After Becoming the Cannon Fodder Live-in Spouse A (GL) - Chapter 44: The Forty-Fourth Day

Chapter 44: The Forty-Fourth Day

“Wangye.”

Qiwang Mansion.

Yu Qing guarded the door of Yaoguang Pavilion and noticed a shadow appear before her, so she timely raised her head slightly, thinking that Shen Jinglan had some instructions.

However, she saw the person who had proactively walked to the door squint her eyes. “What smell is that?”

Yu Qing turned her head and looked at Shen Liu, who was holding a bowl and walking this way. She also smelled a very subtle, sour and fermented smell drifting toward them, so she subconsciously covered her nose. “Shen Liu, what are you carrying?”

The little girl, who was accustomed to carrying a knife on her back, tilted her head and thought for a while, soon recalling the answer. “Luosifen! It is a snack that Wangfei recently had the kitchen make. The bamboo shoots were dug up by the cook in the bamboo garden a few days ago during the rain. Several jars were pickled badly before they made the taste that Wangfei likes.”

Yu Qing’s expression went numb.

She thought to herself, what taste did Ye Fuguang exactly like?

Looking again at the thing the child held in her hands, she had one thought about this Ye Fuguang, who did not like the exquisite dishes in the mansion and just liked to tinker with these messy things: A wild boar cannot eat fine bran.

Shen Jinglan stared at that bowl of red soup covered with sour bamboo shoots, snail lion meat, fried peanuts, wood ear silk, and green vegetables, pondering whether Jiangning City had such a specialty in the past.

How had she never seen it?

“General, do you want some?” Shen Liu raised the bowl toward her direction. “This is what I snatched from Shen Si. That fellow is silent, but he is the most protective of his food. Half a pot was all eaten by him alone—”

Shen Jinglan impassively refused. “No need.”

After a pause, she said, “After you and Shen Si finish eating, come over after rinsing your mouths and washing your hands. I have something to instruct.”

…

One cup of tea later.

Shen Si and Shen Liu both stood in Yaoguang Pavilion, behind Shen Jinglan, who wore a robe with qilin patterns. She was enfeoffed as a wang through military merits, so it was appropriate for her to use the attire patterns of a martial general.

They were still guessing what instructions the great general had when they suddenly heard Shen Jinglan mention, “In this golden biyu sand table, the jades of these cities were cast for me by Shen Si using rewards, while these three rivers were melted by Shen Liu.”

“I could not bring back their nameplates from the Yan region. Now that the sixteen cities have been ceded, they can be considered buried in a foreign land. I thought for a long time about what to use to account to you. Now, I can only think of this—”

She turned around and looked at the two of them. “Take these things they left behind to their family members.”

The one city and one pool here.

Were all medals obtained by her personal guards accompanying her through the baptism of war and paying with life and death. Even if they carried special meanings, Shen Jinglan did not know whether, for the families who had lost them, such things could count as a kind of memorial, or whether they were useless things that could not even count as consolation.

“I now have an order that forbids me from leaving Yong’an,” she said.

“Yan, Bai, and the others now have promising futures and are no longer considered my personal guards. After thinking it over, this matter can only be entrusted to you two to handle on my behalf.”

Shen Si spoke little and thought little, so he wanted to accept the order silently.

Then he was stopped by Shen Liu. “General, you were summoned to the palace again today. This subordinate heard that the southern floods have been severe recently, and the court sent several special envoys who went but did not return. If the Emperor sends you there, and you have even fewer people by your side, what will you do?”

Shen Jinglan was amused by her words.

She raised her hand and compared the height of this little girl, who was not as tall as herself. “This wang does not need to stoop to the point of requiring you two to protect me.”

At this time, Shen Si spoke sullenly. “Personal guards are meant to stick close to the general.”

Shen Jinglan glanced at him. “This wang seems not to have agreed to accept you two as personal guards.”

