Yang Province, Sheng Residence.
The servant who had returned with the letters came shouting through the gates.
"The son-in-law took first place in the metropolitan examination! The son-in-law took first place in the metropolitan examination!"
At that shout, the Sheng Residence erupted with activity, and a great crowd poured out from the rear courtyard.
Wang hurried over and asked anxiously, "Did he truly take first place?"
"Madam, how would this lowly servant dare lie about something so important? The son-in-law was quite the sight in Bianjing. He lived at the Sheng Family residence with Fan Chunren and Feng Jing. In the end, the son-in-law took first place, Feng Jing second, and Fan Chunren third. When this servant left the capital with the letters, prominent figures from all over Bianjing were gathered outside the residence, inviting the son-in-law and the others to banquets. But not one of them went. They turned them all down."
This servant had accompanied Sheng Changbai to the capital and had lived quite comfortably under the son-in-law's wing. As he spoke of it, he practically glowed with pride, as though he himself had refused those invitations.
Wang immediately asked, "What did the son-in-law say?"
"That, this servant does not know. But I was sent back specifically to deliver letters, so the son-in-law surely explained everything clearly in them. This one is for the master, and this one is for Eldest Miss. These are the young master's letters, though he also wrote one to Madam."
The servant pulled a thick stack of letters from his pouch. Before Wang could take them, Hualan stepped forward and snatched them up first. She quickly sorted through them, found the letters Wang Yan and Changbai had written to her, then handed the rest to Wang. With a mischievous grin at her mother,