Good Man Operation Guide

He was going to explode this time.

You’re pregnant with his seed yet still unhappy?! How could you not have someone else in your mind?

In a rage, he stopped going to Consort Liu’s palace completely.

The Emperor naturally wouldn’t think how the days of a concubine who didn’t receive his favor lived. He only knew that Consort Liu gave birth to the Fifth Prince and begged him to let her family come to the palace to see her. Soon after the Liu family left the palace, Consort Liu died, leaving only a pair of children unattended.

And so the Emperor always had a nagging feeling in his mind about the possibility of someone else in Consort Liu’s heart.

All that said, if he himself hadn’t investigated that Consort Liu almost married her maternal cousin before, he wouldn’t have had such a thorn sticking in his heart.

But in all seriousness, if he hadn’t investigated the fact that Consort Liu was tacitly allowed to marry her maternal cousin and that Lord Liu was happy with the marriage, he wouldn’t have allowed the consort to be crowned Empress in order for Lord Liu to feel frustrated.

It was impossible for anyone to understand his mental derangement, so the Eldest Princess and the Fifth Prince, the poor sister and brother, were just inexplicably disliked by their Emperor Father.

The Fifth Prince was fine, he had been unappreciated since he was a child and was already used to it.

But though the Eldest Princess Shen Huyang was young, she could already remember things, and would sporadically remember how Emperor Father once doted on her and how he became cold overnight.

The younger sisters would envy her for being able to get the ‘Hu’ name ranking, the same as the Princes. But when she was a child, how could she not have envied her sisters as well, who were loved by Emperor Father…

***

“I have already written home. And in order to carry these urgent goods, they have sent good horses the entire way, so if nothing else happens, they should be able to reach Nancheng soon.”

Zhao He didn’t know these old stories, but he still tapped on the table and said, “This time, my family listened to me and sent all the herbs over, but I don’t know if it’s enough…”

“Does Brother Zhao know the approximate quantity?”

Zhao He quickly replied with a number. He was a member of the Zhao family after all, even though he was usually busy studying, his parents wouldn’t hide these things from him.

Lin Shiheng nodded, “The medicinal herbs given by the Imperial Court along with those donated by Brother Zhao’s family should be able to hold out, though somewhat barely.”

“Barely?”

Zhao He was surprised. “Did the Imperial Court give you enough ingredients? I thought it was only a little bit.”

“It was an emergency and could only be taken from the treasury. But after all, it’s His Majesty’s private treasury, so no more will be available. Plus, the officers preparing these would exclude some of the people who might die.”

“How can the court be so petty when it’s a matter of life and death?!”

Zhao He slapped the table and stood up in anger, “If you give more herbs, then you are saving more lives!”

Lin Shiheng shook his head and said nothing.

It was a bit difficult to get the court to pay, especially if you wanted them to pay for a small territory that the court didn’t like very much.

“By the way, Brother Lin, I have prepared the flying pigeon you asked me to prepare for you, I asked my family’s treasurer in the capital to bring it to me, it can fly directly to the treasurer’s house in Nancheng.”

“Thank you, Brother Zhao.”

“You’re welcome.”

Zhao He smiled bright and clear, “I only hope that if the Fifth Highness attains his wish in the future, Brother Lin can give me a helping hand.”

Lin Shiheng’s saluting hand faltered as he looked up with a light smile on his face.

“Naturally.”

“I just don’t know when Brother Zhao learned that I wanted to help the Fifth Highness.”

Zhao He smiled smugly and looked at his friend in front of him with some admiration.

“Brother Lin must have calculated when answering the questions. About Fifth Highness being dispatched from the capital, asking me to donate herbs, and providing the plague prescription. All of which should be within your calculations.”

