Chen Yun arrived at the Lord of Southern Qin's study and saw him smiling, looking at him with a very satisfied gaze. He guessed that the matter had been accomplished.

"Father." Chen Yun said with a smile.

The Lord of Southern Qin nodded, picked up a letter beside him and handed it to Chen Yun, "You're here, take a look, a letter from Luoyang. Just as you said, that person has agreed. With his assistance, we have great hopes for our cause."

Chen Yun smiled and responded respectfully, taking the letter and carefully reading it. These days, the Lord of Southern Qin was growing increasingly fond of this son-in-law. This man's talent and wisdom were extraordinary.

Most importantly, he had ambition and courage. In this regard, he was even more outstanding than the himself. The Lord of Southern Qin knew his own personality - he tended to have too many worries and lacked the decisiveness of this young man.

In recent days, seeing Chen Yun command respect from his subordinates, the Lord of Southern Qin had also given him some authority. He only had one daughter, Qin Wuxia. In the future after he passed, his daughter would still need Chen Yun to take care of her.

Perhaps when their great undertaking succeeded, this entire realm would belong to the Qin family. And in the future, besides himself, the only one who could sit on that position would be his daughter's child.

The Lord of Southern Qin concealed the glint in his eyes and praised again, "It's all thanks to you spreading rumors everywhere and sending people to incite the disaster victims. Now we just need to wait for the situation to become more severe, then we can take advantage of the momentum to take action."

Chen Yun smiled and sighed, "It's just that Emperor Sima Jiao is brutal and tyrannical. I'm afraid those rioting disaster victims will suffer. At that time, we'll need to send people to assist them early on. Moreover, many of our arranged people in Luoyang have been killed by the emperor, it's truly a pity. To wantonly kill people like this over some rumors, if we don't overthrow this tyrant, there will definitely be more innocent commoners who will suffer."

The Lord of Southern Qin was unconcerned, "What does it matter, it's just a few people who died. We'll just send other people to infiltrate again." Although he said this, in his heart he was very satisfied with Chen Yun's character. With this kind of character, in the future it was unlikely he would forget favors or betray.

Chen Yun left the Lord of Southern Qin's place and returned to his own courtyard. He received another letter. It also contained news from Luoyang, but was rather miscellaneous.

Chen Yun's gaze finally stopped at the end of the letter, which wrote that Consort Liao was greatly favored by Emperor Sima Jiao, and recently they were preparing to travel together to the Jiuhua Palace to escape the summer heat.

In the summer, the weather in Luoyang was scorching hot. This summer was especially strange, seeming a few degrees hotter than previous years. Liao Tingyan was most afraid of the heat. Ever since last time when she got sick from using too much ice, after recovering she no longer dared to use ice as she pleased, but it was really too hot.

At night when sleeping, Liao Tingyan would drowsily snuggle up to Sima Jiao, wanting to hug him to sleep, because Sima Jiao's body temperature was just right. But after hugging for a while, she would feel hot and push Sima Jiao away, rolling to the inner side of the bed. Tossing and turning like this all night, Sima Jiao was simply driven crazy by her, unable to sleep well and his temper flaring.

For everyone's sake, Sima Jiao quickly decided to bring the consort to the Jiuhua Palace to escape the heat. In previous summers, Sima Jiao would also go stay at the Jiuhua Palace for a period of time, but he had never brought along a beauty from his harem.

This year was the first time, making it even clearer to everyone inside and outside the palace how much the legendary Consort Liao was favored.

Knowing that Sima Jiao was bringing Consort Liao to the Jiuhua Palace to escape the heat, the other beauties in the palace all had very complex feelings. In previous years, they wished Sima Jiao would hurry and go to avoid the summer heat, leaving them in the Luoyang palace to at least spend a few peaceful days without having to worry every day that their heads would fall or their skin would be peeled off.

But this year, Sima Jiao specially brought Consort Liao along, as if once again making it clear to them that what so many of them couldn't accomplish had been achieved by a latecomer, so how could they feel at ease? Most uncomfortable was that faced with this situation, they were completely helpless.

