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

Seemingly trying to prove the point that the food was too oily, she gave the other person a thumbs up, her eyes indifferent yet with a hint of provocation.

"It's not that I gained weight because I indulged in my food; it's because your food was too oily that I gained a little weight."

Ning Nan understood the meaning in her eyes. She glanced at her thumb, which gleamed faintly under the dim oil lamp. Ning Nan pouted and said, "Alright, alright, after we get back from Nanjing, I'll get you something delicious that won't make you fat."

Zhu Cuiwei's eyes lit up, and her eyebrows curved into a smile, but she quickly returned to normal, nodded her chin, and went out to find a rag to wipe her hands.

Yang Bing caught a glimpse of this scene and his face paled. When he saw the other person get up, he quickly followed the beautiful figure out of the corner of his eye.

After the other person's figure disappeared outside the gate, he turned his gaze back to the rice bowl. At this moment, he couldn't eat at all; his heart felt like it had been punched by something. Even when Yang Qiniang cheerfully called him to go out, he was still completely lost and dejected.

"Look, your young lady remembered something and found a silver pouch when she went out. This is a silver bean she gave me as a reward."

Ning Nan smiled and stood outside the dark window, handing the silver bean to Cui Cui inside.

"Silver beans?"

Zhu Cuiwei touched the other person's palm with two fingers and picked up the silver bean.

The silver bean had been in the man's hand for a long time, and its surface was quite warm.

The silver bean wasn't big, about four qian (a unit of weight), and she frowned as she examined it under the oil lamp.

The practice of melting silver into beans was not common among the common people. Although it did circulate, it was naturally far less widespread than silver ingots or broken silver.

The silver coins in the Southern Liang treasury were often in the form of precious silver, also known as horseshoe silver, with each ingot weighing fifty taels. Among the common people, medium-sized ingots and small ingots were more prevalent. Such silver coins... especially the patterns on them, were not common and were mostly popular in the Northern Dynasties.

"Zi Yuan is from the Northern Dynasty? The person who assassinated me was from the Northern Dynasty?"

A hint of coldness flashed in her eyes, followed by disappointment, then sadness, and anger began to rise within her.

Her fair face tightened slightly. She had originally intended to let the other party go, but she hadn't expected that an assassin who had tried to kill her would be so blatant, even giving her these silver beans... When faced with the question of how to address her, her thoughts faltered for a moment before she raised her chin and continued... to her sworn brother.

Yes, sworn brother.

This vicious woman... is she really suffering from amnesia or is she faking it?

Zhu Cuiwei frowned, let out a soft breath, and held the silver bean in her palm. She was alone now and it was not advisable to make any rash moves. She would wait until Chef Ning finished delivering the letter to Nanjing and the people from the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Prince's Mansion came looking for her.

"Take this, and you take this too." Just as Cui Cui was about to return the silver beans to him, Ning Nan raised an eyebrow, refused, and took out another string of copper coins and a few pieces of silver from his pocket and handed them over.

"Why are you giving me money?" Zhu Cuiwei asked, puzzled.

"I'll be away for a few days, so I'll use this money if my family needs it."

Ning Nan said with a hint of helplessness, "I originally had quite a few copper coins and a few silver ingots saved up, but my mother took them all to make jewelry, such as silver hairpins and silver bracelets, saying that they would be given to her daughter-in-law as betrothal gifts in the future..."

Zhu Cuiwei's eyes flickered.

"So we don't have much cash at home, and my mother definitely won't touch those jewelry pieces. This money will be used for emergencies."

"Oh..." Cui Cui nodded her chin, then frowned as if remembering something, and asked, "What about you?"

Ning Nan tilted his head back and said, "I have my own way of doing things."

He mortgaged ten pieces of calligraphy for the future and borrowed three taels of silver from Han Laoguai, which was enough. After returning, he would have the other party copy ten designated calligraphy models.

Zhu Cuiwei remained silent.

She remembered that day in the woods, when the peddler from Black Tiger Stronghold had clearly scavenged more than fifty taels of silver from the three corpses, but Cook Ning didn't even look at them and said, "They're all yours."

I didn't think much of it at the time.

Looking at it again now, I realize that things are unusual.

Just now, at the moment the man took out money from his pocket, she suddenly realized something again... this farmer's son was actually not rich.

But when faced with wealth several times greater than his own, he was not tempted at all. Almost instinctively, he handed over all the wealth to the other party, asking him to "grease the wheels" with his superiors at Black Tiger Mountain so that he could successfully infiltrate the mountain and bring him news in the future.

This kind of behavior.

They all have a touch of the chivalrous spirit of the Spring and Autumn Period.

What's even more remarkable is that...

At the time, Li Erlai and Li Sanzhuang, as well as that very skilled archer, were also present. However, these three did not object to Ning Nan's words at all. They watched as their eldest brother gave all the money to the peddler. Such methods of managing subordinates could not even be described as "rare".

Master Lu once lamented that in his early years, Emperor Taizu would often use the method of massacring and looting cities as a reward to motivate his soldiers to fight. It wasn't until Emperor Taizu's territory was stable enough and the world was within reach that he stopped using such tyrannical methods and started paying his soldiers through taxes and land distribution. The other side was certainly not as good as his own Emperor Taizu, but the difficulty of managing his subordinates was evident.

"call……"

Zhu Cuiwei gently exhaled through her pink lips.

"Mm." She nodded.

The next morning.

Widow Ning got up very early and boiled ten eggs for Ning Nan, which were wrapped in a white cloth and looked bulging.

"When you eat on the road, remember to share some with Brother Bing. Don't eat it all by yourself."

Widow Ning's eyes were red; after all, this was the first time in nearly twenty years that her son had traveled so far from home. She knew this day would come sooner or later, but when it finally arrived, she couldn't help feeling a little sad.

"Okay."

Ning Nan took the eggs wrapped in cloth, which were piping hot, stuffed them into his gray satchel, and slung it across his shoulder.

He waved to his mother and Cui Cui who were seeing him off, then stepped onto the soft mud and walked down the long slope outside the house.

When we were almost at the bottom of the slope.

He paused for a moment, then glanced back casually.

His gaze pierced through the thick fog.

He vaguely saw Cuicui helping her mother back to the courtyard. Her mother was actually quite robust and didn't need any support, but she still clung tightly to Cuicui.

Ning Nan smiled, looked away, and turned to walk out of the village.

Yang Bing was driving his horse-drawn carriage and waiting for him on the south side of the stone bridge.

"Good morning, Brother Yang!" Ning Nan greeted him and jumped into the carriage.

Yang Bing drove the carriage himself. After all, he was just a minor official, and it was good enough that he could afford to rent a carriage. There was no need for him to hire a driver.

Ningnan didn't take the lead either.

They really treat others like coachmen while they sit in the carriage like royalty.

Just like in later generations, if a friend picks you up in his car, and there's no one in the passenger seat, you should sit in the passenger seat instead of in the back, otherwise it will give your friend the feeling that you're treating him like a chauffeur.

Ning Nan sat down in the car next to Yang Bing, peeled an egg, stuffed it into Yang Bing's hand, and said with a smile, "I'll learn from you, so that Brother Yang can take a break."

Yang Bing's frosty expression softened slightly at this moment, and he said, "Brother Ning, you're too kind."

The carriage swayed and rocked.

Two hours later.

Having learned to drive a horse-drawn carriage, Ning Nan, holding the reins in his hand, saw the city of Nanjing.