Chapter 169

In the new room, Cui Fei lifted the red veil covering the bride’s face, and the joyous matchmaker spoke a basketful of auspicious words.

Outside, the evening banquet began.

Cui Fei didn’t stay long and came out to entertain the guests.

As the groom, he first went to the banquet hall for the female guests to toast.

There were still many unmarried girls among the female guests.

Since others couldn’t accompany him over, Mu Er Pang was the most suitable candidate to follow him and help him with the wine jug.

He hadn’t seen Shen Cui all day, so when Cui Fei was chatting and toasting at the main table, Mu Er Pang went to Shen Cui’s side and asked her, “What did you do today, Mother? Are you bored?”

Shen Cui smiled and said she wasn’t bored. “Many Sister accompanied me all day, and we even went to listen to a play in the afternoon. I didn’t feel bored at all.”

Mu Er Pang glanced at the bone plates in front of Shen Cui, which the maids hadn’t had time to take away.

Seeing many small bones on top, he knew Shen Cui was indeed eating well, so he felt relieved.

Seeing this, the other female guests at the main table laughed and said, “Is this your fourteen-year-old little scholar? You said earlier that your son only knows how to study, but it seems he’s more filial and considerate than many adults!”

Just as they were speaking, an older woman finished Cui Fei’s toast.

Since she had already drunk quite a bit before, she smiled tipsily and said, “What a handsome little brother you have! He’s really well-bred. In a few more years, with just this face, who knows how many girls’ hearts will secretly taken by this little guy.”

After she said this, a younger relative beside the middle-aged woman pulled her sleeve and looked apologetically at Shen Cui. “My mother is like this after drinking too much. Please don’t take offense.”

If other young people of this age heard such words, they would definitely feel embarrassed.

But Mu Er Pang only understood it as the other party praising his good looks, so he smiled generously and said, “Thank you for your praise.”

The other party didn’t expect this response.

Just as they were slightly surprised, the joyous matchmaker finished arranging Sun Ruowei and brought out many peanuts and longans from inside.

After these peanuts and longans were arranged in the bridal room and distributed to everyone, it was considered to bring joy and to wish for the birth of a noble child.

With this distraction, everyone let the newlyweds’ younger generation catch the peanuts and longans.

The joyous matchmaker happily distributed things to everyone and walked to Mu Er Pang’s side, asking him with a smile, “Young Master, would you like to catch some too?”

The joyous matchmaker was just teasing Mu Er Pang because she thought he looked good.

If it were another young master from a different family, they would surely blush deeply from such teasing.

Mu Er Pang wasn’t foolish either.

Seeing that it was mostly young women who were going to catch the items, he guessed it was just a gesture of goodwill.

So, he honestly shook his head and said, “You can give them out. I don’t need them for now.”

“Ha…” It’s unclear who started laughing first, but everyone burst into laughter.

Just as Cui Fei finished toasting at the main table, Shen Cui urged him to follow along quickly.

“Sister Shen was right. Your son hasn’t matured in that aspect yet, so there’s really no rush for a betrothal!”

“Yeah, I was thinking before that Sister Shen had high standards and wanted to wait until later… But now, seeing it firsthand, she really wasn’t exaggerating at all.”

Shen Cui smiled helplessly.

But after this incident, she no longer needed Cui Wu Niang to help deflect conversations.

People stopped talking about betrothals and instead focused on asking her how she raised such a respectful and filial son.

The wedding banquet continued until just before curfew, and Shen Cui led the group back to the academy.

Lao Buyu, who had only been drinking a bit of fruit wine in recent years, finally had a proper excuse to drink and ended up getting quite drunk.

Without Shen Cui needing to instruct, Mu Er Pang and Mei Ruo Chu divided the tasks themselves.

Some were responsible for boiling water for tea, while others were responsible for finding clean clothes for Lao Buyu.

Afterward, everyone rested on their own.

On the third day after Cui Fei’s marriage, he accompanied Sun Ruowei back to her family’s home in the morning, reported to the prefectural school in the afternoon, and returned to Cuiwei Academy in the evening.

Shen Cui was a bit surprised to see him coming back, after all, newlyweds are usually inseparable, especially since Cui Fei and Sun Ruowei were deeply in love, their relationship was even better than ordinary couples nowadays.

However, Cui Fei said it was Sun Ruowei who encouraged him to come to the academy early, saying that as a married couple, they would have plenty of time together in the future, and now was the time to focus on studying.

When he mentioned Sun Ruowei, there was genuine joy in his eyes and smile.

But when it came time to study, Shen Cui watched his focus, and she found that he wasn’t distracted, so she relaxed.

After a few days, on the day of rest at the prefectural school, Cui Fei returned home directly after class the day before.

The others continued with their usual routine, studying in the academy.

Shen Cui’s daily routine included inspecting the classrooms, so she stood up and walked to each person’s desk.

She did this occasionally, so everyone was used to it and continued with their tasks.

When she reached Mei Ruo Chu’s side, Shen Cui noticed he wasn’t reading or writing poetry or essays but doing something else.

Mei Ruo Chu often took on tasks from poetry societies or bookstores to earn some money on the side, and he had high talent and discretion.

Taking on these tasks didn’t affect his regular studies, so Shen Cui was accustomed to it.

Today, however, she couldn’t help but glance at him a few more times because Mei Ruo Chu had a pomegranate-red book cover beside him, and what he was writing was exactly the script based on “The Rouge Immortal” that Shen Cui had mentioned to Cui Wu Niang at the wedding banquet!

