Chapter 316 Selection (Part 2)
Meet Xu Lingyi in the evening.
Xu Lingyi was quite disappointed: "Old Zhuo and I have a special relationship. If this can work out, it would be a good thing. But I think that boy has a handsome appearance but is not smart enough. He is not a good match for our Zhen Jie."
"What should we do then?" asked Eleventh Lady.
"I didn't refuse outright." Xu Lingyi said, "I mentioned it briefly during the dinner, saying that Zhen Jie grew up under my mother's lap, and her marriage would most likely require my mother's approval."
Eleventh Lady pondered, "That's the best way to put it. We have some room to maneuver." Then she told Xu Lingyi what the lady had said, "We should investigate the young master of the Wang family carefully."
"That's what I thought, too." Xu Lingyi said, "I sent someone to inquire this afternoon. We should have a reply tomorrow." He added, "In two days, Chen Ge's youngest son will be getting married, and Shun Wang's family has a newborn boy and wants to invite him to a full-month gift. Keep an eye out when you go."
Eleventh Lady agreed, and was also curious about the marriage of Chen Ge's youngest son: "... Which girl did he marry?"
Xu Lingyi looked at her with a half-smile: "She is engaged to the eldest daughter of Wan Chun, the governor of Gansu."
Eleventh Lady was slightly startled, then she thought of the first time she heard the name Wanchun... Her face blushed.
Xu Lingyi came over and laughed softly, "I wonder who the eldest daughter of Jinhua prefect Wanchun is engaged to?"
Eleventh Lady glared at him and said, "What does other people's family affairs have to do with us?"
Xu Lingyi laughed loudly, hugged her horizontally, and whispered in her ear: "If you have nothing to do, let's discuss it!"
Suddenly, a maid's voice came from outside the door: "My Lord, Madam, Lin Bo is here!"
"Let him come again tomorrow!" Xu Lingyi strode towards the bed.
Eleventh Lady gently pushed him and said, "It's so late. Lin Bo must have come to see you for something urgent. You should meet him first!"
Xu Lingyi hesitated for a moment.
Eleventh Lady struggled to get down: "Master, you should go and take a look!"
Xu Lingyi put her on the bed and whispered, "Wait for me a moment!"
Eleventh Lady nodded slightly, watched Xu Lingyi leave the inner room, and thought of his previous teasing.
Yesterday’s lovemaking was undoubtedly wonderful. Xu Lingyi should have felt it as well, right?
Life experience tells her that only if you work hard can you seize opportunities when they come... Then, she seized the opportunity and got the reward. So in this lonely time and space, she follows her previous successful experience - work hard to recover; work hard to become a chess piece that the big wife can use; work hard to marry into the Yongping Marquis Mansion; work hard to get the lady's favor; work hard to get Xu Lingyi's recognition; work hard to become a good wife and mother in line with the mainstream of society!
But she forgot that her heart has its own opinions.
In this environment where she had to work hard to fit in, when the bustle of the day was over and she had to expose herself to the man who was a complete stranger to her, the effort became so embarrassing! She instinctively began to struggle... just asking the person holding her to give her some respect.
Eleventh Lady stared at the fine hemp tent that was like light smoke. Yesterday, she was able to accept it calmly because she felt respected. What about Xu Lingyi?
Two days ago, he was teasing himself like a child.
While he was thinking, Xu Lingyi walked in.
He looked unhappy.
"What happened?" Eleventh Lady calmed herself down and asked him.
Xu Lingyi sat down beside the bed, was silent for a moment, and said, "Eleventh Lady, I have to go to Zhangqiu early tomorrow morning!"
"Zhangqiu?" Eleventh Lady looked at Xu Lingyi in surprise.
Zhangqiu is a county in Shandong, which she had read about in the Records of the Nine Regions of the Great Zhou.
What was he doing in Zhangqiu?
Xu Lingyi seemed to find it difficult to speak.
Eleventh Lady did not ask further questions and said, "How long will you be gone? I can also prepare some clothes for you to change into."
"I'll probably be gone for seven or eight days!" Xu Lingyi said, and after thinking for a moment, he added, "I'll be back before your coming-of-age ceremony!"
Eleventh Lady has always felt that birthday parties and birthday gifts are just icing on the cake, and she values friendship that comes from helping someone in need more.
"My Lord, don't worry about my coming-of-age ceremony. It's more important for you to handle things calmly." As she spoke, she called Lvyun in to help Xu Lingyi pack his clothes and opened the medicine box. "The weather is getting hotter and hotter. Bring some Huoqi Zhengxiang Pills and Sangju Drink." She also earnestly reminded him to be careful on the road, not to complain as it was cold in the morning and evening, and to remember to add or take off clothes according to the weather.
Xu Lingyi nodded, but suddenly said: "Zhangqiu is my second sister-in-law's in-laws' family!" His voice sounded a little disappointed.
The second wife's in-laws' family? What was Xu Lingyi doing there? Even if something happened to the second wife's in-laws' family, it should be Lord Xiang who stepped in. If Xu Lingyi was dragged into it, something must have happened!
Eleventh Lady thought about it and immediately sent the servants away. She whispered to Xu Lingyi, "What happened? Lord Marquis, please tell me so that I know what's going on. I don't have to think about the solution until the last minute!"
