Chapter 118

Jiang Xiurun saw him standing there motionlessly, saying nothing, so she patiently said, “Please step aside. You’re blocking my measuring rope.”

Feng Wu looked down at his feet and saw that he was indeed stepping on a lacquered rope.

He quickly lifted his foot and moved away.

Jiang Xiurun ignored him and continued directing the craftsmen to take measurements so they could construct the stone ox for measuring water levels and place the support pillars in the reservoir.

The local officials accompanying Feng Wu felt somewhat awkward.

They thought, Master Jiang is such a refined person, so why is he so cold toward the prince?

Some who were more politically astute quickly realized the danger in this situation.

The court was currently divided, with fierce competition between two factions.

Master Jiang had come from the Crown Prince’s household and belonged to the heir’s faction, while the Second Prince was deeply favored by the current Emperor, making him part of the royalist faction.

Would their efforts to curry favor with the Second Prince now mark them as members of his faction?

Anxiety crept into their hearts as they inwardly cursed their misfortune.

Feng Wu, however, was already accustomed to Jiang Xiurun’s cold shoulder and paid no mind to it.

He simply stood beside her, displaying great curiosity as he peppered her with questions about her work.

Before long, it was noon, time for lunch.

Recently, the Ministry of Revenue had been regularly sending ships loaded with grain, oil, and vegetables from the capital to Hanyang, making meals at the construction site increasingly fresh and plentiful.

Feng Wu had originally planned to take advantage of the situation and share a meal with Jiang Xiurun—imagining the two of them sitting close together in a small tent on the mountaintop, eating face-to-face in an undeniably intimate setting.

At this moment, he had completely forgotten that this woman was, in a sense, his sister-in-law.

In his mind, the world contained only him and Jiang Xiurun.

However, his daydream shattered when Jiang Xiurun’s unsightly maid, Qian’er, appeared with a strange smile, carrying a basin of overcooked, mushy vegetables and placing it in front of Feng Wu.

The moment he saw it, unpleasant memories surfaced, and a wave of nausea overwhelmed him.

He couldn’t suppress his disgust and dry-heaved twice before shooting a glare at Qian’er, who was rolling her eyes at him.

With a dark expression, he excused himself and left.

After the Second Prince departed, Jiang Xiurun curiously glanced at the dish and asked, “Is this really how it’s meant to be eaten?”

Qian’er grinned and replied, “It’s not ready yet. This is beetroot from the capital, chopped up and seasoned with minced beef. Once the oil pan is heated, the cook will mix in flour to make meat and vegetable pancakes.”

With that, she carried the large basin back to the communal kitchen tent.

Now that the troublemaker was gone, Jiang Xiurun finally had some peace.

She set up a small table and tapped on her abacus.

Thanks to her thorough preparations and efforts to rally local support, labor costs had been significantly reduced.

The shortened construction period had also cut expenses in half.

The Ministry of Agricultural, with its reserves built up from the silk tax, could still manage the financial burden.

Food supplies were a bit tight, but fortunately, the Ministry of Revenue was providing rice, flour, and other essentials, so they hadn’t run out of provisions.

Still, Jiang Xiurun knew the Ministry wouldn’t offer assistance without reason.

Most likely, Feng Liwu had intervened on her behalf.

Since arriving in Hanyang, she had only received one letter from Feng Liwu, ordering her to return quickly and not be stubborn.

The letter was written in an informal tone, but when Jiang Xiurun replied, she used official language, addressing it as a report to her superior.

She listed in detail all the work she had accomplished since arriving in Hanyang and the tasks she was currently overseeing, making it clear that she couldn’t leave.

After that official document was submitted, the Crown Prince’s side never pressed her to return again.

Jiang Xiurun found this unsurprising.

In both her past and present lives, Feng Liwu had always prioritized power above all else.

If she had fled to Hanyang merely out of spite, the Crown Prince might have intervened.

But by demonstrating that she was achieving significant political results, he would prioritize state affairs over personal disputes and refrain from disrupting the waterworks project.

The subsequent shipment of supplies further confirmed that he was satisfied with her governance.

With that reassurance, Jiang Xiurun settled in, planning to stay for another month.

The waterworks project extended beyond Hanyang, which meant she could continue supervising similar projects in other regions in the future.

Romance flourishes through daily companionship, but now that she and the Crown Prince were worlds apart, their relationship had inevitably faded into mere wisps of smoke.

As long as the Crown Prince no longer harbored an obsession with her, their dynamic as ruler and minister would be far more natural.

Before leaving the capital, she had taken the opportunity, under the guise of purchasing travel supplies, to leave a message at Ji Wujiang’s shop.

Meanwhile, at the Hanyang construction site, where laborers came and went frequently, she had also secretly met with Ji Wujiang’s men several times.

Thinking of this, Jiang Xiurun felt a sense of ease.

When one has a clear direction, there is no more confusion.

Despite the daily toil, Jiang Xiurun found life here far more comfortable than in Luo’an City, where she had been surrounded by noble concubines and princesses.

She calculated the accounts for a while, and soon, the aroma of meat and vegetable pancakes wafted into the small tent.

Having stayed at the Hanyang construction site for so long, Jiang Xiurun was becoming less and less like a noblewoman.

She had even started adopting the eating customs of the local villagers.

Choosing a slightly elevated mound, she sat cross-legged on a smooth, flat rock, holding a wooden bowl and bamboo chopsticks in her hands, picking up a piece of the meat and vegetable pancake to eat.

The pancake tasted delicious, though a bit too salty.

