But Ning Yan, once she boarded the carriage, thought differently.
Who wants to socialize with people like you who have ulterior motives every day?
Her mission was complete the moment the Second Princess appeared.
That very night, she wrote a secret letter and gave it to the Third Prince, who then had it delivered to the Crown Princess's residence by his men.
The letter mentioned one thing: Today, while drinking with others, the Second Princess suddenly appeared, and her words seemed to have a hidden meaning. My sister-in-law is puzzled and hopes that the Crown Princess can help investigate this matter.
Go ahead and investigate. As you investigate, you'll find out that the Second Princess has enormous ambitions.
The Crown Princess discovered her schemes so many years in advance; if she were to fall into the Second Princess's trap, she would truly deserve to be imprisoned.
Soon, Lunar New Year's Eve arrived.
The palace banquet in Fengyu Kingdom was attended only by the emperor and her men.
Even the princesses and princes didn't participate.
Ning Yan thought this was great; how much money could be saved?
She spent New Year's Eve at home with her family, and specially asked the servants in the mansion to make a lot of big red flowers to hang on the trees in the mansion, and also made a lot of red lanterns. As soon as it got dark, the whole mansion was lit up, red and festive.
On the first day of the lunar new year, princes and princesses would enter the palace to accompany the emperor in ancestral worship.
After various ancestral worship, Buddhist offerings, and other rituals, one must attend a grand banquet before leaving.
When Ning Yan picked up the Third Prince at the palace gate, he looked like he had been tortured twice by Ning Yan, and he had no energy at all.
After the Third Prince got into the carriage, Ning Yan immediately checked him over, "Why are you so tired? Didn't you wear knee pads? Where does it hurt?"
"I wore it, but my legs still hurt."
Ning Yan quickly rubbed his arm, saying, "Bear with it for now, it's cold in the car. I'll put the medicine on you when we get home."
"I'm fine. It's the same every year. This year is relatively comfortable, but I don't know why I feel particularly tired today."
Ning Yan thought to herself, of course he's tired. He's only recently become pregnant, and although it's still early, if she had known the New Year would make him this tired, she would have waited.
...
On the fourth day of the third lunar month, Yuan Xihua gave birth to a healthy baby boy after a full seven hours of labor.
After the baby's full moon celebration, many important events occurred in the court.
Many officials were arrested, and these people seemed to be those whom Ning Yan had mentioned to the Crown Princess or who had given her gifts.
Even Marquis Anping was not spared. No one knows where the Crown Princess found the evidence, but she found that Marquis Anping had embezzled soldiers' pay. In addition, he had also received salaries for 50,000 men without working. Furthermore, he even sold the broken and obsolete weapons that were discarded by the army directly to the enemy country.
She's made a huge fuss about this. The Emperor is furious and has ordered the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review to investigate. If the allegations are verified, she could face the execution of her entire family.
Marquis Anping was the maternal grandmother of the sixth princess, but no one knew that the sixth princess and the second princess had a very good relationship in private.
How good is it?
The two of them slept in the same bed.
Marquis Anping commanded an army of 200,000 men, so his misfortune was a heavy blow to the Second Princess.
Of course, the original owner never knew this until his death.
It was only after Ning Yan hinted or suggested something that the Crown Princess discovered it.
Ning Yan secretly told the Third Prince about it, and the Third Prince's eyes widened in curiosity for a long time.
Ning Yan was afraid that his jaw would fall to the ground and he wouldn't be able to pick it up, so she kissed him twice.
"The strange occurrences in the royal family are not just rumors. You may not know them, but that's just your ignorance. Anything strange can happen in secret."
The third prince quickly moved further away.
Ning Yan: "What are you doing? Why are you moving to the side?"
Third Prince: "It feels like you're going to eat me up."
"You've been pregnant for almost five months, what's wrong with eating it once in a while?"
The Third Prince quickly stood up. "Go over there. I can't stand you messing around."
Doing that while pregnant is too agonizing.
Ning Yan quickly pulled her back, "Where would I go so late at night? I was just kidding. You lie down right now, don't scare the child."
He's about to become a father, but he's not stable at all.
The third prince moved back with some skepticism, like a young wife afraid of being teased.
Ning Yan pulled him into her arms, placed one hand on his stomach, and then closed her eyes. "Be good, go to sleep."
...
After a few months of rest, Ning Yan began to work hard again. The Ministry of Works had only so many tasks, but because she had found a lot of mineral deposits, the Minister arranged for her to be in charge of the manufacturing of weapons and equipment.
There's no rush to manufacture weapons; she should figure out the method for refining iron first.
Nowadays, iron smelting methods are relatively backward, and the speed of weapon manufacturing is also very slow because it is still entirely done by hand.
It can be said that if Ning Yan achieves results in these two areas, it will be a great accomplishment.
She wanted to be transferred to a post outside the capital. After all, an official can be promoted six ranks in a year, from a sixth-rank compiler to a third-rank vice minister. It would be virtually impossible to get promoted again if she stayed in the capital.
Being sent to a remote area is different; the official in charge of that area is a high-ranking official of the second rank.
And even if she doesn't get a promotion, it doesn't matter; she wants to take her men to see the outside world.
Unfortunately, things often don't go according to human will.
Just as she was forging several new weapons from the newly refined iron to present to the emperor and then expressing her desire to serve as an official in Jiangnan, the Crown Princess shattered her beautiful dream.
A day later, Ning Yan became a military officer and the commander-in-chief of the National Protection Army.
He was appointed as an official of the second rank.
As soon as the official title was announced, Ning Yan knew that both the Emperor and the Crown Princess were on guard against the Second Princess.
Because the National Protection Army was the army guarding the capital, its number was not very large, totaling 50,000. However, the total number of armed forces in the entire capital, excluding the Imperial Guards, did not exceed 10,000.
The Imperial Guards numbered only about 10,000.
Ning Yan really wanted to ask the Crown Princess: Do you really have no one else to use?
If you put civil officials in charge of the army, aren't you afraid I'll be torn apart by those fierce women?
I was in a bad mood when I got home in the evening, so after dinner I went to my room in Shuhua Courtyard.
Yuan Xihua never showed any tenderness or gentleness. "If you're still unhappy after getting promoted, those people outside will probably spit on you and kill you with their spittle."
"The Grand Commander of the Nation lives in the military camp and can only go home once every two weeks. Will you come with me?"
"How can that be? If I go, who will take care of things at the manor? The Third Prince is carrying your child."
Ning Yan didn't want to listen to his nonsense, so she pulled him directly to the bed. "I'm leaving tomorrow. Is this all you want to say tonight? A good night is too short. A moment of passion is worth a thousand pieces of gold."
Yuan Xihua sometimes felt powerless. If his wife hadn't married the Third Prince, he really wouldn't mind if she took a few more maids into the mansion. With her energy, she simply couldn't handle it with fewer people.
"Don't pull it, it's broken."
"Never mind, just buy a new one if it breaks."
Nowadays, the clothes they wear are mostly made by people based on designs drawn by Ning Yan, and Yuan Xihua cherishes them quite a bit.
But someone was too eager for sex.
He reluctantly lowered the bed curtains and personally undressed the two of them.
He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but his wife always seemed to "slack off" around him. (End of Chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
