Fearing that others might overhear, the nurse went back to Old Lady Lu to gossip about her. While dismissing the servants, she advised her, "Young lady, anger is harmful to your health. Let's not get angry. The Marquis's Mansion is relying on you now. Doesn't this make you feel better?"
Wu Ziya was still furious, but her voice softened a bit. "How could they rely on me? They just wanted to spend my money. As an in-law, it's totally up to Mother to come or not. The old lady invited us specifically, so she should come. Adding dowry is also for the sake of appearance. One or two pieces are enough to make it look good. But why do you insist on me adding two dowries? Wouldn't the dowries added by everyone else make up enough for two dowries?"
What Wu Ziya and the wet nurse didn't know was that Old Madam Lu had already started gathering people from the Lu family to add to Lu Lingjiao's dowry. Some families brought some, and some families brought some. In the end, the mansion only needed to prepare ten loads of dowry.
But the wet nurse knew how to save face. She advised Wu Ziya, "A box of things is one lift, and a large screen is also one lift, right? What's more, there are good and bad screens."
Wu Ziya's eyes lit up, and she remembered something. She called her personal maid, Jia Meng, and asked, "I remember who embroidered the screen before? You were in the yard, chattering about how beautiful it was?"
Jia Meng smiled and said, "This was embroidered by me."
"Let me see it." Wu Ziya said quickly.
Jia Meng looked at her wet nurse, then reluctantly went back to her room and brought the embroidery. She embroidered two pieces in total, one kang screen and one folding screen. The kang screen was in the pattern of persimmons and ruyi, and the folding screen was in the pattern of magpies climbing branches.
Wu Ziya thought it was beautiful and casually grabbed a handful of copper coins and gave them to Jia Meng: "Nice embroidery, I want it."
"Miss, this is the gift I give to my brother when he gets married." Jia Meng said quickly.
Wu Ziya waved her hand nonchalantly: "Just embroider it again."
"But now, it's too late to embroider." Jia Meng was about to cry. She was a servant girl of the Wu family and a maidservant beside Wu Ziya. She came to the Lu family as part of the dowry.
But her parents and brothers all worked for the Wu family, and her brother married the daughter of a manager in the mansion, so the family attached great importance to this marriage.
Besides, this handful of copper coins is not enough to buy these embroidery works.
Wu Ziya waved her hands impatiently: "Your brother getting married is a small matter. If you want to save face, I will reward you with something later."
Seeing Jiameng's expression, she became even more impatient. She stood up and rummaged through her makeup box, found a pair of unworn earrings, and stuffed them into Jiameng's hands: "The master gave her a gift of honor, and besides, this is a good thing. Give it to your sister-in-law, isn't it better than this embroidery?"
Jia Meng's eyes welled with tears. No matter how reluctant she was, she could only kneel down to thank him. But how could her new sister-in-law appreciate such a thing? Regardless of the price of the item, just because it was worn before, it would not be as good as a screen embroidered by herself, which would show her more thoughtfulness.
As for the fact that a young lady had disappeared from the mansion, who would remember? Who would even mention it? Jia Meng wouldn't bring it up anyway. Whether Wu Ziya knew about it or not, given her temper, she wouldn't take it to heart, so there was no need for her to know.
The nurse glanced at Jiameng's back and said to Wu Ziya, "Miss, this girl has developed other ideas. I'm afraid we can't keep her."
"Then just find a boy and send him away. Nanny, please help me frame this screen." Wu Ziya touched the pattern of Shishi Ruyi and felt a little sorry that there would be no girl with such good embroidery skills around her in the future.
The wet nurse took the things downstairs and immediately matched Jiameng with a servant from the Lu family farm. She was married off the next day and was even kind enough to let her take away all the things she had saved over the years.
Wu Ziya solved one load of dowry, but was worried about the other: "There's still one load. It has to look good, but it can't cost too much money. It's too difficult."
The nurse smiled and said, "What's so difficult about this? Isn't this the "descendants' cake"? I heard it came from the Northern Di? Or Fengyang? Qufu? Well, I don't know where exactly it came from, but I heard that newlyweds who eat this will have many children and good fortune. Look, it has a good meaning and saves money. I'll find someone to make it."
Wu Ziya was very happy: "The nanny is so considerate."
The nurse found the man who made the Zisun cakes and asked the price. His expression immediately changed: "It's just some flour, why is it so expensive? One hundred taels of silver?!"
The woman making the Zisun cakes also had a bad look on her face. She pointed to the Zisun cakes she had made today and said, "Take a look at this. It's not easy to make Zisun cakes like this. Many things need to be prepared in advance. What's more, you need it urgently. This one hundred taels of silver is the market price. You can ask around in the capital and you will know."
The wet nurse naturally had to ask, but after traveling around the capital, she found out that it was really such an expensive thing!
The wet nurse was worried about the money, so she carefully observed the appearance of the children's cakes. When she got home, she asked the cook in the small kitchen to make them in the same way.
The cook had never eaten the Zisun cake, but she had seen it before, so she patted her chest and guaranteed that she could make it well.
When Lu Lingjiao was getting married the day before, the dowry was delivered and the team attracted everyone's attention as soon as they went out.
After all, nowadays, the general dowry for a wedding is twenty loads. A wealthy family would only give sixty or eighty loads to their beloved daughter.
When the concubine of the Marquis of Pingyang got married, she was given a dowry of forty-eight loads, which was quite magnificent.
At the same time, Lu Lingrui, dressed in men's clothes, stood on the second floor of Shuangxi Tea House, looking at the lively scene below, wondering what she was thinking.
Bai Wanyi quietly stood behind her and said, "Do you regret it? I heard that Wei was planning to take the throne for the second young master of the Chang'an Marquisate. If you hadn't faked your death, you would have married the second young master by now. Eighth sister's plan has come to nothing."
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