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

The strong wind of rumors finally blew towards the Prince's Eastern Palace.

"He donated 10,000 taels of silver? And he earned it by selling the rewards given by my father to the concubines?"

Xie Jinyu sat behind his desk, paused slightly as he was marking memorials, and glanced at the secret guard who came to report.

The desk was piled with memorials sent from the Imperial Study. There was a hint of darkness in his eyes, and it was obvious that he had not slept much the whole night. He had to attend court early in the morning, and was forced to review memorials after court.

"Yes, and the Second Prince has been lying on his bed reading books and has never left Chenghuan Palace for a moment." said the secret guard.

Xie Jinyu pinched her brows and asked, "Where are the two guards beside him?"

"The one called Wuhen has not left the palace, but the one called Wuji has always been invisible in comings and goings. It is difficult for me to judge whether he has appeared or not."

Hearing this, Xie Jinyu raised his pen again, dipped the tip of the pen in ink and wrote the word "read" on the memorial in front of him that praised the Second Prince for his kindness. His writing was as sharp as a dragon's snake, revealing a bit of the king's spirit.

He asked calmly, "Jiang Yi, what do you think he is planning?"

However, overnight, the reputation of the Second Prince was reversed instantly. Some ministers even turned black into white in the court, saying that the Second Prince was frugal and diligent in his daily life, and now he donated money to the victims of the Yizhou disaster, which showed that the Second Prince was only spending money on the right things...

Just ridiculous.

If Xie Chengze really only spent money wisely, then why didn't he take any action when disasters occurred in previous years?

Jiang Yi, who was standing by, thought of the recent rumors in the palace and couldn't help but reply, "Maybe the Second Prince's time has really come?"

Xie Jinyu glanced at him calmly, and Jiang Yi quickly shut up and answered seriously, "The Ministry of Revenue sent the silver donated by the Second Prince to Yizhou with great fanfare. At least in terms of helping the victims, it should not be fake."

Xie Jinyu disagreed, "You still don't understand my second brother. Although he is reckless and impulsive, his purpose is always consistent. Once the silver arrives in Yizhou, it will definitely go back to his pocket."

"He used his father's reward to exchange for goods and donate silver to rebuild his reputation in the court and among the people. In the end, he only needed to ask his father for the rare treasures he had exchanged for, and he could take them back from the concubines. He got what he wanted without spending a penny, and also got 10,000 taels of private silver..."

Xie Jinyu sneered, "With his brain, he can't think of such a way to kill two birds with one stone. There must be someone behind this who is giving him advice."

who can that be?

He calmed down and reviewed a few more memorials, but in the end he couldn't sit still. Xie Chengze put down his pen and walked out the door.

"Go to the storehouse to find some old ginseng. My second brother is 'sick'. As his younger brother, I should go and see him."

"But Your Highness, didn't you make an appointment to meet Master Shen today? Master Shen will probably be here soon."

Xie Jinyu paused for a moment, then said calmly, "Then take him along."

……

When the prince broke into Chenghuan Palace, he saw Xie Chengze, dressed in red and gorgeous clothes, lying on a green jade couch in the pavilion beside the koi pond. He was not covered with a thin blanket to protect the wind. His pair of snow-white feet were resting on the soft cushion, and were slightly flushed by the cool breeze from the pavilion.

The folk story books that had fallen out of favor were scattered on the couch, the desk and the ground. Only one of them was favored and was placed on the owner's peerless face to block the dazzling midday sunlight.

Hearing the footsteps, Xie Chengze did not move. His lazy voice came from under the book, "You came back pretty quickly. How was the result?"

"What's the result?"

A slightly low-pitched voice sounded from above his head. The next moment, Xie Chengze felt the script covering his face being pinched away by a hand. It was replaced by Xie Jinyu's handsome face, which cast a light shadow on his face with the light behind it.

Xie Chengze: (=^?A?^=)! ?

Xie Jinyu clearly saw that the dark round pupils of the man in red beneath him shrank into a thin hole like a frightened cat.

However, the panic was gone in an instant. When he came to his senses, Xie Chengze had already propped up his arm against his forehead, looking at him with a playful look, "Hey~ What a rare visitor, why is the prince brother here?"

Xie Jinyu narrowed her eyes.

Was he afraid of him just now?

"There are some things I can't figure out, and I thought of my second brother who is well-read, so I wanted to ask for his advice. Unexpectedly, the guards outside the door tried to stop me and refused to let me in." Xie Jinyu turned around and glanced at the gatekeeper behind him who was panicked and dared not speak.

"I'm just an employee, why are you making things difficult for me?" Xie Chengze patted the empty seat of the jade couch next to him and invited him warmly, "Come, sit down~"

Xie Jinyu was used to his superficiality, so she sat down next to him unceremoniously and asked, "Working? What do you mean?"

"I work for my master in exchange for money." Xie Chengze moved to the side, and after Xie Jinyu sat down, he realized that there was someone standing behind him.

"Shen Lang?" Seeing Shen Yuan, Xie Chengze's eyes suddenly widened again, and he asked eagerly, "Are you here to ask me for the storybook?"

He quickly began to look for the scattered books on the couch, "Wait a minute~ I left these books in a bit of a mess, so it might be a bit troublesome to find them."

Shen Yuan looked at him, and the corners of his lips curled up into a smile, "Second Prince, don't worry, you can look for it slowly."

While Xie Jinyu was talking to him, his eyes had already quickly swept across the storybooks on the ground, but they were all storybooks adapted from the mundane affairs of men and women in folk society. The only storybook, which told the story of a small soldier who went through life and death on the frontier and eventually became a famous general, was on his face.

There is no such thing as the good relationship between Long Yang.

It was worth it that he asked Sheng Yiren to bring all the popular scripts in the capital and understand the outlines of the stories one by one, just for him to face Xie Chengze at this moment and make up for the previous defeat.

Xie Chengze didn't expect that Shen Yuan would actually ask him to find it, and he didn't even ask Wuhen and Wuji to buy that kind of storybook!

Fortunately, Xie Jinyu at the side spoke up, "What kind of storybook does Minister Shen want?"

Yesterday at court, Shen Yuan had been appointed by Emperor Jian as the Minister of Rites.

"Ahem, nothing, this is a secret between Shen Lang and me." Xie Chengze pretended to be mysterious, winked at Shen Yuan deliberately, and then said seriously, "By the way, Third Brother, what did you say you wanted to ask me?"

Seeing Xie Chengze change the subject, Shen Yuan snorted inwardly.

Xie Jinyu glanced at Shen Yuan, her eyes somewhat gloomy.

A secret?... I didn't expect that Shen Yuan had a secret with his second brother that no one else knew about just after returning to Beijing.

Xie Jinyu still remembers the first time that Master Shen brought Shen Yuan to the Eastern Palace. After the class, Master Shen was summoned by his father. As a child, he was eager to go play with his second brother, so he took along Shen Yuan who had been left behind.

Shen Yuan was two years older than his second brother. Compared to his older brother who had a dull personality, Shen Yuan was lively and active at that time. He also knew many novel and funny games outside the palace, which made his second brother call him Brother Shen.

At that time, the second brother seemed to like Shen Yuan very much. Even the sweet tangerines that he peeled for the second brother were given half by the second brother to Shen Yuan. The two even happily made an appointment to meet again the next day.

But Xie Jinyu knew that they would never see each other again.