Chapter 283
After Mao Wu expressed his thanks and left, the middle-aged man named Chou Yi said, "Leader, the situation is obvious now. Those newly emerged technologies must be the contents of the book that the Fourth Prince and the Ninth Prince gave to the Crown Prince. Since we cannot touch the Crown Prince, we can still figure out a way to deal with the Fourth Prince and the Ninth Prince."
The fourth person, who had been silent all along—a plainly dressed, ordinary-looking middle-aged woman—spoke up, "Leader, you must make a decision soon. Yesterday, your subordinate saw people from Nanyue by the Fourth Prince's side..."
Hearing that Nanyue people had already appeared beside the Fourth Prince, the leader couldn't help but feel a surge of urgency and ordered, "Contact the people from those aristocratic families. Tell them we have accepted their commissions."
The middle-aged woman said, "Leader, do you mean..."
The leader gave her an appreciative look and nodded, "Exactly, it is just as you think."
After saying that, he waved his hand, "Alright, all of you, head upstairs."
"Yes, Father."
"Yes, Father."
"Yes, Grandfather."
In an instant, the superior-subordinate dynamic transformed into that of an utterly ordinary four-person household spanning three generations, just like millions of others in the capital city of Shangjing.
In the backyard of an ordinary grocery store somewhere in the East Market, inside a small room against the wall, five people were currently sitting around a wooden table lit by an oil lamp with a flame the size of a bean.
Spread impressively across the table was a map detailing the route from the new military camp to the imperial estate, the very path Yue Fuguang had traveled just today.
And sitting at the head of the table, a heavily bearded man who looked quite aged, was none other than the Dongyi Prince, Matsuyama, whose whereabouts Yue Fuguang had asked the system to track down.
Sitting to Matsuyama's left was his sister, the Dongyi Royal Princess Yōko, who in the future would have a son with Cai Bing.
She asked, "Brother, can we be certain that this thing called a potato is truly planted in the Great Yan Emperor's private fields?"
The previous intelligence they received stated that the potatoes were planted in the Xuanwei Manor. They had sent people to sneak in and probe a few times, but none succeeded.
Just as they were about to give up, their old friend from Dongyi, their mother's lover, sent someone with news, claiming they could find a person to buy reliable information about the potatoes.
Unexpectedly, they spent a mere few hundred taels of silver to obtain the information on the potato planting.
Although it was different from the Xuanwei Manor they initially believed, after making various inquiries, the news that the potatoes were in the imperial estate was ninety percent true.
"Yōko, that person's information is still trustworthy; otherwise, why would we siblings risk returning to this perilous capital city of Shangjing?"
What he didn't say was that the esteemed lord seemed to have sensed danger and urgently needed the support of their Dongyi royal family, which was why he went through so much trouble to deliver such vital information into their hands.
Therefore, the information he provided wouldn't be fake.
That person also knew that their Dongyi had little and barren land, making high-yield potatoes far more attractive to them than to the other nations.
As long as he, Matsuyama, successfully obtained the potatoes, he would become the descendant most favored by the Sun God in the entire Dongyi royal family.
The succession to the Dongyi throne would undoubtedly be his.
As for that lord's biological son, Oshima, a non-pureblood Dongyi person, he had plenty of ways to kill him!
He then turned to a man sitting opposite him, who looked to be in his early twenties and was dressed as an ordinary shop assistant, and said, "Goro, tell us about the situation."
"Yes, Lord Matsuyama. Following your orders, this humble one has investigated thoroughly. There are indeed stationed troops inside the imperial estate, not just the guards we initially thought."
Hearing the confirmation of stationed troops, Matsuyama's expression instantly turned very ugly. "Goro, can you confirm how many troops are stationed there? Who is the commanding general? How is their combat strength?"
The young man named Goro shook his head. "Please forgive me, Your Excellency. This humble one is incompetent. The imperial estate is heavily guarded, and unauthorized personnel are strictly forbidden from approaching within two miles.
I led men to keep watch for half a month, but we only saw a few carriages belonging to nobles going in and out.
We tried to approach multiple times without success and even alerted the guards inside.
So... so, their defenses are even tighter now!"
As Goro spoke, he couldn't help but lower his head. Suddenly, as if remembering something, he looked up and said, "Oh, right! Today, that Junior Preceptor of Great Yan and a group of nobles passed by the imperial estate and were not stopped."
As for the localized rain that fell over the imperial estate, although Goro found it faintly strange, he quickly dismissed it and did not mention the matter to Matsuyama.
Sitting next to Goro was a petite woman of a similar age. She added, "Your Excellency, while we were keeping watch, we also unexpectedly saw two Great Yan people stealthily tailing the convoy."
Matsuyama became interested, immediately sitting up straight. "Oh, Kohana, do you know who they are? Were you discovered by those two?"
The woman named Kohana shook her head. "Your Excellency, we were well hidden, so they didn't spot us. Because we had a mission and were afraid of being discovered by them, we didn't follow them to investigate their background.
However, those two had ordinary features, and we couldn't tell their origins just from their clothing."
"Brother, are you thinking of finding those people to cooperate with?"
Those tailing the highly esteemed Junior Preceptor were likely not officials of Great Yan. As long as enough benefits were offered, those people could indeed be used by them. Perhaps both sides even shared the same goal.
Matsuyama nodded with an air of self-importance and said, "Exactly. This prince has exactly that intention. Goro, find a way to locate them."
"Yes, Your Excellency!"
Suddenly, the smile on Matsuyama's face faded, and he sighed slightly. "That lord is terrified of their Emperor catching something to use against him, so his help to us is limited. Even for the information, we had to step forward and make the trade ourselves.
Yōko, we siblings are strangers in a strange land here. If we can find a local faction to help us, it would be the best choice."
"Is that why you spent a fortune to have Takeo contact the Heavenly Star Pavilion, the Nether Blue Lotus, and the Wind and Rain Pavilion?"
Matsuyama nodded. "Unfortunately, I don't know why, but the two major organizations, Nether Blue Lotus and Heavenly Star Pavilion, have been extremely cautious lately. They have consistently refused contact, and Takeo is still waiting for news.
And as for the Wind and Rain Pavilion, we can't even find anyone from there!"
Matsuyama didn't know why the assassins from Nether Blue Lotus and Heavenly Star Pavilion were hiding like turtles. It was because he hadn't connected the lightning strike incident in the capital of Shangjing with the other assassin organization he wanted to hire, the Wind and Rain Pavilion.
Nor did he know that their Young Pavilion Master and all his subordinates had been captured. From this, it was clear that what he said was true—they were indeed strangers in a strange land!
Speaking of the Wind and Rain Pavilion, System 07 indicated it had something to say.
[Host, Luo Feng and Luo Yu are both dead!]
Early in the morning, Yue Fuguang, who was attending class at the Hongwen Academy, was enjoying a perfectly good nap. Because she was dozing off, the teacher had lowered his voice by a couple of notches, making it the perfect background noise for sleeping.
Unfortunately, her sweet dreams were rudely awakened by the system's death announcement.
"System, aren't you getting a little too skilled at this job of announcing deaths?"
Since they were already dead, couldn't it have waited until she woke up to tell her?
"If you keep this up, you're going to turn into a jinxed system!" Let's see who would dare bind with it in the future.
The system cheerfully replied without a care, [Host, you need to believe in science!]
Yue Fuguang was speechless for a moment. "The two most superstitious entities in all of Great Yan are us, and you're telling me to believe in science!"
Was it trying to be funny or what!
The system appeared to be an ultra-high-tech product from a higher dimension, but Yue Fuguang simply felt that the system itself was the most unscientific existence of all!