After being reborn as a man, the woman improved her family's fortunes through education.

Liu Qingping gave the waiter and the other customers on the first floor a haughty look, then lifted his robe and went upstairs.

The footsteps on the solid wood staircase were extremely heavy.

It was Zhao Hongxuan who made the noise just now. There was nothing he could do about it, since he was the one who booked the entire second floor of the teahouse today.

He was curious to see what this ordinary-looking middle-aged man was up to.

Liu Qingping is thirty-two years old this year, which is indeed not young. He is even a few years older than Zhao Hongxuan's parents.

Zhao Hongxuan is not an only child, but the youngest in his family. He has just turned ten years old this year, his older brother is already twelve, and his parents are only twenty-nine years old.

Before long, Liu Qingping went upstairs. He was a little surprised to see that there were only two adults and the rest were little children.

For a moment, they forgot to speak, preoccupied with figuring out who had booked the second floor of the teahouse.

The six- or seven-year-old was ruled out first, simply because he was dressed very plainly.

Jiang Xiaoqi, dressed simply: ...You really don't know what's good for you. This is an extremely rare material, it's just that the color is a bit plain.

Then he turned to the slightly older one, who was slender and scholarly, like a young master from a scholarly family, but lacked the extravagant air of someone who would spend money like water.

The oldest child next to him is only about ten years old. He is dressed in the most expensive clothes and has the most accessories. He looks like a landlord's silly son.

Zhao Hongxuan: You're the landlord's stupid son!

Jiang Wenqing: I was affected...

Jiang Xiaoqi: Same as above↑

Landlord Jiang: ...

After scanning the three children, Liu Qingping turned his gaze to the two adults.

The older one had the air of someone who was very wealthy. If he didn't own thousands of acres of fertile land and thousands of mansions, he was at least quite wealthy and had the capital to book an entire floor of a teahouse.

The guy next to him looks about five or six points similar to the old man; they must be father and son.

No, no, the one dressed the richest should be from the same family as these two adults, three generations taking the imperial examination together?!

As expected of a powerful family, they produced many scholars.

So the three of them, a grandfather, grandmother, and grandson, are the ones who booked the entire floor of this teahouse!

After some reasoning, Liu Qingping felt he had deduced the truth and found the key figure.

The other two children, dressed simply and plainly, were probably from poor relatives, and came to make up the number of people needed for a group of five people who knew each other well.

Sigh, I never imagined that Liu Qingping was not only good at studying, but also had a talent for reading people and reasoning!

In this way, if I become an official in the future, I will surely be able to be a discerning and shrewd one!

Although I had been thinking about it for a long time, only a few breaths had passed.

Having made up his mind, Liu Qingping smiled, stepped forward, and bowed respectfully, saying:

"I am Liu Qingping, a scholar from Qingxi Village, Qingmu Town, Linchuan County, Linchuan Prefecture, who ranked seventy-eighth in this year's provincial examination. May I ask how you gentlemen are addressed?"

The prefix was so long that the five people didn't know how to respond.

As the oldest and most senior person present, Landlord Jiang took over the conversation, as he couldn't let the children deal with such a strange person.

"So it's you, Master Liu. May I ask what brings you here?"

Landlord Jiang: Why did you insist on rushing upstairs?

Just to introduce themselves, say hello, and tell us you're ranked 78th, higher than us, to show off?

"Uh, hehe, I also heard the good news from downstairs, but it was inconvenient to offer congratulations from downstairs, so I apologize for being impolite."

Zhao Hongxuan: You knew it was rude, yet you still barged in?! Deliberately committing a violation is an even greater offense!

"Oh, I see. Thank you very much. It's not a very high ranking, so there's nothing to congratulate you on."

Unlike Master Liu, who made it into the top 100, his future is limitless!

Landlord Jiang offered a few perfunctory compliments, hoping to get rid of the man so that the five of them could wait in peace for Tan Hao and Jiang Xiaoqi's team to deliver the good news.

It's always uncomfortable to have outsiders around, and besides, he didn't want too much information about his grandson's top scholar and the Little Three Scholars to spread and cause unnecessary trouble.

After exchanging pleasantries, Jiang Wenqing also greeted the other party. The two adults kept him occupied while the three children ate and drank as usual, remaining uninvolved.

After half a cup of tea's time had passed, and the man still showed no sign of leaving, Jiang Xiaoqi frowned, an expression that was accurately captured by Landlord Jiang.

"Well, it's getting late. If you have something to attend to, Mr. Liu, please go ahead and take care of it!"

"Oh, oh? I'm fine, I don't have anything to do."

How do you respond to that? Is this person pretending to be stupid or is he really stupid?

Liu Qingping realized that they were telling him to leave, but he had only been up there for a short while. If he left now, he would inevitably be ridiculed by the people below.

Even if I pretend to be stupid and stall for time, I can't go down and be laughed at by a bunch of poor scholars and pedants.

Moreover, this family in front of me might be my first big spender, so I naturally have to spend some time to let them see my value before they will be willing to spend money on me in the future!

Jiang Wenqing: Haha, I don't even dare to have this dream, but you've already had it!

My son can only be my sole benefactor; no one else can even think about it!

"Oh, by the way, are you all going to participate in next year's provincial examination?"

Liu Qingping's question was obviously directed at the oldest landlord, Jiang, since he didn't know which little boy was the third to pass the imperial examination.

Downstairs, it was impossible to hear clearly whose name was being called out from upstairs to announce the good news; the noise and the sound of gongs drowned it out.

All I knew was that there was a man surnamed Jiang, a middle-aged man of similar age to myself, who ranked 258th in the provincial examination, a full 180 places behind me.

The remaining two were led upstairs to private rooms by the teahouse waiters to announce the good news, but their names and rankings were completely obscured.

However, he felt there was a high chance it was the family's youngest grandson, the wealthy and powerful one, the oldest, the tallest, and the strongest child.

Zhao Hongxuan: Yes, that's right! It's me!

Qi/Hao: Shameless...

Landlord Jiang: "Well, that's not certain yet. We're ranked low, so we need to pass next year's annual examination first, and then try our best in the provincial examination to qualify for the provincial examination."

"Oh dear, your family is full of talented people. A small imperial examination is a piece of cake for them. If we are destined, we might even be able to enter the examination together."

The provincial examination will still be held in the provincial capital, so we can travel together and look out for each other on the way, or even discuss our studies!

Liu Qingping believed he had offered an enticing offer: discussing academic matters with someone ranked higher would obviously benefit him.

But he's willing to suffer this loss, so your family should know what to do, right?

Listening to their conversation, Jiang Xiaoqi chuckled to herself: This Liu Qingping is really good at scheming!

However, he was right about one thing: it was indeed possible to meet during the provincial examination, but it was possible that he would meet his grandfather and father.

But his participation in the provincial examination wouldn't be until at least six years later. How old would he be then? Thirty-eight? Forty?

Besides, this person seems to have the wrong people in mind, talking to his grandfather, father, and Zhao Hongxuan the whole time, clearly treating him and Tan Hao as poor relatives trying to freeload. It's really quite amusing.

However, it was a lucky accident; they managed to ingratiate themselves with some of the real big spenders here.

While waiting for the person delivering the good news to have some free time, I thought I'd offer him something amusing to cheer him up, like watching a stand-up comedy show.