The Ace Bigshot Becomes A Farmgirl

The people at the door all turned to look at Xia Yan. When he saw Shu Yu, he was very happy, ”Miss, you’ve arrived? Did you just enter the city? Quick, come inside.”

Shu Yu nodded, ”We just arrived. Our carriage is behind, but it’s blocked by this one. There are quite a few things in the carriage; please help us carry them in later.”

”Of course.”

Xia Yan immediately agreed, and Shu Yu was about to walk inside.

The servant was stunned and instinctively reached out to stop her, ”Wait, wait a moment.”

Everyone turned to look at him, and the servant looked at Xia Yan, ”Didn’t you just say Young Master Meng is not receiving guests? Why are they allowed in?”

Xia Yan put on a bright, fake smile, ”Our Sir is indeed too busy to see guests, but this lady is our Sir’s bride-to-be. She’s family, so she isn’t considered a guest.”

”Bride-to-be?” The servant almost screamed and looked at Shu Yu in shock.

Then slowly, his gaze shifted down to the little Huohuo she was holding.

The little guy looked at him with a puzzled expression, somehow feeling this person seemed a bit shady. He reached out his hand, ”Hold me.”

Shu Yu then bent over to pick the little one up, affectionately playing with him before heading straight inside.

The matters afterward were left to Xia Yan to handle. Ying Xi glanced at the servant and followed inside as well.

It took the servant quite a while to snap out of his daze, realizing that the bride-to-be of Young Master Meng had run off to the capital? And there was a child too?

Whose child was it, could it be that the two of them—before marriage...?

Xia Yan had no idea what he was thinking, but seeing that Zhao Xi’s carriage was blocked, he quickly smiled and asked the servant to move aside. The servant, still a bit stunned, led the carriage away absentmindedly.

Xia Yan quickly removed the door barrier and assisted Zhao Xi in driving the carriage into the courtyard.

Once the courtyard door was closed, Shu Yu, standing indoors, asked, ”Is Yun not home?”

”Sir went out. The scholar candidates from Changjin Prefecture are holding a poetry gathering tonight. Young Master Xun Sheng came to invite him. Since they studied together and are from the same hometown, Sir went. He should be back soon.”

Ying Xi, upon hearing this, remarked, ”But just now, you told the servant that Sir was focusing on his studies and not receiving guests.”

This is focusing on studies??

Xia Yan chuckled, ”That’s just to deal with them.”

Shu Yu handed little Huohuo over to Shuyou and took a stroll around the courtyard before laughing, ”I heard from Ying Xi that the servant at the gate claimed to be a servant from Uncle’s Mansion. Is Uncle’s Mansion very close with Yun, inviting him so late to reminisce?”

”It sounds nice, reminiscing, but Sir isn’t familiar with that Count at all. He only visited a couple of times when Gong Qiu was still around and didn’t even speak a word. Isn’t it just because Sir is about to take the imperial examination? Recently, the city’s nobles and officials have been scouting potential candidates.”

”Scouting?” Ying Xi was confused.

Xia Yan explained, ”Simply put, these nobles want to expand their influence by enrolling promising scholars. They’re scouting those who ranked high in the local exams, hoping they’ll also excel in the metropolitan examination. If they’re lucky and choose the right one, helping them out now will become a future asset for their families.”

This is mutually beneficial; scholars want connections, and these nobles want to place their bets—if both sides agree, that’s fantastic.

But such occurrences are rare; nowadays, very few scholars come from a poor family.

Scholars who aren’t from poor families often already have their paths charted early on.