Rumor Has It That I’m Pregnant with His Highness’ Child

279 Killing Two Birds with One Stone

Liu Zhi carefully reminded her, “But I heard that Duke Lang had begged the emperor. The emperor only dealt with County Governor Lu lightly on his account. Otherwise, County Governor Lu might not even survive.”

Noble Consort Shu slammed her palm on the table and scolded angrily.

“You’re actually speaking up for an outsider? Whose side are you on?!”

Liu Zhi hurriedly knelt down and said in fear.

“I’m naturally on your side! I hope you can calm down and not be rash. Duke Lang was deeply trusted by the emperor. If we fought him head-on, we might suffer. Why don’t you endure it for the time being? As long as there’s life, there’s hope.”

Noble Consort Shu sneered. “Don’t I know what you’re talking about? I naturally won’t attack Duke Lang directly.”

Liu Zhi looked up. “What do you mean?”

Noble Consort Shu looked down at her red nails and said slowly.

“Didn’t he marry a princess consort? I heard that the couple has a very good relationship. Even when they went to Liaodong County this time, Duke Lang didn’t forget to bring her along. I can’t deal with Duke Lang, but it’s still easy to deal with a small princess consort.”

Liu Zhi said, “But the Princess Consort of Lang County is outside the palace, far away from us.”

Noble Consort Shu laughed confidently.

“Don’t worry, she’ll have to enter the palace soon.”

Liu Zhi was still a little uneasy.

She felt that this matter was not easy to handle, but looking at Noble Consort Shu’s posture, she would not give up until she achieved her goal.

Liu Zhi knew that she could not persuade her, so she could only follow her wishes.

“What are you going to do?”

Noble Consort Shu didn’t answer her question. “Call Princess Tao Ran over.”

Liu Zhi was puzzled. “Why are you calling her over?”

Noble Consort Shu narrowed her beautiful eyes. “Doesn’t she like to pester Duke Lang? Now that Duke Lang is married, she must hate the Princess Consort of Lang. Let’s do her a favor and give her a chance to kill her love rival.”

“What if the matter is exposed?”

“It would be Princess Tao Ran who did it. Even if she’s exposed, it’s her fault. What does it have to do with me?”

Liu Zhi came to a realization. Not only did Noble Consort Shu want to use someone else to kill Princess Consort, but she also wanted to use Princess Tao Ran as a scapegoat.

This was killing two birds with one stone!

… .

Yu Niaoniao drew two comics, The Seven Treasures Record and Duke Lang in Liaodong.

The Seven Treasures Record was drawn according to a story. It was Yu Niaoniao’s pastime. In addition, Duke Lang in Liaodong was an original sketchbook with Xiao Juan as the protagonist. Unfortunately, it could not be officially printed and distributed without approval by the Directorate.

She planned to publish The Seven Treasures Record first to earn some capital. Then, she would think of a way to change the comic with Xiao Juan as the protagonist into a script and find a troupe to make a play.

Drama was not like books. It did not require the approval of the directorate.

At that time, she could act however she wanted. Who would control her?

However, because Xiao Juan and Granny Xiu Yan had instructed Yu Niaoniao to go out less recently, it was not convenient for her to go out. She could only ask Meng Xizhou to help find a bookseller.

The previous anti-poetry case had caused many bookstalls in the capital to be closed down. Now, as long as the booksellers heard the word Eagle Guard, they would break out in cold sweat.

As a result, when Meng Xizhou came looking for them, the booksellers all said that they were sick and disappeared. All of them hid far away.

At first, Meng Xizhou was still polite to them. Later on, seeing that they did not know how to appreciate favors, he simply ordered someone to tie them all up and send them neatly to Yu Niaoniao.

“Princess Consort, the booksellers you want have been delivered. Please check.”

Yu Niaoniao looked at the trembling booksellers in front of her and asked in confusion.

“Why did you tie them up?”

She had wanted to hire someone to help her print books. Why did it look like she was going to eat someone?

Meng Xizhou said, “These guys are too pretentious. I invited them politely, but they were unwilling, so I could only change my method.”

Yu Niaoniao coughed lightly and reminded him, “You’re officials, not bandits. Can you not be so rough when you do things in the future?”

Meng Xizhou said, “But this is the most efficient way. His Highness usually does this.”

Yu Niaoniao recalled Duke Lang’s style of investigating cases. It seemed that the Eagle Guards had learned it from Duke Lang!

They had learned by example.

This couldn’t go on.

If they wanted to change the commoners’ prejudice against the Eagle Guards, they had to change their style of doing things.

Yu Niaoniao first got someone to untie the booksellers and greeted them kindly.

“Please sit down and have a cup of tea.”

The booksellers were all businessmen and were used to reading people’s expressions.

Seeing that the young Princess Consort looked easy to talk to, their thoughts immediately became active.

One of the fair and fat middle-aged men asked, “What can I do for you, Your Highness?”

Yu Niaoniao placed the Seven Treasures Record on the table.

“I want to publish a book and ask everyone to help print and distribute it.”

The booksellers were still a little uneasy and did not dare to move.

Yu Niaoniao said warmly, “Don’t be afraid. Go ahead and look. If you have any questions, just ask me.”

Under her encouragement, the booksellers leaned over and began to open the Seven Treasures Record.

The plot in the book was actually very cliché. It was a story of a poor scholar turning the tables and marrying a fair, rich, and beautiful woman to reach the peak of his life. However, because it was changed to the format of a comic strip, the originally cliché story immediately became interesting.

The more the booksellers read, the more excited they became. They finished the books in one go.

They already had an idea that this Seven Treasures Record would definitely be easy to sell.

However, as businessmen, they naturally had to fight for the greatest benefit for themselves, especially since the Princess Consort of Lang County looked very easy to talk to.

It was the fair and fat middle-aged man who spoke first.

“The plot of this book looks very familiar to me. I seem to have seen it in other books. There’s nothing novel about it.”

Yu Niaoniao said, “Although the story is ordinary, I expressed it in a comic strip. It’s considered an innovation to bottle new wine.”

“We’ve never sold such comics before. We don’t know how well the market would take to it. If we want to publish your book, we’ll have to take a huge risk.”

Another bookseller immediately said.

“If someone else asked us to publish such a book, we definitely wouldn’t agree. However, you’re the Princess Consort, so we have to show you some respect. We can help you pay for this book. As for the fee, how about 100 taels of silver?”

Yu Niaoniao hesitated. “A hundred taels?”

“You’ve never published a book, so you don’t understand the market. Usually, the fee we give the author is usually only 10 or 20 taels. It won’t exceed 50 taels at most. 100 taels is already a high price that we made an exception to give. If you can’t accept it, then there’s nothing we can do.”

The other booksellers nodded in agreement.

Yu Niaoniao said, “I need to think about it.”

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