Before leaving, Shen Cui asked Zhou whether she should wait for Mu Yunchuan to come back at home and then go directly to the capital with him. It’s better to go to the provincial capital and wait, and then go to the capital from the provincial capital after Mu Yunchuan has passed.
The former is simpler and saves Zhou from the trouble of traveling. But Zhou chose the latter. In fact, she was still unsure about following Mu Yunchuan to Beijing for the exam.
After all, this requires a process of communication between her and Mu Yunchuan.
This was something that they needed to discuss as a couple, and she wasn't expecting Shen Cui to help her out, she just felt that she would feel more confident with her by her side.
Shen Cui was also up to her. After all, from what she knew about the plot, Mu Yunchuan would have to stay in the provincial capital for a while after the exam.
The time he stayed there was the same time that Wei Shu and the others entered the government school.
At first, they knew nothing about the provincial school and it was difficult to get any information.
Once we get in, it will be a different story. We will naturally be able to find out who Mu Yunchuan took the exam with and where he rented a yard. We can also send servants to pass a message to Mu Yunchuan.
After the group arrived at the city, they did not go to the small courtyard rented by Wei Shu, but went straight to the house with three courtyards.
The Wei family's servants set out ahead of time. They took the keys from Chen Cui and not only transported all the luggage over, they also swept the house inside and out and trimmed the particularly lush weeds.
Fortunately, they are here, otherwise it would take a lot of time for Chen Cui and the others to clean up such a large house by themselves.
And because this is a haunted house, the furniture inside may have been tabooed by the previous people who lived here, so basically no one took it away.
Although many of the items are old, because the previous owners were much richer than Shen Cui, the furniture they left behind is very good in Shen Cui's opinion and there is no need to spend money to replace them.
The time gain had not been used for many days, so Shen Cui immediately began to regulate the academy within the system.
There were only a few rooms in the old house in the village before, but she was able to regulate them. Now that there are more rooms, it will be even simpler.
The academy was regulated in several rooms in the middle, and the main house at the end connected to the back door, the east and west side rooms and the back room were divided out of the academy and used for daily living and entertaining guests. In addition, the several back rooms closest to the main gate were given to several servants of the Wei family for use.
This means that the entire house is a college, but in fact, the area in the center is the "college" recognized by the system and no outsiders are allowed to enter.
Besides, the young men still wanted to live together. After all, it was just a rented house, and it was impossible to build a brick bed in someone else's house.
Chen Cui drew a simple blueprint herself and asked a craftsman to customize two bunk beds with upper and lower floors.
Naturally, she chose the cheapest wood, so she only had to pay a little extra for the labor cost. The labor cost was not cheap, but Chen Cui was not frugal in this regard.
After everything is regulated, we just need to choose a good day to hang the plaque and hold a simple ceremony to inaugurate the academy.
Chen Cui dared to live in this "haunted house" and did not even need to check the almanac to set the date at the end of August, which happened to be the eve of Wei Shu and others reporting to the provincial school.
She had said earlier that she would invite Cui Wuniang to watch the ceremony, so she wrote a note and sent it to her in advance.
Chen Cui's calligraphy has been practiced for so many years, but it still cannot be said to be very good. But at least she has put in a lot of hard work, so it is not embarrassing.
Originally, Chen Cui was thinking that Concubine Cui Wuniang was busy with her work, and that maybe she was just in a spur of the moment mood, but now the novelty should have worn off, and maybe she would never be able to get used to it.
But when the Cui family's doorman heard about the invitation from Cuiwei Academy, he smiled and said, "Our master has already instructed that the academy will send an invitation in the next few days. No matter when it is scheduled, she will be free."
With such certainty, Shen Cui felt relieved and prepared. Although it is a small wedding, since there are guests coming, we have to add two more dishes.
In addition, earlier in the village, only Lao Buyu and the children drank tea from teacups, which were purchased from the system with the money she saved. They had better heat preservation effect.
Other people use large bowls in their daily lives, but you can't use large bowls to serve tea to guests.
Early in the morning on the day of the wedding, the Wei family's servants got up early and began to clean the house carefully - Chen Cui had instructed that their daily activities were in the front yard in front of the second hanging flower gate.
Although they were servants of the Wei family, Wei Shu had privately told them to put the headmaster Chen Cui first in everything.
Moreover, when Wei Shu was at Qingzhu Academy, he was not allowed to bring servants in, as they were all at Wei Yuanwai's house.
Wei Yuanwai is a very friendly person, but he never remarried after his first wife passed away. There is no one to take care of the household affairs, and their living environment is not as good as here.
Besides, apart from the simplest tasks, Chen Cui did not order them around endlessly. When she occasionally asked them to pass on a message or inquire about news, she was always polite and did not act bossy.
They're pretty happy to be here.
