Upon hearing this, Ma Xianglan also stopped at the door, wanting to see how Zhao Hao would answer her.

Zhao Hao was not as restrained in dealing with Qiaoqiao as he was with Ma Xianglan. He stood up with a funny look on his face, spread his hands and said to Qiaoqiao: "Are you kidding? When a bunch of candidates came to Beijing, they only brought their servants and book boys with them. Who brought their wives with them? Besides, I am the only one accompanying the examinee, so I cannot bring anyone with me."

Qiaoqiao's face turned even redder when she heard that. She rolled her eyes at Zhao Hao and said, "Who is your woman? I am at most a cook. A scholar should also have a cook, right?"

But Zhao Hao smiled faintly and said, "I don't think of you as a cook."

After hearing this, Qiaoqiao felt her cheeks burning hot, as if she was soaked in boiling water. She lowered her head and didn't dare to look at Zhao Hao. How could she have the energy to argue with him?

Seeing her like this, Zhao Hao knew that he had said something he shouldn't have said again. He couldn't help but secretly complain, why is it that when I act cool with men, I always have success, but when I meet women, I always act weird?

Without bothering to review his mistakes, he took advantage of Qiaoqiao being too embarrassed to speak, turned her around, pushed her out the door and said, "Anyway, no means no, I won't take any of you with me no matter what."

Ma Xianglan pointed at herself in surprise when she heard that. Seeing Zhao Hao nod heavily, she couldn't help but laugh and cry, thinking that if she had known earlier, she would not have watched the fun.

Now, everyone is affected.

But she is not someone who can be fooled so easily, so she opens her red lips slightly to try to save the situation in a roundabout way.

But Zhao Hao said first: "Because there is something, I need you to help me keep an eye on Nanjing."

"Please give your orders, sir."

This trick of 'entrusting someone with an important task' really worked, and Ma Xianglan immediately stopped mentioning going to Beijing.

"It's like this. I wrote a few books a few months ago, and I've almost finished proofreading them these past few days. I was planning to find a bookstore to print and publish them, but after hearing what Xuelang said during the day, I felt very unhappy, so I decided to open my own bookstore!"

"This..." Ma Xianglan was a little scared when she heard this: "Young Master, you want me to help you open a bookstore? This is something Xianglan has never done before."

"Who asked you to manage a bookstore?" Zhao Hao shook his head and smiled, "I will say hello to Tang Youde and ask him to help me directly acquire a bookstore."

"Then what does the young master want me to do?" Ma Xianglan asked puzzledly.

"There's a lot for you to do." Zhao Hao said with a smile, "First, you need to copy my manuscript according to the requirements of plate making. Then, you have to watch every step of the way, from engraving to printing, to binding. Don't let them be careless, and don't make mistakes or miss any prints. Especially when engraving, the pictures and words must be exactly the same. If there is any mistake, it must be destroyed and re-engraved."

Seeing that Zhao Hao was not joking, Ma Xianglan immediately became serious and nodded silently to take note of it.

At this time, Qiaoqiao came back to her senses and asked blankly: "What about me?"

"Your father has to travel a lot this winter, so Wei Ji Xian will keep you busy enough." Zhao Hao said seriously, "If you have time, please help Sister Ma. She is a girl, how can she survive without a companion?"

"Oh." Qiaoqiao nodded and stopped pestering.

Zhao Hao secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Compared to the kind-hearted Ma Xianglan, the naive and innocent girl Qiaoqiao was easier to deal with.

~~

The three of them stayed outside the city for one night and returned the next day.

After returning home, Zhao Shouzheng told Zhao Hao that he had already set sail with Wu Ji and scheduled to head north on October 20th, which would only take five or six days.

"It seems that father needs to concentrate and prepare everything for going to Beijing to take the imperial examination." Zhao Hao started nagging out of habit when he heard this.

Zhao Shouzheng, however, spread his hands and said with a look of wanting a beating: "There is nothing to prepare. Beijing has everything. Just bring the ticket to the Wanyuan meeting."

"Uh, okay..." Zhao Hao rolled his eyes and was unable to refute.

But Zhao Shouzheng was just joking. He had to be very busy these days as he had to go to Yingtian Prefecture to get a travel permit and ten taels of silver for travel expenses.

