Spoiler: 246: Game Yep you're right! Basically 2nd Prince appears and he's all suave and the other court officials swoon over who he is. It's only when the Crown Prince calls him bro that the officials realise it's the 2nd Prince The high ranking official who comments that there's about to be a storm is from the Chancellery, called Liu Qingshu (I'm dead there r so many names to keep up with) Btw the flashback to yesterday w Luxia was just Luxia warning 2nd Prince to be on his toes bc there are definitely going to be people scheming against him Everything looks rly good on the surface, the emperor talks about the Southern floods and then asks the court for their nominations for the person in charge. Everyone starts murmuring. Crown Prince asks 2nd Prince for his thoughts, 2nd Prince deflects by saying I haven't been in politics for a while, so the Crown Prince should know better Crown Prince goes oh yeah I have a candidate in mind... you know him too 2nd Prince is baffled when Crown Prince suddenly volunteers himself, wondering if Luxia was wrong in her predictions Emperor rejects this, saying Crown Prince has to stay behind to help w central governance etc Crown Prince then volunteers 2nd Prince (lol what a self-play), Crown Prince looks smug, thinking ha he has no choice but to accept 2nd Prince is unfazed and thinks that Luxia was right all along and so he accepts the nomination Emperor finally approves of this and tells him to do a good job Later, Mengyu ('Mengyao's body) asks the Crown Prince how he thinks 2nd Prince will be punished if he fails. Crown Prince just says haha he'll suffer a fate worse than death & won't be able to compete w me tldr
Honestly 'Mengyao' has been v passive the entire time... Wish we saw more direct confrontation between her and Luxia
Spoiler: chapter 247: disaster relief in the carriage, the 2nd prince, Luxia and Xu Yan (his right hand man) are discussing about how they should prevent the crown prince sabotaging them. Luxia said they must make sure every step is done without error and must have their own ppl oversee every step including when the orders are given out to prevent the person from giving out the wrong orders. (thus preventing the 1st prince from messing up the orders) Xu Yan agrees but is worried as the area is under the Crown Prince's rule and the people who manage the area can just mess them up upfront. Luxia asks him not to worry because the Emperor knows that it's the CP's area, so if they bully them upfront, the CP will be suss, so CP will not do that. Instead it will be the opposite, if they want $$$, they will give them $$$, if they want more manpower, they will give them more manpower, to which 2nd prince agrees. Luxia said that each step in the disaster relief are interlocking with each other so CP can mess up with any of them** Luxia thinks that CP will target the disaster victims as they are gullible, so they should capture any suss people on the spot to prevent them from swaying the victims and creating a chaos. the 2nd prince agrees and will have people monitoring the victims. they reached the destination, an official greets them and suggests them to head inside the house as it's raining heavily but the 2nd prince refused and asks him to lead him to where the victims are while briefing him about the current situation. the official said that all the towns at the upper river are all flooded, currently they are reinforcing the downstream dam, and relocated the citizens from the river's downstream to the nearby cities, but there are too many victims so the officials relocate a portion of them to a run down temple outside the city, other matters like the dam construction, victims' relocation, disaster relief and workers are waiting for the 2nd prince's orders. the 2nd prince asks Luxia and Xu Yan to follow the plan, and immediately report any suss activity to him, he also gave Luxia his token* and asks her to use it if needed. - in the eastern palace - CP and 'Meng Yao' are eating, CP wants to get rid of Luxia because Luxia refused his offer of working with him. 'Meng Yao' dropped her chopsticks when she heard the name. 'Meng Yao' is relieved that the Luxia CP's mentioning is not the Luxia she killed as CP said that she's a doctor. the chapter ends with CP being happy as 2nd prince had fallen into his trap. *the token can be used to 'show off' one's power, or when it's given to someone else, typically to someone who has a lower ranking, the someone else can use the power to order people or to punish people above their rank or people under or equivalent to their rank willy nilly as they are given the power to do so. tl;dr: it's like a temporary buff of power if given to someone else. ** which meant that if one step is not handled properly, the other steps will also be affected, like a domino effect. it's a long chap.
thank you for your feedback & thank you for reading the translation summaries posted by @okpanda_533 and me!
