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
Zhao Yuan looked serious. As soon as he said that, Gu Qinghan and Yang Ning turned pale, and Gu Qinghan even stood up suddenly, asking, “What did you say? The tax has been sent?”Zhao Yuan answered solemnly, “We sent it at the end of September, and it’s Master Cheng… It’s Steward Qi who arranged it personally. In order to ensure the silver’s safety, they did like before and specially went to Jingzhou City to ask the governor, who dispatched more than ten soldiers to escort it all the way.”Yang Ning thought it was getting more complicated and stood up, too. “The marquis’ mansion didn’t receive the tax silver, so Aunt and I came to Jiangling in person to check what happened.”“How is it possible?” Zhao Yuan was shocked. “Steward Qi wanted to escort it personally, but he had something to do and couldn’t go, so he told Cui to send. Cui has been to the capital and is familiar with the way. Moreover, after they came back, they said that the silver h
Yang Ning thought Wei Dong was just playing mysterious and laughed. “What nonsense are you talking about? If there is a ghost in this house, do you dare to live here?”Wei Dong explained, “The ghost is only in this courtyard. As long as we don’t get close to it, there is nothing wrong.”“What happened to the two dead people you mentioned?” Yang Ning was curious. “Since you said there is a ghost in this courtyard, did somebody see it?”Wei Dong glanced at that courtyard and replied in a low voice, “In fact, all people in the old house know it. They know that there is a ghost and often hear some sounds.”“Sounds?” Yang Ning furrowed his brows. “What sounds?”Wei Dong answered, “Sounds of the vertical bamboo flute. The sounds come from the courtyard once or twice every year and it would play half a night. What’s more, it would disappear after lasting two or three nights every time. The sounds of the vertical flute are cre
“Did you go there?” Gu Qinghan frowned. “That’s not a good place. Don’t go there in the future.”It appeared that Gu Qinghan also knew that courtyard with a ghost. Of course, Yang Ning wouldn’t give up this subject. He asked, “Why? Because there is a ghost?”Gu Qinghan responded, “Don’t talk nonsense. Don’t listen to their bullshit. That is a deserted courtyard. What ghost? Just don’t get close to it in the future.”Yang Ning moved his chair forward and laughed. “Aunt, if it is just a deserted courtyard, why did you tell me not to go there? I find that the courtyard is surrounded by wild grass and withered vines, and we should tell somebody to clean it up. Although we don’t live here, it’s our old house after all, and we can’t ignore it.”Gu Qinghan seemed unwilling to talk about it, and Yang Ning begged, “If you don’t tell me, I will think about it all the time. Aunt, just do me a favor and tell me.”Seeing his expres
As they agreed, Qi Feng led five guards to the old house of the Qi family at dusk. There were many rooms in the house, so their accommodation was no problem at all.Yang Ning had planned to tell Qi Feng to go to Jingzhou City and find the governor of Jiangling, inquiring about the escort of the tax silver in the name of the heir of the Marquis of Honor, to check if Jingzhou City really sent soldiers to protect the silver, but it was getting dark, so he told Qi Feng to set out next morning.Although Qi Feng arrived on time, Qi Cheng didn’t return on schedule.Gu Qinghan stayed in the accountant’s office till dusk and was exhausted. She checked the tax in recent three years carefully but didn’t find anything wrong.Gu Qinghan was clear that so many accounts were finished in detail, which couldn’t be completed in two or three months. Otherwise it couldn’t have nothing amiss. If these accounts were false, it meant that since three year