Putting their previous plan on hold for the time being, Li Fusheng and Sara returned to their room and resumed their cultivation.
Early the next morning, Saya had Li Fusheng bring the restrained An Lushan to the morning council meeting.
When the ministers entered the conference room, they were shocked to find that the First Minister was sealed tightly in the dirt, and there was also a young man who looked both familiar and unfamiliar standing in the room.
The Queen, however, acted as if she saw none of this.
"Your Majesty, what is the meaning of this?" a minister asked in confusion.
At that moment, a few people recognized Li Fusheng as the young man the Queen had rescued when she returned from outside. But right now, it looked as though he was controlling the First Minister An Lushan to threaten the Queen.
Immediately growing vigilant, they intended to call the guards waiting outside to come in.
"Since everyone is here, I have two matters to announce," Saya said as she stood up. "Minister An Lushan attempted to assassinate me. I hereby announce that An Lushan is stripped of his position as minister."
Saya only stated that An Lushan was removed from his post, leaving his subsequent punishment unsaid.
She had no intention of letting An Lushan live, but announcing his execution outright would easily tarnish her benevolent image in the eyes of the ministers.
These officials had been loyal to the Queen for generations; there was no need to let an outsider damage the relationship between them.
Hearing this news so abruptly, the ministers fell into utter chaos. Although they believed the Queen would not make baseless claims, they could not fathom An Lushan's motive or reason for staging a rebellion and attempting to assassinate the Queen.
He was currently the esteemed First Minister of Loulan, truly one person below the monarch and above everyone else. Only someone out of their mind would revolt.
And it was out of the question that he wanted to seize the throne for himself. Having lived in Loulan for several years, An Lushan knew perfectly well that Loulan could only have a Queen, and that the soldiers, ministers, and commoners alike recognized only the Queen.
Even if he successfully assassinated the Queen and took power, he would soon be driven out of office. What would he gain? Just the thrill of it? That would be sheer madness.
Perhaps there was another possibility to this affair. That was, this young man named Li Fusheng had used genjutsu to control the Queen, and then suppressed Minister An Lushan, who had discovered the truth.
Now, he was simply eliminating dissidents.
This possibility made much more sense than An Lushan directly committing regicide to ascend the throne.
That way, to outsiders, the Queen remained the Queen, but in reality, she was merely a puppet under his control.
Yet, while this theory seemed highly probable, it also had flaws.
If he knew genjutsu and Earth Release as well, it meant he was a ninja of considerable strength. With those skills, he could go to any wealthy town or village in the Land of Fire and work as a bandit, living a far better life than in a poor place like Loulan.
At worst, he could become a bounty hunter, earning a hefty commission while enjoying immense freedom.
There was simply no reason for him to come and stir up trouble in Loulan.
They knew their own situation best; if they hadn't lived here for generations and found it difficult to leave, who on earth would willingly stay in a barren backwater like Loulan where nothing could be found?
Aside from seeking pleasure, the only other motivation could be the Dragon Vein. But apart from the Queen's bloodline, anyone else who touched the Dragon Vein died. Countless people across the various Shinobi Villages had died before those ambitions were finally put to rest, and news regarding the Dragon Vein had been strictly sealed to prevent arrogant geniuses from their respective villages from coming here to court death.
Could it be that Li Fusheng had accidentally learned about the Dragon Vein, but his information was incomplete, leading him to devise such a method to get close to it?
Just as the ministers were wildly speculating, Saya spoke once more: "Everyone should have seen or heard of Li Fusheng. The next matter I wish to announce concerns him."
"I have decided that when Sara comes of age, Li Fusheng and Sara will be wed. Li Fusheng will live in Loulan henceforth as Sara's fiancé..."
As for the agricultural project, Saya had not yet decided to publicly appoint Li Fusheng to it. For one thing, success was far from guaranteed; if she made the appointment official and the endeavor failed, it would easily damage Li Fusheng's reputation.
It was better to wait and see, and make the announcement once they had some headway.
As for her worries of the previous day, Saya had reasoned them through.
If Li Fusheng had truly approached Loulan out of covetousness for the Dragon Vein, he could have taken advantage of the chaos when An Lushan's assassination attempt succeeded to make his move. After all, An Lushan was no match for him anyway.
Why bother saving her and creating unnecessary complications for his original plan?
Moreover, news of the Dragon Vein was tightly guarded by all the villages; ordinary people certainly wouldn't hear anything about it.
Therefore, Li Fusheng's appearance was likely a genuine accident, though his caravan cover story was probably false. The real reason was likely that he had offended someone outside and fled into the desert.
That being the case, it was even less likely that he would leave easily, and she could rest assured marrying Sara to him.
It was precisely because of these thoughts that Saya publicly declared his status as Sara's fiancé.
However, influenced by their preconceptions, the ministers were now even more convinced that the Queen had been placed under genjutsu by Li Fusheng.
Yet they neither knew how to break the genjutsu, nor were they likely his match. To point it out now would mean sharing An Lushan's fate.
Thus, keeping their suspicions to themselves, they merely offered their congratulations to the Queen for finding a fine match for Sara, and congratulated Li Fusheng as well.
Following this, Saya had Li Fusheng take An Lushan away, while she resumed her routine working meetings with the ministers.
"Let's go, let's walk around outside and see what kind of crops Loulan has at this stage," Li Fusheng called to Sara as they left their residence.
As for An Lushan, he had been taken outside the city walls and buried deep underground, transforming into nourishment for the earth and doing his part for Loulan's afforestation.
Although this was his first time killing someone, there had been no bloodshed, leaving Li Fusheng completely unaffected physically.
Guided by Sara, Li Fusheng found some of Loulan's farmers and inspected the crops they were cultivating.
They looked somewhat like sweet potatoes, but with distinct differences.
He guessed they must be a pre-improved sweet potato variety. Li Fusheng lacked the corresponding theory and technology for crop improvement, but he still had some experience in figuring out why yields were low.
It boiled down to nothing more than climate, water, and soil nutrients.
Regarding nutrients, Loulan also used farmyard manure; although it was the most primitive unfermented kind, it was still usable.
The main issues were climate and water.
Sweet potatoes were cold-tolerant, but they still required water. Loulan's water resources were relatively scarce, and irrigation was somewhat lacking. Then there was the climate.
The ideal growth temperature for sweet potatoes was around 20 to 30 degrees Celsius. But Loulan was located in the desert, with drastic temperature fluctuations between day and night. Daytime highs could reach forty or fifty degrees, and that was just within the city—temperatures deep in the desert would be even higher.
Without changing the temperature environment, it would take a miracle for yields to increase.
After understanding the current farming conditions, Li Fusheng shared what he knew with the farmers.
Had Sara, the heir to the throne, not been accompanying him and stressing that they must follow Li Fusheng's arrangements, the farmers would never have paid him any mind.
A twenty-year-old kid trying to lecture veterans who had been farming for twenty years on knowing better?
But since Lady Sara had said so, and even guaranteed compensation if nothing grew using Li Fusheng's methods, they naturally agreed to follow his instructions.
After all, this was equivalent to having a safety net.
Otherwise, farming on their own offered no guarantee of favorable weather and a successful harvest.