Chapter 31: Beachcombing

Seeing that she was not easy to talk to, Qiushuang and Chunming knelt directly at Yan Ning's door, begging her to return their indentures to them.

Yan Ning shut the door directly, choosing to be out of sight and out of mind.

Yan Ze came over to call Yan Ning for dinner, but upon arriving, he only saw the two maids kneeling at the door of Yan Ning's room, looking flustered.

Yan Ze asked, "What has happened to you two?"

Qiushuang acted as if she had grabbed a lifeline and hurriedly said, "Sir, we offended the Young Lady unintentionally, and the Young Lady wants to send us back to the Wangfu. We, we..."

The two of them wept like rain-drenched pear blossoms.

Yan Ze frowned and said coldly, "Stop crying. If you want to cry, go back to your own room to cry."

Qiushuang opened her mouth, wanting to say something but stopping herself.

No, this one is supposed to be the best-tempered one; they had seen with their own eyes that the Madam would pull his ears, and he wouldn't even get angry.

Why is he like this to them...

Yan Ze knocked on the door, "Ningning, stop sleeping. Steward Chen sent over some seafood, come out quickly to eat grilled squid."

Yan Ning immediately climbed out of bed, walked to the door, and asked, "Why are you two still here? You don't think I'm easy to talk to, do you?"

Yan Ze asked, "What is this about?"

Yan Ning recounted what had just happened, and Yan Ze's expression changed instantly, becoming somewhat frightening.

Yan Ning tugged on his hand, "Let's go, let's go eat grilled squid. I can handle the two of them myself."

Yan Ning didn't actually intend to send them back to the Nanyang Wang Mansion; it wasn't that she was kind-hearted, but rather that sending them back would make her worry that the Nanyang Wang might overthink things.

Seeing that they had been kneeling all afternoon, Yan Ning said, "Since you don't want to return to the Nanyang Wang Mansion, you may go wherever you wish. I will not return your indentures directly; once you have earned fifty taels of silver, come back to me to redeem your indentures."

The two of them breathed a sigh of relief, but how were they supposed to earn fifty taels?

The next morning, Yan Ze came to ask Yan Ning if she wanted to go beachcombing.

Yan Ning was very interested and asked, "Is Mother going?"

Yan Ze sighed, "Your mother hasn't accompanied us for a long time; she is always playing mahjong. If I had known, I wouldn't have brought those three maids along."

Yan Ning said with a smile, "There's nothing fun to do here. Since Mother finally found something she's interested in, let her go play."

The father and daughter took shovels and small wooden buckets, ready to go beachcombing.

Ji Lan hurriedly said, "You two pick up more crabs; I've really wanted to eat crabs lately."

Yan Ning responded, determined to find her plenty of crabs.

This was not Yan Ning's first time beachcombing; in her previous life, she often went to the beach during long holidays, and she felt that the seafood she found herself tasted especially good.

Seeing a hole on the beach, Yan Ning went straight in with her shovel to dig.

Ji Lan had said she wanted to eat crabs, and as luck would have it, the first air hole she dug into contained a crab.

Seeing her about to pick it up with her hand, Yan Ze hurriedly said, "Leave it, leave it, let me!"

One year, Yan Ze had rented a fishing boat to catch seafood, and when he saw some large crabs and reached out to grab them, he was pinched by a crab, and it was truly painful.

Although the crab Yan Ning dug out didn't look like it had high attack power, Yan Ze still didn't trust her to catch it.

Yan Ning caught quite a few crabs, all of which were grabbed by Yan Ze and put into the small wooden bucket.

Besides crabs, they also picked up some razor clams, as well as clams and squid.

The father and daughter returned fully loaded.

This life was truly too comfortable; once this batch of seafood was finished, they would buy a fishing boat and go out to fish.

Yan Ze also suggested, "How about we set up a ranch nearby, raise a few cows, sheep, pigs, and some chickens and ducks, and plant some vegetables, so we don't have to keep eating seafood until we get sick of it."

Yan Ning was thoughtful, feeling that this method was feasible.

The two of them got into the carriage to return, and Yan Ze asked her in a low voice, "We are so comfortable here in Lingnan, do we still need to stir up trouble and fight our way back?"

Yan Ning nodded, "Of course. Originally, we could have been idlers in the Capital, but now, we've been driven to Lingnan, and the journey was very hard. We don't need to be the Emperor, but we definitely cannot let them have an easy time, especially the Crown Prince's family."

Recalling the scene she had seen in the Capital that day, Yan Ning lowered her voice and said to her father, "Father, that day I saw my original ending."

Yan Ze frowned; he had also seen his own death—he had died of illness.

Yan Ze asked her, "How did you die?"

Yan Ning carefully weighed her words, afraid her father would fly into a rage on the spot.

"It was like this: after you died, then Mother... she..."

Forget it, she had better skip over what happened to her mother; she didn't dare say it.

"After Mother died, I was sent to the Zhenbei General's camp, and I also saw the Linyang Princess smiling at me from outside the tent; it must have been her scheme."

Sure enough, Yan Ze was furious, "How dare she?!"

"Bang—"

Yan Ze slapped the small table inside the carriage, and the table was actually cracked by his slap.

The coachman outside was somewhat terrified, "Master, you..."

Yan Ze only felt his blood surging.

After a long while, he said to the coachman, "It's nothing, let's head back first."

Yan Ning carefully tugged on her father's sleeve, "Father, don't be angry yet. At that time, the Gou Huangdi hadn't passed away yet, and the Crown Prince was still the Crown Prince, yet they dared to bully our family like that; the Gou Huangdi shouldn't expect to have an easy life either!"

Yan Ze was extremely angry. He had even held the Linyang Princess when she was a child and had prepared many little trinkets to give her, yet this was how she treated Yan Ning.

Although it hadn't happened yet, hearing it from his daughter's mouth, Yan Ze couldn't control his rage.

He gritted his teeth, "No, we must hurry and fight our way back."

"Lest the Gou Huangdi dies."

Yan Ning nodded, "Then tomorrow we shall take some people to look around nearby to see if there is a larger piece of land, preferably by the sea."

When Yan Ze returned, his face was very grim.

Ji Lan even asked, "What is wrong with you? Look at how dark your face is; don't scare Ningning."

Yan Ze sat beside her and said, "It is nothing of great importance."

He did not want Ji Lan to know of these worries; in any case, he would not let his daughter suffer even the slightest bit of harm.

Yan Ze washed the crabs clean and placed them into the pot to steam, then began to stir-fry the razor clams, along with a large plate of clams; as for that squid, he would stir-fry it directly when the time came.

The dinner was quite sumptuous.

Only Laifu wept silently and began writing a letter to the Empress Dowager: "His Highness has now begun to cook in person, and the little Princess is also helping on the side. However, everything else is well; this Nudi will go and find a cook for His Highness right away."

Laifu truly felt that their family was just too miserable.

Yan Ze did not notice and even called for Laifu to eat seafood together, but Laifu placed extreme importance on rules and refused to eat with them no matter what.

Early the next morning, Yan Ning and Yan Ze snuck out together; Yan Ze rode a horse and took Yan Ning away, without bringing anyone else along.

They went to the kitchen in the morning to grab a few meat buns, then went out to find a place.

Finding such a plot of land had quite high requirements.

It could not be too conspicuous and had to be a little ways away from villages and towns, yet it could not be too remote either, or else it would be inconvenient to buy supplies once they moved in; furthermore, there could not be too many trees, otherwise chopping them down would be a major project.