CHAPTER 71: CHAPTER 70: SU JINGCHEN IS LOOKING FOR YOU TOO

When these women graduate from the Women’s Virtue Academy, the academy will uniformly issue graduation certificates, proving that the woman is knowledgeable, gentle, and respectful, and is outstanding in all aspects.

This divides women into different ranks. Only those with certificates and family backgrounds can discuss marriage with nobles and aristocrats.

Women without certificates or family backgrounds don’t even have the qualifications to become concubines of noble families.

Yu Xiaolian asked, "Can I set up a stall at the Women’s Virtue Academy entrance?"

Zheng Yuanfeng shook his head, "The academy is managed with a closed system. Only during the middle of each month are female students allowed to return home for a visit. Even if you set up a stall at the entrance, no one would dare come out to buy from you."

"Then what should I do? They won’t come out, and I can’t go in, so how can I sell them things?"

These women are all well-off, and in Yu Xiaolian’s heart, she does not want to miss these fat sheep.

There must be a way to fleece some wool from them.

Zheng Yuanfeng smiled meaningfully, "I have a way!"

"Then why are you being mysterious? Hurry up and tell me!"

She knew finding this guy was the right choice. On the surface, he seemed like a gentle and refined gentleman, but in reality, he was full of cunning tricks.

Zheng Yuanfeng raised an eyebrow, "Do you know where the Women’s Virtue Academy is?"

Yu Xiaolian shook her head, "I don’t know!"

"Qingquan Academy and the Women’s Virtue Academy are only separated by a wall, and the dean is the same person. After the last batch of autumn exams in a few days, Qingquan Academy will resume. Then you can disguise as my book boy, and I’ll take you into the academy." Zheng Yuanfeng smiled slyly.

Yu Xiaolian was still dumbfounded. Did Zheng Yuanfeng mean for her to climb the wall from Qingquan Academy and sell things at the Women’s Virtue Academy?

This... seems...

She felt a bit hesitant!

Suddenly, an icy finger poked Yu Xiaolian’s forehead, "I never thought of letting you climb the wall, don’t overthink!"

"Uh..." How did he know I was thinking about climbing the wall?

Sigh, having too smart a friend isn’t always good, it makes her look dumb.

"Every spring and autumn, Qingquan Academy and the Women’s Virtue Academy hold a poetry exchange event.

Looking at the dates, it’s coming up in a few days.

Then you wear men’s clothes, pretend to be my book boy, and I’ll sneak you into the academy.

However, once inside, you have to figure out how to sell your stuff to the women, and if anything goes wrong and the teachers find out, you mustn’t rat me out."

Zheng Yuanfeng shook his small fan and raised an eyebrow, "How about it? Do you dare?"

Yu Xiaolian suddenly wanted to retract her compliments to Zheng Yuanfeng being gentle and courteous; how did he become so smug after knowing him better?

"What am I afraid of? But I don’t want to pretend to be your book boy. Introduce me openly to your dean or teacher, and I’ll find a way to persuade him to let me in."

Yu Xiaolian had already formulated a plan in her mind and asked, "Is your poetry exchange event held at Qingquan Academy? What kind of programs do you have?"

Zheng Yuanfeng looked surprised at Yu Xiaolian, "Our dean is an old stick-in-the-mud. No matter what you say, he wouldn’t allow a young girl to enter the academy."

"Just tell me, is there any competitive program between your men’s academy and the women’s academy? Like poetry contests, writing couplets, and so on?"

Based on her experience reading novels, the poetry exchange event held by Qingquan Academy and the Women’s Virtue Academy is probably about composing poetry and making friends through poetry.

If male and female students have mutual feelings, they might leave names for each other, which is essentially a disguised social gathering.

"In the spring season, I participated once, and indeed there were competitions. We competed with the Women’s Virtue Academy women in couplets, composing poetry, playing chess, and solving riddles. Then, if the Women’s Virtue Academy lost, the women had to perform tea ceremonies, arrange flowers, make fragrances, or play the zither in public."

