The old lady had already done everything she could for her two granddaughters. Now she could only hope that everything would go smoothly.

After all, this world belonged to the Manchus. Although their family was part of the Han Banners, they were still of Han descent. Her two granddaughters were born of concubines, making it very difficult for them to be designated as legitimate principal wives.

If by some misfortune the Emperor took a liking to them, that would be even worse. The Emperor now rarely kept women from prominent Manchu clans in the palace, but there were quite a few Han women.

Although it was a path to success for some people, it was not what the old lady wanted to see.

She only hoped her granddaughters would smoothly fail the selection and return home for proper marriage arrangements.

Once they returned, she would formally arrange marriages for them.

She already had suitable families in mind.

Now seeing her grandson return, the old lady temporarily set aside her worries about her two granddaughters and fussed over him with solicitous concern.

She inevitably asked what he had encountered during his journey south and whether it went smoothly, only to learn that it had not gone smoothly at all.

On their way there, they had encountered river bandits. If not for their numbers and many skilled fighters, it would have been disastrous. Additionally, while on the river, they had encountered a whirlpool and the boat had capsized. Fortunately, Chen Yu knew how to swim, came to no harm, and even saved quite a few people.

Hearing all this, the old lady was nearly frightened out of her wits.

“How could this happen? Chen Yu, are you injured anywhere?! Let your grandmother look. Was someone playing tricks?”

The old lady became vigilant.

Learning that after her grandson reached his destination, someone out of jealousy had put medicine in his soup, and if he hadn’t recognized some medicinal properties himself and identified it, had he drunk that bowl of soup, he wouldn’t have been able to participate in the examination smoothly.

They certainly couldn’t pause the examination because of his stomach troubles and let others test first.

He would either have to endure it and take the test, or give up this round.

One thing after another – even if it was bad luck, wasn’t this too strange?

Chen Yu turned in a circle, indicating he was fine: “I’m fine, Grandmother. Look, I’m perfectly well now, aren’t I?”

He had only suffered some scratches.

The old lady’s heart was racing, clutching his hand and unwilling to let go. Indeed, her grandson was still standing properly before her.

But those incidents – had they really had no effect at all?

She didn’t believe it.

She would have to go to a temple later and find a master to dispel the bad luck from her grandson. Also… had he offended someone who was secretly making moves?

If so, whom had he offended?

Who would have such great capability to do all this without anyone knowing?

The old lady quickly ran through all the people her son had offended in her mind, including the Jia family.

A starving camel is still bigger than a horse. They could still maintain appearances now precisely because they hadn’t yet exhausted their old resources.

As Yun Shuyao listened to Chen Yu speak of these things, her brows furrowed tightly. She recalled the problematic Buddhist prayer bead bracelet she had switched from Concubine Mei’s possession before.

At that time she suspected someone was targeting them, but when nothing similar happened afterward, she thought she had been overthinking it. Now this too seemed strange.

No, there was another strange matter – when Lin Ruhai was serving in Anlin Prefecture, his colleagues one after another became members of the First Prince’s faction, very uniformly. That was also bizarre.

Yun Shuyao felt as if there was a black hand behind the scenes. Was this targeting the Lin family?!

She felt retrospective fear, afraid that Chen Yu might have truly had an accident. He was now standing properly before them, and had even achieved such good examination results – that made it even more precious.

Unknowingly, he had already grown into a young man who could shoulder responsibilities.

The old lady held her grandson’s hand, feeling his warmth, and that wildly beating heart slowly calmed down.

Then looking at her grandson’s calm expression, she suddenly became angry and began scolding him. This was the first time the old lady had lost her temper with her grandson. “Such a major matter, and you dared to hide it! How old are you? Have you thought about what the family would do if something really happened to you? Do you know that you are my lifeblood? If something happened to you, I wouldn’t want to live either!”

The old lady’s emotions became intense. She thought of the Lin family’s fate in the dream world.

Now they finally had this one precious sprout. If something happened to him, what difference would it be from the dream world?

The granddaughters could indeed take in sons-in-law, but how many of those who married in were good?

There was also a high probability they would cause trouble and stir up problems.

“You must not leave home again.”

Chen Yu obediently agreed. He knew this would happen, which was why he had decided to hide it from the family. If Grandmother had known beforehand about these incidents on the road, worried Grandmother might not have let him continue taking the examination. Now that Grandmother had indeed said this, he couldn’t help but sigh.

He knew Grandmother was worried about him, but he couldn’t stay home forever out of fear of possible dangers.

He was a man.

He needed to grow stronger so that in the future he could take over his father’s burden and protect the entire household.

That’s why he had decided to conceal it and voluntarily confess after completing the examination.

He knew these matters couldn’t be hidden forever, and that when she learned of them, Grandmother would be frightened and would then restrain him. That was fine. His next provincial examination would be in two years.

