PS: This chapter is supplementary, hehe~

  The big show continues at night.

  Qī Rú Zhēng heard that tonight was a rest day, and he was overjoyed. Then one went to find Xiè Liǎng, one went to find Xiè Wēi, but Xiè Wǎn didn't go anywhere, just staying in the backyard chatting with Yú Shì.

  Mr. and Mrs. Ren stayed behind because of Xie Qigong's strong insistence, so they also brought Ren Dai along. When Ren Dai met Xie Wan again, the anger in her eyes had disappeared, replaced by a puzzled expression. Of course, this was probably due to the result of Xie Qi taking her on a tour around the place for the entire afternoon. Xie Qi's transformation surprised everyone, as if that arrogant and stubborn second young lady had vanished into thin air.

  The next morning, Ren Jia and Qi Jia's carriages were on the same road again.

  Xie Jiarong's promotion brought joy for several months.

  As their status differed, the Xie family's prestige in the local area increased again, becoming the first noble family in Qinghe County. Xie Qigong was busy with household chores and occasionally showed off the good deeds of an official's family, repairing temples, donating to temples, and receiving visits from officials or gentry from all over, busily enjoying himself.

  Xie Hong, as the only grandson of the Xie family, naturally serves with all his might. Wang Shi, as the mistress of the house, has now transformed into an official lady of a noble family and cannot help but ask for advice on how to gradually become a respected elder stateswoman.

  In this way, other things were temporarily thrown aside by them.

  During this period, the four shops in Er Fang's hands had been opened one after another according to Xie Wan's plan, and together with the one in Huangshi Town, the four shops were all the capital that Xie Wan used to revive Er Fang.

  Now as the flagship store of Li Zihutong under Luo Sheng's management, its monthly profits have been rising slightly.

  The Liu Ye Hutong and Qingyuan Zhouli Yuminfang are also stable. The two shops each invited an old shopkeeper, one surnamed Wu and the other surnamed Zhang. Shen Tian was transferred to Yuminfang to learn accounting from Zhang. Zhang is older and acts steadily, while Shen Tian is quick-tempered but knows Xiao Zhan's temperament well. So although they can't make a lot of money, at least for now they can break even.

  Be able to operate with a guarantee of no loss and without having to take out more silver to make up for the shortfall. This was what Xie Wan originally told the two shops.

  As for the shops in Huangshi Town, the goods sold by the girls who came because of Xie Zhu's initial promise had a taste of making money, and now they are full of energy and have increased their sales on the basis of the original.

  Although the profit is limited, in this way, the tail goods of several shops in the city do not have to worry, even if there is a backlog, it will not be too much, and Xie Zhu is completely acceptable.

  Early autumn has finally passed. Deep autumn has arrived.

  Xie Teng's couple's mourning period is over, and the second house has been vacated.

  Xie Wan made a few more autumn clothes for her brother, including stone green and lake green Taoist robes, burnt red square sleeve straight skirt and moon white wide sleeve straight skirt. She matched the colors of the clothes with jade at his waist every day, making him look elegant and refined. Adding to that, he had grown taller over the past year, and now when he went out, he would always attract a lot of attention.

  It was less than a year since he entered the county school. Outsiders already knew that Xie family's second young master not only had good grades, but also was a refined and elegant beautiful youth. Moreover, his treatment of others was extremely warm and polite, gradually making people forget that this was a poor child who had lost his parents at a young age and still had to raise his younger sister. When interacting with him, they couldn't help but show more courtesy.

  Xie Lang is now under the care of Yin Suo and Yu Fang. He has also gradually begun to ask about the affairs of the shop.

  But in the past, he didn't care because he found that his sister's words were never wrong. Xie Wan let him wear what he wore, let him do what he did, even if... Let him say what he said, but now it's different. Although he still doesn't interfere with Xie Wan's decisions, occasionally he will ask about the business situation of the shop, and then he can also recognize all the silk fabrics in the shop.

  In the end, he will face difficulties that cannot be imagined now. Xie Wan can only be a force behind him and cannot replace him in clearing thorns on the court. And because of being idle for over ten years, he also has no opinion about Xie Wan's arrangement. This indeed saves a lot of trouble explaining, but it is also a headache for those who want to fundamentally change his nature of lacking necessary defensive heart.