Noticing Shen Cui standing by his side for a while,

Mei Ruo Chu explained softly, “The bookstore owned by Ah Fei’s family is the one I collaborate with the most. Early this morning, I went to deliver the copied books and happened to hear the shopkeeper say they were looking for someone to adapt a script from a storybook. They had hired a few ordinary scholars for daily tasks before, but the master of the Cui family wasn’t quite satisfied. Although I haven’t written a script before, when I was young, my mother loved listening to operas, and I listened to many with her. So, I decided to take on this task.”

Shen Cui wasn’t surprised by this process, but she didn’t expect that, after all the twists and turns, it would still be someone from the academy who took on this task.

However, having this task in Mei Ruo Chu’s hands, even though he said he was just trying it out, Shen Cui had great confidence in him.

She believed he would do well.

After explaining, Mei Ruo Chu handed the book cover in front of him to Shen Cui and said, “I’ve finished reading this script. I have to say, no wonder the master of the Cui family values it so much. It’s indeed very innovative. I remember Headmaster Shen used to love reading storybooks, but he hasn’t read much in recent years. Do you want to take a look too? After I’ve gone through it once, I remember it all in my mind, so you won’t need to refer to it constantly when writing the script.”

Shen Cui quickly declined, thinking it would be better to tell Mei Ruo Chu that she wrote the script herself. But then Mei Ruo Chu continued, “Well, considering how close the master of the Cui family is with Headmaster Shen, I suppose she must have shown it to you already. Although this script may not have extraordinary literary flair, it’s easy to understand and full of imaginative ideas. There are also many lessons about life and society in it, which are very insightful. This ‘Fragrant Grass Wanderer’, judging by the name, should be a woman. It’s not easy for women nowadays, but her insights are truly admirable…”

Mei Ruo Chu’s praises made Shen Cui swallow back the words she was about to say—she felt a bit embarrassed to admit it!

In just ten days, Mei Ruo Chu completed the script in his spare time and handed it over.

As Shen Cui expected, Mei Ruo Chu’s talent in adapting a script was more than enough.

Cui Wu Niang was very satisfied, and after paying him ten taels of silver, she immediately took the script to negotiate with the theater troupes.

It must be said that the script, with its exquisite wording and excellent singing segments, added much color to the story itself—some troupes were initially not interested in the original story, but after reading the script, they changed their minds and were willing to collaborate.

Originally, Cui Wu Niang was thinking of offering some “advertising fees” as Shen Cui suggested to persuade them, but realizing the change in attitude, she not only didn’t spend money but also made a small profit.

Finally, Cui Wu Niang chose to collaborate with a prominent theater troupe in the prefectural city.

The troupe needed time to rehearse and make costumes, so there were no visible results for the time being.

This incident made Cui Wu Niang smell a new business opportunity.

While the play was not yet staged, she ordered more popular books from the bookstore and gave them to Mei Ruo Chu for adaptation.

With this, Mei Ruo Chu quickly became financially comfortable.

In the blink of an eye, winter arrived. Cui Wu Niang wrote to Shen Cui, saying that the theater troupe had given her assurance that the play would be almost ready before the New Year, just in time for the Lunar New Year performance.

During this time, Shen Cui also finished writing the sequel and sent it along with her reply to Cui Wu Niang, letting her decide when to let her sister-in-law’s from the Sun family read it.

After finishing her tasks, Mei Ruo Chu also stopped his sideline activities because the annual examination was approaching.

Since everyone knew this was the last examination presided over by Liu Xuezheng, the atmosphere in the prefectural school was not as tense.

Mu Er Pang and Shen Ao Shuang, among others of their cohort, joined the ranks of the older students after a new batch of freshmen entered the prefectural school not long ago, and they began to occasionally guide the new students.

This year, Liu Xuezheng finally showed some kindness and didn’t play any tricks in the exam questions.

The poetry question was just a phrase taken from the Four Books.

With such a simple topic, there were no cases of misinterpreting the question or struggling to find its origin, so the exam truly tested the students’ real abilities.

Mei Ruo Chu still secured the first place, Wei Xi achieved the second place this time, Mu Er Pang the third, and Shen Ao Shuang the fourth. Wei Shu also made some progress and ranked tenth.

Cui Fei became more diligent after his marriage, and he performed exceptionally well this time, just managing to enter the top ten in second group.

After the results were announced, there was an atmosphere of jubilation in the prefectural school.

Even the scholars who didn’t pass the first class were tearful with joy, saying, “Three years, it’s been three years!”

No need to say more, their meaning was clear—they had finally endured through Liu Xuezheng’s tenure!

Many shared the same sentiment, and after checking their results, as long as they didn’t perform too poorly, they made plans to celebrate.

Even before the New Year, Mu Er Pang distinctly felt that there were fewer people in the classroom—many had taken early leave to go home for the New Year.

Although Mu Er Pang had silently criticized Liu Xuezheng for his narrow-minded exam questions, seeming deliberately troublesome.

But it must be said, with him overseeing, the atmosphere of study in the prefectural school remained intense throughout the year.

Now that his term was coming to an end, many people felt a great relief and began to reveal their true colors.

Certainly, none of the youths in Cui Wei were like this.

They continued attending classes and studying diligently as usual.

The provincial examination was just around the corner— who would dare to slack off at such a crucial time?