Exile? A mad, wicked woman empties the national treasury to escape famine.

"What the hell? You expect the Princess to bring us food? You're dreaming! Can't you see the First Prince sitting outside the carriage watching? Under these circumstances, why would the Princess bring us food?"

Ling Yun also sighed. The eldest prince sat at the carriage door like a statue, staring straight at them. He didn't even dare to go over and see what the hot pot the princess was making looked like.

Hey.

His boss was right there. The princess and the eldest prince didn't get along. If he acted closer to the princess at this time, the eldest prince might take his anger out on him.

It seems they can only watch from the sidelines as the princess prepares her fish hotpot today.

He was displeased and glared at the officer beside him.

"What are you all sitting there like idiots for? Even a princess knows to go and get food. You're all just sitting there like wooden blocks. Are you waiting for someone to bring you food? Hurry up and go find some food. There seem to be fish in the river. Try to get some out so we can grill some and eat them."

If we can't have fish hotpot, we still have to find something to eat to fill our stomachs.

The officials walked towards the riverbank dejectedly, like zombies.

Catching fish?

Are these fish so easy to catch?

In all these years they've been away from home, the hardest thing to catch is fish. They're so slippery in the river, you can't catch them at all. If you're not careful, the fish will get away.

Sometimes they spend a lot of effort but can't catch a single one. They've tried several times, but never succeeded.

Xiao Wu was starting a fire when he saw many people heading towards the river. He also took a few of his men and prepared to go to the river to catch some fish.

He knew fish were hard to catch, but the Crown Prince's eyes were practically glaring at him. They didn't have much to eat right now, so they could only catch some fish and find some wild vegetables to fill their stomachs.

Although the eldest prince was rich, he couldn't buy anything in this desolate wilderness.

The river is very deep.

The fish in the river were of all sizes. In the shallower parts, you could see small fry swimming around. Lingyun, Xiaowu, and the others could only take off their shoes and socks in the relatively shallow water, and one of them would hunch over and keep scooping them up in the river.

Some tried to grab it with their hands, some tried to scoop it up with their clothes, and some even tried to hit it with their shoes.

After struggling for a while, they didn't catch a single fish, and even drove all the fish in the vicinity to Ji Yunshu's area.

Ji Yunshu was still observing from the shore. She had initially thought the fish were too scattered to catch easily, but seeing that Ling Yun and the others had driven all the fish from other areas over, Ji Yunshu was secretly pleased.

He quickly turned back and stayed in the wagon loaded with supplies for a while.

Before long, she took a bundle from the carriage and quickly came to the spot where she had just been standing. At her feet, there were piles of fish swimming around. Although they were not very big, there were many of them.

He put down the bundle in his hand, opened it, and took out a fishing net.

She had just taken this net from the market in the carriage. These fish were too small to catch by hand; it was too much effort and she couldn't catch them. But with a net, it was different. With one swipe, she could pull up several kilograms of fish.

She quickly tidied the fishing net, stood up straight, gripped the net tightly, and threw it outwards with both hands.

A large fishing net, like an umbrella, spread out over the water and landed precisely above the school of fish.

The fish darted around in panic, but the fishing net had already cordoned off their area.

Ji Yunshu seized the opportunity and gradually pulled the fishing net in her hand back, and the fish gathered more and more together.

Finally, they were all surrounded at Ji Yunshu's feet, and she lifted the fishing net in her hand.

The fish, which were just jumping around in the water, were suddenly lifted up by her and began to thrash about in the net.

A dark, heavy bag, weighing several kilograms.

Everyone stared in disbelief.

"Good heavens, what is that thing in the princess's hand? How is it so amazing? It caught all the fish!"

"It looks like a net. I've heard of such things before, but I've never seen one before. This is the first time I've seen one. I wonder why the Princess would carry something like this with her?"

"I don't know. Maybe the princess bought it when we were in Dongyang County. But she's too prescient. How did she know that we would need a fishing net?"

"What should I do? The princess prepared so many fish, my mouth is watering, and she's going to make some kind of fish hot pot. Boss, I'm so hungry."

"Yes, brother, we're starving too. We haven't had a proper meal in days, and we're out of dry rations. Why don't you go and borrow the princess's fishing net?"

One of the officers couldn't help but look at Ling Yun and sigh. As soon as he finished speaking, the eyes of the other officers also fell on Ling Yun.

Since we can't ask the princess for food, we can borrow her fishing net instead, right?

Ling Yun felt somewhat helpless. If it weren't for the fact that the eldest prince was here, he would have already offered himself to the princess. Perhaps he would have even gotten a share of the fish that the princess prepared.

Never mind, let's go borrow a fishing net first. Borrowing a fishing net shouldn't be a problem, right? The eldest prince wouldn't be so stingy as to not even let him borrow a fishing net from the princess. Besides, it seems the eldest prince hasn't eaten anything himself.

He stood up and slowly walked behind Ji Yunshu.

Ji Yunshu was leading Xie Lin and Xie Mohuan to take the fish out of the fishing net. She was quick, accurate, and ruthless, and she caught almost all the small fish in the surrounding area, enough for everyone in the Wangfu to have a good meal.

Ji Yunshu didn't plan to catch any more fish. Fish are easy to kill if you catch too many, they easily rot and have a strong fishy smell, so there's no need to catch too many.

"Your Highness, could you lend me your fishing net for a moment? We'd like to catch some fish to eat. To be honest, we're out of food, and my brothers are very hungry. We hope Your Highness will be so kind as to do us this favor."

His tone carried a sense of detachment and a touch of respect.

Ji Yunshu glanced at him, then at the First Prince not far away, and guessed that Ling Yun was being so polite to her probably because the First Prince was there.

After all, Ling Yun was still working for the imperial court, and with the eldest prince here and Ling Yun himself a criminal, it was normal for him to keep his distance.

There was never any major grudge between her and Ling Yun.

"Okay, you can borrow it if you need it. We've already used it up too."

As they spoke, Xie Lin, Xie Mohuan, and the others had already taken all the fish out of the net and handed the net to Ling Yun.

Ling Yun took the net, thanked it quietly, and went back to study it. Just as Ling Yun was taking the net back, something strange suddenly happened on the surface of the river.

Suddenly, the river became turbulent and murky. Fish kept jumping out of the water. At first, there were only seven or eight, then a dozen or so, and finally about forty or fifty in total, scattered all over the river. The fish kept jumping out of the river to breathe.

"Hey, bro, I see those fish jumping out! They jumped out by themselves!"

"Brother, hurry, hurry, hurry! You've got the fishing net! Now that the fish have jumped out, we know where they are. Cast the net quickly! We're sure to catch a lot!"