Seeing that Hao Cheng took it to heart, Jiang Mengzhen's expression softened: "It's not that I want to interfere with your friendships, but if you have no interest in the young master. Even if he doesn't have that idea, it's best not to have any contact with him. People's words are scary, we can't get into trouble for no reason."
Hao Cheng nodded. What he said made sense. Although the restrictions between men and women in Jin were not very strict, they were definitely far from the modern society she had lived in. She might not have considered so much at first. Even for the sake of the reputation of the young master of the Qiao family, she should have stayed away from him.
Jiang Mengzhen's tone became softer and softer: "It's good that you know. I was thinking that the exam in Mingzhou City is only ten days away. We don't have to work hard, but it's better to study hard for a few days."
Hao Cheng said, "I know this. I have already handed over all the restaurant affairs to Manager Bai. I review the accounts once a month and only send a letter every seven days. If you hadn't sent me a letter in the past few days, I wouldn't have gone out so often."
In fact, if Qiao Yu hadn't made trouble, she would have been studying hard at home during this period, and the foundation of being a scholar was very good. When Hao Cheng was reviewing and studying those books, her memories of reading often emerged in her mind. She was able to remember those materials so quickly, and most of it was due to the original owner.
For this reason, she also enshrined the spirit tablets of the original owner's parents in her residence, and set up a small mourning hall in a small house to worship the other person's parents, which was considered to be a filial act on behalf of the original owner.
She paused, and then continued, "You said before that you would settle in the capital after I finished the provincial exam. I thought about it and decided to set the date after the exam. What do you think?"
Jin had a developed business and did not strictly monitor the household registration of the people. As long as one had an identity document and could prove that one had lived in the local area for one year and had a fixed residence, one could be registered as a local resident.
Unlike the previous dynasty, there was a mandatory requirement for the people not to transfer their household registration, otherwise they would be considered unregistered vagrants. If they accidentally did some small business that was allowed to ordinary people but not allowed to be done by vagrants, they would be sentenced to prison.
Jiang Mengzhen observed her expression carefully: "If you like Mingzhou City more, it's not impossible for us to stay here."
Hao Cheng shook his head: "Mingzhou City or Beijing are both foreign places to me. It's the same wherever I go. If I can pass the imperial examination, I will also have to take the imperial examination in Beijing. I'd better settle down in Beijing then."
Jiang Mengzhen naturally didn't want to stay in Mingzhou City, but Hao Cheng accommodated him a lot, so he would naturally be willing to think more about her and make some concessions on such matters. But since she said so, he would not refuse again.
Jiang Mengzhen only thought that Hao Cheng was away from Xinghua Village, and Mingzhou City and Beijing were both foreign places. But for Hao Cheng, whether it was Xinghua Village or somewhere else, it was the same to her. However, she planned to never tell anyone that she was from another world. Honesty is a virtue, but excessive honesty seems a bit silly.
While they were expressing their love to each other, Manager Bai was sweating as he looked at the Qiao siblings in the restaurant. Hao Cheng didn't push Qiao Mu very hard, and the other party only stumbled a few steps before leaning against the wall. She was definitely not injured, but her action brought more than a little humiliation to Qiao Yu.
It would have been fine if it was just Qiao Yu, but Qiao Mu was there at the time. Hao Cheng ran too fast to catch up with Jiang Mengzhen. Hao Cheng had already gone out, but she still hadn't reacted.
When she reacted, she saw her brother leaning against the wall, looking dazed as if he had been stimulated by something.
Qiao Mu was extremely distressed at the moment. This was the apple of their Qiao family's eye. It was not easy for their father to give birth to Qiao Yu. Because they encountered robbers on the way, Qiao's father was traumatized. Although the soldiers arrived in time, Qiao Yu was still born two months early.
She still remembered that when he was born, he was as weak as a kitten. She looked at such a small ball and was worried that Qiao Yu would not be able to raise him. She was determined to protect this little brother.
