The Vice Minister of Revenue’s Residence was located in the aristocratic quarter of the Chu capital, where one could go half a day without seeing a single soul, let alone find gossiping onlookers. This made things all the more convenient for Yun Jiuqing.
Having left the residence in full view of the Yun family, she slipped around to the back gate of the estate.
“Boss, are you there?”
As a top-tier agent, checking her equipment was always the first priority whenever she arrived at an unfamiliar place.
As a shock trooper of the Celestial Dynasty’s elite special forces unit, she had been issued the most advanced Strategic Space System.
It contained the world’s most cutting-edge medical and individual combat equipment, and she could retrieve anything she needed through the Strategic Space System from any distance.
The Boss was the Central Control System of the Strategic Space System—all her commands had to be executed through it.
Fortunately, no sooner had Yun Jiuqing spoken than a soft, plaintive meow answered, “Meow~”
Yun Jiuqing was overjoyed. “Great, you’re here! Boss, quickly locate all the valuables in the Yun residence!”
The Boss let out another meow, and in the next instant, a live feed of the Yun estate flooded into Yun Jiuqing’s mind.
Sure enough, the Vice Minister of Revenue’s Residence was hardly short on silver. With a single silent command of “take,” she swept up the contents of the central treasury, Lady Wang’s private vault, Yun Wanqing’s vanity case, and Commandery Princess Minghui’s dowry…
“Right, Yun Wanqing—the one who caused the original owner’s death. Time to teach you a lesson!”
Yun Jiuqing opened the wardrobe of the original owner, rummaged around, and pulled out two items, grinning wickedly.
In the end, she didn’t even spare the golden bells on the toy tiger belonging to Yun Daowei and Lady Wang’s three-year-old son.
Watching her Space rapidly fill up, Yun Jiuqing was as gleeful as a mouse that had fallen into a rice jar.
Still, “If I’m being exiled, will I have nothing to eat on the road? And clothes and medicine… I wonder how far the Strategic Space can reach.”
Mulling this over, Yun Jiuqing stuffed every edible thing in the Yun residence into her Space while making her way toward Prince Yan’s Residence.
Behind her, above the main gate of the Yun estate, an embroidered mandarin-duck bib with the character “Wan” stitched on it and a pair of pure white undergarments fluttered merrily in the wind.
What struck Yun Jiuqing as strange was that even by the time she reached Prince Yan’s Residence, she could still retrieve items from the Yun household.
She was thrilled—previously, she could only reach things within five hundred meters, but now she was nearly five li away. Was this a perk of transmigrating?
She was beside herself with joy, but that joy was soon interrupted by a barrage of shouts and scolding.
Looking up, she saw she had arrived at Prince Yan’s Residence. The festive red decorations had yet to be taken down, but the people of the residence had already been herded into the open space before the gate.
Though it was said to be a confiscation and exile, the Prince Yan’s Residence had very few people to begin with.
Prince Yan, Xie Ciyuan, as the late emperor’s most beloved youngest son, had spent years campaigning abroad and had no taste for women. His household had no female dependents, nor any children.
Had he not married Yun Jiuqing three days prior, the only master of the household to be exiled would have been Xie Ciyuan alone.
As it stood, those being exiled alongside him were, besides Yun Jiuqing—the hapless nominal Princess Consort—only a few of his trusted guards and an old steward.
The moment Yun Jiuqing stepped through the gate, she saw two guards in coarse clothing carrying a man out on a stretcher.
One of the officials arrogantly kicked a guard in the shin, cursing, “Move faster! You’re going into exile, not on a spring outing! Make this blind man get down and walk on his own!”
With that, he reached out to tear at the man on the stretcher.
Yun Jiuqing watched as one of the guards had already drawn half a blade from his sleeve. She strode forward and kicked the official square in the back of the knee.
“Who—who dares kick me?”
The official dropped to one knee, his leg too numb to stand, and could only twist his neck around to search for the culprit.
Yun Jiuqing walked straight up to him. “It was your Ninth Master here who kicked you. So what? Go on, try grabbing at the Prince again and let me see you do it.”
Everyone in Prince Yan’s Residence froze. To be honest, none of them had expected Yun Jiuqing to come back.
After all, they still vividly remembered how she had wailed three days ago as if her own father had died. That was why no one had stopped her when she left the residence that morning.
But not only had she returned, she even seemed to be protecting Xie Ciyuan. It left everyone in the residence baffled.