After eating half of it, Jiang Xiurun began to feel thirsty and called out, “Qian’er, is there any of the soybean soup from this morning left? Bring me some.”

Just then, someone handed her a finely crafted leather water pouch inlaid with gemstones.

This was certainly not something one would expect to see in Hanyang!

Surprised, Jiang Xiurun looked up and saw Feng Liwu standing behind her, clad in a black fur cloak.

Like Feng Wu earlier, he frowned slightly at her sun-darkened skin.

Seeing her in a daze and not accepting the water pouch, Feng Liwu simply unscrewed the cap and brought it directly to her lips.

Jiang Xiurun snapped out of her thoughts, quickly set down her bowl and chopsticks, took the water pouch, and saluted him.

“Your Highness, why did you come here without sending word beforehand?”

Having not seen her for over a month, Feng Liwu’s heart was already overflowing with longing.

Yet, now that they were finally face-to-face, she was as cold and distant as the formal letter she had sent in reply—handling everything in an official and detached manner.

The chill of it seeped into his very core.

In truth, there had been reasons why Feng Liwu hadn’t come sooner.

At first, he had written urging Jiang Xiurun to return to the capital, but her reply had been that cold, polite, and distant letter, which had nearly infuriated him to death.

He had tolerated her time and again, yet she had only grown more arrogant!

Just as he was about to pick up his brush and scold her into hurrying back, a dossier from the Ministry of Justice was delivered to him.

It contained the case that Jiang Zhi had submitted—the one concerning the spy from Bo.

Though the spy had initially confessed under interrogation, he had spoken nothing but nonsense.

Even after further questioning, he refused to change his story.

According to the case officer, the matter could have been settled and closed then and there.

However, Ji Binglin, who was assisting with the case, refused to let it go so easily.

Stubborn as ever, he followed up on the spy’s statements, sending people to investigate in Bo.

Tracing the matter back to its roots, they discovered that the spy was actually a servant of the Shen family.

What followed was pure chaos.

Shen Yong, standing before the envoys of Great Qi, feigned pure innocence, claiming he had no idea why his servant had gone to Qi to retrieve the eldest prince.

But Ji Wujiang, who was overseeing Qi’s diplomatic affairs, was no pushover either.

He pursued the matter further, even capturing the spy’s wife and children to bring them back to confront the spy.

At the sight of his family also taken to Great Qi, the spy immediately broke down in tears, no longer daring to maintain his falsehoods.

He confessed everything—Shen Yong had instructed him to impersonate a messenger from the Bo emperor, trick Jiang Zhi into returning, and kill him on the way.

As for the lies he had told after his capture, insisting Jiang Zhi was merely a hostage prince, they had been part of Shen Yong’s scheme—he had used the spy’s family as leverage, forcing him to spread false accusations.

Ji Binglin only considered the case truly resolved after uncovering all this.

He then forwarded the compiled report to the presiding officials and also sent a copy to the Crown Prince’s residence.

On the day Feng Liwu received the dossier, his residence practically saved on food expenses—he didn’t eat a single grain of rice that entire day.

He sat motionless in his study, his mind replaying the scene of Jiang Xiurun tearfully confessing to him.

Back then, he had assumed she was merely spoiled and willful, throwing a tantrum when her schemes were exposed.

He had even taken pride in resisting her tearful pleas.

Looking back now, how deeply must she have suffered to have humbled herself so much before him, pleading for forgiveness…

That image replayed in Feng Liwu’s mind again and again, stabbing at his heart each time.

The Ministry of Justice had investigated the case thoroughly, and he now understood the whole story.

Thinking carefully, it made sense—Bo was practically a living hell; why would Jiang Xiurun have willingly reached out to the old ministers to return there?

The truly hateful ones were Shen Hou and Shen Yong, who had harbored malicious intent and pinned the blame on Jiang Zhi and his sister.

Most detestable of all, however, was himself.

Why had he been so quick to suspect her, to assume she was scheming to leave him through deceit?

As for why Jiang Xiurun had chosen to bear the false accusation, that was not difficult to understand either.

Feng Liwu finally grasped just how much fear had been hidden behind her every careful word and gesture toward him.

Did she love him more? Or fear him more?

Feng Liwu had never once looked back on his decisions, nor had he ever sincerely admitted fault to anyone.

But this time, having wrongly accused his little concubine, he found himself plagued with restless nights and uneasy days.

Thus, Jiang Xiurun’s departure from the capital in anger had a perfectly reasonable explanation—having suffered such a great injustice, how could she not feel heartbroken?

Feng Liwu had yet to figure out how to coax Jiang Xiurun back to the capital, so for the time being, he could only have people quietly monitor her situation and keep track of the progress of the Hanyang construction project.

To be honest, when he had initially assigned her this task, he hadn’t expected her to accomplish much.

He had simply given her a few capable assistants, thinking that with their help, things wouldn’t go too far off course.

But after carefully listening to the reports from her attendants, Feng Liwu, as the heir to the throne, had to admit that among all the officials in court, few possessed Jiang Xiurun’s level of sharp coordination skills.

If he put aside the fact that she was a woman, she was clearly a natural-born official!

For some reason, this realization filled Feng Liwu with an increasing sense of unease.

At first, he had expected her to return in a month, so he had quietly arranged for ship after ship to send supplies, ensuring that Jiang Xiurun had no logistical concerns and could carry out her duties without worry.

With her intelligence, how could she not realize that this was his way of extending goodwill?

Feng Liwu believed that once her anger subsided, she would return.

But to his surprise, a month had passed, and there was still no sign of her coming back.

Unable to hold back any longer, Feng Liwu finally decided to come for her himself.