Opportunities are always reserved for those who are prepared. Since the Emperor has already told Du Haoran not to let him help with the mine gamble, the position of the crown prince has been settled. The winner will be king and the loser will be a bandit, the second prince will not give the eldest prince a chance to breathe, and he will come to the south to fight with the Nie family for the right to the jade mine at some point. And she must open her design workshop before the two factions start fighting.

  Only when she has made achievements and gained a certain amount of capital will she have the qualifications to discuss terms with the Northern faction and cooperate with them - note, it's cooperation, not subordination. She wants to be like Du Haoran, becoming a transcendent collaborator who cooperates with the next ruler of this country. The prerequisite is that she must make achievements that attract attention.

  So she is now going to work hard towards that goal.

  She found time to tell her mother after dinner last night that she wanted to use the house left vacant after her marriage to take in apprentices. The mansion in Qingyun Alley was originally bought by Ye Zhuo with his own money, and Zheng Manwen had never thought of occupying it alone, and had even said before that he would return the mansion to the Ye family's main house. Last night, after hearing Ye Zhuo's words, she naturally agreed without hesitation.

  Then Ye Zhuo also told Ye Yuqi and Guan Shi about this matter, at that time Qiuyue was also on the side, knowing this matter, only then did she say what she said earlier.

  "Just move things over there a bit and make some space for people to sit, that's all." Ye Zhuo said after taking a look inside the storage room.

  Mr. Guan said a few words and drove Ye Yu Zhang and his wife away. Seeing Ye Zhuo was about to clean the house, he hurried over: "It's better to clean up properly. This house used to be uninhabited, and there is a lot of accumulated dust. If you don't clean it up properly, people can't even sit down."

  "This house is only used for a dozen or so days. Usually, the children can study in the courtyard, and they only come in when it rains. And if there's no one at home, they can also study in the hall. This place is just occasionally used, no need to bother cleaning up. Just move these few things over there." Ye Zhuo didn't want his own idea to bring big trouble to his family.

  "It won't take long, just a moment. You go back to your room and practice your jade carving, don't worry about things here." But Guan's wife didn't listen and instead chased her away.

  Ye Zhuo had no choice but to shut his mouth and say nothing, obediently returning to his room.

  The Ye family had lived in this house for decades, accumulating many useless items that they didn't want to throw away. They ended up piling them all up in the storage room. Yu Jie, Qiu Yue and Qiu Ju worked busily for an hour before finally clearing out the storage room and sweeping it clean. Then Guan Shi called a junk collector to take away the useless items.

  "Is the stuff cleared out?" At this time, Ye Yuqi also returned from the workshop, with two men following behind him. He pointed to the two men and said: "These two are master masons, once it's cleared out, have them pick up the tiles and apply a layer of mortar to the wall."

  Yue Zhuo heard the voice and quickly ran out of the house: "No need, grandfather, I'll only be using it for over a dozen days, just tidy up the place and that's all."

  "Spring rain is plentiful. What's the use of a leaky house? Besides, this whitewash makes the walls look brighter. You'll feel more comfortable using it too. Don't worry about the cost, it won't be much. Just go back to your room."

  "Yes, it's very dusty here, don't keep running out, you're in the way." Guan also pushed Ye Zhuo towards the direction of the house.

  Ye Zhuo could only shrug and return to her room once again. Her heart felt warm at the same time, but also a little regretful, she shouldn't have said that about using the storage room. It caused everyone in the house to be busy for a while.

  The newly renovated storage room was spotless. Ye Yu had even bought two new sets of tables and chairs, which she placed inside. When Ye Zhuo saw them, she decided to mention it to Tang Shun Gui and Wei Da Xiang, suggesting that they take a look at the children of the cart drivers and see if any were suitable for learning jade carving, so she could test them out. Originally, she had planned to start by taking in only the children from the Tang and Wei families, waiting until Zheng Man Wen got married and had her own place before taking on more disciples. But now that they had a place, she might as well take in a batch of students at once.

  As autumn moon and autumn chrysanthemum were busy, Ye Zhuo was about to go out in person to tell Tang Shun Gui or Wei Da Xiang about this matter. However, Guan Shi stopped her and said: "Zhuo Er, when you first mentioned inviting Tang Shun Gui's third son over for a joint examination, I thought his family had only San Hu and Si Hu of suitable age, so I didn't say anything. But if you want to recruit children from other cart driver families, you'll have to lower the age limit. The oldest should be ten years old at most. You're only sixteen yourself, and taking on a twelve-year-old apprentice will invite gossip."

  Ye Zhuo was taken aback, only then remembering that she was no longer her past self, but a sixteen-year-old who wasn't even fully grown yet. At her age, taking on a twelve-year-old boy as an apprentice really wasn't suitable. A twelve-year-old boy, if he developed early, would be almost like an adult. Staying in the same room with him was indeed not suitable. Originally, she had only thought about being older and being able to leave the master's house earlier, without considering this issue.

  "Hmm, you're right, I didn't think of that at first, luckily you reminded me." Ye Zhuo smiled and patted Guan's arm, then headed out.

  "Hey, wait a minute, I'll go, you stay home and wait." Guan Shi called out to her again, quickly walking away, as if afraid Ye Zhuo would compete with her for the opportunity to leave.

  Ye Zhuo had a clever mind and understood the situation as soon as he saw Guan Shi's expression, so he didn't argue and let Guan Shi go.

