Back inside the temple.
The moment she entered, she saw a wooden tray on the table in the hall. Gold ingots lay neatly arranged atop red cloth, gleaming so brightly they made her snake eyes ache. She forcibly suppressed her innate greed for wealth and silently recited a spell to stay clear-headed.
"Where did these come from?"
Bai Yujun refused to believe that anyone in this godforsaken place of Longze County, ravaged by both drought and floods, could produce such an enormous sum. Hadn't the county magistrate looked as if his flesh were being carved off when he came?
"It was left by the man who delivered the calling card. I didn't want it, but I couldn't refuse." Zhen'er spoke helplessly.
Baring her teeth, Bai Yujun felt that this Prince was either too idle or some powerless, idle princeling—a pig-headed Prince just waiting to eat and die. Going up the mountain to find the Chunyang Palace Master would have been much better; whatever he needed would be laid out clearly for him. Yet he insisted on coming down the mountain to find an ordinary temp worker, an unregistered outsider who could not do anything.
"Leave it there for now. This money won't be easy to take—it's scorching hot. Let's see whether he can keep it up for a few days."
"Alright."
Rubbing her forehead, she turned and went upstairs to her bedroom for a good sleep. Sleep was cultivation for snakes too. Besides, from head to toe she had only one tendon and one set of meridians, so there was nothing to worry about.
Clearly, Bai Yujun had underestimated the Prince's patience.
Early the next morning, the Prince's carriage was already waiting outside the gates, standing first in line. The local people did not dare compete with that luxurious carriage