Xu Tiangang nodded his head. Just like that, without knowing anything, Xu Mingwei and Yue Lao's red strings were tied up. Having gone through the process of the Gengci Suite, it was naturally a sign of great fortune and peace. The good fortune provided by the heavens had caused the nervous Lady Helan in his heart to become more confident towards this marriage. After that, the Fu Clan sent over a keepsake for their engagement. It was a pair of bright moon shaped earrings with a jade-green base. The material was old and had been sculpted once again. It also had gold inlay, making it look extremely precious.
With the Fu Family attaching such importance to the marriage, Lady Helan was gradually becoming more satisfied with it. However, she was no longer as conflicted as she was before.
During this period, the Lady Ji finally gave birth to a male baby which weighed more than nine kilograms. This made the Old Lady Xu very happy, and not only did she not care about the foolish things that the Lady Ji's butler had done, she even sent some precious things into the courtyard of the second house. Even the wet nurse arranged by the Lady Helan had to personally take a look before being able to use it, but after all these years, it was the first time that the Lady Ji had such a reputation in the Xu Family, and it was natural that she was overjoyed. She even began to think highly of the young lad, and stopped asking Xu Mingmei what she had read.
Lady Helan liked this child in her heart, and Xu Mingwei stayed in the palace all the time, so she couldn't return home. When Xu Mingmei left school, she would often take the large room to talk to him, and would not avoid the matters regarding the butler, instead bringing Xu Mingwei along to watch and study, and gradually becoming more intimate with him.
Although she was a little jealous, but she understood her difficult situation. Whenever Mu Xiu-Ri was at home, they would go in and out of the house together, and sleep together with Xu Mingmei. As time passed, Xu Mingmei spent more time in the big house, and even prepared a set of commonly used things there.
Only then did he learn that his daughter had not been home for more than two months from the wet nurse. He was enraged in his heart, for this inside and outside thing was actually like a dog in the big house. Sister-in-law too! His own daughter had been sent to the palace, so he could not help but snatch someone else's item from her! If you like children so much, then go and give birth to one yourself!
It was the wet nurse who tried to advise him otherwise. Ever since Lady Ji became pregnant and had a child, she had never had a daughter in her eyes. She had always focused on her son. Besides, being close with the big house was not a bad thing for Xu Mingmei. So what if the Eldest Wife treated her well? would rather have the Eldest Wife bring him upbringing, so in the future, the title of "marriage" would be better to hear.
That was why he suppressed his anger and sent the wet nurse to open the dowry box. He found a set of good quality pawns and sent it to the Lady Helan in the main house, as a form of thanking her for rearing Xu Mingmei's butler.
The Lady Helan did not decline, and freely accepted the gift from the Lady Ji. She did not treat Xu Mingmei any different either, as she would usually do whatever she had to do. Xu Mingmei actually knew that something like that happened in the Lady Ji's room. Seeing that the Lady Helan was feeling guilty, she felt that she had caused trouble for the Aunt and her originally gentle personality became more and more quiet.
Seeing that, Lady Helan felt more and more pity for him, bringing along the butler even more attentively. Old Lady Xu saw Xu Mingmei by her side a few times, and slowly left some message. This child was not as crazy as her mother and was well-bred. In the future, she would be easy to find a husband for.
Lady Helan naturally agreed.
As the New Year approached, and the New Year holiday was being held in the palace, Xu Mingwei returned home to stay. Lady Helan wanted to test her and Xu Mingmei. He had assigned to them all the posts in the Xu family that were waiting for guests.
The Lady Helan laughed, "You have to plan this out well, otherwise, if you miss out on anyone, it will be extremely inappropriate."
Xu Mingwei and Xu Mingmei looked at each other and laughed, then took over the book from Lady Helan's hands. They replied together, "I know, I will settle it well."
The Lady Helan waved their hands and let them go out to play, then Xu Mingwei pulled Xu Mingmei's hand and ran out.
The two of them went to Xu Mingwei's courtyard and unrolled the chronicles of the new year. Over the past few days, there weren't many people coming and going, and each clan had to prepare for the new year, not to mention that they didn't have time to come and visit, they wouldn't be so blind as to come and join in on the fun. Therefore, the two of them had to pay attention to the days after the third day of the first month when they would be visiting relatives and friends. Compared to last year's, they had roughly listed the families that had been in contact with the Xu family, which families were they from, and what kind of circumstances were they in this year. For example, they had to know in advance whether or not there would be anything unsuitable for them to do this year, or whether or not there would be additional problems.
