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

She casually withdrew her gaze and told Yang Qiniang to sit down and eat with her.

"I heard you have a cousin visiting? And she's quite pretty?"

Zhu Qingmian held her chopsticks with elegance, lightly picking up a quail egg from the hot iron pot.

"Yes!" Yang Qiniang's eyes lit up when she talked about Cuicui. Last night, when she was eating at the Ning family's house, besides looking at Mr. Han, she looked at Cuicui the most. But just as Yang Qiniang's face lit up with excitement, she looked up and saw the expression on the face of the young lady who had given her three silver beans, and she immediately shut her mouth again.

We are both women.

She keenly sensed that something was amiss in the atmosphere.

Fortunately, Ningwa's cooking was really good. She naturally put a piece of goose meat into her mouth, then immediately pretended to be burned, sucking in air and fanning herself with her hand to pull herself out of the mood.

Ning Nan put away the silver beans and pulled over a bamboo chair to sit down.

That's your maid... He looked at Miss Zhu, who had lost her memory, with a complicated expression.

"Ah, cousin," Ning Nan replied with a hint of helplessness.

"Oh..." The woman remained noncommittal, eating her meal with her head down. After a while, she raised her chin and expressed to the royal chef her desire to eat lotus leaf chicken the next day.

Although I said I was tired of it before, after stopping for a few days, I started craving it again.

Ning Nan said he was going to Nanjing tomorrow and might not be back for two or three days.

I didn't say what I was going to do, and I didn't tell the other person that I was going to see their parents. Anyway, the other person has amnesia, so it wouldn't make a difference to tell them.

Regardless, after gaining so many favors these past few days, asking for a household registration is certainly not unreasonable.

In the original book, Master Zhu seems to be a very powerful figure with connections everywhere. Li Yanting offended some extremely powerful official, but as soon as Master Zhu was mentioned, the official was immediately stunned.

Therefore, Master Zhu's strength is definitely greater than that of the verbally sparring master Shangguan Xiuxiu, so getting a household registration wouldn't be difficult for him.

This morning he had an urge to call Shangguan Xiu "Xiuxiu" in front of him, but he held back because he hadn't even sorted out his household registration yet.

"You're going to be gone for three days?" Zhu Qingmian paused, putting down her chopsticks.

"It could take two days," Ning Nan nodded.

At this moment, Yang Qiniang found an opening to say that her nephew worked in the Jiangning County government office and had come to visit her in Lijia Village today in a horse-drawn carriage. He was going back to Jiangning tomorrow and could take Ningnan with him.

Ning Nan expressed his gratitude and said he could pay for it.

I originally planned to rent an oxcart in Hangezhuang, but if there were horse-drawn carriages available, and the owner happened to be at the Jiangning County government office, that would be even better. It would be safer on the road, and once we entered Nanjing, we would have a guide.

I've heard Yang Qiniang boast many times that her nephew is a minor official, considered a nobody in Jiangning, but he has quite a few connections in the villages near Lijia Village.

Yang Qiniang quickly said no need, saying that she wanted her nephew to come to the Ning family in the afternoon to meet and get acquainted. Ning Nan then decided to invite her to stay for a meal.

Yang Qiniang immediately smiled and agreed, saying she would come along too.

Actually, my nephew was specially invited over. He's come of age this year, and he's quite handsome. He's well-known for his good looks in the surrounding villages, and he's also promising. He can work in the county government, so he has a bright future ahead of him.

Having taken care of Miss Zhu for so many days, she harbored some secret thoughts.

She wanted to take advantage of Miss Zhu's amnesia to call out her nephew from her maternal family so that Miss Zhu could meet him. If the two of them hit it off, then the Yang family would be rich!

When she returns to the Yang family, no matter how smug she walks, her sister-in-law will have to step aside! Even her parents will treat her like royalty!

But it's a pity.

In the morning, when her nephew, dressed in his finest clothes, drove his rented carriage and parked imposingly outside Li Yanting's house, she specially invited Miss Zhu to go outside and bask in the sun. As soon as Miss Zhu came out and saw her nephew, she said with disdain, "Seventh Aunt, if this man's rickety horse drops manure in front of my brother's house, I'll go to the village head and say that someone is ruining the feng shui of a family with a promising scholar."

Yang Qiniang quickly pretended not to know the other party and waved him away, but she did not expect that as soon as her nephew saw Miss Zhu, he seemed to have a hysteria. He was absent-minded and pretended to be a scholar, speaking in a literary style like in a play, saying that he was traveling and studying and was thirsty, asking if the young lady could give him a bowl of water.

Miss Zhu told him to get lost.

The horse rode away amidst awkward laughter.