You also need to go to the Southern Military Department to get the "Fire Card".

With this "fire card", the candidate could exchange it for a horse-drawn carriage at any post station. On the carriage would be a yellow flag with the words "Ministry of Rites Examination" inserted, which was the so-called official bus into Beijing.

Zhao Shouzheng and his men were wealthy, so although they didn't need the post station to provide them with carriages, they had to get the yellow flag of "Ministry of Rites Examination". By then, with more than a dozen small yellow flags on the boat, not only would the bandits, but even the government and the tax collectors would not dare to block their way.

He also had to buy all kinds of valuable gifts so that he could make friends with many court officials under the introduction of his nephew when he went to Beijing. Juren already had the qualifications to be an official, and this step was indispensable regardless of whether he could pass the imperial examination or not.

As for the food and drink expenses on the road and all the utensils needed in Beijing, he didn't have to worry about them, as his elder brother Zhao Shouye would take care of it.

As for Zhao Hao, he has been afraid to go out recently.

Ever since the publication of that damned "First Encounter Collection", countless invitations and visiting cards from Qinhuai ladies have been sent to your house every day...

This is still polite. Many people directly blocked his door, waiting for Master Zhao to come out to meet them, get his autograph, and comment on his poems.

Zhao Hao didn't expect that he would be unknown four hundred years later, but would become a minor star in the Ming Dynasty. But stars in later generations can make money, but what are the benefits of being a star in the Ming Dynasty? At least, there is nothing that can attract him at present.

I have no choice but to stay at home every day, hoping that the heat will pass quickly so I can return to normal life.

~~

On the 17th, Wang Wuyang and Hua Shuyang returned to Jinling.

The three masters and apprentices hadn't seen each other for a while, so they were naturally very happy to see each other.

Zhao Hao was talking cordially with Er Yang in the corridor when he suddenly saw their servants carrying boxes of gifts into the courtyard. He asked curiously, "What's this for?"

"My family has prepared a thank-you gift for the teacher. My father and father-in-law also prepared another gift when they heard that the master had moved to a new house." Hua Shuyang looked at Zhao Hao with some uneasiness and said, "We were afraid that the master would not like the gift, so both families prepared it. They are all carefully selected ancient books, calligraphy and paintings, and cultural relics and ornaments."

"My uncle is the most stingy person. He obviously has so many famous paintings and calligraphy in his collection, but he got angry with me because I only picked out two boxes." Wang Wuyang took out the gift list with an indignant look on his face and presented it to his master for review.

However, Zhao Hao knew that Wang Shizhen was one of the top three collectors in the Ming Dynasty, and the things that came out of his hands were definitely not ordinary items.

Ordinary items are simply not in Wang Yanzhou's eyes.

He took the list with great expectation and saw that it contained thirty or forty paintings and calligraphy by famous people. Among them, there were three of the Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty, and each of the Four Masters of Wuzhong had more than two paintings. Wen Zhengming's paintings were in sets, and there were also works by Wei Su, Qiu Ying, and Shen Zhou...

The most precious of them are two authentic works of Zhao Mengfu, one is "A Thousand Rivers Entering the City" and the other is "Autumn Scenery of Quehua"!

Any of these pieces would have a starting price of eight figures if put up for auction in the future, and there are some that can be sold for nine figures.

Even at this time, when collecting is popular in prosperous times and the collecting trend is flourishing in Jiangnan, these celebrity calligraphy and paintings that have been appreciated by Wang Shizhen are also extremely valuable.

As for Master Hua, as the richest man in Wuxi, he was naturally much more generous than Alliance Leader Wang. In addition to more famous calligraphy and paintings, there were also five boxes of rare books, two boxes of study treasures, two boxes of jade ornaments, official kiln porcelain, Boshan incense burners, and coral ornaments. One box each...

Looking at the gift list that was longer than his own, Zhao Hao couldn't help but secretly gasp, thinking to himself, I actually thought that I was rich just because I had 30,000 or 50,000 taels. It turns out that compared with the real rich people, I am still a poor guy...

ps. Ninth update, 1200 votes and more updates, please give me monthly votes and recommendation votes~~~~