On Yu Tang’s side, the couple went to check on their sons. On Gu Xi’s side, however, because the Tongzhou residence was small, she and her son with the wet nurse were arranged in one room, while Pei Tong and Pei Hong shared another room.

After Gu Xi had coaxed her son to sleep, she went to where Pei Tong was staying.

Pei Hong had gone to talk with Shen Fang and the others.

Even so, Gu Xi couldn’t properly enter the room, so she stood outside talking with Pei Tong: “Second Uncle said he would give you all lectures. Has the time been set?”

Pei Tong said, “How could it be so fast? We also need to see if other people have time!”

Hearing this, Gu Xi frowned and repeatedly urged him, “We don’t live at the Pei residence, so you must find out clearly what’s happening there. Should you invite Shen Fang to our home for a visit?”

Given the relationship between the Shen and Pei families, if Pei Xuan was going to discuss in detail each chief examiner’s preferences and habits, he certainly wouldn’t leave out Shen Fang.

However, Pei Tong had decided to invite Zhang Hui and the others to their home as well. He just didn’t know whether Zhang Hui and the others would agree, so he gave a vague response. Instead, he asked about Brother Yuan: “I saw his eyes were red earlier. What happened?”

Hearing this, Gu Xi’s brow furrowed tightly. She said, “It’s nothing. He wanted to go play with Jiang’er, but Jiang’er had to look after Qian’er and wasn’t willing to play with him, so he started crying. It took forever to calm him down.”

Pei Tong disagreed and smiled, saying, “This child has quite a temper. When I was little, I also only liked to play with Afei. Once he becomes an older brother himself, it will be fine.”

Hearing this, Gu Xi’s heart skipped a beat, and those ambiguous words of complaint she had been about to say couldn’t come out.

When they returned to the capital and had lunch at the Pei residence, neither Old Madam Pei nor Second Madam kept them for dinner. They wanted to help Pei Xuan and Second Madam settle Pei Yan and the others, but Pei Xuan refused with the excuse that “everyone is very tired, and with such heavy snow, you should go home early and rest well.”

However, when they returned home, the Grand Madam, learning why they had stayed out all night, couldn’t help but lose her temper again.

Pei Tong still hung his head, saying nothing no matter what his mother said. Pei Fei, who had lived outside for a few days, seemed to have suddenly changed his nature. He said sarcastically from the side, “If you don’t go pay respects to Grandmother, we as sons are juniors and have nothing to say about it. But you can’t blame Elder Brother when he comes back after going to fulfill your filial duties in your place. What family has elders who behave this way? This can’t be the Yang family’s style, can it?”

“You wretched thing!” The Grand Madam grabbed a teacup at hand and threw it at Pei Fei.

Pei Fei jumped up to dodge it. Glaring at the Grand Madam and about to speak, he was quickly pulled aside by Pei Tong, who said in a low voice, “Say less.”

Pei Fei glanced at Pei Tong, snorted coldly several times, and stormed out, slamming the door.

The Grand Madam cursed in anger.

Veins bulged on Pei Tong’s forehead.

Gu Xi wished they would quarrel, but still pretended to hold Pei Tong back: “You go out first. I’ll handle Mother-in-law!”

Pei Tong, thinking that Pei Fei now had a volatile temper and fearing he would run out and cause trouble, simply left this to Gu Xi and went to chase after Pei Fei.

Having wandered outside for several days and learning that life outside wasn’t easy, Pei Fei wasn’t foolish enough to run out again.

When Pei Tong caught up with him, he was sitting in the warm pavilion eating pastries. While relieved, Pei Tong couldn’t help criticizing him: “Mother is an elder after all. How can you speak to her that way?”

Pei Fei sneered and said, “I’m not as blindly filial as you!”

For a moment, Pei Tong didn’t know what to say.

Pei Fei continued, “Do you know what the Yang family did with my five thousand taels of silver?”

It certainly wasn’t anything good.

Pei Tong also wanted to know.

He instinctively asked, “What did they do with it?”

Pei Fei said disdainfully, “Do you remember when Third Uncle’s fourth daughter married, she had five thousand taels as dowry money? That was the five thousand taels from our family.”

This cousin had married into the Court of Judicial Review family.

Pei Tong didn’t believe it. Though the Yang family was calculating, they weren’t that shameless. He said, “Who told you this?”

“Fifth Cousin.” Pei Fei had no intention of hiding this from Pei Tong. Not only that, he was counting on Pei Tong to keep things separate with the Yang family after learning this, so he spoke in detail: “A few days ago, I ran into Fifth Cousin at the teahouse on East Street. He told me personally. He also said that Grandfather originally wanted to marry Fourth Cousin into our family, but at that time Third Uncle fell ill in Lingnan and needed to hire physicians. After much deliberation, Grandfather arranged Fourth Cousin’s current match, and fearing the other family would look down on Fourth Cousin, he used our family’s five thousand taels as dowry money.”

This Fifth Cousin from the Yang family was Third Uncle’s concubine-born son. After Third Uncle was exiled, with no one to control him, he had quietly mixed with some idle gangs in the capital.

Though Pei Tong looked down on him, he wasn’t someone who spoke recklessly.

Pei Tong had suspected this before, but he didn’t want his younger brother’s relationship with the Yang family to become more strained, making things difficult for their mother. Since the conversation had reached this point, he couldn’t very well advise his brother to let the matter rest. After all, those five thousand taels belonged to Pei Fei.

“As long as you understand the situation. As for the rest, you decide for yourself.” Pei Tong, pitying that his younger brother had been so young when their father died, lovingly patted Pei Fei’s head.

