Chapter 477: Reporting to the Court
Nothing unusual happened afterward. As Qi Han brought out dish after dish for the siblings, the table soon filled with empty plates.
After finishing their meal, Xu Jiyun paid the bill and left Han Shi with his sister. However, before leaving, the meaningful look he cast made Qi Han feel slightly uneasy.
It felt like… that overly protective sister-lover was going to come back and cause trouble again.
Ah, whatever.
Looking at the task panel, Qi Han noticed that the progress for Side Quest 10-1 had finally changed from 0 to 1. He sighed softly.
A thousand returning customers… I wonder if it can be completed by the end of the one-month business period for Main Quest 9.
At the moment, the chances seemed rather slim.
The dinner business hours soon passed. Apart from the pair of siblings, no other customers arrived. For the entire day, he had only done two orders. The start was even worse than when he first opened in Shrek City.
Sure enough, location had a huge impact on business.
With some helplessness, Qi Han closed the shop for the day. For once, he went to bed early and quickly fell asleep while hugging Pururu.
Ever since he started running a late-night snack service, he hadn't slept this early.
But while Qi Han slept soundly, someone else could not fall asleep.
. . .
Xu Jiyun paced back and forth inside his residential palace, his brows tightly furrowed.
All the intelligence about Han Shi and Qi Han kept linking together in his mind as he tried to deduce Qi Han's true purpose for coming to the Sun Moon Continent.
From time to time, he would smack his lips unconsciously as his thoughts drifted back to the delicious food he had tasted that evening—before forcefully pulling himself back.
Business first.
He had been pacing like this for more than an hour since returning from Han Shi.
In the end, Xu Jiyun sat down somewhat dejectedly.
There simply wasn't enough useful intelligence about Han Shi yet. Trying to trace anything meaningful from what little information they had was impossible.
His subordinates had already begun secretly investigating Qi Han's movements outside Mingdu City. Hopefully, after a few days when the intelligence gathered from various regions was compiled, some clues might appear.
Thinking of this, Xu Jiyun brightened the lamp on his desk and continued writing.
Such an important matter had to be reported immediately to the senior ministers of the court and to his father, the emperor.
Therefore, he needed to prepare his memorial for tomorrow's morning court session in advance, carefully crafting the wording so that his elder brother would have no opportunity to exploit any weakness.
If he were the only prince, Xu Jiyun might have handled this matter differently.
For example, he might have temporarily suppressed the issue, secretly investigated it thoroughly, and only then submitted a report, thus earning greater credit for himself.
But with the eldest prince around, doing that would be far too risky.
The struggle among the imperial princes had now essentially become a contest between him and the Eldest Prince. The other princes had long lost their qualifications to compete for the position of Crown Prince.
And that elder brother—who appeared warm and smiling on the surface but was in fact extremely calculating—had almost certainly already sent people to monitor him day and night.
Therefore, his visit to Han Shi with his fifth sister today must already be known to the other side.
If his guess was correct, the Eldest Prince had probably already connected the significance behind the name "Han Shi."
If Xu Jiyun chose to suppress the matter, the Eldest Prince might seize the opportunity to accuse him of harboring ulterior motives. In that case, even if he had ten mouths, he would never be able to explain himself.
Therefore, tomorrow he must report the matter, and he must do so before the Eldest Prince.
After thinking through the situation, Xu Jiyun let out a faint, almost imperceptible sigh.
The struggle among the princes of the Sun Moon Imperial Family was beginning to resemble the traditional succession battles of the old Dai imperial family of the Star Luo Empire, though fortunately it was not quite as bloody.
The loser would at most be exiled to some distant, remote city—his life would not be threatened.
But falling from heaven to hell in a single moment was still unimaginably cruel.
That was an outcome Xu Jiyun could not accept.
He still had his imperial mother and younger sister. If he failed, his mother—whose health was already poor—would inevitably suffer because of it. And his sister would probably be casually married off to some noble, becoming a bargaining chip for the royal family.
To prevent that from happening, he had no choice but to fight with everything he had.
Two and a half years ago, when all the princes were still hesitating and observing, he was the first to step forward. Braving the risk of death, he set out for the Douluo Continent for this very purpose. Fortunately, luck was on his side—he returned safely after a smooth journey. From an insignificant nobody at the beginning, he had become the only prince now capable of contending with the Eldest Prince.
Late into the night, more and more inked characters appeared on the memorials spread before Xu Jiyun.
…
"Father Emperor, this son has a matter to report!"
Early the next morning during court, just as the Sun Moon Emperor finished announcing the start of the session, the well-prepared Xu Jiyun immediately stepped forward, holding the memorial he had already prepared with both hands.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the Eldest Prince beside him just about to step forward, along with the gentle smile on his face that almost slipped. Xu Jiyun suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.
Just as expected, this guy was already prepared!
Luckily, I moved faster.
"Oh?" The Sun Moon Emperor, who had just settled onto the throne, was slightly surprised. Then he smiled and looked at his third son. "Jiyun is so eager—this matter must be quite significant. Go ahead and speak."
As Xu Jiyun handed the memorial in his hands to the attendant responsible for passing it to the emperor, he began to speak.
"Father Emperor, do you still remember that in the intelligence reports about the Douluo Continent compiled by your son and his subordinates, there was a seemingly insignificant restaurant mentioned twice?"
"Hm?" The emperor narrowed his eyes slightly. "I seem to recall it."
Behind Xu Jiyun, the ministers' expressions became varied upon hearing his words.
Traveling across the ocean to the Douluo Continent and spending two years gathering detailed intelligence there—this was Xu Jiyun's greatest achievement so far, and the very foundation that allowed him to compete with the Eldest Prince.
But that achievement was not entirely flawless.
On the day Xu Jiyun first entered court and presented this intelligence report, every minister present had received a copy. They had also heard the questioning raised by the Second Prince.
Facing the Third Prince who had returned with such an unprecedented accomplishment, the Second Prince was directly placed under house arrest for a year by the enraged emperor and still had not been allowed to leave the palace.
Yet in a certain sense, the Second Prince's questioning had indeed been reasonable.
In such an important intelligence report, quite a few passages had been devoted to describing a single restaurant—and it had even been mentioned twice. It truly seemed rather absurd.
With the Second Prince's miserable fate still fresh in everyone's memory, naturally no one dared to impeach the Third Prince over this matter again. No matter how intense the struggle among the princes became, even the Eldest Prince had never used this point to attack him.
Originally, everyone had already chosen to gloss over this issue.
But now, half a year later, the Third Prince had brought it up himself?
Wasn't this equivalent to exposing the only flaw in his own achievement before the eyes of everyone?
Why would the Third Prince suddenly make such an unwise move?
Ignoring the various reactions of the ministers behind him, Xu Jiyun spoke again.
"Father Emperor, this restaurant called Han Shi appeared in Mingdu City two days ago."
"Your son has personally gone to investigate. It is absolutely not a coincidence of having the same name. I am more than ninety percent certain that the Han Shi restaurant that appeared in Shrek City and Star Luo City in the intelligence report comes from the same source as the Han Shi that has now appeared in Mingdu City."
As Xu Jiyun's voice fell, the vast court suddenly fell into dead silence. The quiet—so complete that even a pin drop could be heard—was quickly broken by the uproar of the ministers.
"How is that possible?!"
Xu Jiyun's earlier speculations echoed through every minister's mind, and the expressions on all their faces changed.
If the two were truly the same restaurant, the implication behind it would be absolutely terrifying.
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