"Nie Gongzi?" Yang Jianxiu was taken aback, turned his head to see Nie Bowen and Du Haoran, and immediately understood the meaning of Yan Qingchun.

  He wanted to pull Yan Qingchun down, naturally unwilling to help Yan Qingchun introduce Nie Bowen from the bottom of his heart. Who knows if this Yan Qingchun is in Nie Bowen's eyes, and then climb up the big tree of the Nie family? If so, wouldn't it be bad? Not only can't pull Yan Qingchun down, but also may let him step by step promotion.

  It was not expected that Yan Qingchun would come, thinking that at the level of Gong Zhimin, it was just to let him meet Nie Bowen, and he couldn't enter Nie Bowen's eyes. When I saw Yan Qingchun at the city gate, the location of this gamble could no longer be changed - the place where the gamble was located had been discussed by Yang Jianxiu and Gong Zhimin long ago, and it was impossible to suddenly propose going somewhere else.

  At that time, Yang Jianxiu still had a glimmer of hope, thinking that Nie Bowen, as a noble son, would not often come to such a mixed place like Niejialou, but unexpectedly, he just entered the door and bumped into them.

  Yang Jianxiu, as an official of Nanyun City, naturally knew Nie Bowen and Du Haoran. At this time, facing each other, they couldn't not greet each other, so he had to force himself to go up, cup his hands and shout: "Master Nie, Master Du."

  Ye Zhuo followed Yang Jianxiu, and had already discovered Nie Bowen and Du Haoran. At this time, a young girl about the same age as her, with a bright and beautiful face, five points similar to Nie Bowen, wearing a red dress, full of vitality, walked out of the house together with them. She was closely following behind Du Haoran, laughing and saying something; Du Haoran, however, had an expressionless face, walking forward by himself, as if no one was following him or talking to him.

  Nie Bowen walked ahead of them, his steps light and carefree, the corners of his mouth curled up, seemingly in a good mood. Hearing Yang Jianxiu's greeting, he looked over this way, slightly startled at first, then walked over to return the courtesy with a bow, smiling: "Master Yang." After finishing speaking, his gaze swept past Yang Jianxiu's back, seeing several unfamiliar faces, and then withdrew his gaze again. It was clear that he hadn't recognized Ye Zhuo at all.

  Du Haoran saw Nie Bowen coming over and followed him, casually nodding to Yang Jianxiu as a greeting. However, he didn't say anything. The red-clothed woman also stopped talking at this time, looking at Yang Jianxiu with dissatisfaction, clearly very unhappy that he interrupted her words.

  "Miss Nie." Yang Jianxiu saw the woman and hastily made another bow. He had a deep impression of this Nie Wei Yue, who was entangled with Du Haoran every day.

  Many people in Nanyun City want to curry favor with the Nie family, and Nie Weiyue is very impatient with these people who always try to find ways to come forward and chat. She nodded slightly and said to Nie Bowen: "Brother, if you don't hurry up, Father will be angry, and don't blame me for it."

  Nie Bowen smiled apologetically at Yang Jianxiu and said, "Yang Zhubo, sorry about this. I have something urgent to attend to at home, so I won't chat much more. Let's catch up again when we're free."

  Yang Jianxiu couldn't help but wish he wouldn't stay here, just as he was about to raise his hand and say a few polite words. But then Yan Qingchun stepped forward, bowed his head and said: "I've long heard that Mr. Nie is a jade tree in the wind, outstanding and unmatched. Today I see him for myself, and indeed he's extraordinary. I am Yan Qingchun, County Magistrate of Nanshan County, at your service, Mr. Nie." After finishing speaking, he made a deep bow.

  "Gong Zhimin of Nanshan County Book Office pays respects to Nie Gongzi." Gong Zhimin, seeing the situation, also hastily stepped forward and stood behind Yan Qingchun to pay his respects.

  "Oh?" Nie Bowen's eyebrows wrinkled slightly, but he quickly recovered his smile and said to Yang Jian, "These two are..."

  "This is County Magistrate Yan of Nanshan, and this is Gong the bookkeeper of the county government." Yang Jianxiu saw that Yan Qingchun was not paying attention to his dignity and had to help them make introductions.

  Nie Bowen nodded and stretched out his hand to gesture a slight support: "No need for formalities, Mr. Yan and Gong Shuban." However, he turned around and smiled apologetically at Yang Jianxiu, "Sorry about this, but something has come up at home and I have to head back immediately. Yang Zhubo, please take good care of these two guests for me, and I'll thank you properly another day."

  "Nie Gongzi, please go ahead." Nie Bowens move was exactly what Yang Jianxiu wanted, and he stepped aside to clear the way. Yan Qingchun saw this and had no choice but to follow suit and clear the way as well.

  Nie Bowen nodded slightly and walked out with his feet, without forgetting to wave at the back and shout: "Hao Ran, let's go."

  "Uh-huh." Du Haoran responded with a grunt, following Nie Bowen as he walked out. However, when he passed by Ye Zhuo's side, his body suddenly paused for a moment, and he turned his head to glance at Ye Zhuo. Ye Zhuo was extremely confident in her disguise and wasn't worried about being recognized by Nie Bowen and Du Haoran. She stood near the gate, pretending to be a servant, when she saw Du Haoran suddenly look over at her. Her heart skipped a beat as she raised her head to meet his gaze, but she quickly regained her composure and lowered her head again.

  Du Haoran's footsteps slowed down, and he furrowed his brow in thought for a moment. When he reached the door, he stopped and turned to Nie Bowen: "I remembered that I haven't seen this batch of stones that Nie Qingyun brought back, so I won't go back with you, I'll go take a look at the stones."