Two years would be enough time for him to dispel Grandmother’s worries about him.

“There’s one more happy matter.”

He smiled. This time he had achieved the Minor Three Firsts, giving himself a satisfactory result, but he hadn’t only done that.

Upon arrival, he had used his father’s calling card to visit a great scholar and participated in his assessment.

The scholar hadn’t immediately said he would take him as a disciple, only telling him to focus on the examination. He had observed him for several months in total, and established the master-disciple relationship before he returned to the capital.

That man was not any high official and had never entered officialdom, but he ran an academy. Without saying his disciples filled the world, he had already taught over a dozen jinshi, including all three top positions from first to third place.

Being able to enter his tutelage, just these senior fellow students alone were tremendous wealth.

“Master Xu accepted you!” The old lady exclaimed. This was indeed a great happy occasion worthy of a grand banquet.

It slightly diluted some of the old lady’s worries.

After receiving her grandson’s affirmative answer, it took the old lady quite a while before she could speak: “Did Master Xu say anything?”

Chen Yu: “Master will return to his hometown soon and told me to return to the capital first.” He didn’t know if Master would settle down in the capital afterward.

The old lady thought of this too. “…I will arrange more people around you. You must also pay more attention to your martial arts training and not let your skills deteriorate.”

Having her grandson stay by Master Xu’s side was a good thing.

Master Xu also had people protecting him, so she didn’t need to worry too much.

At this moment, the old lady suddenly felt her son’s earlier decision had been very wise – hiring a martial arts master for him with strict requirements.

This time when he fell into the water, he knew how to swim himself and didn’t need to wait for others to rescue him, and even had the ability to save others.

Although this was absolutely not what the old lady wanted to see – his life was more precious in her eyes than other people’s. She would rather lose her own life than see her grandson come to harm.

Chen Yu naturally agreed without hesitation: “I’ll listen to everything Grandmother says…”

It took great effort before Chen Yu passed the old lady’s scrutiny and could return to his own courtyard to rest, but not really to rest, because accompanying him back was Yun Shuyao.

Clearly she still had things to say to him.

Chen Yu also had things to say to his mother.

Arriving at the courtyard, they didn’t rush to speak. Only after the maids brought tea and refreshments and then sensibly withdrew, leaving the space to them, did they begin.

“Are my sisters doing well?”

Hearing his question, Yun Shuyao couldn’t help but give him a sideways glance. Both of them made her worry.

She was already worried about her daughters, and now discovered that both children she bore gave her no peace of mind. Moreover, she had a bad premonition.

This premonition was very likely to become reality.

This time her daughters entered the palace for the selection, it might not go as smoothly as the old lady had arranged.

Before her son departed, no one had anticipated he would encounter so many troubles on this journey.

The imperial palace was already an accident-prone area. Now both Lin family daughters were inside. Would their opponent miss such an opportunity?

Yun Shuyao felt powerless, a sense of powerlessness she hadn’t experienced in a long time.

Someone was doing something behind the scenes, but she didn’t even know who they were. The enemy was hidden while they were exposed. Apart from passive defense, she couldn’t even counterattack.

The main problem was precisely this – not knowing who the opponent was. If only she knew who they were, it would be easier to handle.

Who could it be?

Could this be the Jia family’s doing?

Yun Shuyao also thought of the Jia family, but quickly ruled them out.

Among the Four Great Families, the most powerful now was Wang Ziteng, and he couldn’t do this.

Not just this time – if all the previous incidents were counted together, this pattern didn’t seem like an ordinary family.

For example, that string of prayer beads – ordinary families simply didn’t have such things.

And so far, the “fellow practitioners” Yun Shuyao knew of, besides that Master Zhiliao, were the monk and Taoist who had intruded into the Lin household.

Yun Shuyao remembered hearing her classmates discuss whether this monk and Taoist were good or bad people.

There was no definitive conclusion, but presumably they had done controversial things, which was why there was controversy.

Moreover, their previous behavior intruding into the Lin household was also suspicious. Thinking of this, she tentatively fixed on them as suspects.

But if she encountered them someday, could she handle the two of them?

Yun Shuyao felt a sense of urgency, but ability levels couldn’t be rushed. She could only rely on external help – which meant wood attribute heavenly treasures, and also her spirit mirror.

If it could be restored, it would certainly help.

But heavenly treasures were too rare.

Yun Shuyao suddenly thought of something.

The novel “Dream of the Red Chamber” had a certain fantasy background, like that monk and Taoist.

She didn’t know if the jade Jia Baoyu was born with was truly a treasure. She had once created opportunities to get close to him, but her spirit mirror showed no response. That jade probably had some special quality but was limited to a specific user – only Jia Baoyu could use it.

She couldn’t do anything like forcibly seizing it, but there seemed to be another item, a mirror. She had heard people mention it could show beautiful faces turning to withered bones.

