"Maybe we sent ginseng this morning, and the eldest aunt came to return the gift." Mother Xu comforted the eldest wife and personally went to welcome Mother Tao in.

As expected, Mother Tao brought a few boxes of snacks and greeted the first wife with a smile: "Thank you for the ginseng, first wife."

Mother Xu took the box, deliberately avoided it, and went to the east room to put some snacks.

Mother Tao took the opportunity to whisper to the first wife, "Madam said that Jiang Gui's wife returned to Yanjing early this morning, and asked you to bring the young ladies to the Huguo Temple to burn incense tomorrow."

Do you want to meet each other?

The eldest wife was very confident in the appearance of her concubines. She nodded and said, "I understand!"

Mother Tao achieved her goal, chatted for a few words and then stood up to say goodbye: "... Madam has a lot of things to do these two days."

The eldest wife naturally understood and did not keep her. She gave her twenty taels of silver and asked Madam Xu to send her out. When Madam Xu came back, she told her, "Tomorrow I will take the three young ladies to the Huguo Temple to burn incense. Go and tell the eldest grandmother."

Mother Xu responded and left.

He kept laughing while replying, "...My uncle's classmate is really interesting. He heard that we were going to Huguo Temple tomorrow morning, and he enthusiastically said that he wanted to go with us. He also said that he had been eating at our house for a few days, and although he couldn't help with other things, he was more than capable of leading the way and pointing out the direction."

The eldest wife laughed when she heard this: "This is quite a diligent man. Could it be that he is too humble to beg for mercy?"

"That Mr. Qian is quite handsome," said Mother Xu with a smile, "but his eyes are too lively, not as steady as our Brother Xing."

The two chatted for a while and then sat down to settle the bill.

* * * * * *

The lady of the Xu residence had just sat down and had not even had time to take a sip of the tea in her hand when Xu Lingyi arrived.

The lady looked at the tea in her hand, then looked at her son sitting opposite her, and couldn't help laughing: "I haven't seen you so anxious in many years."

Xu Lingyi smiled slightly.

The lady told the people around her: "I have something to say to the Marquis!"

The maids bent their knees and responded "yes", then filed out.

The lady teased her son, "Didn't you say that if the Jiang family didn't receive a positive letter this morning, then forget about the marriage? Why? Why? Are you afraid that I'll mess things up?"

"It depends on what you said." Xu Lingyi smiled, "Madam Huang is your sister who grew up with you. You like to tell her everything, and she is familiar with the family situation, so I asked her to come forward to handle Zhun Ge's matter. Why should I worry? I saw that you came back at this time, so I came to see you specially."

"You are still kind-hearted." The old lady nodded slightly, "Mrs. Huang wanted me to play cards there in the afternoon, but I had something on my mind, so I came back."

Xu Lingyi was slightly startled, and carefully looked at his mother's expression: "What happened?"

"Guess who I met in the Yongchang Marquis' Mansion?" The lady looked at her son with a smile.

Xu Lingyi thought for a moment and said hesitantly, "Could it be that he met someone from the Jiang family?"

The lady looked disappointed: "Child, you are really... too straightforward! Can't you just make me happy?"

Xu Lingyi's eyes lit up: "So, you really met someone from the Jiang family in Yongchang Marquis's Mansion? Who did the Jiang family send to meet you? Was it Madam Jiang or the housekeeper's mother?"

"Neither." The lady shook her head. "It was a guest of the Jiang family named Lu."

Xu Lingyi showed admiration in his eyes: "I didn't expect that Jiang Bai would have such a method."

Instead of asking someone to pass the message directly to him, he asked his advisers to visit the Madam when she went to the Yongchang Marquis's Mansion. On the one hand, he expressed his importance to this marriage; on the other hand, he took this opportunity to tell himself that our Jiang family has the strength to compete with the Xu family.

However, since they have shown such an evenly matched formation, it means they want to negotiate terms!

He smiled happily.

How can we not be happy to have such an ally!

"What did the Jiang family say?"

Seeing her son's ambitious look, the lady couldn't help but pour cold water on him: "Mr. Lu said that although Jiang Bai really wants to marry into our family, he is the uncle after all, so he still needs to discuss it with Jiang Song."

"Of course." Xu Lingyi didn't care. "The Jiang family has been away from the center of government for the past few years. Jiang Bai is probably the only one who can spy on the situation in the court. His proposal of marriage with our family will definitely cause a stir in the Jiang family, so we have to give him time to maneuver. And Jiang Song resigned that year, so he must be dissatisfied with the court. Now asking him to marry his daughter to our family will not be an easy task. However, in general, I am very satisfied with Jiang Bai's reaction. At least he expressed his attitude to us. As for whether it will succeed, it depends on his ability. If he can convince the people of the Jiang family, I will naturally be happy to see it; if he can't convince the people of the Jiang family, I will also give him a chance."

He spoke eloquently, with a gentle tone and a calm expression. His eyebrows showed the calmness and composure of someone who had everything planned out. The lady couldn't help but sigh, "Why would the Jiang family think of trying to get something from you?"

