Chapter 1812 Only the sense of distance remains

The carriage arrived at the street of antiques, calligraphy and paintings, but the carriage could not go in. Changzhong got off the carriage and helped his fiancée down, saying to her, "Let's go to Jingyi Pavilion first. I heard from Master Wu that a batch of antiques has arrived."

Wei Xinyi asked, "Could it be an antique handled by the Ministry of Revenue?"

Chang Zhong laughed, "If it's really an antique handled by the Ministry of Revenue, why would I ask Master Wu?"

Wei Xinyi also smiled, "Then let's go and take a look."

There weren't many customers at Jingyi Pavilion when the two of them arrived. The shopkeeper smiled as soon as he saw Changzhong. "Mr. Zhou, you're here. We've got a new batch of antiques. What would you like to see?"

Chang Zhong said: "Take me to see the ornaments."

Wei Xinyi looked at the fan and said, "You go look at the decorations, and I'll go look at the fan."

Chang Zhong said: "Okay."

The two carefully selected the gifts, paid the bill and left the Antique Street to have tea. When they passed by the pawn shop Changzhong heard the noise, he pulled open the curtain of the carriage and saw a young man holding a jade pendant being pushed to the ground.

The coachman hurriedly stopped the carriage. As it was the Marquis's mansion, the other carriage servants did not dare to move. They looked at each other and quickly returned to the pawnshop.

The boy had already stood up and looked a little nervous. "Thank you."

Changzhong opened the car window and said, "I didn't help you with anything."

"I still have to thank you, otherwise I will definitely be beaten."

Changzhong raised his eyebrows, "I see you understand, why did you provoke the shop owner?"

Yang Xiu frowned, "I wanted to be a jade pendant, and I couldn't help but insult them."

Changzhong took a look at the jade pendant. How should I put it? Normally, the jade pendant would be worth several dozen taels, but the pawn price was very low. In addition, the Ministry of Revenue was handling a large number of antique jewellery, so the pawn price was even lower. It really couldn't be said that the pawnshop deliberately lowered the price.

Chang Zhong said, "I see that you are also a scholar. From your accent, I can tell that you are not from Beijing. What difficulties have you encountered?"

Yang Xiu lowered his head and said, "I am a student who went to Beijing to take the imperial examination. I have used all the money I had as compensation. Now I only have this jade pendant given by my master to help me out."

Chang Zhong was shocked. "You didn't go to Beijing with your companions?"

Yang Xiu pursed his lips and tightened his chin, looking very aloof. Chang Zhong asked how old he was, and then he understood. He didn't want to bully this genius boy, nor did he want to pay attention to him. Finally, when he heard that he was the champion of Sichuan Province, Chang Zhong blinked his eyes and said, "Well, you pawn the jade pendant to me, and I will redeem it when you have money."

Changzhong told his fourth brother about it that night, and Changzhi asked, "Did he pledge it to you?"

Changzhong nodded, "He's not trying to save face. Although he's young, he's still smart. He wants to continue taking the exam. He learns from his mistakes."

Yang Xiu said that the compensation of money was obviously a setup, and we should not think that all candidates are upright and noble, as many of them are narrow-minded and vicious.

Changzhi tested Yang Xiu and found him to be a talented person. He went back to the courtyard and asked a servant to look after him. In the end, he lamented that he was young and inexperienced.

In a blink of an eye, it was the day to propose marriage to the He family. The He family was very satisfied with Mingjia. The marriage proposal was very smooth. Mingjia looked like Changzhi. Su Xuan personally taught him the ways of the world. Mingjia was more tactful than Changzhi and was very much loved by the elders of the He family.

Mingjia has been found. Zhulan called Minghui over and said, "I'll give Shaoting a set of headgear. Jiangling understands what I mean. What do you think?"

Minghui had a plan in mind, "Sun'er wants to wait until the Spring Examination is over."

Zhulan didn't care anymore after getting accurate information, "Just talk to your mother."

"Sun'er understands."

The next day, Zhulan hadn't seen Tao for a long time, "I see you've lost weight again?"

