When the village chief He saw Mrs. Chen being snapped at, he felt extremely pleased. He stroked his beard and followed up, "Da Gui’s wife, this is just a woman’s narrow view. Da Fu is right, it’s fine, no need to worry so much. How could those Evil Men come every single day?"

Mrs. Chen feared Gu Jinli, but she wasn’t afraid of the village chief He at all. In her heart she even blamed him for always bringing He Jinseng over to curry favor with Gu Jin’an and snatch away Gu Dexing’s status. After hearing this, she directly retorted, "Village chief, I’m only worried about Jin Sheng. He’s timid—if he gets scared again tonight, his courage will probably shatter. If he can’t pass the exam in the future..."

"Mrs. Chen, shut your mouth!" Cold sweat was already breaking out on Gu Dagui. He hurriedly yanked Mrs. Chen and cut her off: "You woman talk too much. Stop it now, don’t delay Brother An and the others going back to the county."

You really dare to say that, huh. Don’t you know the sore point in the village chief He’s heart is that He Jinseng failed the Scholar exam twice?

People say you shouldn’t expose others’ scars—do you still want to keep living in this village?

Besides, Brother Xing still has to work with Jin Sheng and be brothers with him. If you, this woman, make your words so absolute, how are those brothers supposed to get along?

The village chief He’s face turned as black as the bottom of a pot; he was furious. This shrew Mrs. Chen clearly meant to say that his Jin Sheng wouldn’t gain an official position in the future. That was truly intolerable.

But what could he do?

Jin Sheng really had failed the Scholar exam twice.

Hmph!

The village chief He snorted coldly and thumped his walking stick on the ground twice to show his displeasure.

"Village chief, don’t worry, we’ll keep Jin Sheng safe." Gu Dexing had also broken out in a cold sweat and hurriedly softened his tone toward the village chief He.

Only then did the village chief He’s expression ease a bit. He nodded at Gu Dexing, then smiled at Gu Jin’an and said, "Good Brother An, I’ll entrust Jin Sheng to you. He’s not like you—clever and good at martial arts—you must protect him more. Grandpa village chief thanks you."

Mrs. Chen gave a heavy snort through her nose when she heard that. Village chief, what do you mean by this? Clearly it was Brother Xing talking to you, yet you thank Brother An. What, you’re judging people by their status now? Looking down on Brother Xing, are you?

"Good Brother An, you and Brother Xing are clansmen and brothers. His martial arts aren’t as good as yours, so you must look after him more. As for Zezi, Feng Lian and the others, give him one to follow at his side and protect him." Mrs. Chen smiled. Heh, you think only you, village chief He, know how to ask Brother An to take care of someone? I can do it too.

Gu Jinli gave them a glance, at a loss for words. You two are actually fighting for favor now?

Gu Jin’an was very helpless. To keep them from starting an argument, he quickly had Zezi drive the cart away. But before leaving, he looked at Brother Cheng and said, "Remember what big brother told you."

After that, he glanced at Gu Jinli once more before finally leaving.

Brother Cheng was really reluctant to part with Gu Jin’an. He chased after the mule cart, running as he called, "Big brother, don’t worry, I remember. I’ll tell Second Sister."

The little guy kept chasing all the way to the village entrance and only stopped after being scolded by Gu Jin’an.

"Awoo awooo!" Da Gou and Ergou ran alongside Brother Cheng, and when he stopped, they howled in the direction of the mule cart.

Brother Cheng stood at the fork in the road at the edge of the village. After a moment, he turned around and headed home. "If only I could grow up immediately, I’d be able to go help big brother."

Da Gou and Ergou: "Awoo, awoo!"

Brother Cheng glanced at them and said, "What are you howling for, do you even understand?"

Awoo, awoo!

Da Gou and Ergou didn’t understand, they just liked to howl.

Brother Cheng was helpless and muttered, "Second Sister was right, you two really are just a pair of stupid wolves, even dumber than the mutt from Gan Changfa’s family in town."

Xiao Tuan had been following Brother Cheng to protect him. Hearing this, he said, "Second Young Master is already very capable. You’ve helped the Eldest Young Master a lot."

