After being reborn, her aloof ex-husband and her crazy deceased husband got into a fight.

Gan Cai'er happily returned home with the silver notes in her pocket.

In her view, this was a windfall. It was just a matter of bringing more children along; as long as she looked after them carefully, there shouldn't be any problems.

The key point is that she had traveled this route to Kyoto before in her previous life. They traveled north by boat, and apart from encountering two major storms, the journey was smooth and safe.

Gan Cai'er felt that the two thousand taels of gold were a freebie.

Upon learning this news, Lan Tingzhou fell into deep thought.

"Did Aunt Zhao come up with this herself?" Lan Tingzhou asked.

“Of course!” Gan Cai’er said.

"How did she know we were going to Kyoto soon?" Lan Tingzhou asked.

Gan Cai'er was stunned and froze.

She really hadn't thought about this.

A total of seventy-eight people passed the provincial examination in Danzhou this autumn. Few of them would go to the capital half a year in advance like Lan Tingzhou. Because studying and preparing for the exam at home is much more convenient in all aspects. Therefore, most of them chose to go to the capital in the spring, a month or two in advance.

"Perhaps, you heard it from someone else?" Gan Cai'er thought for a moment.

Lan Tingzhou glanced at her and sighed inwardly. Then, he turned his head and looked at Lan Tingzhi, who was watching the commotion from the side.

"Tingzhi, send a letter to your sect and ask if you can borrow a few people to come. Give each person who comes fifty taels of silver as a reward."

"So how many do you plan to get?" Lanting asked.

"We want as many people as possible, the more the better."

Lanting was startled, his mouth agape.

"Brother, do you even know how many outer disciples there are at Xuancang Mountain? How dare you ask such a question!"

"No, brother. Are you going to the capital to take the imperial examination, or are you going to rob and plunder?"

Lan Tingzhou glanced at him and said calmly, "So, are you going to write this letter or not?"

"Write, of course I'll write. Actually, I've wanted to write back for a long time, asking my master to recommend two skilled martial arts maids to protect me..."

"Little bean, instead of wasting your time talking nonsense here, hurry up and write a letter!"

Before Lan Tingzhi could finish speaking, Gan Cai'er interrupted him.

Lan Tingzhi was bewildered by the shouting. He looked at Gan Cai'er and saw that she was glaring at him.

He suddenly remembered Gan Cai'er's repeated instructions to him, telling him not to tell Lan Tingzhou about the attack, because she was afraid it would affect Lan Tingzhou's exam.

But the exams are all over now, can't I even say anything?

He thought about it and realized that his sister-in-law was worried about his brother and didn't want him to worry unnecessarily.

Actually, Lanting was overthinking it.

Gan Cai'er didn't want him to mention it simply because she didn't want Lan Tingzhou to know about Meng Yu's existence.

Lan Tingzhi touched his nose and stood up: "Then I'll go write it now."

Lan Tingzhou watched his departing figure and said calmly:

Are you hiding something from me?

His calm voice betrayed a hint of displeasure.

"No, how could that be?"

Gan Cai'er immediately gave him a big smile, a smile that was both radiant and a little guilty.

Lan Tingzhou remained silent, simply watching her quietly.

Gan Cai'er felt even more guilty under his gaze, so she lowered her head and started wringing her handkerchief, but still didn't say anything.

Lan Tingzhou remained silent for a moment, then called Mo Yun in.

"Go and find out whether the Du family is going to the capital by land or water. We need to avoid them."

"You can't be serious, can you?" Gan Cai'er was surprised by Lan Tingzhou's reaction.

"It's just bringing one more child along, why are you acting like it's a major crisis?"

“Someone has offered a large sum of money, so we have to be extra careful.” Lan Tingzhou didn’t explain further.

Okay, that makes sense.

Gan Cai'er didn't say anything more.

Lan Tingzhou's gaze fell on the large stack of silver notes; that was two thousand taels of gold! It should be noted that even a fourth-rank prefect under the Yongzheng Emperor only received twenty taels of silver a month.

This thin stack of paper is equivalent to Du Zhong's salary for over eighty years, yet it was only used as a stipend for accompanying his illegitimate son to the capital.

If someone is willing to spend a thousand taels of gold to protect others' safety, how could they possibly allow others to bully them so easily?

Only Gan Cai'er would trust others so easily.