Spoiler: 248: Internal Troubles/Problems So they've been at the disaster relief area for half a month, Luxia and Xuyan are reporting to the Second Prince about how their progress has been. Luxia says that everything has been going fine; she's been taking care of the people's welfare and quarantining the sick to prevent pandemics from breaking out. Internally she thinks: it's useful to have had some background in medical skillz from the cultivator/martial artist arc, and that they've also been giving herbal soups to other camps to prevent other diseases. Even if there have been some troublemakers, she's been able to deal with them by kicking their asses. Second Prince thanks her for her work, Luxia says it's her honour. They give each other a Look~ and smile. (I think they're lost in their own world lol) Xuyan breaks it up by reporting about his progress with building the dam. So far, everything has been according to their calculations, and the Crown Prince's people are very cooperative. BUT the problem lies with a few of the elderly residents refusing to evacuate. The elderly residents chase the officials away saying that this is their home and land, and even if they die because of the flooding, they would rather die in their own homes. The problem is worsened by the fact that this is preemptive, so the flooding hasn't reached that particular area yet, making it seem like the officials are just trying to expropriate their land without giving them compensation. Xuyan ended up having to forcefully evacuate those elderly residents, but Second Prince says that this is for the bigger picture and he did it correctly. Luxia however suspects that things are going too smoothly, and decides to head to the refugees' camp to take a look. So apparently at the refugee camp, word is spreading of an elderly resident committing suicide, saying that the officials are expropriating his land. The people are unhappy, saying that the flooding isn't even coming in our direction, why do we have to evacuate? (t/n: bruh if u don't move now you're gonna have to swim later) Hamster is shook by the change in narrative from saving people's lives to stealing their land, but Luxia says that there's someone fanning the flames of the rumours. Even though there have been people dispatched by the Second Prince to suppress such dissidents, there are only 20-odd officials versus thousands of refugees. Luxia says that they need to go to the root of the problem aka whoever's spreading such rumours. Hamster says: why don't we just let the rumours spread, anyway the dam construction will be done soon. Luxia scolds Hamster, saying that if the people are upset, they might riot, and if news of a riot at the dam gets out, the Second Prince will be held responsible for this. Even if he's managed to stop the flooding from damaging the villages, he'll still be in deep shit. Hamster says: is this really that serious... Luxia decides to camp out at the refugees camp for a few days to investigate, and tells Hamster to pass this on to the Second Prince. Luxia thinks: the Crown Prince sure is resourceful, but she'll be able to overcome his schemes anyway. The Second Prince, hearing from Hamster that Luxia is at the camp by herself, starts worrying for her safety. Hamster points out that Luxia is no fragile damsel lol and that she can't be stopped from doing such things. Second Prince agrees, and decides to send a few guards to secretly guard Luxia and protect her from getting hurt. Is it just me or did Luxia seem more jumpy than usual... Also I can't help but worry about the dispatching of guards to protect Luxia in secret lol
This is just my two cents but maybe she wanted to 'show off' how good she is because of the Ling look-alike. Yes Luxia is OP and all but maybe this is one of the arc where she is going to be at a disadvantage from uncosciously being 'slightly' cocky despite how careful she tries to be? You just can't help wanting to show/do your best in front of someone your admire after all. Just imo tho.
I think Luxia still has some trauma from losing Ling. So, she is more jumpy than usual at every thing that can make Ling's look a like in danger.
I don't think the reason she is so cautious in this world is because of Ling. Previously, it was said that this world is the toughest one she has been thus far and the original novel was detail oriented so she also has to pay attention to the smallest details and some pills and other stuff from the shop don't work in this world. And I don't think luxia will be so much affected by Ling because it would out of character for her in this stage of the story.
