Chapter 32: An Guiren, Ordered to Commit Suicide

Yan Ze looked around and leaned casually against the coastline to find a spot.

He really did find a pretty good place south of Shawan County.

The area was large enough, there weren't many trees on it, and most of these trees weren't thousand-year-old ancient trees, so he wouldn't feel bad about cutting them down.

Yan Ze pointed at those two massive thousand-year-old trees, "Ningning, do you want to make a swing over there?"

There had been towering trees in the Wangfu before, and with a swing hanging underneath, Yan Ning liked to go swing whenever she had nothing to do.

Yan Ning nodded: "And there is a living pool of water over there; we can raise lotus flowers and fish in it. Father, did you exchange for seeds with people before?"

Yan Ze slapped his forehead: "At the time, my head was full of how to get to Lingnan, and I completely forgot."

Yan Ning immediately made a note in her little notebook to buy all kinds of seeds.

"If we can't buy them, we can just buy some in Shawan County to take back."

Yan Ning began to divide the areas: "In this northern part, we can raise some cattle and sheep; there is a lot of grassland there. By the coast, we can build a pier and set up a watchtower. In this eastern part, where there is a small lake, we can build lake-view houses, but that lake looks a bit dangerous, so we must take some protective measures."

Yan Ning thought of quite a few good ideas.

Yan Ze said happily: "You are the one who is thoughtful."

Yan Ning: "These aren't finished yet; I have to go back and draw a simple blueprint."

Yan Ze moved quickly, and the next day he brought a group of people over to cut down trees. He loathed the Crown Prince's family to the extreme and couldn't wait to strike back sooner.

After working for a whole morning, they cleared out quite a few trees, and the location suddenly became spacious.

In the afternoon, Yan Ze brought Yan Ning and Ji Lan over to see it.

This location was remote enough, there were no high mountains nearby, the surroundings were all dense forests, and there was only one slope by the sea where one could come up; it was simply easy to defend and hard to attack.

Yan Ning looked around, "Father, where are my trees? I need to hurry up and upgrade the Cold Fresh Warehouse."

Her space had a total of ten warehouses; Warehouse No. 1 to No. 5 were ordinary warehouses that could hold quite a lot of things.

Warehouse No. 6 was a Sterile Cold Storage, only 100 square meters, which could extend the shelf life of various vegetables and meats.

Warehouse No. 7 was a Freezer Warehouse, which could make ice.

Warehouses No. 8, No. 9, and No. 10 did not state what kind of warehouses they were; she would probably only know after unlocking the preceding warehouses.

Yan Ning walked to the side of the big trees and directly collected more than a dozen trees into the warehouse.

【System: Congratulations to the host for completing 1,000 catties of wood, unlocking Warehouse No. 4.】

【System: To unlock the task for Warehouse No. 5, please complete the collection of stones.】

Ten thousand stones—at first, Yan Ning felt it was a bit troublesome, but after a while, she figured out a cheating method.

She didn't know if blue stone bricks counted as stones.

When the time came, her family would have to build several rows of houses here, and they would definitely need to use ten thousand bricks.

If that still didn't work, at worst she would go to the river to pick up pebbles.

Before leaving, Yan Ning left a few of the cut-down trees in place; she had to properly formulate a plan for rebellion when she got back.

To rebel, one couldn't lack food. Yan Ning looked at the stretch of trees in the distance, but she didn't dare to cut them all down; the commotion caused would be truly too great, and she feared the sky-high flames would blow up the trees.

However, for clearing those large patches of trees, Yan Ning thought of a method.

Yan Ning tugged on her father's sleeve: "Father, why don't you make a few more Gunpowder Bags? I want to try using them to blow up the trees; we could clear out a field."

Yan Ze did as he said and immediately went to research explosives.

On the other side, the Imperial Palace.

The human and material evidence of Yan Yu colluding with the Xiongnu were all there, and he was soon confined to the Eastern Palace, unable to leave.

