paper and pen, and took a look at the accountant’s ledger. Then, she started using the abacus.

This abacus was a skill she had acquired in her previous life when she had nothing to do. At that time, she was an adept moneylender in the capital, and dealing with money required the use of an abacus.

However, as she manipulated the abacus like this, the advisors following behind Feng Liwu all furrowed their brows.

In this era where merchants were looked down upon, those who sought wealth faced consequences that even extended to their children. For three generations, they were barred from entering the court as officials.

However, this Young Master Jiang skillfully operated the abacus, which was truly an insult to his royal status as a prince!

One of the advisors grew impatient with Young Master Jiang’s pretentious behavior and raised his hand, saying, “Your Highness, please order the search of these Liang State cargo ships. The matter of high-quality iron is crucial to the national interest. It’s better to wrong the Liang merchants than to let the ships easily leave the dock!”

The other advisors nodded in agreement.

Just then, Jiang Xiurun spoke loudly, “The high-quality iron is not on these grain ships. Your Highness, please investigate and order the interception of three ships that have been carrying wood out of the dock for a day. Those ships have a heavy draft, and I suspect they haven’t traveled too far. If a fast horse is sent a message, they should be able to intercept them.”

As her words were spoken, the other advisors widened their eyes. “The young master just arrived today. How could he know that the high-quality iron has already been transported away?”

Someone sneered, “Is the young master in such a hurry to curry favor with His Highness that he’s making things up? You should know, His Highness won’t tolerate those who are full of lies!”

At this moment, Jiang Xiurun had half of her energy focused on sniffing her runny nose. If she wasn’t careful, the clear mucus would flow out!

Accustomed to being elegant, when had Jiang Xiurun appeared so disheveled in front of others?

Therefore, she didn’t play coy and quickly said, “The drafts of these several Liang state cargo ships are all displayed there. Look at the other ordinary cargo ship of similar size nearby. According to the dock’s accounting records for the shipworkers, it carries the same number of sacks of grain as the Liang State cargo ships. However, the draft of this ship is similar to those few ships, indicating that there is no contraband on the Liang State cargo ships.”

At this point, she sniffed again, saying, “However, the ship that carried wood out of the water a few days ago is different. All the shipworkers who transported wood complained incessantly, suspecting that the wood had gotten wet and inexplicably became heavier. On a regular day, a shipworker could move twenty logs in half a day, but that day, they moved less than ten, resulting in them working all day and earning only half of their usual daily wage. Shipworkers are paid based on the amount of cargo they transport, but the’soaked’ wood cost them half of their wages that day… You all have great talents. What do you think? Is that wood suspicious?”

After Young Master Jiang finished speaking, several advisors approached the dock, examining the waterlines of the ship by lamplight. As expected, it was as Young Master Jiang had said—they were all roughly the same.

Feng Liwu didn’t go forward like those advisors but sat comfortably in the simple shed on the dock. He took the charcoal-added stove from a guard, rubbed his long fingers over the patterns on it, and was finally able to cast a direct gaze toward her.

In a flat tone, he said, “What you said just now, obtained through chatting with that old lady, could infer the whereabouts of the high-quality iron. It’s quite wise… But I can’t figure it out. What were you calculating with the abacus at the end? Was it the ship’s watercourse, by any chance?”

Jiang Xiurun didn’t expect the Crown Prince to ask her this. She honestly replied, “I didn’t calculate anything. I just demonstrated some finger techniques, doing my best to show Your Highness my skills. I don’t know if Your Highness finds it useful?”

Feng Liwu, usually cold and unapproachable, was rarely amused by her.

A man with a stunning appearance relaxed his eyebrows and eyes as he smiled, and that demeanor left people slightly stunned.