Aunt Xu arrived half an hour later. She was playing mahjong with Aunt Ming, the biological mother of the second young lady. When she heard Mrs. Tao calling for her, she hurried over.

Mrs. Tao calmly told her about the matter of marrying Baoning in her place: "... I will say that the fourth young lady is ill and cannot get married in the short term. I am afraid that it will delay the fourth prince's age, so the fifth young lady will marry in her place. In a few days, I will adopt Baoning under my name, and she will also be a legitimate daughter. In addition, with my brother's advice, the emperor will not disapprove. It will be a good deal for you two. You will have your status corrected and become the prince's consort. You will be very proud."

Aunt Xu was so breathless that she almost fainted: "You talk so nicely, why don't you marry your daughter to a cripple! You are going to ruin Baoning's life!"

"Aunt, stop talking." Xu was too excited. Baoning was afraid that she would say something bad, so she quickly said goodbye and took her back to the yard.

Once they entered the house, Xu couldn't hold back her tears anymore, and threw herself on the bed and cried: "My son, it's because of my uselessness that you have suffered such injustice. How could my Baoning marry into such a place..."

Xu was a very gentle woman, always dignified and elegant. It was the first time Baoning saw her lose her composure like this.

Seeing her aunt like this, Baoning felt sad. She went forward and sat next to Xu, comforting her: "Aunt, don't be too sad. I think this is not a bad thing."

"Isn't this a bad thing?" Xu sat up in shock, "My son, don't you know what kind of person Pei Yuan is?"

Baoning recalled the few words she had heard from the servants in the mansion: "Insidious and cunning, dandy, cruel and vicious, notorious."

Xu nodded: "Not only that, he is now guilty of treason, how could the emperor tolerate him? He was not removed from the jade plate because of his dead mother, but living like that is no different from being dead. He is paralyzed in bed, neither human nor ghost, and he has a bad heart..."

Thinking of this, Xu cried again: "My poor Baoning!"

Baoning With a sigh, he hugged Xu's shoulders and whispered, "Auntie, but I still think it's good this way."

Xu choked and asked, "What's good about it?"

Baoning said, "At least the Fourth Prince can no longer marry or take concubines. There will only be me in his house, without any other messy people. How clean it is. After all, he is the son of the emperor. The original charges have been dealt with and he has been punished. He will never be killed again. Moreover, the Fourth Prince is like this, and there is no threat to the throne. It is estimated that no one else will want to harm him. In this way, it will be even cleaner, how good it is."

Xu didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "It is clean, but your lifelong happiness is gone!"

"What is happiness?" Bao Ning looked down at her fingers. "Like my elder sister, marrying the son of the Chongyuan Marquis, having endless worries and endless struggles every day is happiness. Or like my second sister, giving birth to children one after another, just for her husband to look at her more, is happiness? I don't want either. I just want to live a quiet life. I don't want to hurt others, and others don't want to hurt me. Marrying the fourth prince is good."

Xu was speechless for a moment, not knowing how to refute.

Bao Ning said again: "Besides, with the mistress's temper, what if we don't agree? She won't stop, and father can't help us."

Xu knew that what she said made sense and sighed.

After a long silence, Xu thought of something and suddenly frowned, "Ji Lin doesn't know about this yet. When he comes back, he will make a big fuss."

...

Ji Lin came back in the evening. As Xu expected, he was furious. He ran straight to Tao's yard to argue with her, but was held back by Bao Ning.

Ji Lin felt aggrieved but had nowhere to talk to, so he squatted on the ground with his arms folded, his eyes slowly turning red: "It's all my fault. Tao's brother is a second-rank general, so she has the confidence to be so domineering. If I became a general in the future, my sister wouldn't be bullied like this."

Bao Ning laughed: "You are only twelve years old, and her brother is almost forty years old. What's the comparison?"

Ji Lin was twelve years old and the only son of the Duke's Mansion. Although Tao didn't like him, she didn't dare to blame him. He had always been raised with pampering. Bao Ning had never seen him cry, and suddenly saw Ji Lin like this, she felt very uncomfortable.

Bao Ning coaxed him: "Okay, when you become successful in the future, sister will divorce the fourth prince, and you can take sister away, okay?"

Ji Yan raised her head and asked with tears in her eyes: "Really?"

Bao Ning nodded.

Ji Yan was really comforted. She held Bao Ning's hand and said firmly: "Don't worry, sister, I will study harder and practice martial arts in the future. I will stand out as soon as possible and take you away from that place!"

Bao Ning smiled and touched his hair.

...

Three days later, the Shaofu prison sent a betrothal gift.

Pei Yuan's crime was treason. He and the crown prince Pei Che wanted to kill the king and ascend the throne. Fortunately, he was discovered by the third prince Pei Xiao in time, so he didn't make a big mistake.

The emperor was furious and immediately imprisoned the two men, abolished their titles and titles, and issued an order to execute them in the autumn. But later, Pei Che suddenly became seriously ill in prison, and disappeared a few days after he was released from prison for recuperation. Pei Yuan also injured his body and became a disabled man. The emperor was old and angry and anxious about the two sons. He fell seriously ill. After he recovered, he may have thought a lot more, and he did not pursue Pei Yuan's crimes and let him go.

To put it nicely, Pei Yuan was a disfavored fourth prince. To put it bluntly, he was a son abandoned by the emperor, waiting for him to fend for himself.

Baoning had already prepared a meager betrothal gift, but when he really saw it, he was still shocked.

A large rusty and paint-chipped box, hastily wrapped with a few strips of red silk, was opened to reveal only three bags of millet and five taels of silver wrapped in rags.

