News from the Frontier
Zhao Ruxi did not return home overnight after entering the palace yesterday. Although the palace and the Ministry of Revenue sent people to the mansion to inform the people of the Earl of Suiping's Residence that Zhao Ruxi was helping the Ministry of Revenue calculate the amount of grain and fodder and would not be able to return home until today, the old lady, Zhao Yuanxun, and Lady Zhu were still worried all night.
When they saw Zhao Ruxi return with a pile of rewards, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Everyone felt extremely sorry for her when they heard that she hadn't slept all night.
The old lady said, "Hurry up and eat, then go to sleep."
Exhausted, Zhao Ruxi asked her servants to bring her food to Slender Bamboo Courtyard. She ate a little and then told them to leave.
After eating, she didn't go to sleep. Instead, she practiced calligraphy in her study for more than a dozen pages until her wrists felt like they were about to break, before finally stopping.
The next day, Xiao Lingyan and Zhang Changshen set off with the newly collected fifteen cartloads of grain and fodder, along with the original grain and fodder.
After they left the capital, the city quieted down. Ministers who were usually at odds with each other in court stopped causing trouble, and the grand banquets that wealthy families used to hold every year at this time were also canceled. Everyone waited anxiously for news from the border.
With the banquet canceled, Zhao Ruxi no longer needed to worry about whether or not to attend. She spent her days not going anywhere, but trying her best to accumulate points.
Zhao Ruxi used to mainly study to prepare for the imperial examinations; only when she got tired of studying would she practice calligraphy and painting to earn some points.
But now it's the other way around; she mainly focuses on accumulating points. She only reads books when she's tired of writing and drawing.
She asks the system twice a day, "Have any of the princes done anything detrimental to Xiao Lingyan? How is Xiao Lingyan doing at the border?"
The system also knew that if something happened to Xiao Lingyan, its host might never get married. And even if she did marry, what could be as prestigious as marrying a prince?
Therefore, it tries its best to gather information every day. If there is no valuable information, it does not charge Zhao Ruxi's points; the price of the information collected is based on the energy spent to obtain it, and the price is very reasonable.
Two weeks later, it delivered a valuable message: "Host, someone tried to poison the Fifth Prince's food, but it was discovered by Fifth Prince Fifth Prince before it even reached him."
"The Fifth Prince has arrived at the border. Today, someone pretended to be a refugee, trying to gain the Fifth Prince Fifth Prince's sympathy and get close to him to harm him. Lord Zhang Changshen saw through him at a glance, captured him, and interrogated him. However, that person was probably a suicide soldier; seeing that he couldn't escape, he bit into a poisoned dagger and committed suicide." This was news more than a month later.
"Today, an Imperial Guards saw that the Fifth Prince had finally managed to get away and tried to attack him, but he was immediately captured by the Fifth Prince's secret guards. This was because the Fifth Prince's guards noticed that something was wrong with the man and deliberately lured him into attacking. The guards that the Cen Family sent to the Fifth Prince were quite regretful, saying that they didn't even have a chance to make a move." This news came half a month later.
"Furthermore, as soon as the Fifth Prince arrived at the border, he ordered craftsmen to work day and night to forge crossbows. The newly made catapults were also transported to the battlefield. Fu Yunkai won a great victory today. The enemy suffered a direct loss of seven thousand men, while our army, thanks to the use of catapults and new crossbows, suffered no casualties. Fu Dayong has already requested credit for the Fifth Prince in the victory report."
Zhao Ruxi listened to these messages, her initial anxiety gradually subsided.
She knew that Xiao Lingyan had already prepared those crossbows and catapults. Now that he was pretending to have a sudden inspiration and remaking them, he naturally had his reasons. These new weapons were to be used on the battlefield, and the credit couldn't be stolen by others.
Moreover, the people around Xiao Lingyan are very helpful; the pills he took don't seem to have any effect. This is a good thing.
In addition to telling her about Xiao Lingyan, the system also inquired about the Crown Prince, the Third Prince, and the Fourth Prince according to her instructions.
When there was important news, Zhao Ruxi would place a potted plant on the windowsill of the room where Qingfeng was delivering the message. Wu Wei, the plain-looking bodyguard left behind by Xiao Lingyan, would then appear, and Zhao Ruxi would hand him a letter written in several foreign languages.
However, given that Xiao Lingyan is doing quite well at the border, Zhao Ruxi will not write to him unless it is particularly important news.
Sending messages was extremely inconvenient at this time. They had to be sent by fast horse from the capital and take more than twenty days to reach the border. This was under the condition that everything went smoothly. If they encountered a blizzard or other problems on the way, the delay in sending the message was a minor matter; it was hard to say what would happen if the soldier sending the message lost his life along the way.
Zhao Ruxi didn't need to send a special messenger to deliver letters to Xiao Lingyan. Since Xiao Lingyan was at the border, Xiao Lingpu naturally needed to maintain constant contact with him. Therefore, Zhao Ruxi's letters were sent along with Xiao Lingpu's letters.
Zhao Ruxi asked Wu Wei curiously, "How did the Fifth Prince explain my letter to the Second Prince?"
She knew that emperors were extremely suspicious creatures. Xiao Lingpu wasn't emperor yet, so he probably didn't have this problem. But when he ascended the throne one day and remembered that when Xiao Lingyan was at the border, someone had written letters to Xiao Lingyan in a different language behind his back, he would inevitably harbor a grudge.
Xiao Lingyan was the same type of person as her. He was meticulous and also liked to think ten steps ahead. Before he left, he must have handed over the original intelligence gathering system to Xiao Lingpu. Only her letter was different because it was written in a foreign language.
She wanted to know how Xiao Lingyan explained it.
"His Highness told the Second Highness that he has a girl he admires who occasionally sends him a letter. He asked the Second Highness to deliver this letter along with the letter," Wu Wei said. "Therefore, the Second Highness treats the girl's letters with utmost respect and has never opened the envelope to read them."
"Does His Second Highness know that I wrote the letter? Has he investigated me?" she asked again.
She not only asked Wu Wei about this, but also mentally asked the system to check it out.
"They probably don't know, and our people haven't discovered that the Second Highness is investigating the young lady either," Wu Wei said.
Zhao Ruxi also received the information from the system in her mind, and the answer was the same as Wu Wei's.
Zhao Ruxi was finally relieved.
She then asked Wu Wei, "If I receive news that someone wants to harm the Second Highness and wants to pass a message to him, and I use you to relay it, won't he discover that I'm the one passing the message?"
After saying that, she added, "I don't want to expose myself."
As a secret guard and assassin, Wu Wei was loyal to his master his entire life. Nothing else mattered to him.
Now that his master has ordered him to swear allegiance to Zhao Ruxi, Zhao Ruxi is his only master. He doesn't care about Xiao Lingpu.
When Zhao Ruxi raised this question, he only considered it in this direction.
He said, "Don't worry, young lady. To prevent others from discovering your relationship with His Highness, we always use roundabout methods to deliver messages. The same applies to your letters. No matter how hard others try to trace it, they won't be able to find you."