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

Not only did the Jiang Lan'er sisters pack their luggage, but several families had also packed their bags well in advance.

The Dong family had also made arrangements for the people accompanying them to Beijing. With Jiang Xiwen, their young mistress, present, the Dong family was not worried about their young master's safety.

Therefore, only two guards were symbolically sent, along with two coachmen responsible for driving the two carriages, plus Dong Jin and his wife, making a total of six people in the Dong family.

Li Haisheng was accompanied by his two older brothers. The group was small, and the luggage was even simpler, since most of the luggage he brought was betrothal gifts. The carriage was now empty, and the rented carriage had long been sent back.

Xue Xu did not return to his hometown of Puyang, so he used the same carriage as before, accompanied by his page Que Yun and coachman Wang Bo.

The Jiang family sent the most people. Landlord Jiang and his son Jiang Wenqing rode in one carriage, with the second son of the Wen family driving. Lin Yueniang and her daughter Jiang Xiyue rode in another carriage, with Li Mo driving.

The sisters Jiang Lan'er and Jiang Lian'er rode in one carriage, with A Niu driving.

Jiang Xiaoqi wanted to ride a horse, so she didn't arrange a carriage for herself, but Wenbin drove a carriage over before she set off...

At this moment, the gatekeeper also took away the horse that his young master had led out, saying that it was the old lady's wish that the master should not ride a horse anymore.

Since we're going to the capital for the imperial examinations, we should act like scholars.

Jiang Xiaoqi: What are scholars like? Grandmother, aren't you having some stereotypes...?

And so another carriage was added, carrying Jiang Xiaoqi and all the luggage that couldn't fit in the other carriages... Wenbin drove the carriage.

The remaining eight male and four female guards of the Jiang family, a total of twelve guards, rode horses without any other maids or servants, which can be considered as traveling light.

The entire caravan heading to the capital consisted of thirty-two people, eight carriages, and fourteen fine horses, making it a formidable force comparable in size to some small escort agencies.

The group embarked on their journey to the capital, and the journey was peaceful for several days without encountering any more "brave" bandits.

"Father, you're being too cautious. I don't think it's necessary to have so many guards. The food and supplies for the people and horses all cost money!" Wouldn't it be better to save the money for your son's allowance? It's all benefiting outsiders...

Landlord Jiang knew his son Jiang Wenqing so well that you could tell he was about to be born just by looking at his backside.

So he completely ignored his son's words. He's already a scholar, yet he's still so unambitious. He's too lazy to talk to him anymore!

He genuinely hoped that Jiang Wenqing would pass the imperial examination with the title of Tongjinshi, so that he could be appointed as a county magistrate.

It's not that I particularly want him to become an official, I just hope he can go as far away as possible and stop bothering me!

Jiang Wenqing, feeling snubbed, stopped talking and started drinking tea and eating snacks, making noise like a giant rat.

Landlord Jiang, who was just about to take a nap to recharge:

"parking!"

I've had enough!

After getting off the carriage, Landlord Jiang went to the back to find his precious grandson, who was traveling alone in the carriage.

Landlord Jiang arrived at Jiang Xiaoqi's car and knocked on the window frame.

"grandfather?"

"Come here to find some peace and quiet." With that, he got into Jiang Xiaoqi's car.

Jiang Xiaoqi and Wenbin both reached out to help, but the old man was nowhere to be seen; his agility remained as sharp as ever.

"Huh? What is this? Could it be something we'll be able to try out?"

Landlord Jiang saw that his grandson's carriage contained many thin bamboo strips of the same size, each with different patterns and numbers drawn on it.

Could it be some kind of secret learning method? My grandson is really going all out! It's them taking the imperial examination this time, not Mingfei. This child is truly dedicated!

Seeing this, Jiang Xiaoqi smiled, picked up a bamboo strip and said, "Grandfather, this is not some secret technique for learning. It's just a little toy that I play with when I have nothing else to do."

As for what to call it, I haven't decided yet, so let's just call it "Happy Two-on-One" for now!

Landlord Jiang leaned closer curiously: "Happy Two Against One? How do you play this?"

"Grandpa, look, the patterns and numbers on these have specific rules. You can form pairs with the same number but different patterns, or you can form consecutive sequences with different numbers..."

Of course, the cards are also ranked. These two monkeys are the highest, and the remaining four plus these four are all the next highest.

Another useful card is four cards of the same number. When you can't beat the previous player's hand, you can use these four of the same card...

Other rules include...

"Happy Two Against One" is, as the name suggests, a game for three people, but it's actually two against one...

It's not a random combination. One person usually has a better hand, and they also need to compete for the "top scorer" card. Whoever gets the "top scorer" card can take those cards...

The two remaining players who didn't get a turn will team up to challenge the "top scholar." If the top scholar wins, the other two lose; if either of the other two wins, both of them win...

Upon hearing the complete set of rules, Landlord Jiang's eyes lit up instantly; he found it quite interesting.

"This is a novel idea, but instead of 'Happy Two Against One,' this game should be called 'Battle of the Top Scholars,' right? Whoever is the top scholar, the other two team up to defeat him."

Jiang Xiaoqi: My grandpa is still my grandpa!

He had wanted to make this game before, but he hadn't been able to solve the material problem.

After several attempts to glue the Xuan paper together, it was still not stiff enough and was wrinkled, so in the end, the craftsman was asked to polish the bamboo strips.

It's naturally thicker than playing cards of later generations, but that's already the limit of current technology, though it doesn't affect the game.

Now that we've taught Grandpa too, the journey won't be boring at all!