Remarrying Chun Yuan

Chapter 419: Tricks

"What are you thinking, Father? Why are you getting more and more cunning as you get older? You are the Vice Minister of Rites!" As soon as Li Chengyue heard Vice Minister Li's words, he knew that his father was plotting something.

Liu Yuechu didn't quite understand, but upon hearing Li Chengyue's words, her face instantly turned bright red. She complained, half-laughing and half-crying, "What kind of person do you think I am, Uncle? Even if I wanted to have an affair, I wouldn't go to a carving master, would I?!"

"Cough cough..."

Li Shilang coughed twice, not expecting that his son would expose him without saying a word when he made a probing question.

Who would undermine someone like that?

"I just feel that for a carving craftsman, you've gone to such great lengths and even mysteriously invited me here. This person must be someone extraordinary," Minister Li explained, admitting his doubts.

What kind of master craftsman would be worthy of Liu Yuechu's intervention?

Liu Yuechu glanced at Li Chengyue, considering whether to tell him the truth.

But Li Chengyue was very serious, constantly winking and making faces, not allowing her to tell the truth.

"His identity is indeed complicated, but it's not what you think..."

"Alright, alright, I won't ask any more questions. What's his name?" Minister Li said. "The rankings have been announced today, but the official copying hasn't been done yet. Tell me quickly so I can go back and make preparations. Maybe it's still in time."

Although there are rankings, they have not yet been included in the published list.

Liu Yuechu immediately said, "Call him Xu Lang."

"Xu Lang?" Vice Minister Li thought carefully and realized that it was not an eye-catching name.

He summoned his old servant in, "Do you remember a craftsman named Xu Lang?"

"I remember, he was number two hundred and seventy-third." The old servant had followed Minister Li for many years and had an exceptionally good memory, basically remembering everything he saw.

Minister Li sighed, "Did you hear that? You don't need to bribe me privately anymore, this person is already on the list."

Liu Yuechu was quite surprised. She was ranked over 600th last time, but she was able to enter the top 300 after only half a month.

"Could there be duplicate names?" She looked directly at the old servant.

The servant shook his head. "There are people with the same name, but there is only one Xu Lang."

Liu Yuechu let out a hiss, then looked at Li Chengyue.

Li Chengyue was also somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected this silly girl to actually have some skills.

“Although she passed this time, there will be another time, and a final competition. Just remember this name and make sure she makes it into the top 100.” Li Chengyue stated his request directly to avoid making it difficult for Liu Yuechu to speak up.

Vice Minister Li has always adhered to established rules and never tampered with such matters.

“He has already ranked in the top 300. If his skills are excellent, he will not lack food in the future. You don’t need to worry about him.”

“Actually, working for the emperor is not necessarily a good thing. Look at the people in the Shanggong Bureau. They are punished by their masters at the drop of a hat. If I knew them, I would definitely advise them to stop once they are in the top two hundred and find another job.”

“Father is right. Let’s take it one step at a time. Anyway, there are still two weeks until the next competition. Maybe he can excel in these two weeks and win the championship.” Li Chengyue always believed that there was always a way out. At worst, he could just ask his father to come out for dinner in two weeks.

But Liu Yuechu was used to planning ahead, so who knew what changes might occur in half a month?

A sly glint flashed in her eyes, and she still betrayed Li Chengyue, "Actually, this person isn't really one of my people; it was Brother Chengyue who begged me."

"He saved this person's life, but fearing that your household would misunderstand, he dared not take him back, so he sent him to the Liu family instead."

“My sister-in-law brought this person over again. I thought to myself, I can’t just ignore what’s going on with Brother Chengyue, so I arranged for this person to participate in the carving competition.”

……

Her words were ambiguous and pointed.

As expected, after hearing this, Vice Minister Li stood up abruptly, pointed at Li Chengyue, and cursed tremblingly, "You, no wonder you're so old and still not married! You've rejected so many girls from the manor!"

"So you actually have such a fetish! You've completely disgraced your ancestors! I should just beat you to death with a stick!"

Enraged, Vice Minister Li picked up a cup, bowl, and chopsticks and threw them at him. Li Chengyue ran away with his head in his hands.

"Don't listen to her nonsense, she's deliberately not telling the whole story!"

"That wasn't a man at all, it was a girl!"

"Ouch, that hurts so much! I have to see His Majesty this afternoon, and you've ruined my face!"

Li Shilang threw for a long time, finally unable to throw any more, and then sat down. But even sitting down, he couldn't calm down. "What girl? Don't try to fool me with that. What girl is participating in the carving competition? You've even started making up such lies!"

"What am I making up? She's a girl, and Xu Shan's daughter at that." Li Chengyue glared at Liu Yuechu with great dissatisfaction and simply told the truth, "Xu Shan has a mentally challenged son, as you know. He himself is a 'rabbit man' and can't have any more children. In order to let his mentally challenged son carry on the family line, he arranged for his daughter to be married off to another mentally challenged family, so that his son could have a woman who could bear children."

"This Xu Lang's real name is Xu Xianglan. I happened to run into him when he was running away from his arranged marriage that day..."

Li Chengyue kept it simple and finished speaking, "But this girl has been helping Xu Shan carve and sell objects since she was a child, so she has developed some skills. Yue Niang gave her this idea to disguise herself as a man and participate in the carving competition."

Upon hearing this, Vice Minister Li sighed repeatedly, "Then are you sure you didn't have anything going on with this girl..."

"no!"

"I swear to God!"

“When I met him that day, I took him directly to the Liu family. He slept in the outer courtyard of the Liu family for two hours before going to see His Majesty.” Li Chengyue quickly proved his innocence. “If you don’t believe me, go and ask Liu Musheng and Huang Wanwan. They can testify to this.”

Li Shilang was finally relieved and understood why Liu Yuechu had personally hosted the banquet.

"Even Xu Shan wouldn't dare to act recklessly against the government's people."

"I have a plan for this matter. Even if she loses her ranking, I will find a reason to prevent the Xu family from harming her."

He still didn't agree to take matters into his own hands, but he did give a promise.

Liu Yuechu immediately smiled and ordered the dishes to be served, and the old servant sat down as well, and they all ate a hearty meal together.

Li Chengyue then discussed with her how much to sell the second batch of carvings. There were still 190,000 taels left to meet Emperor Qi Xiao's standard of 200,000 taels, but the Ministry of Works was in a great hurry to get the money.

After the meal, everyone went their separate ways.

After boarding the carriage, Vice Minister Li thought of Liu Yuechu and Li Chengyue, still feeling regretful, "Those two little rascals teamed up to deceive me."

"You just want me to kill Xu Shan, why bother with all this trickery?"

The old servant driving the carriage just smiled when he heard this.

As Liu Yuechu watched Li Shilang's carriage disappear into the distance, she still asked Li Chengyue, puzzled, "Uncle, you understood what I meant, right?"