How can I bow my head and serve the powerful officials?

After Xie Chengze returned to the palace, he couldn't sleep because of drinking tea, so he lit a lamp in the middle of the night and started drawing on paper again.

Pieces of paper were wasted one after another, lying on the ground in a mess like his messed-up hair. It was not until dawn that he rubbed his sore eyes and prepared to go to bed.

Unexpectedly, just as he closed his eyes, there was a knock on the door from the night guard, "Your Highness, a retainer wants to see you."

Retainer?

Xie Chengze vaguely remembered that the Jian'an Dynasty did allow princes to privately keep retainers, and the salaries and benefits of retainers were very good. Senior retainers could even guarantee the benefits for the entire family. Many talented people from poor families who failed to pass the imperial examinations would choose to settle for the next best thing and choose to interview to become a prince's retainer.

However, on the other hand, these retainers must also be willing to sacrifice their lives heroically for the prince, and are not allowed to betray their masters regardless of whether they are good or bad.

There were indeed some retainers in the backyard of Chenghuan Palace, but because he had just arrived and had been on a business trip for half a year, he had never summoned these retainers.

In the original book, these retainers were relatively loyal. However, as the second prince turned evil step by step, many retainers were unwilling to remain loyal to their incompetent master. Some of them died by hitting their heads against a pillar, while others were smart enough to secretly rebel. Of course, these smart ones were eventually found out and killed.

But isn't it a good time to have paid leave? Why would a retainer suddenly come to him?

Could it be that you want to go to work after being idle for a long time? !

Xie Chengze pounded his pillow twice, then stood up and walked to the door, opened it and asked, "What's the matter?"

At the foot of the steps in front of the door stood a middle-aged man in black. When he saw Xie Chengze, he quickly bowed and saluted, "Second Prince! I have something urgent to report! Please send others away."

Xie Chengze rubbed his temple, waved his hand to signal the guards on night watch to retreat, and then said, "Go ahead."

The middle-aged man looked around and saw that there was indeed no one around. He then took a step forward and said in a deep voice, "Your Highness, someone spent fifty taels of gold yesterday to make this minister betray you, and will whisper in your ears from now on!"

Xie Chengze:?

Xie Chengze suddenly came to his senses and looked at the retainer with a strange look in his eyes, "What's your name?"

The retainer looked at Xie Chengze in confusion, "Your Highness! Your humble servant's name is Hu Lai!"

Xie Chengze: ...

Oh, he remembered.

The second prince did have a retainer named Hu Lai. The reason why this name left a deep impression on him was that this person was indeed prone to doing things recklessly, and even the second prince found it difficult to figure out where this person's moral bottom line was.

In the original story, he often gave the Second Prince some very strange and cunning bad ideas, causing Shen Yuan and the Prince's faction to suffer a lot of losses. Later, Wuhen died in battle and the new emperor was stabbed to death on the dragon throne. He then took advantage of the chaos to escape from the capital and his whereabouts were unknown...

After wiping his face slightly, Xie Chengze asked, "Why did the other party look for you?"

At this time in the original text, no one bribed his retainers, and later on no one would choose to bribe Hu Lai, because everyone knew that Hu Lai was a "dog", and choosing him as an inside player was simply playing with fire and getting burned.

"Oh, about this!" Hu Lai stroked his beard and told the story slowly, "In fact, the other party tried to bribe another person at the beginning, but that person didn't agree. I happened to pass by and heard it, so I volunteered!"

Xie Chengze: ...

Are you sure you just happened to pass by, and not that you followed him because you knew about the suspicious movements of each retainer?!

He remembered that the Second Prince had not found out the brains of the traitors at all. Finding out the clues of those traitors and ordering them to be killed was just nonsense!

Xie Chengze was slightly disheveled in the wind, and it took him a long time to come back to his senses, "So, who told you to blow the wind in your ears, and what kind of wind did they tell you to blow in your ears?"

"It is unknown who this person is, but from his accent he sounds like he is from Jizhou. He can come up with so much gold at once, so his master must be either a merchant or an important official. However, since he asked me to persuade you to recruit the Minister of Justice, Mr. Shen Yuan, we can rule out the possibility that he is a merchant..."

