Sun Yuanlu followed Yun Yan on his scholarly travels, journeying south together. They shared the same destination and were like-minded good friends.

He knew that Yun Yan had come here to see his sister, but he hadn’t expected his sister to have such impressive connections.

His sister was a concubine, but not an ordinary concubine—she was the good concubine of a third-rank official’s household, and moreover, she had given birth to the only son of this great official’s family.

If Minister Lin were willing to provide some guidance, even if Brother Yun didn’t pass the imperial examination, he wouldn’t need to worry about his future prospects.

And if he did pass, that would be even more remarkable—a jinshi’s future would certainly be far more promising than that of a mere juren.

Furthermore, this Minister Lin had no close brothers, so he would place even greater importance on his son’s bloodline.

Sun Yuanlu saw through it all clearly, yet he had no intention of taking advantage of these connections.

He had his own pride.

This was also why Yun Yan traveled with him and didn’t hide from him when coming to see his sister.

Lin Ruhai also welcomed Yun Yan warmly.

Having served as an official away from the capital for many years, he hadn’t returned to the capital in quite some time. Although he still had former classmates and others in the capital, their relationships weren’t particularly intimate, and some matters were inconvenient to write on paper. The Yun family was different.

The Yun family’s daughter was the birth mother of his children.

The three men of the Yun family—father and two sons—had all received his support and guidance throughout their imperial examination journey.

They stood on the same side.

In truth, Lin Ruhai was somewhat surprised.

The Yun family now had three men who were two juren and one jinshi.

Given a few more years, it wasn’t unlikely that they could become one juren and two jinshi.

Going further back, their grandfather had only been a xiucai.

Tracing even earlier, they came from ordinary farming stock.

From such origins to reach where they were today—though he had provided guidance, it was mainly due to their own diligence and ambition.

Moreover, the two Yun brothers were still young; who knew how far they might go in the future?

In a few more years, Chen Yu would also be ready to enter studies, and they could support each other in the imperial court.

Such promising young talents reminded Concubine Mei of her legitimate sixth younger sister.

She only learned later that her dear sister had once considered becoming the master’s concubine.

However, their aunt had persuaded their father against it, making Sixth Sister abandon the idea. In the end, they found her a juren, and she entered his household as the stepmother to two daughters, though he had no son. This candidate wasn’t bad, but Sixth Sister’s married life hadn’t been good.

Father had been gambling that the juren would have good prospects, but unfortunately, to this day he still hadn’t passed the jinshi examination.

Moreover, after the family’s wealth grew, that man kept buying maidservants one after another.

Though Sixth Sister was the legitimate wife, her days were far less comfortable than her own.

The only good thing was probably that Sixth Sister had given birth to a son.

She had even specially written a letter to show off about it.

Concubine Mei couldn’t help but think of her own daughter. They were a bannered family.

In the future, she would have to participate in the imperial selection. With her daughter’s character and appearance, who knew what prospects awaited her?

If that happened, even without a son, having a daughter who married well would be enough to make her proud.

If luck was good and she was assigned to a noble household of imperial grandchildren, thinking of this, Concubine Mei couldn’t help but become a bit dazed.

If that were really the case, what great honor that would be! Even without a son, no one would dare look down on her or her daughter.

Almost simultaneously, just after Yun Yan mentioned that Jia Zhu’s health wasn’t very good, they soon received news from the Jia family—Jia Zhu had passed away.

Many physicians had been consulted, including imperial physicians, but none could save him.

The Jia family was plunged into deep gloom and misery. Not only did several of the masters above fall ill, even the servants were dejected.

Among the third generation of legitimate sons in the Jia family, there were three males. The most promising was this Master Zhu. Master Lian the Second had never liked studying or martial arts since childhood, and Baoyu was still young—it was hard to tell what prospects he might have.

Although it was said that when he was born, he had a piece of jade in his mouth, which gave him his current name, many people didn’t quite believe that the jade was natural.

That jade hung around Jia Baoyu’s neck, and given its size, how could an infant’s mouth possibly contain it?

Moreover, this Baoyu was now five years old, and looking at him from all angles, nothing particularly mysterious could be detected about him. At such a young age, he had already shown his preference for beautiful women.

Somewhere, after confirming the news of Jia Zhu’s death, both the scabby-headed monk and the lame-footed Taoist breathed sighs of relief.

This wasn’t wrong either. They had searched all over other places and found that the only place showing changes was the Lin family. Now the Lin family was completely different from the divination results, while others had more or less minor changes that didn’t affect the overall situation.