  Nie Bowen looked at Du Haoran in surprise, then glanced at his own sister and said, "What's the hurry? Let's come back tomorrow."

  "No, your father called you, there must be something. Your family's affairs, I won't get involved. You go quickly." Du Haoran said, not waiting for Nie Bowen to speak again, turned around and walked in. When passing by Ye Zhuo and Yang Jianxiu, he seemed to have not seen them, treating them as air, and left with a flourish.

  "Du brother, wait for me." Nie Weiyue called out to his back, then said to Nie Bowen, "Brother, you hurry back. I won't go." After that, she hastily chased after Du Haoran.

  "Little Moon..." Nie Bowen had wanted to call his sister to go back together, but saw that Nie Weiyue had already run far away, and could only bitterly smile and shake his head, himself leading the servants out of the door and into the carriage to return to the manor.

  Yang Jianxiu, Yan Qingchun and Ye Zhuo stood there watching the scene until Nie Bowen went out of the door, and Du Haoran and Nie Weiyue disappeared from view. Only then did they look at each other, with Yang Jianxiu speaking first: "Let's go in."

  Yan Qingchun was overjoyed, but still couldn't strike up a conversation with Nie Bowen, and felt somewhat disheartened. However, since he had come all this way, it didn't seem right to just leave like that, so he listlessly said, "Mm, go on in."

  At this moment, a young man in a green robe walked over and saluted the few people, saying: "I am Nie Qing, a manager of the Nie family's stone gambling hall. Master Du instructed me to come and entertain you gentlemen. I don't know if you want to go to the first floor or the second floor to gamble with stones?"

  Yan Qingchun's whole person was like a withered tree encountering spring, and he immediately became spirited. Du Haoran and Nie Bowen had a flavor of not leaving each other for two years, and the friendship between the two was self-evident. Without the opportunity to fawn on Nie Bowen, being able to make friends with Du Haoran was also a good choice. Now that Du Haoran could send someone to receive them, it should be that he wouldn't lose face in front of this county magistrate, after all, Du Haoran was just an ordinary citizen.

  So before Yang Jianxiu and Gong Zhimin could speak up, he asked: "Which floor is Master Du on now?"

  Nie Qing glanced at him: "On the first floor."

  "Then we'll go to the first floor too." said Yan Qingchun.

  "En, let's go to the first floor." Gong Zhimin also nodded in agreement.

  Both of them said they wanted to go to the first floor, Yang Jianxiu naturally couldn't stop them, but in his heart he was secretly worried. Although he didn't gamble on stones, he had also asked around about this Nie family's building, and the prices and qualities of the raw stones on the first and second floors were different. The raw stones on the second floor were of better quality and easier to produce good jade material, so the price was also more expensive than the first floor. Yang Jianxiu's original plan was to coax Gong Zhimin onto the second floor, let him buy a high-priced raw stone with good quality but no jade material inside at a high price, and knock him down with one hammer. Of course, whether this raw stone had jade material or not depended on Ye Zhuo's skills.

  However, Yan Qingchun and Gong Zhimin chose to go to the first floor, where the original stone was cheaper. Even if they lost, it wouldn't hurt their foundation. Yang Jianxiu couldn't help but secretly scold Du Haoran for being too cautious. Now, he could only hope that Yan Qingchun would meet Nie Bowen once here and come again next time.

  "Please follow me." Nie Qing saw the situation and didn't say much more, leading them directly inside. Originally, this floor had three large halls, with different qualities and prices of raw stones that needed to be explained to customers. But County Magistrate Yan was clearly targeting Du Gongzi, so he didn't need to ask and just led them straight to Du Gongzi's place. Since Du Gongzi had specifically called him out to receive them, he probably wouldn't mind seeing them either.

  The Nie family building occupies a large area, and several people followed Nie Qing through two doors and walked along a long corridor before entering a room. The room was extremely spacious, with only a dozen or so pillars in the middle, and the floor was filled with large and small original stones. In one corner of the room, there were also several stone mills, which were free stone removal facilities provided by the Nie family building. At this time, there were thirty or forty people scattered around the room, some alone, others in groups of three to five, discussing in low voices, all selecting original stones.

  Yan Qingchun glanced inside and saw the tall, sky-blue figure standing next to the red-clad woman in the left corner. Just as he was about to walk over, Nie Qing quietly blocked his path and said: "This is the third hall on the first floor of our Nie family's building. The original price of the stones here ranges from 400 to 600 taels. Gentlemen, please take a look at your leisure. My family's Du Gongzi is currently categorizing the original stones and doesn't have time to entertain you for now. Please forgive us for any inconvenience."

  "I don't dare trouble Master Du with hospitality, we'll just take a casual look." Yang Jianxiu hastily took over the conversation and said politely.

  Yan Qingchun's heart was even more anxious, but at this moment he couldn't help but hold back, and smiled: "Alright, alright, let's take a look at the original stone."

  Ye Zhuo looked at Du Haoran in the distance, her heart racing with doubts. Du Haoran's actions just now seemed as if he had recognized her. If he really did recognize her, why didn't he leave? Was he trying to expose her?

  (Covering my face, I saw the update notice from Guang Han Gong Zhu a again. I haven't gone home yet, and tomorrow's ticket is ready. I'll add more updates after returning home. Thanks to Dong Fang Feng Yun, Guang Han Gong Zhu a, and Qie Yin Chun Zong for the peace talismans and new year red envelopes! Thanks to Guang Han Gong Zhu a for the update notice!)