Cai Damei didn't understand. What did they need Li Ping for?
"I need Li Ping to help me with the accounts."
"No." Cai Damei flatly refused.
"Madam, I have no other choice. The person under me who was good at arithmetic has fallen seriously ill and gone home to recuperate. The drought and flood situation requires so much preparation. There are too many places needing accounts calculated. I've gathered quite a few people, but very few are both fast and accurate." Bao Min explained his predicament.
"Madam, why don't you go ask Li Ping himself?" Bao Min felt that no matter how much he said, it wouldn't matter if Li Ping himself was willing.
Cai Damei thought that made sense and agreed. However, before speaking to Li Ping, they had to talk to Ye Yunniang first.
As soon as Ye Yunniang heard, she was unhappy.
Pingping is only four years old. How could he handle the scheming and deception of adults?
But out of respect for the child, the two women decided to go communicate with Li Ping.
"Mother, would you be angry if I said I wanted to go?" Li Ping stared at Ye Yunniang, watching her reaction.
"No." How could Ye Yunniang be angry with her son? "Do you really want to go?"
Li Ping nodded vigorously. He liked arithmetic and didn't want to go to school to study and learn characters in a rigid, rule-bound way. What Bao Min proposed perfectly satisfied Li Ping's desire to learn arithmetic.
"Alright, you can go." Ye Yunniang granted her son's wish.
After coming out of the room, Ye Yunniang discussed with Cai Damei, "Pingping is only 4. I'm not at ease with him going alone. I'm thinking of quitting my temporary manager job to accompany Pingping."
"Don't give up an opportunity because of the child." Cai Damei didn't agree. "I'll go find Bao Min and have him arrange for someone to look after Pingping."
"Would that be inappropriate?"
"What's inappropriate about it? He's the one asking Pingping to work, so he should take good care of him." Cai Damei reassured Ye Yunniang to go work as the manager at the Baise Embroidery Shop with peace of mind, and that she herself would keep an eye on Li Ping.
Bao Min had already thought of someone to look after Li Ping. "I'll have Tong Mo follow Li Ping to protect him."
"It'll be good enough if Tong Mo doesn't bully him." Cai Damei didn't have a good impression of Tong Mo.
"He wouldn't dare. I guarantee Li Ping won't suffer the slightest bit of bullying." Bao Min thumped his chest in assurance.
If Tong Mo dared not do his job properly, he'd send him packing back to the capital.
Tong Mo had only just managed to escape from under the "four great mountains," so naturally he didn't want to go back.
Even if he had a thousand objections in his heart about babysitting, he had no choice but to accept.
"Tong Mo, think of it this way. Li Ping is Ye Yunniang's own son. Take good care of him, win his affection. Have him take the initiative to ask you to be his stepfather. Given how Ye Yunniang dotes on her child, it's possible you could successfully move up the ranks."
Tong Mo was somewhat tempted, but thought of Ye Yunniang's attitude. "Would it really work?"
"Definitely." In Bao Min's mind, there were no walls that couldn't be pried loose, only men who didn't know how to wield a pickaxe.
"Alright, I'll go pick up Li Ping right now." Stirred by Bao Min's words, Tong Mo felt a surge of excitement.
"Come back." Bao Min called out to Tong Mo who was rushing out the door.
"What?" Tong Mo was impatient.
"Don't say your little uncle doesn't support you." As he spoke, Bao Min took out a pouch of silver and tossed it to Tong Mo.
Tong Mo caught it and weighed it in his hand. "Thanks, little uncle."
Tong Mo left, passing Luo Xin who was coming in.
"Sir, Wang Jizu has been arrested and jailed for theft."
Wang Jizu had made moves against Ye Yunniang twice. Affecting Cai Damei's mood, Bao Min had Luo Xin find someone to frame Wang Jizu for robbery.
With Wang Jizu robbing silver, they could send him to the mines for a lifetime of hard labor.
Three days after the Wang family incident, Liang Maimiao came to the Li house.
Ye Yunniang, as usual, poured her some water.
Liang Maimiao took the cup, looking at the chrysanthemum tea inside.
"Did you know about Hemiao's scheme against you?"
"Scheme against me how?" Ye Yunniang looked at Liang Maimiao, puzzled.
"No, nothing."
