Prince Ning is due to arrive in the capital any day now, yet Rong Shuang’s understanding of this feudal prince—who had sacrificed his own kin for the greater good to quell the rebellion—remained limited to this single fact: Prince Ning is due to arrive in the capital any day now.

According to Qin Tianyang, His Highness the Prince Ning is returning to the capital this time to report to Ying Wujiu on the rebellion led by the Prince of Qi in the southeast.

Setting aside what the Prince Ning might do to him, let’s just consider Ying Wujiu: this man suffers from severe paranoia, and now that he has just seized power, it’s impossible for him not to make a move. Do you believe Ying Wujiu won’t try to kill him while he has the chance, or do you believe he’s as trustworthy as Emperor Qin Shihuang? 

Hah.

That said, Ying Wujiu still had to take care of the matters he’d been tasked with. The first thing he did upon returning to the mansion was to instruct Old Ge and Laifu to thoroughly clean out his room and make it ready for the Prince Ning, who was about to arrive in the capital.

Watching his master hunched over packing small bundles in the room, Old Ge couldn’t help but ask, “Sir, where are you going to lie low this time?” 

Rong Shuang: “The west wing next door.”

Old Ge: “Huh?”

“Oh, right. Clear out the West Wing.” Rong Shuang tied a knot in the blue cloth bundle and slung it over his shoulder. “You know, the tables and chairs, the jade artifacts and treasures—pack it all up and send it to His Majesty’s treasury.”

Old Ge had a sudden epiphany, and moments later, two streams of hot tears rolled down his cheeks.

“My Lord, everyone says you’ve gone mad, but only this old servant knows that you’ve turned over a new leaf!”

Rong Shuang, deeply moved, patted Old Ge on the shoulder and said with emotion, “Then let’s return that Huanghuali canopy bed to His Majesty as well and have it officially recorded.” 

Old Ge: “……”

That didn’t seem necessary.

He said aloud, “If the bed in the West Wing is moved to the imperial treasury, where will you sleep at night?” But he thought to himself: No matter how stingy His Majesty is, he wouldn’t go so far as to leave you without a bed!

Rong Shuang: “Don’t worry. Lord Meng is a master craftsman; I’ll ask him to come over and make me a small bed.”

As he spoke, he remembered something. He took off his small bundle, rummaged through it, and pulled out a few copper coins: “Since Lord Meng is making a bed for me, I’ll have to treat him to a meal. Let’s add two liang of pork to today’s order.”

Old Ge accepted the copper coins with tears in his eyes and agreed to do it.

By now, almost everyone who was supposed to leave the Rong Manor had already gone. When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter—few were willing to go to their deaths alongside a corrupt official from the previous dynasty. Those who remained were either genuinely attached to the original master—such as Old Ge, Laifu, and Wangcai—or were elderly, childless, and had nowhere else to go—like Uncle Wang, the dishwasher in the kitchen, who was already sixty-seven this year and wouldn’t even have a place to live if he left the Rong Manor.

Rong Shuang sighed. He couldn’t let all these people die in vain. 

Passing by the East Wing, he waved his hand grandly: “The East Wing shall also be transferred to the national treasury and recorded in the registry.” As he stepped down the stairs, the toe of his shoe kicked a clay flowerpot: “Recorded in the registry!” 

The flowerpot: “……” 

Old Ge saw that his master was at it again and quickly signaled to Wangcai. Wangcai pulled out a small notebook and began taking notes.

Flowerpot: to be turned over to the state. 

Shoe: to be turned over to the state.

The magistrate’s clothes—confiscated. 

“Ouch!! Your Honor! Yaozu can’t be turned over to the state!!!”

Rong Yaozu: “Woof-woof QAQ~~.”

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

When Meng Han received the letter from the Rong household, he was a bit taken aback. He scratched his ear and asked again, “What?”

Laifu rubbed his hands together sheepishly: “Our master says he’d like to invite you to the mansion to help him build a wooden bed to sleep on.” Meng Han was silent for a moment.

“So has your master been sleeping on the roof beams all this time?”

Laifu: “……”

However, Meng Han didn’t say much; he simply ordered his men to saddle the horses and set out. Just as he stepped out of the alley, he ran into a carriage from the Marquis Xinyi’s mansion.

As the curtain of the palanquin was lifted, Qin Tianyang peered out and asked suspiciously, “Where are you off to?”

Meng Han tugged on the reins. “Lord Rong has invited me to his residence to help him build a wooden bed for sleeping.” 

Qin Tianyang didn’t quite grasp what he’d heard at first: “What??”

Meng Han scratched his head.

Qin Tianyang was stunned: “Where’s the bed at his place?? Has he been sleeping on the roof beam all this time?”

