Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 185: Chapter 181: Shameless Elder

In the study of the main courtyard, Yu Qingyi sat behind the desk in a sky-blue robe, doing calculations on an abacus.

”What are you calculating?” Yang Zhenshan walked in, asking with some curiosity.

Truth be told, he didn’t know how to use an abacus. He had learned in elementary school, but he had forgotten all about it.

He had previously thought about learning how to use an abacus, but after giving it a try, he gave up. Learning it wasn’t difficult, but mastering it required a lot of effort.

Yu Qingyi said without lifting her head, ”I’m calculating our family’s annual income. How much it is?”

”Um, how much?” Yang Zhenshan asked curiously.

Yu Qingyi looked at the abacus and sighed slightly, ”Excluding the horse ranch, our annual income is less than 300 taels of silver!”

”...”

Yang Zhenshan was somewhat taken aback.

taels, while a lot for an average person, was not enough to cover the monthly wages for the servants in the Yang family now.

But this was normal, since the Yang family didn’t have many assets.

Apart from the horse ranch and the one hundred or so acres of land in Anning County, there were just a few shops that Yu Qingyi had recently purchased.

”No worries, the income from the horse ranch is not low; it’s sufficient to cover the family’s expenses!” Yang Zhenshan said.

Yu Qingyi stepped forward to help him remove his coat. ”But the horse ranch has just been built, there shouldn’t be any income this year, right?”

”There will be. You’ll see when the time comes,” Yang Zhenshan laughed.

Normally, it would take two to three years for a newly built horse ranch to start making a profit, but the Yang family’s horse ranch was different. Yang Zhenshan was raising horses with Spiritual Spring Water, and it only took a few months to raise a batch of good horses.

If he weren’t afraid of drawing too much attention, it would be easy for Yang Zhenshan to earn tens of thousands of taels of silver a year just from raising horses.

Not just the horse ranch, but his space also contained a lot of herbs. Those processed herbs hadn’t been sold yet, and the next batch of mature herbs was ready to be harvested.

If he sold herbs this year, he could also make a few thousand taels of silver.

But speaking of silver, Yang Zhenshan thought of the rockery in the backyard of the Prefectural Government office.

Under that rockery should be an underground space. He had previously been afraid of causing trouble, so he had not entered to check it. But now...

Yang Zhenshan pondered whether to take a look or not.

What if there was silver in there?

”These next few days, prepare a set of night clothes for me!” said Yang Zhenshan.

”Night clothes! What are you going to do?” Yu Qingyi asked in surprise.

Yang Zhenshan smiled and said, ”I won’t tell you for now. I’ll tell you after it’s all done!”

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Yu Qingyi, it was just that he wasn’t sure if there was anything in that underground space. And what if there was nothing?

So he decided to keep it a secret for now.

Yu Qingyi gave him a curious look, as if to say, ”Are you planning to do something bad?”

Yang Zhenshan was amused by her peculiar gaze and couldn’t help but step forward and embrace her slender waist.

Smooch~~

”My wife is so beautiful!”

Yu Qingyi’s face instantly flushed. She first glanced outside at Red Cloud and Qingxia, then pinched Yang Zhenshan hard.

”You old shameless man!”

”...”

Yang Zhenshan froze in place.

Old shameless!

Old shameless!

Old shameless!

Wife, that hurts!

Can we not mention the word ’old?’

”How dare you call your husband old, watch how I will discipline you?”

Yang Zhenshan started to make his moves, and Yu Qingyi couldn’t endure it. After blushing and her ears turning red, she slipped out of Yang Zhenshan’s arms like an eel and ran out of the study.

Watching her fleeing figure, Yang Zhenshan burst into hearty laughter.

Hearing Yang Zhenshan’s laughter, Yu Qingyi spit in annoyance.

Meanwhile, the two maids, Qingxia and Red Cloud, were standing to the side, covering their mouths and snickering.

”Don’t laugh!” Yu Qingyi said in embarrassment and annoyance.

Qingxia and Red Cloud promptly straightened their faces, but their uncontrollably upturned mouth corners revealed their suppressed mirth.