  But you can't become fat in one breath, let's take it slow.

  The several maidservants sent by the Wang family happened to see Luo Sheng coming and going when Xie Liang was often present, so even though they had sometimes seen him directly dealing with Xie Liang's affairs, they didn't think it was anything extremely important to report.

  However, Wang told Xie Qigong in private, but there are only two masters in the second house, how many things can they have? Xie Wei also followed Huang's side to learn about holding a family from the age of eight. Xie Wan helped manage the middle school and didn't think it was a big deal. For him, occasionally asking about the affairs of the shop was also reasonable.

  So when Xie Qigong had a whim and asked Xie Liang, he also let Xie Liang half push and half admit to successfully get through it. Until now, no one has discovered that the middle-aged servant of the second house is actually entirely in Xie Liang's hands.

  "Lately, that Wang girl has been coming to the mansion more frequently, and she specifically chooses to come to Yi Feng Yuan when Second Master is getting out of school. I don't know what she's up to."

  On this day, Yu Fang took advantage of Xie Wan's noon break to feed the fish and complained.

  Wang Gongniang is Wang Ge's second daughter, Wang Anmei's younger sister Wang Simai, who is eleven years old.

  At that time when the opera was performed in the mansion, she met Xie Zhuang with Wang Shi in the corridor. Later, Wang Shi would occasionally invite Wang Si Mei to come and play at the mansion, and then ask Xie Zhuang and Xie Zhu to come to the main courtyard to play together. As this happened more often, Wang Si Mei didn't need to be told by Wang Shi, she would find her way to Yi Feng Yuan on her own, sometimes staying until nightfall without leaving, making it inconvenient for Yu Fang and others to close the door.

  What's on Mr. Wang's mind, Xie Wan shouldn't be unclear about that, or else it would be too abnormal.

  She vaulted over the balustrade, jumped down into the courtyard, poked her head into the pool and said to the carp: "You do what you should do, I'm not afraid of what she'll do."

  The two-tailed fish were extremely vigorous and had grown to over a foot in length in the two-meter square pool, very fat and strong. Moreover, due to their narrow-mindedness, they thought that Xie Wan and the others were also of the same kind, so when they saw someone approaching, they would open their mouths and swim up to them, rubbing their heads against them to beg for food. Occasionally, Xie Wan would tease them a bit, but with outsiders present, she wouldn't do it because she didn't want people to misunderstand that she had any thoughts about Ren Yun.

  "I'm not afraid of her. I just dislike her."

  Yu Fang muttered under her breath. Nowadays, she spends most of her time by Xie Liang's side. Many girls come to find Xie Liang. Even the two daughters of He Chengsu and He Tongjian are very well-behaved when they see the second young master, not even daring to lift their heads. Someone like Wang Si Mei dares to openly have designs on the second young master, it's truly a toad thinking it can eat swan meat!

  Just thinking that Xie Cang, as delicate as jade, was being pursued by someone like Wang Si Mei, she felt an inexplicable sense of indignation.

  However, Xie Wan lightly poked the fish's head and didn't notice her at all.

  "Second Uncle, in a few days it's my grandfather's birthday, are you going?"

  Just then, Xie Lang, as handsome as a jade tree in the wind, walked in from outside the door, with Wang Si-mei following closely behind him, her eyes fixed intently on him.

  "I won't go."

  Xie Lang's eyebrows were tightly furrowed, and his face was as dirty as a grinding stone that hadn't been washed for three years.

  "Don't follow me anymore. I want to have a conversation with Yuanyuan."

  "What can't I hear? Wan is also my cousin."

  Xie Lian's rapid and urgent breathing sounds came from outside the door.

  Xie Wan also understood his feelings. A girl like Wang Si Mei with such a thick skin, not to mention in a wealthy family, but even among ordinary people, is rarely seen. If it were another boy, he would have already spoken out and made her lose face, but it just so happens to be Xie Cong, who can't even bear to hit a servant girl.

  She stood up from beside the pool and walked down the stone steps to under the veranda, her eyes fixed on Wang Si-mei as she turned around twice.

