Foster Son, Don’t Be So Crazy (45)

While Song Jia and Xiang Feng were busy being surrounded by pink bubbles and blooming flowers, Princess Bai Xue, on the other hand, was blanketed from head to toe with a gloomy aura.

She had investigated the foreign woman that Xiang Feng was so enamored with, and the results had greatly alarmed her.

The foreign-looking woman's name was Jin Jia, a high-ranked noble lady that came from the south.

Jin Jia was found out to be the only heir of a dukedom, having been born from two parents who had weak constitutions. Upon her birth, the Duchess had died, leaving her no choice but to trust Jin Jia with the reins of their fief from an early age. Because the Duchess had always been sickly, she had no other concubines, and Jin Jia's father, from whom she inherited her looks from, had mysteriously disappeared shortly after her birth.

Of course, all of these were fabrications made by Song Jia and Nian Shou, with all the details coming from their overactive imagination.

The south was prone to lightning strikes and typhoons. This was a well-known fact, that was why the south was not as progressive as the rest of the kingdom. But ever since Jin Jia took the reins, she proved herself to be both capable and clever, quickly creating solutions to these two major problems in just a single year.

For the lightning strikes, she invented a contraption she called the 'lightning rod'. It was installed at the highest point of the house, which would redirect lightning to the ground.

As for the typhoons, it was usually not the typhoons itself, but the destruction it wrought on farming and the residential buildings that made them so terrifying. Princess Bai Xue looked at the high stack of documents in front of her and no longer bothered with them. Instead, she looked at her royal advisor.

"Explain...explain to me how that woman could possibly make the south flourish in agriculture when they are being constantly bombarded by drought, heavy rains and floods."

In her heart, she didn't really believe that foreign-looking woman could have found a solution that plagued the kingdom for several millennia. No one was as familiar to the problem in the south as much as her. Being the rightful heir to the throne, it was not as if Princess Bai Xue hadn't tried all possible means to make the south prosper. The south spanned almost half of her kingdom, after all. How could she not have the heart and the ambition to solve this millennial-old headache?

But Jin Jia managed to solve it in a single year!

"For drought, your Highness..." the royal advisor couldn't help but audibly swallow, seeing the crown princess' black face.

"Lady Jia made the farmers dig ponds where rainwater is collected during heavy rainfall. They use these ponds to water the crops suffering from drought at critical growth stages, saving the crops from withering. The farmers can also raise fishes and other animals in the pond as a side-business...also, she instructed them to use dry crop residues to cover the space between crops to conserve soil moisture...and she invented a water system called 'drip irrigation...'"

With every word that came out of the advisor's mouth, Princess Bai Xue's face interchanged from white to red, red to black, making the advisor worry that if this continues, the princess might become a chameleon...

However, Princess Bai Xue shot him a sharp glare. "Continue! What about floods? Don't tell me she can also do something about flash floods and seasonal flooding!"

Hearing her question, the advisor was left floundering, hurriedly searching his mind for the best possible way to answer. In the end, he could only cough several times.

Princess Bai Xue, "..."

After a moment of massaging her temples, she tiredly waved a hand, permitting him to continue.

"Lady Jia raised the soil beds of crops, made the farmers dig furrows to drain the excess water, and put deep drains along the lower edges of each field to flow into the pond...she also, ah...created a farming practice called 'crop rotation' that increases soil fertility and yield crop by planting different kinds of crops in the same area for a specific order of seasons..."

The royal advisor thought, except for the so-called 'crop rotation', these solutions were actually sensible and easy to think of, however, the ideas were too unconventional that none of them had the innovation to create it.

Her expression deteriorating, Princess Bai Xue slapped her hand on the table.

"Who asked you to speak so much?!" she shouted at him.

Startled, the royal advisor swallowed the rest of his words that he was going to say back to his stomach, making him almost cough a mouthful of blood.

"Jin Jia..." Princess Bai Xue gritted her teeth.

That name was gradually becoming a thorn in her heart, a splinter in her foot. If she could not pull it out, that name would forever become the devil in her soul, haunting all of her waking life.

Had Jin Jia been good at fighting, it was still an easy problem to solve, as she could just promote her to become a general, then make her go to the battlefield to die. And if she had a prowess for diplomacy, with great talent in politics, Princess Bai Xue could make her serve as a civil service official. Even giving her the position of a Prime Minister or royal advisor, all of this was still possible. Just make her die in an accident later on, with all the scheming in the palace, no one would be surprised.

This way, the people in the south that loved her would be pacified by her promotion, and getting rid of her afterwards, would almost take no effort on her part.

But Jin Jia had to be good at something that Princess Bai Xue could not give her the position to...

Seeing the stack of papers that repeated all the same thing, of Jin Jia being loved by all the people, of how she quickly stabilized the situation in the south, of how kind, compassionate, brave, and decisive she was...

Princess Bai Xue's expression became even more ugly.

"If I don't stop her, what is she going to do next? Create light out of thin air like a god?!"

"Actually..."

At the royal advisor's voice that was as low as a mosquito hum, Princess Bai Xue looked at him.

"I heard that Lady Jia also introduced something called 'electricity'..."

...

Song Jia, who was leaning on the two-light window with a longing gaze, suddenly sneezed.

Covering her mouth, she scolded, "Who dared to talk badly about this grandma!"

They must be tired of being alive, to actually want to court death by backstabbing her.

A gentle hand stroked her back, while a deep and magnetic voice that sounded amused asked above her head, "Who did you provoke again?"

"What do you mean by asking who I provoked again!"

Song Jia was trying to ignore his presence, pretending that she was alone, but he kept trying to get her attention. His arms were possessively encircled around her waist, his chin above her head, her back pressed against his chest.

A week...

A week of being chained to his side, of sleeping without being able to move, of having to go to the bathroom while a hot gaze followed her every move.

Song Jia tried to tell him off several times by giving several examples how personal space was important to a person's emotional well-being, how claustrophobia could develop from being trapped in a restrictive environment, how clinginess was not attractive, and if they stayed so stickily close together all the time, it would develop feelings of boredom.

But who knew, Xiang Feng's face seemed to have also been built by Emperor Qin Shi Huang, and was as thick as the Great Wall of China.

To Song Jia's demand of having personal space, he answered, "I don't need personal space, so why should Song Jia have personal space?"

To Song Jia's feelings of claustrophobia, Xiang Feng responded with a fierce kiss, and when she lost the ability to breathe, he curved his lips up and faintly said, "Claustrophobia feels good, doesn't Jia also feel good?"

And then he shamelessly whispered in her ear that he also wanted to see, really wanted to see, if his 'Xiao Feng' also had claustrophobia.

Song Jia, "..."

To her complaints that he was being clingy and it was not attractive, he answered, "Your husband's face is this good, even if I act a bit unattractive, Jia would still like me."

Song Jia, "...who did you say is my husband?"

As for the feelings of boredom...

This time, Xiang Feng did not reply with words but carried her to the bed, and proceeded to tell her in many exciting ways how Song Jia could not be bored.

After finally being kissed from head to toe and her body explored by his tongue in every nook and cranny, Song Jia with a black face could only say...

"Amituofu." [1]

When it rains, it really does pour. [2]

[1] Name of Amitabha Buddha in Chinese.

[2] Ch. idiom that means misfortune tends to come all at once/disasters do not walk alone.