Chapter 159: Are Potatoes Really This Big?

Xiang Xinyao nodded slightly. “Eldest Uncle, we won’t come to see you off tomorrow morning. You just need to pretend you’re going out to do business.”

Bai Mu said, “Yao’er, there’s no need to send us off, we wouldn’t want to attract attention from the wrong people, but you all must be careful.”

“Don’t worry, Eldest Uncle. We won’t run into any problems.”

“Alright, we’ll wait for you in Fulin County, Yun City.”

Xiang Xinyao nodded firmly. “Everyone, let’s head back now. Tomorrow morning, don’t gather together—go your separate ways and meet up once you’ve left Bianjing.”

The two uncles quickly took their leave.

Xiang Xinyao stayed at her third uncle’s house for dinner.

After dinner, she returned to the Xiang residence.

As soon as she entered, Xiang Xinyu approached her with a serious expression. “Sister, you need to go to the Prince Xian’s residence. The prince sent someone to tell you to hurry over.”

Upon hearing this, Xiang Xinyao immediately turned and ran to the prince’s residence.

Thanks to Xiang Xinyao’s care, Hong Cuilan had been feeling much better lately. With the help of the spirit spring water, both the pain relief medicine and the health tonics had worked to their fullest potential, so there shouldn’t have been any issues.

Still, Xiang Xinyao couldn’t help but worry, so she rushed over to the prince’s residence in haste.

At the entrance of the prince’s residence, Mo Jinnan was already waiting for her.

Xiang Xinyao anxiously asked, “What happened? Is everything alright?”

“Let’s talk inside.”

Mo Jinnan led Xiang Xinyao directly to the study.

Seeing they were heading for the study, Xiang Xinyao felt a little relieved. As long as Hong Cuilan wasn’t sick again, she was more worried about her not being able to hold on.

Once inside the study, Mo Jinnan opened the door to the secret passage, closed the mechanism, and led Xiang Xinyao into the secret room.

The secret room, which Xiang Xinyao had previously emptied out, now contained four large boxes filled with gleaming gold, silver, and jewels.

“Yao’er, collect all of this. When these boxes were being brought into the prince’s residence, one of the spies saw them.”

Xiang Xinyao couldn’t help but twitch her lips. “It’s fine. I’ll take the gold and jewels, but I’ll leave the boxes for you to fill with something else.”

“With what?”

“Potatoes.”

In Lingxiao Country, potatoes were rare. Ordinary people hardly ever saw them, and only the rich and powerful could afford them.

But in Xiang Xinyao’s spatial store, she could produce as many as she wanted, and they were huge.

Lingxiao Country couldn’t grow potatoes of this size.

Mo Jinnan raised an eyebrow slightly. “Potatoes are quite precious, even I don’t get to eat them often. Why not change them to sweet potatoes?”

Xiang Xinyao shook her head. “No, let’s stick with potatoes. Sweet potatoes are too common and not worthy of you bringing a large box into the prince’s residence.”

“True. But where are you going to get a few boxes of potatoes at this time of year?”

Xiang Xinyao shrugged. “I’ll just use magic to create them.”

With that, Xiang Xinyao began to act mysterious, chanting a series of spells she didn’t even understand herself.

Then, with a thought, she immediately stored the gold and jewels into her space.

After a brief pause, she chanted another spell and waved her hand. The boxes were instantly filled with large potatoes.

These potatoes were carefully selected, each one enormous, even larger than Mo Jinnan’s fist.

Mo Jinnan was momentarily stunned. Why did Xiang Xinyao use different spells when she stored the items and when she took them out?

It made sense that the spell to summon the items would be different, but why was the spell for taking the items away also different?

Although Mo Jinnan didn’t understand a word of what she said, he could still distinguish the tone of the incantations. They were completely different!

When the potatoes appeared, Mo Jinnan went from being confused to utterly shocked, his eyes wide open.

“Th-these are really potatoes?”

Xiang Xinyao smiled and nodded. “Of course they’re potatoes! Otherwise, would you like to take one and try it tomorrow?”

“Are potatoes really this big? Have these potatoes become spirits?”

Xiang Xinyao chuckled. “Hehe… these potatoes are almost spiritual by now, that’s why they grew this large. You can take a few tomorrow and try them, hahaha…”

“I kind of don’t want to give them away. Such large potatoes are so rare, I’ve never seen potatoes this big before!”

Xiang Xinyao’s eyes flickered. “How about you send these potatoes to the palace? Just say you managed to get them with great difficulty and dedicate them to that person.”

Mo Jinnan pouted. “I don’t want to part with them.”

“What’s there to hold onto? I can make as many as I want, and later I can even give you these as your meals. Sending them to the palace will also help ease that person’s suspicions!”

“You do have a point, but these potatoes are really rare. I really don’t want to give them all away.”

“Well then, what if I send you two more boxes?”

Mo Jinnan shook his head. “Forget it, I’ll save them to eat on the way back to Yun City. Tomorrow, I’ll send the potatoes to the palace. Maybe that person will be so pleased that they’ll lower their guard for a few more days.”

“Sounds good. Send them to the palace to make that person happy.”

“Got it.”

Xiang Xinyao asked, “How’s Aunt Hong doing?”

“She’s better. She hasn’t been having episodes lately, and her spirits have improved a lot.”

“Good. I’ll go check on her and make some more medicinal water.”

“Go ahead. I need to move these four boxes out.”

Xiang Xinyao turned and left the secret room. After exiting the study, she headed toward the room where Hong Cuilan and her son were staying.

In the secret room, Mo Jinnan started moving the large boxes.

For someone with Mo Jinnan’s martial skills, carrying a box of potatoes was a piece of cake.

Once he had moved all four large boxes into the study and closed the secret passage door, he went to find Xiang Xinyao. By the time he reached her, she had already filled two buckets with spirit spring water and checked on Hong Cuilan’s health again.

While she couldn’t fully cure Hong Cuilan, the medicine combined with the spirit spring water had indeed stopped the cancer cells from spreading further.

If nothing unusual happened, Hong Cuilan could live for another year or two at least.

But once Hong Cuilan entered the palace, Xiang Xinyao wouldn’t be able to continue providing the spirit spring water.

Without the spring water, the painkillers would soon become ineffective and addictive.

Other traditional medicines wouldn’t have the same effect as those made with spirit spring water.

That meant once Hong Cuilan entered the palace, once the effects of the spring water wore off, she would be in unbearable pain again.

If the emperor discovered something was off early on, she could very well suffer torturous death.

Xiang Xinyao truly couldn’t bear to watch!

But she couldn’t just find a corpse to use as a substitute.

Even if she did find one, it would be difficult to find a body with a similar build to the late Empress Helian.

Besides leaving plenty of medicine for Hong Cuilan before leaving Bianjing, there wasn’t much else Xiang Xinyao could do.

Mo Jinnan asked, “Yao’er, has Aunt’s condition improved?”

Xiang Xinyao shook her head. “No, Aunt’s condition is still very serious. I can only temporarily control her symptoms and prevent them from worsening.”

Mo Jinnan nodded. “You’ve done well by keeping her from suffering too much, and at least she can sleep well. That’s already a big relief.”