Shen Liu immediately widened her eyes, somewhat anxious. She just wanted to open her mouth to argue when she was stopped by Shen Jinglan. “Enough. Whether to become this wang’s personal guards is for you to decide yourselves. If after you finish this errand, you still decide to return to this wang’s side, then it will not be too late to instruct you on personal guard matters at that time…”

She went back and took several letters that she had already written before, put them into their bosoms, and there were also their travel permits for leaving the city, as well as some banknotes. In short, she arranged the two children’s long journey clearly.

In the end, she no longer looked at that sand table that made her sentimental. “Have Yu Qing find craftsmen from the mansion to come and smash this.”

–

The news of Shen Si and Shen Liu’s sudden departure had not yet spread when another decree came from Mingde Hall, summoning Qiwang to enter the palace.

When Shen Jinglan entered the palace by decree, she still saw Duke Yong’s carriage and horses on the palace path. Before stepping into those majestic palace walls, she calmly turned back and glanced once.

One incense stick later, Mingde Hall.

As expected, upon receiving the shangfang treasure sword that Shen Jingming seemed to have had the Shanggong Bureau forge in batches, Qiwang’s expression remained unruffled, and she even had the leisure to examine the gems on this sword and compare which were of better quality than the jades in the golden feng shui map that her family had just dismantled.

In the end, she thought that imperial power was indeed one level higher, as it used top-quality Hetian jade.

“A-Lan?”

Shen Jingming himself knew that this farce had persisted until now without being suppressed, and it had even caused some peasant uprisings and evil cult organizations, making the court like a joke. So, assigning this special envoy position to his younger sister at this moment inevitably lacked confidence.

He seemed to have already forgotten the mansion report he had received from Qiwang Mansion this morning, which mentioned that Qiwang recently felt she was better and did not need to drink medicine anymore, ordering the mansion not to decoct medicine anymore. He asked caringly, “Do you have any difficulties?”

The Emperor had already begun to think that if she wanted the imperial guards to escort her all the way, he should transfer which people from the three armies to her, so as not to make the imperial guards disloyal to him, while also being able to accomplish the task.

Then he heard Shen Jinglan answer very calmly, “There is actually one matter that requires begging Imperial Brother’s grace to approve.”

“You may speak freely.”

In a moment, Shen Jingming had already thought through countermeasures, and his demeanor returned to that of the benevolent ruler who was broad-minded and reasonable.

“This minister and the side consort are deeply in love without doubt. The new marriage has not yet passed, and she is a clingy one. I beg Your Majesty for special leniency to permit this minister to bring family members along to Jiangnan.” She said the words showing off affection with an expressionless face, almost making Shen Jingming’s expression freeze on the spot.

When he came back to his senses and confirmed that his ears were not faulty, he reflexively cursed out that sentence:

“Absurd!”

…

In Mingde Hall, the Son of Heaven was furious again.

The palace attendants around trembled with fear, afraid that today there would again be someone who, because the Son of Heaven himself was busy with state affairs and had nowhere to tinker with his miniature carving garden model, needed an unlucky ghost to go in and help tidy up, then make a mistake and be dragged out for severe caning.

Only the person who had angered him knelt there very calmly.

In the gap where he felt Qiwang was outrageous, her second brother very briefly used his calmed mind to think whether Shen Jinglan’s words were because she had been muddle-headed since waking up, really taken the wrong medicine, or because she wanted to use these to cover up something.

For example.

Ye Rong had once guessed the extent of the medicinal formula’s effect. The most severe situation was losing rationality and not even recognizing people, like a wild beast in the mountains infected with a strange disease that only knew to attack people.

The milder degree might be a temporary sensory confusion.

However, if there was also the influence of Qianyuan’s letter fragrance among them, it was unknown whether it was good or bad for Shen Jinglan—could it be that her little side consort was inseparable from her not because of their deep love, but because Shen Jinglan truly could not leave the other?

The guess flashed through Shen Jingming’s mind.

He re-examined the person kneeling before him to atone for the offense but not withdrawing the request.

A moment later, Shen Jingming seemed to have a headache, like facing a junior at home who would act coquettishly. He scolded a few sentences. Although he still wanted to speak of rules, he had to yield. “Jiangnan is now full of disaster victims everywhere. As a special envoy going to provide disaster relief and supervise, what propriety is there in bringing a soft and weak family member?”

