Only then did Li Zhiyuan and his group notice the carriage behind Du Shi, Ye Daquan, and the others.

The men looked quite grim.

Ye Daquan's face also showed a smug look, and he stroked the horse: "This was bought by my little sister. Do you have one at home? Oh, you don't! You've always rented a donkey cart."

"Miss Zhang, do you have a carriage? What kind of carriage do you usually travel in?"

Zhang Shuiniang: "..."

Li Zhiyuan's face was almost contorted. The Zhang family only had a small donkey cart and an ox cart, let alone a horse-drawn carriage!

"What's with those expressions? You really don't have any?" Ye Daquan said, shaking his head. "Aunt Zhao is right, the young ladies in your Li Family Village are too cheap."

“My little sister has a workshop and a carriage, but she doesn’t dare to call herself a rich girl. It’s so cheap in your Li Family Village. Any ordinary rich farmer’s daughter calls herself a rich girl.”

The Li family members were so angry that their faces turned pale, but they couldn't refute it at all.

"You... Hmph! A vulgar person who only cares about money!" Li Zhiyuan pushed Li Ziming around. "Come on, Ziming, hurry up and go into the examination hall! The day you pass the exam with flying colors will be the day these disgusting people kneel before you."

"Pfft, hahahaha!" Ye Daquan burst into laughter, clutching his stomach. "I haven't even entered the examination hall yet, and I'm already dreaming! Since when does passing the preliminary examination make you a top scholar?"

Li Zhiyuan and his gang were furious. They couldn't win the argument, and they couldn't win either. In the end, they could only give Ye Daquan and the others a disdainful look:

"I am a scholar, and this title alone is something you could never achieve even if you worked your whole life!"

After saying that, she pushed Li Ziming away.

Zhang Shuiniang and Granny Li glared at Ye Daquan and the others, then slunk away.

Li Jiaojiao stared coldly at Ye Daquan and sneered, "So what if she earns a lot of money? She's still a piece of trash who beats her mother-in-law and has a bad reputation! All her hard work is useless, unlike my mother, who was able to marry a scholar. She's already won in terms of marriage."

After saying that, he caught up with Li Zhiyuan.

Ye Daquan and the Du family remained unmoved and even spat out a curse.

Madam Wei said urgently, "Elder brother and sister-in-law, it's getting late, let's hurry and get the children into the examination hall!"

"Alright, alright, Xuan'er, you guys go ahead!" Ye Daquan waved his hand.

Ye Xuan and the others nodded and followed the students into the examination hall.

...

When Ye Caiping came in, Shen Manman was painting.

Upon seeing Ye Caiping, Shen Manman pouted and said, "Auntie, you finally remembered me. It's been so long, I almost forgot what you look like."

With a slight sigh, he put down his paintbrush, walked around the long table, and sat down on the long couch under the window.

"That's ridiculous!" Ye Caiping was speechless. "I was just..."

"A few days ago?"

Ye Caiping's words stuck in her throat. She had come to the Shen family a few days ago, but she was looking for Shen Zhiyan and didn't see Shen Manman.

Ye Caiping thought for a moment: "I came to your house a few days ago, but I didn't see you... so I left. I came today because I have something to ask you. You told Jin'er and the others yesterday that you wanted Jinhua to take class with you, is that true?"

Shen Manman snorted: "Of course it's true! Would I lie to you? Then I'll have one more person to play with."

Ye Caiping smiled and said, "Thank you so much."

Shen Manman said, "I heard Jin'er say that she wants to make clothes. Rather than learning in a place like a fabric shop, it would be better to learn at my house."

Ye Caiping was surprised: "You even teach how to make clothes?"

“It’s not a matter of whether or not to teach,” Shen Manman said. “My family has three embroiderers who are excellent at both tailoring and embroidery. They make clothes specifically for my father and me. We need four outfits a season, that’s a must.”

"If you really want to learn tailoring, learn from them. It's so much better than those small fabric shops outside. So why go to all this trouble?"

Ye Caiping then remembered that wealthy families in ancient times had people who specialized in making clothes.

"Are they willing to teach?"

"What's the big deal? They weren't hired from outside, they were bought. To put it bluntly, they're my servants, so of course they're trained."

Shen Manman chuckled as she spoke, "It's settled then. From now on, when she comes, she'll attend classes with us in the morning and make clothes with a few embroiderers in the afternoon."

Ye Caiping said, "I'm afraid she won't be able to keep up with the morning classes."

"What's the big deal? We have more than one teacher. We have one class a day, don't we?"

“Apart from the teacher who gives the lesson, all the other teachers are free. So today we are learning the piano, and she is learning etiquette from the etiquette teacher in another room. While we are learning etiquette, she can learn about painting.”

“However…” Shen Manman paused, “Such an important matter, shouldn’t you tell my father as well?”

Ye Caiping awkwardly fidgeted with her fingers: "Haha, you can just tell him later, right?"

She also wanted to talk to Shen Zhiyan in person at the time.

But now that he's got a new fishing rod, he'll probably be spending endless time by the river.

Unfortunately, he's a natural-born fisherman. If he still can't catch any fish after I gave him a new rod and bait, it would be quite embarrassing.

And I just impulsively ran out the door; that was pretty stupid of me.

But we were already on the road in the oxcart, and it would have been even more foolish to go home.

Since we were already here, we had no choice but to ask Shen Manman.

Ye Caiping asked, "How has your father been doing lately?"

Shen Manman said, "He should have made some progress. He brought home a small crucian carp just the day before yesterday. All told, he's caught three small fish in half a month! That's one more than before."

Ye Caiping's lips twitched.

Just then, Xiao Qiu walked in: "Miss, Aunt Ye, the master has come home."

"Oh, my dad's back! Come on, let's go see him."

Ye Caiping had no choice but to follow Shen Manman out of the room and into the main hall, where she saw Shen Zhiyan just put the fishing rod into Duanwu's hand.

"Oh, you're here?" Shen Zhiyan turned around.

Shen Manman chattered away, telling everyone about having Jinhua come to class as well, and added, "My aunt said to tell you about it later."

Shen Zhiyan looked at her, as if asking, "Why did you pass on the message?"

Instead of going to Ye Caiping's place, you might as well go directly to him!

Fortunately, Shen Zhiyan didn't ask, but instead asked, "Did you eat that fish?"

Fish? Ye Caiping was stunned for a moment before remembering the small yellow catfish from several days ago, and quickly praised, "I ate it, it was delicious."

I thought to myself, why didn't I ask when I gave you the fishing rod last time?

Knowing that Yan was in a bad mood, Shen turned around and said, "Dragon Boat Festival, give that loach to Madam Ye."

Duanwu agreed and withdrew, while Shen Manman beamed, "Oh dear, Father rarely catches fish but doesn't give me any to eat."

Shen Zhiyan said with a straight face, "Have you eaten? The crucian carp from last time, and the grass carp from the time before that."

Shen Manman pouted and poked her finger.

A moment later, Duanwu came in carrying a fish basket. Ye Caiping looked inside and exclaimed, "Wow, there really is one! A small fish about the size of a little finger and about fifteen or sixteen centimeters long!"

Is he a fry killer? He can't catch big fish, he only preys on these immature fish that have already started fishing.

Ye Caiping smiled and said, "Thank you."

Shen Zhiyan: "Take it home if you like it."

"Okay. I'll head back now, thank you."