Tao feels that he has aged a lot. "Our whole family has lost a lot of weight."

Zhulan saw that Tao still looked a little sad, "Are you worried about something?"

Tao was feeling very frustrated. She was indeed glorious as the head wife of the Wang family, but she also had some unsatisfactory things. "It was all because of my disappointing family."

Zhulan, "What happened?"

"Well, we finally had a good child, but he turned out to be neglected by his father and tortured by his stepmother. If I hadn't sent someone to send a New Year's gift back in advance, this good child would be gone."

Zhulan couldn't stand child abuse, whether in modern times or in ancient times. "How are the children now?"

Tao was very upset. "I took him back to Beijing and now he is being raised on the farm that I brought with me as a dowry. Alas."

Zhu Lan comforted her, "The child is good, and the Tao family will have someone to look forward to in the future."

"Oh, they tortured me to the point of resentment even though I had high hopes."

Zhulan: "You want to keep him?"

Tao nodded, "Well, I told my husband about it, and he agrees."

The younger generations of the Tao family wanted to give her girls, but she refused any of them. She thought it was better to raise boys than to rely on women, as sons were the foundation of a family. When she thought about her parents wanting to give a girl to her grandson as a concubine, she felt angry and disgusted.

Zhu Lan asked, "Since you know what's going on, don't be upset."

Tao sighed, "I can only talk to you about it."

Tao paused and asked, "I heard some news even when I was away from home. Are you really determined to hire Gu Sheng?"

"You all know about it?"

"You guys are not hiding it either, and we are not blind."

Zhu Lan smiled and said, "It's settled. We're just waiting to choose a good day to propose."

If the Southern family had not kept sending invitations to visit, Chang Zhi would not have been so high-profile. Their Zhou family did not want to have anything to do with the Southern family.

As the news spread, Gu Sheng received more attention. Some people wanted to sabotage him, but unfortunately Gu Sheng was isolated and had Zhou Changzhi protecting him in the Hanlin Academy, so they had no chance to sabotage him.

Gu Sheng was also afraid of accidents, so he rejected all the posts he could.

There are dangers as well as advantages. He has become more popular in the Hanlin Academy and everyone will be polite to him. The only trouble is that Ji Deming clings to him like a dog-skin plaster. Every time he refuses to accept a gift, Ji Deming will block him.

Time flies. Before I even noticed how this winter was, most of it has already passed. In the blink of an eye, it is already the end of the year in the Leon month.

As the time drew closer to the Spring Examination, Changzhong stopped going out, for he had not forgotten to take the exam and come back with a top scorer.

Mingteng and his wife also returned to the Rong'an Marquis' Mansion. They would stay there for the first month of the year.

That day, Mingteng and his wife came back. Zhulan looked at their clothes and asked, "Where did you come from?"

Ming Teng replied, "We just came back from the Ran Mansion."

Zhulan noticed that Sunzi's tone was not right, "What's wrong?"

Seeing that her husband didn't want to talk, Liu Jia had to speak up herself, "Ran Xun's eldest son is gone."

Zhulan had never heard of the news, but she realized that the child's death must be serious. This was a family shame, so how could Qi tell anyone about it? She could only keep the child secret in the backyard.

Zhu Lan sighed that it was not easy for this child to grow up, "How come he is gone?"

Liu Jia glanced at her husband and said, "The charcoal was not good. The child caught a cold again. We don't know the details, but we know that the child died this morning."

Zhulan felt heavy in her heart. She had met the child before and had given him a red envelope. The little boy was very quiet.

Ming Teng sneered, "Grandma, how can a person change so much?"

Zhu Lan knew that they were talking about Ran Xun. She thought that the gap between friends was too big and all that was left was a sense of distance. "You?"

Ming Teng knew in his heart that he and Ran Xun could not go back. He wanted to comfort Ran Xun, but Ran Xun said that he had everything and understood nothing. His heart was burning like fire, and he just took his wife and left. He should not have gone.

(End of this chapter)