After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

The Imperial Guards said that Zi Yuan committed suicide on the spot. Zi Yuan's father fled to the Northern Dynasty with his concubine and her child, leaving behind Zi Yuan's biological mother and the rest of the family.

The emperor ordered the Imperial Guards to give Zi Yuan a grand burial, and then had her entire family wiped out, including her grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and so on. They were all killed and buried in the mass grave next to Zi Yuan's tomb.

They also removed the heads of Zi Yuan's biological mother and her two younger brothers and nailed them to Zi Yuan's grave. This was to ensure that all 135 members of Zi Yuan's family, young and old, would be watching over her in the underworld, surrounding her, observing her, and questioning her.

The emperor also ordered the chief steward of the prince's mansion to lead all the servants to visit Zi Yuan's grave, offer three sticks of incense to her, as a warning to others.

At this moment, Qinghuan, lying on the bed, groggily opened her eyes, opened her mouth, and stared at Zhu Cuiwei with her big eyes. "Hmm, sister~" she called out, then Qinghuan pouted, rested her head on Zhu Cuiwei's hand, and closed her eyes groggily.

Zhu Cuiwei smiled and pinched her cheek with her other hand to wake her up.

……

The sun gradually rose higher.

The guests began to arrive one after another and parked their carriages outside the Prince's Mansion.

The main gate of the Prince's mansion was wide open, and the chief steward, along with a group of stewards and eunuchs from the inner court, greeted the guests outside.

After presenting the gift list and respectfully greeting the chief clerk and eunuchs, the guests instructed the grooms to accompany the servants of the Prince's residence to carry the gifts from the carriage through the side gate. Seeing that the chief clerk did not show any displeasure at the gift list, but only smiled and spoke politely, the guests dared to smile, bow, and bid farewell to the chief clerk before filing into the spacious and grand central gate.

Entering the spacious front courtyard, led by eunuchs or stewards, one arrives at the main hall. After the eunuchs beside Prince Xin announce who has arrived, one kneels and kowtows to Prince Xin at the head of the table, wishing His Highness a peaceful Mid-Autumn Festival and a long and prosperous life.

If the person was a member of the imperial family or a nobleman, Zhu Cuiwei would simply smile and raise her hand, saying, "Please rise, uncle."

After a brief chat, the old eunuch beside him would, as was customary and prepared beforehand, announce that Prince Xin would bestow upon a certain imperial relative a certain amount of gold and silver, a certain amount of silk, and a certain amount of other treasures.

Then the guest, his voice trembling with gratitude, bowed again to express his thanks. After getting up, he slowly backed away until he left the main hall. Then, someone would invite him to go somewhere to drink tea and admire the flowers.

Such activities would last all day. Prince Xin would naturally get tired, but etiquette is etiquette; he could secretly bend over to rest for a bit, or puff out his cheeks to show his dissatisfaction.

But he would soon have to regain his dignified and solemn demeanor... This was how he cultivated his imperial authority. Perhaps it would take several more years before he could be like his elder brother, able to command the court without such affectation, even if he were ill.

On this day, King Qi arrived with Dou Yuan, all smiles; King Wu arrived with his wife; and the youngest of the king's uncles, the elegant King Jing, also arrived... Now that King Xin was the crown prince, unlike before, only these uncles bowed to her; she no longer needed to bow to them as she had in the past.

Most of the civil and military officials of the third rank and above came. If they were not in the capital, they would send their wives and children. Grand Secretary Qin could not leave the cabinet, but he sent his son and grandson, Qin Yun, who held the official position of Vice Minister of Revenue.

All the nobles from the capital city also came. From the Zhenguo Marquis's residence, Lady Jia arrived with her sons Shangguan Xiu and Shangguan Zhao; from the Zhongzhen Marquis's residence, the young Marquis Feng Xi came; from the Jinxi Marquis's residence, the nearly forty-year-old Jinxi Marquis arrived with a painting titled "Shangguan the Imperial Son-in-Law Reining His Horse at Jianmen Pass"; and from the Mingzhong Marquis's residence, the old Mingzhong Marquis himself was present... As the Crown Prince, Zhu Cuiwei had to personally rise to greet these nobles who had helped restore the Southern Liang dynasty, as a sign of respect.

When welcoming Lady Xiao and Ning Beizhi, the daughter of the Marquis of Jingbei, Zhu Cuiwei also stood up to pay her respects to the Marquis of Jingbei, but her gesture was slightly different. Lady Xiao, nearing forty, was radiant and looked no more than thirty. As the legitimate daughter of the Minister of Rites, her manners and speech were exceptional. She immediately smiled and bowed, saying, "On behalf of my husband, I thank Your Highness." Ning Beizhi followed her mother's example and performed the same bow.

