Wang's family started claiming illness and did not come out the next day.

  Xie Wan and Xie Wei went into the Zhengyuan Temple to pay their respects, and were summoned by her waving hand.

  Xie Wei was puzzled: "What's wrong with Madam? Yesterday, County Magistrate Zhao came to the mansion twice, what was it about?"

  Xie Wan saw her full of doubts and knew that Huang Shi was protecting his daughter, so he didn't tell her. He also couldn't figure it out and said: "This morning I knew it was because I beat Li Ershun, and Zhao County Magistrate came to sue me for him. Later, I don't know what happened. What's the matter that's so urgent, even making Madam ill?"

  In the evening, it was still reported that Xie Wei cried in the house.

  There is no wall that doesn't let wind through, as long as you have the heart to ask, where can't you find out the reason? So Xie Wei also took a few days off due to illness and only appeared in the main hall on the Lantern Festival. However, his face didn't show anything unusual, still with the same bright and generous expression as before.

  However, Huang's voice in the main hall was slightly stronger than before, although he was still polite in front of Wang, but when he saw Ruan, he no longer bowed and greeted her formally, only slightly bowing his head and calling her "elder sister". Sometimes, if there were many people present, he would even avoid using this term altogether.

  Xie Wan occasionally saw the gloom on Ruan Shi's face, and the scolding voice of Qi Fengyuan's servants would sometimes drift into Yi Fengyuan through the side wall.

  The day after the Lantern Festival, Xie Wan was preparing to set off with Luo Ju to enter the capital, when Yu Shi hastily sent someone over with Zong Yong's address in the capital.

  Xie Wan hastily finished writing a letter that had been drafted in Xie Lang's name and sent it to the post station.

  Although it is not known how Xie Rong and Xie Qigong discussed the strategy to conquer Jun Yong, one thing that can be thought of is that since Xie Rong was so concerned about Jun Yong's attitude, he must have been busy contacting the Jun family after returning to Beijing. If you want to disrupt Xie Rong's career from this key point, then Xie Zhuang must appear in his vision before Jun Yong's attitude becomes clear.

  While waiting for a reply, Xie Wan didn't forget to have Luo Ju investigate Wang Anmei.

  The news Luo Juede received was shocking.

  "Wang Anmei was intelligent and had a beautiful face, but she was a barren woman."

  What is a stone woman? It's a woman who cannot give birth and will be alone for eternity.

  If a woman cannot bear children and cannot fulfill her wifely duties, who would marry her? Unless it's an idiot. The Zhao family happens to have an idiot son, and Mr. and Mrs. Zhao are very fond of their children. They feel even more guilty because their eldest son was delayed in receiving medical treatment due to Mrs. Zhao's fault when he was young, so they worry that after they pass away, their daughter will marry out, their youngest son will start his own family, but their eldest son will have no one to take care of him.

  The Wang family introduced their beautiful daughter to him at this time, and the other family was willing, why would they disagree? As for whether it is humane or not, it is not within their consideration. A person who can barely take care of himself, can he be expected to carry on the family line? So they wouldn't even bother to investigate these things.

  Luoji hesitated for a long time before telling Xie Wan, unsure if he should reveal this to someone who was not yet nine years old. But when he saw her calm face, the words slipped out unintentionally. He still held onto some hope that at her age, she might not necessarily understand Shi Nu's meaning.

  But in the instant he saw her staring at him with an expression of incredulity and unbelief, he knew he was wrong.

  He's so angry he could punch himself in the face!

  "Shi Nu?" Xie Wan sat at her desk, savoring the two words. Given the Wang family's moral character, not having abandoned Wang Anmei since childhood was already a good thing; now that someone wanted to take her in, and it was an official household at that, what was there to disagree with?

  Luo's face was burning hot, and he lowered his head to say: "The Wang family has kept this matter strictly confidential. In our mansion, only the madam knows about it. I also had to get Wang Ge drunk with two pots of bamboo leaf green tea before I could find out. Now that the marriage between Zhao's family is ruined, Wang Ge is furious and resentful every day. He either curses his wife He Shi or beats up this Wang Anmei. A few days ago, she wanted to go die, but He Shi was afraid something would happen to her, so she locked her up and had someone watch her day and night."

  Xie Wan looked ahead, pondering: "It seems that Wang Anmei's marriage to the Zhao family is actually a good thing." At least Zhao Zhen and his wife are not narrow-minded people, and Wang Anmei can play the role of a lifelong concubine, or at least hold the title of a young mistress, which is much better than being tormented by Wang Ge in the Wang family.

  "Miss, what do you want to do?"

  She stared into space without saying a word.

  She admitted that she felt a little guilty for breaking off this marriage, not mentioning the Wang family, but only the Zhao family. The illness of the eldest young master of the Zhao family made her think of her brother's past when he was bedridden and couldn't take care of himself at all. Just thinking about it made her feel sad. Although the eldest young master of the Zhao family is foolish, he is also pitiful. If there is someone who can take good care of him wholeheartedly, maybe his future will be better.

  If Wang Anmei herself agreed, she indeed wanted to fulfill this marriage.