  Without hiding, her eyes were already different from those of children of the same age. Even ordinary adults rarely had such sharpness, and Wang Si Mei was stared at for so long that she became somewhat flustered.

  "When is your grandfather's birthday?" Xie Wan asked.

  "She pursed her lips: 'September 26th.' It was really strange, she was obviously younger than herself. But facing her question, she answered involuntarily."

  Xie Wan stretched out her hand: "Please paste it?"

  "Are you going?"

  Xie Wan raised her lips: "Didn't you say I'm also your cousin?"

  Wang Si-mei came back to her senses and jumped up: "I'll go get it right away!"

  She didn't think anyone would actually go to the second house, so she hadn't prepared an invitation. Now she's going to write one. Hopefully it's not too late! Although it's not Xie Liang himself, isn't getting close to Xie Wan also a way of indirectly approaching Xie Liang?

  She is very happy.

  Xie Lang was blaming Xie Wan instead.

  "How can we go congratulate the Wang family?" He simply couldn't bear it.

  Xie Wan looked at him with a cheeky expression and said nonchalantly, "What's there to be afraid of? It's not like I'm the one celebrating his birthday this time, or he'll never die."

  Xie Lang was speechless.

  Wang Si-mei soon brought over the invitation card. Xie Wan placed it on her desk and told her that she would definitely go to their house to offer congratulations.

  In fact, Wang was also surprised and specially instructed Wang Si Mei to ask her whether she would go with them on the 26th morning or wait a little longer and take a car to go there, so as to probe into the truth.

  Xie Wan said: "Of course I'll go with Madam."

  Wang Si-mei finally felt at ease.

  After she left, Xie Wan called Luo Ju.

  "How's Li Ershun doing?"

  Luojidao said: "As the young lady guessed, recently Zhao Daren has been preparing to return to Beijing at the end of the year to report on his duties. It is said that he sent several letters to various places in Beijing, some of which were replied to and some not. Li Ershun couldn't find out about the specific situation, so he didn't know if a way had already been found."

  Xie Wan said: "Where is the eldest young master of the Zhao family?"

  Mr. and Mrs. Zhao always felt that they owed their eldest son a lot, so no matter where they went, they always brought this young master with them.

  "Zhao family's young master is still the same, every day except for eating and drinking is either sitting in the yard counting ants or staring blankly. His mind is like that of a three or four year old child. Last time the girl asked if he had any tendency to hit people, now it seems there isn't. Apart from being foolish, there's nothing else."

  Xie Wan fiddled with a pen on the table for a moment, then looked up and said: "You go tell Li Ershun to find an opportunity to remind Zhao Zhen that we are in close contact with General Jing Yong."

  She nodded and was about to leave when she suddenly called him back: "Forget it, let's not talk about it for now."

  Luoji had never seen her so hesitant and uncertain before, and he couldn't help but look at her with a puzzled expression.

  Xie Wan sighed: "Let's talk about it later, for now I'm not very confident."

  She went to the Wang family to celebrate her birthday, no more than wanting to get close to Wang Anmei. The marriage between Zhao and Wang's two families has always been hanging in her heart. This matter is not all harmful to her, as long as she grasps it properly, it will be extremely beneficial to her.

  Zhao Zhen is after all a person in the officialdom, what she lacks most now is the power of the officialdom. She not only wants to thoroughly defeat the Xie Mansion but also needs to support Xie Ceng to become the pillar of the second house - even if she is capable and tolerant, she cannot go to the imperial court to be an official and fight against Xie Rong, can she? However, without connections, Xie Ceng will find it difficult to get good development no matter how talented or business-savvy he is.

  Therefore, in addition to accumulating her own financial and human resources, she also had to cultivate reliable power for Xie Liang's future entry into officialdom.

  Jing Yong is the only lead she can grasp at present, and if Zhao Zhen is added, it will be an even more reliable lead. However, she really doesn't know whether Jing Yong will help her or not. If she has this merit of being a matchmaker, and Zhao Zhen can stay in the capital, then the situation will be greatly different.

  She just doesn't know what Wang Anmei has in mind at the moment, so she feels it's not suitable to throw this message to Zhao Zhen too early.