Regardless of what others thought, Liao Tingyan was the happiest one. The summer resort palace... In her original era, she had heard it mentioned in TV dramas. They were generally built in the mountains, with a secluded environment, very cool.

After staying in Luoyang for so long, she was also getting a bit tired of it. It was just right to go to the palace to relax and see how the richest and most powerful people in ancient times spent their summer days.

The carriage traveled for several days before finally arriving at Jiuhua Palace. This place was indeed a treasure land with good feng shui. As soon as she got off the carriage, Liao Tingyan felt a fresh mountain breeze blowing on her face, carrying an incomparably clean and refreshing air. The surrounding grass and trees were lush, the green mountains continuous, causing the temperature to plummet. Liao Tingyan immediately felt a wave of drowsiness surge up and couldn't help narrowing her eyes.

On this trip, besides the emperor and consort, there were also many palace servants and guards. They had all heard the rumors about Consort Liao, that she had the appearance of a celestial maiden, captivating Sima Jiao's heart and soul.

But very few people had actually seen Liao Tingyan. Everyone was curious about her. Now on this trip to Jiuhua Palace, the crowd finally had a chance to personally lay eyes on that legendary peerless beauty.

When Liao Tingyan was being helped off the carriage, intoxicated by the cool mountain breeze of Jiuhua Palace, her face had no covering at all. Her icy skin and jade-like face, clear and spirited eyes, her plain colored gauze clothes fluttering in the wind, she truly seemed like a fairy from the clouds, stunning to behold.

Quite a few people were dumbstruck. Only after Liao Tingyan entered Jiuhua Palace did many people come back to their senses, inwardly thinking, if I was the emperor, I would also like this kind of celestial beauty.

If Liao Tingyan knew what these people were thinking, she would just roll her eyes a few times. Before, she also thought Sima Jiao fit the archetype of a lecherous and muddleheaded ruler. But now she understood, he was indeed muddleheaded, but lecherous was debatable. After all, this man's aesthetic sense was worrisome and his sexual prowess was questionable.

On the first day of staying at the summer resort palace, Sima Jiao finally wasn't pushed awake in the middle of the night by his own consort.

The consort also regained her previous good sleep, able to soundly sleep until dawn. Even when Sima Jiao went crazy in the middle of the night, pinching her face and biting her hand, it didn't wake her.

When Liao Tingyan got up in the morning, she discovered the maids were looking at her a bit strangely. Looking in the mirror, she finally noticed there were teeth marks on her cheeks, undoubtedly Sima Jiao's handiwork.

"..." Impressive, how did he bite her without waking her up?

Sima Jiao felt she was the most impressive one. He bit her face like that and she didn't wake up. If he didn't see her still breathing, he would have thought she had died.

Sima Jiao pondered but couldn't figure it out. When they first started sleeping together, Liao Tingyan would wake with a single push. Now biting her didn't wake her. Did she really have so little vigilance towards him or was she just purely lazy?

Liao Tingyan slept well and her appetite improved as well. With the fresh delicacies available at the summer palace, she accidentally ate a bit too much. Looking at the bathing pool in the palace that could be used as a swimming pool, with dedicated female attendants providing massages after bathing, it was truly delightful. Even Sima Jiao didn't enjoy such treatment.

Sima Jiao was still meeting with a secret agent in a corner of the palace. Grand Protector Gao was stationed in Luoyang, and any news would be reported by the eunuchs under him.

"Reporting back to Your Majesty, regarding the matter of investigating the granaries in Ji that Your Majesty ordered, it has now been clarified. The stored grain in the Ji granaries has been privately sold and transferred by people ordered by Prime Minister Du for several years. Now, less than 20-30% of the original grain remains. When Your Majesty previously ordered the opening of the Ji granaries, Prime Minister Du secretly transported a large portion of grain from the Duyuan granaries to make up for it..."

The stored grain in the Duyuan granaries was even more critical than the Ji granaries. The reason why Sima Jiao did not touch the Duyuan granaries and instead opened the Ji granaries was because of this.

