When Lady Kang saw Li Wanming enter, her face instantly took on a complex expression.
She quickly hid the ruler behind her back, but her voice was still as cold as ice shards. "What? When I discipline my own child, do you people from the eldest branch want to interfere?"
"Auntie, you're being too distant. We're all family. Why talk about interference?"
Li Wanming wore a smile on her lips, but it didn't reach her eyes. She strode forward and helped Xiao Yingchu up.
The young girl had been kneeling for a long time, and her knees were numb. When she was helped up, her body swayed slightly, but she still stubbornly pursed her lips.
"I heard from what you said just now that you seem to be worried about the matter of Cousin Jingbai's tutor?"
She helped Xiao Yingchu sit down, and then gracefully took a seat herself.
"In my opinion, there's really no need to worry about this."
"A tutor is just a tutor. If one leaves, we can just invite a better one another day. Why get so angry?"
"You make it sound so easy!"
Lady Kang was clearly really angry and no longer cared about her former grace. She slammed the ruler on the table, making the teacups rattle. "This tutor is a Jinshi! I pulled many strings to invite him..."
"So what if he's a Jinshi? Can he compare to a Zhuangyuan?"
Li Wanming lowered her eyes and examined the red nail polish on her fingertips. A playful smile curved her lips. The rouge color on her fair fingertips seemed to flow, shining like rubies in the lamplight.
"You... What did you say??"
Lady Kang suddenly stood up, her fingers tightly gripping the redwood armrest carved with plum and orchid patterns. Her knuckles turned slightly white from the force.
"A Zhuangyuan... You mean... a Zhuangyuan?"
There was a tremor in her voice, as if she couldn't believe her ears.
But Li Wanming remained calm, with a smile on her lips. She slowly said, "I'm sure Auntie knows that I once opened a Zhaoyu Academy and hired many capable people from the capital as tutors. And our chief tutor—"
She deliberately paused, casting a meaningful look at Lady Kang before slowly continuing, "was none other than the previous Zhuangyuan, Lord Pei Yanqi."
Upon hearing this, Lady Kang's eyes immediately lit up.
Right!
Why didn't she think of that?
The academy opened by Li Wanming had invited Zhuangyuan Pei Yanqi as a tutor!
Moreover, Zhuangyuan Pei had given a public speech for her academy at the Hongbin Building. Presumably, the two of them must have a close relationship.
Zhuangyuan Pei was a student of the emperor. Although he had been demoted for offending the Guo family before, he was quickly reinstated and returned to the Hanlin Academy.
It was said that it was an order jointly issued by the Empress Dowager and the emperor at that time—such a great honor was unique among the Zhuangyuans in the Dacheng Dynasty!
This person's future was surely limitless. He might even be enfeoffed as a marquis and become a prime minister.
If Xiao Jingbai could become Pei Yanqi's disciple, even if he wasn't good at studying, he would surely gain great support in the court in the future.
Thinking of this, Lady Kang's heart couldn't help but beat a few beats faster.
She bit her lower lip. With a hint of doubt and expectation in her eyes, she looked at Li Wanming. "Can you really invite Academician Pei?"
"Of course."
Li Wanming tidied the loose strands of hair by her temples, her tone becoming even more calm and composed.
"Academician Pei came from a poor family. When he came to the capital to take the imperial examinations, he was short of money. By chance, I sponsored him a hundred taels of silver, which helped him on his way to becoming a Zhuangyuan."
Ugh...
Just thinking of that hundred taels of silver made Li Wanming feel annoyed!
At first, she had made an agreement with Pei Yanqi. She asked him to pretend to be "caught" under the imperial list and be her fake husband for a formal marriage. Then they would amicably divorce and go their separate ways.
In the end, this person didn't do anything! He neither got caught nor became her husband, and he even cheated her out of a hundred taels of silver as a deposit for nothing.
It really made her angry just thinking about it.
No! She couldn't let that hundred taels of silver go to waste, and she couldn't let the dividends from her wine shop in the past two years go for nothing either. She must get it all back from Pei Yanqi with interest!
Lady Kang thought her words made sense, and a look of joy appeared on her face. But her tone became even more hesitant. "You... Would you really be willing to invite a tutor for Jingbai?"
She knew very well how she had treated Li Wanming and didn't believe that Li Wanming would be so kind.
Li Wanming just smiled slightly, leaned over, and affectionately patted Lady Kang's hand. Her tone was gentle and sincere.
"Jingbai is my only cousin. How could I not care about him? If Jingbai can succeed in the imperial examinations in the future, it will bring glory to our Ningwang Mansion. Auntie, please don't say such distant things."
However, the more affectionate and high-sounding she sounded, the more uneasy Lady Kang felt.
Behind those gentle, smiling eyes, there seemed to be something she couldn't see through, which made her feel a chill in her heart.
But Li Wanming was feeling at ease. She quickly lowered her eyes to hide the glint in her eyes.
In fact, Pei Yanqi was a carrot she had carefully selected and dangled in front of Lady Kang!
She had thought it through clearly when she went to find Zhu Ninglu this afternoon. In the current situation, it wasn't wise for her to have a fierce conflict with Lady Kang. It was better to stay low-key and gradually accumulate strength.
Finding a reason to appease Lady Kang and make her cause less trouble was the best choice for her.
Moreover, the most important thing was that she was going to enter the palace tomorrow to meet the Empress Dowager Kang.
Although the Empress Dowager Kang didn't like Lady Kang, after all, Lady Kang was her niece from the same clan. Her attitude towards Lady Kang would definitely be much better than towards herself. If she fell out with Lady Kang at this time and let her slander her in front of the Empress Dowager tomorrow, then she would really be caught between two fires.
So, it was better to use Pei Yanqi to appease Lady Kang first and get through the matter of entering the palace to express gratitude tomorrow.
Besides, there was another point.
After observing for the past few days, Li Wanming deeply felt that the reason why Xiao Jingbai had been raised into such an arrogant and ignorant fool was largely due to Lady Kang's educational methods.
If they could find a good tutor, maybe they could set Xiao Jingbai on the right path.
In this way, the resistance she faced in the Ningwang Mansion would be weakened by another level.
As for Pei Yanqi, although he was a bit greedy for money, his knowledge and character were extremely upright. He would surely be able to restrain this young playboy, Xiao Jingbai.
All in all, finding Pei Yanqi as a tutor was a win-win deal with multiple benefits.
Lady Kang wasn't stupid either. After a moment of thought, she understood Li Wanming's plan.
She must be trying to use a Zhuangyuan tutor to make her behave herself and then truly gain the power to manage the Ningwang Mansion!
Bah! She was dreaming!
This cunning girl actually thought that she could get her submission with just a tutor...
She had carefully managed the Ningwang Mansion for more than a decade to gain the current supreme power. How could she just hand over this power?
The jade token and keys she had given out before were just expedients to gain a good reputation for being open-minded and kind.
In the days to come, she would make Li Wanming know what it meant to face difficulties at every step and experience how difficult it was to deal with the servants and slaves in a noble family...
And now, Li Wanming actually thought that she could make her ruin all the difficulties she had arranged before just by relying on a tutor?
Oh, after all, she was just a girl who had just married into the family. She was thinking too simply!