Ye Daquan and his wife were a little intimidated by the size of the yard.

Ye Daquan: "Little sister, this doesn't look like a scholar's residence. It's even bigger than the wealthy man's house. Have we come to the wrong place?"

Ye Caiping was also somewhat surprised: "But on the entire North Street, this is the only family with the surname Shen. Let's ask first."

But this courtyard... really doesn't look like a secluded retreat!

Two servants were chatting by the gate. When they saw them, they immediately came over and asked, "Who are you looking for?"

Ye Caiping said, "Young man, we're looking for Master Shen."

"We don't have anyone here to be a teacher."

"Oh, then I'll go find your master."

"I'm sorry, sir, he doesn't receive guests unless there's an invitation from the master or young lady," the servant said with a smile.

Ye Caiping smiled and said, "Okay, thank you, young man."

Ye Daquan and Du Shi were already extremely nervous. After Ye Caiping got on the oxcart, they slowly drove away.

Only after leaving North Street did Ye Daquan say, "I've never seen anyone ask someone for so many things."

Du said, “In the village, you can just walk into any house with its door open. If the door is closed, you can knock and get in. Even if it's a wealthy man's house, the servants will announce your arrival. Just look at that Mr. Shen's house, they were so well-mannered. And that young gatekeeper boy, he was all smiles and very polite, but he gave off the feeling that you couldn't say a word to him.”

Ye Caiping looked up at the sky speechlessly. This was a wealthy family!

What happened to the promised seclusion?!

She originally thought that seclusion meant living in a mountain village, or even in a small town, just a small villa, living like an ordinary person, tending to flowers and plants every day, or reading and playing chess...

As long as the other party opens the door, she can go in and always manage to persuade them.

Who would have thought that this reclusion would be so conspicuous!

Ye Caiping felt that she had been tricked by that old man, Mr. Qian.

“Let’s go find Master Qian!” Ye Caiping said.

...

Qian Fuzi's House —

Inside the main room, Master Qian munched on the peanut brittle that Ye Caiping had brought over, laughing heartily.

"I told you, it's not easy to become a disciple of Master Shen!"

Ye Caiping sat in the chair at the lower end of the table and said speechlessly, "Is this a question of whether it's easy or not? We can't even get through the door."

“Yes, that courtyard is huge… not just in our town, but even in the county, it’s not that big,” said Mrs. Du.

"Hey, I told you before, the Shen residence is very conspicuous, you can find it as soon as you go there."

Ye Caiping said, "Why don't you come with us to ask him?"

"I'm not going," Master Qian refused. "I have absolutely no connection with them, so there's no point in me going. You guys think of another way!"

Du and Ye Daquan felt discouraged as they listened, thinking it was too difficult and what solutions they could come up with.

Without an acquaintance to introduce them or an invitation, they couldn't even get through the door.

Du said, "Why don't we wait until April to take the county school exam?"

Master Qian nodded: "That's fine. But with such a good opportunity before us, I think we should try harder to find Master Shen."

Ye Caiping: "Master Shen's background is probably not that of an ordinary family."

"All I know is that he's from the capital. He's originally from the capital."

Ye Caiping nodded: "How are Xuan'er and Peng'er's studies going lately?"

"as always."

The group chatted for a while longer before leaving.

After leaving Mr. Qian's house, Ye Caiping said, "Let's go see Jinhua!"

Mrs. Du quickly replied, "Okay, I'll go take a look. I need to buy two more boxes of pastries."

Ye Caiping has already paid Qian Fuzi for the two boxes she bought.

The group arrived at Jixiang Cloth Shop, where Jinhua was cutting clothes with Manager Yao. Upon seeing Ye Caiping and the others, she quickly ran out and said, "Father, Mother, Aunt, what brings you here?"

"I was in town on business and stopped by to take a look around." Du said with a smile. When she saw Manager Yao coming over, she quickly stuffed two boxes of pastries into her hands: "Thank you, Manager Yao, for being willing to teach Jinhua how to make pastries."

Shopkeeper Yao accepted the gift with a smile and placed it on the counter: "Jinhua, take a rest and chat with your parents."

"good."

Ye Jinhua then pulled the Du couple to sit down at a tea table nearby.

Ye Caiping looked around and casually picked up a piece of light yellow cotton cloth: "Shopkeeper, cut four feet for me."

Shopkeeper Yao's eyes lit up: "Great!"

He then brought over a ruler and began to measure.

"Shopkeeper, do you know the Shen family on North Street?" Ye Caiping asked, pulling the cloth around her neck.

"Is it that big courtyard?" Manager Yao paused. "Of course I know."

"Then... has Miss Shen ever bought any fabric from you?"

Ye Caiping remembered clearly that the servant said it would only be possible if there were invitations from the master and young lady. Besides Master Shen, there was also a young lady in the Shen household.

Shopkeeper Yao chuckled and glanced at Ye Caiping: "I've never bought any cloth. Our Jixiang Cloth Shop is just a small shop, how could Miss Chen possibly be interested in it? However, she once passed by and bought a fan pendant from me on a whim."

"She only bought it once, and you already know her surname is Chen?"

"Of course. In this small town, you can count the number of girls who can come and go with a maid on one hand. And since her accent is different from ours, I know she's from the Shen family who moved here a year or two ago. Why are you asking about her?"

As he spoke, Manager Yao picked up a pair of scissors and, with a ripping sound, cut the cloth off.

"It's something personal."

Since Master Shen was "living in seclusion" here, Ye Caiping couldn't very well mention that she wanted to find a tutor for her nephew.

Since we can't contact Master Shen now, we can only contact his relatives.

People strive for higher positions, while water flows downhill.

As Mr. Qian said, with such a good teacher right there, one should at least try one's best.

Manager Yao, folding the cloth, said, "You can't get close to her here. You'd better go to Shunkelou. I've run into her a few times there; she's eating sweets."

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