Dress up as a sickly person to capture the villain princess!

The autumn wind is bleak and the sky is covered with dark clouds.

The palace maid standing beside Zhao Changlin consoled him cautiously.

"Your Highness, looking at the weather, I'm afraid it's going to rain."

"Your Highness, you'd better go back quickly. Be careful not to get wet in the rain."

Zhao Changlin raised his head and glanced at the sky. Gray dark clouds covered the entire imperial city, and the wind was blowing in the sky, making a whistling sound.

"Go get an umbrella first."

She did not turn around, still looking in the direction of the imperial city gate.

Zhao Changlin was wearing the clothes of the Eastern Palace. The clothes were a bit heavy in autumn, but they kept him warm.

Upon hearing His Highness' words, the palace maid bowed.

"Yes, I will go get the umbrella right away."

The palace maid picked up her long skirt and left quickly. If it rained and she hadn't returned yet, it would be bad to let the prince get wet in the rain.

But as soon as she left, a series of crisp horse-hitting sounds came from the distance, the sound of horseshoes hitting the bluestone bricks, crisp and pleasant.

Zhao Changlin watched the city gate in the distance slowly open. Behind the many shadow guards, a carriage drove in. It was Xia Zhiyuan's carriage.

In just a moment, the shadow guards dispersed to make way, and the carriage arrived in front of Zhao Changlin, and the curtain was lifted.

A familiar face came into view. Xia Zhiyuan was holding an oil-paper umbrella in his hand. When he got off the carriage, he noticed the prince not far ahead.

Her eyes were full of smiles.

I spread the umbrella handle with my fingers and walked over. At this moment, it started to drizzle, continuously and somewhat coolly.

The shadow guards dismounted, knelt on one knee, clasped their hands together, and greeted in unison: "Greetings, Her Royal Highness the Princess!"

The drizzle fell on the oil-paper umbrella, gathering into crystal clear water droplets. Xia Zhiyuan's white wrist hidden under his robe was revealed, and he covered the umbrella over His Highness's head.

She smiled and said, "Why don't you hold an umbrella, Your Highness?"

"If this gets wet, it would be a big mistake for Zhiyuan."

Suddenly approaching, Xia Zhiyuan saw some water droplets under Zhao Changlin's eyes, so he stretched out his fingers and wiped them carefully for the prince.

"I forgot my handkerchief."

"I hope your highness doesn't mind."

For no reason they're talking about handkerchiefs again.

I think it's to remind myself of that incident.

Zhao Changlin raised his hand, held the handle of the umbrella, and also held Xia Zhiyuan's hand, their skins touching.

She took the umbrella.

"You know I'm back?"

"Did you have a good chat?"

"Ok?"

Zhao Changlin looked into Xia Zhiyuan's eyes and naturally noticed that the clothes Xia Zhiyuan wore when he went out were different from what he wore now.

And...the two of them have been together for a long time.

Zhao Changlin was already familiar with the smell of Xia Zhiyuan, but today it was a little different. She smelled a faint scent of blood.

"No, Zhiyuan misses His Highness."

Judging from this, His Highness must be jealous.

Yes, Xia Zhiyuan reflected deeply on his own actions and decided to appease His Highness and not let Him suffer any grievances.

"Well, I'll trust you this time."

"You smell like that."

"You got caught in the rain again. Go back and wash yourself."

It was windy today, Zhiyuan was already weak, and he was wet from the rain, and there was a smell of blood on his body.

It's time to take a bath and cleanse yourself.

"Okay, since it is your highness's order, Zhiyuan will obey it."

"I will follow your Highness's wishes."

……

After all, the temperature in the warm room of the bedroom was much warmer than the gradually autumnal weather outside the palace. Xia Zhiyuan stretched comfortably.

Wrapped in a fluffy blanket, I looked out the window at the swaying trees.

"These are the movements of the Minister of Industry in the past year. I have transferred all of them."

“Nothing unusual was found.”

"Even the remaining engineering funds that the emperor allocated to Yingzhou two years ago were returned one by one by Liu Huixuan."

"The refund was several hundred taels of government silver, not a lot, but not a little either."

If ordinary people look at it from their perspective, this is indeed the behavior of a loyal official, and... he is not corrupt, and is an honest official.

The funds allocated from the national treasury were taken over layer by layer by the upper level and transferred to the lower level. If the project could be successfully completed in the end, there would be no need to request further funding from the court.

He is already considered an honest official, yet he still has some money left over. I guess there are only two types of people who can do this.

The first type is what everyone sees, the honest and upright official.

But the second type is to please the emperor, doing it deliberately to show off one's own achievements and make the emperor look at oneself with admiration.

There will be more tasks falling into my hands in the future.

However, these two situations both illustrate Liu Huixuan's situation: he comes from a prominent family, is wealthy and has no shortage of money, and has never reached out to the national treasury.

In this case, the purpose of the Minister of Works must not be to make a few dollars by smuggling military equipment. If this is the case, the Minister of Works only has one purpose left.

Forming cliques for personal gain, seizing power and usurping the throne.

"Could there be a problem with the Ministry of War?"

Xia Zhiyuan came closer and slowly placed her hand on His Highness' waist, carefully testing His Highness's tolerance for her.

A pleasant scent rushed into my nose, the same faint sandalwood scent as in this hall.

Hearing the lazy voice of the person behind him, Zhao Changlin smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.

Yes, I have been very busy recently and really forgot about this. Although the Ministry of Industry is in charge of construction matters, the military equipment part is handed over by the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War.

Therefore, if something goes wrong, it is impossible that the Minister of Works is the only one to blame.

Zhao Changlin did not push away Xia Zhiyuan's active hug. Instead, he felt the softness of her body, and felt that it not only dispelled the coldness of the weather.

It also dispelled the chill in my heart.

"What do you think, Zhiyuan?"

"Sister, please listen carefully."

Xia Zhiyuan breathed sweetly into her ear, stretched out his fingers, and gradually squeezed them between Zhao Changlin's five fingers, and the two of them interlocked their fingers.

She stood on tiptoe and said sentence by sentence: "This arrow does not look like it was made recently, but has been refurbished by someone."

"Your Highness, have you noticed that although the lines of the Royal Engineering Department have been deliberately polished away without leaving any traces, this tung oil has been deliberately brushed twice."

Indeed, the only difference between this arrow and the arrows used by the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War is the color of this arrow...it is not the black lacquer used by the royal family.

It is not difficult to guess that the second coat of tung oil was deliberately applied to cover up the color of the arrow.

Tung oil is not a product exclusive to the royal family. Ordinary people also have some at home to protect furniture from being eaten by insects, as well as to prevent water and corrosion.

Therefore, it is not difficult for the person behind this to get tung oil.

It was in recent years that my father ordered the revision of the arrows used by the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War.

In order to make the arrows more balanced and stable, the feathers used at the tail of the arrows all used a secret recipe known only to the royal family, including the black lacquer used to make the color.

So the arrow in her hand was from the batch that was replaced... Logically speaking, this batch of goods should have been sent to the front line to defend against the northern barbarians long ago.