Jinghuan was furious, yet couldn’t be hasty. The capital was the place most deeply protected by dragon energy.

The various restrictions she faced here were even more severe than in other places.

On Jia Baoyu’s side, even though Second Madam Wang and Grandmother Jia had arrived in time, before being stopped, he had already been beaten by Jia Zheng. His buttocks were red and swollen, and he could only lie on the bed crying out in pain.

This way, he could only lie prone on the bed to recover from his injuries, but there was also a benefit—he temporarily didn’t have to go to school.

The Old Ancestress felt sorry for him and told him to rest well.

Jia Baoyu was therefore in pain yet happy.

Because he was injured, the Three Springs could no longer go out. They had to stay with Baoyu to relieve his boredom—it was too boring for him to recuperate alone.

Moreover, this time they were also subjected to displaced anger. If Second Madam Wang couldn’t control the Lin family people, couldn’t she control them?

If they hadn’t run out to play and left her Baoyu behind, Baoyu wouldn’t have thought of sneaking out.

What if something had happened on the road?

Grandmother Jia was nearly driven to death by anger at the Wang clan.

If they didn’t go out like this, how could they build a good relationship with Daiyu?

Would feelings automatically deepen on their own?

They were truly more hindrance than help!

Grandmother Jia hastily intervened and also added more courses for the Three Springs.

To go out, they couldn’t be unable to join the conversation, so Li Wan gained three more students.

However, seeing Baoyu’s pitiful appearance, Grandmother Jia’s heart still softened. Combined with the fact that she herself also valued health maintenance, after this bout of anger, she again summoned the imperial physician to prescribe medicine. Then she had Wang Xifeng make a trip to the Lin household, saying she was ill, missed Daiyu, and asked her to come stay for a few days.

Old Madam Lin heard this and laughed with a “heh heh” sound: “She’s ill? It looks quite serious?”

Wang Xifeng’s expression remained unchanged: “It is somewhat serious. She often calls Daiyu’s name in her dreams, so I made this special trip to ask Sister Daiyu to come for a visit.”

Old Madam Lin gave another “heh heh.” If they didn’t go, Daiyu’s reputation would be affected.

She would go, but as far as she knew, Lady Shi wasn’t truly seriously ill. She was just using this excuse to fetch someone, not afraid of cursing herself into truly falling seriously ill.

So Grandmother Jia saw that accompanying her granddaughter, besides her grandmother Lady Xie, was also a physician from the Lin family.

That annoying Lady Xie was even smiling there: “This is a physician our Lin family is accustomed to using. His medical skills are excellent—our Daiyu’s health is thanks to his care.”

She would never say words like her granddaughter being physically weak to outsiders. When it came time to discuss marriage later, this would be a point for the male side to criticize.

If they truly had the child’s best interests at heart, speaking of such things in such a close relationship wouldn’t matter, but this was the Jia family—that was different.

Grandmother Jia lay on the bed, almost grinding her teeth to powder, yet her face still had to show a touched smile to play along with her: “No need. I know my own body. A familiar imperial physician has already examined me. It wouldn’t be good to invite someone else—otherwise, when I see the imperial physician next time, he’ll think we disdain his medical skills. One trouble shouldn’t require two masters.”

Old Madam Lin was enthusiastic: “It’s just us here. As long as we don’t speak of it, the imperial physician won’t know. Having one more physician take a look is more reassuring. If you continue being ill like this, Daiyu will also worry.”

You said you were seriously ill, didn’t you? You wanted to see Daiyu, right? Now let the physician examine you and let Daiyu fulfill her “filial piety” to you.

Grandmother Jia truly wasn’t that seriously ill—she had exaggerated. She also hadn’t expected Lady Xie to directly bring a physician over. She could only reluctantly change her words: “…A few days ago it was indeed like that, but the imperial physician’s medical skills are excellent. After drinking the medicine he prescribed these past two days, I’m already much better. Since Physician Zhou is here, then I’ll trouble you to take my pulse.”

Physician Zhou had previously acted as if he had heard nothing and understood nothing. Now hearing her say this, he smiled and stepped forward, dutifully playing his role as a tool.