  But since the matter involves the Wang family, she needs to be careful. First of all, no matter what, Zhao Zhen's hatred for the Wang family cannot be eliminated, and it is unclear whether she can accept Wang Anmei again. Secondly, if the Wang family relies on its relationship with the Zhao family, it will become a support for Wang Shi's mother and son in the future, which would be purely self-defeating!

  "There's nothing." She put down her hand, "I'm just bored out of my mind."

  "Take a walk in the garden, Miss. The weather is getting warmer and it's perfect for sunbathing. I heard that Second Miss's birthday is next month and Madam wants to reward her by cleaning up the garden and inviting some young masters and misses from neighboring estates to come over and play."

  In the days when Xie Wan and Xie Wei rarely appeared in the main courtyard, Xie Qi had been attending to Wang Shi's illness in the main courtyard. As the weather gradually warmed up, Wang Shi recovered after half a month of rest and finally went out. The reward mentioned by Luo Ju was probably referring to Xie Qi's meritorious service in nursing Wang Shi back to health.

  Yu Fang said from the side: "The second lady is too reckless, last time she made things difficult for our lady to drink without reason, we don't want to go and play with her."

  Yu Xue lightly scolded her: "Whether or not you go is up to Miss to decide."

  Xie Wan thought for a moment and said: "Let's go to the shop, since Second Miss is going to have a birthday, we can also go pick out two pieces of fabric for her."

  It's better to let her get close to Xie Qi and the like, she really doesn't want to. But these things can't be shown to the maids. Using this as an excuse to go out and take care of some personal matters, it would be great to slip away for a while.

  Luo Ju went to get the carriage ready, while Xie Wan accompanied Yu Fang out of the door.

  Li Zi Hutong is outside San Tiao Street, and the weather is fine, so it's easy to get there quickly.

  Luo Sheng welcomed Xie Wan into the house at the door.

  The two apprentices in the shop, upon hearing that their master had arrived, showed great respect, but later seeing that their master was not even as tall as themselves, they relaxed a bit. When Xie Wan asked them to bring some cloth, they both picked out the wrong ones.

  Anyway, they will leave in March, Xie Wan didn't bother to care about it, and she chose two pieces of bright-colored silk fabrics, wrapped them up, and also chose two pieces of moon-white and lake-blue gauze, letting Luo Sheng wrap them up as well.

  The shop in Huangshi Town has been open for half a month, and the business is not booming, but 20% of last autumn's goods have been sold out. For Xie Zhuo, who only wanted to use it to wash goods, being able to maintain a stable sales volume already exceeded his expectations.

  Making fabrics is most taboo to hoard goods, nowadays in peaceful years, new products are popular every season, and the goods that can't be sold for a long time are piled up in the warehouse, it's like watching the silver turn into water. On one side, the silver that was sold out on Li Zong Street was used to purchase this season's spring goods on this side, and business has returned to its state when Xie Tong was still around last year.

  Xie Wan sat in the account room and had only turned two pages of the account book when Shen Tian said that Li Ershun had arrived.

  Li Ershun went up to the attic and saw Xie Wan, bowing his hands in a salute.

  "I've been waiting for the young lady to come to the shop for several days, wanting to have a face-to-face conversation. Coincidentally, I just ran into her as soon as she came out. Everything has been done according to what the young lady said, and neither Lord Zhao nor his wife has suspected anything so far. Wang's family sent someone to deliver gifts several times, but they were all returned untouched by Lord Zhao. Yesterday, they even sent someone to say that in a few days it would be the second young lady's birthday, inviting Miss Zhao to come over and play, but Lady Zhao also declined."

  Xie Wan stared at him for a moment, and saw that he had changed out of his usual casual attire into a fine linen robe, with a small pouch tied around his waist, looking somewhat more presentable. She closed the account book and asked: "How did Lord Zhao treat you?"

  His face was red, but he couldn't help the joy in his eyes, and he lowered his waist even more and said: "Thanks to Miss's blessing, after telling Lord Zhao what you told me last time, he has been very kind to me these days, making me feel proud."

  Xie Wan's lips curled up, "That's very good."

  Just then, a sudden commotion broke out downstairs, accompanied by Yu Fang and Shen Tian's angry shouts.

  Xie Wan walked closer to the windowsill and looked out, only to see a circle of people surrounding someone on the street below. A rural old man stood in the middle, shrinking back, with a basket of sweet potatoes that had been kicked over at his feet. In front of him was a 16 or 17-year-old young man dressed in brocade, with flowers in his hair and a folding fan tucked into his waist, looking arrogant.

  Shen Tian and Yu Fang stood on Hanzi's side, glaring at the young master with anger.

  She turned her head towards the store downstairs and said: "Luo Yi, call Yu Fang back!"

  Rui ran to the street, pulling Yu Fang's sleeve while pointing at the window upstairs. When Yu Fang saw Xie Wan, she immediately picked up her skirt and ran back.

  "What's going on?" Xie Wan asked.

  Yu Fang said, "The second young master of the Ning family, who sells tea leaves, was dissatisfied that the man carrying sweet potatoes didn't give way to him, so he overturned his basket and had his followers trample all the sweet potatoes! The man was very honest, that basket of sweet potatoes was their family's living expenses for this month, he didn't dare say a word! I happened to be going out and met them, and couldn't help but speak up."