The more Zhao He said, the brighter the light in his eyes became. “After I went back that day, the more I thought about it, the stranger it was. Brother Lin, you’re such a noble man with no sense of fame or fortune, how could you ask me to donate herbs just for the sake of my official position? I’m sure there was a more profound reason. So I thought about it all night, and I’ve only managed to figure it out. The day Fifth Highness left the city, Brother Lin, you borrowed a carriage to go outside the city to his off. Although Brother Lin has received His Majesty’s order to become a fuma soon, however, you didn’t have any previous friendship with the other, so why would you see him off?”

“The plague prescription, the donation of herbs, and even the dowry of the Princess must have been discussed long ago between Brother Lin and His Highness the Fifth Prince.”

“That means you’ve known each other for a long time. No, you should have known each other before the examination.”

Zhao He’s tone became more and more excited, then in the end, he couldn’t help but feel that his heart was full of excitement of ‘my good friend can calculate everything and do great things quietly’. His hands overlapped and he bowed down to Lin Shiheng.

“I’m willing to bow to Brother Lin’s deep and broad thinking.”

Once again, Lin Shiheng waved his sleeve as he watched him make a bunch of wrong assumptions but eventually still arrived at the correct conclusion, and bowed back with a calm face.

“Brother Zhao is overpraising.”

Although he didn’t quite understand his explanation, he(LS) just knew he(LS) got praised.

So just returning the sentiment was enough.

***

Shen Hu’an, who had no idea what was happening in the capital at the moment, was twisting his eyebrows under the personnel list given by his seriously ill uncle.

“It’s amazing how many people need to be rescued now and yet the list given by the court was less than half of this one.”

When he looked at the list given by the court before, he also thought that Nancheng was pitiful and that the city was small. After a disaster, there were only so few people left. As a result, when he looked at it now, it was completely different from the court’s.

But the court allocated herbs to save people according to the number on the list…

The two siblings’ pulses have gradually settled down now. The pockmarks on their faces have remained, but they have not vomited anymore and were both sleeping peacefully.

That was to say, this prescription was effective.

But when Shen Hu’an was excited to announce that they should quickly boil the medicine to save people, he learned that there weren’t enough herbs.

This was simply throwing cold water on Shen Hu’an, who had already been through a lot of ups and downs since he left the capital.

And as if pouring cold water wasn’t enough, the blowing wind chilled him to the bones. So much that he wanted to grab a sword and rush into the capital to cut all the officials into three pieces!

Liu Qingxian wasn’t as angry as the young Shen Hu’an and as if very accustomed to the situation, replied, “The court has always acted like this. Your Highness, instead of being angry, might as well look for pharmacies in the city as soon as possible. The silver for buying medicinal materials can come from me.”

“How can I let Uncle pay? Uncle’s house is poor, and it’s already suffering. I also brought silver here, I’ll pay.”

***

The truly poor Shen Hu’an toughened himself up and stood after saying that he would send someone to buy herbs and that even if the pharmacy was unmanned, he would record the quantity and return the money for the herbs at market price when everything had settled down.

This was what that nameless official said inside the letter to him. It was also specifically written that if the place was ownerless, Shen Hu’an must leave a notice posted after sending someone to take away the things inside. Firstly, so that the owner wouldn’t come back and not know where to get the money and second, to let Nancheng people know that the Fifth Prince was a good Prince who would pay for the things he took.

Shen Hu’an pouted, he was already a good Prince.

Although he still had some doubts about the identity of that person, he could see that everything the man said was right when he read the letter and along the way had tried the so-called prevention method.

Although he had doubts about ‘finding a forest to relieve himself together with his subordinates’, ‘eating dry and hard food with his subordinates’, and ‘no matter how scared you are in the face of danger, you have to hold on to your sword and act like you’re protecting your subordinates, even though you don’t need to protect any of them’. But by the time it was done, Shen Hu’an was surprised to find that the soldiers who had originally looked at him with some contempt had actually become much more intimate with him.

Then one time, when he was enduring the unpalatable and crusty skin of dried food, one of the soldiers who followed, gave him a piece of dried meat.

