What An Audacious And Sly Servant! Chapter 14

The usual chapter of the week. This time, we get to see that this Crown Prince is actually not stupid completely (although he's still hilarious to us) ٩ʕ◕౪◕ʔو

Chapter 14 – The Fascinating Crown Prince

Chu Xun wanted to take a bath. The inn's waiter carried a copper basin over. "Patron, this inn has no bath tub. Just remove all clothes and wipe yourself."

Chu Xun wanted to go to the toilet. In his heart, he wanted the sit while relieving type. The inn's waiter pointed to a certain corner. "Patron, the latrine is at there, squat by yourself."

Chu Xun was in despair, only wanting to sleep. The inn's waiter had left but Mei Qian Deng was still inside the room wiping the flexible sword inside her sleeves.

"Wei, return to your room." Chu Xun was still bearing grudge with Mei Qian Deng who ate his portion of the dinner earlier.

"We never thought that you will come out without bringing money. There's a limit of money on the body so we only asked for two rooms."

"Then, you go and crowd with Senior Official Song."

Mei Qian Deng raised her eyes. Why can't Crown Prince understand her meaning? Alright then, let's explain it much easier. "Senior Official Song paid for the neighbouring first room while I paid for this second room. But Senior Official Song is unwilling to let you stay with him."

Hence, it was not the problem of whether they crowd themselves or not but the problem of whether they let or not Chu Xun crowd inside.

Chu Xun was originally sitting on the bed removing his clothes. His clothes removed halfway, his outer clothes had just removed and held in his hands thinking of finding a place to hang it up when he heard Mei Qian Deng's words. It was purely on subconscious that he threw that expensive clothes towards where Mei Qian Deng was sitting.

A foreign matter flew over. Mei Qian Deng instinctively raised her sword. She was going to cut that Chu Xun's clothes into broken bits. But in a twinkle, she put down that flexible sword, letting that clothes accurately landed on her head, thoroughly covered Mei Qian Deng's head.

Unless as a last resort, must not offend the Crown Prince!

She nearly forgot of it, such important matter.

However, Mei Qian Deng felt it was already too late a bit. Anyway, in these few days, Chu Xun had long been thoroughly offended by her unknowingly.

"Young Master, where are you going?" When Mei Qian Deng pulled down the clothes on her head, she saw Chu Xun carrying his giant 'ball' with his hand extended to open the door.

"Where I'm going has nothing to do with you. This Young Master doesn't care about sleeping on your bed."

"Young Master, Senior Official Song said he will snore when sleeping. You will be unable to bear with it. It's so late now, the p.a.w.nshops had closed. You have no money on your body. So are you going to sleep in the street end or selling yourself to stay in the brothels?"

Mei Qian Deng calmly a.n.a.lysed Chu Xun's possibilities while simultaneously throttled everything.

Chu Xun was stupefied. He no longer had the bravery to open the door in front of him.

Mei Qian Deng however added, "The horse carriage is inside the back stable."

(╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻ This kind of day he had no way to live through! Chu Xun no longer cared of his prestige. Struck first to gain the upper hand, he forcibly occupied the whole bed instead.

If this made the Crown Prince seemed to have no saving grace, it was not until like this.

The next day before dawn, when Chu Xun climbed up from the bed, Mei Qian Deng carried a plate of white steamed buns and a small plate of salted vegetables and put them on the table. Senior Official Song had entered at unknown time. Earnestly and leisurely, he sat beside the table while having a morning tea.

Chu Xun had experienced a night of mental attainment. Now, his expression was completely unperturbed. He had returned to the former Ming Jue Palace's perfect Crown Prince with the bearing befitting his position, elegant and superior. It was only his expression had bits of tiredness and sleepiness.

Mei Qian Deng glanced at him one more time before she quietly sat down.

Senior Official Song, "Little Long, come and have breakfast."

Chu Xun's pretty face almost collapsed as he spitted out from clenched teeth, "Little Long?"

Senior Official Song, is it because this morning you ate crab meat steamed dumpling[1]?!

