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Standing in the courtyard, he watched one wave after another of messengers coming to give the good news, stroking his beard and smiling.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Wu also smiled and said: “This is great. Ajie will surely be able to stay in Beijing.”

Anyone who ranks third in the first rank of the examination, without any accidents, would undoubtedly enter the Hanlin Academy. After accumulating a few years of seniority, they would have the chance to enter the cabinet.

This is to say, all the Cabinet officials are graduates of the first rank.

Jiang Jie is so young. In a few years, he will be in the prime of his life. With the emperor’s support, rising up to the high ranks of the cabinet will not be unlikely.

Moreover, he hails from a poor farming family with no complicated background, which is just the type of talent the new emperor is looking for.

In the future, the Jiang family might truly prosper.

Mrs. Wu was thinking gleefully, if her granddaughter could marry into the Jiang family, their future would surely be promising.

At this moment, Chunniang and Yingbao were busy tipping the messengers, while having a couple of young maids bring tables and stools so they could sit down and have some tea.

The Wu family’s servants also helped to set up tents in the courtyard, inviting the bearers of good news to sit inside the tents.

Yingbao asked the cook to prepare meals and a feast to feed the messengers.

There were plenty of dishes prepared at home, including chicken, duck, goose, fish, pork, and lamb, which had all been cooked in the morning and merely needed slicing.

The remaining vegetables were much simpler, just stir fry a few different kinds of small dishes as side dishes, and the banquet was ready.

By the time Jiang Quan returned with Jiang Jie and Li Xu, the Luo family’s congratulations party had arrived.

Not only the Luo family but the Wen family also sent people. They were not here to congratulate but to take Li Xu to stay at the Wen family, saying that he, as the son-in-law of the Wen family, should not stay in another’s house.

Li Xu didn’t want to go to the Wen family, but the person who came said that Old Lady Wen had personally instructed to take him back home.

With no other choice, Li Xu had to say goodbye to Chunniang and Mr. Wu, and then he followed the Wen family’s steward onto the donkey cart.

On the third day, the Emperor held a feast in the Imperial Palace, inviting all the scholars who made the list to join the banquet in the palace.

Afterwards, the emperor awarded robes and coronets, and all the scholars, riding tall horses, led by the top three among the first rank, paraded along the royal street with the Imperial Guards clearing the way on both sides.

Jiang Jie, sitting on a horse draped in red silk, wearing a feathered hat, was occasionally showered with flowers and silk handkerchiefs from young girls on either side of the road, feeling rather helplessly amused.

When passing in front of a restaurant, he saw countless flowers and petals falling from above. Looking up, he saw that his elder sister, leading two little maids, was throwing flowers at him, which made him smile.

Everyone turned their gaze to the upstairs of the building, and they saw a banner hanging there, which read: “Four Seasons Fresh Flowers and Fruit Pot Plants, Half Price on the First Day of Opening.”

So it turns out they were selling pot plants; no wonder then.

Looking at the flowers and petals that fell, large and small, brightly colored and seemingly of many varieties, he couldn’t help but marvel.

They were remarkably generous! Almost every scholar had been baptized with these flower petals, and even the Imperial Guards and the citizens received a few pieces landing on their heads.

However, the people who followed the parade got a clear view of the young lady upstairs. She was very beautiful, daintily scattering petals over and over again like a heavenly maiden.

People were drawn to this newly opened shop, and they saw four big characters on the plaque at the entrance: “Jiang’s Pot Plants”.

There were quite a few flower pot plants displayed at the entrance of the shop. A young man in a white robe, around twenty, remarkably handsome, was standing at the entrance, grinning at everyone.

Some people were infected by his smile, walked into the shop and took a look around, they were soon stunned by the various flowers and fruit pot plants inside. When they walked out, they had a pot of peonies or a pot of kumquats in their arms.

With one person buying, several others followed suit. In less than an hour, Jiang Quan had sold over twenty potted plants.

By this time, the parade had fully passed by, but a curious crowd still lingered behind.

Seeing the flower petals scattered all over the ground, despite some being trampled unrecognizably, they could still make out a significant difference.

As a result, more people came into the shop for a look. Upon exiting, nearly half of them had bought potted plants.

Jiang Quan was grinning from ear to ear, working joyfully with the coachman.

By the time Yingbao came down from the upstairs loft with Magnolia and Xinghua, most of the pot plants in the shop had been sold.

She had priced these plants quite high, with each one starting at ten coins. Even with today’s 50% discount, each pot still cost at least five coins.

Surprisingly, they had all been sold!

Beijing was indeed not the same as other cities. There were really a lot of rich people here.

“Yingbao, most of the plants we brought have been sold. Do we need to bring in more?” Jiang Quan asked.

Yingbao shook her head: “No need, it’s already after noon. Let’s close shop as soon as we sell out, put up a ‘sold out’ sign, and bring new ones tomorrow.”

Jiang Quan didn’t quite understand the idea of his younger cousin, but he obeyed anyway. After all, she was so clever that all her decisions had to be right.

Yingbao led Magnolia and Xinghua out the door once again to the pawnshop, expressing her desire to pick some servants.

The Pawnshop Manager recognized this young lady and knew that her brother had just placed third in Top Scholar competition. He immediately responded with a smile, “Just in time, we just received a new batch of good stuff. I’ll show you around.”

The pawnshop also sold official slaves. Recently, a large number of condemned slaves from various regions had been brought to Beijing, many of whom were families and servants of the culprits from the previous dynasty.

Many official families in the city were afraid of being implicated, so they didn’t dare buy too many of these condemned slaves. The occasional customers picking people were only old women from brothels, tile houses, and dance houses.

Yingbao followed the manager to a large courtyard where there were wooden cages on both sides.

Each wooden cage was crowded with people of all ages, including children only a few years old.

Magnolia and Xinghua instinctively shrank back upon seeing these cages, but remembered that they already belonged to the young lady and immediately straightened their chests.

Yingbao said to the manager, “I want two cooks, four boy servants aged around ten, and four maid servants aged between thirteen and eighteen. Appearance doesn’t matter, as long as they are docile.”

“That’s easy, let me pick some for you right away.” The manager ordered an underling to open the wooden door and selected several people.

Yingbao looked them up and down before asking a few questions, “Where are you from? What crime did you commit? Is there anyone left from your family?”

Most of them answered honestly, only two young girls refused to say anything.

Yingbao looked at their hands, which were delicate and covered in grime but hadn’t done much work.

“I don’t want these two. Choose another two.” What she was buying were servants, not ancestors. She didn’t have the time or patience to train arrogant and disrespectful people.

The manager immediately had these two girls dragged back into the cage and was about to make a new selection when a woman in her twenties grabbed the cage bars and said, “Young lady, choose me as your maid. I can read and do embroidery, please choose me.”

On hearing this, Yingbao looked at the woman and nodded, “Okay, come and answer some questions.”

The manager let the woman out, who was shivering and seemed unable to stand steady.

Yingbao asked, “How old are you? What was your status before?”

“I, I am twenty-five years old. I used to be… the daughter of Weng Wanzhang, the Minister of Personnel Affairs. Because my father committed a crime, I was demoted to be a slave.” She muttered in a low voice, tears welling up in her eyes.