When Brother Cheng heard that, something occurred to him. He called out to Xiao Tuan and ran toward home.

When Mrs. Cui saw he was back, she took out a handkerchief to wipe his sweat. "The moment your big brother leaves, you start acting up. You just had a bath, and now you ran like this and got all sweaty again. That bath was for nothing."

Brother Cheng grinned and looked up at Mrs. Cui. "Don’t worry, Mother, I’ll just take another bath before bed and it’ll be fine. I won’t go sour."

Third Grandma said, "Children shouldn’t be bathing several times a day; you’ll catch a chill."

"Third Grandma, don’t worry, I’m very healthy, I won’t catch cold. Where’s my Second Sister?" Brother Cheng looked toward the dining room and only saw Gu Daya and Mrs. Chen. He did not see Gu Jinli or Gu Jinxiu. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Third Grandma said, "She went back to her room to do the accounts. The pharmaceutical workshop just shipped two batches of goods again recently. She’s anxious to calculate how much Silver she’s earned."

"I’ll go find Second Sister." Brother Cheng said this and ran to Gu Jinli’s courtyard to knock on the door. "Second Sister, Second Sister, open up!"

Gu Jinli was in the middle of hiding the contract Gu Jin’an had given her. Hearing this, she said to Erqing, "Open for him in a bit."

She took out an iron box and opened it with a key, then put a large porcelain bottle inside. After that, she filled the iron box with a layer of mud and buried it back into the hidden compartment under the bed.

The contracts with the farmers and the bank were all hidden inside the large porcelain bottle in the iron box. Hidden like this, even if there was a flood or a fire, the contracts in the bottle would be fine.

"Go open the door." Just as Gu Jinli finished speaking, Brother Cheng started knocking on her room door. It turned out that Gu Jinxiu had gone to open the courtyard gate for him.

Brother Cheng: "Second Sister, are you hiding in your room counting Silver again? Don’t worry, I won’t steal your Silver. Hurry and open the door, I have something big to tell you."

Something big?

Gu Jinli smiled and had Erqing open the door to let him in. Sitting on the soft couch in the outer room, eating pastries, she asked, "You little brat, what big thing could you possibly have?"

Brother Cheng glanced at Erqing, hesitating to speak.

"You can’t even let Erqing hear? Is it actually something big?" Gu Jinli said to Erqing, "Erqing, go to the main room and do the accounts first. I’ll see what he wants to say."

"Yes." Erqing picked up the account book on the table and went to the main room of the courtyard to do the accounts.

Only after Erqing left did Brother Cheng lower his voice and say, "Second Sister, let’s help big brother. Big brother really likes Third Sister. If he can’t marry Third Sister, he’ll be very sad. I don’t want big brother to be sad."

Today in the courtyard, when he asked big brother about it, he’d seen big brother’s eyes turn red. Big brother must like Third Sister terribly, that’s why he was so sad he almost cried.

Gu Jinli felt a bit sour. "You heartless little thing, I treat you so well, yet you only like big brother."

Brother Cheng said, "But big brother treats me very well too. And I’m a boy, of course I should play with big brother. If I always follow Second Sister around, what if I turn into Lv Bai?"

Brother Cheng had met Lv Bai and heard plenty about him. He knew Lv Bai’s mother liked to cry, and he definitely didn’t want to become like Lv Bai—people would laugh him to death.

Uh... Gu Jinli choked. That made a lot of sense, and for a moment she couldn’t find anything to retort with.

"Big brother and Third Sister’s matter isn’t something we can help with. The gap in family status is a chasm that’s hard to cross. When a man marries down, people don’t say much, but if a noble lady marries down, and the family she marries into is too low, people will criticize her as being in poor health or having a damaged reputation."

And that was precisely what big brother didn’t want to see.

What big brother least wanted was for Third Miss’s reputation to be harmed.

Brother Cheng listened and felt like crying. "So there’s no way at all?"

Gu Jinli said, "Of course there is a way. Once big brother places in the top three in the Imperial Examination, then makes great military achievements and receives a personal imperial marriage decree from the Emperor, no one will dare say anything about Third Sister. They’ll only praise it as a perfect match of talented man and beautiful woman."