Yu Qingyi had not intended to return to the room; she was somewhat afraid of her shameless husband’s antics.

But then she suddenly remembered something and changed her mind, turning back to enter the study.

When Yang Zhenshan saw her return, he put on a very earnest expression.

”Cough cough, my wife, please sit down!”

”No thanks, I have something to discuss with my husband!” Yu Qingyi said with a stern face.

Seeing her like this, Yang Zhenshan couldn’t help but stroke his beard and look her over.

Is the wife angry?

Hmm, she looks good even when she’s angry!

”What’s the matter?”

However, Yu Qingyi seemed genuinely displeased, ”What do you plan to do about that person in Spring Garden?”

”Spring Garden!” Yang Zhenshan was startled, then he remembered someone.

Miss Yu Lu!

If Yu Qingyi hadn’t mentioned her, Yang Zhenshan would have completely forgotten about this person.

He frowned, thinking about how to deal with Miss Yu Lu.

Keep her?

That clearly wasn’t appropriate.

Let her go?

That also didn’t seem right. Who knew if this lady had any troubles?

Sha Pingchuan had already been imprisoned and was likely to be executed soon.

Was this Miss Yu Lu also implicated in some way?

Yang Zhenshan thought for a while and said, ”Tomorrow I’ll ask the Secret Martial Guards. If there’s no problem, then let her leave!”

This Miss Yu Lu had been quite honest. Since arriving at the Yang family, she rarely left Spring Garden, staying mostly indoors.

After Yang Zhenshan dealt with those two matrons last time, the matrons and maids around her had also become much more well-behaved and stopped wandering around.

”Would you really bear to let her leave?” Yu Qingyi asked.

Yang Zhenshan glanced up at her, ”Is my lady feeling jealous?”

”What do you mean jealous?” Yu Qingyi didn’t seem to understand the meaning of being jealous.

Yang Zhenshan stepped forward, took her hand, and said, ”She’s an insignificant person, you needn’t concern yourself.”

”If she has no other issues, you can deal with her when the time comes.”

It was only natural for Yu Qingyi to be unhappy. Having such a beauty living in the house would make any woman feel uncomfortable.

Hearing him say this, Yu Qingyi finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Even though Yang Zhenshan had said he would not take any concubines, she still harbored such worries.

”Mhm!” Yu Qingyi nodded and leaned into Yang Zhenshan’s embrace.

Yang Zhenshan wrapped his arms around her waist, careful not to move impulsively this time. His lady was easily shy; he could not afford to be too bold.

...

The following morning.

Yang Zhenshan made inquiries with Ding Si, but even Ding Si did not know if the girl Yu Lu was involved; the only option was to send a message to Wei Cen to check.

Wei Cen was still in Jia City. Although the officials from the Capital City arrived in An Yuan City first, the focus of the case was actually on Sha Pingchuan, who was now at Chongshan Pass.

As for why the officials from the Capital City would come to An Yuan City first.

What else could it be? To confiscate assets.

Jia City only had Sha Pingchuan, but An Yuan City had the Liang family, Lin Xuan, Hao Zhaoxian, and some other officials implicated in the affair.

If they began to confiscate assets, surely a large amount of wealth could be unearthed.

While Yang Zhenshan was waiting for a response from Wei Cen, Wang Bin, the Assistant General Mansion in Jia City, also received a letter from Yang Zhenshan.

Han Fei had arrived in Jia City late the previous day, so it wasn’t until now that the letter reached Wang Bin’s hands.

After reading the letter, Wang Bin fell into deep thought.

Targeting Yang Zhenshan?

This was also beyond his expectation.

However, he knew more than Yang Zhenshan did and had his own unique insights into both the court and the bureaucracy.

”Targeting Yang Zhenshan, this person obviously doesn’t understand who Yang Zhenshan is connected with!”

”Or maybe, this person simply doesn’t care about Duke Ning Mansion?”

”But what is this person’s purpose?”

After pondering for a moment, Wang Bin suddenly had a change in his expression; he seemed to have thought of the key point.

