Chapter 0151: Wind Blinds Eyes, Jiang Young Master Forced to Bear Blame

That was true.

Sheng Yiren pondered thoughtfully, then suddenly asked, “Has Your Highness signed a written contract with that Young Master Jiang?”

“Not… not yet.” Xie Chengze shook his head. “Young Master Jiang said he would come in person, bringing silver with him. The written contract would be finalized and given to me at that time.”

This made Sheng Yiren instantly relieved. “It’s good that the contract hasn’t been finalized yet. Your Highness has long resided in high positions, so it’s natural you might not understand some matters of us merchants. Actually, the operating rights don’t necessarily have to be given to just one merchant. In fact, it might be more appropriate to grant them to multiple merchants to jointly manage. This prevents any single one from monopolizing and potentially cutting corners or engaging in corruption without anyone noticing or reporting it.”

Xie Chengze nodded somewhat cluelessly. “So that’s how it is.”

“In that case, Your Highness,” Sheng Yiren thought for a moment and said, “I can contact the Liaozhou Chamber of Commerce and have them sponsor thirty thousand taels of silver for the Ice Sculpture Festival. But at the same time, I hope Your Highness can reserve the operating rights for the Ice Sculpture Festival for northern merchants, allowing them to bid for it competitively each year. How does that sound?”

“Of course!” Xie Chengze quickly nodded. “As for Young Master Jiang, I will explain the situation and decline his kind offer.”

Kind offer?

What nonsense! The other party clearly had wolfish ambitions, trying to swallow an elephant with a snake’s body!

Sheng Yiren silently cursed and despised him. That Young Master Jiang of the Jiang family was really playing his cards well. Liaozhou could have used this Ice Sculpture Festival to make a brilliant comeback, yet he took advantage of the situation to intervene, showing no sense of merchant ethics—utterly shameless!

“Your Highness! If he causes trouble for you later, just call for me. I will definitely resolve this person for Your Highness!”

Sheng Yiren declared with righteous indignation.

“Good, good, good.” Xie Chengze nodded like a pecking chick, but inwardly thought: I’m afraid you won’t get the chance.

Because everything he had just said was made up—the Jiang family trials, the young master’s letter, all of it was false. The reason he said all that was simply to make the Liaozhou Chamber of Commerce actively compete for the operating rights of the Ice Sculpture Festival and willingly contribute thirty thousand in sponsorship.

After all, competition breeds a sense of crisis~

Even if it was an imaginary enemy, what was the problem with that?

Watching Sheng Yiren’s retreating figure and thinking about how he had just secured thirty thousand in sponsorship for free, Xie Chengze couldn’t help but wear an exceptionally cunning smile.

“Oh, by the way, Your Highness.” Sheng Yiren suddenly turned back and saw Xie Chengze’s cheek twitch abruptly, which was quite puzzling. “Your Highness, you…”

“Hmm? What is it?” Xie Chengze put on an innocent expression, as if the cheek twitch had just been an illusion.

“Uh…” Sheng Yiren thought to herself that the wind on the ice rink was strong and might have blurred her vision—perhaps it really was an illusion. She then continued, “Someone just reported that a batch of suspicious disaster relief grain has been delivered to the city gate. Lord Shen has already gone to handle it.”

“Disaster relief grain… is it?” Muttering these words, Xie Chengze suddenly lowered his eyes and smiled. The glint in his eyes made him seem like a completely different person—strange and unpredictable.

It seemed the other party had finally lost patience. Perfect—this was exactly what he had been waiting for.

He had been wondering why they hadn’t made a move yet. If they had delayed any longer, he would have considered taking the initiative to cause trouble himself.

“Understood, I’ll go join the fun~” Xie Chengze tossed out these words before darting away from the ice rink like a fledgling leaving its nest.

……

At the city gate of Tianshui City.

Grain carts stood in a vertical line along the roadside. The official in charge of transporting the disaster relief grain spoke to Shen Yuan with absolute certainty, “The documents clearly state delivery to Tianshui City in Liaozhou, definitely not Yingzhou.”

The documents were indeed authentic, but the person who wrote them had ulterior motives—intentionally diverting grain meant for Yingzhou to Liaozhou. No doubt, the Crown Prince, still waiting anxiously for the relief supplies, was frantically trying to locate the missing shipment.