As for the official, he was even more bewildered. “Who are you? How dare you assault a government officer? Do you know what crime that is?”
Yun Jiuqing let out a cold laugh. “I am the Princess Consort Yan. What are you going to do about it?”
By now, the official had recovered his bearings. He spat on the ground. “You filthy bitch! Still putting on princess airs with me? Do you have any idea what situation you’re in? I’ll beat you to death!”
With that, he raised his whip and lashed out at Yun Jiuqing—but to his shock, with a subtle flick of her fingers, the whip struck his own body instead.
Enraged and humiliated, he raised his hand to strike again, but Yun Jiuqing snatched the whip from his grasp and cracked it across him repeatedly.
She lashed him as she asked, “What situation am I in?”
The official, beaten into a frenzy, scrambled to shield his head and instinctively answered her question, “By imperial decree, Prince Yan conspired with the enemy and betrayed the state, and his actions caused the Great Emperor to die of rage—his crimes are unforgivable.”
“Considering Prince Yan’s merits in the past, the death penalty may be commuted, but the punishment of exile cannot be avoided. He is hereby exiled to the Northern Wilderness, never to return to the capital.”
Yun Jiuqing didn’t pause in her work, but kept lecturing the official even as she moved, “Anyone with half a brain knows the Emperor wants Prince Yan dead. But do you know why the Emperor didn’t kill him, and only sentenced him to exile instead?”
The official first nodded, then shook his head vigorously. “The decree says it’s because of Prince Yan’s past merits. That’s precisely it—he has merits. How would a lowly man like me dare to presume the Emperor’s intentions?”
“You don’t need to presume the Emperor’s intentions. You only need to know this: since the Emperor didn’t order Prince Yan’s death, there must be a reason he cannot die. If he dies, disaster will befall you too. Remember that, and you’ll be fine.”
The official was indeed intimidated by her. He didn’t understand the affairs of the higher-ups, but he knew that if the Emperor wanted to kill someone yet didn’t, then Prince Yan truly had a reason he couldn’t die.
So he blustered with a shout, “What’s going on in there?” and then sprinted into the residence.
Seeing this, Yun Jiuqing decisively wrapped the whip around her waist and remarked with a sigh, “Quality’s not bad, huh!”
She quickly called out to the steward and swept everything in Prince Yan’s Residence into her dimensional space.
Thinking about how harsh the journey to the Northern Wilderness would be, she decided to sort through the original body’s memories and moved everything from the households of those who were enemies of Prince Yan’s Residence, or who had privately bullied her, into the space as well.
It was fortunate that Prince Yan’s Residence was right at the foot of the imperial city, and all the nobles and officials of the capital lived in this area, so she didn’t have to run all over the place.
After haphazardly collecting everything, the people inside suddenly kicked the door open with a bang.
A longsword pressed directly against the old steward’s neck. “Old man, tell me, where are all the riches of Prince Yan’s Residence?”
They had fought hard to snag this lucrative house-seizing job, only to find not a single copper coin. Infuriating!
The old steward was stunned for a moment, then assumed Prince Yan had sent someone to transfer the property away.
So he said with a bewildered look, “The Prince has been on campaigns for years, and all his salary went to the army. Where would he have any money? It’s only right that you found nothing!”
The other guards thought to themselves that their Prince had the support of the late Emperor and Consort Chen, as well as Prince Su’s Residence—how could he ever have fallen to the point of needing his own salary to subsidize the Zhenhun Army?
But the steward was one of their own, and they wouldn’t undermine each other.
So they chimed in, “Exactly. The Prince has always treated the military camp as his home. This residence is just a place to rest his head. Where would he get any money?”
The official sent to seize the property apparently knew something of Prince Yan Xie Ciyuan’s ways, and actually believed them.
He muttered in resignation, “What a damn waste of time. Let’s go—let’s get a share from the Duke of Chenggong’s mansion!”
The Ning family was a centuries-old aristocratic house that had enjoyed the late Emperor’s favor, so surely there would be plenty of loot to be had.
With a grand wave of his hand, the official led his subordinates off to plague the Ning family.
Suddenly, something flashed past Yun Jiuqing’s eyes, and she saw the official freeze in place, then topple straight over.
The officials ahead only reacted when they heard him hit the ground, but when they turned, they saw him staring with terrified eyes, and protruding from his chest was a dry, withered branch.
The officials looked in terror toward the courtyard, and there they saw Prince Yan Xie Ciyuan, who should have been unconscious, sitting up.