Zhu Cuiwei immediately realized that Marquis Jingbei had not yet informed the two of their marriage to the young physician. So she did not reveal it, but smiled and said, "You are too kind, Madam."

As the eunuchs chanted "Greetings!" and loudly announced the rewards from the Prince of Xin's Mansion to the Marquis of Jingbei's Mansion, Zhu Cuiwei couldn't help but think... It's already afternoon, I wonder if the young doctor has gotten up yet, what he had for lunch, and what he's doing now...

……

The sun is westward.

The autumn wind is strong.

The pine, bamboo, and cypress trees in the courtyard rustled in the wind.

Ning Nan was counting silver notes with Li Xing in the study.

Knock knock knock!

Master Ning squinted and tapped the round table in the outer room of the study.

"You didn't miscount?"

"That's right." Twelve-year-old Li Xing nodded solemnly with a serious expression.

"Really two hundred thousand taels?"

Li Xing shook his head.

"Brother," Principal Xing solemnly pushed a brocade box full of silver notes in front of Ning Nan and said, "You're not being precise. It's 226,535 taels."

Ning Nan rolled her eyes.

He then lowered his eyes, took the brocade box with both hands, and roughly counted the silver notes from various money shops inside, some white and some gold.

call.

The head of the Ning family business let out a long sigh, pulled out three thousand-tael bills, and tossed them to Li Xing: "Principal Xing, the funds you requested for opening a primary school in Nanjing have been approved!"

"real?"

A surprised smile immediately bloomed on Li Xing's face.

"Um."

Ning Da Dongjia nodded and said with a smile, "The Nancheng Newspaper is still delivering newspapers for free, but it will start making money soon. Later, we'll use the newspaper's money to support your school."

Li Xing chuckled and happily accepted the silver notes handed to him by his elder brother. There were actually only three in total, but he licked his fingers and counted them again and again.

He didn't quite understand what his older brother was saying. Making money at the *Nancheng Newspaper*? He couldn't figure out how that could be done.

In fact, after the Nancheng Daily was published, some bookstores saw a business opportunity and printed some copies.

While simultaneously praising His Majesty, they also imitated the classic novel *A Chinese Ghost Story*, writing stories like "A Chinese Ghost Story: The Rabbit Spirit" and "A Chinese Ghost Story: The Beautiful Swan," which they printed on paper. The cost price was ten coins, but they sold them for twenty coins each, yet very few people bought them, and they couldn't even recoup the cost of printing. Li Xing overheard people cursing them while these booksellers were selling their wares: "The *South City Daily* doesn't even charge a penny! You want money for this rubbish? Go sell it in the latrine!"

But since his elder brother said he had a solution, he just had to follow his advice. Before he left, he hired a poor scholar as a tutor for the Li Family Village Elementary School, charging him a high fee. When he arrived in the capital, there weren't enough newspaper boys, so his elder brother asked him to find thirty clean-looking children from the orphanage to work as newspaper boys, providing them with food, lodging, and education.

But the Nancheng Newspaper Office was too small; ten children lived in one room. The children were very happy, but he still felt a little guilty. He wanted to find a cheaper place in the capital to set up a primary school similar to Lijiacun Primary School to house the thirty newspaper boys.

Now that his elder brother had approved the money, he felt much more at ease.

Brush brush!

As Ning Nan flipped through the banknotes, he casually asked, "How is Li Yanting?"

Li Xing said, "He hasn't been in a good mood lately, but he's still diligently writing and editing articles every day."

Ning Nan nodded and said "Oh," as long as he was working hard.

He didn't have time to write for the Nancheng Daily every day, so he handed the task over to Reading Seeds.

However, Li Yanting doesn't need to write it himself. He only needs to act as an editor, carefully review the manuscripts commissioned from some scholars, and make a final draft. This won't delay the imperial examination.

Scholars are blessed with good fortune; if someone else were to do this job, they might end up making a mess of things. But someone like Li Yanting is naturally unafraid and can always turn bad luck into good if problems arise.

At first, the studious boy was naturally unwilling, so Ningnan said, "Although you have rented out all twenty acres of land, is that enough money for your imperial examination? How long do you intend to rely on Master Zhu?"

Upon hearing this, the bookworm's face turned a deep purplish-red, and with a wave of his hand, he accepted the position of editor-in-chief of the Nancheng Daily, which paid five taels of silver a month.

But upon hearing Xing-ge'er say that Li Yanting was in a bad mood, Ning Nan thought for a moment, then couldn't help but chuckle, "Oh, what's wrong?"

Li Xing sighed, "He became a turtle... a green-haired tortoise."

Ning Nan immediately stopped counting the money.