Zhou Wen also shared his aspirations with her and promised he would treat her well in the future.

From her conversation with Zhou Wen, Ren Yaoying learned that although Zhou’s father was merely a minor clerk in the Yanbei Prince’s residence and their ancestors had never produced any high officials, the Zhou family had been direct subordinates of the Yanbei Prince’s residence since Zhou Wen’s great-grandfather, earning considerable trust from the royal household. The Zhou family was considered the old guard within the Yanbei Prince’s residence. Zhou Wen, being intelligent and outstanding among the younger generation, would certainly be valued by the Yanbei Prince’s residence once he passed the imperial examinations. As long as he didn’t make any major mistakes, his future would be bright.

Ren Yaoying was only a teenage girl. To say she felt nothing for Zhou Wen, who showed her such deep affection, would be impossible. Moreover, Zhou Wen was good-looking and spoke in a refined and witty manner. So at that moment, faced with Zhou Wen’s passionate confession, Ren Yaoying did waver, and she seriously considered the possibility of marrying him.

Zhou Wen was confident about marrying Ren Yaoying. Madam Zhou had a close relationship with Ren Yaoying’s aunt and treated her with great care. Zhou Wen liked her, and Zhou Rong was simple-minded and completely obedient to her. If Zhou Wen could truly achieve scholarly honors at such a young age, combined with the Zhou family’s standing in the Yanbei Prince’s residence, his prospects would certainly be good.

Thinking this way, Ren Yaoying felt that marrying Zhou Wen wouldn’t be too bad.

However, when Ren Yaoying returned to the Ren family home in high spirits, she overheard several matrons sitting together, taking shelter from the rain while cracking sunflower seeds and gossiping. Those matrons were chatting about the major clans of Yanbei, especially mentioning the Lei family and their patriarch Lei Ting. Now everyone in the Ren household knew that Third Miss was to marry into the Lei family as the main wife, so when they spoke of the Lei family’s past glory, they all felt honored, as if the Lei family’s prestige was the Ren family’s prestige, showing no sense of being outsiders.

As Ren Yaoying listened, she suddenly stopped in her tracks. She stood silently under the covered walkway for a long time, motionless and dazed. After returning to her courtyard, when Ren Yaoying recalled what Zhou Wen had said to her earlier, her joy and self-satisfaction unconsciously faded away.

The autumn rain seemed prepared specifically for these autumn examinations. By the time Third Master Ren finished supervising the exams and returned home, the sky had cleared again and even became unexpectedly hot.

Perhaps due to the extremely changeable weather recently, Third Master Ren fell ill on the very day he returned home. The illness wasn’t very serious – just some coughing and nasal congestion. Third Master Ren disliked taking medicine, so Li Shi could only instruct the kitchen to stew pears with fritillaria bulbs for him to eat. Even this, Third Master Ren was reluctant to consume, requiring Ren Yaoqi to personally deliver it to him and watch him finish it each time.

Third Master Ren held his breath and gulped down a bowl of the pear stew in one go, his face scrunched up like a claw, making Ren Yaoqi struggle to suppress her laughter. After he finished eating, she quickly used a small fork to give him a piece of candied fruit.

Third Master Ren glanced at it disdainfully and said, “I won’t eat it! Give me tea to rinse my mouth!”

Ren Yaoqi instructed a maid to bring tea water and ate the candied fruit herself.

After rinsing his mouth, Third Master Ren said, “Tomorrow I’ll go to the academy.” Because of his illness, Third Master Ren had stayed home for two consecutive days. Just after saying this, he sneezed loudly, nearly dropping the teacup in his hand, and his nose started running. He immediately placed the cup on the table, pulled out his handkerchief to cover his nose, and looked quite disheveled.

Ren Yaoqi said, “Does Father want the students to see him in this state?”

Imagining himself sneezing and having a runny nose in front of his students, Third Master Ren immediately fell silent.

After a pause, he said, “Quite a few people fell ill this time. During the autumn examination days, some people fainted in the examination hall and had to leave midway.” Speaking of this, Third Master Ren shook his head with some regret.

Though he didn’t value scholarly honors highly, he was still a teacher and knew how difficult it was for students who had studied hard by lamplight.

Ren Yaoqi comforted him, “There will still be opportunities to take the exam next time.”

Ren Shimin shook his head, “Brother Nanming feels it’s very regrettable – that was his most promising student.”

The Nanming that Third Master Ren mentioned was the courtesy name of Master Liu Xia from Yunyang Academy. Liu Xia was about the same age as Ren Shimin, and having similar temperaments, they had become friends. Madam Liu also had a very good relationship with Li Shi.

Ren Yaoqi smiled, “Master Liu cherishes talent – he has quite a few promising students.”

Ren Shimin glared at Ren Yaoqi, “This one was his most promising. He had even said before that he wanted him to study painting with me. But now it seems this Young Master Zhou is so frail that I’m afraid he couldn’t endure hardship, so let’s forget about it.” When Third Master Ren called others frail, he forgot that he was still ill himself.

Ren Yaoqi raised an eyebrow, “Zhou?”

Ren Shimin nodded, “Brother Nanming mentioned him several times before. I think his name is Zhou Wen. He sat in the examination hall for only half a day before fainting. If he wants to take the exam again, he’ll have to wait three years.”

Ren Yaoqi was stunned. Zhou Wen?

Thinking of Zhou Wen braving the rain to rush to Baihe Town to meet Ren Yaoying the day before the examination, Ren Yaoqi found it both amusing and exasperating, not knowing what to say.

Ren Yaoying also learned about Zhou Wen fainting in the examination hall and being carried out. Zhou Rong had written her a letter.