Xu Mingwei and Xu Mingmei spent an entire three days before they finished preparing the list. Before showing it to the Lady Helan, Xu Mingwei became more cautious and pulled Xu Mingmei over to ask the Master Fang for his opinion.
Although Master Fang had never been a proper family, he could not be wrong about matters of etiquette. After looking through it carefully, he did not find any mistakes, but he still praised the two sisters. looked at Xu Mingwei happily. This was the first time she was officially doing something big, and even got praise from her teacher. How could she not be happy?
The two of them jogged into Lady Helan's courtyard and presented the list to him as if they were offering a treasure. He pointed to the arrangements on the fifth day of the first month and said, "The Imperial Duke's health is not very good this year. I heard that the residence was intending to invite a monk from the Shoushan Temple to conduct meditation. I'm afraid that when the time comes, he would be too busy to bother with mundane affairs.
A few days ago, he often saw the Fu Clan's Eldest Wife sending people over to deliver goods to her courtyard. He had even specifically pointed out that it was Fu Heng who had collected these things. Logically speaking, it should be because their Xu family owed the Fu family, but why did they keep their things?
After all, this body was still young, she had never thought about marriage, and subconsciously, Xu Mingwei had always thought that whenever there was something, Lady Helan would always tell her directly.
The Lady Helan saw her startled, and laughed, "You do have the friendship of a schoolmate, and since you have kindness and family, let's take advantage of the new year to walk around a bit more."
Xu Mingwei nodded her head in agreement, then asked Lady Helan, "Mother, the person who sent the thread has already been decided, but who did he want to ask to write it? The words' Sister Mei 'and I are shameful, it would be a joke if we were to write it. "
The Lady Helan laughed, "Such a clever little boy, it would be easy to write a few posts, go find your father, or go find your Master Fang, aren't they all good people?"
Xu Mingwei facepalmed. Yes, why didn't she think of that! She left all the candidates beside him with no rules in her mind. She was really too busy to understand it.
The Lady Helan gently spoke to Xu Mingmei again, "This is the first time you have managed to be so meticulous with your affairs, at your age, it is really not easy. Bring your sister along and write a new post, send her through the mansion earlier, and after receiving the return letter, you can make arrangements. There will always be some people who will make temporary mistakes, and their days still have to be adjusted. In the front, you're half done, but in the back, you're in trouble. "
Xu Mingmei was so excited that her cheeks flushed, and she said in a trembling voice, "Don't worry Aunt, sister and I will do our best."
There was still a steward waiting to speak with Lady Helan, so Xu Mingwei and Xu Mingmei left the room and followed Nanny Xue to the warehouse to get the scalding gold Xue Hongjian to write a post. Xu Mingwei did not wait for Xu Tiangang to come down from the palace and settle the matter with Xu Mingmei. When she felt that the matter had not bothered the two masters, she held her hand and went to Master Fang.
Master Fang had been on vacation for the past few days, and he didn't want to go home even though it was a long way off. He only asked someone to bring a bag of silver home to fill up the household.
Xu Mingdong, from the three rooms, had even secretly teased her older sister. It must be because the Master Fang's family was extremely poor that they refused to return home even during the new year. They only wanted to stay with the Xu family. On the contrary, he was scolded by Xu Mingqiang. As a descendant of a clan, he should be respectful to his teacher. Of course, Xu Mingdong felt a wave of awkwardness and then regretted it afterwards. Her big sister was going out after the new year, and the two of them hadn't been together for many days. How could he be mad at an outsider and her big sister?
After thinking it through, Xu Mingdong became like a person again the next day. The two of them chose to forget about the argument and started to embroider things like wedding clothes.
What Xu Mingdong did not expect was that fourth wife and the other two sisters who were separated by a courtyard would also arrange the Master Fang like his, some said that her family was poor, and some said that she was an ominous person, but without the help of someone to stop his, the three sisters would talk animatedly inside the house, and it was fortunate that all the servants in the room were close girls, otherwise, just by saying that, the three sisters' reputation would be ruined.
It was not as if the Master Fang did not know of all the rumors. However, he still played the zither and practiced his calligraphy every day, regardless of the criticism from the audience. He was still calm and composed. Just this state of mind was enough to make Xu Mingwei respect her even more. An ancient woman with such an open-minded and calm heart, already surpassing countless of men in the world.