When the two old madams engaged in their battle of wits, they only needed to properly do their own jobs.

Daiyu wasn’t stupid either, and her grandmother had even shared some words with her beforehand. Now seeing this situation, she couldn’t help but furrow her brow.

When Physician Zhou said her maternal grandmother had no major problems, just that she had been emotionally agitated before and drinking some medicine for regulation would be fine, she knew her maternal grandmother had indeed deceived her.

Still for her Baoyu.

Physician Zhou’s medical skills were indeed excellent. He also reminded Grandmother Jia that her emotions couldn’t be too agitated—she had previously suffered a stroke. Because she was treated promptly and the degree was mild, now there were almost no visible aftereffects, but she had suffered a stroke after all and needed to be more careful.

Old Madam Lin hadn’t known about this matter before. Hearing these words, she looked over with “concern”: “Then you must take good care of yourself in the future.”

She could guess when Lady Shi had the stroke. If not for the inappropriate setting, she would have laughed three times loudly. But even though she held it in, those sensitive enough could still hear some laughter in her words—for example, Grandmother Jia heard it, and her expression immediately darkened.

So before long, Grandmother Jia used the reason of being tired and lacking energy to see her guests out.

As for wanting to keep Daiyu for a stay?

Since Grandmother Jia’s health had no major problems, naturally there was no need for her granddaughter to attend at her knee.

She had sons and grandsons—how could it be a granddaughter’s turn to come show filial piety?

If a granddaughter needed to come show filial piety, then her children and grandchildren could be drowned in spittle.

Once the people left, Grandmother Jia repeatedly called for someone to brew her a bowl of medicine to calm her spirit and settle her qi. Moreover, another batch of porcelain was smashed on the floor.

Wang Xifeng silently had people replace them with new ones and decided to act more carefully recently. She also instructed Jia Lian the same way—if he accidentally hit the knife’s edge, don’t blame her for not warning him.

Jia Lian: “…”

He felt his teeth ache.

He didn’t understand how the relationship between the two households’ old madams could be like this.

There must have been something that happened between them, but they didn’t know—otherwise the Lin family’s attitude wouldn’t be like this.

How many times had his uncle-in-law visited since returning to the capital?

The attitude could explain quite a few problems.

If their Jia family was in the right, Jia Lian believed the Old Ancestress wouldn’t say nothing. Now in this situation, he himself couldn’t ask what had happened.

He really wanted to find an opportunity to ask if this misunderstanding could be resolved—there was no need to make the relationship so strained.

Look at his uncle-in-law, rising steadily. Although Jia Lian was proud that they were a Duke’s residence, he also had to accept a fact: when people leave, the tea grows cold. After Grandfather passed away, they no longer had direct real power in their hands.

The social connections now were all old relationships, or marriage relatives.

The Lin family was the opposite, currently rising. The relationship between the Jia and Lin families should be maintained as much as possible.

Jia Lian couldn’t understand it, and Wang Xifeng couldn’t understand it either.

She had married in late, but she still found ways to look at some previous records.

Before Daiyu was born, every year the gifts sent by the young mistress were very generous, but something must have happened, because starting from a certain year they became much thinner, and then now it was just superficially presentable, not worth much money at all—compared to the beginning, the difference was like heaven and earth.

Yet the Old Ancestress said nothing about these things and even destroyed the previous records.

If she didn’t know how generous the previous gifts were, she probably wouldn’t have noticed anything wrong.

Jia Baoyu only learned later that Sister Lin had already returned. He asked his personal senior maid very strangely: “Why did Sister Lin leave? I haven’t seen her yet, haven’t talked with her. Didn’t the Old Ancestress say today I could play with Sister Daiyu?”

That maid didn’t know what had happened, but she was skilled at reading people’s expressions. She used all her abilities to temporarily make Jia Baoyu forget about this matter.

Old Madam Lin triumphantly left the Jia household gates with Daiyu. She was very happy. On the way back, she even specially took a detour to a long-renowned pastry shop and bought a pile of currently most popular pastries.

She also wanted to make Daiyu a bit happier.

She knew that learning her maternal grandmother had feigned illness to deceive her put her in a bad mood. Old Madam Lin understood.

