As expected, the second wife acted swiftly and decisively, making a trip to her parents' home without any hesitation.

They arranged for Gu Yan to marry their aunt's daughter and exchanged birth charts as quickly as possible.

After finishing the task, she breathed a sigh of relief, finally able to relax.

When the old lady in the main courtyard heard about what she had done, she sighed and understood that she no longer wanted to deal with the bunch of unreasonable fools from the second branch of the family!

This daughter-in-law is quite shrewd; she knows how to behave and is polite. Not wanting to make things difficult for her any further, I didn't reveal anything to her.

Instead, he went to the First Madam and asked her to handle the matter properly.

Gao Shi was taken on a lot of things for no reason. It was clearly something that the second branch of the family was supposed to handle, but she was asked to clean it up. No matter how far she could go, she couldn't just openly go and keep an eye on things at the second branch.

Seeing her in such a predicament, Qingyu offered a suggestion: "I heard that Wang Yan's older sister and brother serve in the Third Young Master's room."

Gao raised an eyebrow and told her to call Wang Yan over. Wang Yan was led to the main room in a daze.

This was the first time Gao had called her into the room for questioning.

"Did you send the recipe for the fruit tea you made a while ago to the Third Young Master's courtyard?"

Wang Yan honestly shook her head, "Since Madam didn't instruct me, I naturally didn't go to deliver it."

Madam Gao chuckled lightly, "Go and make a copy and send it to the Third Young Master."

Qingyu continued, "I heard that your older brother and sister both work in the Third Young Master's courtyard. When you send them over, please give them a heads-up."

Tell them to keep an eye out; the Third Young Master will be back in a while.

"See if the Second Master and the Third Young Master have anything they'd like to eat or drink, and have them let me know when they have time. The Marquis and his wife will reward them accordingly."

The words "report" and "reward" were emphasized extremely.

Wang Yan suddenly raised her head, stared at Qingyu for a moment, and then knelt down to pay her respects.

Once outside the house, she feigned ignorance towards Qingyu, who had come to see her off.

"Although my older brother and sister are serving in the Third Young Master's courtyard now, they don't get close to him. I'll go and report back and ask Sister Fangli."

After saying that, she ignored everyone, huffed and puffed, and quickly walked away with a pot of ready-made lychee jasmine tea.

Qingyu paused for a moment before realizing that Wang Yan understood.

She hurriedly lifted her skirt and chased after her, calling her name, but she ignored her. Qingyu, panting heavily, caught up and turned her around by the shoulder.

"Oh dear, my good sister, why are you so temperamental? It's a good thing to be valued by the madam."

Upon hearing this, Wang Yan stopped and stared intently at her with her clear black and white pupils.

Qingyu blushed. "Alright, alright, you don't need to pass on that message. I'll handle things with Madam myself."

Wang Yan was finally satisfied, but she couldn't afford to offend her too much. She curtsied and said, "Thank you, Sister Qingyu."

Then he leisurely carried the fruit tea to the Third Young Master's courtyard.

Wang Ying personally went out to meet her and gave her some melon seed pastries made with walnuts and melon seeds.

Wang Yan had something on her mind to tell them, so she just talked to them casually and slowly, taking her time eating.

When it was lunchtime, Wang Yan said she wanted to have lunch with her older brother and sister.

It was just a meal, so Fangli kept her there while Wang Yan and her sister went out to get the food.

She walked around the hanging flower gate and then walked a little further. She looked around and saw that no one was there.

He tugged at Yingjie's sleeve and whispered,

"Sister, is something happening in the Third Young Master's courtyard? Madam wanted you and my brother to be inside agents, but I declined."

Wang Ying was startled. "I haven't heard of that. Have you misunderstood Madam's meaning?"

Wang Yan shook her head solemnly, indicating that it was definitely not a misunderstanding.

Later, fearing that she would complain to Fangli, Qingyu chased after her to explain, thus clarifying everything.

“I’ll go back and find an opportunity to tell my brother that you should forget about this.”

After saying that, he pulled her aside again, "How did you refuse, Madam? Did Madam get angry?"

Wang Yan shook her head. Qingyu said she would take responsibility for this matter, and she would definitely handle it properly so that she wouldn't have to put up with both sides.

Wang Ying was relieved and then, still preoccupied, took her to get some food.

When her brother came back at noon, he saw that Wang Yan was quite happy and gave her a newly acquired nine-linked rings to play with.

After dinner, Wang Yan went back to her work, while Wang Ying made an excuse to help Wang Xing hang the books out to dry.

After hearing Wang Ying's words, Wang Xing's eyebrows furrowed and he immediately fell silent. This was the state he would be in when he was overly troubled.

"Big sister, you have to go out! The family has received a lot of rewards lately thanks to your cookbook. That should be enough to redeem you from your servitude."

He recounted in detail what he had seen that day.

"The First Madam must know, and you even helped the concubine greet Miss Xu. What if they really investigate later..."

Wang Ying panicked. "What should we do? Aren't we supposed to wait until the old lady's birthday to redeem her?"

"Now, to suddenly want to leave the household without any reason, you'd be lucky not to get a beating."

Wang Xing made a firm decision: "If you're injured, you'll be moved out to recuperate for a while."

Then I'll have my father plead with Steward Rong. No one will care if a girl who's been discharged from the courtyard to recover from her injuries is released from her official status.

He paused for a moment, then said, "Don't panic now. I'll go find a doctor and ask around to see if there's any way to make someone look badly injured, but without actually damaging their internal organs."

"Now that we've found a solution, there's no rush to implement it. Besides, the Third Young Master hasn't returned yet, so even if you go out, Steward Wang won't be in a hurry to bring in replacements."

After listening, Wang Ying nodded thoughtfully, "Okay, fine, okay, we'll do it your way."

As soon as Wang Ying entered the courtyard, Qingyu came over. "Sister, why are you back so late? Did you see Fangli? What did she say?"

Wang Yan bowed and said, "Miss Fangli gave me a silver ingot and two chess manuals for me to give to my sister. She said that my brother went out to find them these past two days."

Qingyu could tell from her expression that she hadn't told anyone, and she felt much more relieved. She took off a bracelet made of two thin silver wires and gave it to her.

"Wear it and play with it. Go boil a pot of cold spring water. I'll send my wife a pot of Silver Needle White Tea right now."

"Understood, thank you, Sister Qingyu."

In the afternoon, Chunye came looking for something to eat, as the young masters were about to take their exams.

To bring good luck, the old lady made a vow to eat vegetarian food for three months, and the whole household followed suit, rarely touching meat.

The old lady and her servants carefully prepare their meals, ensuring they don't suffer from health problems.

Those servants were in a terrible state, especially those who did the rough work. They were so young, and without any oil in their bellies, they had no energy to work.

"Eat up, I'll go to Aunt Sun's tomorrow and make you a stuffed egg pancake."

"Really? Then I'll finish my work early tomorrow and go wait there."