If "aristocratic families" refers to families with a fifth grade or above, then "prominent families" refers to those with a fourth grade or above. As for families with a third grade or above, since there are only five of them, they are specially referred to as the "Five Great Families."
In fact, even within the same class, there are distinctions between families.
For example, among the "prominent families," the Yangdi Chu family only have two fourth grade supernaturals, making them relatively weak among the fourth grade families.
On the other hand, the Hongnong Yang families even had third grade supernaturals in their ancestry. Although they have declined slightly, they still have five fourth grade supernaturals within the clan. They belong to the more established "prominent families," worthy of being compared to the Five Great Families.
So when Yang Wangshu recognized Cui Jinqi's identity, she didn't act as reserved as Miss Qingqing, but instead exploded in anger, shouting:
"Just broke off the engagement with Sister Ah Zhi, and now you're involved with a woman from the Five Great Families! Even loyal dogs know not to serve two masters. How can you be worse than a dog?"
"Shut up!" Cheng Jinyang tried to grab her mask, but in her extreme anger, Xiao Wangshu seemed to have greatly enhanced reaction speed and quickly ran to a place he couldn't reach.
"We didn't do anything!" Seeing Xiao Wangshu slip away, he could only angrily defend himself.
"That's right, we just slept." Cui Jinqi smiled.
So Xiao Wangshu immediately "understood" and angrily said:
"Pulling someone in again! Without everyone's consent, you arbitrarily bring in new people. Do you treat your dream realm as a harem..."
Before she could finish, Cheng Jinyang finally grabbed her shoulder and forcibly removed her mask.
Xiao Wangshu quickly buried herself in the bed, whimpering under the covers.
"Dream realm?" Cui Jinqi looked at him with a smile that wasn't a smile. "Harem? Oh?"
"I've already explained." Cheng Jinyang quickly lied, "Every night, I dream of myself in a garden, accompanied by seventy-two beautiful maidens..."
"Nonsense!" Cui Jinqi angrily said, "How could Miss Wang tolerate sharing her man with other women? This dream realm is definitely not as simple as you say!"
Cheng Jinyang secretly said that it was not good. This Young Miss Cui was accustomed to lying. She immediately recognized which of his half-true and half-false explanations were true and which were false.
However, he had never entered her dream and had no handle on her. Therefore, the conflict between him and Miss Cui was not so intense, and it was not to the point where he had to use interest binding to resolve it.
Therefore, he just sneered and spread his hands, refusing to admit it, and put on a dead pig that was not afraid of boiling water attitude:
"Believe it or not, it's up to you!"
"Don't forget, Clan Leader Cheng, you still owe my Cui family a loan!" Young Miss Cui narrowed her eyes, "What about the follow-up loans? Is the Cheng family not interested anymore?"
Cheng Jinyang: ???
There's a saying, the borrower is the grandson, the debtor is the grandfather. The prestigious Cheng family had borrowed a large sum from the Jiankang Bank, so technically, they were the debtors. However, since the Cui family provided installment loans and he allowed Miss Cui to live in their house, every time this matter was mentioned, he had to act like the grandson.
Without acting like a grandson, he wouldn't get the money!
So frustrating!
"I didn't intend to deceive you." Cheng Jinyang could only speak softly, "I can't prove it either. I say this and that, will you believe me?"
"I don't believe you unless I see it with my own eyes." Cui Jinqi, feeling in control, immediately took an unreasonable stance, "If they can enter your dream realm, why can't I?"
This could also be considered a gender advantage. When men are unreasonable, they're called "stingy," but when women... especially pretty girls, act stubbornly, it's considered "having character." It's evident that Miss Cui knew how to leverage her advantages.
Cheng Jinyang couldn't get angry, so he patiently explained:
"I'm not very clear about this either, but Miss Wang seems to have been researching this area. You can ask her about it."
That's it.
Cui Jinqi thought to herself, how could Wanrou, with her proud and self-righteous nature, lower herself to sleep with him every night? It makes sense that she wants to study the secrets of his dream realm. So she called Wang Wanrou, since Yang Wangshu had confirmed it herself, she wasn't baselessly making things up.
After dialing the number and getting no response for a while, Cheng Jinyang guessed, "She's probably at the family estate... Well, next time, you can go to the Taiyuan Wang family estate and ask her yourself, right? Her answer would be more credible to you than my explanation, wouldn't it?"
"She's at the family estate now?" Cui Jinqi asked skeptically, then took his phone and called Wang Wanrou again.
This time it rang twice, and someone answered:
"Hello?"
Cui Jinqi: ???
"Oh, so it wasn't that my call couldn't go through, but you've blocked my number!" she gritted her teeth.
"When did I block it?" the voice on the other end sounded puzzled. "Okay, what do you want?"
"What's going on with Cheng Jinyang's dreams?" Cui Jinqi got straight to the point.
"Why does it concern you?" Wang Wanrou asked in surprise.
"He's been pestering me to enter his dreams," Cui Jinqi started lying again, "I don't know what the dreams are about, so I came to ask you."
"You want to enter his dreams?" Wang Wanrou automatically translated her lie, "No, you're not qualified."
"Why?" Cui Jinqi was a bit indignant.
"You're too weak," Wang Wanrou said.
Everyone fell silent at her words.
Miss Cui's ability to control her powers in the nightmare battlefield was indeed lacking, but did you, Miss Wang, have the right to say that?
Aren't you just Cheng Jinyang's baggage in the nightmares? How can a backpack like you dare to say such things, thinking of yourself as a female knight?
"Why am I weak?" Cui Jinqi hadn't quite grasped the meaning yet, "Do you have to be strong to have dreams?"
"If not, then what?" Xiao Wangshu suddenly emerged from under the blanket (she had her whole body under the blanket, reaching out to find her mask for a while, and finally managed to find it), and typed, "Do you think you can join us just because you're pretty? Wrong! Very wrong!"
"Firstly, you must have sufficient ability to qualify to join us. Even if you come from the Five Great Families, you'll be rejected if you're mediocre."
"Secondly, to join us, you must pass the revealed of Miss Wang. Those with ulterior motives shouldn't even think about it!"
"Lastly, you must contribute to the team. If our team doesn't need you, what's the point of joining, even if you're strong and have the right mindset? I see you don't meet any of these three criteria and you still want to join the dream! Tsk, tsk, tsk, dream on!"
Cui Jinqi was furious, her face flushed red. How dare a mere member of the Hongnong Yang family bully her like this?
What's even more infuriating is that she couldn't argue back because the other party was already a member of the small team where Wang Wanrou was, and she didn't even know what this team was for.
Am I really that weak? Would Wang Wanrou rather let her join than let me know?
Cheng Jinyang also felt that Xiao Wangshu's words were a bit too much, so he stepped in to smooth things over: "Ahem, Jinqi, you really should ask for Wanrou's opinion on this matter. She's been researching it from start to finish, and we don't understand it at all. Even if we're willing to let you join, we're powerless."
That's true. He himself was passively recruiting people, not knowing who he was recruiting before entering the dreams, while Miss Wang could accurately choose Xiao Wangshu to join.
If Miss Cui wants to enter the dreams, she'll definitely have to find Miss Wang.
Perhaps sensing that he wasn't lying, Cui Jinqi once again pleaded softly into her phone:
"Wanrou, aren't we best friends? Can't you..."
"No." Wang Wanrou rejected outright.