A Figure on Jade Steps in the Wind and Snow 16

Chapter 16: The Common People

Xie Jin couldn’t help but hiss, “Causing trouble? With the Eldest Princess and the Second Imperial Princess here, who would dare to cause trouble?”

Shen Zhishu didn’t answer, but just gave her a deep look, her eyebrows raised in a half-smile.

Xie Jin immediately understood.

She rubbed the sword at her waist, shaking her head, “The struggles and competitions between these great figures are not something we can control. If not, let’s just go back to our manors, so we can stay away from the disputes and avoid getting involved.”

But Shen Zhishu crossed her arms and said, “If you want to go, you go.”

“That’s strange,” Xie Jin smiled. “Yesterday it was you who didn’t want to come, and today it’s you who doesn’t want to leave. What is it here that has you so attached that you don’t want to leave no matter what?”

Shen Zhishu: …

Shen Zhishu thought to herself, Isn’t it all your fault.

…She had agreed to come yesterday because Xie Jin had dangled the carrot of “asking the Eldest Princess about the progress of the assassin’s case,” but today she hadn’t even said half a sentence. Wouldn’t that be returning empty-handed?

That would be too much of a loss.

Shen Zhishu was too lazy to explain and just stood there with her sword, acting like a statue.

Xie Jin, seeing her silence, thought she had guessed correctly and became emboldened, teasing, “Could it be… you’re thinking of the Eldest Princess, so you don’t want to leave?”

Shen Zhishu: …

Shen Zhishu couldn’t bear it anymore and turned around to give Xie Jin several punches.

Xie Jin rubbed her bruised arm, her resentment deep, “Isn’t it just because I hit a nerve? Even if you’re angry out of embarrassment, you don’t have to hit me so hard. I’m your closest friend!”

Shen Zhishu glanced at her and gave her two more punches.

Xie Jin: …

Xie Jin was about to complain tearfully again when she suddenly heard another commotion at the front of the line—

An old woman in a bulky winter jacket was holding up her bowl and shouting, “There’s sand in this porridge!”

The old woman had high cheekbones, which seemed even higher as she shouted with her mouth open; her eyes were large, and now they were bulging like copper bells, so large they were a little scary.

Her lips were cracked like a dry field, and she continued to wail as she opened and closed her mouth, “This porridge is not clean! My baby has been vomiting and having diarrhea for a while after drinking it!”

Whispers gradually rose from the crowd. Shen Zhishu heard someone say, “How can there be sand in the porridge? The rice is probably not good either. Giving out porridge is just to fool us.”

Beside her stood another old woman in ragged clothes. She stuck her head into the porridge bucket and also shouted, “There really is sand! They must have embezzled the silver allocated by the imperial court, and then mixed some low-grade rice with sand and soil to pass off as good quality for us to drink, not caring about our lives at all!”

From the line came a chorus of “There really is sand,” “Can this porridge still be eaten,” “They’re even embezzling this money?”…

The court eunuch maintaining order in the crowd was momentarily flustered. A guard drew his sword and was about to shout, but was held back by the captain of the guards.

The scene turned into a chaotic mess.

“It’s starting?” Xie Jin despaired, held her head, and squatted down. “I really don’t want to get involved in this mess. Is it too late to leave now?”

Shen Zhishu glanced at her, pulled her up in a few moves, and dragged her towards the front of the line, “It’s too late. Besides, with the way you were stuffing firewood into the stove earlier, everyone around probably remembers you. So don’t go, let’s go to the front and see.”

Shen Zhishu put on her mask, pulled Xie Jin around the crowd from behind, and quietly walked towards an entrance of the shed.

The guard guarding the shed was about to stop them impartially when a trusted attendant of the Eldest Princess suddenly came over and nodded slightly at her.

So the attendant’s outstretched hand quickly retracted, and she easily let the two of them pass.

Shen Zhishu recognized that attendant. A few days ago, when they were having dinner at the Eldest Princess’s Manor, it was she who was serving them.

Although Xie Jin was a rough person, she was not forgetful and clearly remembered her as well. She said in surprise, “I thought we’d have to waste a lot of words, but they let us pass so easily?”

She then reasoned to herself, “That’s right, we’re all family anyway. After all, the Eldest Princess said that the Seventh Imperial Princess is my grand-niece.”