  She originally won the competition against Nie Bao Yi and was taken in by the Nie family as a personal disciple of Master Nie, which caused a huge commotion and everyone knew about it. However, just a few days later, she was brought back home by her family, looking ill, and planned to stay at home for an extended period, not returning to the Nie residence. This news would likely cause another stir among the people of Nanshan Town, who had just calmed down. At this point, it's likely that people were saying all sorts of things about her. This can be seen from the fact that Tang Shun Gui and Wei Da Xiang came in but didn't ask anything.

  So Guan didn't want to let her out, fearing that she would be stopped by those gossipy women and asked questions, or hear some rumors that would hurt her heart. Her obstruction was just like cleaning up the messy room, full of thick love and care. Ye Zhuo didn't mind those rumors, but couldn't bear to disappoint her either.

  Guan returned after a short while, with a big smile on her face. Ye Yukei was following behind her.

  "What's this, Grandfather? Didn't you just go to the workshop? How did you get back so soon?" Ye Zhuoqi said, walking forward to support Ye Yuqi as he headed into the hall, and also calling out for Qiu Yue to bring tea.

  "Ah, something's come up and I'm back." Ye Yuke walked into the hall, sat down, and took a sip of tea that Qiuyue had brought over.

  Guan looked at him disapprovingly, glaring at him: "Don't be pretentious." Turning to Ye Zhuo, he said, "These past two days since you returned, people on the street who know about it have been discussing it nonstop. They all say that you must have done something wrong and were kicked out by the Nie family. Your grandfather was furious when he heard about it, but there's nothing he can do. However, just now, the steward of the Nie family estate personally brought several servants to deliver five exceptional raw jade stones to the Jade Carving Workshop. He said that Master Nie instructed him to say that since you're not feeling well and need to rest at home, he's afraid you'll get bored, so the raw jade stones are a gift for you to play with. He also said that if the Ye family needs any help with anything, just let them know, and the Nie family will definitely lend their full support."

  Yue Yuqi put down his teacup, sneered and said: "Zhu'er, you haven't seen the faces of those people. For the past two days, they've been avoiding me, pretending not to hear when I greet them. But today, when they saw An's steward delivering the original stone, their attitude changed, speaking politely and fawningly. Those people's faces immediately changed, being extremely affectionate towards me, calling me brother and treating me with respect. In just a short while, I received over ten invitations to dinner and tea. Alas, how worldly and cold-blooded people are!

  "What did you do with those five pieces of raw jade?" asked Ye Zhuo.

  "Don't worry, Zhu'er. Although Grandfather is old and stubborn, he's not yet rigid and unable to adapt. The Nie family's move can only bring benefits, not harm, to us. Grandfather won't push away the original stone just to win an argument, allowing those people to tarnish your reputation even more. Besides, if we don't accept the original stone, we'll be slapping Nie Lao Ye in the face, and who knows what despicable means they'll use against us? Grandfather isn't senile yet."

  "Hmph, we suffered such a great loss because of his daughter's body, isn't it right that he should offer some raw jade as compensation? In my opinion, you should accept." Guan Shi said from the side.

  "But would he be so kind as to help us clear our name, now that this matter has affected our reputation?" she asked doubtfully.

  "Probably worried that we'd pity our granddaughter and couldn't help but reveal the truth, ruining their family's reputation? Besides, haven't you seen people from the Nie family constantly visiting Du Gongzi's new residence these past two days? I'm afraid it's probably because Du Gongzi spoke up for us that they're acting this way."

  "Mr. Du is really a good man!" sighed Guan.

  Ye nodded in agreement, turned his head and asked Ye Zhuo: "Zhuo'er, will Du Gongzi's repeated refusal of Nie's family bring about a fatal disaster?"

  Although he lived to be fifty or sixty years old, he felt that he was far inferior to his granddaughter, who was not yet sixteen years old, in handling things. When something happened, he had gotten into the habit of asking Ye Zhuo for advice.

  "It's all right, don't worry," Ye Zhuo said with a smile. With Du Haoran's intelligence, he would definitely grasp the degree of refusal from Nie's family, neither getting entangled with them again nor offending them too much. So his safety shouldn't be a concern. Besides, someone who can receive a secret imperial decree wouldn't have a simple background, right? Even if he was really born into a commoner family, he might still be one of the new nobles in the capital, close to the emperor himself.

  When they heard Yezhuo say no, both elderly people let out a sigh of relief and put their minds at ease.

  "Du Gongzi, where is he living now? How did you know that the Nie family's people went to look for him?" Ye Zhuo couldn't help but ask.

  Ye Yuqi exchanged a glance with Guan's family and smiled.

  They had been paying close attention to men of similar age since they took over the Ye family. This Du Haoran, they were very pleased with him and hoped he could become their grandson-in-law. Although it was hindered by the existence of the Nie family's daughter, this marriage could not be accomplished for the time being. But what about in the future? According to Ye Zhuo's analysis, the second prince who supported the Northern faction would soon become the crown prince, and perhaps the Nie family would be suppressed. Ye Zhuo was only sixteen years old, and even if they waited a year or two before getting married, it wouldn't be too late. As long as the two young people had this intention, they might still have a chance to get married one day.

  So they are still very willing to let Ye Zhuo and Du Haoran have more contact with each other.

  Thank you, Guang Han Gong Zhu A, for the peace charm and the pink ticket from Baby Xiao Yatou!