True, I personally think that Luxia will act the same even if the second prince doesn’t look like the Ling guy
I don't Luxia's the type that will show off without knowing the extent of her abilities. This chap kinda proves it (?). Spoiler: chapter 249: getting rid of bugs Luxia spent 3 days & 3 nights looking for the gossipers. She found one of them and dislocated his jaw (wow that's brutal) to prevent him from spreading more rumors. (he's now ded btw) The other gossipers saw that and wanted to fight Luxia. Just when they're about to, the guards show up and kicked their asses. Luxia felt that she's being watched and she now knows the reason behind that. The gossipers are arrested and Luxia head back to the residence. Xu Yan praises Luxia for getting rid of the gossipers, now that the gossipers are gone, the workflow (constructing & the relief) had drastically improved. Luxia asks Xu Yan about the 2nd Prince's whereabouts. Xu Yan said the flood is travelling at a rapid speed, and has now rushed to City Ying. Xu Yan said he went to City Ying to better understand the situation (e.g dam condition, water level) so he can make the last protective measure against the flood. Due to the fact that the flood travelling quite quickly, Luxia is worried about his safety and decided to look for him. (when flood's coming you can get washed away & maybe will die) Xu Yan stops her and said that people will lose their rationality when they get emotional. Xu Yan reassures Luxia that if the dam were to collapse due to the incoming flood, the 2nd Prince will retreat before it collapses, so it won't be dangerous. The chapter ends with Xu Yan saying he didn't know Luxia would get so worried. I'm not sure if she's rushing there because she know Ling's character well or she's just worried that the 1st prince will take this chance to end his life.
I think luxia is both afraid of the 1st prince taking action and ruining her mission and she subcutaneously feels responsible about his death. I think see subcutaneously sees him as Ling.
Spoiler: 250: Incident/Trouble Abound Second Prince is at the dam, someone's reporting to him that since the rain has stopped, the situation will be ok, so long as the dam holds for tonight and redirects water into the Eastern seas Second Prince tells the guy to station people to guard the dam, and to inform him if the water levels start rising again Luxia runs in and says that the situation with the refugees on her side is fine too. She lies that the right hand man, Xu Yan, sent her here to worry for his safety. A gust of wind blows, Luxia shudders, Second Prince gives her his coat and asks why she still needs to rush over here when she's been working so hard (i.e. spending sleepless days sniffing the Crown Prince's people out) Second Prince says that he sees all of her hard work, and that she's only a human who can fall sick too etc and asks her to take care of herself because he wouldn't be able to find a second Luxia Luxia, hearing this, has a flashback to when Ling hugged her in a fire and asked: "If you died, in which world will I be able to find a second Luxia?!" Luxia tells Second Prince not to worry because she won't collapse so easily (lol), Second Prince is like "I can't deal with you lol" Hamster is all heart-eyes and says that he can smell love in the air, but then Luxia grabs him by the face and stuffs him into her coat. She tells Second Prince that Hamster also feels it's pretty cold and needs to hide in the coat to feel warmer. The Second Prince can see that she's lying but he doesn't say anything. Luxia then tells Second Prince that he's a very important person and it's better for him not to come to such places and put himself in danger. Second Prince says he knows his limits. Hamster's still struggling in the coat HAHA Slightly later, a group of men in grass coats rush in and kill all the guards on duty at the dam. The leader of the pack tells them to set explosives on the dam! As he's climbing down the side of the dam to put the explosives, he then says that such a big dam will be defeated just by a small hole in it. He thinks to himself: Second Prince, you're in deep trouble this time~
Don’t worry, the author is too smart for having Luxia be love brain since the author know I think it’s to explore Luxia past and weaknesses since a good character need to have it exposed to the reader. Can’t have a perfect Mary Sue can’t we ( not that I think of her as one). Now I think of it, maybe the situation was reversed when the Ling guy is still a agent and Luxia was still a cannon fodder in her original world considering he sacrificed his life for her