The root of bureaucratic struggle is nothing more than fame, fortune, and power.

Yang Zhenshan has limited entanglements in the officialdom, so there could not be many reasons for someone to target him.

Having thought of the key point, Wang Bin wrote down a few words, sealed the envelope, and handed it to Han Fei, ”This is for your lord. He should understand after reading it.”

Han Fei took the letter and said with a fist, ”I shall take my leave!”

...

Han Fei left early but returned late, and Yang Zhenshan received Wei Cen’s reply first.

Wei Cen’s reply was straightforward: Yu Lu was just a beauty cultivated by Sha Pingchuan and was not involved in the conspiracy case.

Considering it, Yu Lu was but a plaything of some use in Sha Pingchuan’s eyes. How would Sha Pingchuan let her know any secret matters?

Since there was no involvement, the matter was easy to handle. Whether to keep her or not, Yang Zhenshan could decide on his own.

However, Yang Zhenshan left the matter to Yu Qingyi to handle, so as to prevent her from overthinking.

Yang Zhenshan didn’t put this matter to heart, mentioned it to Yu Qingyi, and then didn’t bother with it anymore.

Around noon, Han Fei returned.

Yang Zhenshan opened the letter, his expression subtle.

The letter contained only six words.

Commander of Songzhou Guard!

Setting down the letter, Yang Zhenshan fell into deep thought.

Commander of Songzhou Guard!

He had not anticipated this reason.

After Sha Pingchuan’s arrest, the position of Commander of Songzhou Guard had been left vacant.

Did Yang Zhenshan have a chance to compete for this position?

Yes, but it would be very troublesome.

After all, Yang Zhenshan had only been promoted to Deputy Magistrate last year.

Having been in Chongshan Town for three years, Yang Zhenshan had been promoted three times.

The first time, Zhou Lan directly gave him the rank of Trial Hundred Households, which was a trivial matter given her status.

The second time was promotion to Hundred Households, he was actually appointed as the defense officer of Yinghe Castle. He had military achievements and Zhou Lan’s promotion, so it was not difficult to become Hundred Households.

The third time is his current position as Deputy Magistrate, actually appointed as the garrison of An Yuan City.

Under normal circumstances, he would have to wait at least three years to be promoted again, but he got another promotion due to Lv Hua’s relationship.

Now the post of Commander of Songzhou Guard is vacant. If Yang Zhenshan is interested, by asking Zhou Lan and Wang Bin to make a move, and then seeking Liang Chu, perhaps he could be promoted once more.

However, Yang Zhenshan did not want to do this, as it would be too conspicuous, and he would owe too many people favors.

Going around asking for a promotion is not what Yang Zhenshan wishes to do.

He would rather stay in An Yuan City for another three to five years. By then, it would be much simpler for him to seek promotion, only needing a bit of help from Zhou Lan.

Therefore, he had never thought about competing for the position of Commander of Songzhou Guard, nor had he considered that someone would target him over this position.

Having figured out the crux, Yang Zhenshan was still unable to guess who was targeting him.

There is another Deputy Magistrate in Songzhou Guard, named Tan Jingtai.

This Lord Tan is already 58 years old, and he has long been living a retired life ahead of schedule. Although he holds the position of Deputy Magistrate, he seldom takes charge of affairs.

Perhaps it was for this reason that Sha Pingchuan tolerated his continued presence in Songzhou Guard.

Tan Jingtai clearly would not target Yang Zhenshan, he’s too old, presumably lacking the ambition to compete for the role of Commander.

Besides him, there are too many other people who could be suspected.

Commander of the Guard is no longer a minor official position; it is, in fact, Standard Third Rank Military Officer. Many officials in Chongshan Town wanted to progress further, and this undoubtedly presented an excellent opportunity.

The nobles from the Capital City might also covet this position.

Even officials from other border towns might be eyeing this post.

Still unable to find the target, Yang Zhenshan had at least pinpointed the problem, and that made the rest much simpler.

If the other party dares to target him, then they cannot blame him for stirring up some trouble.