That mirror was given out by that monk and Taoist, and had even caused one death.

But Yun Shuyao didn’t know to whom it was given. She vaguely remembered it seemed to be related to Wang Xifeng.

She would need to have people pay attention. If there was truly an opportunity, she shouldn’t let it pass right before her eyes.

What were the monk and Taoist that Yun Shuyao was thinking about doing now?

They were currently healing their injuries in a certain cave dwelling.

The sorrow of being controlled by others lay in having to do things they didn’t want to do but had no choice.

This time they had tried a clever method, causing a flood. As a result, their main target was unaffected and left perfectly fine, but others were injured and some died. They weren’t the direct murderers, but bore indirect responsibility. Already carrying old injuries, now entangled by much karmic debt, their old wounds relapsed.

If they didn’t want their cultivation levels to decline too severely, they had to go into seclusion to heal.

Jing Huan felt these two were useless, but couldn’t press them to do other things at this time, or they would simply refuse to cooperate.

If death was inevitable either way, they’d rather die cleanly and straightforwardly than live under others’ control and die miserably.

So these two could no longer be relied upon, which was why Chen Yu returned safely to the capital afterward.

After returning to the capital, at the feet of the Son of Heaven, it wouldn’t be so easy for Jing Huan to do anything more.

When Yun Shuyao felt this sense of urgency, Chen Yu, not knowing this, asked about Lin Ruhai: “Has Father said when he’ll return?”

Yun Shuyao gently shook her head. “I don’t know when he’ll return either. He mentioned before that it would be soon.”

Yun Shuyao felt she had lived too comfortably these years. If she truly encountered trouble, could she continue living so comfortably?

She hadn’t done enough in terms of planning for danger in times of peace.

“I suspect there’s a mastermind behind what you encountered on this journey. Be more careful in the future. I’ll also be careful. Intensify your martial arts training.”

Hearing his mother say this, Chen Yu was momentarily stunned. A mastermind – he had suspected this.

He had specifically sent people to investigate whether those people had any connections.

The result was no.

Some people were in a completely unacquainted state, so naturally there was no question of collusion.

But still, it was too coincidental.

If he hadn’t been prepared and cautious, this time even if he didn’t die, injuries would have been inevitable.

But his mother’s attitude about being too comfortable… He looked at his mother wordlessly. Some things Father and Grandmother didn’t know, only the three of them knew.

Take his mother’s strength, for instance. She ate more than ordinary people, everyone knew that. That her strength was greater, everyone understood that too. But exactly how great?

He and his sisters studied martial arts with the instructor Father hired, and their strength was considerable, but although Mother had never formally studied martial arts, every time she caught them.

She didn’t know those techniques, but they still couldn’t escape Mother’s grasp.

They siblings were quite puzzled by this. Their mother’s background and origins were clear – apart from natural divine strength, there was nothing else.

Could it be innate talent?

They didn’t spread this around.

Having strength was a good thing. Having learned so much since childhood, encountering so many problems on this journey but not being stumped by any of them – that was the reason.

Besides this, Mother year after year, day after day, practiced calligraphy and painting. Her calligraphy might not have been good before, but now it was quite presentable. As for painting, needless to say, Father had praised her talent early on. Once a friend saw Mother’s painting and was amazed, willing to pay a high price for it, and pestered him to reveal who the artist was.

Besides this, she also consulted Doctor Zhou to study medicine.

She had arranged a full schedule of studies for herself, and theirs was no less packed.

When he was tired, he had complained – others didn’t need to learn so much, why were they siblings different?

This time encountering problems, watching others helplessly wail and cry there, hoping for others to rescue them, while he didn’t need to worry and could even extend aid to others, he deeply understood the importance of personal strength.

This time some rescue efforts were untimely and people died. If he had been stronger, perhaps he could have saved them in time.

Watching life pass away before his eyes – that feeling was very heavy.

He said with regret: “Mother, I think I should spend more time studying medicine.”

Yun Shuyao sighed softly and shook her head: “That’s enough. Human capacity has limits. You still need to take the civil service examinations. What you’ve mastered now is sufficient. In the future, after you achieve scholarly honors, if you’re interested you can study more then.”

“You know Doctor Zhou has disciples, right?”

“I know.”

Yun Shuyao: “One is being prepared for you. He hasn’t completed his training yet, but he’ll follow you in the future.”

Chen Yu: “Mother, aren’t you still studying?”

Yun Shuyao glanced sideways: “Are we the same?”

She already had work. Under normal circumstances, supporting herself was no problem. Even if she left the Lin family and started over from scratch on her own, she had the ability to support herself.

He was different. He was still young, at the time when he should be studying and improving himself. Only this way could he learn literary and martial arts to offer to the imperial family and find good employment.

An experienced working professional versus a student with target career positions – there was a fundamental difference.

Chen Yu: “…”

What you say makes perfect sense.