Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Because Linlang and the Sixth Prince both love food, Linlang is actually the happiest when she goes out with the Sixth Prince. She has no interest in visiting royal gardens or other gardens; she also doesn't like hunting. Her skill level is such that she can hit the target 90% of the time, if not 100%, but she can't show it, otherwise it would be hard to explain how she is so good. She can only pretend that she can't hunt and say, "What's the point?"
Shopping for jewelry might interest her in other impoverished worlds, but in this world where she has more money than she can count, it's just so-so.

So obviously, eating delicious food is still the best option.

The food in this world is already close to that of later generations, so it's delicious and worth enjoying.

After dinner, Master Zhou approached Linlang and asked her for her opinion on the Second Prince.

“The eldest prince is clearly dying. What do you think of the second prince? Should we try to get to know him better?” said Master Zhou.

Although the Zhou family and the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion are indeed powerful, they are not so powerful that they can control everything. Therefore, it is clear that the succession is the easiest way to promote someone to the throne. If the second prince or someone else is chosen instead, it will definitely be more difficult.

Linlang said, "I'm still young. Let's observe for a while longer. What's the rush?"

If we observe for a while longer, the Second Prince's affair will soon be exposed. We don't need to think about the Second Prince anymore, and we can save ourselves from wasting more time and energy on him.

Master Zhou thought it made sense; his daughter was only thirteen, so it was fine to wait until she was fourteen or fifteen to arrange an engagement.

The situation in the capital is complicated right now, with everyone fighting fiercely. It's best to observe for a while. Anyway, he holds a high position and has great power, so there's no need to rush to choose sides. The key is to be stable. We can't choose the wrong side, lest we lose our wealth and honor in the future and bring trouble instead.

Soon after, the second prince got into trouble.

It's a big deal.

Last year, some areas of the dynasty experienced a prolonged drought. The people had nothing to eat, so they started eating tree bark and grass roots. Some even resorted to cannibalism due to extreme hunger.

When the imperial court learned of this, it allocated one million taels of silver from the national treasury for disaster relief and sent the second prince to handle the task.

To be honest, anyone with a brain knows that doing this job well will not only earn you a good reputation among the people, but also make you look good in front of the emperor.

Moreover, this matter is not difficult to handle. As long as we take money to buy grain in places with grain and transport it there, we can resolve the crisis. It is much easier than solving a flood, since at least it is not as frightening as a major flood.

In places with grain, even if the price of grain has risen a bit, you can still buy one shi of grain for one tael of silver. Normally, one tael of silver can buy two shi of grain. Now that there is a drought, if you go to a place with grain, even if it is a bit more expensive, you can still buy one shi of grain for one tael of silver.

One million taels of silver could buy so much grain! Even after deducting everyone's travel expenses, it would be more than enough to solve this crisis.

As it turns out, this easy job was secured for the Second Prince by his mother, while other ambitious princes couldn't get it. How did he manage to do it?

He took 10,000 taels of silver to buy some grain, distributed some porridge, and made do with it. He embezzled all the rest of the silver.

During this period, he also used the name of the imperial envoy to pressure the grain merchants to sell him grain at a low price, saying that he wanted to buy a large amount of grain for disaster relief. As a result, he successfully bought grain from the grain merchants at the usual price for one million taels of silver, and then resold it at double the price. With one million taels of silver for disaster relief, he turned it into two million taels of silver.

Then he used those two million taels to fight for the throne and to indulge in a life of extravagance and debauchery. How did this get exposed? It was because the common people had no food, were starving and couldn't survive, so they rebelled, and the second prince mobilized troops to suppress them.

It was naturally easy for those soldiers to deal with the starving people, so he actually succeeded. When he returned to the capital, he even took credit for it to the old emperor, saying that he had not only successfully provided disaster relief but also quelled the rebellion of the unruly people. The old emperor thought he was quite capable and praised him.

Unfortunately, too many people died, and public resentment was immense. Soon, people began to appeal to the emperor, and finally, they encountered an honest official in the court. This official was upright and did not take sides, so he naturally brought the matter to the emperor's attention.

When the emperor heard that the people had not received any disaster relief food and were starving, which was why they had rebelled, he was furious and ordered the Censorate to investigate the matter.

If the emperor is willing to investigate, there's no reason why he can't find out. Soon, the second prince's deeds were exposed.

Seeing that the Second Prince had taken one million taels of silver and not only did not use it for disaster relief, but also became a profiteer, making a fortune from the disaster by buying and selling, earning two million taels, the Emperor was furious. Although he did not kill his son, he immediately stripped the Second Prince of his title and demoted him to a commoner.

It was only after the Second Prince's mother pleaded on his behalf that the Emperor reluctantly spared him from being demoted to a commoner, but he did strip him of his princely title, giving him only an ordinary title for a member of the imperial clan. He then imprisoned him in the Huai'en Palace, the royal prison. After that, the Emperor also stripped the Second Prince's mother of her title of Imperial Concubine and banished her to the Cold Palace, ordering the mother and son to diligently copy Buddhist scriptures and pray for the victims of the disaster who had died unjustly.

Clearly, after this ordeal, it's impossible for the second prince to become emperor.

Moreover, the ministers probably won't side with this brain-dead prince.

After all, what kind of good person would be thinking about making money at such a crucial moment instead of doing their job well?

Who would support someone who isn't mentally sound?

When Master Zhou saw that the Second Prince was in trouble, he thought to himself that it was fortunate that he had listened to his daughter's advice to observe for a while before making any decisions. Otherwise, if he had gotten too close to the Second Prince, he might have caused trouble.

With the Second Prince gone, the Third Prince naturally came into Master Zhou's sights.

Because both the eldest and second princes were incompetent, even though Master Zhou conducted a routine investigation, he couldn't uncover anything because their actions were rather secretive.

Now that he was facing the Third Prince, Master Zhou decided to investigate thoroughly to avoid being deceived again.

It turned out that the Third Prince was alright, but... he had far too many enemies. Countless people were attacking him, and the source of some of them could not be traced.

Master Zhou initially thought the Third Prince was someone he could support, since he hadn't discovered that the man had other women and children, no beloved, or that he had done something as certain as the Second Prince. However, there were too many people targeting him, and no matter what he did, someone would try to trip him up. Sooner or later, he would fall. Supporting the Third Prince was too dangerous.

Although Master Zhou had not completely given up on the Third Prince, he still turned his attention to the Fourth Prince, wanting to see if the Fourth Prince was worth supporting.

After investigating, Master Zhou discovered that the Fourth Prince also had other women, though they had no children yet. Furthermore, although the Fourth Prince had favored concubines, he wasn't as love-struck as the First Prince. Master Zhou then thought that perhaps such a person was someone worth supporting. (End of Chapter)