She could also have concealed it from Daiyu and not let her know about Lady Shi’s calculations, but the Old Madam knew she couldn’t always accompany the child. One day she would have to face things herself.

If she knew nothing and truly treated her maternal grandmother as a kind and loving person without being on guard, that would be terrible.

Ying Yu and Luo Yu at home saw their grandmother and younger sister return, and the people behind them were even carrying a large food box of pastries. They were somewhat puzzled—weren’t they going to visit the sick? How did it look more like returning from an outing?

The Old Madam smiled and waved her hand: “She has no major problems, a false alarm. I bought some pastries. Come, see if there’s anything you’d like to try.”

Yun Shuyao would also take Luo Yu out, going shopping and buying things. Sometimes she would even arrange to meet with her sister-in-law Lady Chen.

Of course, she knew that in TV dramas this was a high-incidence scene for events, but they didn’t need that kind of accidental incident to add to the plot, so going out shopping was fine, but proper preparations couldn’t be lacking.

The capital originally had quite a few shops with special areas for entertaining female guests. If female guests came, they would be invited upstairs, where men were not permitted.

When they went to browse jewelry, Yun Shuyao was not at all surprised that there wasn’t a single heavenly treasure or earthly treasure here.

The capital should be the place with the most hidden dragons and crouching tigers. Unless one’s luck was too good, otherwise those good things had definitely already been bought by others—there was no chance for her to find bargains.

Not finding bargains and just shopping was also quite nice.

Strolling through shops, then going to a teahouse to order a pot of tea and pastries, watching people below tell stories and sing songs, one could hear quite a bit of capital news.

Sometimes they would even encounter other excitement.

In the capital, there were many profligate sons, but situations of wanton bullying that led to loss of life were not common.

As that saying went, there were too many hidden dragons and crouching tigers.

But there were still some truly arrogant and domineering people. For example, on this day, Yun Shuyao, Luo Yu, and Lady Chen requested a private room at a teahouse. On one side they could see the high platform in the middle of the teahouse and listen to the storyteller tell stories. On the other side facing the street, they could look through the window at the flow of people on the street.

Across from the teahouse was a shop selling jewelry.

From their elevated position, they could see that at the counter there was originally a young woman selecting jewelry, but at the entrance a woman fully adorned in luxury stepped out of a sedan chair. She entered the shop, and at a glance took a fancy to the bracelet the young woman had selected, reaching out to snatch it away.

Without question, this was very unreasonable.

The woman very much liked that bracelet and had already put it on her hand to go settle the account. She also didn’t recognize who this beautiful woman was, but seeing her full luxury attire, she didn’t dare scold her. She only opened her mouth to ask: “How can you seize what others like?”

Just this one sentence, and what came was a slap from the beautiful woman: “Insolent! How dare you speak to me this way.”

Having been slapped, the woman was originally angry, but after the shopkeeper’s reminder about who that was, her knees went soft and she knelt down like this: “Madam… I had eyes but failed to recognize.”

The beautiful woman didn’t even glance at her. Naturally, a matron by her side stepped forward and delivered two more slaps, full of force. The beautiful woman acted as if she hadn’t heard, only raising her wrist to look at the bracelet, revealing a satisfied smile: “I like this bracelet.”

After speaking, she leisurely left wearing the bracelet. The shopkeeper bowed and scraped to see her off, not daring at all to mention the matter of payment.

And that woman still knelt there, body limp, trembling with fear.

Just now the shopkeeper’s voice had been very small, but Yun Shuyao had still heard it.

So this was the famous concubine of Longkodo, Li Si’er.

Other people’s voices were normal. Luo Yu watched and clearly saw what had happened.

Lady Chen looked over with fear and alarm, firmly memorizing the beautiful woman’s appearance—next time they encountered her, they should promptly stay far away.

Outside, Luo Yu couldn’t speak conveniently, but after returning, her tone still brimmed with disbelief: “I heard Grandmother mention her before. She’s even more unreasonable than Grandmother described, even more lacking in propriety.”

Looking at her attire, who could guess she was a concubine? And Longkodo’s father-in-law’s person at that?

She regarded herself as a legitimate wife.

