Qie's mother happened to bring Xie Yun back, seeing the atmosphere in the house was very good, she also smiled and said: "Our brother Yun led the errand to He's family and Huang's family in the west of the city, we'll go tomorrow when the rain stops. The mistress asked if grandma's illness has improved? And also sent two packages of Ningxia's dried wolfberries, let grandma use them to make tea every day."

  Huang looked at the two abs on her hand and said lightly, "Let it go." At the same time, she beckoned to Xie Yun to come forward and asked about his homework.

  Xie Wan took a look outside and saw that the rain had stopped, so she got up to bid farewell. Huang Shi invited her to stay for dinner, but she said: "My brother told me not to trouble you, Third Aunt. I'll come visit you again tomorrow."

  Madam Huang praised her a few times as a well-behaved child and had the maid send her back.

  Xie Wei sent it to the doorstep and came back, returned to the bed and said to Huang Shi: "How did mother know that someone was there? Just now she also talked about private matters with Qi Niangniang. Just now I slept in the inner room with my third sister, and I heard it clearly! Fortunately, she fell asleep and didn't hear anything."

  "Huang smiled and said, 'What can she hear and understand? How come you're being so cautious?' After a moment of silence, he nodded in agreement: 'You're right, this child is too clever. Whether it's in front of me or the mistress, there's not a single flaw to be found, making us unwittingly lower our guard.'"

  Xie Wei said, "Mother doesn't have to think too much, taking care of her illness is the priority. I'm not a narrow-minded person who would suspect others without reason, she's only eight years old after all. When I was eight years old, I didn't even understand what shame was! How could she possibly understand right and wrong? It's just that Father often taught me to be cautious and prepared for the worst, so I'm just taking precautions."

  Huang smiled and patted his daughter's hand: "Good girl. Your father is fine, and the children are well-behaved too."

  Xie Wei rushed into her arms and giggled: "Mother is the one who deserves the credit!"

  The rain stopped after two more days and cleared up, with the winter sun peeking out from behind the clouds, greatly refreshing everyone's spirits.

  The brothers in the mansion started sending pastries to neighboring mansions. This is a local tradition, every year before Laba Festival, each family will make some pastries and snacks, and exchange them with relatives and friends to celebrate good luck.

  Xie Lang also went, even if Wang didn't order him to, he would still go to his uncle's house to pay respects. Because the Ren and Qi families were both in Nanyuan County, Xie Lang went with Xie Tong who was going to the Ren's. However, since he also had to visit Yang Shi's maternal family, the Yangs, he would have to stay at his uncle's for a day before visiting the Yangs and then returning.

  Xie Lang asked Xie Wan if she wanted to go see their uncle and aunt together, but Xie Wan said she couldn't get away and claimed to have caught a cold, saying they would go after the new year.

  Luo Sheng had just returned from Hejian Prefecture with a batch of winter goods the day before yesterday, and it happened to be the sale before the New Year. The two apprentices in the shop were cleared by him, seeing that they couldn't get away with it, and were scared silly, and having no money for the new year, immediately expressed their willingness to work for another three months for free, just asking to get the deducted wages to spend the new year.

  Xie Wan wasn't a person who didn't leave any leeway, and after hearing that their family was indeed not well-off, he let them off, but Luo Sheng wasn't at ease, so for the past two days, he personally sat in the shop to keep watch, not giving them another chance to slack off.

  The shop on the other side of Huangshi Town is still looking, and now it has been entrusted to Mei Sao, who used to be a cook in the house, saying that there will be news in a few days. Originally thought of hiring a few young boys, but after thinking about it, I feel that in rural areas, having a woman who can speak may be more convenient, so I entrusted Mei Sao.

  Xie Wan's top priority at the moment was also to find a few useful people.

  In fact, those wealthy businessmen who own dozens or even hundreds of shops do not necessarily have a subordinate in each shop. Most are led by two or three senior managers, and then there are secondary and tertiary managers below them.

  The second and third in command are appointed by the head of the household or recommended by the master, but the master only looks at the account books and actual profits every year. If the profits are good and a lot of money is made, it doesn't matter if there's corruption or not, as long as no one reports it and there's no evidence, they'll just turn a blind eye.

  The store manager is the equivalent of a top executive in the entire business, and such a talented and capable person is not something that can be easily found. It takes at least ten to twenty years for a business to cultivate a store manager like this, and outsiders cannot easily poach them away. They themselves also will not easily abandon their posts.

  She had also considered letting Luo Sheng take charge of the five shops, but after spending some time with him, she found that he was loyal and honest, but lacked courage and cleverness. He could manage one or two shops, but if all five were put in his hands, it would be a bit too much for him to handle.

  Besides, Xie Wan's goal is far from just these five shops now, so starting from now on, she must cultivate one or two people like this.

  But where can you find such people?

  She said to the people around her: "The shop will be hiring soon, if you know any clever boys, bring them here."

  Everyone was ordered to follow the three girls' instructions, and this news spread quickly. Wu Mama and Yu Xue Yin Suo immediately sent letters back to their hometowns, asking their relatives to help investigate. Luo Sheng had already written a letter home, asking his wife to ask relatives from both sides to search. The Luo family was in Wanquan County, next to Nanyuan County, but Xie Zhen only knew that Luo Sheng's mother and mother-in-law lived at home, while his wife took care of the elderly and children alone, being very virtuous, yet he had not seen her before.

