Pearl smiled and said, "My son-in-law just told me to tell you to wash up and have breakfast as soon as you get up. He got up at 11:00 AM, and I saw him going to the study."

I guess he went to handle official business.

I was supposed to serve tea this morning and should be back soon. Yining sat down on the small table by the window, leaning against the large kang, and let Zhenzhu wash her face. She took the dowry book and flipped through it, then suddenly froze. "Why are there so many extra pages?"

There were farms in Wanping, shops in Daxing, and even plum vases carved with pure gold and depicting good fortune and longevity, and jade Buddha statues...

Yining remembered that these were the things on Luo Shenyuan’s betrothal gift list!

Those were betrothal gifts, how could they also include those things? That's a full 40,000 taels. Could it be that Wei Ling just let her bring them here as a dowry?

Yining immediately asked Zhenzhu to invite in Mama Lou and Mama Fan, who came with the dowry. These two were pointed out to her by Wei Ling, who said they were old servants.

As the two old ladies entered, they noticed from Yi Ning's complexion and sitting posture that the son-in-law and the young lady had not had intercourse last night. Their smiles softened, and they knew exactly how to report back to the Duke of Ying's residence. Then, bowing, they asked, "What are your wishes, Madam?"

Yi Ning placed the dowry list on the small table and pointed at the pages: "What's going on?"

The two maids looked at each other, and then Lou Mama said, "The Duke said it would be your dowry, so I added it in."

Yi Ning's hands trembled a little as she held the thick dowry list. It was so heavy, one hundred thousand taels of silver! She took a deep breath. Even if Wei Ling doted on his daughter, a dowry of one hundred thousand taels of silver was still too heavy.

But there was no reason to return the dowry, so Yi Ning could only look at it again and again. She didn't know whether to sigh that her third brother was rich or that her father was rich. She didn't care about these priceless things, because now they were all hers.

The shock of seeing the dowry list had barely subsided when another maid arrived to pay her respects. It was the maid Luo Shenyuan had recently assigned to her. Several people entered one after another, and Yi Ning immediately spotted the tall, slender, fair-skinned Fu Jiang. Last time, she had secretly spoken to Lin Hairu, saying that her third brother didn't want to touch them, but she had...

When she saw Fu Jiang, she didn't know why she remembered what happened last night. Their breaths were connected, and he was very hot against her. She could clearly feel the reaction, but she did nothing.

Yi Ning coughed. She was not used to being waited on by unfamiliar people. These new girls were assigned to the back room to do some idle work.

The girls had been serving Luo Shenyuan first, and he had probably given half of his people to her. The girls were respectful and obedient, showing no signs of discontent. They were extremely respectful to her, as expected, because they had been serving Luo Shenyuan first.

Yining saw that the sun had already shone into the yard and estimated that it was time, so she asked the maid to comb her hair.

Luo Shenyuan returned from outside and saw her leaning against the pillow through the partition. Her maid had spread her hair loose, spreading it across the bright red Lu Chou bed. Her hair was like silk, surely of precious silk, with a lustrous, pale green sheen. She lowered her head to read the list in her hand. Her bright red jacket, embroidered with the Four Joys and Ruyi patterns, made her face as white as a jade plate, appearing translucent and luminous. A thin layer of warm velvet made her seem even more delicate, as if she could be ripped apart by a bite.

Only after the maid outside passed the message did Luo Shenyuan go in.

He looked even taller in the morning light, his body instantly blocking the light from her reading the list. But in a flash, he walked to her side and asked, "What are you looking at?"

When Yi Ning heard his voice, she felt a little lost. Although they were brother and sister, they had never lived together. Now they lived together. When he walked to her side, Yi Ning could still smell the clean scent of soapberry on him. It was a sudden closeness.

Without waiting for her to answer, while she was stunned, the bony hand took the dowry list from her hand.

"Dowry list..." He looked up at her, "Why are you studying this?"

Yi Ning saw his thick eyebrows, high nose bridge, and handsome jaw. She wanted to snatch the dowry list from him: "You can't look at this..."

Luo Shenyuan frowned slightly: "Why can't I watch it?"

Yi Ning wanted to get it back anyway! It would not be good if he saw that the betrothal gifts sent in had become dowry. But he was so tall that Yi Ning had to kneel on the bed to snatch it from him. But she was still not as tall as him, so he deliberately didn't let her get it. When she was about to grab it, he would immediately hide away and then turn his back to continue looking at it. Yi Ning felt like she was being bullied like a little girl in front of him. He was just teasing her and didn't care about being embarrassed. She stretched out her hand several times to grab it and said angrily: "Only those who are thinking about their wife's dowry will look at this!"

She was so anxious to grab it that Luo Shenyuan saw her face flush with anger, so he said, "Didn't I deliver the things above to the Duke of Ying's Mansion? Why are you thinking about it?"

Yining looked at him in confusion. She had never been bullied by him before and didn't know what to say.

Luo Shenyuan touched her hair and felt that she was still like a child. He said, "Now you finally dare to look at me, right?" He returned her dowry list to her like she was a puppy guarding its food, and added, "Don't worry, Third Brother won't take your things."

Yi Ning gritted her teeth, knowing he was doing it on purpose. She smiled slowly, "Of course, only a cowardly and incompetent man would steal someone's dowry. My third brother is the Minister of Works and a former top scholar. He's incredibly talented. He'd only bully a little girl like me, but he certainly wouldn't steal someone's dowry."

After hearing this, Luo Shenyuan's mouth twitched slightly, but he didn't say anything else.

Mother Fang watched with a pursed smile, then ordered breakfast. It was noodles, though, shredded eel noodles, served in a thick broth with a drizzle of sesame oil and a side of fresh pickled cucumber. Yining loved noodles and ate a lot. Luo Shenyuan, on the other hand, ate very little. When he saw her finish, he put down his chopsticks, took her hand, and said softly.

"Let's go, we have to go and pay our respects to them."

Since there was no branch clan and they were not living in different places, there was no reason for the Luo family to live separately. Therefore, they all moved to Fuxue Hutong, which was more convenient for Luo Shenyuan. He lived in Xinqiao Hutong, which was too far from the six ministries.

He walked with her on the road, and Yining suddenly felt that they were still like when they were little. But it was she who insisted on holding his hand, but he was reluctant to let him hold his hand, so now he was holding her hand.

Luo Shenyuan usually doesn't like to talk much, but at this moment he said to her, "Don't be surprised when you see your mother later. She has prepared another big gift for you. No matter how others persuade you, it's useless."

Lin Hairu?

Yining was a little curious. What was she preparing?