“Doesn’t anyone control her acting like this?”

Yun Shuyao sighed: “The Tunggiya clan is the Emperor’s maternal relatives.”

“The title ‘half the court are Tunggiya’ isn’t groundless.”

It wasn’t that no one found her arrogance and domineering distasteful, but considering Longkodo behind her, and the Tunggiya clan behind Longkodo, as long as the matter didn’t blow up, they could pretend not to see it.

Just like the Jia household—there were quite a few improper things in the Jia household, but the ancestors’ achievements were also real. As long as the descendants didn’t cross the line, the Emperor above could tolerate it. Or rather, according to Yun Shuyao’s understanding, for these descendants of military merit families to be so unaccomplished, those above were most delighted to see it—when they wanted to grab pigtails, they could grab a whole bunch.

When the time came, as long as they were lenient in their handling, they could retain a good reputation for treating the descendants of meritorious officials well.

After Luo Yu heard this, she was silent for quite a while.

What wrong had that woman who was slapped by Li Si’er committed?

None.

It was only because the power behind their two families was unequal, so facing Li Si’er’s unreasonableness, she could only silently endure it. Not only was she beaten, but she might also be held in grudge.

According to what they’d heard of Li Si’er’s character, she would remember this unintentional offense. Only by promptly sending gifts to apologize could it possibly be overlooked.

Li Si’er loved wealth—there would definitely be major financial bleeding.

Like this, after that young woman returned, she might even be blamed by her husband and others.

But did she truly do wrong?

She only asked one sentence: “How can you seize what others like?”

And it was indeed Li Si’er who seized what others liked.

Yun Shuyao knew she was in a bad mood but didn’t comfort her, letting her slowly think it through herself.

This was also something she should know.

When serving as an official in other regions, even if Lin Ruhai’s official position wasn’t at the very top, it was still in the uppermost tier. She had basically suffered no grievances. But returning to the capital, Lin Ruhai had become indistinguishable from the “masses.”

He had changed from upper tier to middle tier.

The capital was the place that least lacked princes and nobles.

Moreover, here there was also the Emperor above all—his words in this era were imperial edicts.

If a tyrant was in power and didn’t fear posthumous infamy, if he directly ordered Lin Ruhai and the Lin family to die, without some special abilities, they could only obediently go to their deaths.

This era was just that cruel.

For the next several days, Luo Yu was rather despondent, and her interest in going out also diminished considerably.

What if she unfortunately encountered Li Si’er?

She could only grudgingly swallow her grievance.

Thinking this way, she didn’t really want to go out.

Yun Shuyao would take Luo Yu out. Concubine Mei would also take Ying Yu out.

The Mei family people had also arrived in the capital. Regarding Concubine Mei taking her eldest granddaughter out, the Old Madam wouldn’t object, but she would require that people must accompany them—this was to prevent Concubine Mei from doing something foolish.

Being foolish at home didn’t matter, but being foolish outside was unacceptable.

If she provoked some incident, she would be prohibited from going out again.

Concubine Mei was still curious about the capital and didn’t want to come to the capital only to have no impression of it. She restrained herself to be cautious in word and deed. Combined with Ying Yu being by her side, she indeed didn’t have any incidents.

Who wouldn’t like going out?

Even Daiyu, when receiving others’ invitations, would similarly treasure the opportunities to go out.

Going fishing by the lake outside the city, climbing mountains for the view, going to temples to light lamps and pray for blessings for Mother…

Because she couldn’t have Daiyu come to the Jia family, Grandmother Jia could only have several granddaughters frequently go to the Lin household.

The Lin household didn’t prohibit the girls from going over. As for other things, Grandmother Jia temporarily didn’t plan to do anything more.

Every time she wanted to do something, she was blocked and sent back. Continuing on, she truly feared she would be angered to death.

Thus the Three Springs became frequent guests at the Lin residence.

Toward these girls, the Old Madam still had a measure of sympathy and would even have them attend classes together to learn more things.

Sometimes the Three Springs would also bring Shi Xiangyun.

The first time she came, Yun Shuyao came to observe, drawn by her reputation.

Also a child—nothing could be seen, but there was one common feature: all had extraordinary appearances.