Xu Lingyi was slightly startled, then burst into laughter: "Mother, you think too highly of the Jiang family. Don't forget, how did the Jiang family get started? The so-called imperial tutor, to put it bluntly, is a powerful official. If Jiang Bai hadn't been sitting in the position of the head scholar for fourteen years and couldn't move, if three of the seven princes of the emperor were not born by the queen, how could Jiang Bai have made up his mind to fight for it?"

"I know." The lady said solemnly, "I was thinking that the Jiang family has always remained neutral in the court. This time they are marrying into our family, and they will inevitably be labeled as the queen's party in the future. The Jiang family has paid such a huge price, and I'm afraid they will ask for too much when the time comes. I'm afraid we can't afford it!"

"What can't I afford?" Xu Lingyi smiled, "Want to be the emperor's tutor again? Now the emperor has seven sons, who knows who will be the prince? Even if I want to, he doesn't dare. Want to join the cabinet? Just based on his courage in dealing with Zhun Ge's marriage, he is worthy of it. Even if I recommend him, I will not sacrifice the country for the court!"

The lady couldn't help laughing at what she said: "From this point of view, Jiang Bai has made a losing deal.

"That's not necessarily true." Xu Lingyi smiled. "In his later years, the late emperor liked his ministers to flatter and curry favor with him. He is a descendant of the Jiang family, how could he do such a thing? So every time the late emperor summoned him to see him, he did the opposite and told the late emperor about the stories of ancient sages with a stern face. Over time, everyone knew that Jiang Bai was a gentleman who spoke frankly and dared to make suggestions. So after the emperor ascended the throne, although he wanted to flatter the emperor, his reputation as a sage was unknown... Marrying into our family is equivalent to getting an opportunity to change without hurting his face. With his ability, he will be able to rise to prominence in no time. In comparison, we are the ones who lost."

The lady listened and shook her head: "You men have calculated everything! But you have not calculated the sadness of the people around you!"

Xu Lingyi was stunned.

"Before I went to the Yongchang Marquis' Mansion, I went to see Yuanniang." The lady said with a melancholy tone, "After all, she is Zhun's mother. I think I should talk to her about this matter..."

"Mother," Xu Lingyi interrupted the lady rudely, "How could you tell her this? Don't you know her character? She has always been about herself and no one else..." As soon as he finished speaking, he felt that he had said something wrong. A look of annoyance flashed across his brows, and he questioned his mother, "Did you tell her what I meant?"

"No!" The lady looked at her son's temper and was a little unhappy. "I just tried to test her to see if I could make her change her mind."

Seeing his mother's unhappy expression, Xu Lingyi knew that he had acted inappropriately, so he hurriedly smiled and changed the subject: "Mother, although Madam Huang is on good terms with you, we still have to follow the proper etiquette when we trouble her like this. Do you think this is okay? Ask Madam Huang one day and tell her that there is a vacancy for a salt warehouse ambassador in the Salt Transport Department in Shandong. Although he is not a high-ranking official, the ambassador inspects the salt warehouse's inflow and outflow, which is a lucrative position. See if there is anyone suitable in their family, and I'll tell the Ministry of Personnel."

"You are a typical example of giving a slap in the face and then giving a date." The lady laughed after hearing this. "Don't worry, Madam Huang won't go out and say anything. But since you have this intention, I will still take your advice." Then she said seriously, "Since you have this ability, why don't you find a job for your father-in-law. After all, the Luo family did us a favor in the past. Besides, we are all relatives, and it's always not nice to let people talk about it."

Xu Lingyi couldn't help but frowned: "Mom, don't worry about this matter. I know what's going on."

"You are afraid that Yuanniang will have some ideas again, so you can use this matter to negotiate with her?" The lady said bluntly, "I don't care what tricks you two play, but you can't mess around with your master-in-law's affairs. If you don't come forward, I will!" She acted as if she would not give up until Xu Lingyi agreed.

"There are some things you don't know." Xu Lingyi was quite helpless. "The emperor adopted the suggestion of Elder Chen and prepared to implement a new tea tax. My father-in-law has always been against Elder Chen's tea tax law... This is also the emperor's intention. I will mention it to the emperor again after a while. Don't get involved anymore."

"Have you told your father-in-law about this?" The lady was very surprised by the result. Seeing that her son didn't want to talk more, she couldn't help but say, "You should tell your father-in-law the truth. He will know what to say and what not to say in the future."

"Why didn't I say anything?" Xu Lingyi said, "Instead, my father-in-law gave me a lot of examples, saying how Chen Ge Lao's method was not feasible and how it would cost a lot of money and manpower... I couldn't go into details, so I had to leave it like this for now."

"Then you can talk to Yuanniang about this." The lady thought, "Let Yuanniang persuade the master-in-law - they are father and daughter, they are easier to talk to than you."

"What's there to say about this?" Xu Lingyi disagreed. "Maybe she thought this was an excuse for me not wanting to help her father! There are many people with different political views. Does it mean that one cannot be an official if one has different political views? It's obvious that I was trying to save face and didn't try my best to ask for help. Otherwise, how could a brother-in-law of the emperor not be able to do such a small thing!" By the end of his words, there was already a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

The lady's eyes darkened as she listened, and she seemed to want to say something but stopped herself. Finally, she shook her head and let out a sigh.