At ten o'clock in the morning, Cui Wuniang arrived with gifts.
At that time, Chen Cui and the others had already gotten up, done morning exercises, and had breakfast. The boys began their morning reading, and Chen Cui also served as their tutor for quite a while.
Hearing that guests were coming, Shen Cui did not disturb the young men, but stood up to greet them in person.
The two exchanged a few pleasantries when they met. Chen Cui's eyes fell on the box held by Cui Wu Niang's maid and she said with a smile, "I told you that you can just come. You don't need to prepare any gifts. It's too polite."
Cui Wuniang smiled and waved her hands: "It's not something precious, just some books. You know, my family runs a bookstore, and the thing we have the most is books."
As they were talking, they walked hand in hand into the second door, and Cui Wuniang immediately heard Lang Lang's reading voice.
She didn't mention going to check the classroom, and lowered her voice and said, "Don't disturb them, let's go inside and talk."
Chen Cui welcomed her into the main house, and Zhou prepared some tea and brought it over - the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law would definitely not rely on the Wei family's servants for their daily lives, and those people were outsiders after all, so it would be inconvenient for them to do anything, so they still did everything themselves as before.
Cui Wuniang had not yet met Zhou, so Shen Cui introduced her to her: "This is my eldest daughter-in-law."
Although Zhou was still a little shy, she was no longer timid in such occasions. After serving tea to the guests, she pursed her lips, smiled, half-bowing, and performed the salutation of a junior.
Cui Wuniang smiled and said, "Chen Shanzhang is so lucky. Not only is his youngest son filial and well-behaved, but his eldest daughter-in-law also looks very lovable."
Actually, it was a bit awkward to talk about this topic. After all, Cui Wuniang looked to be around twenty-five or twenty-six. Although Chen Cui was a few years older than her, because her original appearance was superior, she had been using skin care products from later times and maintained herself well after traveling through time, so the two looked about the same age.
Looking at the two people who are almost the same age, Chen Cui already has a son as old as Mu Erpang, and a daughter-in-law as old as Zhou, while Cui Wuniang still has a girl's bun and is not married.
But a person like Cui Wuniang obviously wouldn't care about such trivial details. After saying that, she asked again, "Is your eldest son also in the academy now?"
Chen Cui said no, "He entered school early. When I opened the academy, he had already passed the examination and entered the provincial school. He is currently in the provincial capital to take the provincial examination and has not returned yet."
"What a coincidence!" Cui Wuniang put down her teacup and continued with a smile, "My younger brother is also going to take the provincial examination today. He was also in the prefectural school before. I think they know each other. May I ask the name of your eldest son?"
Whenever Cui Wuniang mentioned the naughty younger brother in the family, she would specifically point out that he was her cousin.
This time she only referred to him as 'brother', so I guess he must be her biological brother.
There was nothing to hide about this, and Mu Yunchuan would come over later, so Shen Cui confessed: "My husband's surname is Mu."
The surname Mu is not a common one. Cui Wuniang, who was just smiling, asked seriously, "Is it Mu Yunchuan who won the 'Little Three Prizes'?"
Chen Cui nodded calmly, and Cui Wuniang smiled again, "This is really fate. Master Mu and my brother are good friends! He didn't want to stay in the prefectural school before, and even didn't want to take the imperial examination. Thanks to Master Mu's coming, he has become much more cheerful. Today, he went to Linnan Prefecture to participate in the autumn provincial examination, and they went together. If I had known this..."
As she spoke, Cui Wuniang began to look around the house again. Apparently, she felt that she shouldn't rent this 'haunted house' to Chen Cui. The difference is that she didn't have the heart to "trick" Chen Cui before, but now she feels that she can't ruin the friendship between the two families.
Chen Cui didn't want to take advantage of Mu Yunchuan. If Cui Wuniang hadn't asked her, she wouldn't have mentioned Mu Yunchuan at all. She just said, "Business is business, and relationships are relationships. It's really nice here, you don't have to think about that."
As she spoke, Shen Cui was also trying to recall the plot of the original book - in the plot, Mu Yunchuan rose rapidly all the way, which of course was inseparable from the support and help of various noble people.
But in the original book, Mu Yunchuan and Wei Xi died in the same year and entered the provincial school together. Wei Shu was worried about his younger brother, so he often took leave to go to the provincial capital.
So during this period, Mu Yunchuan was closest to the Wei brothers. One was responsible for helping him, and the other was responsible for competing with him.
Mu Yunchuan also knew that Wei Xi was extremely talented, and was afraid that Wei Xi would become ruthless and really disrupt his plan to win the top six places in a row and leave his name in history, so he did not dare to slack off, and worked hard day and night. Naturally, he had less contact with other classmates in the prefectural school, and they were all just casual acquaintances.
Where did this young master of the Cui family come from?
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