Meanwhile, Rong Shuang had been busy for quite some time, turning the east and west wings upside down, when he heard Old Ge come to announce that Meng Han and Qin Tianyang had arrived.

He wiped the sweat from his brow and sat down on the steps: “Qin Tianyang? What’s he doing here?”

Old Ge: “He said he came to check on how you’re doing.”

Rong Shuang: “……”

“Spell it out—is he here to check on me, or to pay his respects to my ancestors going back eighteen generations?”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a figure strode through the courtyard gate. Qin Tianyang surveyed the cluttered yard, picking his way through the mess for a few steps. He looked up: “Did His Majesty issue an edict to raid your house?”

Just as I thought—here comes the trouble.

Rong Shuang said with a smile, “Hard to say. Why don’t you go to the palace and ask His Majesty yourself?”

Qin Tianyang looked as if he’d swallowed a fly and stood motionless at the courtyard gate with his hands behind his back.

Meng Han quickly stepped in to smooth things over: “Lord Rong, weren’t you planning to build a wooden bed? The young marquis actually came here to help.” 

Rong Shuang tilted his head to look over.

Qin Tianyang shouted, “I’m not a carpenter! Besides, why should this Marquis have to build a bed for him? If word gets out, what will become of this Marquis’s reputation?”

A quarter of an hour later.

Qin Tianyang was dragging two pieces of lumber along behind him: =_=

 I never had to suffer like this even back in Lingzhou!

Rong Shuang, while secretly learning the ropes from Meng Han, said, “I’ll treat you to dinner tonight—I’ve already sent someone out to buy meat.” 

Meng Han: “How could I possibly accept that, Lord Rong!”

Qin Tianyang huffed and puffed as he dragged the wood over: “Of course it’s acceptable. We’ve put in the hard work—what’s wrong with making him chip in a little silver?”

Rong Shuang was also on board with this fair deal and nodded, saying, “Exactly, exactly.”

It wasn’t until dusk fell, the wooden bed was finished, and Old Ge returned with the meat that Qin Tianyang realized—what silver? This guy had only chipped in a few copper coins!

He stared at the two liang of pork in Old Ge’s hands: “Who’s supposed to eat such a tiny amount?” 

Rong Shuang looked a bit flustered: “Sigh.”

Qin Tianyang: “?” What’s wrong with this guy now?

Rong Shuang: “Look, I don’t really have any real power right now. My salary is so meager—once I’ve paid the monthly wages to the people in the mansion, there’s not much left…” Qin Tianyang felt his views on money and his values being challenged, so he turned to look at Meng Han.

Meng Han was very quiet, looking as if his soul had left his body. Qin Tianyang turned back to Rong Shuang: “You!”

Rong Shuang looked innocent.

“Seriously, how about I climb the tree and pick you a couple of loquats to eat?”

As he spoke, he rolled up his sleeves.

The loquat tree in his courtyard was lush and towering; according to Old Ge, it was apparently over forty years old. Qin Tianyang was impressed.

“Weren’t you the one who used to spend money like water? What’s going on now? Even Meng Han isn’t as stingy as you.”

Rong Shuang was just climbing the tree to pick loquats when he heard this and turned back, saying, “When has Lord Meng ever been stingy? Last time, he even said he’d give me a treasure worth three hundred taels of gold.”

Qin Tianyang suddenly turned to look at Meng Han: “?”

Meng Han snapped back to his senses, flustered beyond belief: “Oh, no, no, that’s not what I meant at all!” 

Qin Tianyang: “You, you, you, you, you, you!”

Meng Han glanced left and right; the person in the tree was still stuffing loquats into his sleeve, so he grabbed Qin Tianyang and dragged him aside. Rong Shuang saw this and surreptitiously plucked a loquat to eat. 

In fact, he didn’t need anyone to tell him—he could guess that these two knew each other. Before Ying Wujiu took control of the capital, his fief was in Lingzhou, and Meng Han and Qin Tianyang were both trusted officials who had accompanied him from Lingzhou—it would be strange if they didn’t know each other.

As for why Qin Tianyang didn’t know that Meng Han had come here to act as an undercover agent, Rong Shuang suspected it was simply because this hothead had too little brainpower—no one had ever intended to involve him in the operation in the first place.

After finishing the loquats, he clapped his hands and picked another handful to tuck into his sleeve.

Turning to Qin Tianyang, who looked utterly incredulous, he said, “Young Marquis, would you like to take some back with you?”

Qin Tianyang still looked completely dumbfounded.

Rong Shuang found it somewhat amusing as he sat on a tree branch, watching his face turn every shade of the rainbow.

