"Aunt, what should I do?"

Upon hearing her daughter's words, Chang Mian's aunt simply said, "Do you now know where you went wrong?"

"I don't know, please tell me, Aunt."

“You shouldn’t have spoken when Yun Qing first expressed her unwillingness to have anyone enter the household. If you hadn’t spoken, people would have just thought that your primary wife disliked you and was mistreating you. But the moment you opened your mouth, you were just demeaning yourself.”

Chang Mian was terrified.

"Aunt, what should I do?"

"Don't rush. Now that things have come to this, it might be difficult for you to get married. It's also unlikely that you'll be able to enter the Zhu family. Are you still determined to go to the Zhu family?"

Chang Mian was unsure whether she should enter the Zhu family. To be honest, she was envious of how Zhu Tao treated her cousin, otherwise she wouldn't have had the idea of ​​becoming a concubine. But things had come to this point, and Chang Mian was unsure whether to continue.

"Please allow me some time to consider this, Aunt."

Her aunt, who still doted on her daughter, said, "You should think about it quickly. Chang Miao is already married, and you're next. But your marriage is still undecided. Even if Madam favors you a bit, if it takes too long, she'll have to personally intervene."

“My daughter understands.”

Chang Mian thought about it all night, but she was still unwilling to give up, so she went to find her aunt.

“Aunt, I’ve made up my mind. I want to leave the manor to see Lord Zhu.”

Chang Mian's aunt was taken aback, perhaps not expecting her daughter to make such a request. However, she understood her daughter's intention. Although she felt it was inappropriate, she was fine with it if it made her daughter happy.

“Alright, Auntie will send someone to inquire about this matter. These days, you should spend more time with Madam. If she is happy, our family’s life in the inner quarters will not be bad. Otherwise, the primary wife will find ways to mistreat us mother and daughter again.”

Chang Mian replied obediently, "Don't worry, Aunt. I recently learned to cook a few of Madam's favorite pastries myself, and I'll save them for Madam to make tomorrow."

"As long as you know your limits, that's good."

Aunt Chang Mian was indeed quite capable; she quickly found out Zhu Tao's whereabouts. Actually, it wasn't difficult to find out, since Zhu Tao wasn't any particularly remarkable person, and he himself didn't have the habit of hiding his whereabouts.

So Chang Mian quickly found out his whereabouts and discovered that he would be having drinks with friends at a restaurant in the capital in a few days.

Zhu Tao had no idea that he was being targeted, or that he was being pursued by a unwanted romantic interest. He was working a normal job, and on his day off, he had arranged to have dinner with someone at a restaurant.

The people who invited him were all colleagues from the Ministry of Education. This dinner at the restaurant was similar to a modern departmental gathering; there was no other purpose than to have a meal together and catch up on each other's feelings.

Yunqi and Chen Lianming were naturally among them. The three of them were all Jinshi graduates in the same year. Yunqi and Chen Lianming had both participated in the dictionary project. After the Ministry of Education was established, Yunqi and Chen Lianming naturally would not go to other departments.

Zhu Tao raised his glass and said, "Thanks to everyone's cooperation, our Ministry of Education will surely be able to gain a firm foothold in front of the Emperor in the future. I thank you all in advance." After saying that, he drank the wine in his glass.

Most of the people in the Ministry of Education are relatively young. When the Ministry of Education was being established, Yinzhen had promised Zhu Tao that he could choose the people himself.

Zhu Tao naturally chose those he thought were good. The older people had experienced the influence of officialdom, and Zhu felt that he didn't have the ability to change their minds. So he simply chose some younger people. These people all had one thing in common: they were basically new to officialdom, and he could keep them in check.

He didn't want to spend all his time arguing with people in his department. It was a waste of energy, and more importantly, the arguments were fruitless and would only delay important matters, which was not worth it.

Upon hearing his words, everyone raised their glasses in response, saying, "You're too kind, Lord Zhu."

The lights were flashing, and soon the atmosphere warmed up, and people started chatting.

While they were chatting, in the private room next to Zhu Tao's group, Chang Mian, dressed in men's clothing, asked, "Have you found out and confirmed that it is indeed Lord Zhu inside?"

"This servant has inquired and found out that it is Lord Zhu inside, but this servant also saw Young Master Biao."

Chang Mian didn't pay much attention to her cousin Yunqi, so she didn't know that Yunqi was also there.

Which cousin?

"He is the young master of the Niohuru family. I heard that he works under Lord Zhu."

Chang Mian was a little afraid that Yun Qi would cause trouble, but since Yun Qi had already come, she was unwilling to just go back like this.

"Do as instructed, go and do it!"

"yes"

Not long after, a servant whispered in Zhu Tao's ear, "Master, Liu Zeng ran into someone downstairs just now. He's in some trouble and can't handle it. What do you think, Master?"

Zhu Tao: "I understand."

Zhu Tao picked up his wine cup and said, "First of all, I apologize to everyone. My servant has run into some trouble. I'll go down and check on him. I'll be back in a bit. Please continue eating."

"It's alright, it's alright."

Zhu Tao left the private room and, once outside, frowned and said, "What happened? Explain yourself clearly."

Zhu Tao usually has two servants with him, but today he brought three because he was hosting a banquet for his colleagues. Liu Zeng was one of them. He was very steady in his work and didn't seem like the kind of person who would deliberately cause trouble.

"Liu Zeng was guarding outside the door. It seemed that something had happened, so the waiter called him over. Then I heard a commotion in the main hall. I called Liu Zeng, but he didn't come back, so I went down to check. I found that Liu Zeng had been detained. They were saying that he had to pay one hundred taels of silver, or they wouldn't let him leave. I told Liu Zeng that I couldn't handle it, so I rescued him and reported to my master."

Zhu Tao understood for the time being, but he hadn't figured out the whole story yet, so he went down to take a look.

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