Miss Song Qi was afraid that Miss Song Liu would offend the young lady of the Peng family, so she hurriedly said, "My elder sister didn't mean that. She was just too surprised." Then she smiled bitterly and said, "I don't know how the two sisters feel. Anyway, I am just as surprised as my elder sister. Even if Miss Yu is smart, the Pei family treats Miss Yu too well."

Like the Song family, the Peng family is a wealthy and powerful family in the local area. There are countless people who want to curry favor with them. Every year, many gentry try their best to send their daughters to their house to play, hoping to win their favor and have a good reputation in their family before they get married, so that they can talk to the aunts of the Peng and Song families and get in touch with the aunts of the two families after they get married.

But no matter it was the Peng family or the Song family, they all looked down on the girls sent to them in this way. No one could receive such courtesy from the Pei family like Yu Tang.

This made the young ladies from the Peng and Song families wonder whether Yu Tang had some unknown identity, background or ability.

The ladies looked at each other and no one said anything for a long time.

The Seventh Miss of the Song Family was more perceptive and tried to say, "How about we wait and see first. We might offend someone before we know it. No matter what, if we go too far, it will at least make the Pei Family look bad."

The two young ladies of the Peng family nodded repeatedly.

Miss Song Liu was not giving up and said, "Why don't we go ask Miss Gu? It seems that Miss Gu is quite familiar with Miss Yu."

After all, I still don’t believe the results of the Peng family’s investigation.

The two Miss Pengs were very unhappy, but they also knew that the Sixth Miss Song was not being reasonable, so they said a few words to the Seventh Miss Song, "Okay, ask more people, maybe you can find out something else," and then stood up and said goodbye.

Miss Song Qi knew that her elder sister had completely offended the Peng family and was a little annoyed with her, so she took her back to the chamber, found an excuse that she had to pay her respects to the Fourth Madam of the Song family, and left her with the Fourth Madam and ran away.

However, Miss Song Liu was completely clueless and even talked about Yu Tang's affairs with Mrs. Song Si, saying, "Could it be that the Yu family and Whose family are related by marriage?"

Fourth Mrs. Song had already received the letter and knew what Pei Yan had discussed during the day. She was worried that the Song family would need to spend a large sum of money to bribe Wang Qibao and Wei Sanfu. She had no time to care about the intrigues among these young girls. She impatiently sent Sixth Miss Song away and began to discuss the matter of raising money with her personal maid.

The old woman was also somewhat dissatisfied with Miss Song Liu, and gave Mrs. Song Si an idea: "If it really doesn't work, just marry Miss Liu off!"

There was a nouveau riche who wanted to marry into the Song family and was willing to pay a large betrothal gift, but the Song family would never be interested in such a family. But Miss Song Six was too troublesome, and when the old woman mentioned this, Mrs. Song Four was a little tempted and said thoughtfully, "The Song family is not so degraded that we have to sell our children, but you are right, if Miss Six stays, it will be a disaster, so it is better to marry her off as soon as possible."

The woman had been trying so hard to speak in front of the fourth wife of Song because she had received favors from the nouveau riche family. Now that she had received accurate information and understood the fourth wife's intentions, she felt that this matter might actually work out by accident, so she became even more excited and said, "In recent years, the Song family has been looked down upon when they go out. To be honest, it has something to do with the young ladies in the family. You see, the young ladies of the Gu and Shen families are not as splendid as the young ladies in our family, but they are still respected. Madam, you should clean up your manners so as not to affect the marriage of the masters."

This time, the fourth wife of Song wanted to ask for a girl from the Pei family for her son to marry, but was clearly rejected by Mrs. Pei. The fourth wife of Song was furious, so how could she listen to such words? Although she said nothing, she secretly made up her mind to marry Miss Song Liu when she returned.

But in front of this woman, she remained noncommittal and continued to talk about raising money: "I don't know when the two ships can go to sea. I am very nervous when I see so much money being invested every day. Even so, the Peng family still says it is not enough and they want to build two more ships. I think the Peng family does not want to do business with us, but wants to use this method to drag us down. When the time comes to build the ships and go to sea, we will have no choice but to listen to them."

The old woman could still say a few words about matters in the inner house, but when it came to the chores in the outer courtyard, she was completely clueless.

She didn't dare to say anything and just smiled along.

As for Pei Yan, they discussed the matter for the whole morning, and at noon everyone went back to discuss with their respective staff for a long time. They had a preliminary plan in mind, and in the evening, everyone prepared to get together again to decide the details of how to receive Wei Sanfu and how to visit Wang Qibao.

That is, how much money each family contributes and what requirements they have.

Gu Chang came to see Pei Yan early because of Gu Xi and Pei Tong's matter, but he didn't expect that Tao Qing arrived earlier than him, and Shen Shanyan also became Pei Yan's guest of honor.

He could hardly hide his surprise.

Shen Shanyan smiled bitterly and said to Gu Chang, "I came here for the Li family's matter. Xiaguang agreed to help, but I was afraid that something might go wrong. Why didn't I force Xiaguang to write a letter of recommendation for me?"

