Have you heard the news?

"That Prince's madness was cured without medicine, or so I heard, all because of that Princess Changchun of the Prince Teng's household."

"Oh? I only heard about the Prince's madness. What does that have to do with the Princess?"

"Well, it's because—"

Gossip drifted around the flatbread stall at the dock, seeming to be the hottest topic of the day. Xia Lin sat there eating a bowl of noodle-skin soup. He didn't leave immediately, choosing instead to wait a day. He just hadn't expected this news to spread even faster than he had imagined.

He was extremely satisfied with this. A certain enfeoffed prince seemed to share a tacit, man-to-man understanding with him, not only letting the news spread wider and faster, but even making the versions more complete. After all, Xia Lin’s original version hadn't included any nonsense about overnight halos of Buddha light or divinely bestowed jade Buddhas.

According to the legends, last night at the Prince's estate there was indeed a sudden flash of golden light and a sky full of Buddha radiance, accompanied by a half-city-wide fragrance of sandalwood, exactly like what one would find in a temple. As for the mechanism behind it, the probability was that gunpowder had been piled up in the courtyard, covered with a large amount of crushed sandalwood. Piles of gunpowder were ignited sequentially to create the light first, and then the embers ignited the wood scraps to produce the Buddha-like fragrance.

With such audio-visual effects, coupled with the lingering fragrance, if one called it Buddha's scent, then it was Buddha's scent.

The legend of the falling jade Buddha was even more interesting. People at the docks were passing it around, saying that simultaneously with the Buddha light yesterday, a two-zhang-tall jade statue of Guanyin had appeared. The entire statue was white as snow, like jade, and carved with such precision that it looked like the work of heaven.

As for whether Xia Lin believed this, certainly not. But he couldn't stop other people from believing it—commoners believed it, for instance. As for whether His Majesty believed it, it didn't matter. It truly did not matter.

Last night, while lying in the inn, Xia Lin had been pondering: how come the internal factions of the royal family had suddenly split? Who was the Prince of Teng? Wasn't he the Emperor's own younger brother? What was the difference between a younger brother's daughter and one's own daughter? There was no difference. She was family, of the same clan and source. Yet suddenly, an intention for a marriage alliance was shown, and the Commandery Princess was specially elevated to a full Princess. This was standard thankless work.

The only possible explanation was that the aristocratic clans were beginning to launch a counterattack against imperial power. In their previous fierce struggles, the little princess had become a sacrificial lamb in the conflict.

How did conferring the title of princess become the result of their struggle? It was actually quite simple. Everyone knew what kind of status princesses sent away for marriage alliances typically had. Were there princesses of the imperial lineage? Certainly. But the vast majority were distant relatives picked from obscure branches or simply palace maids chosen to finish the job.

If worst came to worst, choosing a low-status princess to marry off was considered fulfilling the quota. True daughters of the imperial clan were extremely rare, and at least for now, the current Emperor did not seem that foolish. Handing over his own brother's daughter—wasn't that asking for trouble? On a small scale, it fractured the unity of royal power; on a large scale, such a degree of provocation could directly drive the vassal kings into rebellion.

Since the risk was so high and he still went through with it, there was only one possibility: the gentry-clandestine group had pressed him too hard. They might have even colluded with the northern tribes, specifically demanding this particular prince's daughter.

Great Wei was a defeated state, and a defeated state had little dignity to speak of. Without a legitimate reason, there was no way to refuse such a demand. Giving or not giving her away were both problems. If she was given, the gentry-clandestine faction could sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight; if she wasn't, the external pressure would force the Emperor to cede power. Political struggles were incomparably ugly; no one cared about the life or death of a little princess. What they wanted was the maximization of their respective interests.

The Prince must have thought of this, which was why he had been sighing as the little princess mentioned previously. At that time, he probably truly had no other choice.

But now, someone had set up a game for him, and his son had paid a very heavy price to place them on the moral high ground. Therefore, the Prince simply went with the flow. By further amplifying the matter, he let the entire world know that his daughter had been chosen by Guanyin.

What? You say it's fake? His Majesty believed in Buddhism, and back in the day, the Grand Ancestor of Great Wei had claimed to be a reincarnation of a Buddhist Arhat. To deny this was to deny the founding Martial Emperor, and dragging someone out for execution over it posed zero problem.

