Hearing her voice, Shen Ying turned her head slightly. The newcomer looked vaguely familiar, so she studied him more carefully.
At last, she said, “I remember you. Are you Fang Shuo? You used to be my second brother’s student, didn’t you?”
Fang Shuo scratched his head. When he smiled, he had an indescribably foolish, good-natured look about him. “Miss Shen has quite the memory.”
“If I remember correctly, you haven’t been the governor of Chaoyang for even three years, have you?” Shen Ying leaned lazily against the railing, clutching a long spear. “I once asked my second brother how officials are selected in the north. I don’t understand all the twists and turns of officialdom, but from what I heard, the system is fairer than that of any previous dynasty. Officials are chosen without regard to family background or gender. The only things that matter are their examination results and whether their personal histories are clean.”
“Even for promotions, no one needs to recommend you. Everything is decided solely by your achievements.”
“To encourage officials to improve themselves, Miss Pei and the others even came up with a system of assessments. Officials are evaluated once a year. If they fail twice in a row, they’re suspended and made to reflect on their shortcomings. If they fail a third time, they’re dismissed.”
“How wonderful.” She couldn’t help sighing in admiration. “That way, they can reduce the number of corrupt and incompetent officials while ensuring that truly capable people occupy the positions suited to them.”
“Exactly, exactly.”
Fang Shuo nodded enthusiastically.
“Miss Pei and the others are amazing. If they hadn’t come up with this system, I wouldn’t have had any chance of leaving Chaoyang City. You have no idea how miserable my days were as governor of Chaoyang. I spent every day praying for the assessment to arrive, and at last, it did.”
Shen Ying raised a hand and rubbed her chin.
Because she wanted to join the Northern Pacification Army, she had been asking around about all the latest news from the north whenever she had free time.
“My second brother told me that the first person to rise through the ranks on the strength of his own achievements and be transferred back to Xindu City was his friend, Lu Sui.”
“The fact that you’re on this ship means you must have been transferred back to Xindu City as well. Who would’ve thought? You’re even more impressive than my second brother’s friend. You were promoted in less than three years.”
“Tell me about it. What earth-shaking things did you do in Chaoyang City to earn such a rapid promotion?”
Her dark, bright eyes were filled with curiosity.
Fang Shuo waved his hands repeatedly. “Miss Shen, you’ve misunderstood. I wasn’t transferred back to Xindu City. I was dismissed…”
Shen Ying was instantly left with a head full of question marks.
In Xindu City, everyone she met was a ruthless overachiever, each one working as if their lives depended on it. Once they threw themselves into official business, they forgot everything else—even their own feelings.
And so, when she heard Fang Shuo say that he had been dismissed, she nearly suspected that there was something wrong with her ears.
“I was never suited to being a governor in the first place. I wanted to hand over the governor’s seal long ago, but no one was willing to take it.” Fang Shuo looked embarrassed as he spoke, and his face flushed slightly.
“I’m just a spoiled, lazy young master. Being a governor is far too difficult for someone like me.”
Shen Ying gazed at him with deep concern.
“You’re probably the first person ever to be dismissed from office, Fang Shuo. You’re sure to go down in history because of this.”
Fang Shuo broke into a grin. “Isn’t that a good thing? Other people want to be remembered for centuries and don’t even get the chance.”
Shen Ying was once again amazed by his intelligence. “People want their good deeds to be remembered for centuries, not their embarrassing failures. How can those possibly be the same?”
Fang Shuo couldn’t help sighing. “Miss Shen, there’s nothing I can do to stop people from saying whatever they want about me.”
He gazed at the sun rising over the horizon, then suddenly smiled again. “Rather than worrying about things I can’t change and making myself miserable, I might as well think about what I’m going to eat tomorrow.”
“Oh, right, Miss Shen. I still have a few pastries I bought in Liaodong Prefecture. Would you like some?”
Shen Ying looked at the pastries he held out, then at Fang Shuo, whose outlook was unexpectedly carefree. “You really take things in stride.”
“Thank you for the pastries.”
She took every last one of them.
“Wait, no…”
“What am I supposed to eat if you take them all?”
