Fifteen minutes ago.
The Royal Physician Building’s old managerial physician was sprawled on top of a chest and was using both arms to grip it firmly. He yelled with tears and mucus streaking across his face, “No, no! You can’t take away these books! You can’t take away a single one!”
“Royal Physician Cao, it’s only borrowing them for a few days. They’ll be returned later!” Xiao’xi’zi directed people to carry out the chests one by one.
“You can’t!! Many of these medical books are hand-written manuscripts of out-of-print books, so there are only one of them! Not lending, not lending! This old man can’t lend them to you! Who can this old man turn to if they get ruined by some chance?” Royal Physician Cao latched firmly onto Xiao’xi’zi’s leg. “Return them to me, return them to me!”
Xiao’xi’zi’s mouth twitched as he yanked out his leg, and he promptly reprimanded, “Stop, stop it! Royal Physician Cao, please be mindful of your image! This eunuch is acting under His Highness’s orders to borrow your medical books and will return them in a few days!”
Stop making a fuss, you old geezer!
As he watched the chests being carried out one after another before his eyes, Royal Physician Cao felt his eyeballs roll back. He inhaled a breath and felt like fainting.
The nearby royal physicians rushed over and helped the old physician regulate his breath and calm down. “Old Royal Physician Cao, Old Royal Physician Cao…”
Xiao’xi’zi gestured hurriedly to the group, and they fled with the chests, escaping in discomposure from the Royal Physician Building.
They left behind a group of madly hopping and howling physicians.
Royal Physician Cao’s tears poured out as he yelled, “H-help me change my clothes, wuwuwu! This old man will lodge a royal appeal!”
Meanwhile, after gazing at the dozen chests of books, the little lady raised her head towards a certain direction in the bedchamber before giving a humph.
The crown prince was definitely observing her in secret. Otherwise, why could the royal maids and eunuchs come and go freely while only she couldn’t?
She stuck out a small finger and gave a gentle poke. An energy ripple undulated from the bedchamber’s entrance, absorbing her finger before slowly rebounding.
Humph!! Baddie!
Inside the southern study.
The group of officials sneakily raised their heads to peek at Their Highness.
They surprisingly discovered that His Highness had turned up his lips slightly, a smile surfacing from the bottom of his eyes.
This was a rare sight that only happened every few years.
The officials who had just reported some bad news, and were currently waiting for His Highness to berate them, were dumbfounded.
His Highness the Crown Prince had unexpectedly not gotten angry and instead calmly given several instructions. He inquired if there was anything else before dismissing them.
After exiting the southern study, the several officials that were accustomed to getting berated by His Highness showed their disconcertment on their faces, slightly incapable of coming to terms with what just happened.
“Sir Song, you don’t have to be at your wits’ end. From what I heard of the crown prince’s implication, he will probably make a trip to Beilan personally.”
“I heard that they have already cultivated the first batch of seeds that they planted into vegetables. As long as we can produce something, even if it takes a longer time, these hard times will come to pass.”
Just earlier, the Minister of Revenue Song Yuan had reported to His Highness that not a single grain had been reaped recently. The situation was extremely precarious. It was also practically impossible to find any clean and not-mutated fish and shrimp in the nearby rivers either. If this continued, then the half-year supply of surplus grain in the granary would run out!
The others had originally thought that His Highness would give him another dressing-down in agitation, but Sir Song was surprisingly let off the hook. It was too unexpected…
“Disregarding the western region’s infertile land, our Northern Mo, compared to the numerous countries in the southern region, could already be considered to have an abundant amount of surplus grain.” One sir sighed and said, “If not for His Highness’s foresight, it wouldn’t be exaggerated to say that the entire kingdom would be full of starving people with tens of thousands of people dying by now.”
Everyone in the group nodded repeatedly and walked out while in discussion.
