Chapter 540 The Heartless Top Scholar 14

Ge Qing: ...

After comforting Ge Qing, Ning Yan looked around the training ground and said, "I am planning to establish a vanguard battalion. Once selected, the monthly salary will be tripled, and the food will be better than that of ordinary soldiers. Anyone who wants to come can sign up. The selection will be held in three days, and the best will be selected."

Lieutenant: ...Goodness, you've already established your authority among everyone right from the start, and now you're even going to set up a vanguard battalion.

Those people who are selected will surely be extremely loyal to you!

Sure enough, the soldiers all beamed with joy; their monthly silver had tripled!

Among these soldiers, privates like Ge Qing received about one tael of silver per month, middle-ranking soldiers received 500-700 wen, and lower-ranking soldiers received 300-400 wen.

Private First Class are either exceptionally skilled or possess unique skills that others lack.

There were only a few hundred people in the entire military camp.

In other words, everyone is quite poor.

The deputy general looked helpless. "Sir, it's easy for you to say that, but where will this extra military pay come from?"

Ning Yan dares to speak her mind, so naturally she can do it.

Who told her to be the wife of the Third Prince and the sister-in-law of the Crown Princess?

At worst, we can just act like scoundrels and ask the Crown Princess for money.

Anyway, she's raising her own brother anyway, so raising another sister-in-law wouldn't be a problem, right?

Of course, none of that matters. What she needs to do now is set up the assessment items for three days from now.

...

The palace of the second princess in Beijing.

The second princess has been in a bad mood lately.

Ministers who pledged allegiance to her frequently ran into trouble, and she couldn't save any of them. After they were purged, they were replaced by royalists or people who had pledged allegiance to the Crown Princess.

Now, she only has a private army of tens of thousands of people under her control, but the Empress Dowager has also handed over the army in the suburbs of the capital to Ning Yan.

How hateful!

She tried her best to win over Ning Yan, but her reputation for being henpecked had spread throughout the capital, and she still couldn't get Ning Yan to take a step closer to her.

She just couldn't understand how any woman in this world could willingly let a man dominate her.

No, no, she can't accept her fate. There must be a way, there must be a way!

...

Everything went smoothly in the military camp. In ten days, the vanguard battalion was established. Although the battalion only had two hundred men, these two hundred men were the elite of the elite, and could be said to be invincible.

When the tenth day arrived, Ning Yan finally had a day off. That evening, she rode back to the capital and went straight to the Crown Princess's residence.

The Crown Princess originally thought that her brother's wife had something to report to her.

Unexpectedly, this guy's first words were to ask for money, which angered the Crown Princess so much that she raised her hand to hit Ning Yan.

Ning Yan was chased all over the courtyard by the Crown Princess, but she didn't forget to ask for money. "Elder sister, this is unreasonable of you."

I had no choice; the soldiers were eating too poorly. If they ate poorly, they wouldn't have the strength, and if they didn't have the strength, they couldn't fight.

If I were to ask the Emperor for money, then all the soldiers in the land would have to improve their meals, which would cost even more!

So I had no choice but to come to you!

She used to be called the Crown Princess, but now she's called the Imperial Sister?

The Crown Princess pressed on even more, "Should I thank you?"

"You're welcome, you're welcome. Your Highness, please just exchange your thanks for silver notes."

Rest assured, I guarantee that every penny you give me will be used for those soldiers.

We will absolutely not let your money go to waste!

Crown Princess: "Stop right there! Don't run anymore!"

Ning Yan: Only a fool would stop!

"I'll stop once you've produced the banknotes!"

Crown Princess: ...

In the end, Ning Yan was expelled from the Crown Princess's residence, but of course, she ended up with ten thousand taels of silver notes in her pocket.

That very day, she sent people to purchase grain from major grain stores and order meat from butcher shops, saying that she would definitely do it to improve the soldiers' meals. She was a woman of her word.

The next day, I planned to take my two husbands shopping.

Going out means shopping, and when you get tired, you go to a restaurant to eat.

However, no one would have expected to hear others criticizing them while dining at a restaurant.

The private rooms in the restaurant weren't very soundproof, and the discussions outside were quite loud, so Ning Yan couldn't help but hear them.

She was a live-in son-in-law, a freeloader, and even her title of top scholar was only bestowed upon her by the emperor because she caught the eye of the third prince.

Her subsequent promotions were all due to the Third Prince speaking highly of her to the Emperor. Otherwise, how could she have become a second-rank official in just over a year?

Not only Ning Yan heard these words, but both men also heard them.

They just felt a chill run down their spines.

To be honest, the original owner of this body didn't actually marry into the family; it was the Yuan family who supported her to go to the capital for the imperial examinations, and she had to repay them with a child.

But it does imply that he's somewhat of a kept man.

As for the matter of being the top scholar, that's pure nonsense. But it's undeniable that the Third Prince took a liking to her back then, and Ning Yan did indeed spend more than a year becoming a second-rank official.

The two men exchanged glances, their hearts pounding with anxiety. Would their wife hold a grudge against them because of these rumors?

Ning Yan casually served food to the two men, saying, "Eat your food. I know what's going on with me."

"Don't let my lack of concern cause you all distress, especially Ah Yan. You're almost due; if you get sick from all this stress, I won't forgive you."

Seeing that she didn't seem angry, the Third Prince was in the mood to joke: "How exactly are you going to be unforgiving?"

Ning Yan put a piece of meat in his mouth and stuffed it into his mouth.

The third prince ate with a smile, but in reality, he was already thinking of ways to find out who had stirred up trouble within his family.

He's not stupid. There used to be rumors in the capital that his wife was very strict with him.

This was originally something the wife did intentionally, and some people say that it's normal.

But what he heard today was completely different. If he doesn't find that person, he'll have lived in vain.

When they went out shopping, they were followed by servants, especially the Third Prince who was carrying such a big belly.

People are already keeping an eye on those who talk nonsense.

After lunch, as planned, Ning Yan took the two of them to the theater to watch a play.

I returned home only after watching the opera.

The person who went to investigate just happened to return.

"The person who sent the message was from the Xiao family? The Xiao family, a century-old family?"

The servants should be.

"That person went into the Xiao residence and never came out again. Our people can't get in, and we don't know which branch of the Xiao family did it."

The Xiao family—that's the Emperor's tutor! Even if you beat the Third Prince to death, he wouldn't believe that Grand Tutor Xiao would speak ill of his wife.

That could only have been done by one of the younger members of the family.

Ning Yan smiled and said, "No need to think about it, I know who did it."

I only think of the Second Princess and no one else.

Ning Yan was afraid that the two were naive and would be tricked by the Second Princess, so she told them everything. The Third Prince immediately knew who it was, "Is it the Second Princess? Why would she do this?"

Ning Yan pursed her lips: "Perhaps she thinks that women care about their image, and if I'm called a gigolo, she'll definitely hate you from the bottom of her heart, and she'll want to surpass you in status and position one day."

Thank you so much, "Wash and Sleep" for the 100 book coins!

(End of this chapter)