Now Jia Zhu had also died, which matched the divination results.

The scabby-headed monk asked, “What should we do?”

The lame-footed Taoist shook his head and sighed, “What can we do?”

They had delayed for so long, and the people above still didn’t know about such major changes in the Lin family.

They couldn’t delay any longer—they absolutely had to report to the Immortal Maiden. But how should they explain it?

And how could they avoid punishment?

Moreover, they still didn’t know where things had gone wrong. Were their original divination results incorrect, or had someone helped Old Madam Lin change her fate?

If they didn’t do something, and things continued to develop, it would be disastrous.

The scabby-headed monk asked, “Do you have another solution?”

They had investigated that mysterious Master Zhiliao, thinking he was some fellow practitioner causing trouble, but after inquiring for so long, they had found no information.

The lame-footed Taoist stamped his foot in frustration, “No, let’s honestly report it and emphasize that Master Zhiliao.”

Apart from reporting upward, they had no other recourse. Fortunately, there was still time. What would the Immortal Maiden do?

—

Yun Yan stayed in Anlin Prefecture for nearly a month. During this month, he didn’t spend much time in the Lin residence—most of his time was spent going around with his companion. Lin Ruhai even brought him to the yamen to experience official work for several days.

Each time he returned from going out, he would tell Yun Shuyao about what he had seen and heard during that time.

He had personally witnessed conflicts between officials and commoners.

There were indeed violent mobs, but in most situations, it was the officials who were aggressive and overbearing.

Ordinary common people still maintained a sense of awe toward officials.

He also helped supervise work and assisted in spreading knowledge about the benefits of sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes were difficult to preserve. Compared to rice and wheat, they couldn’t be collected as tax, nor were they as delicious. But their greatest advantage could make up for everything.

It was just that many people were set in their conservative ways and didn’t believe there could be something with such high yield.

However, Yun Yan also knew that once nearby farmers planted some and everyone saw the yield per mu at harvest time, there would basically be no need to worry.

It was always the first opening that was hardest to break through.

Yun Shuyao understood.

High-yield crops like sweet potatoes and corn began to be introduced during the Ming Dynasty, but promotion wasn’t something that happened simply or swiftly.

In some places, the isolation of information was unimaginably severe.

Even in the twenty-first century, there were still primitive tribes wearing animal skins deep in the mountains, which was hard to imagine.

Just after Yun Yan left, someone came to report.

The Old Madam’s niece from her maternal family was passing through while accompanying her husband to his new post and had come to pay respects to her aunt.

This was one of the things the Old Madam took pride in. Five years ago, when her niece Ruozhen was giving birth to her youngest daughter, she had sent people ahead to make preparations. Otherwise, she would have died in childbirth.

With her specially dispatching people, although the difficult labor persisted, at least nothing major happened and mother and daughter were safe.

Speaking of which, both their Lin family and Xie family had suffered many misfortunes.

If in that dream world either her nephew or niece had still been alive and someone could have provided Daiyu with guidance, perhaps her fate would have changed.

Now everything was different, and the Old Madam was naturally happy.

Moreover, it had been many years since she’d seen Ruozhen. The Old Madam had Ying Yu and Luo Yu make all the necessary preparations.

“Your maternal aunt’s family is coming. Along with them will be your maternal cousins, brother and sisters. Our household will be lively.”

Xie Ruozhen’s husband’s surname was Dong. He had now been promoted to the fifth rank of magistrate. He had worked in the northwest for many years and was now heading south to take up his post.

They could finally be said to have weathered the hardships. The northwest was bitter and harsh. The place they were being transferred to this time, though not the prosperous Jiangnan region, wasn’t far from it either.

The Dong family, like the Lin family and the Xie family from which the Old Madam came, were all scholarly families.

They weren’t exactly great scholarly clans, but they had maintained the tradition for several generations.

Toward this nephew-in-law, the Old Madam wasn’t very pleased. In the dream world, her niece had already passed away—there was nothing to say about that.

But this uncle-in-law was still alive yet acted as if Daiyu didn’t exist, showing complete indifference.

Whether as a person or as an official, he was mediocre and unremarkable. She didn’t know how her elder brother had taken a liking to him in the first place.

The Dong family was one of the Lin family’s few relatives.

Xie Ruozhen had been betrothed to the legitimate second son of the Dong family. After marrying in, over these many years she had given birth to two daughters and one son.

The eldest daughter was legitimate-born and had already married.

The eldest son was born to a concubine and was now studying at an academy.

Currently accompanying them was her legitimate son Dong Wenyi, ranked second.

