I'm dressed up as the timid eldest daughter, and the whole family has to listen to me!

Wang Guihua suppressed her distress and turned to attend to her own business. Seeing her like this, Su Banxia sighed helplessly and continued making candied hawthorns.

The next day,

After packing her things, Su Banxia prepared to take everyone to the street to sell candied hawthorns.

Wei Kezhi hasn't come down the mountain for several days now, so it's a good opportunity to give Wei Kezhi's tools to Su Shiyan for use.

Su Shiyan has now fully recovered. After all, he is still young, so he recovers faster than Su Hanzhang.

Su Banxia was only thinking about returning early today so she could go up the mountain to look for Wei Kezhi. She didn't know what was so unreasonable about him. Did he really think she was a child?

The group arrived in the city and had just set up their stall when Su Songchuan, dressed in a sleek and sophisticated manner, walked over.

"Banxia, ​​what are you doing here?"

Su Banxia pointed to the straw saddle in her hand and smiled:

"Isn't this me selling candied hawthorns?"

Su Songchuan glanced at the various shapes of candied hawthorns that he had never seen before, and suddenly a thought flashed through his mind. His niece's candied hawthorns were quite good, so why was he worried about what gift to bring to the eldest daughter of the family who was working as an aid worker?

Thinking this, Su Songchuan smiled at Su Banxia.

"I've never seen candied hawthorns like this before. Did you make them yourself?"

Su Banxia nodded and was just about to greet the guests when she saw Su Songchuan reach out and pick out more than a dozen candied hawthorn skewers from his notebook.

"These candied hawthorns look delicious. I'm going to a literary gathering today, so I can give them to someone as a gift. I'll take them now!"

Su Banxia quickly spoke up:

"These candied hawthorns cost ten coins a skewer. Since you're my uncle, I'll give you a discount and they'll be nine coins a skewer. There are eighteen skewers in total, which should be one hundred and sixty-two coins. Just give me one hundred and sixty coins."

Su Songchuan frowned upon hearing this.

"You're calculating so much with your uncle? It's just a few candied hawthorns, and you've even calculated the price for me. You really don't treat me like your uncle at all!"

Su Banxia smiled.

"I'm only charging you because I consider you my uncle. As an elder, you wouldn't try to take advantage of me for such a small thing, would you? Even so, it wouldn't sound good if people talked about it. You're a scholar, after all!"

Upon hearing this, Su Songchuan's expression stiffened, and his face flushed red as he spoke:

"Yes, yes, we didn't mean to renege on your debt. I have urgent business to attend to right now, so I won't waste any more time with you. Don't worry, I'll give you the money. If I really do marry that eldest daughter of the Li family in the future, you'll have everything you need, let alone this mere hundred coins. You're such a short-sighted child!"

Without waiting for Su Banxia's reply, Su Songchuan grabbed the candied hawthorn and ran off. Su Shiyan, seeing this, quickly came over and sighed helplessly.

"Sister, I don't think we'll get this money back. Don't even think about it. Hurry up and greet the guests."

Su Banxia turned around and smiled at Su Shiyan.

"Don't worry, brother. I'll have our fourth uncle pay back the money with interest."

After saying that, Su Banxia went off to sell candied hawthorns.

Su Songchuan hurried towards Master Li's house with a candied hawthorn in his hand. He had already gotten up late and spent some time tidying up at the academy, so he was already way past the appointed time.

Although Su Songchuan was anxious, he couldn't go to his second meeting with Shu'er without a gift. Even though he didn't have much money left, Su Songchuan gritted his teeth and decided to go to the market to buy some small trinkets for Li Shu'er.

As luck would have it, Su Songchuan happened to run into Su Banxia selling candied hawthorns at the market. He thought that if he could take advantage of the situation, he might as well give the candied hawthorns to Li Shuer as a favor.

When Su Songchuan hurried and jogged all the way to the gate of Master Li's mansion, all sorts of carriages were already parked outside.

Su Songchuan sighed helplessly, looked at his shoes which were almost worn out, and still mustered up his courage to walk into the yard.

As soon as he stepped onto the stairs, he was stopped by the gatekeeper.

"Hey, hey, hey, whose servant are you? Servants can't use this door! Go, go, go use the side door! Don't you know any manners?!"

Su Songchuan never expected to encounter such snobs as soon as he entered the door. He vowed that once he married Li Shuer, he would sell them all off to vent his anger!

Thinking this, Su Songchuan suppressed his anger and smiled as he spoke to the servant at the door:

"I am a scholar invited by Master Li to attend the literary gathering today, not someone's servant. Am I not allowed to enter through the main gate?"

The servant looked Su Songchuan up and down, then said disdainfully:

"What kind of scholar are you? Even though you're dressed so poorly, do you really think I've never seen a scholar before? What kind of scholars come to our Li residence? A poor, shabby scholar like you should go back to where you came from, lest you get kicked out after you go in!"

Upon hearing this, Su Songchuan clenched his fist and immediately took out the invitation that Master Li had sent.

"Open your dog eyes and see if this invitation was written in your family's own handwriting!"

The gatekeeper couldn't read, so how could he know if it was written by Master Li himself? But he did recognize the material of the invitation; the people who had just come in were all carrying similar invitations.

At this moment, the servant was also a little nervous. If he was really a guest invited by Master Li, wouldn't he be scolded if he just kept him out of the door like this?

But if he wasn't a guest invited by Master Li, wouldn't I get scolded if I let him in rashly?

Knowing he was going to get scolded anyway, the gatekeeper decided to insist that Su Songchuan's invitation was fake.

"What kind of bastard is this? How dare you take out this and pretend it's an invitation from our Li family? You even said it was written by our master himself? Who do you think you are to have an invitation written for you?"

Su Songchuan was surprised that Xiao Si was so stubborn. Even with the invitation right in front of him, he still refused to let him in, which put him in a difficult position.

The literary banquet must have already started long ago. Master Li can't possibly wait until now for someone who's late, can he? It's just a pity that I missed my first literary banquet. After this incident, Master Li will probably not like me anymore.

The thought of Li Shuer's gentle face made Su Songchuan feel sad. He realized he was probably destined to be apart from her. Looking down at the dozen or so strings of candied hawthorns in his hand, Su Songchuan felt a pang of regret. He should have known better than to owe Su Banxia this favor. Bringing so many candied hawthorns to give away and then not being able to give them away—wasn't that a waste?