165 Pre-Marital Preparations

The marriage is set.

I, Xiang Qing and Yin Zi are discussing every day about the preparations, about whether it is better to purchase a bride sedan chair or rent one? How to fake birth date details and horoscope? How many gifts for the bride's dowry should be sent to the bride's family to be considered generous? Should Yin Zi receive them himself or should we find someone to pretend to be a distant relative?

The most important point is that the woman's family is too far away, we can't have them journey hundreds of miles to LouYing mountain, right? It will also not be good for Xiao Cha's family to send her so far away, not to mention that the Hua manor is located in a dense forest, it is also a den of demons, even if they don't scare humans, the surroundings alone is enough to.

Yin Zi feels that the journey will be more sincere and Xiang Qing thinks there is no need to go through so much trouble, it is a waste of time and that he should just treat this house as his family home. However, when Xiao Cha is officially married and will eventually have children along with Xiao Mao, when he returns, will all have to live here together with us, it will be really crowded and it's hard to rely on this small house. There's also the problem of having enough furnishings.

The two men quarreled for a long time and finally reached a compromise, and decided to rebuild a big house. In the future, the two families can comfortably live together.

There is no problem with money, I and Xiang Qing have worked hard recently and helped a rich household to solve some troubles with demons, so got a relatively high payout and adding that with the money Yin Zi had it was enough. Anyway, as long as we build the house in the countryside and don't paint and decorate everywhere, it'll be very cheap. Also, we don't have to spend much money on building materials, we can also ask for spare materials from craftsmen as is custom amongst the people. There were also people who will work for free to build the house as long we provide them with three meals a day, because my family is now a rich client, the three meals are meat buns or noodles and eggs so everyone is very happy and contacted with Yin Zi and Xiang Qing, who quickly arranged it all.

During the construction of the house, we continued with the other preparations and sent the official request for marriage, grandmother took on the role of matchmaker and went to the Ye household. So no effort was spent and she came back to inform that they agreed.

Xiang Qing already picked out a birth date. Xiao Cha also came out in the middle of the night to find Yin Zi to ensure the calculation is the become compatibility for husband and wife to deliver to the family. My mother-in-law, Old master Ye, and Old madam Ye were very happy that they had not chosen the wrong person.

The gifts sent by Yin Zi were ten times more than what the average rich man sends; 22 gold pieces, 120 silver, 80 bolts of silk and two hundred different kinds of jewels, the people that carried them were over twenty. When the Ye family saw the generous dowry, they were even more satisfied with their son-in-law, so they took back their words of not sending a dowry for her, and added a lot of furniture and clothing materials.

Looking at this, I thought that what I sent for Xiang Qing was too casual, I didn't expect it would be much less compared to Yin Zi's. Later, I secretly about it, it turns out that my mother-in-law attaches a lot of importance to face, it would not be good to for her son's marriage to be inferior to his wife's younger brother's and she doesn't want to be laughed at so so she took out majority of her savings to get more gifts. In any case, the dowry I will be taking home will be no different from Yin Zi's.

As usual practice, the bride's side must return the courtesy, usually by embroidering an insole. Therefore...I twitched and picked up a needle and poked my finger and it broke, I broke a lot. Xiang Qing sweetly offered to help me embroider, but his gesture was rejected by me and it took a whole month for me to successfully embroider a green snake on an insole. However, everyone said that it looked like a grasshopper or a worm...it was a huge blow to my self-esteem and Xiang Qing comforted me, "Anyway, it for wearing on the feet, no one will be able to see it."

Yin Zi picked up the sole and annoyingly smiled for a very long time.

He couldn't smile for long, because Xiao Cha's return gift was delivered. The person delivering the gift was the Ye house's young master. He rubbed the cold sweat off his forehead and then showed the sole embroidered with a fat white chicken, it looked like he was having a hard time handing over the sole to Yin Zi and said, "My little sister's embroidery skills are lacking, please bear with it. If you really cannot, I will go find an embroidery girl to do it over, but please promise not to tell anyone. You must not hold this against her."

"it's okay like this." Yin Zi braced himself and took it.

I waited for the young master to leave and laughed at him, "My embroidery is ugly but at least it can be worn! You have a big fat chicken in the middle of it, you can't walk with it."

Yin Zi gave me a contemptuous look and said, "That's because earthworms are thin and long! it's embroidered for the inside so I can still wear it. Both of you are idiots."

I immediately rushed to bite him.

Although the construction of the house is fast, it will still take at least four months to complete. I can't wait to announce to the world that I am going to marry Xiang Qing. Xiao Cha anxiously sneaks into my room every day, every time she comes, she will grab me and ask about Yin Zi, does he regret it? When she can marry in?

I had to comfort her, but she couldn't eat and sleep well. After a while, Yin Zi couldn't stand it and roared at her one night, "if you give me dark circles before the marriage, I will immediately cancel the engagement!"

So Xiao Cha diligently stayed at home, because Xiang Qing was busy every day with the new house, so I went to see her from time to time to play, to give her a report on what Yin Zi does every day to make her happy.

Xiao Cha is very grateful for this and would give me tips about clothing, and how to make cosmetics, saying that a bride must maintain her skin and that the cosmetics sold in these ancient times are not good, and it is better to do it yourself. She also took me around the Ye family, at this time she seems to have a good relationship with her parents and brothers. I still don't understand why she always says that she has other parents in the future.

I'll just forget about things I don't understand.

Ye family has a big ancestral hall, it is usually locked. It is only opened during the new year period for them to go in to worship their ancestors. When I walked past that area, I ran into Madam Ye, because I am Xiao Cha's future sister-in-law, she gently asked me to stop and asked for my name.

After I told her my name, she suddenly laughed and said, "Your name is the same as the benefactor of my family. In the future, be sure to get along well with Xiao Cha.

What benefactor? I do not understand.

Madam Ye began to tell me a story. She said that many years ago, the ancestor of the Ye family called Diu Zi was an orphan. After being adopted by the Madam Ye, he then changed his name to Ye Dou, at first they worked very hard. Then later because Madam Ye's was very sick and so he had stolen a money bag from a Miss called Hua Miao Miao, but he was caught. Later not only did the Miss not blame him, but she also gave him a lot of money to help him treat his mother and live well. After Madam Ye died of her illness, he used the money left over to start a business, he did not expect it to progress smoothly. Later, his grandson passed the civil examination, went to court and became an official. Later, after the dynasty change and with so many ups and downs, our family still did not fall. Today, even though our prestige is not the same as before, it can be considered a smooth life. Ye family did not dare to forget the goodwill of Miss Hua Miao Miao and erected a shrine in the temple to thank her every year.

I initially thought that it was just a good person with the same name as me. Upon hearing her story, I was very happy and added a few good points for the Ye family in my heart.

Later, when Xiao Cha was bored, I told her about it, she was very surprised and said, "Helping on a minor matter, unexpectedly yielded such good results. In the past helping a young child, and now becoming relatives with his later generation, It is really serendipitous."

**(Remember the little beggar who stole the money she got from performing during her mortal assessment, ch 64...he's the Ye family ancestor)**