Later, Qiao Yu grew up healthy and was still the treasure of the Qiao family. Even though he was a little spoiled, they were happy to spoil him. After all, Qiao Yu was kind and even though he was a little lively, he would not hurt any small animals.
He had been in a bad mood recently because of his teenage excitement and the failure of his relationship. She was angry and blamed him this time because Qiao Yu had provoked someone he shouldn't have provoked.
But no matter how angry she was, he was still her brother. She could get angry, but Hao Cheng, an outsider, could not. Hao Cheng dared to push her beloved brother, whom she was reluctant to touch, with such force.
She took a step forward and asked nervously, "Are you hurt somewhere?"
Qiao Yu came back to his senses and shook his head: "I'm fine, but she chased out just now, was it for her lover?"
He looked a little listless, not as lively as before at all.
How could Qiao Mu know this, but judging from his expression just now, it was probably true. Qiao Yu had been very noisy because she liked another person before, and she didn't know if her brother had fallen in love with her now: "I'm not sure, but Hao Cheng did say that she has someone she likes."
If Hao Cheng had rejected her proposal that day, she would never have told Qiao Yu a word of it.
Qiao Yu only murmured, "That's right, I understand."
Seeing him like this, Qiao Mu didn't want to ask what he was thinking. He just pulled him and said, "Come back with me first. We can talk about anything at home." Although there were few people on the third floor, there were still guests. As a member of the Qiao family, he couldn't let others see him as a joke.
Qiao Mu dragged Qiao Yu away that day, and the next day rumors spread that Qiao Yu was abandoned and shameless. Qiao Mu and the rest of the Qiao family kept it a secret from the frightened Qiao Yu, and dealt with the person who spread the rumor very efficiently.
They investigated the person behind this, but later found out that it was the daughter of the Sun family who had an argument with Qiao Yu that day. After finally calming down the rumors, the Qiao family began to settle accounts with the culprit who made Qiao Yu so distraught.
The scholar must be dealt with. The Qiao family tried to find out Qiao Yu's feelings indirectly, but he just said that he had no interest in Hao Cheng. Since he couldn't become Qiao Yu's wife, the Qiao family couldn't let Hao Cheng go.
How could Jiang Mengzhen not know that the Qiao family had interfered in Hao Cheng's affairs? He came here to solve the Qiao family's affairs. For Hao Cheng, he made sufficient preparations and brought a lot of people who were used to working in Beijing.
Hao Cheng had no idea what Jiang Mengzhen was doing behind the scenes. She was a very honest person, and since they had agreed to let Jiang Mengzhen handle everything, she would not ask anything.
What's more, with Jiang Mengzhen around, she already has enough distractions and has no energy to care about irrelevant people.
It is said that a short separation is better than a new marriage. As long as Jiang Mengzhen is around, Hao Cheng can't read books and only cares about him. Jiang Mengzhen is more ruthless. In order for Hao Cheng to concentrate on reviewing, he doesn't do those things to avoid disturbing Hao Cheng's mind.
Although he couldn't see his lover all the time, compared to the previous time when they could only write letters to express their love to each other, the present time when he could see his lover as soon as he left the study was enough to satisfy Hao Cheng.
After all, she and Jiang Mengzhen are in the sweet period of their love now. Even if they do nothing and just look at each other, they feel very sweet.
While Hao Cheng was studying peacefully, the Qiao family was in turmoil. The scholar that Qiao Yu had taken a fancy to was easy to deal with. He was extremely poor and pretended to be noble. They didn't need to do anything to make him live a bad life.
But as for Hao Cheng's last point, Qiao Mu originally wanted to start with the restaurant that Hao Cheng had invested a lot of effort in. After all, for the Qiao family, losing the income from this restaurant would not be a big loss.
Moreover, Qiao Mu was the owner of the restaurant, so it was easy for him to cause trouble. However, he ran into trouble after the first step of the plan.
The managers of several places in the restaurant were all introduced by Hao Cheng, who said that they were introduced by another big boss of the restaurant. On weekdays, when Hao Cheng was around, he would give them some face.
