Did the Seventh Prince attend court today?

Since Cang Shuyue agreed so readily, You Lu naturally couldn't be ambiguous either. He immediately jumped out of bed, found his brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, and began to draw.

He had seen a topographical map of Xiangyang Prefecture. Although he had only glanced at it, he remembered the general location of the mountains, rivers, and counties. Soon, a simple map of Xiangyang Prefecture was produced.

He put down his brush and pointed to a hollow in the mountains, saying, "The bandits' lair is right here."

Cang Shuyue looked down and saw that the mountain hollow was near the Nanhe River, a tributary of the Han River. The surrounding mountains were undulating and sparsely populated, making it a good place to hide.

He carefully put the map away, then asked the question that had been bothering him: "How did you know there were pirates here?"

Youlu readily replied, "I figured it out! Haven't you seen me do fortune telling? I'm really good at it!"

Cang Shuyue was taken aback. He had indeed seen the young man tell Qin Tan's fortune, but at the time he thought it was just a charade and didn't take it to heart. He never expected that the young man actually had some extraordinary abilities.

A hint of guilt flashed across his face. He coughed lightly to cover his embarrassment and said, "Of course I know you are good at divination, but I didn't expect you could also perform divination out of thin air."

"Of course not!" Youlu quickly explained, "Today, when I was distributing relief with my elder brother, I saw a suspicious man. I did some divination and figured out that he was a pirate, and then I deduced the location of his stronghold."

"I see." Cang Shuyue nodded in understanding, raised her hand to rub his head, and praised him with a smile, "Baby is so amazing."

Youlu couldn't help but proudly wag her tail, feeling a sweet warmth in her heart. [He actually believed me so quickly! He's so kind!]

The Pixiu sneered, "Even if you told him right now that you're a Great Immortal, he'd believe you."

The person in front of him clearly did not speak, yet his voice rang in his ears again. Cang Shuyue's eyes flickered slightly, finally confirming that he had heard the boy's inner thoughts.

It turns out he not only praised me verbally, but also in his heart.

In the candlelight, Cang Shuyue's eyes shone like a starry sea, and the tenderness in them was so sweet it could make you sick.

The moonlight, like water, spilled across the courtyard, leaving a trail of silvery gray.

The night was deep, and the sounds of frogs and insects outside the window could not drown out the shallow breathing of the person next to me.

Inside the green gauze tent, Cang Shuyue gazed deeply at the sleeping boy in his arms, his eyes sparkling, and occasionally leaned down to gently kiss the boy's peaceful and serene eyes.

"I thought you only had feelings for me, but I never imagined your love had deepened to this point, that you'd even revealed your true feelings to me. How could anyone not be moved by such profound affection?"

Gently rubbing the corner of the boy's slightly upturned eye with his thumb, he murmured, "As the saying goes, those who are of one mind understand each other instantly. It turns out we've been in sync for a long time."

Unable to wait until dawn, he got out of bed and, using the still-wet ink in the inkstone, picked up his brush to write a letter to the Empress.

The next day.

As dawn broke, Cang Shuyue was already on his way to the garrison camp. It wasn't that he didn't want to say goodbye to Youlu, but rather that he was afraid he wouldn't be able to leave his clingy little lover, so he made a point of leaving before Youlu woke up.

When Youlu woke up and didn't see Cang Shuyue, he was indeed a little disappointed, but he quickly cheered up and continued to follow the First Prince to distribute relief in the village.

After several sunny days, there were a few intermittent rain showers in Xiangyang. Fortunately, the rain was not heavy and the duration was short. After observing for a few days and finding no new dangers, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and continued the disaster relief work in an orderly manner.

However, the deer knew that this was just a sign, and the real disaster would come in seven days.

After the relief efforts in Junzhou City were completed, Youlu followed the eldest prince downstream to Guanghua County. The disaster there was less severe, and the two only stayed for one day before quickly heading to the next county.

Five days later, all the counties and prefectures in Xiangyang Prefecture had completed the distribution of relief supplies, and most of the silted-up river channels had been dredged. The floodwaters that had submerged farmland and villages had finally receded. The main tasks now were to rebuild houses and construct dikes.