In the original novel, this scheme was used to drive a wedge between the Crown Prince and the Second Prince. Exploiting the Second Prince’s impulsive and ambitious nature, the instigator knew he would withhold the grain to obstruct the Crown Prince, ultimately pushing them into direct opposition.

Ah, right—during this period, the Second Prince and Shen Yuan had a fierce argument. The Second Prince, enraged, “ran away from home” and nearly froze to death in the snow!

Why hadn’t Wuhen and Wuji been by his side then?

As Xie Chengze walked toward the city gate, he rubbed his chin, vaguely recalling that Wuhen and Wuji had been severely whipped and punished by the Second Prince, forced to kneel in the freezing snow without permission to rise. That was why they hadn’t noticed the Second Prince sneaking away in the middle of the night…

Wait…

Xie Chengze frowned slightly.

Even if the Second Prince was foolish, he should have known the snow disaster in Liaozhou was no trivial matter. Sneaking out alone at night without internal energy to ward off the cold would surely lead to freezing to death outdoors.

Although the Second Prince in the original work was mediocre in statecraft, he wasn’t an idiot. He valued his life too much to take such a huge risk, leaving the city recklessly just to spite Shen Yuan.

Unless…

The Second Prince was certain someone would notice his absence and follow his trail to find him.

Or perhaps…

There was some other reason that made him want to abandon even Wuhen and Wuji and leave alone…

But why? In the original story, Wuhen and Wuji were so loyal they’d willingly die for the Second Prince. What reason could he have for not taking them along?

Could it be the former? Maybe the Second Prince just wanted to scare Shen Yuan, confident that Shen Yuan would come to his room to continue discussing the return of the relief grain, discover his absence, and thus he dared to leave alone?

That did seem more plausible, but Xie Chengze still felt something was off.

If he had no real intention of leaving the city, why go so far and nearly freeze to death? Was the Second Prince really that stupid?

Lost in thought, he suddenly felt his forehead bump into something. Looking up, he realized he’d walked right into Shen Yuan’s back.

“What’s on your mind? So engrossed.” Seeing his solemn expression, Shen Yuan thought he’d encountered some trouble. His gaze flickered over Xie Chengze’s face before he teased, “Not even watching where you’re going—aren’t you afraid of slipping and hurting that pretty face?”

Xie Chengze quickly touched his cheeks. “It’s nothing. What do you plan to do with this batch of relief grain?”

Shen Yuan reached out to adjust the young man’s outer robe, tightening the collar where cold air seeped in. “I’ll follow your lead.”

“Oh… Oh?” Xie Chengze looked up, meeting a pair of gentle, smiling eyes.

His heart fluttered faintly.

Why is this guy suddenly speaking so pretentiously?

Xie Chengze’s small eyes began to dart around, and Shen Yuan immediately knew what he was thinking. Thus, he said indifferently, “If you don’t know how to handle it, then I will take matters into my own hands.”

“No, no, I’ll handle it, I’ll handle it.” Xie Chengze quickly shook his head, then turned his gaze toward the relief grain carts outside the city.

“Have the grain officer send the relief grain directly to Yingzhou.” Xie Chengze grinned, his smile full of sly mischief. “Just say it’s our charity to the Crown Prince, not a mistake made by the grain officer.”

This way, they could both deliver the relief grain to Yingzhou to aid the disaster victims and inform the outside world that he and the Crown Prince remained as incompatible as fire and water.

As the Second Prince—he was stepping on the Crown Prince’s dignity, loudly declaring his superiority!

Shen Yuan curved his lips slightly, and his unsettled heart grew a little calmer.

It seemed that today’s Xie Chengze was still the same Xie Chengze.

If it were anyone else, they would surely withhold this batch of relief grain, wait for the Crown Prince to personally come and demand it, then drag out the time to investigate where exactly the relief grain had gone wrong, and use it as an opportunity to accuse the Crown Prince of incompetence.

But if that were the case, the people of Yingzhou would inevitably go hungry for several days, and lives would be lost.

And the “Xie Chengze” he followed would never disregard the lives of the common people.