"Right now that the two of you are laofu's little servants. Hence laofu think of a very matching false name for you and Mei Qian Deng. When acting, we must do it completely." Senior Official Song first pointed at Mei Qian Deng, "Little Deng." Then he pointed to Chu Xun, "Little Long."

Combined together, it would be Little Lantern[2].

Chu Xun's cheeks were very painful. He forcefully bit his molar, telling himself to calm down. No matter what, the Senior Official Song in front of him was the Crown Prince's Grand Tutor who taught him since childhood until adult. Before yesterday, Chu Xun had always considered him as an extremely respected mentor who had imparted knowledge to him. He would have never thought that underneath Senior Official Song's draped full of wisdom outer clothes was a deeply concealed mischievous heart.

Senior Official, you as an old pedant among the officials of the land under heaven, couldn't you think of a better false names?!

Bang!

Chu Xun slapped the trestle. He angrily said, "……First, listen to my few serious words."

The interior of the room entered a period of abnormal silence.

"Imperial Father decreed all of you to follow me to go secretly to Anxi Prefecture. It's not just to inspect how the local authorities handle this calamity." He looked face to face with Senior Official Song, his eyes blazing with wisdom. Thinking back, Senior Official Song this old seasoned partic.i.p.ator of the imperial court in his heart was very clear of this matter. Imperial Father didn't dispatch anyone but insisted on dispatching this old man over. It must be because he had a purpose.

Senior Official Song put down his tea cup. With a serious face, he looked at Chu Xun, asking the latter to continue.

Just as Anxi Prefecture going to enter spring season, a snow disaster came. It was truly a natural disaster but snow of wrong season would not remain for a long time. This kind of small disaster which was similar to the cold spell in warm spring was just rarely seen. Compared to flood, earthquake, pestilence attack and so on, it was completely irrelevant to mention.

However, the imperial court had a strict regulation for special calamity respond. This time this small snow disaster had not much money to be embezzled because the most affected ones were the crops. When the crops subjected to freezing, it would require a large amount of manure, plant ashes, rice straws and such to rescue them.

Which foolish lips smacking greedy official would be so free that he wanted to monopolise all the manure in his house.

"Imperial Father must had already know something but didn't tell me. He wanted to let me investigate it myself. He thinks if I can still find it out despite starting from complete ignorant state, the clue may be right in front of my eyes……" Chu Xun long, slender finger softly knocked the table. He slightly frowned his eyebrows, considering extremely seriously. "How much do you know about the relief aspect?"

Chu Xun looked opposite himself. Of course Mei Qian Deng would not know this. Chu Xun glared at her. This boor since pa.s.sing from Anxi until the capital, not only did he leisurely settle the secret a.s.sa.s.sination from Prince Chen, he even bring forth a snowstorm. He's quite amazing! Mei Qian Deng put down the chopsticks baffled for a short moment. After Chu Xun finished glaring at her, his sight landed on Senior Official Song.

Senior Official Song rubbed his chin. "Laofu had mingled in the imperial court for tens of years. Small incidents like the Anxi snow disaster, mostly just the local authorities will personally purchase nearby goods and materials before reporting it to the imperial court. Anxi is a large prefecture, with flouris.h.i.+ng business trades and well-off public finance, it doesn't need to wait for the imperial court to send allocated funds. They just need to send over all the signed account books, receipts for natural disaster victims into a single stack to the auditing administration after the matter solved. Of course, the Emperor will send over some goods and materials however the transport route is difficult to a large extent. The amount is not large, only to show the Emperor's thought."

It was similar to what Chu Xun thought.

"Who is the senior provincial official for Anxi Prefecture?" He asked Senior Official Song again.

"Ah, Little Long! This you have asked the right person. Others, laofu may not know but this Anxi Prefecture's Senior Provincial Official Nan Bai Cheng laofu remembers clearly. That year when he managed to enter the court examination[3], laofu was the chief examiner. He appeared to be nothing special to look at but had brilliant literary talent. His vigour of writing style was outstanding but sadly in the end he only obtained tanhua rank[4]."

