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

It was just past noon, the sun was quite strong, and the light was a bit dazzling.

He covered his eyes.

I just had lunch at the Zhenguo Marquis's residence, and my stomach is very full, even a little bloated.

Hmm… no, I should say I just finished my 'lunch'… Ning Nan put his hands behind his back, changed to a more 'refined' way of saying it, and smiled rather self-deprecatingly.

To be honest, he would never have imagined that the peddler who used to roam the streets, the Imperial Guard commander who used to eat and drink at the Fulai Tavern, and now the charming young master who is extremely popular in brothels... Shangguan Xiuxiu... would actually be the son of the Marquis of Zhenguo!

When he learned of this, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, and he was speechless for a long time.

It wasn't until Shangguan Xiuxiu said that dinner was ready and that her mother was waiting for him to come and eat together that he closed his jaw, groaned, got out of bed, put on his clothes, and followed her... That was the second day after he arrived in Nanjing.

The night before, I got completely drunk at the Yanchun Pavilion poetry gathering.

I woke up groggily and opened my eyes to find myself in front of a white gauze curtain. As my consciousness gradually returned, I realized that I was sleeping on a bed. The pillow and the bed were still soft and fluffy. My heart tightened and I quickly sat up.

Looking down, she saw that she was wearing a brand new white silk dress. It was made of the finest silk, with a delicate and soft texture. Just by touching it, she knew it was the kind of silk she couldn't afford. Her heart sank.

He looked up again and looked around. The room was shockingly large, almost as big as three rooms in his own house.

The blankets and the bed were made of the finest materials. The bed was probably made of sandalwood, with intricate carvings, a beautiful design, a deep color, and a faint woody fragrance.

There was also sandalwood incense burning in the room.

Looking towards the rising smoke, I noticed that the incense burner was gilded.

He frowned, his pupils contracted slightly, and after a few breaths, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh. "Ah...sigh...I've wandered into the depths of the lotus blossoms, and I wonder which courtesan has taken advantage of me."

His eyes darted around in a struggle, and he rubbed his forehead, feeling utterly disappointed in the courtesan's character. "If I hadn't been drunk, she wouldn't have gotten her way so easily!" he thought to himself, feeling wronged.

Just then, with a loud bang, someone kicked the door open and came in.

Before Shangguan Xiuxiu arrived, her voice preceded her. She stepped forward and said with delight, "Brother Ning, you really are awake! I heard you as soon as I got to the door."

Ning Nan asked reservedly where this was, and Xiu Xiu said it was his home. "You've been sleeping all day, and it's already evening."

Ning Nan looked stunned. After catching his breath, he asked, unwilling to give up, "Where's the courtesan?"

"Everyone's gone home now! We've been up all night, everyone's exhausted. But Brother Ning, you won't see it, you were already passed out drunk... In the end, Miss Jin'er won the title of most beautiful courtesan in both the North and South!... If you ask me, it must have been your poem 'Touching Fish' that played a big role..."

"He got drunk...and then what?"

"I sent someone to take you back to my home in a horse-drawn carriage."

Where are my clothes?

"The servants helped you change. The clothes are all new. My mother sent someone to buy them from a nearby clothing store." Shangguan Xiuxiu nodded.

"Was it the man who changed it, or the woman?"

"A man," Shangguan Xiuxiu said helplessly, spreading her hands. "My mother won't arrange a maid for me."

Ning Nan closed her eyes, feeling utterly hopeless, and lay back down... She had no appetite at all.

A moment later, he yawned weakly and asked the other person, "Where do you live?"

His luggage is still in that dilapidated restaurant next to Yanchun Pavilion. He plans to go and get it later, and he'll be sleeping at Xiuxiu's house for the next few days.

Xiuxiu replied, "Shangyuan County, the residence of the Marquis of Zhenguo."

His expression froze, and he realized that something was a little unusual...

Ning Nan squinted in the golden light, surprised that time had flown by and he had already stayed at the Zhenguo Marquis's residence for three days. Today was already the ninth day of the sixth lunar month.

They retrieved everything they had left at the dilapidated restaurant in Jiangning County and stuffed it into the first carriage.

That carriage was delivered today by Ning Beizhi, and it was filled with exquisite pastry boxes. True to her word, Ning Beizhi really did send him a whole carriage full of Dongtang (a type of sweet pastry)!

Actually, it wasn't just Dongtang; there were other snacks as well. The coachman bowed and smiled, saying that there was a rather heavy box containing a hundred taels of gold that a young lady had given to Young Master Ning. Ning Nan took a deep breath and then bowed and thanked him after a long while.

The honest and calm-looking coachman was also surnamed Ning, and his name was Ning Fu.

