Xu Ling’er returned to the house and went to her mother’s house with brisk steps.
Seeing her glowing, Wen smiled, “Very satisfied?”
Xu Ling’er nodded with a red face and sat beside her, “Mother, you must help me.”
“As long as it is what Mother’s Ling’er wants, Mother will definitely help you get your wish.”
Xu Ling’er pouted and leaned her head against her, “It’s still Mother who loves me.”
The door was pushed open and Li An walked in, just in time to hear her words, pretending to be upset, “And father doesn’t love you?”
He was working in the Ministry of Works, specialising in the construction of the ditches outside the city, and now that spring had just started, it was a busy time.
“Of course not ……”, Xu Ling’er hurriedly got up and walked over to him, pleasingly poured a cup of tea and handed it to him, “Father loves me the most.”
Disgust flashed in Wen’s eyes, but a gentle smile was on her face as she got up, walked over to Li An and helped him take off his dirty clothes, “Why are you free to come back today?”
“Just finished a busy phase, I took the opportunity to come back for a day, the next time I go somewhere farther away, I probably won’t be back for ten days and a half months.”
Wen took a clean shirt and gave it to him to change into, “Take care of your health, don’t come back tired and very sick like in previous years.”
“I’ll take care of it. By the way, what were you two talking about?”
“About …….”
Xu Ling’er was just about to answer when she was interrupted by Wen, “Just idle talk, this child is growing backwards and forwards, pouting at every turn.”
“Mother!”
Xu Ling’er beamed in discontent, Li An laughed, “Your mother is right, you are really growing up.”
Xu Ling’er stomped her foot in anger, “I’m going to go to great-grandfather and tell him off!”
He said, huffing and puffing as he headed out, causing Li An to laugh again.
When Xu Ling’er arrived at Old Mr. Xu’s courtyard, it was already dark and the house was lit up.
“Great-grandfather.”
Xu Ling’er pushed the door in and saw that Old Mr. Xu was reading a book, so she went over and closed the book, “You’ve been reading all day, it’s time to rest.”
Instead of getting angry at her behaviour, Old Mr Xu laughed, “Of all the people in the family, you are the only one who dares to control great-grandfather.”
Xu Ling’er walked over to him and reached out, skillfully pounding his back, “I’m not minding, I’m afraid you’re too tired and your body can’t take it.”
Although Xu Ling’er was not related to him by blood, the child had been born and raised in the Xu House, and had been close to everyone in the house since she was a child, and was smart and clever, so he loved her.
“Stay with great-grandfather for dinner later.”
“Sure. ……”
Xu Ling’er took the opportunity to spit out, “You don’t know, I was just in my mother’s room talking with her when my father came back, my mother was instantly full of him, I was so angry I ran to you to complain.”
She said this, causing Old Mr Xu to laugh, “Your mother and your father are husband and wife, it’s only right that your eyes are full of him, what do you have to be angry about?”
“I’m angry with myself for being redundant, if I ever get married, I won’t come back even once, so that they want to miss me every day.”
“What kind of person hangs on marrying someone, you girl, you’re not ashamed of it either.”
“A man should get married when he is old enough, a woman should get married when she is old enough, great-grandfather, I am already fifteen and will soon reach maturity.”
Old Mr Xu was surprised, “Fifteen?”
Hearing him ask, Xu Ling’er was aggrieved, “Great grandfather doesn’t care about me at all, he doesn’t even know how old I am.”
“Great-grandfather didn’t expect you to grow up so much in the blink of an eye, so it’s really time to discuss marriage.
Xu Ling’er was even more aggrieved, “My father is busy with the Ministry of Industry every day, and my mother only sees my father, how can they care about me? They don’t even care about me as much as my great-grandfather does!”
Old Mr. Xu laughed again at these words.
Xu Ling’er took the opportunity to say, “Why don’t you tell me one of them?”
“Me?”
Old Mr Xu shook his head slightly, “All I’ve seen are bad old men, none of them can ……”
Before he finished his words, the figure of Song Si came to his mind, and after a pause, “To the extent that there really is one, but ……”
“But what?”
Old Mr. Xu pondered for a moment, “Everything will be said after the end of the meeting exams.”
……
Inside the restaurant, Song Wangyue divided the silver ticket in two, half of which she took for herself and half of which she pushed in front of the Huangcao couple, “Without your pastry shop, the snow maiden would not have been sold. Moreover, because we made you suffer an undeserved disaster, originally we were thinking of 40,000 taels of silver as compensation for you, since you insist on giving it away, let’s have half of it each.”
After saying that, without waiting for Huang Cao to say anything, he added, “If you don’t want it, I won’t take a single tael!”
The couple looked at each other and then at the silver ticket in front of them. 20,000 taels, even if they had run the pastry shop all these years, they had not earned that much.
“Take it.”
Gu Yi said.
Knowing they were sincere in giving, the two didn’t push back any further and stepped down to take the silver ticket, leaving their home address, “If Miss Song and Young Master Gu need anything in the future, just have someone go to us.”
When they came out of the restaurant, Mr. and Mrs. Huang Cao said goodbye, and Gu Yi instructed Xiao Si to send them over, while he and Song Wan Yue got into the carriage to go back to the inn.
The scholars had all gone into the examination hall, the inn was quiet, the shopkeeper didn’t know where he had gone, the mate was sitting lazily with his cheeks on the table in the lobby, when he heard footsteps, he subconsciously stood up, “Excuse me, the shop ……”
Seeing that it was the two of them, he immediately changed his tone, “The two guests are back, do you want to prepare dinner?”
“We’ve eaten, by the way, mate ……”
Song Wan Yue pulled Gu Yi to sit down, “Tell us, how are the prices in the capital?”
“The two guests want to buy a house in the capital?”
The mate’s face showed surprise, the two of them didn’t look like children from a rich family either, how could they have the silver to buy a house in the capital?
“Where can we afford to buy? I’m just asking around in advance, in case my big brother plays well and gets on the list, maybe he’ll stay in the capital in the future.”
The mate put away his surprise, he said how could the two of them afford to buy a house, but it turned out that they were inquiring in advance.
“The capital is divided into the southeast and northwest cities, the richest is the east city, where all the big officials live, the richest is the south city, where all the business people live, the west city is for average people, the north city is the worst, the people there can barely afford to eat, I think it’s more appropriate for you to go to the south and west cities if you want to buy a house.”
Song Wan Yue nodded and tossed him a dime of silver, “Thank you very much.”
The mate took it joyfully and nodded his head and thanked him.
The two of them went back upstairs, and a game of chess was almost finished before Xiao Si returned. The Huangcao couple were staying at the inn nearest to the city gate, where it was easy to get in and out.
As night fell, the whole capital fell into silence.
The inn was silent, the innkeeper and the staff had all gone to sleep in the backyard, and there was no one guarding the lobby.
Gu Yi quietly opened the door to his room, turned around and closed it again silently, and quietly went downstairs, instructing the two boys to go and guard the entrance to Song Wan Yue’s room.