Gu Qinghan thought Yang Ning spoke like a child, but thinking that he didn’t know about Jiangling, so it was not surprising that he had such doubts.
Only the people in this area knew about the Qi family’s influence in Jiangling. The family had a deep foundation here and a member became a hereditary marquis of the country, so its influence in this area became incomparable. Speaking of Jiangling, everybody would think of the Marquis of Honor first.
Although the Marquis of Honor didn’t side with others at the imperial court, everybody knew that Jiangling was the Qi family’s hometown. Any official in Jiangling couldn’t stay for long without the support from the Qi family.
Although the old house of the Qi family was not in Jingzhou City, the chief steward’s position in Jiangling was inferior to nobody. Even the governor of Jiangling didn’t dare to disrespect him for the sake of the Marquis of Honor. The chief steward was the deputy of the Marquis of
The village Gu Qinghan mentioned was not big. There were low mountains near the village, with dense camphor trees and oaks, which were essential materials of charcoal. In fact, in the place within a hundred miles, the camphor tree was the most common tree. And the charcoal made of camphor wood produced here was famous all the time. In winter every year, some camphor charcoal would be sent to the capital from Jiangling.At the foot of the mountain, there were dozens of scattered houses. In the distance, it was a large area of farmland. At dusk, Yang Ning still saw some peasants ploughing on the farmland. The crops on the land had been collected, and there was nothing on it. Under the sunset, it looked boundless.“Aunt, it’s late autumn now, and the crops have been collected. Why are they still ploughing?” Yang Ning rode the horse next to Gu Qinghan and asked.Gu Qinghan smiled. “You have never been to the farmland, so you naturally don’t know. A
Yang Ning and Gu Qinghan walked to the village with their horses and saw a group of people in the front, including men and women, elders and children. There was a number of at least one hundred people. It was noisy as a mess in the village, with chickens and dogs running.The two locked the horses aside and then moved closer to the crowd, to see that all the villagers glared at several people in the front resentfully.The people were different from the villagers at a glance as they wore sportswear which was short and all of them were strong. Five or six burly men gathered behind a middle-aged man dressed in grey sportswear, who had a grey belt around his head and was about forty years old, with muscles on his face. Judging from his ferocious look, anybody knew that he was not a nice person.Behind them were several fast horses. Obviously, they came here on horseback.Yang Ning knew that in this country, the fast horse was rare, and
Many villagers watching around saw what happened and found that the burly man tried to hit Han Yi’s head with the carrying pole from behind. Some people were about to shout, but in the blink of an eye, they saw that a young man rushed over and easily grabbed the carrying pole from the burly man, so they sighed with relief.But they were astonished to see that a young gentleman could snatch a carrying pole from that burly man. Especially the old man who had talked with Yang Ning earlier recognized him at a glance and didn’t expect this guy to be so bold. He opened his mouth wide and looked startled.Gu Qinghan was staring at Steward Luo coldly all the time. Hearing the screams, she finally found that Yang Ning had run to them. Seeing him with that carrying pole in his hand, she was anxious and worried.Although she detested Steward Luo and his people, she was still scared as Yang Ning got involved in the fight. After all, she knew that he was ho
Seeing that Yang Ning fought ruthlessly, Gu Qinghan furrowed her beautiful brows.The Cold Blade was a top-grade weapon which was extremely sharp and wouldn’t be stained with blood. As it was pulled out from the shoulder, it was still clean and smooth. Steward Luo’s voice was hoarse. “Young Master, Grand…pa… Really… It’s really Marquis’ order. We… we just work for him…”Yang Ning was surprised. Under the situation, he believed that Steward Luo was a coward and wouldn’t insist. If somebody else incited this steward, he wouldn’t insist that it was Marquis’ idea.“No matter who ordered you, after you go back, tell the person who sent you here that his good life will come to an end.” Yang Ning put away the Cold Blade and got up slowly, looking at those burly men with his sharp eyes. Although he was shorter than them, he looked cold and showed that nobody could offend him. “Are you going to continue to fight?”In fact the burly men foun
Yang Ning was young but experienced. “Most of the time, what you hear is far less than what you can see. What you see might not be true sometimes but is more comprehensive than what you hear. We are in the capital, far away from here, and what we know about the fiefdom is heard from others. Since we are here, what we see is more accurate than what we will hear in the old house.”Gu Qinghan couldn’t help but nod. “Ning, you are right. It’s my negligence. If it weren’t for you, I would be kept in the dark now.” There was anger in her beautiful eyes. “Tomorrow I will ask the chief steward why Jiangling became like this.” Suddenly she thought of something and rolled her eyes. Staring at Yang Ning, with a faint smile, she asked, “Ning, I ask you. Where did you learn your capability?”“What capability?”“Don’t play dumb,” Gu Qinghan stated crossly. “Who taught you the martial arts? Did Duan Canghai and the others teach you in private?”Y
In late autumn, the wood was dry and could be burnt easily. In an instant, there was a big fire at the entrance of the cave. Some villagers aside added wood into the pile from time to time, and some people waved their clothes to blow the smoke into the cave, so the dense smoke went in.There was no sound from inside for quite a while, and somebody couldn’t help but ask, “Is the beast suffocated to death inside by the smoke?”“If it is suffocated to death, it will be better, and we don’t need to waste time killing it,” somebody responded.At this time, they heard a strange voice as a black figure came out of the cave at a high speed, like a leopard. The villagers screamed, and Han Yi shouted, “Don’t be panicked. Don’t let it run away.”The black figure jumped over the fire and rushed out. A villager saw it dash to him but didn’t react in time, so he was knocked away and said “Ouch”. Fortunately another villager was well-prepared and
Seeing that the villagers were panicked, Han Yi ran to them in a hurry and explained. After relaxing them, he told the crowd to scatter. Only three strong villagers were left, in case that the ugly man went crazy suddenly.Yang Ning told Han Yi to go back home and bring a bowl full of rice and dishes. After Han Yi gave him the rice bowl, the ugly man stepped back immediately and stared at the village head, with hostility in his eyes, refusing to accept the bowl and chopsticks.Yang Ning received the bowl and chopsticks from Han Yi and smiled gently. “You are hungry. This is food. If you eat enough, you won’t be hungry.”It was surprising that the ugly man felt hostility toward Han Yi and the others, but hearing Yang Ning’s voice, he had less hostility even though he was still cautious.Yang Ning moved closer to him, and the latter didn’t step back to dodge as he did to avoid Han Yi but received the bowl. However, he didn’t want the
Yang Ning was stunned, and Gu Qinghan asked with a frown, “What? Why can’t we see the chief steward?” She had once stayed in the old house for several days. With a good memory, she remembered this old man who opened the gate, but she didn’t know his name.The old man answered, “The chief steward Qi Hong you mentioned has left the old house long ago, so you won’t see him.”Gu Qinghan was extremely surprised and asked involuntarily, “Qi Hong is not here? How is it possible? Isn’t he in charge of the old house all the time?” Before she entered the gate, she found that the old house was really unusual.“Cut the crap. Open the gate and let us in.” Yang Ning reached out his hand, trying to push the gate, but the old man stopped him. “I advise you to leave as early as possible. If the people in the house know that you masquerade as the heir of Marquis of Honor, you can’t leave even though you want to.”Yang Ning was astonished and wondere