He couldn’t resist asking, “You guys are on good terms with His Royal Highness the Prince Ning, aren’t you?”

Qin Tianyang gasped, “How did you know that?!” 

Meng Han didn’t even have time to cover his mouth.

Rong Shuang scratched his cheek: “Because I was bluffing.” He hadn’t expected his bluff to work so easily—these guys were the Lingzhou F3, after all. 

Qin Tianyang: “?”

Meng Han：“……”

Qin Tianyang was furious: “I’m going to report this to His Majesty! You’ve made me and Meng Han work like slaves again, and you won’t even give us anything to eat! And… and…” 

Rong Shuang: “Sigh~”

Qin Tianyang: “What’s wrong with you now?!!” 

Rong Shuang: “Hehe.”

“Take this seriously.”

Qin Tianyang rolled his eyes and nearly fainted from anger.

He was about to storm out right then, but then he thought about how he’d been doing hard labor at the Rong mansion all morning—how could he possibly leave without even a bite to eat? So, fuming, he sat back down.

He hadn’t even suffered like this back in Lingzhou!!

So Qin Tianyang ate two plates of greens, half a liang of pork, a bowl of hot water, and a large plate of loquats. Before leaving, he pocketed a cloth bag. 

As he walked away, he grumbled, “So stingy! This Marquis has never eaten such lousy food in his entire life.”

Rong Shuang followed behind him: “Don’t forget to send some loquats to His Majesty!!” 

Qin Tianyang: “……”

Who on earth said that corrupt officials eat eighty-eight dishes a day??? It’s so infuriating.

That very night, Qin Tianyang went back to the palace to lodge a complaint.

As night fell, the Rong residence was deathly quiet, stripped of its former extravagance and bustle; even the birdcages hanging beneath the eaves were empty. Rong Shuang’s small wooden bed hadn’t been moved back to the west wing yet; it was still left out to air under the loquat tree. He sat cross-legged on it, gazing at the moon and lost in thought.

From the few words they had mentioned that day, Rong Shuang could piece together a few details: the Prince Ning had not yet taken up his fiefdom; in recent years, he had been stationed at the border in Lingzhou with Ying Wujiu; however, shortly after returning to the capital, he had left again to quell a rebellion in the southeast. The time he had spent in the capital could be counted on one hand.

Presumably, he hadn’t yet been granted a residence—no wonder he was staying at the Rong residence.

Of course, it’s also possible that Ying Wujiu sent Prince Ning over to keep an eye on him or set him up. But in any case, it was quite a coincidence, because Rong Shuang had absolutely no desire to stay in this money pit. 

He called out, “Old Ge! Draft a memorial…”

Before he could finish, a figure suddenly emerged from the shadows beside him: “Sir, Uncle Ge has gone to take Young Master Yaozhu for a walk.”

Rong Shuang was startled. Holy shit!

Little Girl-Boy!

He almost forgot—besides Old Ge, Laifu, and Wangcai, with whom he had a close bond, and Uncle Wang, who had no children of his own, there were also a whole bunch of spies from all walks of life planted right beside him. The Rong Mansion was practically riddled with them, and he even had to pay these people their monthly stipends. 

Rong Shuang was at his wits’ end.

After thinking for a while, he said, “Then bring me some paper and a pen. I’ll write this myself.”

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

Inside the Qide Hall, the scent of incense wafted gently from the crane-beaked bronze censer in the corner. The Emperor leaned back on his couch as Huang Lian gently massaged the temples of the man. It wasn’t until the chattering crowd below had finished speaking that the Emperor raised his hand to stop Huang Lian’s movements.

“After all these years of eating my food, you’ve only grown in height, not in brains.”

Upon hearing this, Huang Lian knew immediately that the Emperor was displeased and retreated stiffly. Sure enough, the Emperor opened his eyes the very next second.

“You learn the hard way, time and time again.” 

“And now you’ve learned it again.”

“Did your father raise a good-for-nothing just to give to me?”

Qin Tianyang, still clutching a pouch of loquats that Rong Shuang had given him: “……”

Ying Wujiu’s eyes narrowed into slits, his gaze cold and menacing as he shot him a sidelong glance.

“He certainly knows how to read people—sending you here to pull this ‘uncorrupted official who is loyal to the emperor and devoted to the nation’ act on me.” 

“Since you’re willing to act as a messenger, then go tell Lord Rong—”

Qin Tianyang waited for quite a while but heard no further words from the Emperor. Just as he was surreptitiously glancing up, he heard the Emperor’s tone suddenly shift, and he let out a chuckle.

“I am concerned for Lord Rong’s health; I invite him to the palace to share a medicinal bath with me.”

Qin Tianyang shuddered violently.