Qi Yiyang’s biological father was not the heir to the public administration house.

He was the second son of the royal family.

He also became an official after sitting for the imperial examinations. He was now a third-rank left assistant minister in the Ministry of Rites.

His words could be considered to have some impact in the family.

Qi Yiyang’s imperial examination results were the best among his cousins.

He also had a good relationship with the fifth prince.

Because of this, they hated him.

“Xi Rui, you are back. I heard recently that you are close to Xi Rui and a few dandies. Are you hanging out with them again today?”

“Not just hanging out with them again. I heard that you went to a restaurant with Xi Rui and a few others today. It seems that their relationship is really good.”

“Aren’t you not on good terms with those dandies? Why are you hanging out with them?”

“Xi Rui, you are the one who is most likely to be admitted to the advanced scholar examination in our lifetime. How can you hang out with Xi Rui and the other dandies?”

“Yes, won’t it affect your studies?”

As soon as Qi Yiyang entered the door, his cousins of the same generation ridiculed him.

Hearing their words, Qi Yiyang’s father, Qi Pengqing, could not help but his face turned black.

He frowned and asked, “Why are you hanging out with Xi Rui and the others?”

He had a lot of hope for this son of his.

Naturally, he did not like his son to mingle with the dandies.

Qi Yiyang knew that he was going to be judged.

He replied frankly, “I’m mainly looking for Shi Qingluo.”

His father was puzzled. “Why are you looking for Shi Qingluo?”

Old Master Qi thought of something. “You’re not going to find out what formula Shi Qingluo gave, are you?”

Qi Yiyang smiled and said, “Grandfather, you are wise. I’m indeed going to find out about this.”

Old Master Qi’s interest was piqued. “Did you find out?”

Qi Yiyang nodded. “Not only did I find out, I even got the formula that she gave to the emperor.”

Old Master Qi and the rest were shocked. “What? She even give you the formula?”

Qi Yiyang took out Shi Qingluo’s drawing and paper and handed it to Old Master Qi. “This time, the recipe she gave is to make something called rubber…”

He roughly repeated what Shi Qingluo said in the restaurant.

Old Master Qi, Qi Yiyang’s father, and the rest quickly thought of some key points.

Qi Yiyang’s cousin couldn’t help but ask, “Shi Qingluo just gave you the formula? When did you two become so close?”

Recently in the capital, Shi Qingluo’s name was very famous.

Especially Liang Youxiao and Xi Rong, who made everyone’s eyes turn red.

In addition to the emperor’s response and punishment toward General Xiao because of Shi Qingluo, many people now wanted to get in touch with Shi Qingluo and her husband.

His cousins did not expect that Qi Yiyang would unknowingly become good friends with Shi Qingluo.

Qi Yiyang replied, “I befriended her when I went to the prefectural city and countryside examination last time.

“She gave me this recipe and asked our family to find these three plants to extract latex. It wasn’t a free gift.

“She wanted 30% of the latex cut by our family in the first three years to be sold to her at a price not higher than the market price.”

Old Master Qi smoothed his beard. “It’s good to set the conditions.

“You did well in this. Otherwise, the other two public administration houses would have taken the lead.”

Previously, be it on corn or sweaters, he was envious when he saw Old Master Liang and Old Master Xi showing off.

He even thought that his grandsons were not as good as the dandies in the Liang and Xi families.

Now, he had a grandson who had a relationship with Shi Qingluo. This was very good.

Moreover, he had always known that the second prince wanted to rope in Shi Qingluo and her husband.

“Write a contract to Shi Qingluo. I support this.”

Old Master Qi added, “In the future, keep in contact with Shi Qingluo. Even if you hang out with Xi Rui and the others, it’s not a big deal. As long as you don’t fall behind in your studies.”

It was important to learn more about how those two dandies were filial to their grandfather.

Qi Yiyang was delighted. “Yes, I will, grandfather.”

After his interaction with Old Master Qi, he didn’t have to be afraid of being scolded by his biological father anymore.

Following that, he received envious and jealous looks from his cousins. He was secretly pleased.

Weren’t they mocking him previously? Now, they couldn’t say it out loud.

They were also cursing Qi Yiyang in their hearts to be actually lucky enough to be on Shi Qingluo’s side.

This fellow was actually so sinister.

They weren’t even kept in the loop when he had befriended Shi Qingluo secretly.

It seemed like he would be placed in an important position by the second prince.

They only hoped that Qi Yiyang’s results in the general examinations were average for this attempt.

Otherwise, all of them would lose out to him.

This was especially so among the three young masters of the heir in their public administration house.

They even hoped that Qi Yiyang would just fail the examination.

Following that, Old Master Qi immediately sent people to get latex.

This also made Qi Yiyang’s presence in the Qi family stronger.

Of course, the actions of these few families would definitely be made known to those in the palace and those who were well-informed.

The emperor didn’t think much about it.

On the contrary, he wished that these families could get more rubber.

This way, it would be easier for the soldiers of the northern border to change into a pair of rubber-soled leather shoes.

The other families immediately sent spies over to find out what recipes and benefits these families had obtained.

After all, everyone knew that Xi Rui and the others had only made their move after meeting Shi Qingluo.

Naturally, they also wanted a share of the profits.

Starting from the next day, many people began to ask these families for information.

However, they naturally would not reveal the fact that they were going to be in the limelight and earning a huge sum of money.

As a result, Shi Qingluo became popular once again.

Many family heads called their younger males and females over and instructed them to try their best to befriend Shi Qingluo if they had the opportunity to do so.

Because of this, when Shi Qingluo went out, she would occasionally meet young people of the same generation with incomparably warm attitudes .

Once or twice was not much, but it was a little annoying when she was frequently treated like this, causing her to seldom go out recently.

Xiao Yuanshi naturally heard about this matter in the general’s residence.

He did not think of following the trend.

After all, it was too embarrassing if others knew about it.

However, he still wanted to know what method his bad daughter-in-law used to get him out of the position of the Ministry of War.

Hence, he also arranged for a spy to investigate.

Recently, he had been in a very bad mood.

He stayed in the general’s residence every day and did not go out.

He was either very drunk or went to Tao Liu’s courtyard to vent his frustrations.

He had been hiding from his little wife, who he was concerned that she would melt when placed in his mouth or fly away when placed in his palm.

He knew that although his dismissal was basically caused by his son and his wife, it was because his relationship with Ge Chunru had been exposed that got him into trouble.

Therefore, he was somewhat unable to face Ge Chunru now.

At that time, she was indeed the one who took the initiative to approach him and kept seducing him, pulling him into this quagmire.

Although he still had Ge Chunru in his heart, it would be a lie to say that he wasn’t angry at her at all.

This thorn had been planted.

Ge Chunru didn’t see Xiao Yuanshi, so she would deliberately find ways to do so.

However, Xiao Yuanshi managed to run away in advance and go to Tao Liu’s courtyard.

This made Ge Chunru even angrier and she cried almost every day.

She was not stupid and naturally knew that Xiao Yuanshi had vented his anger on her after being fired because of their relationship.

She felt that she had suffered a great injustice and hated Xiao Hanzheng and Shi Qingluo even more.

Therefore, she could not help but want a counter-attack.

Hence, she secretly asked her servant girl to contact Zheng Tongfeng.