“I’m afraid something isn’t quite right about this matter,” Zhou Zhen said carefully.

Zhou Shaojin’s eyes widened: “What’s not right about it?”

Now that his daughter was helping the senior branch’s Old Madam Guo copy scriptures, he wanted to use Old Madam Guo to enhance his daughter’s value. Compared to the second and third branches, Zhou Zhen naturally favored the senior branch more.

It would be fine to have his daughter help put in a good word for the senior branch!

Having made up his mind, Zhou Zhen said seriously: “No matter how illustrious a family is, their financial resources, material resources, and connections are limited. Only the most outstanding descendants of the family can receive the family’s full support. But even so, because of the principle that ‘man proposes but heaven disposes,’ the family won’t abandon other excellent descendants either. The senior branch’s Fourth Uncle Chi—I’d only met him twice before and never spoken with him. But this meeting…” He frowned. “Never mind that he has an official degree, just looking at his conduct—steady yet flexible, meticulous yet forthright—he’s an extremely proper and thorough person, better than many people his age I’ve met, even those much older than him. How can the Cheng family have him managing household affairs instead of serving as an official? Isn’t that a waste?”

You must understand, for a family to produce a jinshi degree holder was no simple matter.

“Father thinks so too?” Zhou Shaojin’s eyes lit up as she listened. “I also find it very strange. But I heard people at Jiuru Lane say it’s because the senior branch’s First Uncle and Second Uncle are both serving as officials away from home, so there’s no one to manage the household affairs.”

“Isn’t there still Cheng Jiashan?”

“But Cheng Jiashan is the top candidate!” Zhou Shaojin muttered carefully.

Zhou Zhen disagreed: “To this day, he’s still just a top candidate, but Fourth Uncle Chi’s degree is already firmly in hand.”

That’s right!

Rather than waiting who knows how many years for Cheng Jiashan to pass the provincial and palace examinations, everything was already in place for Cheng Chi—all that was lacking was the final push.

It must be that Yuan Shi was scheming to keep Cheng Chi at home for the sake of her own son.

Zhou Shaojin guessed with some malice, but still said in good conscience: “Cheng Jiashan is the senior branch’s legitimate grandson. If he manages household affairs, then when Uncle Jing and the others retire, who will support the senior branch?”

Zhou Zhen smiled: “According to what you’re saying, wouldn’t our Zhou family have to drink the northwest wind?”

Zhou Shaojin fell silent.

In their Zhou family, Father served as an official away from home. The two daughters were raised at their maternal grandmother’s home. All household matters, large and small, relied on Ma Fushan. Not only did this not shortchange the sisters’ food and clothing, but the family’s assets increased year by year. By the time elder sister married, Father would have the means to prepare three hundred mu of paddy fields in Huzhou as her dowry.

You must know that the south was unlike the north—there were many people and little land. A family with seven or eight mu of land was already considered wealthy. Three hundred mu of paddy fields was equivalent to several qing of large estates in the north.

Zhou Zhen said: “Cheng Chi is only twenty-five this year. If nothing unexpected happens, by the time he retires, it will be at least thirty years from now, perhaps even forty years. By then, Cheng Jiashan will probably already have grandchildren, won’t he? Even if they think Cheng Jiashan is a born scholar and can’t bear to delay his future, doesn’t Second Uncle Wei still have a son? Why not send him back to the ancestral home to learn household management from Fourth Uncle Chi? With a capable chief steward in charge and Old Madam Guo assisting from the side, even if he’s useless, he could muddle through for a few years. Besides, the foundation of an official family doesn’t lie in this. As long as the three brothers of the senior branch have long careers in officialdom, the Cheng family’s household affairs won’t collapse. I understand this principle—how could the second branch’s old ancestor and Old Madam Guo not know it!”

As he spoke, he stood up with a somewhat heavy heart and paced back and forth in the room twice before stopping to ask Zhou Shaojin: “Do Old Madam Guo and Madam Yuan know that Fourth Uncle Chi didn’t attend today’s banquet? What was their reaction?”

Zhou Shaojin looked at her father strangely and said: “Don’t you know? Old Madam Guo didn’t attend at all, and Madam Yuan came and sat for a while before leaving. It was the second branch’s Old Madam Li who led Aunt Lu and others to accompany Madam.”

Old Madam Guo, using her widowhood as an excuse, had stopped receiving guests years ago. That’s why people who visited the Cheng family took pride in meeting Old Madam Guo. When they went to visit the senior branch last time, everyone thought it would end with Madam Yuan. No one expected Old Madam Guo to personally receive Li Shi. That’s why Zhou Zhen had said they all benefited from Zhou Shaojin’s presence.

“I see!” Zhou Zhen said thoughtfully as he listened. “There’s something you probably don’t know. After the midday banquet, Elder Ze called me to his study and very formally introduced me to your cousin Cheng Youyi, even having him attend and serve while we played several games of go. He not only mentioned some of his former students and old friends in the capital but also mentioned people from the Hong and Huang families…”

What did this mean?

Was he trying to win Father over?

Was this why Cheng Xu personally came out to entertain Father, using such high standards and having all the Cheng family men at home serve as accompanying guests?

But Father was just being transferred laterally to Baoding prefect—he was still far from the position of the Nine Ministers… Wasn’t Cheng Xu afraid of losing more than he gained?

“So, so what did you say?” Zhou Shaojin asked awkwardly.

Cheng Xu had a perfectly good Cheng Chi available but was eagerly trying to curry favor everywhere for his grandson who only had a xiucai degree!