Shen Zhishu: …

You’re taking her polite words seriously?

The sound of the commotion in front grew louder, and more and more people were indignantly demanding an explanation. At first, it was just a few troublemakers shouting, but the crowd mostly had a herd mentality, and idle gossip spewed out one after another.

A few court eunuchs were shouting at the front, “Quiet,” “This porridge is made from the best rice,” and so on, but it was to no avail. Their shouts were immediately swallowed up by the whispers of the thousands of people.

People are greedy creatures and always like to push their luck. For example, at this moment, seeing that the court eunuchs couldn’t control the situation, the common people in the line became more and more restless, gradually moving from words to actions.

Some even thought they were punishing corrupt officials and acting on behalf of heaven, so they suddenly strode forward, as if they wanted to go up and overturn the porridge stand.

She rushed to the front of the line and suddenly reached out her hand. Seeing that her hand was about to touch the porridge bucket, a faint smile appeared on that person’s face—

The First Highness had said that the law does not punish the masses, and the Eldest Princess and the Second Highness, as members of the imperial clan, could not argue with the common people in public, otherwise they would be seen as narrow-minded and lacking the style of the imperial family. As long as she disrupted this porridge distribution, she could get hundreds of taels of silver and ensure her family a lifetime of wealth and prosperity…

But a strong hand suddenly shot out from the side, grabbing her arm and making her almost unable to move!

That person turned her head in disbelief and met a pair of extremely beautiful eyes. Those eyes were usually smiling and bright, but at this moment they were sharp and aggressive.

Shen Zhishu called over her subordinate, “Tie her up, and tie up the other troublemakers as well!”

That person was immediately flustered and shouted, “On what grounds are you tying me up,” but was dragged out of the line by the people around her and had her mouth gagged.

Whispers continued to come from the crowd.

Shen Zhishu ignored them, glanced at her, and turned around cleanly. She walked quickly to the Eldest Princess’s side, creating a gust of wind as she moved.

She squinted and scanned the crowd, then took off her mask and said in a deep voice, “The two Highnesses are magnanimous and do not argue with the troublemakers, but I cannot stand this kind of disruptive behavior.”

The common people in the line gasped, and a chorus of “It’s Little Lord Shen,” “General Shen is here” surged from the front to the back like a wave.

Shen Zhishu slammed the sword in her left hand on the stand with a bang and shouted, “Quiet!”

Having trained in the military camp for many years, she had already developed a golden voice. This shout carried for a li and was very intimidating. The common people looked at each other, their minds unable to process, and involuntarily fell silent.

Shen Zhishu slammed the stand again and continued to shout, “If there are any more troublemakers, the people who were just tied up will be a lesson to you!”

The common people had dared to cause trouble before, partly because of the herd mentality, and partly because they didn’t think they would be punished. Now, seeing that the fire was about to burn them, they couldn’t help but look at each other and shrink their heads into their collars, which couldn’t protect them from the wind.

Someone in the crowd boldly asked, “I also went up to look just now, and this porridge is indeed not clean. Is the General trying to cover up? Could it be… that the General also took a kickback?”

“You’re talking nonsense,” Shen Zhishu said with a smile. “So many people drank it for an hour before without any problems, why is there a problem now? This porridge…”

As Shen Zhishu spoke, she stuck her head into the porridge bucket to look—

The five porridge buckets were all filled with mud and sand, which stood out in the white rice water, like a crane among chickens.

Shen Zhishu: …

No wonder the crowd was so indignant. It wasn’t just because they were following the trend, but because this porridge was really bad.

The “what’s the problem” on the tip of Shen Zhishu’s tongue was forcefully held back—to call a deer a horse now would be to be blind. She turned her head and asked the Eldest Princess in a low voice, “Who did this? You were guarding here, didn’t you notice anything unusual?”

The incident happened suddenly, and in her haste, she had thrown all polite honorifics to the back of her mind. Her tone was full of familiarity.

So familiar that the Eldest Princess was stunned for a moment before quickly replying, “I only noticed a few breaths ago. I was about to have someone pour it out and cook it again, but the argument had already started.”

“So… there’s a spy among the people who cooked the porridge?”

“Most likely.”