Even if Pei Yan agreed to help, it was impossible for him to go there in person. It would be up to Shen Shanyan himself to take care of the Li family.

Because of Gu Xi, Gu Chang didn't ask too much about this matter. However, Tao Qing didn't hesitate and asked Shen Shanyan curiously, "What are your plans?"

The implication is that Pei Yan needs to help them to a certain extent to achieve their goal.

Shen Shanyan knew that the Tao family had their own connections and means in the court, and he hoped that the Tao family would lend a hand for Pei Yan's sake, so he spoke directly, saying, "Li Yi did such a thing, which is unforgivable. I don't care about him. I just want to protect Li Duan's reputation so that he can continue to participate in the imperial examinations in the future."

This is a bit difficult.

It is easy to keep the reputation, but if Li Duan continues to take the imperial examination, he will definitely pursue a career in government. Students who pursue a career in government must have a good reputation. If they have a good reputation, there must not be any criminals within three generations. Then Li Yi cannot be dismissed from office for corruption.

Gu Chang couldn't help but look at Pei Yan who was writing a letter.

Pei Yan looked calm and focused, with no trace of emotion on his beautiful face. It was obvious that he already knew Shen Shanyan's plan.

For some reason, he felt that Shen Shanyan's request was a bit excessive.

Gu Chang couldn't help but say, "Xiaguang, I'm afraid even the Dali Temple can't afford this matter, right?"

Pei Yan nodded slightly, feeling extremely regretful.

If he had known this would happen, he should not have agreed to Shen Shanyan in anger just to get angry with Yu Tang.

He is not usually so easily angered.

If you want to blame someone, you have to blame Miss Yu.

Let him do something that goes against his true nature.

However, Shen Shanyan seemed to have his eyes blocked by eye boogers, and actually wanted Li Duan to continue his official career.

Others said that he was unlucky to marry Mrs. Shen, but now it seems that he and Mrs. Shen are clearly a perfect match.

However, he has plenty of ways to make Li Duan watch but not eat.

The thought flashed through his mind and he suddenly stopped writing.

If Miss Yu knew that Li Duan would end up like this, she would definitely be happy, right?

How can he do good things without leaving his name?

He has to tell Miss Yu about this.

Pei Yan thought about it and happily decided to do so.

He replied to Gu Chang: "So I'm going to write a letter to my mentor, asking him to come forward and see if I can save the Li family's reputation."

Zhang Ying was just a retired Minister of Personnel, but he promoted many people when he was the Minister of Personnel. Asking such people to help was not just a matter of money.

As for whether it can succeed, it depends on Shen Shanyan's ability.

Shen Shanyan was very grateful and said, "I was wondering why you took so long to write a letter. It turns out there is also a letter to the old man. Xiaguang, I will remember your kindness. When Li Duan and his friends come back from the capital, I will bring him to thank you in person."

"No need to thank me." Pei Yan said with a sad face, "This is against my principles. If you really want to thank me, just don't tell anyone else about it. I'm afraid that if others know that I helped the Li family, they will point fingers at our Pei family and scold us, making our Pei family restless."

Shen Shanyan's face flushed red. He took Pei Yan's business card and letter and hurriedly left Zhaoming Temple.

Tao Qing looked at him and smiled with his head down.

Gu Chang was puzzled.

Tao Qing did not explain, but said: "Chaoyang came to see Xiaguang so early, he must have something to say to Xiaguang. I have been sitting here for a long time, it's a good time for me to get up and walk outside to stretch my muscles. You guys just talk, don't bother me." After that, he got up and left the hall.

Pei Yan didn't know whether he was tired or because he was in his own home, but he habitually showed an arrogant attitude.

He sat there with his arms and legs spread out, pointed at the armchair below him, and said, "If you have anything to say, sit down and talk!"

That kind of calmness and composure, as if he knew everything, made Gu Chang feel uncomfortable for a moment. He felt that repeatedly talking to Pei Yan about Pei Tong's affairs was not only petty but also narrow-minded.

He hesitated whether to talk to Pei Yan about Pei Tong again. Pei Yan was a little impatient - since lunch, he had wanted to talk to him privately about this and that. He was such a quiet person, and he was already thirsty from talking. He really didn't have the heart to play the guessing game with Gu Chaoyang anymore.

"You are here for Pei Tong's matter, right?" Pei Yan said straight to the point, "Do you know how old Pei Tong is now?"

Gu Chaoyang was stunned.

Pei Yan didn't wait for him to speak, and continued: "He is only eighteen years old this year. I don't know how your Gu family did it. But look at our Pei family, let's not talk about studying, who among those who go out to serve as officials is not a capable official or a good minister? That's because our Pei family not only requires our children to study, but also requires them to be able to study, especially for children who can pursue a career in officialdom to travel more. It's not me who said Pei Tong's affairs. Yes, my eldest brother left a will before he died, asking him to take the imperial examination ten years later. He insisted on going out to study because of my sister-in-law, who only listened to the words of the Yang family. If you think it doesn't matter, I won't stop you. You can ask him to write a letter of apology to me, and I will let him go out to study. But from now on, he has no relationship with the Pei family.

We, the Pei family, will never break the rules because of him!"