Wasn’t Old Madam Guo supposed to be as capable as any man? Why didn’t she do something about this!

Someone as proud as Cheng Chi certainly wouldn’t deign to fight for these things himself. But if he didn’t fight, with Cheng Xu ahead of him, Cheng Shi behind him, and a covetous Cheng Xu beside him, he’d be stuck managing household affairs for the Cheng family his entire life.

What was the point of working so hard to earn a jinshi degree?

No wonder she had no impression of this Uncle Chi in her previous life!

In the end, when the Cheng family was confiscated and executed, Uncle Chi had escaped but turned back to raid the execution grounds… it must have been because Cheng Xu was the senior branch’s eldest legitimate grandson. Otherwise, he could have lived safely in hiding under a false name—why would he be hunted by the court? Cheng Lu had said Cheng Xu lost an arm, so might Uncle Chi have also been injured… She only regretted that at the time she had no idea who Uncle Chi was and never asked…

As Zhou Shaojin thought about this, her heart felt indignant on Cheng Chi’s behalf. Her lips unconsciously pouted as she said: “Father, don’t fall for the second branch ancestor’s trick. This is Lü Buwei’s ‘hoarding rare goods’! At the next major court examination, if you’re still in the position of Baoding prefect, let’s see if the second branch ancestor will still value you so highly!”

“Nonsense,” Zhou Zhen said with a laughing rebuke. “Is that how you use ‘hoarding rare goods’?”

Zhou Shaojin pouted at her father.

Zhou Zhen couldn’t help but find it amusing.

It seemed this little girl, just as he had guessed, among the various Cheng family branches, aside from the fourth branch, she was quite partial to the senior branch.

“Silly girl,” Zhou Zhen smiled and patted her head, saying: “Some things can only be understood, not explained in words. Elder Ze couldn’t possibly say to me directly, ‘This is my great-grandson. If you promise to look after him more in the future, I’ll have my relatives, friends, students, and old friends look after you more to make your official career smoother.’ And I couldn’t possibly say, ‘Rest assured, as long as I have my day, I’ll definitely look after your great-grandson…’ Everything is premature. However,” he paused slightly in his speech, his expression becoming solemn, “the various branches of the Cheng family are in chaos. You and your sister must be careful in your conduct in the future and not get yourselves entangled in it.”

The Cheng family was already in chaos this early?

Brother-in-law had once said that everything starts rotting from the inside, and once the inside is rotten, outsiders can usually attack quite easily.

Was this the reason the Cheng family couldn’t escape the fate of confiscation and execution?

Zhou Shaojin said: “Father, there’s something I need to tell you!”

Zhou Zhen raised his eyebrows.

Zhou Shaojin told her father about her discovery that the senior branch and second branch seemed to be joining forces to suppress the third branch: “…It seems to have started a long time ago. Do you think Cheng Ze might have done something to wrong Cheng Bei and Cheng Xu?”

Zhou Zhen was very surprised. He thought carefully and said: “You might actually be right. If the third branch’s Cheng Ze really did something to wrong the senior and second branches, their suppression of him would make sense—as long as the third branch doesn’t produce a jinshi or Hanlin scholar to support the family for even a day, the third branch will have to rely on people from the senior and second branches to get by, while constantly worrying about being suppressed and retaliated against by the senior and second branches.”

But in the end, the third branch won.

If someone told Zhou Shaojin now that the matter of her being harmed in her previous life had nothing to do with the third branch, she wouldn’t believe it even if you killed her!

Zhou Shaojin fell silent.

Zhou Zhen simply thought Zhou Shaojin was worried about the Cheng family. He smiled and said: “You’re just a child—don’t think so much. For Cheng family matters, there’s still your Uncle Jing and Uncle Wei, aren’t there? If worse comes to worst, you can return to the Zhou family. In any case, Father will protect your safety.”

Zhou Shaojin believed this.

She nodded and tugged at her father’s sleeve, saying: “Father, if you find out anything about Cheng Lu, let me know. Cheng Lu is a very cunning person. Although he was sent to Yuelu Academy by Aunt Jing, who knows if he’s plotting some scheme? We need to guard against him a bit.”

“All right!” Zhou Zhen smiled and said: “If there’s any news, I’ll definitely tell you.” Though his tone was caring, it inevitably lacked seriousness, clearly not taking Zhou Shaojin’s warning to heart.

Zhou Shaojin sighed quietly in her heart.

She knew it would be like this.

No one really believed her.

If only Uncle Chi were here.

He would certainly listen carefully to what she had to say.

Thinking of this, Zhou Shaojin suddenly realized that Cheng Chi seemed particularly… cautious.

He paid attention to small matters and details.

Didn’t this mean that if she could gain Cheng Chi’s trust, she could save the Cheng family?

It seemed she should make more appearances in front of Uncle Chi.

At the very least, she needed to become a familiar face!

Otherwise, why would Uncle Chi trust her?

Having made up her mind, Zhou Shaojin no longer worried about Father not taking her to his post. Instead, she showed concern for her father: “Are you going out again tomorrow? What for?”

“A former classmate who returned home to observe mourning invited me to a temple to eat vegetarian food,” Zhou Zhen said. Thinking that his younger daughter rarely got to go out, he asked: “Do you and your sister want to come with me?”

Zhou Shaojin shook her head like a rattle drum: “I’m not going. You should take elder sister!”

She had gone to Mochou Lake just once during the Ghost Festival and it had caused so many problems. She’d better obediently stay home and do needlework.