Perhaps because such tender moments had been rare these past years, Pei Fei said excitedly, “Elder Brother, I don’t want to study anymore. Fifth Cousin said that studying requires having family connections. Our family has no connections left. Even if I study and pass the examinations like me, I’d be past forty before achieving success on the imperial examination rolls. What meaning would life have then? I want to do business with friends, and you can study properly at home. Just like Second Uncle and Third Uncle—what do you think?”

Pei Tong naturally disagreed, but Pei Fei had made up his mind, and the two brothers parted on bad terms.

However, the next day Pei Fei still dressed himself properly and, holding his nephew, went with his brother, sister-in-law, and mother to the Pei residence.

Old Madam didn’t want to see her eldest daughter-in-law at all, but had to give face to her two grandsons. She spoke a few cold and indifferent words with the Grand Madam, then pushed her off to Second Madam, saying she was tired and having Yu Tang support her as she returned to the inner room.

Jiang’er was practicing calligraphy in Old Madam’s room. Qian’er was bent over the same large writing desk with his brother, holding a brush and drawing a cat beside him.

Old Madam’s Persian cat lay obediently on an embroidered stool, allowing everyone to observe it.

Seeing his mother supporting Grandmother back, Jiang’er was about to put down his brush to greet them, but Old Madam Pei waved her hand and said, “You write your characters. Don’t mind Grandmother. Grandmother will chat with your mother.”

Jiang’er acknowledged and continued writing with his head down.

However, Qian’er’s eyes rolled around. He dropped his brush and threw himself into Yu Tang’s arms, softly calling out “Mother.”

Yu Tang naturally held her son, intimately tapping his nose tip and asking, “What’s the matter?”

Qian’er glanced at Old Madam.

Old Madam chuckled and immediately said, “Don’t look at me. Even if you look at me, I won’t help you. Your older brother accommodates you in everything. I can’t help you bully your older brother.” She pointed at the cat crouching on the embroidered stool. “Quickly take your cat away. Your older brother needs to do his lessons.”

Jiang’er had inherited half of Pei Yan’s poor sense of smell. Besides being unable to tolerate overly strong fragrances, he was also allergic to cat and dog fur, so the family had never kept small animals. But Qian’er truly loved them. That year at Ku’an Temple, seeing Second Miss Pei keeping a cat, he could barely walk away.

Second Miss Pei particularly liked Qian’er and said that if her cat had kittens, she would give one to Qian’er.

At that time, Qian’er was still young and didn’t know that both his older brother and father had poor noses. He kept hoping Second Miss Pei’s cat would have kittens. When Second Miss Pei actually sent a cat over, Yu Tang wanted to give it to Miss Zhang’s family, but Jiang’er kept it and pleaded with Yu Tang: “Let Little Brother keep it! I’ll just stay away from the cat. He truly loves it.”

Yu Tang disagreed. Qian’er cried thunderously. In the end, Pei Yan intervened, sending the cat to be kept at Old Madam Pei’s place. When Jiang’er came over, the cat would be sent to Nanny Chen’s place. As a result, Qian’er often stayed at Old Madam Pei’s place for half a day. Additionally, Old Madam Pei discovered that Jiang’er, like her and Yu Tang, was very good at accounting. She intentionally taught Jiang’er arithmetic, so it became a situation where Old Madam Pei taught Jiang’er arithmetic in the room while Qian’er played with the cat outside.

Old Madam Pei was delighted in her heart, but when she encountered Pei Yan, she would claim credit: “When you three brothers were little, I never taught you this way. If your son can’t achieve top scholar status, it would truly be unworthy of all my effort.”

Pei Yan greatly despised this notion. Curling his lips, he said, “My son isn’t an idiot. Why would he seek such attention? If you want to teach, then teach. If you don’t want to, then don’t. Which top scholar is tested on arithmetic anyway?”

This infuriated Old Madam Pei so much that she didn’t speak to her son for several days and privately complained to Yu Tang: “How do you put up with him? He’s better off not speaking at all. Once he opens his mouth, he can anger someone to death!”

However, Yu Tang felt that perhaps because he had become a father, Pei Yan’s temper had grown increasingly gentle these past few years. Even when Qian’er smeared soup on his clothes, he could continue eating without changing expression.

Of course, these were all amusing incidents in their daily life. Qian’er appeared docile and shy, but his mind was full of schemes. Compared to Jiang’er, whose mere appearance commanded respect, Qian’er more easily deceived people. When his eyes rolled around, that meant he had another little scheme brewing.

Sure enough, hearing Yu Tang ask this, Qian’er smiled with pursed lips and leaned close to his mother’s ear, saying, “I want to see Second Sister!”

Second Miss?!

Yu Tang was surprised.

Old Madam Pei, however, laughed heartily and pointed at Qian’er: “This little clever one! Nothing escapes his ears. Ji Shi mentioned it once to me, and he remembered it.” She turned to look at Yu Tang. “You needn’t be surprised. The other day, Second Mistress came to bid me farewell. I told her I would come to the capital by year’s end. She said she also planned to come to the capital to see about her illness—if it really was hopeless for her, while she was still young, she’d better adopt a child sooner rather than later. She said she might arrive even before us. Qian’er must have heard this and thought his Second Sister was also in the capital!”

Strangely enough, Yu Tang’s relationship with Second Miss had always been lukewarm, but Second Miss had hit it off with Qian’er. Not only did they keep cats together, but whenever she returned to the residence to pay respects to the elders, she would definitely visit Qian’er. If there was anything good to eat or fun to play with, she would have someone send a share to Jiang’er and Qian’er.

Of course, Jiang’er benefited from Qian’er’s good fortune.

Hearing this, Yu Tang pondered and said, “Should we send someone to the Yang residence to inquire?”

To see if Second Miss Pei had arrived.