Shen Jinglan did not make a sound.

She seemed like a rebellious person with a stiff neck, just waiting for this imperial brother of hers to weigh whether to let her bring people and normally pacify this flood incident, or to want to lose a third special envoy again, or to consider replacing her.

This time, the one roasted on the fire was Shen Jingming.

But he was actually not threatened at all, because as long as he weighed it slightly, he knew the benefits of Qiwang bringing the Son of Heaven’s order to pacify the disaster and save the people. Moreover, now he indeed needed to let those complacent prefectures and counties taste the court’s iron fist.

–

Shen Jinglan got her wish and, bringing the court’s issued instructions, walked out of Mingde Hall.

However, when Fuyao escorted her all the way to the palace path and handed her the transfer tally for one branch of the imperial guards, as well as the shangfang treasure sword, she discovered that Duke Yong’s carriage and horses had not yet left.

When he discovered she had come out, the carriage curtain was lifted, and a somewhat scholarly weak middle-aged man walked out from inside. It was Shen Zekun.

From the perspective of rank, Shen Jinglan was still higher, but she very politely curtsied first. “Imperial Uncle.”

Shen Zekun lightly lifted her sleeve and also curtsied to her. “Qiwang Dianxia.”

When Shen Jinglan very calmly asked this imperial uncle why he was waiting here for her, whether there was something, she saw Shen Zekun sigh. “Originally, for this trip to Jiangnan as special envoy, His Majesty wanted to entrust it to me, but unfortunately my body is really not good, and I cannot stand water, getting terribly seasick…”

This was the truth.

Back then, the Shen family army advanced unstoppable, even she, a Dikun, could lead troops and establish illustrious military merits. Everyone thought it was because the Shen family bloodline was too good, but few people knew that the younger brother born of the same mother as Yan Wang, Duke Yong Shen Zekun, was one who ran at the slightest wind and fell at the slightest rain since childhood.

However, he was a Dikun. Even if Dikun was a man, he was weak to the bone, which was very normal.

Shen Jinglan thought for a moment and habitually continued. “Imperial Uncle still needs to take more care. I heard that you were also ill before the new year. Is it the root of the illness left from that time?”

This should have been asked after the last grand court assembly dispersed, but at that time Shen Zekun was said to have attended court while ill and was carried back home by family servants after court. Qiwang Mansion could only send some precious medicines to console, and even the Son of Heaven repeatedly granted imperial physicians and medicines, sending them into Duke Yong’s mansion like flowing water.

Shen Zekun looked at her with words on the tip of his tongue but hesitated.

Sometimes he really did not know how, all coming from the Shen family education, it could produce a different kind of Dikun like Shen Jinglan. At the moment, he sighed. “You can certainly lecture me, A-Lan. You were injured so severely in Yancheng, lying for over half a year without leaving the mansion. His Majesty did not permit anyone to visit. How long has it been now? Are you fully recovered?”

Shen Jinglan thought about it. “It can be considered recovered.”

If not recovered, she could only have died.

Shen Zekun looked at the niece before him who was taller than himself, seemingly wanting to find traces on her of the mischievous girl from before who ran from Yan Wang Mansion to his home to steal bird eggs from trees and roast them to eat, but no matter how he looked, he could only see the scars burned on her body by the battlefield in those few years.

The little girl who had lived under the protection of father and brothers and could act recklessly before had now become a pillar supporting a dynasty.

He thought of before the Yancheng battle, due to Shen Jingming’s reforms, the court officials and generals mutually criticized each other, and then the scandal erupted consecutively of the Li family using the pretext of supervising the imperial mausoleum construction materials to amass wealth wantonly in Jiangnan, followed by that war that greatly injured the vitality of the Great Dynasty—

Although Shen Zekun was very dull, he could vaguely realize that the remaining bloodline of his elder brother seemed about to become even thinner.