In the past few days, Xu Ruohuai led the Ministry of Works to travel around, not only to prevent disasters, but also to inspect the water conservancy situation in various prefectures and counties. After the relief work ended, they quickly came up with corresponding measures and began to recruit laborers to build water conservancy projects.

Everyone gathered again at the Xiangyang Prefectural Government Office. After discussion, they decided to start with Nanzhang, the county most severely affected by the disaster, and then rebuild the disaster-stricken areas of other counties in order of priority.

The night before departing for Nanzhang, Gu Cheng stopped Youlu as she returned to her room and asked in a deep voice, "Where has the Duke of Zhenguo gone?"

A deer was startled by the sudden appearance of the black coal, but upon listening carefully, it realized it was Gu Cheng. It immediately burst into laughter: "Gu Cheng, did you go to dig coal? Hahahaha!"

Gu Cheng, his hair standing on end in fury, glared and said, "If the Duke of Zhenguo hadn't suddenly left and left me to lead the villagers in dredging the river, how could I have ended up in this wretched state!"

He's fine when he doesn't speak, but once he starts talking, he grins and shows off his black face and white teeth, which makes him even funnier.

You Lu finally managed to stop laughing. Considering his contribution to the disaster relief, he said in a kind tone, "The Duke of Zhenguo has more important matters to attend to, which is why he entrusted this task to you. You did a good job; it can be considered as doing good deeds."

Enraged by the laughter, Gu Cheng, remembering his mission, snarled, "I'll let you be arrogant for a few more days!"

Youlu nodded, suppressing a laugh: "Mhm, mhm, mhm, let me be arrogant for a few more days."

Pixiu said speechlessly, "Doesn't he have any other words?"

Gu Cheng stormed off in a huff, while You Lu, clutching her aching stomach from laughing, returned to her room.

Because she was going to Nanzhang early the next morning, Youlu started packing her luggage after taking a bath. As she was packing, she noticed something was wrong.

"Huh, where did one of my socks go?"

He was busy distributing relief supplies a few days ago and didn't check carefully. He only realized today that one was missing.

The Pixiu looked up at the sky and down at the ground, ignoring him, and said with a serious expression, "I've been traveling around these past few days, I probably left it somewhere. It's just a sock, it's gone, it's gone."

"Okay." Youlu stopped questioning and continued packing her luggage.

While he wasn't paying attention, Pixiu covered her mouth and chuckled.

The beasts all saw it, but they didn't say anything.

Inside the garrison camp of Xiangyang Garrison, the main tent was brightly lit, and a group of people were gathered around a topographical map discussing the matter of suppressing bandits.

"The men we sent over the past few days have already figured out the terrain around the pirate stronghold. However, these pirates are very vigilant, and our men can't infiltrate them. As a result, we can't find out the defenses inside the stronghold. If we attack blindly, we're afraid we'll suffer heavy losses."

Commander Wei looked worried, pointing at the Nanhe area and sighing repeatedly. When he looked up, he found that the person in the main seat had a distant gaze and a dazed expression, clearly lost in thought.

He was startled and called out, "The Duke of Zhenguo?"

Cang Shuyue slowly raised his head, his gaze quickly focusing, and said unhurriedly, "This group of water pirates is not large in scale at present, with fewer than two hundred people and thirteen boats. They have no warships, and the water fortress is surrounded by arrow towers equipped with large crossbows. In addition, the water fortress is home to dozens of vicious dogs, which is quite a fighting force."

These were all things that Luwo told him in his arms the night before he left.

Thinking of his beloved, the sharpness in his eyes instantly softened.

Commander Wei was greatly alarmed. Could it be that the Duke of Zhenguo had already secretly sent people to investigate? Then why did he still send them to investigate? Was he testing them?

Yes, they didn't even know that there were pirates in Xiangyang. The Duke of Zhenguo will definitely think they neglected their duties, and I wonder if he will report it to the Emperor.

Thinking of this, Commander Wei broke out in a cold sweat.