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

While strolling through the garden with Jiang Xiaoqi, Tan Hao instructed his page to send a message to his father.

In the capital, the Tan family was not only big in business, but also had many houses. Tan's father liked to buy houses and land whenever he made money.

This may be related to his family's origins as landlords. Unlike the Jiang family, the Tan family has not produced any officials for generations, but their business has grown bigger and bigger.

After several generations of business, Tan's father even became a royal merchant. However, the family still didn't have a single scholar who passed the imperial examination. Currently, Tan Hao is the best student in the Tan family.

This is why Tan Hao is currently receiving attention; of course, it's also because he's the only one of his generation.

Tan Hao was not the legitimate son; he was Master Tan's illegitimate child. As an illegitimate son, he should have been the least respectable.

Who would have thought that Madam Tan had never had any children, while her concubines had given birth to one son and two daughters. The son, who was two years older than Tan Hao, died a few years ago, leaving only the two ten-year-old daughters.

A few years later, when none of his wives and concubines had conceived again, Master Tan remembered his illegitimate son who was studying in another city.

It was around that time that he learned that his illegitimate son, whom he had been raising without any support, had actually passed the imperial examination and achieved a high ranking.

That's why they went to great lengths to find him and officially registered him under Madam Tan's name, making him a nominal legitimate son.

Although Tan Hao became the legitimate son in name, his background was still shady. His biological mother was not brought into the mansion by Master Tan and lived in an estate on the outskirts of Beijing. This is why Tan Hao often appeared in Tongzhou Prefecture.

Every now and then, he would use the excuse of meeting with friends to visit his birth mother at the estate.

After delivering the message, Tan Hao accompanied Jiang Xiaoqi on a leisurely stroll.

Upon receiving his son's message, Master Tan quickly made up his mind. He considered all the houses under his name and found several that were not far from the examination hall.

"Go and tell the young master that it's feasible, and let Hao'er discuss the specifics himself."

Master Tan did not intend to intervene. He wanted to create more opportunities for his son to interact with the successful candidates in the imperial examinations. With five successful candidates, at the very least one of them would become a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations).

He had no family background or connections, and his rise to the position of imperial merchant was entirely due to his wealth. In recent years, he has not only failed to make money but has also lost a considerable amount of money, which was not his original intention.

Clinging to powerful figures is one way, but cultivating one's own network is equally important. At this literary gathering, the Tan family must be the biggest winner!

Having received his father's words, Tan Hao felt reassured, but outwardly remained calm and continued to stay with Jiang Xiaoqi.

Jiang Xiaoqi saw the other party's page whisper something in Tan Hao's ear, and Tan Hao seemed to breathe a sigh of relief after hearing it.

He couldn't help but say, "Brother Tan has been with me for quite a while now. Go ahead and do your work. I'll go find my grandfather and the others to stay with."

"Oh, I don't have anything else to do. I just asked Anian to take care of something about a house near the Imperial Examination Hall in the capital. We've already received a reply. Mingfei, would you like to hear it?"

! ! !

Such fast efficiency!

I did want to ask Tan Hao to keep an eye out for me, but I planned to wait until I left the Tan family villa before making a decision. After all, today was a literary gathering hosted by the Tan family, and Tan Hao would be quite busy.

"Thank you for your help, Brother Tan. Please speak, Brother Tan!"

Seeing Jiang Xiaoqi's bright, shining eyes, Tan Hao immediately told him about his father's plan.

"That's right. The house isn't the biggest, but it's definitely the closest to the examination hall."

"Brother Tan, wait a moment. I'll go find my grandfather and the others now. If possible, we'll buy it after the literary gathering!"

"Hey! No rush, no rush. Our family didn't put this house in the hands of a broker, so no one is going to fight you for it. The house is there, Mingfei can buy it whenever he wants, and go to the yamen to get the deed done anytime."

"Okay, but the sooner we settle on a date, the more at ease our families will be. After all, staying in an inn is really noisy right now. With the imperial examination just around the corner, it would be better to have a quiet place to stay for exam preparation."

“That makes sense. Let’s go find Grandpa Jiang together and tell him about the details of the house.”

Although the Tan family planned to transfer the house to the Jiang family at a friendly price, a house in the capital is still a considerable sum, no matter how cheap it is. If a large amount of money is to be used, it is still necessary to inform the elders of the family.

Tan Hao could only use a maximum of five hundred taels of silver in the Tan family, and that was only because he was the sole heir of the Tan family. Therefore, he believed that the Jiang family's situation should be similar to his own.

Mingfei could only use a little over a thousand taels of silver, so he had to discuss such a big matter as purchasing real estate with his elders.