"How is Hemiao now? Have the Liang and Wang families discussed how to resolve it?"
Liang Maimiao gave a bitter smile. "It's resolved." It's just that the outcome of the resolution was something Liang Maimiao didn't want to see.
After seeing off the guests, Mrs. Wang immediately ordered people to beat Liang Hemiao to death.
Liang Maimiao and the Liang family relatives who had come for the wedding fought desperately to protect her.
The two sides were at a stalemate until Wang Dashan, his wounds bandaged, came to stop it.
Wang Dashan told the Liang family to take Liang Hemiao back; they, the Wang family, didn't want such a daughter-in-law. He also gave the Liang family three days to give the Wang family an explanation, otherwise they would sue the Liang family for marriage fraud at the authorities.
Liang Hemiao refused to leave, repeatedly saying she hadn't done anything wrong by Wang Jinsheng. She wasn't pregnant, she was innocent. She was a Wang family daughter-in-law, she wouldn't leave the Wang family.
Finally, an elder from the wedding party who couldn't stand Liang Hemiao's shouting anymore tore off a piece of tablecloth. They tied up Liang Hemiao, gagged her, and carried her back to the Yang house.
The Yang family, having just seen off their guests, were feeling downhearted—their youngest daughter/sister was married off.
Liang Hemiao was carried back to the Yang house.
"Hemiao, who hit you?" Yang Guihua was the first to notice Liang Hemiao's swollen face.
"Father, Mother, let's go inside to talk." Liang Maimiao didn't want to discuss their family's shameful affair at the doorway.
"Liang Maimiao, your sister's been bullied. Instead of helping her, you carried her back. Eldest son, grab some tools, we're going to the Wang family to demand an explanation." Yang Guihua said, charging outward.
"Don't go." Liang Fu stopped Yang Guihua, walked up to the elder from the wedding party, thanked them for their trouble, and invited them inside to talk.
The family went inside.
The elder from the wedding party spoke up, telling what they had seen.
Liang Maimiao also told what she had witnessed.
After seeing off the relatives and friends, Liang Fu turned around and slapped Liang Hemiao across the face.
"Tell me, who is the man?"
"I'm not pregnant, that doctor was talking nonsense." Liang Hemiao retorted righteously.
"If you don't tell me, I'll beat you to death today." Enraged, Liang Fu grabbed a nearby stool to smash Liang Hemiao.
"Don't! You can't hit her!" Yang Guihua cried, throwing herself forward to block Liang Fu, preventing him from striking.
"Hemiao tells you everything. If she won't say, you tell me: who is the bastard in her belly?" Liang Fu pressed Yang Guihua.
"I don't know. She didn't tell me, I really don't know." Yang Guihua shook her head; she was unaware.
Yang Guihua turned and grabbed Liang Hemiao's arm. "Tell your mother, whose child is in your belly? Whose is it?"
No matter what the Liang family said, Liang Hemiao just kept insisting she wasn't pregnant and there was no other man.
"Mother believed Liang Hemiao's words. She persuaded my father to invite another doctor to check her pulse."
They invited two doctors; the pulse reading still indicated pregnancy, one and a half months along.
"Liang Hemiao couldn't hold on anymore. She said the possible man's name." Liang Maimiao said this, then drank the chrysanthemum tea in her cup in one gulp.
"Who was it?"
"Xing Yuanchang."
The surname Xing? Ye Yunniang thought of the Xing families she knew. "The Xing Assistant Prefect's family?"
"Yes." Xing Yuanchang was the third son of Xing Wenzhi, a famously dissolute young master in Jiangcheng.
After Liang Fu found out who it was, he thought it over for a night, then bought an abortifacient to make Liang Hemiao terminate the pregnancy.
Yang Guihua disagreed. She saw it as the Liang family's opportunity. Xing Yuanchang had been married for years but had no children. Many people privately said he couldn't father children.
Liang Hemiao's pregnancy would not only break the rumor of his infertility but also give Xing Yuanchang an heir.
Liang Hemiao marrying into the Xing family would be an absolute leap from carp to dragon.
The more Yang Guihua thought about it, the more beautiful it seemed. She stopped Liang Fu from giving Liang Hemiao the abortifacient. To make Liang Fu agree, Yang Guihua even grabbed a pair of scissors and threatened to kill herself.
