Chapter 73: Are You Not Going to Try and Renege?

Yan Ning did not expect that Chen Yuan and her maternal grandfather could still keep these talented and extraordinary people in their Chaoyang Village.

Yan Ning was wandering around when she was caught by Yan Ze, who pulled her into the room and lowered his voice to say, "Ningning, your maternal grandfather's family has no silver on hand."

Yan Ning realized suddenly: "I forgot..."

She immediately took out several Silver Notes, with both high and low denominations.

Yan Ze shook his head: "It won't work, it won't work, they won't accept it, and besides, I have chatted with your maternal grandfather several times, and he seems to think that our family is also living in dire straits."

Yan Ning thought for a moment and revealed a bright smile, "I know now, Dad, hurry and go bring the baskets from the house."

Yan Ze did not understand why, but he still went to bring the baskets.

"What do you need the baskets for?"

Yan Ning began throwing silver into the baskets; in a short while, the baskets were full, weighing several dozen jin, and Yan Ning calculated that there was probably ten thousand taels of silver.

Yan Ning said with a smile: "Dad, let's send this basket of silver over, just put it there, and we'll leave right after."

Yan Ze carried the basket to the row of rooms at the back, where the members of the Ji Family were playing chess, reading books, or just staring blankly.

"Everyone, come over here quickly!"

Following Yan Ning's shout, all the members of the Ji Family ran over.

They saw Yan Ze place a basket of silver in front of them and say to them: "Take this silver and use it; my family has plenty of silver, so feel free to use it, and there is more when you finish."

Yan Ning indeed had a lot of silver; she had spent so much money, yet that mountain of silver only had a few scratches and still looked like that same tall little mountain.

The father and daughter left as soon as they put down the basket, not listening to their refusals at all.

Yan Ning's third aunt-in-law hurried over and pulled her back: "Ningning, it is not easy for you in Lingnan, and you still have to guard against assassins; we cannot accept this money."

Yan Ning sighed: "How could that be? If you don't accept it, I won't feel right. Speaking of which, you don't know what our family relies on to earn silver now; I can fire Glazed Glass and take it to Haicheng to sell, it's practically earning a fortune every day."

The third aunt-in-law looked at Yan Ning suspiciously, "Really?"

Yan Ning pulled a thick stack of Silver Notes from her pocket, "Look, these are all what we have earned recently."

When the third aunt-in-law looked, even the smallest denomination was one thousand taels, and there was such a thick stack of these one thousand taels, and there was even a small stack of ten-thousand-tael Silver Notes!

What was more important was that hundreds of thousands of taels in Silver Notes were just kept on a little child?!

The third aunt-in-law hurriedly said: "Ningning, hurry and go store the money well, don't lose these Silver Notes."

Yan Ning nodded; the third aunt-in-law was finally willing to accept the money.

This year there was the Child Examination, which was in the second month.

As the examination approached, all the children studied diligently, coming to the School before dawn and only returning home when it was completely dark.

This was their chance to give it their all.

Time passed in an instant, and soon it was the day of the examination.

Every household was very nervous.

Chen Yuan said with a smile: "The study time this year hasn't been long, so it doesn't matter if you don't pass; there is always next year, no need to rush, haste makes waste."

Although he said that, after the children returned from the examination, the parents could not help but ask more questions.

The results of the Child Examination were released quickly, in just two or three days.

For the nearby villages that had children participating in the Child Examination, the parents could not help but go to the city together to take a look.

Yan Ning and Chen Yuan were very curious, so they also went to join in the excitement.

And it must be said, no wonder Chen Yuan kept saying there were a few good seeds; quite a few actually passed this Child Examination.

When Yan Ning did not have Er Gouzi working, Er Gouzi would usually study with them at the School.

Er Gouzi had a sharp mind and could draw inferences from one instance after studying a little; his ranking in this Child Examination was not low.

Of course, the name on the Child Examination list was not Er Gouzi, but Jin Ergou.

For a time, the village was incredibly lively; the families in Taohua Village whose children passed the Child Examination pooled their money to host a running banquet.

Yan Ning was also curious and asked Village Chief Li of Taohua Village, "Grandpa Village Chief, it's just a Child Examination, why is there such a big display?"

Village Chief Li smiled until his eyes disappeared, "We haven't had a child pass the Child Examination here for decades; this time our village already has quite a few, so how could we not host a big running banquet?"

Yan Ning smiled and congratulated him: "There are still many in the village who have only attended class for a few days; perhaps in next year's examination, even more people will be able to pass the Child Examination!"

The village chief said happily: "Then I will take your auspicious words!"

Yan Ning and the two teachers went to eat at the running banquet together; it was lively and very happy.

Meanwhile, far away in the Imperial Palace of the Capital, the Emperor's face was gloomy, and kneeling before him were two trembling bailiffs.

If Yan Ning were there, she would certainly recognize that these two bailiffs were the ones who sent the Ji Family to Lingnan, Yang Haixuan and Hong Mu.

When they were in Shawan County, they originally wanted to go to the County Magistrate to borrow some money, but who knew that the County Magistrate would not care about their life or death at all and simply avoided seeing them.

They were covered in blood, their wounds hurt terribly, and when they went to the medical clinic, the people there almost refused to take them in.

After bandaging their wounds, they rested for two days before setting off.

The money on their bodies had been searched clean, but fortunately, both of them had hidden five taels in Silver Notes in the soles of their shoes.

Relying on these five taels of silver, they walked step by step toward the Capital; when passing through Yangzhou, there was a boat going to the Capital, and after they paid the fare to board, they had nothing left, so they could only buy a few coarse grain buns to eat slowly on the road.

They had been bailiffs for so long and had never suffered like this.

After returning to the Capital, they first told the people on the side of the Imperial Concubine about their encounter; it was unknown which sentence made their expressions change drastically, and not long after, they were brought into the Imperial Palace.

It was also the first time the two of them had seen the Emperor, and they were trembling with fear, not daring to speak.

The Emperor said directly: "Take off your clothes."

The two immediately untied their upper garments; there were whip marks on both their fronts and backs, covering almost every inch, and there wasn't a single piece of good flesh left on their bodies.

The bailiffs put their clothes back on.

The Emperor was furious, and he slapped the Table Desk: "Evil spawn! How dare they beat the bailiffs sent by me!"

Yang Haixuan said in a low voice: "At the time we said the same thing, His Highness... His Highness said..."

The Emperor lost his patience and said with dissatisfaction: "Said what?"

Yang Haixuan then repeated Yan Ze's words: "His Highness said, what he is hitting is your face, Your Majesty..."

This time, the Emperor flipped the table directly.

It nearly smashed onto the feet of Yang Haixuan and Hong Mu.

A ball of rage burned in the Emperor's heart: "I will certainly make him pay!"

The Minister of War, who was also the Imperial Concubine's father, asked: "Then, for the Empress Dowager's birthday banquet in May..."

The Emperor sneered: "Originally, I intended to use the Empress Dowager's birthday to summon him back to the Capital. This wicked obstacle has no respect for his elders and even sent a bailiff to slap my face! He can forget about ever returning to the Capital in this lifetime!"

He is just a prince, after all; he can still sire more!

The Emperor flew into a rage in the Imperial Study, and this matter soon reached the Empress Dowager.

The Emperor had to go to the Empress Dowager every day to pay his respects.

After composing his mood, he went to Cining Palace.

Seeing him enter, the Empress Dowager said directly: "It was agreed back then that we would bring him back for my birthday banquet."

"You aren't going to go back on your word, are you?"