Chapter 33: Just Like That, Killing Someone Directly

The Emperor did not like the Empress; back then, he only wanted to rely on the Empress to ascend the throne.

While the Empress was in power, she suppressed the Imperial Concubine at every turn and repeatedly forced him to do things he did not want to do, so the Emperor disliked the Empress even more, and by extension, he also disliked her son.

He was not blind; he knew that compared to Yan Ze, Yan Yu was far inferior, and Yan Ze was capable.

Yet, as luck would have it, Yan Ze was the Empress's son.

He did not want the Empress's son to be the Crown Prince.

However, the Third Prince had been somewhat unruly lately, had picked up gambling, and could not shoulder heavy responsibilities; the Fourth Prince had died prematurely, and the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Princes were too young to tell anything.

Nowadays, apart from Yan Ze, he really could not think of anyone suitable to be the Crown Prince.

The Emperor frowned: "It is impossible for Me to summon the First Prince back."

The Court was in an uproar once again.

Shawan County.

Yan Ning had already drawn up the simple blueprints; they had fenced off a large piece of land and were in no rush to move in, so Yan Ze spent every day taking people to chop down trees.

Once the trees were chopped, they invited a carpenter over to make tables, chairs, benches, and beds.

Yan Ning did not like the ancient Table Desk, so she drew a blueprint: there were two drawers under the desk, and the desk was connected to a bookshelf, making it convenient for her to read and write.

The leftover wood could also be used to make beds and roof beams.

Zhuo Heng could not help but ask: "Master, Miss, are we going to live here in the future? Why are you making so many tables, chairs, and benches?"

Yan Ze said with a smile: "I am worried that someone might be against us; the Crown Prince would love for our whole family to die, but this place is easy to defend and hard to attack, so those villains cannot get in."

Zhuo Heng pondered: "Master is right; one must guard against others, and it is safer here."

Yan Ze had people divide the livestock area, living area, and planting area according to the places on the blueprints.

Yan Ning felt a bit regretful: "It is a pity we did not trade for high-yield Rice, nor did we trade for Corn, Sweet Potato, or Potato; otherwise, we could really hide out here until the end of time."

Yan Ze knew some carpentry, and since the tables had just been made these past few days, he could follow the Travel Guide to learn how to make various weapons.

The Crossbow that Yan Ning had was made by him, and even if he only used wooden arrowheads, he could still hit vital points. If he used iron arrowheads, he might even be able to pierce through armor.

Yan Ning was a bit uneasy about the garrison troops the Prince of Nanyang had left them; even if their family had a good relationship with the Prince of Nanyang, these garrison troops might not necessarily be sincere.

So Yan Ning brought over the ten people, including Zhuo Heng, who had followed them through life and death along the way.

Zhuo Heng was a bit confused at first, but after staying for a little while longer, he began to see the method to their madness.

After eating lunch, Zhuo Heng leaned over to Yan Ning and asked: "Miss, are we going to listen to General Xie and rebel?"

Yan Ning smiled: "What rebellion or not? We are setting up this base for self-preservation. Who knows if the Crown Prince will lead troops here to capture us?"

Zhuo Heng did not think it through and believed Yan Ning's words.

It was indeed necessary to have a place to save one's life; the days ahead were still long, and it was indeed necessary to make plans early.

Every day after they finished chopping trees, Yan Ning would give them silver; it was a five-tael silver ingot, and for the week that Zhuo Heng and the others chopped trees and cleared tree roots, it totaled thirty-five taels of silver.

It was comparable to several years of their wages.

The first thing they asked every morning was: "Miss, are we still going over there today?"

Yan Ning said with a smile: "Rest, take a rest; the trees over there will never be finished being chopped. I am giving you a day off today."

Zhuo Heng really wanted to say he was not tired and that he could continue chopping for another month!

Yan Ning felt it was a bit strange; logically speaking, the destructive power of an Explosive Package was great, and knocking down a few trees should not be a problem, but for some reason, the experiment had never succeeded, and those trees had not been blown up.

Yan Ning discussed with her father how to maximize the power.

The fact that this Explosive Package could not blow up trees was secondary; the fear was that if they encountered people surrounding and suppressing them in the future, they would throw an Explosive Package down, and despite the grand momentum, those people would only suffer minor abrasions.

Yan Ning thought about watching more gunpowder production videos and trying them one by one slowly.

The father and daughter were just preparing to study together when they saw Steward Chen from the Cai Shi Chang running over in a hurry.

Yan Ning handed him a cup of water, and Steward Chen drank it all in one gulp, only recovering after a long while.

Steward Chen said hurriedly: "Your Highness, quick, quickly put on some coarse cloth clothes and go to the Cai Shi Chang to put on a show. I heard that people from above will be coming to inspect soon. The little one guesses that they might be coming for you, Your Highness. You can only be wronged and go over to put on a show."

Yan Ning immediately went back to change into coarse clothes and rubbed some dust on her face.

Yan Ning's family and General Xie went to the Cai Shi Chang together.

Fortunately, those people had not arrived yet; they carefully carried stones while glancing around, wanting to see who exactly was coming to inspect.

The people of Shawan County had been warned by Laifu, and even that stubborn County Magistrate had not bothered them.

It seemed that these inspectors were mostly the Crown Prince's men.

Steward Chen, who was to the side, whispered: "Don't look around; the people have already arrived. Move quickly, or they will take whips to lash people."

Yan Ze frowned but still quickened his pace.

After about a few minutes, Yan Ning was called to a stop: "You, and you, you, all of you come over."

This person was wearing brocade and fine robes and looked to be of high status.

The people he pointed at were Yan Ning, Ji Lan, and General Xie's daughter, Xie Ruyi.

The three of them walked in front of him, and Yan Ze and General Gu also followed over.

Zhuo Rui frowned: "What are you two doing coming over?"

General Xie said hurriedly: "This is my daughter, and the other two are Yan Ze's wife and daughter."

Zhuo Rui snorted coldly and ignored General Xie and Yan Ze, his eyes lecherously staring at Ji Lan and Yan Ning.

"How tiring is it to work at the Cai Shi Chang? Why don't you follow me? This official will take you to eat good food and drink spicy liquor."

As he spoke, Zhuo Rui's lecherous hand reached out to grab Yan Ning's hand.

Yan Ning quickly stepped back a few paces.

Yan Ze was already on the verge of exploding, and seeing him being so disgusting, he threw all the stones he was carrying on his back onto his head.

"Ahhhhh—"

"You dare to lay a hand on me! Heh, there will be plenty of time in the future; I will take you as concubines sooner or later, just you wait!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Yan Ze took the dagger he carried with him and stabbed it fiercely into his chest.

Fearing he would not die thoroughly enough, he stabbed him a few more times.

In the end, the person was thoroughly dead.

Steward Chen's legs went weak, and his legs uncontrollably knelt to the ground.

This, he just killed someone directly like this?

Then how was he supposed to explain this to his superiors?

Yan Ze wiped the blood off the dagger, put it away, and then said to Steward Chen, "It is no matter; if they ask later, just say I killed him."

Yan Ze was confident that those officials would not take action against him; after all, he was the First Prince.

As for a person having died, what did that matter? Dead is dead.

If they were to pursue it further, at worst he would take his wife and daughter to that new place they had found and lay low.

It just so happened that a large area of trees had been cleared over there, so they could build a house.