Seeing that Shiyi Niang was facing a powerful enemy, Xu Lingyi hurriedly said, "It's not that something happened..." He paused for a long time before saying awkwardly, "When my second sister-in-law got married, she had a lot of land and property. It was the dowry of the old lady of the Xiang family, and she was asked to keep it with my second sister-in-law. There was a period of time when the family was in financial difficulty, so my second sister-in-law sold the land and property privately to supplement the family..." He said, looking a little embarrassed, "Although later Although I returned the money from the sale of the land to my second sister-in-law, I thought that the land was originally the dowry of the old lady of the Xiang family, and my second sister-in-law sold it privately. Not only was she in a hurry, but the price was also low, less than three-fifths of the market price. I felt very uneasy. I wanted to buy back some of the land to make up for my second sister-in-law's loss. I always asked people nearby to help watch it. This time I went to Zhangqiu, I heard that some of those who bought the land wanted to sell the land..."
Eleventh Lady was very surprised.
Didn’t Mother Tao say that the Second Lady’s dowry was very shabby?
How come a piece of land suddenly appeared?
And from the tone of Xu Lingyi's voice, he seemed to have asked someone to keep an eye on it, but he was afraid that if the matter failed, he would have to go there in person.
...Is it because the people selling the land are not afraid of Xu Lingyi's power and know that he is eager to buy the land back, so they deliberately raise the price?
Or is it that some other powerful family has also set their eyes on this piece of land, and sent someone like a steward to buy it, but is unsure whether they can successfully buy the land?
She was a little confused and said casually, "Who is the person selling the land? Can I use my connections to get in touch with him? Then I can talk to him nicely and give him more money. He is going to sell it anyway, so it shouldn't be a big deal."
Xu Lingyi smiled bitterly: "It's not that easy!"
Eleventh Lady was puzzled.
Xu Lingyi said, "That piece of land is more than 6,000 mu, all of which are good farmland, and they are connected. My second sister-in-law's family also spent a lot of effort to buy this property. At that time, no one in Zhangqiu could eat it all in one go, so the land was divided into dozens of pieces and sold one by one. It was easy to sell it at the time, but now I want to buy it back." He sighed, "So many years have passed, and the people who bought the land at that time have different fortunes. Some are getting more and more prosperous, while others are in decline. Those who are in decline can easily be dealt with by just giving more money, but those who are doing well, how can they sell such good land? It is something that cannot be done even with money."
The only thing that lingered in Eleventh Lady’s mind was “as much as six thousand acres, all fertile land.”
"How can there be so many?" She actually stuttered as she listened to her own voice.
Xu Lingyi said tactfully: "This is my second sister-in-law's family affair, we shouldn't ask too much!"
Eleventh Lady thought of the tense relationship between the Second Lady and Mrs. Xiang.
I felt that there might be some story behind this, so I didn't ask too much. "Have you recovered some of the land now?"
"We have taken back more than 800 mu." Xu Lingyi said, "My second sister-in-law refused to take it. She said that when the old lady of the Xiang family gave her the land, she also hoped that the land could help my second sister-in-law in case of emergency. Now that she has used it to solve the urgent needs of the Xu family, it can be said that it is well spent. Moreover, I gave her the money from the sale of the land. No matter what, she refused to take it. The land deed has been kept by mother." He added, "This time, there are more than 400 mu of land to be sold. Most people in Zhangqiu know that I want to buy back this land, and some idle gangs use fraudulent means to deceive those landlords to sell the land. So I will rush to Zhangqiu early tomorrow morning, so as not to fail to buy the land and be known for forced purchase and sale."
Does this count as going there even though you know there is a tiger there?
"In this case, you'd better think it over carefully," Eleventh Lady advised him, "lest you be impeached by the historians and create another trouble. It would be even worse if the news of the Xu family selling their daughter-in-law's property got out!"
"Of course I don't know!" Xu Lingyi said helplessly, "So I have only harvested more than 800 acres in the past few years. This time I went to see the situation. If I can buy it, I will buy it. If not, I will have to wait for another opportunity." He added, "But the longer the time goes, the more the land will change. I am afraid it will be more difficult to buy it."
It's a pity.
Eleventh Lady could understand Xu Lingyi's feelings, but she was more concerned about the relationship between the thirty-six dowries and the six thousand acres of prime farmland.
The next day, after sending Xu Lingyi away, she immediately brought Mother Song to ask.
"I heard from Madam Tao that when the Second Madam married, the Madam Tai helped her with the dowry. Is that true?"
"Yes!" Song's mother smiled, and then she leaned over to Eleventh Lady's ear and whispered, "Master Xiang, it's an adopted son!" Then she straightened up and smiled, "When the Second Lady married, she brought several carts of books. The old lady of the Xiang family said that in order to avoid disputes in the future, these things would not be on the gift list. The Tai Madam felt bad, so she gave the Second Lady a pair of one-foot-long mutton-fat jade ruyi that she brought as a dowry, as well as some precious jewelry. The old lady of the Xiang family liked it very much and said that our Tai Madam was straightforward and open-minded. So when the Second Lady married, she used the pair of jade ruyi given by the Tai Madam to make the first table. When the Third Lady just married in, she was angry with the Third Master for this matter!"
Not on the gift list, that means, all these books were given to the Xu family!
"Does my sister know about this?" Eleventh Lady pondered.
"You should know!" Mother Song was a little uncertain, "The books that the Second Madam moved over are placed in Shaohua Courtyard. When the Fourth Madam first got married, she even borrowed books from the Second Madam!"