When Prime Minister Du insisted on not opening the Ji granaries, he became suspicious. Now that it was confirmed, Sima Jiao was not surprised at all.

There was not much anger visible on his face, and he even seemed too indifferent.

"Since that's the case, find an opportunity to expose the reduction of stored grain in the Duyuan granaries. Deal with the officials in charge of managing both granaries. As for Prime Minister Du, let him be." Sima Jiao was casual about it and had no intention of taking action against Prime Minister Du.

Although the reporting eunuch was puzzled, he did not dare to inquire about His Majesty's thoughts. He bowed and retreated.

Sima Jiao got up to look for Liao Tingyan. As he walked out of the hall, before he could speak, the palace servants he encountered took the initiative to bow and pay their respects, and then told him where the Noble Consort was, without him even asking.

It was like this all the way, as if the palace servants were certain that his wandering around was to find the Noble Consort.

Noticing this, Sima Jiao paused his steps, feeling a bit uncomfortable. When did it start to become like this?

He hadn't figured it out when he heard Liao Tingyan's laughter. She often laughed - laughing happily when she saw something she liked, laughing because she was comfortable and content, fake laughing even when unhappy but pretending to be happy, and so on.

However, it was quite rare for her to laugh out loud in such a relaxed and joyful manner.

Sima Jiao thought about it and stopped to watch from a distance.

Liao Tingyan was surrounded by several female attendants, standing in a melon field. It was probably grown by the palace servants themselves, located in a corner of the imperial garden. The vines crawling on the ground even extended to the walls, climbing up to the roof. There were more than a dozen green watermelons on the ground.

Liao Tingyan bent down to knock on the watermelons to listen to the sound, while the female attendants lifted her skirt and long hair. She seemed to have just bathed not long ago, with her long hair not yet properly tied up, hanging down her back.

Liao Tingyan was very interested, knocking on each melon one by one. Finally, she selected one of them. The female attendants looked at that melon and praised the Noble Consort for her keen eye, certain that this melon would be the sweetest.

After picking that melon, Liao Tingyan wanted to hold it herself. The female attendants quickly brushed off a bit of dirt on the surface of the melon before handing it to her.

The palace servant waiting on the side was wearing the blue uniform of a eunuch in the summer palace. He said something in a low voice and pointed to the corner of the palace roof. Upon hearing this, Liao Tingyan, holding the melon, stepped back and stood on a stone to look at the roof. A smile appeared on her face.

Sima Jiao heard her say, "There are indeed two melons growing on the roof, and they're not small. Should we take a look and pick one?"

As she said this, there were plenty of eager palace servants who came over, bringing a ladder to pick the watermelon and delivering it to her hands.

After watching, Sima Jiao didn't go over. He directly turned around and went back to the palace to lie down. The windows were wide open, and the mountain breeze blew in.

Sima Jiao hadn't been lying down for long when he closed his eyes and heard a series of footsteps. The footsteps in the front were light and quick. He opened his eyes and glanced, indeed seeing Liao Tingyan coming over with two watermelons in her arms.

"Your Majesty, I just picked these melons. Would Your Majesty like to taste them?"

Sima Jiao sat up and pushed the two melons placed in front of his eyes. "Watermelons are also grown in this summer palace?"

Liao Tingyan replied with a smile, "They were planted by a palace servant here!" She then recounted the interesting story of the melons growing on the roof.

When the melons were cut open, Sima Jiao unusually took the initiative to eat a few more pieces, unlike his usual behavior of eating as if swallowing poison.

Seeing him willing to eat properly, Liao Tingyan actually felt a bit happy. She reacted for a moment, feeling that it was like when a child who doesn't like to eat suddenly eats on their own, and the people watching would also feel gratified.

Jin De, who had served Sima Jiao for many years, also felt some gratification in his heart. In recent times, His Majesty's eating and sleeping habits had improved compared to before. It was all thanks to the Noble Consort's good guidance.

Author's Note: La la la