He was naturally unaware that Jiang Xiaoqi had already prepared the full payment for the house, and the gold and silver in the space were already eager to make a move. They were quite lonely, having been gathering dust in the dark and gloomy space all this time.

With the help of the system, the gold and silver bricks that had been collected earlier had long been reshaped and resized by specialized foundries in other dimensions, making them indistinguishable from those of the previous dynasty and without any markings.

Whether it's cash or banknotes, Jiang Xiaoqi can produce hundreds of thousands or even millions of taels of silver in no time.

Jiang, the nouveau riche, Xiaoqi: Here I come for Beijing's school district housing!

The two quickly found the Jiang family in a rare, sheltered, and warm place. Although Xue Xu was not a member of the Jiang family, he obediently followed behind the patriarch, the landlord Jiang.

After all, this was an elder who ranked higher than him in the provincial examination. He didn't know any other candidates here, so following the Jiang family was always the right thing to do.

At this moment, Landlord Jiang was leisurely drinking tea, occasionally giving pointers to Dong Jin and Jiang Wenqing, who were playing chess.

It is said that a true gentleman observes a game of chess without speaking, but Landlord Jiang did not think there was anything wrong with him pointing fingers and making comments. He was not a gentleman, he was an "old man"!

Li Haisheng was reading a book on the side. The Tan family had prepared books in each of the warm pavilions, and they were all rare to see on the market. Some of them even had annotations by great scholars. How could he miss such a good opportunity?

Upon seeing Jiang Xiaoqi arrive with Tan Hao, the group put down what they were carrying.

After bowing respectfully, Tan Hao said, "Grandpa Jiang, I heard from Mingfei that your family is looking for a house near the Imperial Examination Hall. It just so happens that my family is selling a house near the Imperial Examination Hall. I wonder if Grandpa Jiang would be interested?"

"Oh? Where exactly is that house? How big is it? How much does it cost?"

To maintain his composure, Landlord Jiang restrained himself from standing up immediately, leaned forward, and asked a series of questions.

"The house is not far from the examination hall, only a quarter of an hour's walk away, making it very suitable for candidates preparing for the exam. Moreover, the house has an exquisite layout; although it is not particularly large, the overall design is excellent."

The house has three courtyards, which are further divided into eight or nine smaller courtyards, each separated by arched gates to ensure privacy. The price is reasonable, totaling thirty thousand taels of silver.

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a gasp, and Jiang Wenqing and Dong Jin involuntarily gripped the chess pieces in their hands.

As temporary outsiders, Li Haisheng and Xue Xu were also shocked by the housing prices in the capital. This was a friendly price, a price for acquaintances. If they had asked at a real estate agency, the same house would have been much more expensive, possibly even 40,000 taels of silver.

Landlord Jiang stroked his beard, glanced down at his grandson, Jiang Xiaoqi, who nodded silently, meaning that the money was not a problem.

"Alright, in that case, I'll trouble you, young friend Tan. Please take us to the house in a couple of days. If there are no problems, we can settle the payment and go to the yamen to complete the contract that same day."

Tan Hao was somewhat surprised by the Jiang family's strength. If he remembered correctly, the Jiang family was just a landlord family. It seemed that his father had underestimated the Jiang family's true strength...

Is it really possible for the Tan family to win over such a family, which has outstanding scholars and is also wealthy, with just a few small favors?

Not only was Tan Hao stunned, but Jiang Wenqing, as a member of the Jiang family, was also somewhat taken aback by his father's words. When did their Jiang family become so powerful? How come he didn't know? No one had informed him that their family had struck it rich!

Dong Jin was under immense pressure. Was his father-in-law's family really that powerful? What if he felt his family hadn't given his wife enough as a dowry? Had his father-in-law's family complained about their stinginess a few years ago?

Li Haisheng knew his junior brother's family was incredibly wealthy, as evidenced by the fact that his junior brother had once bought several horses without batting an eye. The Jiang family didn't really restrict Jiang Xiaoqi's spending, but he was still being conservative. His junior brother's family was no ordinary wealthy family. Sigh~ He had to work harder; he couldn't let Xiyue's quality of life plummet after marrying him.

Even Xue Xu, a complete outsider, was somewhat unsettled. He looked at Jiang Xiaoqi with a hint of hesitation, calculating how much dowry his family could provide for his sister's marriage...

Well, it certainly wouldn't be as much as 30,000 taels. That's almost the amount of all his family's assets converted into silver. Sigh, their social standing and family background are still quite different.

Jiang Xiaoqi had no idea that buying a house would cause the men present to think so much. He only knew that school district housing was rare, and since his grandfather had made the decision, what did it matter what others thought? It didn't matter!

The most important thing is to quickly find a house, secure the money, and change the property deed to Jiang's name so they can truly feel at ease!