Fang Shuo looked as though he was about to cry.
“The northwest wind will fill your stomach. Take your time drinking it.” Shen Ying popped a pastry into her mouth, then pulled a face at Fang Shuo. She had no qualms whatsoever about bullying someone older and stronger than herself.
Fang Shuo remained where he was, watching Shen Ying swagger into the cabin.
“She really is General Shen’s younger sister. She sure knows how to drive people crazy,” he muttered under his breath.
By the time Shen Ying—who had just been grumbled about by Fang Shuo—burst into Shen Yu’s room, she was shouting at the top of her voice, “Second Brother, why did you take such an idiot on as a student?”
Inside, Shen Yu was seated around a round table with Lu Sui and Fan Miaozhen, apparently discussing something. Shen Ying’s shout made all three of them turn toward the door at once.
The moment he saw her, Shen Yu felt a headache coming on. Setting down the nautical chart in his hands, he said, “A-Ying, how many times have I told you to knock before entering?”
“I’ll definitely do it next time.”
Shen Ying set her long spear beside the door, then casually placed the pastries at the corner of the table before sitting down across from them.
“Second Brother, you’re always scheming about something. You wouldn’t take on some hopeless idiot as a student for no reason. Is that Fang Shuo pretending to be a pig so he can eat the tiger?”
She tossed another pastry into her mouth as she gossiped, her cheeks puffed out.
Shen Yu: “…”
Beside him, Lu Sui burst out laughing. “Fuyan, I don’t think A-Ying is wrong. You really do scheme quite a lot.”
“See? See?” Shen Ying nodded firmly in agreement.
After he had laughed enough, Lu Sui set down his teacup and looked at Shen Ying across the table. “Still, A-Ying, you’re doing Fang Shuo an injustice by saying he’s pretending to be weak while hiding his true strength.”
He had put it tactfully, but his meaning was perfectly clear.
Shen Ying was puzzled. “If he isn’t pretending to be weak, why are you taking him to Wuling Prefecture?”
Shen Yu said meaningfully, “A-Ying, haven’t you noticed that our journey has been unusually smooth?”
“I’ve gone out to sea with my mother several times. Storms and running aground are common occurrences at sea. But this time, strangely enough, we haven’t even encountered any particularly strong winds or waves.”
The speaker was a round-faced young girl.
She appeared to be a little younger than Shen Ying, yet her brows and eyes held a composure far beyond her years.
She was Fan Miaozhen, the only daughter of the Fan family’s head.
Shen Ying listened in confusion.
“Shen Da, go and bring Fang Shuo here,” Shen Yu ordered.
About the time it took to finish a cup of tea later, Shen Da brought Fang Shuo into the room from the deck, where he had been watching the sunrise.
“Mr. Shen, did you need me for something?” Fang Shuo stared blankly at the people in the room.
“We’re discussing which route to take next so that we can reach Wuling Prefecture more smoothly. Come take a look.”
Shen Yu spread the nautical chart across the table.
Fang Shuo pointed at himself. “Me again?”
Shen Yu gave a slight nod.
Fang Shuo edged cautiously toward the table. “Well, this one looks more pleasing to the eye.”
Shen Yu saw that Fang Shuo had once again chosen the route they had spent a long time discussing before settling on. Without changing expression, he folded up the nautical chart and exchanged a glance with Lu Sui and Fan Miaozhen.
*
Elsewhere.
Through the surveillance footage, Yun Shu saw everything that happened aboard the ship involving Shen Yu and the others. She tilted her head and looked at the little fox, who was hunched over a slice of watermelon, devouring it with juice smeared all over its mouth.
“Are you sure Shen Jue is the male lead of this book?”
The little fox raised its head, puzzled. “Of course. Shen Jue is the male lead of this novel’s world.”
“I’m not so sure.”
Yun Shu watched Fang Shuo on the surveillance screen.
Shen Yu and the others had probably misunderstood the situation, assuming that she was taking care of her close friend’s son. In reality, she hadn’t been doing that at all.
That kid Fang Shuo had simply gotten lucky.