Ten days later, Lan Tingzhi led a large group of people into the Lan family's courtyard. They were all agile and dressed in tight-fitting clothes, clearly skilled in martial arts.

"Brother, I heard that you can earn fifty taels of silver in less than fifteen days. Everyone in the sect who has free time is scrambling to come."

“These fifteen junior brothers all won the competition to earn this opportunity. Brother, don’t worry, they will definitely be able to get everyone to the capital safely.”

Although Gan Cai'er kept complaining that Lan Tingzhou was making a mountain out of a molehill, when she actually saw this group of people who looked very capable, she instantly felt a surge of security and thought that the money was well spent!

Du Xuan, the ninth son of the Du family, has been seasick since childhood, so the Du family chose to travel by land. The Du family keeps a low profile, and this trip involved only three carriages.

To avoid the Du family, Lan Tingzhou chose the waterway, just like in his previous life. Similarly, he chose the "Fuqing," a large three-story passenger ship.

Unlike the previous life, where there were only five or four people going to the capital, this time there were thirty or forty people, taking up more than half of the entire ship.

"Ah Cai, are you serious? You're even bringing the carriage along?" Zhu Xiaoxiao looked at Mo Yan driving the carriage onto the boat, speechless.

"Heh, what do you know?" Gan Cai'er rolled her eyes at her, too lazy to explain.

Zhu Xiaoxiao had never been to Kyoto and had no idea how expensive things were there! Just this carriage alone would cost at least five hundred taels of silver to buy in Kyoto.

Gan Cai'er was truly poor in her previous life, and in this life, she will save as much as possible.

"Xiao Xiao, you really didn't sneak off to Kyoto with us this time?" Gan Cai'er glanced at Zhu Xiao Xiao and asked for the hundred and first time.

"Ugh, aren't you annoying? How many times have you asked me?"

“I already told you, my mother and grandfather both agreed to my trip to Kyoto. My mother even wrote to a cousin in Kyoto to ask her to take care of me.”

"Tell me, why do you insist on going to Kyoto, a place you're completely unfamiliar with?" Gan Cai'er leaned closer to Zhu Xiaoxiao and asked with a smile.

"Or are you worried about the bookworm and want to go with him to keep an eye on him?!"

"Ha, who cares to go see him! Can't I just go to broaden my horizons and see the world?" Zhu Xiaoxiao blushed, flicked her sleeves, and turned to leave.

To her surprise, as soon as she turned around, she saw Wei Shi'an and his two pageboys rushing hurriedly towards the boat.

Ever since Zhu Xiaoxiao ran away with the painting, Wei Shi'an came to the Lan family's courtyard to look for her that very day, but she refused to see him and only told Huan'er to chase her away.

From then on, Wei Shi'an would come to the Lan family's courtyard every few days, sometimes bringing a painting, sometimes a poem, or sometimes some small gifts. He didn't force Zhu Xiaoxiao to see him, but he kept bringing these gifts day after day, enjoying it immensely, as if he were quite content with it.

Although Zhu Xiaoxiao never saw him, she didn't throw away any of the things he gave her.

"Tell me, what exactly does your young lady mean by this? Does she like Young Master Wei or not?" Xiao Hong asked Huan'er curiously.

"It's hard to say." Huan'er shook her head. "Ever since she met Young Master Wei, Miss has become very strange. She gets angry when she sees Young Master Wei, but she gets even angrier when she doesn't see him."

"Huan'er, look! Isn't that Young Master Wei? He's on the same boat as us!" Xiao Hong pointed to the distance.

Huan'er followed her finger and saw Wei Shi'an standing helplessly in front of Zhu Xiaoxiao.

"What are you doing here?" Zhu Xiaoxiao asked with a stern face.

"I... I'll take a boat," Wei Shi'an said in a low voice.

"Why did you end up on this ship?" Zhu Xiaoxiao asked fiercely.

"Well, because I bought, I bought a ticket." Wei Shi'an held up the boat ticket in his hand, his forehead covered in sweat.

Zhu Xiaoxiao stared at the boat ticket, speechless for a moment.

At this moment, Gan Cai'er walked over and put her arm around her.

"Alright, Xiao Xiao. You didn't charter the 'Fuqing' ship, so why should you care who gets on board?"

Gan Cai'er pulled Zhu Xiaoxiao away.

“Hey, I’ve discovered that this Young Master Wei might not be a real idiot after all…” Xiao Hong said.

“I think so too,” Huan’er nodded.