The Year Of Flood

Sleeping on the sandalwood bed, adorned with soft silk bedding, Jiao Qingxiao twisted her body left and right in discomfort.

Jiao Mei gave her a strange look, almost stifling her laugh. "Miss, would you like to take a bath? Jiao Mei has prepared warm rose water for you already."

Qingxiao tiredly opened her eyes. Nodding gently, she entered the shower. Jiao mei helped her change into a comfortable robe, filling the tub with water. She still couldn't come up with an idea good enough to convince father, without making him suspicious of her. Moreover, what he hated the most was to be involved with anyone of the royal family except his majesty of course. 

And she couldn't blame him either. Being close with anyone from the palace can easily lead to a suspicion of rebellion or plotting. Which is far from a small crime. 

Wait…what if she says that she sneaks him in? In that case she just has to ensure that Tang Yunxiao doesn't realise that he is being sneaked in, and no one from her family can spot him either. Now that seems far more easier.

She sighed in comfort, as the warm water seemed to make her feel even sleepier. Now that she has come up with this, she will make sure to follow through.

Once she was done cleaning herself up, she laid down on the bed again. Unlike before, this time, she fell asleep almost as soon as she rested her head on the warm pillow.

A shadow unknown to her, disappeared from the window. 

—------------------------

Inside the palace,

"Your highness, you haven't slept for the past few days. You should rest now. Else I am afraid…your body won't be able to hold on for any longer…"

Before the subordinate could speak anymore, he lowered his head confronted with the cold stare from the man resting on the bed. 

Tactically he took his leave.

Tang Yunxiao, looked at the report left by him on the bedside. Instinctively, he lifted up the blanket trying to get up from the bed, only to realise he couldn't.

Looking at his legs, now useless, he sighed, before, extending his hand towards the report instead, and grasping it with some difficulty. 

Chang Jiang, the son of the third sister of the minister of finance, had his eyes on the imperial exam.

Yesterday at the lunar festival, he encountered Tang Fanghua. They spoke for an hour or so in the secret chamber arranged by the fourth prince. 

Tang Yunxiao folded the paper in his hand. If he wasn't wrong, it should have been Jiao Qingxiao encountering him instead of Chang Jiang.

In that case…what changed? 

A sudden throbbing pain pulled him away from his string of thoughts, 

"Initialising system path…

Host is straying away from his mission.

Redirect, redirect, redirect

Host focus on sub mission 1

Look for the secret token of the fourth prince"

Tang Yunxiao stared at the transparent screen floating in front of him. He still wasn't used to this weird set up.

Frowning, he clicked on the circle with "sub mission 1" written on top of it. 

"Host, do you need any help?" The small koi fish spoke up, as it swirled around Tang Yunxio merrily. 

"No." Tang Yunxio responded coldly.

He wandered his eyes over the glowing words.

"Clue 1 -> The year of flood"

He waved his hand in the air to dismiss both Xiao Koi and the annoying interface of the system.

What were these tacky colours anyways…purple, white, golden glow. Such lack of taste, whoever might have come up with this

Xiao Koi giggled internally. If only master knew, the work of his top ux-designers was now being despised by an ancient man, he would surely cough out blood in anger

The year of flood? That was when he had just turned sixteen and his majesty held the coming of age ceremony for him. Pleasantly surprised to be regarded as a proper prince, he greeted his majesty. Only to be assigned to the duty of the general in the eastern coast.

Everyone was aware of the consequences. Constant floods caused the crops to die and the peasants were rebelling. To calm the situation, a prince had to be deployed. 

What better option than to send the one who was raised in the countryside lacking any power on his mother's side and was only acknowledged a month ago? However, he wasn't scared. He had grown up among the wolves. This was nothing to him.

However, he was disappointed. After years of roaming around like a vagabond, lacking the upbringing of a father and the warmth of a mother, when discovered to be a prince, he was anticipating the welcome of a family instead of the glory of the royalty. 

He was deployed there for a month, and within that short time period, he arranged workers to build a floodgate that would be opened once in a while to permanently stop the flood from impacting the lives of innocents. 

What was so suspicious about that incident that could be considered as a clue? 

He tapped on the headboard of the bed gently, immersed in thoughts.

After a while or so, he took out a conch shell out of his robe. Putting his mouth near it, he made a sound. Yet no sound came out of it.

Almost in an instant, like a shadow, a man donned in black seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

"Feijian, look into duke Li's accounts for the past five years."

"Also…look into who delayed building the flood gate earlier."

Concubine Li, Tang Fangxiao's mother, could very well have been involved in this matter. The Li family was one of the four major families.

This was going to be quite complicated. He shook his head. He truly didn't want to involve himself in this matter, if not for that stupid system.

"500 points deducted from the host's account for cursing the system."

Three black lines immediately appeared on his forehead.

This darned koi fish….