Chu Xun acted as if he didn't hear the two words 'Little Long' as he spared no effort to maintain his perfect image. "Why did he only obtain tanhua rank?"

"How does laofu know? All the third rank candidates are personally selected by the Emperor."

"Then, what else do you know?"

"Laofu knows a lot of things but you didn't ask for a specific so laofu doesn't know what to tell you."

Chu Xun rolled his eyes. Senior Official Song, you're just keeping others in suspense, so this Crown Prince will simply ignore it.

He pondered alone for a short while. Imperial Father allowed Senior Official Song to come. He was already this old so the horse carriage speed couldn't be increased. By the time they reached Anxi Prefecture, the snow would have long melt completely. The disaster would have been nearly finished relieved. Hence, this mission from Imperial Father might not be a time-hurried problem. Instead, if they didn't need to rush then this clue probably was on the trip.

"In these few days, we will use the public road and look out for all the disaster reliefs sent for Anxi." Chu Xun quickly made a decision.

Earlier, he got lost in his thoughts and had not took pain to strike a pose as well as noticing the people beside him. When he returned to his sense, he suddenly noticed Mei Qian Deng was completely serious as she stared at him.

Mei Qian Deng's eyes most of the time were like the white clouds, so light until there was no weight and drifting unable to be captured. At the same time, they were very pure and calming, leaving the secular world. However at this moment, Mei Qian Deng's eye sight which was concentrated in looking at Chu Xun had turned into a drizzle, unable to be captured as well but really moisten the body yet 'unable to wet' the whole body.

Well, no matter what it was very subtle, subtle until Chu Xun couldn't stop himself from s.h.i.+vering. Soon after, he couldn't resist from bursting as he roared, "What are you looking at?! Never see such a pretty looking person before!" For the sake of covering up the awkwardness in his heart, Chu Xun stretched his hand to take a steamed bun, eating something to divert his attention.

In the end, his hand stopped mid-air. Looking at the nowhere-to-put-his-hand empty plate, the whole microcosm exploded. "WHERE'S——STEAMED——BUN?!"

Since the objective had been clarified, then they just had to be concerned with the trials and hards.h.i.+ps while travelling at double speed.

"Ah, Little Long." Senior Official Song had not intended to depart yet.

Chu Xun was surprised. His heart had a bad feeling. This old man had a belly full of bad ideas. Especially right now, Senior Official Song's sight landed on his body while sizing up. It was highly possible he was having an evil idea for Chu Xun.

"Look at what Little Deng's wearing and what you're wearing."

Mei Qian Deng was forever in whole black clothes while Chu Xun was forever in gorgeous clothes.

What's wrong?

"Since the two of you are laofu's servants, naturally you have to be of standardised style. Laofu presume you will not agree wearing worn-out clothes. So why not just borrow some of your clothes for Little Deng to wear. The two of you have nearly identical figure so there's no need to alter. Hey, why are you glaring at laofu? In any case, you brought so many clothes."

Inside Chu Xun's heart there were ten millions of gra.s.s mud horses running wildly.

Senior Official Song still rattled on, "Based on Little Deng's taste, he doesn't even care of some of those clothes of yours. You as the dignified Crown Prince, how can you be so stingy?" While he spoke, he extended his wrinkled old hands towards Chu Xun's 'giant ball'.

Chu Xun irritatingly withdrew. "You don't move! Let me bring instead." He retreated to the corner of the wall. Putting down the bundle, he stood with his back at Mei Qian Deng and Senior Official Song, creating a safe triangular zone with the bundle surrounded by the two walls and his crotch. He fiddled with the bundle for a moment before finally pulled out a clothes set and threw it to Mei Qian Deng.

Only for the whole inn to hear Senior Official Song's loud and clear voice rebuked, "Little Long, this clothes is the one you had worn yesterday!"

Humph, Mei Qian Deng it's your problem whether you're wearing it or not.

[1] Steamed dumpling (小笼包) has one same word long (笼)

[2] 小灯笼 Xiao Deng Long

[3] The final (highest level) imperial examination which is presided over by the emperor.

[4] t.i.tle for the one placed third place in the examination