Qian Fanji was lost in thought.

"This is infuriating! She’s leading all the good students astray."

"Are they really that close?" Qian Fanji hadn’t expected that kid, Zhu Ye, to get along so well with the little lass. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"It’s good that they’re close, but this exam paper is a disaster! Just look, the little lass turned in a blank sheet." Teacher Zhang held up Ye Qianning’s exam paper, and it was completely blank.

"The exam paper doesn’t matter. As long as they’re close, that’s what counts." Qian Fanji was well aware that his nephew’s ambitions did not lie in scholarly pursuits.

Teacher Zhang was stunned. ’What does he mean, "as long as they’re close"?’

"Sigh."

He sighed and set Ye Qianning’s exam paper aside. Suddenly, his eyes fell upon the last few words on the page, and they widened in astonishment.

’This is...’

"Why, this... this is..."

"Teacher?" Qian Fanji looked up.

"Come and look, quickly! The little lass wrote this!" Teacher Zhang, both shocked and excited, beckoned him over.

Qian Fanji rose to take a look. The moment his gaze fell upon the paper, he couldn’t look away, a peculiar light glinting in the depths of his eyes.

"Stillness."

Beneath it was a short phrase: "Stillness hides conflict. The more you strive, the calmer your heart."

Those ten short words struck a deep chord. The more a person strives, the calmer their heart must be. Such insight from one so young.

"The little lass is truly talented after all! HAHAHAHA! It seems copying those Disciple’s Rules wasn’t for nothing. These ten short words will likely outshine everyone else’s work." Teacher Zhang was delighted.

’Even though she sleeps in class all day, it turns out she was paying attention all along.’

"A rare talent indeed." A hint of pride laced Qian Fanji’s words.

Teacher Zhang cheerfully picked up his brush and wrote an ’A’ on Ye Qianning’s exam paper.

On her day off, Ye Qianning stayed in her room to study medicinal herbs. Placing the large cauldron into her pocket dimension to perform alchemy was incredibly convenient, and the dimension itself even had an enhancing effect.

Her family of little honeybees gradually spread throughout the Capital City, beginning to build their nests on the large trees and under the eaves of many officials’ residences.

During this time, Ye Qianning gathered a great deal of intelligence, particularly concerning the residence of Prime Minister Gao.

’I don’t know if Prime Minister Gao has a screw loose or something. After suffering such a major loss, he still intends for me to marry into his residence when I grow up. He must have a death wish.’

"Little lass, are you in there?" A knock sounded at the door.

Ye Qianning put down the herbs she was holding and went to open the door. "Old Man Gu, what happened to you?"

Old Man Gu’s forehead was beaded with sweat, his face fraught with anxiety. "This is terrible!"

"First, come inside, have some water, and tell me everything slowly." Ye Qianning pulled him into the room.

Old Man Gu had climbed all the way up Lou Mountain without a single break and was already too exhausted to move. He sat down, gasping for breath, and downed several cups of water in a row.

"Today, I went to the palace to request an audience with the Emperor. Guess who I ran into."

"Prime Minister Gao?"

"PFFT! How did you know?"

"Of all the court officials with access to the palace, who else could get you this flustered? It had to be Prime Minister Gao."

"That’s right. He wasn’t even fully recovered, and he was already in front of the Emperor, stirring up trouble. He actually asked the Emperor to issue a marriage decree! Tell me, has he gone mad?"

Ye Qianning’s eyes narrowed sharply. "Did the Emperor agree?"

"That’s the thing, I don’t know! I had just been shooed out by the Emperor when Prime Minister Gao went in. His very first words were to ask the Emperor to issue a marriage decree. I couldn’t listen closely before a eunuch hurried me away. I came straight up Lou Mountain the moment I left the palace." Old Man Gu was both furious and panicked.

Ye Qianning had only learned of the Prime Minister’s plotting the day before, having coaxed the information out of Gao Qi himself. The other scattered pieces of intelligence came from her family of little honeybees.

"Prime Minister Gao must be trying to get revenge on you, to come up with such a rotten idea." Old Man Gu was disgusted with the Prime Minister to an extreme degree.