There was also Third Miss Dong Linghe, born to a concubine.

And then there was the legitimate youngest daughter Dong Lingxin, born five years ago.

Ying Yu and Luo Yu prepared courtyards according to the size of their family.

They ensured that when they arrived, they could settle in comfortably.

Although there were also members of the Lin clan learning together with them, so they couldn’t be called lonely, these maternal cousins who were coming were still novel to them.

Lin Ruhai was also happy that his cousin was coming, but he felt somewhat helpless about his cousin-in-law.

Logically speaking, everyone was family. Not to mention engaging in favoritism and perverting the law, but since everyone served in officialdom, it wasn’t unusual to look after each other and share information about various matters. But this brother-in-law wasn’t like that. He practically heard nothing beyond his own window and muddled through peacefully whenever possible.

After passing the jinshi examination and becoming an official, he no longer had the ambition he’d had before. In his daily life, he basically relied on advisors and secretaries to muddle through.

That’s why he had only now been promoted to the fifth rank.

He wondered if this meeting could make him change his ways.

The place where he was going to take up his post couldn’t allow him to continue muddling through like this.

It wasn’t the northwest anymore.

—

Before they arrived, Luo Yu had heard her grandmother mention them repeatedly. When she actually met them, she was somewhat surprised.

It wasn’t that her maternal aunt wasn’t good—she looked very kind, and her maternal cousins were also gentle and lovely. But this second maternal cousin brother…

Luo Yu couldn’t help but frown and stepped forward half a step to pay respects, also as a reminder, “Second Maternal Cousin Brother.”

As soon as Dong Wenyi saw Ying Yu, his eyes didn’t blink—he was completely transfixed.

This made Ying Yu blush with shame and annoyance as she lowered her head. The beauty bowing her head was incomparably gorgeous, and seeing this, Dong Wenyi’s eyes grew even more fixed.

Luo Yu greeted him, but he didn’t hear.

His behavior made the Old Madam’s expression somewhat unpleasant.

She knew her granddaughter well. She had indeed inherited her mother’s appearance and was even more outstanding. But how had her niece raised her child? Was he really so lacking in experience?

What was hateful was that the boy didn’t know how to read people’s expressions and eagerly rushed forward, “Cousins, both cousins are truly celestial beings! I wonder if you have any favorite things? I brought some trinkets commonly seen in the northwest that you probably haven’t seen before. You can play with them as novelties…”

His manner made the Old Madam momentarily see Jia Baoyu in him. Her disgust for Jia Baoyu was carved into her bones, and her face immediately darkened. Xie Ruozhen’s face also showed some embarrassment, secretly grateful that her husband was in the outer study talking with her cousin. Otherwise, if he saw their son like this, he would definitely punish him when they returned.

“Wenyi, don’t be presumptuous with your cousins. Go quickly to the outer courtyard to pay respects to your uncle.” She hurriedly sent him away.

Dong Wenyi left, turning back to look every three steps.

The Old Madam: “…”

She looked at her niece with an expression of disappointment.

Xie Ruozhen awkwardly presented meeting gifts to Ying Yu and the others, paying particular attention to Ying Yu’s face with several long looks.

Then the Old Madam had Ying Yu and the others take their maternal cousins to play in the garden before beginning to speak, “Spoiling a child is like killing them—don’t tell me you don’t understand this principle?”

Xie Ruozhen picked up her handkerchief to cover her face and complained tearfully, “Aunt! Don’t you understand what kind of life I lived in those years?!”

After marrying in and giving birth to her eldest daughter, she had injured her body and couldn’t conceive again for many years. She watched with internal bleeding as the eldest legitimate son was born. When she finally had Wenyi, how could she be hard-hearted toward him?

She wished she could give him everything she possibly could!

The Old Madam kept a stern face, “You love him, so you spoil him like this?”

Xie Ruozhen disagreed, “He’s still young.”

The Old Madam was speechless.

Thirteen years old and still young?

In two more years, it would be time to arrange his betrothal.

Speaking of betrothal, Xie Ruozhen’s eyes lit up, “Aunt, is Luo Yu betrothed yet?”

Ying Yu looked too seductive—one look and she had bewitched her son’s soul away.

If she took such a daughter-in-law, she would have plenty of grievances to suffer in the future.

In comparison, Luo Yu was very suitable. Her appearance was also good, but with an ethereal and transcendent look that wouldn’t corrupt her son. Even better, she had a twin brother who was her cousin’s only son. If he married her, her son’s future prospects would be secure.