Familiar hall. Familiar small desk.

Wei Yu stood in front of the small desk, staring at the thick stack of memorials on top, then glanced at another stack piled on the floor because the desk couldn't hold them all. He looked back and forth several times before finally failing to hold it in.

He turned and asked Su Gaosheng with a kindly smile, “Who did this?”

In the room, besides two eunuchs on duty, only Wei Yu and Su Gaosheng were present.

Su Gaosheng was Li Cheng’s apprentice. Normally, when Li Cheng wasn’t around, Su Gaosheng would take charge.

One of the young eunuchs gave a sheepish laugh, his face full of flattery. “What are you saying, Your Highness? Who else could it be? How could a lowly servant like me make such decisions…”

Wei Yu’s smile vanished as he looked at him expressionlessly.

Oh, so it’s that useless old man who started slacking off the moment he got a taste of the good life?

Wei Yu closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and forcibly held back the endless barrage of profanities in his head. He asked, one word at a time, “My father—the Emperor—where is he?”

“Uh, well…”

Su Gaosheng hesitated.

Wei Yu immediately shot him a cold glance. “Heh. Not going to say? I can guess anyway! Is my father hiding in a side hall sneaking snacks? Or is he snoring away in his bedchamber? Or maybe chatting it up in some concubine’s palace? Huh? Speak!”

With every location he named, Su Gaosheng’s shoulders drooped a little lower. The guilt on his face was practically spilling over.

At last, under Wei Yu’s glaring pressure, one of the young eunuchs finally muttered in a low voice:

“Um, Your Highness… none of those. His Majesty… he left the palace.”

Wei Yu: …?

Left the palace?!!

Wei Yu clutched his chest and nearly fell backward.

Su Gaosheng’s eyes widened in alarm and he rushed to support him. “Your Highness! You must stay strong! Look behind you—so many memorials! That’s His Majesty’s deep trust in you! You absolutely cannot faint!”

Wei Yu: …

Now he really wanted to faint.

—

Emperor Wei hadn’t left the palace for leisure in many years.

Disguised visits to the common folk? That was something he did only when he first ascended the throne.

A mature and steady emperor doesn’t run off outside the palace for no reason.

After all, no one else is handling state affairs for him.

But right now, free of burdens and dressed in elegant indigo robes, the Emperor was strolling casually through the streets of the capital, smiling warmly at everything he saw.

As he walked, he suddenly said to Li Cheng behind him, “It’s really been a long time since I saw the capital like this. Look how much it’s changed.”

Li Cheng glanced at a few bespectacled scholars not far away and chuckled. “Master is right. And if we’re talking about changes, we owe a lot of it to the Ninth Young Master.”

At the mention of Wei Yu, the Emperor chuckled.

It was a rather gloating kind of laugh—if Wei Yu heard it, he’d fly into a rage on the spot!

Laugh laugh laugh—what the hell are you laughing at?!

You dump all your work on someone else, let them see every secret document without a second thought—what if some villain took advantage of that?!

Is that how an emperor should act?!

Thinking of his unfilial son currently buried in paperwork, the Emperor let out a relaxed sigh and clasped his hands behind his back. “That boy is probably cursing me in his heart right now. Hmph. Let him.”

Li Cheng, recalling the recent back-and-forth of dodging responsibilities and pretending to be sick between the Emperor and the Ninth Prince, couldn’t help but lower his head and laugh quietly.

“Master and the Ninth Young Master share a deep father-son bond. He’s honest and pure at heart—he truly admires and respects you.”

Li Cheng glanced at the Emperor’s back, but didn’t say what he was really thinking:

[His Majesty must truly trust the Ninth Prince—he wouldn’t have entrusted all the memorials to him otherwise. Not even the Eldest or Second Prince ever received such an honor…]

The Emperor said nothing.

He walked forward with hands behind his back, followed by Li Cheng and two visible guards.

Two richly dressed young men suddenly walked past them from the opposite direction.

One of them looked vaguely familiar. When the Emperor saw his face, he had a nagging feeling he’d seen someone like that before.

He asked Li Cheng, “Have you seen that boy in the purple robe before?”

Li Cheng looked closely and replied uncertainly, “I don’t think I’ve seen him, but his features do resemble the Minister of Justice.”

Hearing that, the Emperor immediately realized where the familiarity came from.

He looked like the Minister of Justice.

That boy in purple really did resemble that old scoundrel quite a bit!

Sun Zhao had just returned from outside the city.

Lately, thanks to the books given by the Wise King, Sun Zhao and his group of young nobles had been diligently studying.

Their seriousness was so unbelievable that even their own parents were in shock—and the young nobles themselves could barely believe it either.

That they, of all people, would one day willingly sit down and read?!

And actually want to?!

Sun Zhao was someone who listened to advice. Following Wei Yu’s suggestion, he had earnestly read through all the biology books. As he came to understand their contents, he developed a keen interest in the ecological farming model described in them.

After all, they were planning to establish breeding farms across all of Great Wei—how could some small workshop suffice? Only the ecological model was truly suitable!

He hadn’t expected that, after mentioning this to the Wise King, the prince would actually let them visit a countryside manor to observe in person!

And after the visit, all Sun Zhao could say was: the Wise King was truly worthy of his title—compassionate, righteous, kind to these once-unruly nobles, and so benevolent that even tenant farmers were full of praise and gratitude.

The young man walking beside Sun Zhao was Chang Ning—they’d run into each other by chance on the roadside.

Lately, the young nobles of the capital had all gone into hiding. Asking around, Chang Ning found out they were all busy reading and striving to improve themselves. As someone who was still a good-for-nothing, he felt completely excluded.

So when he finally spotted Sun Zhao outside, he seized the chance to pester him the whole way.

“Sun Zhao, listen to me—you mustn’t trust that guy. He’s a conman, okay? You don’t even know how much silver he scammed off me…”

“How much?”

Sun Zhao’s sudden question made Chang Ning freeze.

He choked for a second before muttering, “Forty taels.”

Sun Zhao rolled his eyes. “Only forty? I thought it was four hundred!”

He turned to walk off. Chang Ning quickly chased after him.

“What do you mean ‘only’?! Forty taels is two months’ allowance for me, okay! The Wise King tricked me into paying without even saying who he was—he’s a total scammer!”

The Emperor, just in time to hear someone calling his son a scammer: …?

The Emperor turned his head, watching the two walk past, then gave Li Cheng a look. “Go. Bring them here.”

Li Cheng nodded with a stern expression.

Where did these impudent young fools come from, daring to speak like that about Great Wei’s Ninth Prince?!