This time, she didn't know what was going on. She wanted to ask something, but the other party either played Tai Chi or refused. Qiao Mu was annoyed at the time: "I am the owner of this restaurant, how can I not look at this account book? You are so bold!"
Manager Bai usually cowered like a mouse, which Qiao Mu looked down upon. But now he straightened his back and said, "We usually treat Miss Qiao politely because you are a friend of the Hao family. The account book can only be shown to the Hao family, and naturally cannot be handed over to you."
Qiao Mu said angrily: "Don't you understand what I'm saying? Didn't I just say that I'm also the owner of this restaurant?"
But Manager Bai put on a puzzled look and said, "Didn't our boss return the money for buying the land deed to you in some other way? I don't know when you became the boss of this mansion."
Qiao Mu then remembered what she had said to Hao Cheng before. She did ask Hao Cheng to take care of Qiao Yu, and that would mean that her share would be completely given to Hao Cheng. But how did Manager Bai know this
Qiao Mu was different from her elder sister. If the latter encountered this, she would probably smash the restaurant on the spot. She was always good at forbearance and was also concerned about her face and the good reputation of the Qiao family. Her eyes flashed and she retreated. She went to Hao Cheng's residence to find Hao Cheng directly, but was stopped again.
As soon as Qiao Mu left, Manager Bai sent someone to Jiang Mengzhen and repeated the scene and conversation word for word.
Jiang Mengzhen nodded after listening: "I will handle this matter. If there are more Qiao family members coming next time, they will be kicked out of the restaurant directly."
That day, Qiao Mu left the restaurant and was stopped at Hao Cheng's residence. She went to find the person who rented the house to Hao Cheng and threatened and bribed him to kick Hao Cheng out. They would naturally settle the penalty. As a result, the man trembled and said, "The house has been sold a long time ago. The owner is a man named Jiang. He said he came from the capital. Now the house deed is not with me."
Qiao Mu's face turned livid, and she frightened the original owner of the house so much that he dared not say a word. The day after she was turned away, someone came to Hao Cheng's Ruyi Restaurant to cause trouble, saying that they had eaten something from Ruyi Restaurant and killed someone in their family.
As a result, the trouble was exposed on the spot. Of course, the situation at that time was not so easy to resolve, and it could even be said to be full of twists and turns. However, this matter was also kept secret. Hao Cheng heard a few words from Dong Xue and asked about it during dinner. Jiang Mengzhen just brushed it off lightly: "It's just a small trouble. Manager Bai has solved the problem. It's not worth your distraction. You have an exam in three days, so just study with peace of mind."
Since he said so, Hao Cheng didn't deliberately ask about it. She read books for three consecutive days, flipped through the information Jiang Mengzhen gave her several times, and prepared to go to the examination room.
Jiang Mengzhen only sent her to the door, and stood on the high steps and said: "I still have some things to deal with, just go to the exam with peace of mind." He would always protect her things. Whether it was the restaurant or the ranking that Hao Cheng deserved. He was just the mayor of Mingzhou City, but a fifth-rank official, and he didn't have the ability to ruin Hao Cheng's future under his hands.
Hao Cheng nodded, and while no one was around, he tiptoed slightly and kissed her directly, asking for a lucky kiss: "I'm so lucky, I will definitely pass."
After the kiss, Hao Cheng felt satisfied. He got into the carriage with very brisk steps, waved to Jiang Mengzhen, and lowered the curtain.
Jiang Mengzhen was still a little dizzy from the kiss. When he came to his senses, Hao Cheng's carriage had been driven more than ten meters away by the coachwoman.
He took two steps, and even though Hao Cheng couldn't see him, he kept smiling and watching her leave. The person he admired was naturally pleasing to the eye. When Hao Cheng's carriage was out of his sight, he turned around and walked towards the carriage that had already parked at the side door.
Jiang Mengzhen restrained the tenderness on his face, was helped to get on the carriage, and then got in and lowered the curtain. His tone was much colder than when he talked to Hao Cheng before, just like the ice chips hanging under the eaves in the dog days of summer. He ordered: "Drive, go to the Jiedushi Mansion."