Chapter 218: Chapter 190: No, No, Impossible

"...I hope so."

...

「The next day.」

The rain had finally stopped, and the sky had cleared.

Chen Yi washed up and changed his clothes early. He didn’t just throw something on, either; he chose a formal brocade robe.

This prompted Xiaodie to ask him repeatedly about his plans for the day.

Chen Yi didn’t hide it from her. He smiled and said, "I’m going to Guiyun Academy at noon."

"Young Master, you aren’t scheduled to start teaching the Calligraphy Dao for another two days. Why...?"

Before she could finish, Xiaodie seemed to realize something. She stared at him without blinking.

"I know."

"Young Master, you’re going to deal with all those people who’ve been coming to visit you, aren’t you?" 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Chen Yi reached out and tapped her on the forehead. "Aren’t you a clever one."

"It’s not that I’m clever. I just know the Young Master wouldn’t stand by and let the Eldest Miss suffer."

"Hm?"

"Young Master, don’t look at me like that. It’s true, you wouldn’t."

Chen Yi raised an eyebrow slightly, then smiled and nodded. "Well, I’m the one who caused this trouble. I have to be the one to solve it."

"Alright, let’s have breakfast first."

Xiaodie let out a little "oh." As she watched him walk ahead, she couldn’t help but stick her tongue out playfully.

Of course, there was a reason she’d said that—it was because of the "love poem" the Young Master had written for the Eldest Miss.

Even after all this time, Xiaodie still remembered the poem’s content.

The *Wan God’s Ode* and its line about her being "rare in this world," and so on.

’I almost let it slip. Xiaodie, oh, Xiaodie, you can’t let the Young Master find out you broke the rules and secretly read those poems.’

As she thought this, Xiaodie patted her rather ample chest and followed Chen Yi downstairs.

But as she walked, she couldn’t help but think of something else that puzzled her.

’Did the Young Master hide that poem?’

’Why haven’t I seen it since then?’

But after thinking for a moment, scenes straight out of an opera playbook began to form in her little head—

’The Young Master... gave the poem he wrote with his own hands to his beloved, the Eldest Miss...’

’No, no, no, that’s impossible!’

Xiaodie shook her head, but she wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings and bumped right into Chen Yi’s back.

Chen Yi glanced back, looking puzzled. "You’re acting strange today. What’s on your mind?"

A blush instantly crept onto Xiaodie’s face. She waved her hands frantically. "N-nothing."

"Please forgive me, Young Master. I just zoned out, hehe."

Chen Yi sized her up but naturally couldn’t guess what she was thinking. He just assumed she was daydreaming about some romance and teased,

"Xiaodie is a grown woman now. I think I’ll have to talk to Eldest Sister about finding you a husband."

At his words, the color drained from Xiaodie’s face. Her rosy cheeks turned deathly pale. She anxiously blocked Chen Yi’s path. "Young Master, Young Master, are... are you trying to send me away?"

"Please don’t send me away, please, I..."

Seeing tears of panic welling in her eyes, Chen Yi knew he’d taken the joke too far and had to fix it.

After a good deal of explaining, he finally managed to coax Xiaodie from tears to laughter.

"Young Master, how... how could you joke about something like that?"

"You’ve cried, you’ve laughed. Now let’s hurry up and eat."

The two of them were just about to sit down for breakfast with Xiao Wuge when they heard footsteps outside the door.

Then, Xiao Wan’er, draped in a pure white cloak, came walking in gracefully.

Perhaps because she had been recovering well lately, she held her cloak with one hand and entered the room with a little skip as she crossed the threshold.

The sight took Chen Yi by surprise. "Eldest Sister, you seem to be... in a good mood today?"

A rare, bright smile appeared on Xiao Wan’er’s face, along with a hint of self-satisfaction.

This made Chen Yi all the more curious.

Xiao Wan’er explained, "Last night, Cui’er, Juan’er, and I put together an expansion charter for the Xiao Family Medicine Hall."

"I came over today specifically to have my brother-in-law here review it."

"...The Xiao Family Medicine Hall... Expansion... Charter?"

Chen Yi looked at the delighted Xiao Wan’er. Suppressing the strange feeling in his heart, he took the booklet from her hands and began to flip through it.

After reading just a few pages, he understood completely.

Just as he’d thought. The Eldest Sister’s business talent was limited to collecting payments and handing out monthly allowances.

This *Xiao Family Medicine Hall Expansion Charter* wasn’t exactly identical to the *Baicao Hall Expansion Charter*, but it was pretty close.

’Change a few words, and you could swap one for the other...’

Xiao Wan’er, oblivious to his thoughts, asked eagerly, "What do you think?"

Chen Yi couldn’t bear to crush her spirits. He put down the booklet and said after a moment’s thought, "It’s acceptable."

"However, there is some room for improvement..."