In the letter, Zhou Rong mentioned that Zhou Wen had been ill for three days. Though his fever had finally broken, he couldn’t accept the blow and had become somewhat dispirited. Though Zhou’s father and mother were so anxious their hair had turned white, they dared not mention the autumn examinations for fear that Zhou Wen would be further devastated upon hearing about it. The Zhou household had been shrouded in gloom these past few days.

Zhou Rong knew her brother’s feelings, so she wrote to Ren Yaoying asking if she could find a way to visit their home once. Even if she couldn’t meet Zhou Wen directly, just letting Zhou Wen know she had come might help him recover immediately.

Ren Yaoying replied to Zhou Rong’s letter with evasive words, saying she had been confined by her grandmother because of her previous outing and really couldn’t get away.

Zhou Rong immediately wrote back. Zhou Wen had been smooth sailing all his life and had never encountered such a major blow, so he was somewhat devastated. The Zhou family was very worried. Zhou Rong’s meaning was that if Ren Yaoying couldn’t visit the Zhou family, could she perhaps write a letter to Zhou Wen to comfort him.

After reading the letter, Ren Yaoying casually took a fire starter and burned it. She didn’t reply to Zhou Rong again and threw the jade pendant Zhou Wen had given her into the bottom drawer of her dressing table.

The year quickly reached September. Yanbei had always turned cold early, and after the Double Ninth Festival, each day would be colder than the last. So the Double Ninth Festival on the ninth day of the ninth month was a lively holiday in Yunyang City. After this period of festivities, people preferred to stay home and didn’t much want to go out.

Every year at this time, the streets and alleys of Yunyang City were filled with flower farmers pushing wheelbarrows selling potted chrysanthemums, and young wives and old women carrying baskets going door to door selling dogwood sachets. Wine shops, teahouses, and restaurants of all sizes began selling seasonal chrysanthemum wine, five-colored chrysanthemum cakes, and various dishes using chrysanthemums as seasoning. From aristocratic families to humble farming households, everyone enjoyed calling friends together to climb heights and enjoy the outdoors.

This year for the Double Ninth Festival, Madam Xu consulted with the wives from Yunyang Academy about organizing a larger mountain climbing festival in the southern suburbs outside the city. Li Shi was also called by Madam Xu to discuss the arrangements.

On this day, Li Shi went to Madam Xu’s place, while Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua stayed home with several senior maids, selecting materials for brewing chrysanthemum wine.

These past few days, they had received quite a bit of chrysanthemum wine and five-colored chrysanthemum cakes sent by other families. Exchanging food gifts with close families two days before the Double Ninth Festival was a Yanbei custom. However, when it came to reciprocating, Li Shi found herself in a difficult position. Five-colored chrysanthemum cakes could be made fresh, but chrysanthemum wine needed to be brewed on the ninth day of the ninth month of the previous year. They hadn’t prepared the previous year’s Double Ninth Festival, so they could only buy several jars of chrysanthemum wine from restaurants and put them in bottles as return gifts.

Sending wine carried the meaning of hoping the relationship between the two families would be “long-lasting.” Li Shi felt their sincerity was insufficient, so she instructed Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua to have the maids brew several jars of chrysanthemum wine to use for gifting next year’s Double Ninth Festival.

Ren Yaoqi was personally leading several senior maids in selecting rehmannia, angelica, and goji berries for wine brewing when Xi’er ran in with a beaming face to report, “Third Miss, Fifth Miss, the Lei family has sent people to deliver wine. Madam and Nanny Zhou aren’t home, so we don’t know how to reciprocate.” As she spoke, she smiled and glanced at Ren Yaohua.

Ren Yaoqi also glanced at Ren Yaohua and said with a smile, “Since we didn’t brew wine last year, we can only return some bought from wine shops.”

Ren Yaohua frowned slightly, then put down the small copper scale in her hand and stood up, saying, “I’ll go take a look.” Looking up, she met her sister’s somewhat teasing gaze.

Ren Yaohua glared at Ren Yaoqi and turned to leave.

Before following her out, Xiangqin winked and smiled at Ren Yaoqi, her comical expression making Ren Yaoqi find it somewhat unbearable to watch, and she could only suppress her laughter.

With Li Shi not at home, Ren Yaohua personally handled the Lei family’s social obligations. Ren Yaoqi didn’t follow to watch, letting her handle it. These days, she had seen clearly that Ren Yaohua had no aversion to this marriage arrangement. Since Ren Yaohua was satisfied with it herself, Ren Yaoqi had nothing more to say.

After a long while, Xi’er secretly ran back to report to Ren Yaoqi that Ren Yaohua had gone to the kitchen to personally supervise the steaming of two baskets of chrysanthemum cakes, and had specifically instructed them to make an extra basket of rabbit-shaped chrysanthemum cakes for Lei Pan’er.

Double Ninth Festival gifts weren’t valuable – what mattered was the sentiment. Since the Ren family had no chrysanthemum wine, Ren Yaohua could only put effort into showing sincerity.

Ren Yaoqi listened with a smile but said nothing, then seriously instructed several bold maids not to mention this matter in front of Ren Yaohua. She was afraid Ren Yaohua might become embarrassed and angry and take it out on her.

While they were chatting and laughing, someone outside reported that the Yanbei Prince’s residence had also sent wine and pastries.

Ren Yaoqi had already sent some wine and pastries to the Yanbei Prince’s residence early on as a courtesy, and hadn’t expected them to reciprocate.

Along with the wine and pastries came a letter from Xiao Jinglin.

Ren Yaoqi took the letter and went to the study to open and read it. After reading just two lines, she was stunned.

What Xiao Jinglin had written about was the situation in Ningxia.