The Illiterate Little Tea Maiden Turns Her Husband into Chief Minister by Gorging on Gossip

[Love After Marriage] + [Success in the Imperial Exams] + [Tea Stall Business] + [A Street-Smart Golden Finger] + [Sweet Married Life] + [Mutual Devotion] [An illiterate young woman who can predict exam questions [emoji] A penniless scholar with a head full of knowledge] On the day Wen Chuyi married Xue Yanqing, the entire street treated them like a joke. One was a young tea-stall owner who could barely read and spent her days working in public. The other was a poor scholar who couldn’t even afford paper and brushes. Put those two together, and they were destined to spend their lives wallowing in poverty! But Wen Chuyi happened to have ears that could pick out exam questions. A few lines of recitation drifting out of the schoolhouse, snippets of conversation from the tea drinkers: in her mind, they all came together as exam questions. At first, she would quietly offer a hint beside her husband’s desk: “This one might be on the exam. Do you want to take a look?” Xue Yanqing thought she was making things up and paid no attention. That is, until the topics she had picked up on kept appearing, one after another, on the prefectural examinations! When the results were posted, Xue Yanqing’s name was on the list. Everyone marveled: “Master Xue, can your wife really predict the exam questions?” Xue Yanqing looked toward the young woman, cheeks flushed as she bustled around in front of the tea stall, and said nothing. Before long, every scholar in town knew: if you wanted to pass your exams, you had to stop by the Wen family’s tea stall for a cup of tea! And what about Master Xue, who had once been the biggest skeptic and could talk of nothing but “rote learning”? Now, whenever a major exam approaches, he comes to his wife on his own with a cup of hot tea, ears red, and says ingratiatingly, “My dear, give me a few more pointers tonight, and I can stay up and write three more essays for you.”