Hu Lai analyzed it rapidly, and finally said with regret, "It's a pity that I cannot serve as an official in the court, and I don't know much about the officials in the court. Perhaps Your Highness knows who it is?"

Hu Lai looked at Xie Chengze expectantly.

If the Second Prince was here, Hu Lai would definitely be disappointed. But Xie Chengze is different. He will make Hu Lai, who is full of gossip, disappointed and itchy.

Because Xie Chengze would say, "Oh, I know who it is, but I won't tell you."

mess:……

mess:???

Hu Lai: Second Prince! How come you are even more of a dog than me!

Hu Lai has always been good at observing people's words and expressions. As soon as he saw Xie Chengze's expression, he knew that this prince really knew who the buyer behind the scenes was.

And for some reason, I always feel that the Second Prince is a little different from before.

But it’s not a big problem, as long as he is “His Royal Highness the Second Prince”.

"Where's the gold?" Xie Chengze stretched out his hand, wanting to take the stolen money.

Hu Lai's sleeves suddenly sank, and his eyes wandered as he said, "Your Highness, this is not a good idea... It is not easy for me to be a double agent, and you also know that I have 28 concubines to support..."

Xie Chengze turned his head: Hmm???

Did he just hallucinate?

How come he didn’t know that Hu Lai had twenty-eight concubines?

"You..." Xie Chengze hesitated, wanting to ask for clarification, but afraid that the original owner might know about this, so he asked vaguely, "You go back on your word, aren't you afraid that the buyer behind you will blackmail your... twenty-eight concubines?"

"Oh, no!" Hu Lai waved his hand, "My twenty-eight concubines are spread all over the Jian'an Dynasty. I have forgotten what many of them look like."

"Then how do you support them?" Xie Chengze asked in shock.

"Ahem, this is a secret." Hu Lai coughed lightly. He would not tell Xie Chengze that every time he left a city, he would tell the woman the account name he forged in the money house. The other party could withdraw a generous living allowance from it every month, enough to raise children.

Xie Chengze didn't think that Hu Lai was lying to him. After all, in the original book, Hu Lai was indeed very stingy and loved to take advantage of others. Every time he gave an idea, he would ask for a lot of rewards, and no one knew where he spent the money.

Rubbing his brows, Xie Chengze finally remembered the serious matter from his desire for gossip, "You just said that person asked you to persuade Shen Yuan in my ear and asked me to recruit him?"

Hu Lai nodded, "I have heard of Minister Shen's achievements. He is indeed a talent worth recruiting. However, he has taken drastic measures to defeat Yang Qinghui. If you recruit him now, His Majesty may easily think that you are trying to win over court officials."

Although it is true. Hu Lai added silently in his heart, then came forward and whispered tentatively, "Your Highness... I heard that you are selecting a male prince consort recently?"

Xie Chengze: ???

Seeing Xie Chengze's eyes widened, Hu Lai immediately revealed a teasing look on his face, "Your Highness seemed to be very averse to male beauty before, but now he has changed drastically. I guess something happened between you and Minister Shen when you went south to Yizhou?"

Xie Chengze: ...

Seeing Xie Chengze silent, Hu Lai knew that he had guessed correctly. He sorted out the information he had finally gathered these days, and then said, "If Your Highness really wants to recruit Minister Shen, I have a plan. I don't know whether I should tell you or not..."

Xie Chengze subconsciously felt that it was inappropriate to say this, but he couldn't help being curious, so he said, "You go ahead."

"I heard that Minister Shen has a good friend, Sheng Yiren, the daughter of the Minister of Rites. Your Highness, why don't you make friends with her and use this opportunity to meet Minister Shen secretly? If we can't do it openly, we can do it secretly!" After saying this, Hu Lai added bitterly, "In fact, I would like to recommend the bastard of the Su family, but the bastard of the Su family really doesn't know what's good for him, so I can only settle for the next best thing."

He sighed regretfully, "It would be great if we could do both at the same time! Oh!"

Xie Chengze: ...