  So these days, Xie Wan just waited for news at home and could only temporarily bear to not go to her uncle's house.

  In the evening, I practiced writing for a while and saw that the sun had set outside. Thinking that Xie Zhen won't be coming back today, I couldn't help but feel a bit depressed.

  Yu Xue saw the way: "I heard that the third young master's carriage is back, and the girl doesn't go out. Why don't you go to the Fengfeng Temple and sit for a while? It's also good to listen to interesting things outside."

  Xie Wan has been in this world for thirty years and has seen everything she should see. She no longer feels any sense of novelty about it.

  But going out for a walk is also good, staying cooped up in the house every day doesn't seem like something a young girl at her energetic age should be doing.

  Yu Xue added a moon-white fox-edged velvet jacket to her jade-green brocade jacket, then combed her hair into double buns and put on a pair of pearl flowers the size of millet grains. She escorted her out the door.

  As soon as he came out of the courtyard, he saw a half-grown boy standing under the shadow wall inside the west-facing gate with a hanging flower door. He was wearing a sky-blue satin robe with a waistband embroidered with swastika flowers and a piece of translucent jade pendant. His black hair was also tied up with a small oval green jade, looking like he was around ten years old, extremely handsome.

  Just as she was about to step onto the path leading to Fengyuan Temple, the boy saw her and exclaimed, "Hey, I've never seen this sister before?"

  Who is his sister? But it's quite familiar. Since they greeted each other, of course, it wouldn't be good to just walk away like that. Xie Wan turned around and said, "I haven't seen you before either."

  The boy smiled warmly and walked over to size her up for a moment, saying "I guess you're the third daughter of the Xie family, right? I haven't been to the Xie's house in a long time, but I've heard about you."

  Many families with connections to the Xie family were present, and this time, aside from relatives, there were as many as fifteen households that had sent people to deliver pastries. For a moment, Xie Wan really couldn't guess which household he belonged to.

  But no matter which family he belongs to, it seems like there's nothing much to say.

  She nodded and said: "I am Xie Wan. You are——"

  Before he could finish his sentence, a cry of surprise came from behind the shadow wall, followed by a figure tumbling down the stone stairs.

  "Second sister!"

  The boy was stunned for a moment, then rushed over quickly. Xie Wan hesitated slightly, saw that it was Xie Qi, and also walked over afterwards.

  Xie Qi struggled to get up from the ground, pouting at Xie Wan and the boy.

  "How did you end up here?" the boy asked in surprise, as he brushed off the dust from her back.

  Xie Qidao said: "I heard you were waiting for Yunge here, so I thought I'd hide and scare you. But then you went to talk to Sanmei, and before I knew it, I fell down." As she spoke, she lowered her head, lifted up her sleeve, took a look, and stretched out the two scraped wounds on her wrist in front of the boy: "Jun Gege, look! It's all because of you that I fell down. If Ren Bomu sees this, she'll worry about me again!"

  Is it Aunt Ren? —— Is it Ren Yun?!

  Xie Wan's heart was greatly shocked, and she blurted out: "You are Ren Jia's third young master, Ren Yun?"

  Ren Yun heard this and couldn't help but let go of his hands, happily turning around, "So Sanmei knew about me?"

  Xie Wan looked at him with a spring breeze on his face, and her heart suddenly surged like a tidal wave.

  Yes! She should have thought of it earlier. The only people who can enter the Xie family's mansion without being accompanied by a servant are the young masters from rich families, except for those from the Ren family.

  In her previous life, she had never met the Third Master Ren before, but was engaged and then broke off the engagement by the adults, being treated as a joke by the Ren family, which affected her marriage for her whole life. She ended up with a reputation of having both talent and beauty, but no one came to ask for her hand in marriage, until she died at thirty still unmarried. Unexpectedly, in this life, she didn't get entangled with him, yet they met again!

  She gathered her thoughts and looked at Xie Qi, whose eyes were fixed on him.

  Xie Qi is already nine years old and has a slight understanding of the world. She remembers that in her previous life, Ren's family broke off their engagement with her, and later, through the efforts of Ren Yun's elder brother-in-law, they married the daughter of Zhu Kang, an official in the Ministry of War. As for what happened to him afterwards, she has forgotten, anyway, it had nothing to do with Xie Qi. Later on, Xie Qi seemed to have married into a poor but noble family, living a bitter life, often having to rely on the charity of the Rong couple.

  She originally thought that Xie Qi was just being willful and not quite in line with her own temperament, but it turned out that he also had his own mind. As Xie Qi's identity, if he were to climb up to be favored by the Ren couple, who had placed great hopes on him, wouldn't it be greatly beneficial for the Xie family?

  Xie Wan was deep in thought, and Ren Yu was also watching her with great interest.

  Xie Qi coughed in dissatisfaction from the side, Xie Wan's eyes flashed slightly, and she came back to her senses.

  "Yes, I've heard from Fourth Brother that Third Master has returned several times." She replied briefly. Then she glanced in the direction of the third house and said: "I still need to go to the third house to find Big Sister, so I'll take my leave first."

  There was nothing to say in the first place, now that I know his identity, there's even less to talk about.

  Third sister, have a good trip.