Chapter 320

Chapter 320: No News Is Not Good News

The real academy—Wei Yu had actually established it a long time ago.

Outside the cities, in the villages, there was also schools that Deng Zhengde from Merchants' Alliance had build. Weren’t those all proper schools that taught people to read and write?

It was just as well that Wei Yu hadn’t heard what the Left Court Judge said. Otherwise, he definitely would’ve gone up to argue a bit, saying, “What do you mean by a real academy? Isn’t the Medical Academy an academy too?”

They’re all places for teaching and nurturing people; how could there be real or fake ones?

—

Sometimes people really have too much free time, easily having nothing to do, yet when they get busy, everything piles up all at once.

After helping Fifth Brother resolve the Newspaper Agency issue, Wei Yu didn’t expect to receive letters from Jiaozhou.

One from Deng Zhengde, one from Guo Yajun.

For the former, Wei Yu hadn’t expected him to have returned from Great Liang; for the latter, it was just a work summary report from Ziyang County.

He wasn’t in a rush to read the work summary. As long as the Merchants' Alliance hadn’t collapsed, it could wait. The first letter Wei Yu read was Deng Zhengde’s.

“Hmm…”

After reading the letter, Wei Yu’s expression slowly shifted from surprise to silence.

He quietly put down the letter, crossed his arms, frowned, and looked deep in thought.

Fang Sheng, standing beside him, glanced at him calmly without asking because His Highness would speak for himself.

Sure enough, after a few seconds, Wei Yu spoke.

“Fang Sheng, have you ever seen a spy? What do spies look like?”

Hearing the word “spy,” Fang Sheng expressionlessly turned his head and sincerely reminded him: “Your Highness, spies are human too, with two eyes, one nose, one mouth. According to military law, once caught, they must be quartered.”

Wei Yu: …

Was this what he was asking about?!

He gestured to a letter on the table. “Take a look at this—Deng Zhengde wrote it after returning from Great Liang. Do you think it’s true or false?”

Since the master asked, Fang Sheng naturally walked over, took the letter His Highness pointed to, and skimmed it quickly…

“Spies from Great Liang?”

Fang Sheng was stunned and quickly looked at His Highness to see what he thought.

Nothing to do but read the letter—was His Highness going to send people to Jiaozhou to monitor and catch those spies?

“Yes, Deng Zhengde thinks so. On his way back, he even met Chang Ning. Chang Ning also believes those people are spies. It’s really scary.”

Wei Yu clicked his tongue and shook his head, unsure whether ‘scary’ referred to the spies themselves or to the fact that Chang Ning—that playboy—had discovered them.

Fang Sheng asked, “Your Highness, do you want to send people to monitor them?”

Wei Yu glanced at him sideways, “Do we still have people to send?”

There were barely over a hundred men available. Yi Shisan had taken part of them over to Donghai Commandery; some were stationed in the estate outside the city; the rest were either guarding around the mansion or running errands.

To send more people to Jiaozhou to monitor?

Wei Yu was reluctant.

Fang Sheng silently counted the number of available subordinates. After excluding ordinary servants and guards around the mansion, the few who came from the Gray Guards were really just a handful left.

His Highness always had lots of demands—sometimes needing people here, sometimes there. If this went on, it wouldn’t be long before he himself would be sent out…

Fang Sheng fell silent.

“Bang!”

Feeling a bit heartbroken, Wei Yu suddenly slammed the table, stood up with fierce energy, and shouted, “The security of Great Wei’s land and people is at stake! Such a major matter should be handled by the Emperor! Fang Sheng, prepare the horses! I’m going to the palace to see Dad!”

Said very grandly and righteously. Fang Sheng knew exactly what this meant.

He just wanted His Majesty to send manpower and resources; he understood perfectly.

Wei Yu now entering the Imperial Palace was as natural as eating or drinking. He hadn’t even met Emperor Wei yet when he started yelling as soon as he stepped through the palace gates:

“Dad—”

A howl like a ghost wail. Emperor Wei, who had been concentrating on calligraphy, was so startled his hand trembled.

*Slash!*

Great, the character he was writing got split apart.

Emperor Wei silently put down his brush, calmly crumpled the paper, then settled down and took a sip of tea.

Not angry, not angry. That’s just how the unfilial child behaves—he shouldn’t get angry; getting angry isn’t good…

“Dad, Dad, the people I sent to Great Liang have returned. Deng Zhengde wrote me this letter. Please take a look—”

Wei Yu shouted while walking in. Seeing that his father hadn’t approved memorials today but was instead sitting drinking tea, he was a little surprised.

Upon hearing Deng Zhengde was back, Emperor Wei paused for a moment.

“Deng Zhengde is back?”

He looked up in surprise and saw the envelope in Wei Yu’s hand. Thinking of the heaps of money the caravan probably brought back, Emperor Wei quickly put down the tea cup. “What does it say? Give it to me to see.”

Knowing exactly what his father wanted to see, Wei Yu reached out to hand over the letter and said, “Made money, big money! The caravan split into eight small teams when they reached Great Liang. Although not everyone has returned yet, Deng Zhengde said he earned more than five hundred thousand taels of silver there—not including the paintings, calligraphy, ancient books, jewelry, and antiques.”

Eight teams, one team earned over five hundred thousand taels. When all came back, wouldn’t that be… over four million?!

Emperor Wei’s eyes glittered with excitement, his smiling face unusually kind.

Before he could start praising, Wei Yu added:

“Don’t celebrate yet. Three of the eight teams are from the Yizhou aristocratic families. Also, Deng Zhengde making over five hundred thousand doesn’t mean all teams did. Don’t be too happy too soon. Really, let’s wait and see.”

“Hmph, even if it’s not over four million taels, as long as it earns silver from Great Liang, I’m happy.”

Emperor Wei ignored Wei Yu’s dampening words. After all, this rascal always acted unfilial—just ignore him.

He opened the envelope, took out the letter, and began reading.

At first, it was Deng Zhengde’s description of the trip to Great Liang—about prices, local customs, standard of living, and how they earned money from the wealthy there… Emperor Wei read with delight, his old face creasing into a smile.

However, when he read the suspicion of Liu San and his group being spies, the smile faded.

He looked up and asked Wei Yu, “You’ve read the letter. What do you think?”

Wei Yu was flipping through the fruit plate and casually replied without looking up, “Deng Zhengde said the people were met near Great Liang’s capital city. Though it’s not absolutely certain they’re spies sent by Great Liang’s imperial court, since they’re already here, just send people to watch them, see what they’re really after. What if they’re just merchants trying to make money? We can’t accuse them unfairly, can we?”

Emperor Wei glanced at him, put down the letter, and said nothing more, only asking, “No news is not good news. So why have you come to the palace?”

Emperor Wei didn’t believe this lazy person came just to deliver a letter.

Wei Yu paused, looked up, and grinned: “Dad, can you send me some Gray Guards soldiers?”