Ji Jiaying laughed out loud on the spot: "I thought the Fourth Prince was down and out, but I didn't expect him to be so down and out. Even if a farmer with only a few acres of land were to marry a daughter-in-law,

the bride wouldn't be so shabby, right?" The eunuch who came from the Shaofu Supervisor to deliver gifts had not left yet. Hearing his daughter say this, Duke Rong felt a little embarrassed and shouted, "Jiaying, shut up."

The little eunuch didn't care. He smiled and said, "What the Fourth Miss said is right. The Emperor said that although the Fourth Prince will not be removed from the jade plate, his rest of the treatment will be no different from that of common people. Duke, don't think our betrothal gift is shabby. We are just doing our job and there is nothing we can do about it."

Duke Rong carefully glanced at Baoning's face and felt a lot more relaxed when he saw that she was still smiling.

He felt somewhat guilty about his daughter, but he had no power to do anything. Mrs. Tao was powerful, and he really needed to rely on Tao Maobing, so he dared not go against his wife's wishes.

However, since Baoning didn't care, he felt much better.

Mrs. Tao gave him some reward silver, said a few polite words, and sent the eunuch from the Shaofu Supervisor away.

Baoning thanked him and took the big box back to Xu's yard.

Ji Jiaying's voice came from behind: "Tsk, you can still laugh, I don't know if you are really stupid or just pretending."

...

After returning to the room, Xu was naturally upset for a while, but she didn't dare to show it for fear of hurting her daughter's feelings, and secretly sighed outside. After

sighing, she continued to go back to the room to help Baoning embroider the wedding dowry.

The wedding date was set too hastily, just ten days later, saying that it was an auspicious day, and after that time, we had to wait another half a year. The fourth prince might not be able to wait.

Everyone knew what "can't wait" meant.

Although Baoning had not been engaged before, she had been making her dowry. She and Xu were both skilled in making dowry. They worked hard for ten days and finally finished it.

The day of the wedding came in a flash.

The Shaofu Supervisor sent a carriage with leaks on all sides. It really carried out the emperor's will to the end, and Pei Yuan was to be treated as a commoner.

Ji Yan went to take a look and felt a pain in his heart. He sat on the steps and sulked.

Baoning smiled and persuaded him a few words, but didn't take it to heart. She put on the flower hairpins in front of the mirror.

She dressed up very seriously, following the procedures that a bride should follow when getting married, making up her face, braiding her hair, and wearing a phoenix crown. Bao Ning was very open-minded. She had to live her life on her own. No matter what others said, it would not affect her. No matter how poor she was, she had to be clean, beautiful and comfortable.

Besides, she was not that poor, right?

Bao Ning was a beauty. Even without makeup, her appearance was the most outstanding among the six girls in the mansion. Now she was wearing a bright red wedding dress and lipstick, which made people unable to take their eyes off her.

She turned around and asked Xu with a smile: "Mother, do I look good?"

Xu wiped her tears and said: "Our Bao Ning is the most beautiful. The fourth prince will definitely like you very much."

Bao Ning smiled even more happily, her eyes like a crescent moon.

After waiting for a while, when the auspicious time came, Ji Yan carried Bao Ning out of the mansion and sent her to the carriage.

The boy's back was still a little frail, but it was already very stable. He walked step by step, his voice trembling a little: "Sister, I will visit you often in the future, you have to be nice to yourself."

Baoning whispered in his ear: "Don't worry, your sister has never been bad to me."

Ji Pingle said: "Sister, don't worry! If your brother-in-law dares to bully you in the future, I will help you beat him up."

...

At the gate of the Duke of Rong's mansion, everyone who should come has come.

Tao looked indifferent, Ji Jiaying hugged her chest and watched the show, and Aunt Ye and her sixth daughter shrank and hid at the back, revealing a pair of dark eyes looking at her, half mocking and half afraid, afraid that they would end up like this in the future.

Only Aunt Ming and Aunt Xu looked at her worriedly, with tears in their eyes. Aunt Ming was the biological mother of the second young lady. She was shrewd and capable, and was a good friend of Xu.

Baoning sat in the carriage, lifted the curtain and waved to them. Before she could say a word, the driver shouted "Go" and drove away slowly.

...

All along the way, Baoning was recalling Pei Yuan's appearance. Baoning

had some impression of him. Three years ago on the Lantern Festival, she went out with Aunt Ming and Tao. When she stood at the window of the restaurant facing the street and looked down, she saw a young man in bright clothes riding a horse and whipping his horse. Behind him followed a group of black-clad attendants, which frightened passers-by and made them avoid him. The young man had

a very handsome appearance and an arrogant aura. The handle of his whip was made of silver, which emitted a ray of light in the dark night.

The waiter said that it was the fourth prince Pei Yuan, who was uneducated, had a dandy air, and had even killed someone. But he was a prince, and no one dared to offend him, so they could only hide.

At that time, no one had thought that Pei Yuan would become what he is now, and Bao Ning had never thought that there would be such an entanglement between them.

But no matter what he was like before, he would be her husband in the future, and she couldn't just abandon Pei Yuan.

Bao Ning thought that she would treat Pei Yuan with all her heart, have a clear conscience, and live a good life with him. As for what would happen in the future, she would just take things as they come and take it one step at a time.

The carriage had been going for an unknown amount of time, swaying slowly, as if it had reached some desolate wilderness.

Bao Ning hadn't eaten in the morning, and she was already so hungry that she was panicking. When she was about to be unable to bear it, the carriage finally stopped.

The driver opened the curtain and said to her, "Fourth Prince's Consort, we're here."