"I should have taught him to cook from elementary school." Yang Qiniang ate Chef Ning's food while wondering whether she should have her nephew cook a few dishes and send them over for Miss Zhu to try.

As she was thinking, a clinking sound came from ahead. Miss Zhu had finished her meal and placed her chopsticks on the porcelain bowl.

After recovering, her appetite decreased significantly, and a lot of food was left over. Yang Qiniang had been enjoying a lot of good food with Miss Zhu lately, and said with a smile, "Then, Miss, I'll eat it all."

Previously, she would address the other party as "Madam Zhu" or "Little Madam," but this morning, after three silver beans clattered into her pocket, she smoothly switched to the perspective of a servant and called the other party "Miss."

Zhu Qingmian nodded her chin.

Seeing that the other party had finished eating, Ning Nan got up to take his leave. Zhu Qingmian's eyes were as misty as lake water. She glanced at his back and remained silent.

As I was leaving the courtyard of the "Reading Seed" family, I happened to run into Uncle Donghu coming in.

Ning Nan asked Uncle Dong Hu in confusion why he had come here.

Han Donghu, this honest and simple man, also looked somewhat surprised. Holding up his tea leaves, he said that Miss Zhu had asked him to buy some fine tea leaves from Hangezhuang, which he was bringing over. Ning Nan responded with "Oh, oh," indicating that she understood.

Uncle Donghu, the butcher, was the person who visited Hangezhuang most frequently. He often helped the villagers by bringing them things and never charged them for his services; he was a kind and honest man. Ning Nan waved goodbye to him.

When Han Donghu knocked on the door and entered the main room, Yang Qiniang was still happily eating her stew.

Zhu Qingmian was lost in thought.

Seeing the honest-looking man enter, Zhu Qingmian seemed to snap out of her daze, frowned, and asked Yang Qiniang with some suspicion, "Seventh Aunt, tell me, am I prettier, or is that cousin of the Ning family prettier?"

"Huh?"

Yang Qiniang's mouth was greasy, and she was a little confused as to why she was being asked this.

She stammered for a long time before finally saying under the woman's piercing gaze, "They're all beautiful...they're all beautiful..."

Zhu Qingmian turned to Han Donghu.

Han Donghu skillfully unpacked the tea bag and placed it on the table, intending to brew tea for the young lady. He smiled憨厚ly.

"Of course, it's the young lady who's prettier."

"Hmm..." Zhu Qingmian nodded.

Han Donghu wouldn't lie; what he said must be true.

...

...

Ning Nan met Yang Qiniang's nephew in the late afternoon.

His name is Yang Bing, an ordinary-looking young man, but a nice person and very polite.

Just after the end of the day, the Ning family began their meal.

The meal lasted half an hour, during which Yang Qiniang barely touched her chopsticks. She only held Ning Shi's hand and kept praising her nephew, saying things like how he was young and promising, filial, polite, and diligent, and so on, along with a series of other traditional virtues.

As Yang Bing listened, he pursed his lips with a self-satisfied air, seemingly a little embarrassed, but the smile on his face seemed to say that he was actually enjoying it.

When his aunt got excited, he would occasionally glance at Cuicui, who was eating quietly, to observe her reaction. After all, outstanding people like himself were few and far between, not only in Lijia Village, but even in the wealthy Hangezhuang.

However, today's Lijia Village was actually somewhat beyond his expectations.

I originally thought that the young lady on the west side of the village was an absolute beauty, and I was still regretting that I couldn't reach her.

But to my utter surprise, the girl I met that evening was like a celestial pearl covered in dust, captivating and pitying to behold.

Yang Bing couldn't help but feel a sense of gratitude; Heaven had been kind to him.

He was literate; last year he almost passed the imperial examination for the lowest degree, a remarkable achievement in the countryside. It was precisely because of this that he secured a position in the Jiangning County government. With the job secured, his parents began to arrange his marriage.

Before today, I didn't really have any particular thoughts. But today, these thoughts suddenly arose twice, and quite strongly at that.

Marriage is a major life event, decided by parents and arranged by matchmakers. He glanced at Cui Cui again, having heard that her parents were deceased, and that her marriage would likely be decided by Aunt Ning.

With his own qualifications and a generous and appropriate betrothal gift, the other party would surely be very happy, holding his hand and saying things like "I have been waiting for my beloved for a long time"... As he thought about it, the corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up.

But just then, his gaze froze as he noticed something strange.

Across the long table.

The stunningly beautiful woman was giving a thumbs-up and wiping it on the mouth of the man named Ning Nan... This gesture seemed to be... wiping his mouth?

"It's too oily." Zhu Cuiwei frowned, looked at her fair-skinned but now dirty thumb, and gave Ning Nan, whose face was covered in oil, a disgusted look.