Dikun was always sentimental. His worry now appeared on his brows and eyes. “You now have not a single personal guard by your side, and you have taken on the errand to Jiangnan. Has the Emperor assigned imperial guards to escort?”

Shen Jinglan answered straightforwardly. “His Majesty has already transferred one branch from the Guards’ Infantry Army Division to escort me this time to pacify the flood.”

“That is not enough…” Shen Zekun seemed as expected but still not very satisfied, so he untied a waist tablet from his body and handed it to her. “When do you set out? Take this first. Later, I will have my mansion’s personal guards bring a letter to the prefect of Taizhou, and go together to your mansion.”

This was a waist tablet that could mobilize all his personal guards.

This sudden care obtained from imperial uncle made Shen Jinglan: “?”

Only then did she belatedly remember that the first time she went out on campaign with the Shen family army before, this imperial uncle had done that classic thing of personally frying half a bag of chicken and leek pancakes for her to take on the road to eat, so as not to gnaw dry rations.

…

When Shen Jinglan returned to Qiwang Mansion with the love from her male mother imperial uncle.

Her side consort, who was deeply in love without doubt, clingy and could not leave her, was in Plum Garden leading the servants to make barbecue. Thin bamboo skewers threaded with meat, and coated with a jar of wild bee honey exchanged from a hunter in the city. The aroma of spices filled the entire room.

When Ye Fuguang saw her, she put down the skewer in her hand and ran to her. “Wangye is done with being busy? Do you want to come over and taste together?”

Shen Jinglan smelled that her body was full of that seasoning spice smell.

She noticed that she was living quite comfortably and, after thinking for a moment, spoke. “This wang has just received the decree and needs to go to the area around Yingtian Prefecture to pacify the flood.”

“Ah?”

Ye Fuguang was stunned. She had not expected that what Qiwang had been busy with recently was this. She always did not go beyond the main gate and second gate, so she did not know that such a big event had happened outside. She immediately asked, “Then we have to, go where to donate money?”

Qiwang raised her eyebrow slightly and casually told her that Yu Qing had already arranged this matter. If she wanted to show something, she could instruct the servants later to send the things to Yu Qing.

Ye Fuguang nodded eagerly.

She had originally been planning how many things in her room she could take out to exchange for silver to donate to the common people, but halfway through, she remembered a more important matter. “Yingtian Prefecture, flood?”

She remembered this plot—

Because in this accident, all the ministers sent by the Great Dynasty to local areas for disaster relief were killed, causing the court to spend more money than expected to pacify this disaster. Later, when the Da Zhi royal clan came to demand the annual tribute, the Great Dynasty could not pay it all, the haggling failed, causing Da Zhi to feel that the Great Dynasty’s strength was insufficient. After taking a portion of the money, they tore up the alliance and launched a war.

This could also be said to be the fuse for the subsequent chaos in the Great Dynasty!

Most importantly, the ministers would be killed ahhhhh!

With the previous incident of Ye Yuge breaking the plot by going to jail first, Ye Fuguang completely did not know whether Shen Jinglan would take over this bento. What if her war god buff had expired and she was slaughtered after going? What to do?

She even could not care to recall how the original female protagonist in this part of the plot had highlights of winning over the people’s hearts and providing disaster relief, and what ambiguities and joys there were with some handsome men. Her mind was fully scared by the possibility that Shen Jinglan might take a belated bento.

“That, that… is very dangerous, right?”

Shen Jinglan saw her face turn bad all at once and thought she was because her hometown was in the Jiangnan area before, so she had experienced the severity of floods. At this moment, she answered properly. “Mm, indeed.”

The danger was not only the disaster but also the officials there.

Ye Fuguang immediately grabbed her sleeve. “Then what to do?”

Shen Jinglan felt that her startled appearance was quite amusing and immediately pretended to think for a while before speaking. “Since you are so worried, how about you accompany this wang to go together?”

The little wangfei ‘s expression paused. “…?”

She seemed to suspect her hearing had a problem. “Ah?”

Shen Jinglan smiled and touched her chin. “The flood is so dangerous. As my Qianyuan, should not wangfei protect me?”