After agreeing with Xiao Junning, Lin Wanwan put down her phone and picked up the books on Driving License Theory Test One and Four from the table to read. She had already learned to drive a few times before the New Year and had even touched the steering wheel for a while. But she often missed classes, and it was really impossible for her to go to driving school every day to learn from the coach. Fortunately, the theoretical knowledge of Test One and Four was quite relaxing for her to learn, and she had plenty of time to self-study. Even in the Great Tang, facing a family of illiterate people, she wasn’t afraid of being discovered if she took it out. Every time she entered the study, apart from little Qingyu occasionally coming to behave coyly and sticking around for a while, the others would never disturb her. After reading for almost an hour, Lin Wanwan felt a bit tired and went into her room on the second floor, pulled the curtains, opened the Space-Time Gate, and returned to her bedroom in the Great Tang. Little Qingyu had already turned 180 degrees, now with her feet raised on the pillow and her head buried in the bed covers. Lin Wanwan took her out from within the bed covers, placed her on the inside of the bed, watched her for a while, and her mood improved greatly. Then she blew out the already dim lamp, covered herself with the quilt, and touched little Qingyu’s small hand, falling asleep. The next evening, Lin Wanwan boarded a new ship to Qiantang with little Qingyu. Lin Mengbo and several other clansmen who were familiar with the sea escorted her on the new ship, which was much safer and more reliable than renting a boat at the dock. The departure time was set a long time ago. When sending the New Year gifts to her maternal family in Qiantang before the New Year, Lin Wanwan had already handed in her calling card and specified the visit time. The nobility of the Great Tang still adhered to rules in this regard; there were seldom any surprise visits. Before visiting, a calling card would be handed to the host, providing them time for a response and preparation. It takes a whole day to travel by ship from Mao County to Qiantang. Thus, Lin Wanwan chose to travel in the evening so that after a night at sea, she would arrive at the destination by dawn. This was little Qingyu’s first time on an ocean ship, and she was extremely excited, running around the cabin and deck with Rongrong. She initially wanted to bring along the little elephant, but it refused to move once it reached the seaside, clearly traumatized from being adrift on a boat for a month previously. Therefore, little Qingyu had to give up the idea of bringing her pet along. By the dock, countless children looked eagerly at little Qingyu leaving by ship, filled with envy. The clan’s children had only visited Wanghai Town as the farthest place—and even then, not every child had the opportunity to go, with most staying by the seaside year-round. Little Jade could follow Lin the Teacher to leave Mao County, sail across the sea to visit Qiantang County. Just hearing about it filled them with longing. The world outside surely was exciting; at West Lake, there was the White Lady from the stories Lin the Teacher had told! "Ah, I wish Lin the Teacher could raise me too," Lin Guofu’s granddaughter, Third Girl, sighed at the dock as she watched the ship depart, still holding onto the extravagant hope of being adopted by Lin Wanwan. In her own family, she was simply not valued; her mother only had eyes for her two brothers and had no place for her. If it weren’t for the school providing clothes and a meal, her parents and grandparents wouldn’t allow her to study and learn literacy. Even the less fortunate Stinky Girl from before had now become Lin the Teacher’s beloved, living in luxury, imagining it made her dissatisfied. She had been more obedient than Stinky Girl, so why wasn’t she chosen by Lin the Teacher? Similar thoughts were held by others, including Third Girl’s mother, Sun Shi’s sister-in-law from her natal family, Lu Shi. Lu Shi had given birth to five sons for the Sun Family, causing financial strain and making life difficult. Every time Sun Shi returned and described the windfalls and indulgence of the orphaned Stinky Girl adopted by Lin Wanwan, the family listened with jealousy. Eventually, Lu Shi even proposed the fanciful idea of offering her fourth son to be adopted by Lin Wanwan. Compared to Stinky Girl, their fourth son was a genuine male, one who could help Lin Wanwan continue her lineage! They had their own calculations: if a son was given to Lin Wanwan, with the size of her property, wouldn’t it all belong to their son in future? Even if the son was adopted away, the blood ties wouldn’t be severed, and thus the property would essentially be theirs as well. Unfortunately, before this idea reached Lin Wanwan’s ears, it had been heavily reprimanded by the well-informed Clan Leader of the Lin Clan. This kind of mixed household of settled outsiders had no concept of clan traditions, aspiring beyond their reach. Even if Lin Wanwan wanted to adopt a son, she could absolutely not choose from outsiders. These foolish outsiders didn’t even understand the basic rules of the Great Tang: for families without male heirs to continue the lineage, the adoption rules in Tang law were stringent. While royal authority didn’t reach rural areas, thoughts about adopting descendants were uniform from top to bottom. The Tang law prohibited cross-class adoption (showing the strictness of class solidification), nor could one adopt across surnames. Only unwanted children under three could be adopted, and even so, they retained their original surname, not carrying the foster parent’s name. The same clan and surname meant the ancestors always shared the same blood, whereas different surnames were completely disparate. For the Sun Family to audaciously propose such a laughable suggestion without considering their worth, they ignored the fact that Lin Wanwan was the disciple of a renowned hermit and a direct descendant of the Lin Clan’s scholar family. After a round of humiliation, Sun Shi was prohibited from returning to her natal family, as the Clan Leader feared another foolish wife like Sun Shi might be brought back to the clan, causing more problems. A virtuous wife implies fewer calamities, and as Lin Family Manor was increasingly flourishing, finding a bride couldn’t proceed from mixed households but rather from a local with a clan and ancestry. This is also why Sun Shi stopped visiting Lin Wanwan to reap benefits: the Clan Leader banned her movements. At Lin Family Manor, the Clan Leader was the authoritative figure whose decrees were diligently followed; even Lin Guofu dared not defy the Clan Leader, and naturally neither did Sun Shi. All of this was unbeknownst to little Qingyu playing carefree on the ship; for children her age, life’s sudden changes could alter so much, with forgetting the past being perfectly normal. The whole ship was filled with the laughter of little Qingyu and Rongrong, sounds others couldn’t comprehend. The two playing hide-and-seek would even reveal themselves laughing heartily when the other couldn’t find them, not caring about being discovered; for them, taking turns hiding mattered more than winning or losing. For more chapters visıt 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡⚑𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⚑𝙣𝙚𝙩