The civil and military officials throughout the court had no choice but to swallow their pride and accept it. It was an absolute masterstroke—choosing "or" between life and death.

Perhaps there really was a tacit understanding among these three men. Without any communication, they formed a coordinated hierarchy: Xia Lin built the foundation, the Prince consolidated the system, and all that remained was His Majesty's "imperial joy."

Would His Majesty be "filled with imperial joy"? Yes, he certainly would. There was nothing in this world that could please him more, and this event might even be proclaimed by the Emperor to the entire world as an exemplary model to be praised and glorified.

Seeing that his mission was complete, Xia Lin smiled, then boarded the passenger boat bound for Jiujiang Commandery. After all, the little princess would still be staying at his guesthouse.

He always felt that he was running back and forth. Sometimes he asked himself what on earth he was even striving for. The little princess wasn't entirely his type; he preferred mature, fair-skinned older sisters who exuded charm. The little princess was too thin and too young, not matching his aesthetic standards at all.

Yet looking back at his own actions, bit by bit, they all gravitated toward the little princess. This damn thing... this damn thing must be destiny, entirely out of one's control.

Of course, this was also related to the little princess's romantic disposition. But what could be done? He had created the setting himself and could no longer modify it.

Never mind all that. Life was already tortuous enough; there was no need to worry over trivial matters. At the very least, up to this point, Xia Lin had not forgotten his original intention—climbing upward was the key.

As for the little princess, he could just consider it a result of not having the heart to watch her be tortured to death by others. Aside from that, there didn't seem to be anything else.

Arriving in Jiujiang Commandery once again, Xia Lin didn't have to wait many days before he saw the carriages and horses from the Prince's estate arrive. They hadn't just sent the little princess; they had sent the second brother along as well. The guesthouse was already built and ready, and they must have used some method to compensate the old women and matrons renting the rooms. In any case, the entire guesthouse was completely cleared out overnight.

Then the Prince's steward directly rented the entire place for three whole years. Xia Lin naturally didn't show his face for this; everything was handled by the chief manager of the commercial shops here.

The Prince certainly hadn't come; by now, he should be heading toward the capital to celebrate His Majesty's birthday. That birthday banquet would undoubtedly be spectacular, but Xia Lin wasn't at a high enough level to access it; otherwise, he surely would have witnessed a heaven-shaking drama.

None of that mattered anymore. The plan had already succeeded the moment the Prince delivered the little princess here. The rest was simply a father fighting against those evil interest groups for the sake of his child.

This was not praising imperial power; it was merely stating that in this matter, the Prince's role was that of a father protecting his cub, and any animal protecting its young possessed formidable aggressiveness. Therefore, his trip to the capital, ostensibly to celebrate a birthday, was actually meant to devour people.

Once everything here was settled—with maidservants, lackeys, and nannies all fully in place—the old steward finally departed. Then, Xia Lin saw the little princess standing eagerly at the doorway of the opposite small building, looking outside, occasionally raising her head to gaze around or lowering her head to fiddle with her fingers.

At this very moment, she made the word "yearning" tangible. Although she hadn't yet reached the age of radiant, captivating allure, sometimes an unadorned, simple glance surpassed countless worldly beauties.

"Over here. Where are you looking?"

Xia Lin called out from over twenty meters away. The little princess immediately traced the voice and looked over. Seeing that it was Xia Lin, she was so excited she almost jumped up. "Come quickly, come quickly, come quickly!"

Helpless, Xia Lin walked down from the second floor of the shop and came outside the guesthouse. Seeing the cheering and leaping little princess, he smiled and said, "You seem quite happy."

"Of course! Father said I have to stay here for at least three years. Even though they won't let me out normally, no one can control me here!" The little princess was like an untethered wild horse at this moment. "Let's go, take me back to Xinping Township. I'll stay at your place again."

Before Xia Daosheng could speak, a gloomy gaze swept over. Turning his head, he saw the second brother eating and drinking. When fat, the second brother looked like a mountain of flesh and a wild bull; now that he had slimmed down, his gaze was like that of a falcon and a jackal—truly an apex predator. Xia Lin shuddered upon seeing this and stammered, "Second brother, don't misunderstand..."