Jia Baoyu had thought of coming over, but he was held back by the assignments Jia Zheng had left. Moreover, because Jia Zheng now held a sinecure position and had plenty of time, he checked homework daily and prohibited maids and young servants from writing in his place—if discovered, they would be expelled.

The assignments the Master left weren’t much. After the Old Madam and others looked at them, they felt it wasn’t a problem and didn’t prohibit it. Thus Jia Baoyu’s bitter days arrived.

Moreover, even if he completed his assignments and wanted to sneak out, he couldn’t pass Second Madam Wang’s checkpoint.

She had determined that the Lin family was incompatible with her Baoyu’s eight characters. Of course she wouldn’t let him go out to find the Lin family’s young miss.

At such a young age, already so enchanting and bewitching people’s hearts—she wished she could erect a barrier between them, prohibiting the other from approaching her Baoyu.

Jia Baoyu: “…” He felt wronged.

Why could elder sisters and younger sisters all go to Sister Lin’s house to play, but he had never gone even once!

He acted coquettishly and pestered for quite a while, but no one relented.

Jia Baoyu had no choice but to wilt.

Seeing Jia Baoyu like this, Old Madam Lin was satisfied. She had also helped him. Learning more things had no harm. If his temperament could be corrected, the Old Madam felt the Jia family should solemnly thank her.

In such days, winter arrived. Gradually, examination candidates from various places entered the capital.

They were coming early for next year’s spring examination. The inns in the capital welcomed another peak.

This year was a lively year. Yun Shuyao’s second younger brother Yun Yan would also participate in next year’s spring examination. Coming to the capital together was also her eldest uncle’s eldest cousin Yun Chang. He was this year’s newly successful provincial graduate and planned to come to the capital together to try. If he could succeed in the spring examination, that would be best. If not, he also wanted to try to obtain a position.

Besides them, those coming to the capital this year also included the Old Madam’s grand-nephew, that is, the Xie family’s legitimate eldest son, also coming for the spring examination.

When Concubine Mei learned that Yun Shuyao’s younger brother and cousin were coming to the capital, she felt a moment of regret in her heart.

She thought again of how back then her aunt had taught her to work with Lady Yun to bring together her eldest cousin and her sixth younger sister.

Her aunt’s eye for people was indeed not wrong. Lady Yun’s eldest cousin was capable. Regardless of whether he succeeded this time, he was already a provincial graduate. Finding connections to obtain a position wouldn’t be a big problem.

If Sixth Sister had married him back then, her days wouldn’t be bad.

Especially, the other party was also a man of sentiment and loyalty. After his first wife passed away, he didn’t remarry for many years but waited until his two sons were sensible before remarrying.

Such a person would definitely also support his wife’s natal family.

Unfortunately, there was no medicine for regret.

Gao Shi looked at her daughter with disappointment: “How do you think I know this so clearly? Your legitimate elder brother and legitimate mother have been constantly paying attention to the Yun family’s situation. The worse Sixth Sister lives, the better the Yun family does, the more they regret. If I hadn’t told them it was Lady Yun who refused, they would definitely have blamed you.”

Concubine Mei guiltily averted her gaze: “But now Sixth Sister is also living well. Brother-in-law is also a provincial graduate and has his own children.”

Gao Shi looked at her with exasperation. It looked like that on the surface, but she had been so angered she lost a pregnancy, lost quite a bit of dowry, and suffered plenty of grievances—”that’s all.”

Concubine Mei lowered her head and said nothing more.

Gao Shi also knew her daughter’s temperament. She rubbed her forehead and moved past this topic: “Has your family’s master said when he’ll return? Your father has a good friend whose business there is said to be not going very smoothly?”

Concubine Mei was bewildered: “I don’t know.”

Gao Shi sighed. Her daughter really, after all these years, not a bit of progress: “Forget other things. Take good care of Ying Yu. She’ll participate in the selection next year. With her looks and bearing, how you live in the future depends on her fortune.” Thinking of her granddaughter’s future, Gao Shi felt a surge of emotion.

The Mei family had recently been fortunate enough to establish a connection with a certain imperial prince’s retainer. If…