But for some reason, the Emperor learned from the secret guards that rumors were spreading everywhere outside that the Crown Prince and An Guiren were having an affair!

At first, the Emperor did not believe it, only feeling that since the Crown Prince was caught colluding with the enemy and betraying the country, people wanted to kick him while he was down, especially the Third Prince's uncle, Wan Hongzhe.

Holding the letters about colluding with the enemy and betraying the country, he just wouldn't let go.

Regarding these things Yan Yu had done, the Emperor wished he could lock him in Tianlao.

Upon learning of this, Gao Guifei immediately came to the Imperial Study. She cried and said: "Your Majesty, this concubine only has this one son; he definitely wouldn't collude with the enemy and betray the country... Yu'er must have been framed by someone. Look, now all the officials in the Court are begging you to let the First Prince return to the capital; this concubine only feels it is too suspicious."

Yanchu was already suspicious by nature, and in his heart, he also concluded that it might be Yan Ze intentionally splashing dirty water on Yan Yu. After thinking it over, he only placed Yan Yu under house arrest.

The Crown Prince was confined for half a month, and it was only after Gao Guifei wore out her tongue that Yanchu agreed to let the Crown Prince out.

But who would have thought that rumors would spread again about An Guiren and the Crown Prince having a secret affair.

At first, Yanchu was only half-believing, but these rumors spread more and more, and they were all saying that An Guiren's belly didn't look right, being slightly larger than a normal pregnancy.

The Imperial Physician checked, and it wasn't twins; it was estimated to be six months into the pregnancy.

According to the time the Emperor had favored An Guiren, the child in her womb should only be five months along.

However, the Emperor quickly brainwashed himself, thinking perhaps the Imperial Physician had been bought off; in any case, he did not believe the Crown Prince could do such an absurd thing.

Seeing the Emperor arrive, An Guiren immediately stood up to welcome him.

The Emperor supported her, "You are pregnant, no need to bow."

An Guiren sat down with the Emperor, her hand unconsciously resting on her belly; the Imperial Physician said it was a little prince.

An Guiren hurriedly called the Seventh Prince over: "Lian'er, come quickly and pay your respects to your Imperial Father."

The Seventh Prince was only five years old, and he performed a bow in a milky voice.

Seeing the Emperor pick up the Seventh Prince, the smile on An Guiren's face deepened a bit, "Your Majesty, Lian'er has been wanting to go find the Crown Prince to play these past few days."

Yan Lian also followed up by saying: "Imperial Father, I want Second Imperial Brother."

Yanchu's expression darkened; he hadn't expected An Guiren to care about the Crown Prince so much, actually risking being beaten to death to mention the Crown Prince.

Regarding those rumors, the Emperor became even more suspicious.

After returning, Yanchu found an excuse to lift the Crown Prince's confinement, and subsequently had one of the secret guards watch him. He also found someone to watch An Guiren.

But after making the arrangements, he still felt the Crown Prince wouldn't be that stupid.

Who would have thought that three days later, the Emperor, bearing the pressure, released the Crown Prince, and Yan Yu actually took advantage of the time he was busy to enter the inner palace to find An Guiren.

The two were engaged in intimacy in the garden, and when they rose, the Emperor was standing to the side with a dark expression.

Yan Yu hurriedly got up, put on his clothes, and knelt on the ground, not daring to say a single word.

An Guiren clutched her stomach, "Your Majesty, your concubine... your concubine..."

The Emperor did not even care about the heir; he kicked An Guiren directly to the ground and said coldly, "An Guiren, granted death by her own hand."

Afterward, his gaze shifted to the Crown Prince; he said nothing and left directly.

Yan Yu was worried, so he subsequently went to find the Imperial Concubine.

When he came out, there were two bright red slap marks on his face.

Early the next morning, the Emperor decided to depose the Crown Prince and even had the Crown Prince locked in the Tianlao.

After this series of actions, the expressions of the court officials as they looked at the Emperor became even more subtle; could it be, the most