Ning Fu wasn't originally surnamed Ning; he just took his master's surname. He was a retired soldier, missing two fingers on his right hand, and his calluses were as thick as mottled tree bark.

Ning Nan asked the old soldier about Ning Xiao Niangzi's family background out of curiosity, and the old soldier smiled and said, "The head of the family is a military general."

Ning Nan immediately understood... a military officer... no wonder young lady Ning, despite her young age, had the audacity to visit brothels and even drag Jiang Sixue along... tsk tsk, a family tradition.

The second carriage was a bit larger than the first, with a dark brown exterior made of elm wood, pulled by a large, jet-black horse, and filled with the things I had bought over the past few days.

The carriage and the driver both belonged to the Zhenguo Marquis's mansion. Xiuxiu said she would give him the carriage, but Ningnan thought about it and realized that raising horses would consume too much feed, so buying it wouldn't be of much use. He then cashed it out and used the money to buy a lot of things he needed, which he stuffed into the carriage.

Xiuxiu won't suffer a loss.

That night in the brothel, I gave Jin'er the poem "Touching Fish," the full title of which is "Touching Fish: A Record of My Trip to the Qinhuai River with Young Master Shangguan."

That poem is: "What is love in this world, that it makes one vow to die for it? Like a pair of lovers flying across the vast sky, their old wings have weathered countless winters and summers!"

With this poem, Shangguan Xiuxiu's thirty years of dominance in the Qinhuai River's pleasure quarters are no problem at all.

As for the third carriage, it was almost entirely filled with letters written to him by girls from brothels.

He was invited to sit down and discuss philosophy, poetry and composition, and there were also invitations to various poetry gatherings. Some were even challenges from other talented people, especially students from the Imperial Academy and Bailu Academy... He declined them all with a lot of headaches.

Anyone who participates is like throwing bait into a lake; people come attracted by the scent.

What happened that night was rather confusing, and he's still a bit bewildered.

The subsequent impact also escalated significantly.

That night, there were no fewer than five hundred people in Yanchun Pavilion alone.

Outside on the Qinhuai River, various painted boats and pleasure boats lit up nearby, carrying noblemen who preferred tranquility, accompanied by beautiful women, enjoying the singing and dancing, while waiting for the poetry gathering to produce something of interest, ready to invite the young ladies to compose poems in response. These courtesans, though not as refined as Miss Jin'er and others, were still considered outstanding courtesans... These painted boats and noblemen later became part of the forces that fueled the event...

In short, the name "Ningnan" has at least become known in Nanjing.

Along with fame spread some imagined, legendary stories.

For example, there's the story of a Northern Dynasty scholar who, arrogant and disrespectful, silenced the entire audience with a single poem, leaving the Southern Dynasty scholars speechless. Then, a talented scholar named Ning, unable to bear it any longer, stepped forward and, with a single poem, "Sheng Sheng Man," made the Northern Dynasty scholar kowtow and become his disciple.

"I wonder how many people I've offended..."

Ning Nan sighed, put his hands behind his back, and while checking the contents of the three carriages, he also sorted out some news he had received in the past few days.

The low profile these past few days has not been without effect. Shangguan Xiuxiu said that the people from the Imperial Academy and Bailu Academy have quieted down considerably since they saw that she did not agree to the challenge.

They then turned their attacks on Xu Yang, Ning Er, Shang Duo, and their group, saying that they were powerless against the Northern Dynasty people and were suppressed by Nalan Que to the point of being unable to raise their heads...

The hidden meaning behind these words is: "It is precisely because you are so incompetent that this scoundrel has become famous."

"Heh, I wonder how angry Xu Yang and his gang will get."

Ning Nan thought to himself with schadenfreude.

However, speaking of this Ning Er, he is quite an interesting person.

I even went to see him yesterday, acting like a refined gentleman, and being extremely polite.

Shangguan Xiuxiu introduced Ning Er, saying that he was a talented scholar and a disciple of a great Confucian scholar from Bailu Academy.

More importantly, this person is the adopted son of the Marquis of Jingbei.

The eldest son of the Marquis of Jingbei died early, and the Marquis was from Beining. He had no clan in the south. After crossing the river, he received a lot of help from the Ning family in the capital when he first arrived in Nanjing. Later, he adopted Ning Er as his godson.

Marquis Jingbei has only one daughter to date.

If the Marquis of Jingbei also has no heir in the future, then the hereditary title he earned through thirty years of military service will likely fall into the hands of Ning Er.

"Brother Ning said he's from Hangezhuang, that's quite a coincidence. Ning Er is quite familiar with that area. Brother Ning... could you perhaps be from Lijia Village?" Ning Er asked with a humble smile, his eyes filled with curiosity.