There was only one piece, but Shen Hu’an, who hadn’t tasted the taste of meat since he left the capital, nearly cried out when he ate it.

He wanted to stop his horse and hunt a rabbit, but the letter said he had to act like ‘I’ll eat whatever you eat’ with his subordinates. Shen Hu’an wanted everyone to hunt rabbits and eat rabbits together, but then it says that he must work day and night all the way, and he can’t waste time. In particular, he couldn’t let others think that he was a Prince who couldn’t suffer but had to eat wild game on the way to save people.

Shen Hu’an, who really can’t suffer, suffered a lot along the way. Countless times he had wanted to quit, but then thought of his great desire and thus hardened himself to survive.

Fortunately, although he felt that he had suffered a lot, when he arrived at Nancheng, these soldiers had come to look at him with admiration. Some people even took the initiative to talk with him, and their words were very friendly, so Shen Hu’an no longer felt so struggled. The next arrangement was thus to follow the instructions on the letter directly.

First, find patients to test the medicine, wait until the prescription was confirmed to be effective, then tell all the soldiers to dispel their fear that they may be infected with the plague. Then finally, this group of soldiers could be arranged to get to work.

But before you get to work, you have to say something.

Shen Hu’an took out the letter and reread the words that were written down in case he didn’t know how to say them, memorized them once, and then put them back in his pocket in a precious way.

Only then did he clear his throat and walk out onto the wide practice arena of the Governor’s Mansion.

As to why the residence of a civil servant had a training ground with two huge, appalling hammers just lying there, that didn’t matter.

Shen Hu’an stood above as he looked down at the densely packed files of soldiers lined up all the way to the outside of the Governor’s Mansion below. Wearing armor and holding spears, all of them quietly looked up at him with conviction written in their eyes.

Shen Hu’an, who was already a little nervous, became even more nervous. Fortunately, he had a good memory and recited the words written in the letter directly.

“I was worried about the exhaustion of the journey and the fact that the disease has not been removed, which was why I had everyone rest. But now that the imperial physician has reported that the disease has been eliminated, you soldiers should go with me to distribute the medicine to the people.”

“Everyone should remember: One, must not be violent to the people; Two, must not take the people’s personal belongings. And three, must not leave the city without permission. Can everyone do that?”

The soldiers below responded with a shout, immediately responding at the top of their voices.

“Yes!”

“As Your Highness says.”

At the moment, he saw so many people standing below, wearing the same armor, and looking at him.

It was as if they were looking at their sovereign with admiration and respect.

And Shen Hu’an’s heart jumped.

The previous idea, which was only a general desire to sit upon the throne, was completely reinforced.

Right now, he was already imagining that if he were to wear a dragon robe in the future, it would no longer be a 1000 soldiers and horses standing below him but 10,000 or even 100,000.

He stood on high while the soldiers stood below as they looked up at him like this.

How exciting it would be to be like that.

Shen Hu’an clenched his fists, the tension in his heart was obviously gone, but his heart was still beating with excitement.

At this moment, he finally clearly understood what he wanted.

The throne.

He wanted to ascend to the throne and protect his Sister.

Thinking of the future when he would be able to support his Sister, Shen Hu’an’s face looked distant, but the corners of her lips curled up slightly in pride.

What had to be done now was to follow the letter given by the unnamed gentleman who could see into the depths of his heart and take care of Nancheng’s situation, so that Emperor Father could sit up and take notice of him. It would be nice if he could get to know the gentleman after returning to the capital… One much definitely recruit such a powerful figure into their own faction.

Then when he ascends to the throne with the help of the gentleman, he would be like the late Emperor who could banish the fuma at will if he treated his sister badly.

Shen Hu’an believed that that day wouldn’t be far away.

However, after returning to the capital, the first thing he had to do was to scare his sister’s fuma so that the guy wouldn’t be disrespectful to his Sister.