Locked: God is the matchmaker, neither you nor I can escape

The Hua Mansion in the capital city is an ordinary three-courtyard house located in the Nanshi residential area where merchants gather. Almost all of the mansions are merchants' residences in the capital city. Moreover, the neighbors of the Hua Mansion can be described as century-old merchant families, and their shops have a good reputation in the capital city.

The Hua family seldom came to the capital, so this mansion was often left vacant. In particular, when other people's mansions were vacant, servants were left to guard them. Every few days, someone would come to clean the Hua mansion to prevent dust and weeds from accumulating in the house.

If the masters were going to move in to Beijing that day, they would send a message to Hua Man Pavilion in the capital in advance, and the pavilion would arrange for people to come and clean the place, making it convenient for the masters to move in with their bags. Other servants would not be arranged in the pavilion without authorization. All the guards currently used in the Hua Mansion were the ones they brought from Sand City.

The sudden move of someone into Hua Mansion naturally attracted the attention of the surrounding neighbors. However, as they waited, they found that the person had moved in, but had no intention of making friends with the neighbors. In particular, the door was closed, as if it was a place to stay, which made people even more curious.

However, they asked each other, but no one knew who lived in the mansion, let alone what business their family was engaged in.

Someone's eyes fell on the plaque on the door of "Hua Mansion" and muttered, "This Hua Mansion...could it be the Hua Mansion of Hua Man Pavilion?"

"How is that possible? Not all people with the last name Hua are from Hua Man Pavilion. I have relatives with the last name Hua, but they have nothing to do with Hua Man Pavilion at all."

"But this Hua Mansion is as mysterious as Hua Man Pavilion. Isn't it normal to have such suspicion?"

"Although Hua Man Pavilion has a branch in the capital, as far as I know, the head of the Hua family has no plans to move to the capital. Sand City is their territory. After all, Hua Man Pavilion belongs to the Jianghu faction."

"That's right. If I were the head of the Hua family, I wouldn't move to the capital. Sand City is not much worse than the capital, and there aren't that many... cough!"

He originally wanted to talk about the royal relatives and officials' families who were difficult to entertain, but fortunately he reacted in time and stopped talking, otherwise he would have to experience the consequences of "disaster from the mouth" and broke out in a cold sweat on his back.

Everyone else knew the unfinished meaning of his words. The capital city was indeed good, and business was easier in their hometown, but there were a lot of officials under the emperor's feet, and they were just ordinary people, doing business to make a living. They dared not offend any of them and could only serve them carefully, not daring to offend any of them.

Those who have the confidence to challenge the nobles either find someone to rely on, or the nobles' shops have someone to back them up.

Moreover, the backgrounds of the backers are divided into big and small kings. Fortunately, most of them do business with aristocratic families and do not compete with them for business. They just make the tiny profits from ordinary people. Otherwise, they will not be able to stay in the capital at all.

Forget it, forget it. It has nothing to do with me whether he is from the Hua family of Shacheng or not. What happens to him has nothing to do with me. If I accidentally see some terrible secret of the other party, my whole family may be in danger.

It's gone. It's gone.

After a day's rest, Hua Murong and several classmates went out early the next day. There is a Wenyuan Pavilion in the capital, which holds tea parties for "making friends through literature" on a few days every month. Today happened to be the last day, so they had to rush to watch the fun.

As for Yan Yiyi and Xin Ye, the former couldn't get up. She didn't want to stay in bed and sleep in such a cold weather. She had no interest in watching poetry and calligraphy tests. If it was a martial arts competition, she would probably go an hour earlier to watch the excitement.

As for the latter...Xin Ye said, wouldn't it be nice to sleep with his wife in his arms? He wasn't going to take the imperial examinations, but if it was a medical competition, he might coax his wife to go watch the fun together.

Yan Zheng next door: Huff, huff, huff… The patient is recovering from his injuries, please do not disturb him.

It was not the first time that Hua Murong and the other three came to the capital, but it was the first time for them to experience and participate in these activities in person as students. Their main purpose was to test the level of other students and have a better idea of ​​what was going on.

At this time, some people in Wenyuan Pavilion have begun to compose poems, calligraphy, and paintings on the theme of spring. There are also people playing the piano and music on the side. Several elders on the main seat are watching the talented people competing below, and occasionally they will whisper to each other and give a few comments on the works they like.

Zhong Jing frowned slightly and whispered to the man beside him: "Murong, don't you feel bored? Are they putting on a show?"

Seeing that the other party did not respond, Zhong Jing raised his head in confusion, and then met a strange face. He was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously looked around for Hua Murong's figure, and found that she had gone to watch others practice calligraphy.

The other two brothers, one went to watch others paint and the other went to watch others write poetry, and they both seemed to enjoy it.

Ah, this is... awkward.

"Well, brother, I'm sorry for offending you just now. I mistook you for my good friend." Zhongjing bowed to the man and apologized.

The man was no more than his early twenties, with a dignified appearance and an air of dignity and aloofness that made people unconsciously feel a bit of awe.

The man nodded: "It's okay, I don't mind. Besides, I feel the same way. I heard that Wenyuan Pavilion's 'making friends through literature' is interesting, so I happened to pass by and came in to take a look."

Zhongjing's eyes lit up. He was actually the same as them. He just felt that the other party was difficult to approach, but he didn't expect that he was a fellow traveler. In his heart, he secretly put a layer of filter on the other party and suddenly he no longer felt that the other party was cold and difficult to talk to.

"My surname is Zhong and my given name is Jing. May I ask what your name is, brother?"

"Yan Qixing." After saying that, he immediately added: "Yan of color."

"Brother Yan, nice to meet you." Zhongjing did not think that his last explanation was unnecessary. After all, "Yan" was the national surname. Logically speaking, there were many surnames with the same pronunciation as "Yan", "Yan", "Yan"... It was impossible for the emperor, the ancestor of the Yan family, to let so many people change their surnames for the sake of his royal dignity.

Therefore, families with the surname "Yan" would usually specify their character to avoid being mistaken for being royal family members. Impersonating royal relatives would result in exile at the least and execution at the worst.

For this reason, many royal family members tacitly took homophonic surnames when they went out in order not to reveal their identities. Therefore, even if they heard "yan" with other characters, they would not be particularly indifferent.

However, Zhongjing was not from the capital, and had never encountered similar things when he was out, so he was not aware of the twists and turns involved, which was reasonable.

After hearing this introduction, he believed it.

Yan Qixing returned the greeting: "Brother Zhong, nice to meet you."

Zhongjing: "Brother Yan, are you also a candidate who came to the capital to take part in the Spring Examination?"

"No, z... I am from Beijing. I am not in good health on weekdays, so I have been recuperating in the manor. This year, my health is good, so I came back to celebrate the New Year with my parents. When the weather warms up, I will leave Beijing and return to the manor."