Chapter 112: His Departure
Xing and Shengli met each other daily in the next few days and every thing seemed to have gone back to it’s usual rhythm in their Manor. The Emperor taking in consorts was the latest sensational news in the city. The Noble Ladies had to leave hurriedly from their maternal home within a week as ordered by the Emperor.
There was a celebration and it was a beautiful scenery to see all those carriages decorated with red, parading through the streets with their dowry and all of the gifts.
If it was a month ago, Xing would have mocked them for being stupid for being happy to be one of the many women willing to be trapped in a cage to compete for the attention of one single man, fighting with other women. But now her only thoughts were for her to not end up in there.
Rijun who tactfully left her alone for a week to let her compose herself after the ordeal during the tournament, joined her for tea that evening and Shengli was with her too.
Xing made tea for them and served them. Shengli was beside her playing with her fingers and drinking tea.
"The problem with water scarcity in the East is getting out of bounds", Rijun said. He was willing to let go of the topic if Xing was not willing but Xing seemed interested.
In fact she had noticed from the accounts of her properties that the produce this year has reduced by thirty percentage than the previous year’s yield. And most of her properties were along the river in the most fertile part of the East. If that is the case for her, then for others, their yield would have reduced much more.
Shengli talked about the problem between two Lords in the east regarding the irrigation canal. They had this feud for years and now it had gone to a next level of turning the people under their feif against each other. He said this could very well lead to civil war in the east if left unresolved and other Lords taking sides creating gangs. So he might have to make a trip there if it gets more serious.
The officials appointed in the East are wet behind the ears and they cannot solve much. Xing’s people has no authority over those areas and cannot interfere. The main reason Shengli decided to act was because he had doubts that it may be Shihong’s plan to start a chaos.
Xing felt a tug in her heart when she heard about Shengli’s possible departure but then consoled herself thinking he need not leave if the problem gets solved by itself.
"Brother, to solve the possible food crisis, why not have some trade agreements with the Earth Kingdom?", she asked.
Even though the three kingdoms were once under the same Emperor, after the Tianshi Emperor split the kingdoms, they were their own Empires and didn’t bother with each other. They had more animosity among themselves than friendship in the past two centuries.