Yu Xiaolian asked, "What if you men lost?"

Zheng Yuanfeng squinted, "With me around, how could we possibly lose?"

Heh, quite confident!

"Besides, those women happily seize the opportunity to perform their talents in public. Even if they could win, they wouldn’t want to."

So that’s how it is.

Only by losing would there be a chance to showcase talents.

However, Yu Xiaolian didn’t care if they won or lost; she already had a plan.

"I’ll go now. When the exchange event is scheduled, have Shopkeeper Hai notify me a day in advance." Yu Xiaolian patted her butt and left.

After Yu Xiaolian left, Shopkeeper Hai found Zheng Yuanfeng. The supermarket’s cream rolls were selling out in just ten a day, not enough for sale, and asked if he could stock more.

Zheng Yuanfeng glanced at Shopkeeper Hai, "It’s a fixed sale, don’t you understand the concept of hunger marketing?"

Shopkeeper Hai feared being called stupid by Zheng Yuanfeng, so he dared not ask more and scratched his head awkwardly before walking away.

After Yu Xiaolian returned home, she quickly wrote a plan and prepared the things to sell at the poetry exchange event.

During this time, she invited Zheng Yuanfeng to her house for hotpot and acknowledged him as her second brother.

Soon, the day for publishing the list of successful candidates arrived, and Yu Xiaolian specifically went to check. She wanted to know if Yu Zishu got admitted, as it would be awkward to meet him at Qingquan Academy.

Yu Zishu’s name was not seen, but she saw Su Jingchen’s.

It wasn’t that Yu Xiaolian intentionally sought Su Jingchen’s name, but the words "top scorer" were prominent and hard not to notice.

In the book, Yu Zishu was accepted to Qingquan Academy, so why wasn’t he there?

Yu Xiaolian carefully looked through the list again from start to finish, confirming there was no surname Yu.

Sigh, never mind, maybe Aunt Yu couldn’t afford his tuition, so he dropped out.

Or perhaps her arrival caused some butterfly effect, changing some original events.

Regardless of the reason, Yu Zishu not being at Qingquan Academy was good for her.

"Yu Xiaolian?"

Suddenly, Yu Xiaolian felt someone pat her shoulder from behind, and then a familiar face appeared before her.

"Jiang Lin!"

Yu Xiaolian excitedly hugged Jiang Lin, "You finally came! Did you just see the note I left for you?"

As she spoke, Yu Xiaolian pulled Jiang Lin away from the crowd.

"I saw your note long ago. You only said you arrived in Yangcheng, but not the specific place. I’ve been to Yangcheng several times looking for you and didn’t find you—finally, I’ve found you now." Jiang Lin said happily upon seeing Yu Xiaolian.

"By the way, where does your family live now? Are you planning to settle in Yangcheng for good?"

Yu Xiaolian grabbed Jiang Lin’s arm, "Come, follow me home first."

Jiang Lin paused, "Wait a moment, I’m not the only one looking for you. Su Jingchen is also searching for you. He’s discussing matters with the Qingquan Academy dean at a teahouse nearby. I can’t just leave him behind. I have to inform him."

"Qingquan Academy’s dean?" Yu Xiaolian’s eyes lit up.

How convenient!

"So... how did you come to know Su Jingchen?"

Jiang Lin replied, "He went to our village looking for you and happened to meet me. Maybe he remembered me from the town that day, knowing that I’m your friend, and asked me about you..."

Then they got into a fight due to a disagreement.

However, after that fight, Jiang Lin and Su Jingchen became friends.

"Did you tell him everything?"

"Ah, you gave him the pill back then, didn’t you? Such a valuable item, surely he’s not an outsider."

Moreover, he didn’t mention anything else, just talked about how Yu Xiaolian’s family of three got kicked out by the Yu Family.

After listening to Jiang Lin, Yu Xiaolian nodded, indicating she understood, "Take me to find Su Jingchen then!"