The sickly son died young? After the marriage exchange, I will bring prosperity to his entire clan f

However, leveraging external resources is one aspect; if the Cheng family has no ability whatsoever, they won't achieve anything even if they do.

Perhaps the older generation of the Cheng family committed too many sins, and none of the younger generation has achieved anything significant. Now, the Cheng family is also beginning to decline.

Should we tell Mother about this?

Lord Wen remained silent for a long time before speaking, "I've taken the time these past few days to talk to her. She was the one who discovered the matter first, and she must be suffering more than we are right now."

Wen Yibin remained silent, hoping that his mother would step forward herself and not put his elder brother in such a difficult position.

Du Mingxian and Ling Silang returned to their room in the tenement.

It was very cold, and the two of them didn't often stay in the room. They had just returned and hadn't lit the charcoal brazier yet, so the room was freezing cold when they came in.

When will things be finished on your end?

Ling Silang sighed, "It's almost here. Most of the candidates who were supposed to come to the capital to take the imperial examinations have already arrived, and a small number will arrive after the New Year."

"If you don't want to stay here, you can find an excuse to say you're going to visit relatives."

Du Mingxian shook her head, "I still need to wait for the garment workshop matter, let's wait a bit longer." Anyway, she spends most of her time in the space. It was only when she came into the room and it got cold that she thought to ask when she was going back.

She's been so busy these past few days that she'd forgotten about Liu Ya. The job Chunfeng and the others found for her last time wasn't good, so it seems she'll have to find something new.

Keeping this in mind, the two didn't linger outside and went straight into the space.

Right now, the people who had been observing them from across the door were also talking.

Lin Guixiang looked at Du Mingxian's room with disdain when she saw that all the lights were off. "I think they're not even as good as you. They're never around. Who knows how well they're doing in their studies? They don't need us to pull strings for them."

Sun Tao shook his head. "That guy surnamed Ling knows a lot of students and is very famous among them. He's also very talented. It's amazing that someone who doesn't study much in his room can have such good fortune. He's quite remarkable."

Lin Guixiang didn't speak. She hated Du Mingxian's coldness. Several times she had gone up to greet her, but Du Mingxian always looked down on her, which was very annoying.

"You should cultivate a good relationship with the Ling family, and I can cultivate a good relationship with Ling Ziming. These are all connections for the future. It's fate that we can live in the same courtyard as them."

Although Lin Guixiang was dissatisfied, it was Sun Tao who had spoken, and he was the husband she had carefully chosen. "Okay, okay, I'll listen to you. I'll get up early tomorrow and try to build a good relationship with her."

"Ah."

Sun Tao was very satisfied with Lin Guixiang's pragmatism. He turned his head to look at his son, who was curled up in the corner of the bed, but said nothing.

"sleep early."

"Okay." Lin Guixiang stepped forward to help Sun Tao take off his clothes, asking, "Are you tired? I want to..."

Sun Tao refused, saying, "The child isn't asleep yet."

Lin Guixiang's hands froze for a moment. "I don't know what Mother was thinking. When we came to the capital, she insisted that we bring Chengbao with us. Does she not want us to have a child?"

Sun Tao knew that Lin Guixiang was unhappy about coming to the capital with the child. "Your mother hopes that you and Chengbao can get closer. You don't want to hear people say that you, as his stepmother, are bullying him, do you?"

“Of course,” Lin Guixiang immediately shook her head. “But I also want to have another child with you, don’t I?”

Sun Tao gently patted her back and comforted her softly, "Don't worry, we have a long future ahead of us. Right now, we're just preparing for the exam. After the exam, I'll become an official, and you'll be his wife. Isn't that better than anything else? We can have children then, and the conditions will be much better in every way."

Lin Guixiang cared about this, and upon hearing Sun Tao's promise, she was overjoyed, saying, "Okay, I'll do whatever you say."

The next day, Ling Silang went out to work again, while Du Mingxian stayed in her room thinking.

How to investigate the Lin family's past, and from which aspect to start, all these things need to be considered. She... is still too insignificant.

In her previous life, she had experience managing the inner quarters and socializing with other ladies, but investigating cases... this was her first time, but it wasn't entirely hopeless.

Thinking of the people sent to the estate last time, Du Mingxian decided to go there. If the people on the estate were usable, she could send them out to investigate now.

Spring breeze and summer rain were given by the Crown Prince, and Xiangyang came from the Wen family.

Upon closer examination, she really didn't have many people under her command.

When it's time to need people, there are no people available.

She walked out in silence. Liu Ya saw her walking out with her head down in the yard and was quite surprised. "Mingxian, are you going out?"

Du Mingxian was lost in thought and didn't notice Liu Ya talking to her. She just lowered her head and walked away.

Just then, Lin Guixiang came out and saw this scene. She immediately pouted and said, "Sister Liu Ya, look, she's not listening to what you're saying."

Liu Ya has nothing to do now and stays at home every day, so she runs into Lin Guixiang every day. She doesn't like listening to Lin Guixiang talk. "She was thinking about something just now and probably didn't pay attention to what I was saying."

"Sister Liu, you're still trying to make amends for her? I don't think she cares about you at all."

“We’ve only known each other as neighbors for a few months. If she’s going to take me to heart, then I should be terrified.” Liu Ya didn’t respond to Lin Guixiang’s words at all, and turned to go back into the house after saying that.

Lin Guixiang stomped her feet in anger.

Du Mingxian went out to the estate, and when she got to the street, she met a servant from the Wen family who had been waiting for her. She was an old woman from the Wen family's courtyard when she was there before.

"Miss."

"What are you doing here?" Du Mingxian asked in surprise when she saw the old woman.

The old woman came out very early today and has been waiting outside. She's quite cold now. "Miss, the master asked me to pass on a message to you. He said he will handle the matter, so you don't need to worry."

Is this referring to the Lin family's affairs?

Yesterday, Lord Wen's attitude made it clear that he would take care of this matter.

"Anything else to say?"

"Gone."

"Okay, I see."

The old woman bowed and said, "Then I'll head back to my residence now."

"it is good."

After the old woman left, Du Mingxian turned and walked back. She didn't need to investigate the Lin family's affairs, so she was free again.

When she reached the courtyard gate, she didn't stop. Instead, she quietly walked a short distance, went into her spatial dimension to change her clothes, and then went directly to the clothing workshop.

The surroundings were quiet and unchanged. She quietly walked to the place where the courtyard where she had eaten before connected with the courtyard of the garment workshop and climbed over the wall.

She remained cautious. After entering, she went into the space, but there was no change in her surroundings. So she came out of the space and quietly strolled around the courtyard.

Before anyone knew it, the room had been completely emptied, with nothing left.

There was no one in the house.

She wandered around each courtyard, but after finding nothing, she went to the courtyard where they had eaten... only to discover that... the little gate was gone.