Perhaps because she had settled the accounts, or because Xu Sijian's wedding date was approaching, the third wife calmed down and began to prepare for her son's wedding wholeheartedly.

As soon as July arrived, Gan Laoquan's family was sent to Song Mama to inquire: "...I wonder if the shop's accounts have been deposited into the office?" They were preparing to ask for the three hundred taels of silver from the public treasury.

Mother Song asked the maid to bring a bowl of iced fruit juice to Gan Laoquan's family and said with a smile, "The Marquis has been taking the Fourth Young Master and the office to settle accounts these past two days. I think the accounts should be deposited in the warehouse by mid-month at the latest."

The fruit juice was fragrant. Gan Laoquan took it and smelled it for a few times before taking a sip: "I haven't had such good fruit juice in many years. Is it mint, licorice and honeysuckle?"

"The Second Madam sent it to us." Mother Song nodded with a smile, and then she remembered that the fruit juice had not been sent to Sanjing Hutong, so she explained as if to make up for the loss: "The Second Madam made it recently. She took some from the Madam, some from us, and some from the Fifth Madam. She said that we should try it, and if it tastes good, she would make more. The Madam also gave us some as a reward. We have never been willing to use it, and we gave it out now because you cherish it."

If they were separated, they would naturally not be as close as before.

Gan Laoquan's family said with some envy: "It's better to work in the mansion! What slips through the ladies' fingers is better than what's outside."

Mother Song just smiled and said nothing.

The place where Madam Song lived in Gan Laoquan's house faced south and north, so it was cool. She didn't want to go back so soon, so she asked Xu Sizun: "What's the matter? Has the Marquis started teaching the Crown Prince about common affairs now?"

"The fourth young master is still young, and the Marquis is just bringing him along to gain some experience!" Mother Song said with a smile, "The most important thing now is to study."

As she was talking, a little maid ran in: "Mom, the lady is calling you!"

Mother Song stood up quickly and said, "Sister-in-law Gan, please sit down for a while. I'll be right back."

Gan Laoquan's family hurriedly said, "Just go ahead and take care of it!"

Mother Song also instructed the maid to "treat her well and not neglect her," and then she followed the maid to Eleventh Lady's place.

Eleventh Lady was sitting on the kang by the window, wearing a lake-colored Hangzhou silk blouse with her sleeves folded in half, revealing her frosty and snowy wrists and the green jade bracelets on her hands. She was holding a palace fan with a big red handle embroidered with peony flowers, and was fanning Jing'er who was taking a nap.

"The Yulan Festival is coming soon," she told Mother Song, "please go to Ciyuan Temple for me."

At this time every year, the Xu family would donate incense money and ask the abbot of Ciyuen Temple to help perform rituals.

Mother Song smiled and replied "yes", took the card and left the inner courtyard, going to the office to collect the incense money.

I saw Xu Sizhun and his servant Wang Shu walking hurriedly towards the inner courtyard.

Mother Song stood against the wall, with her hands down and her eyes lowered, she called out, "Fourth Young Master."

Xu Sizhun was delighted to see her and asked hurriedly, "Is mother in the house?"

"Yes!" Mother Song was a little surprised by his behavior, but still said respectfully, "Madam is coaxing the Sixth Young Master to take a nap!"

Xu Sizhun nodded and ran towards the main house.

"Mother!" He thought that he had run out under the pretext of going to the purification room, and he did not dare to delay for a moment. When he saw Eleventh Lady, he said straight to the point, "Are we still setting off river lanterns this year? I made a very beautiful lotus lantern. Mother, talk to Dad, and then we will go to Biyi Lake to set off river lanterns!"

Seeing that he was sweating profusely from running, Eleventh Lady asked the maid to wring out a towel soaked in well water to wipe his face, and said with a smile: "What's so difficult about this! We can just go and release river lanterns when the time comes!"

Xu Sizhun grabbed the handkerchief from the maid's hand, wiped it twice, and said, "Mother, my father said that on the day of the Ghost Festival, he would take me to Baiyun Temple to participate in the fasting and offering ceremony!"

"Don't you want to go?" Eleventh Lady said with a smile, "I heard from your father that Wang Yun, the son of the king, will also go there. Aren't you very close to him? You can go together then!"

Xu Sizhun was a little frustrated after hearing this: "But I want to release river lanterns with my fifth brother!"

He probably wanted to show off the river lanterns he made!

Eleventh Lady smiled and said, "Then we'll wait for you to come back before setting off the river lanterns!"

Xu Sizun became delighted upon hearing this and returned to his office excitedly.

Mother Song had already received the silver and returned. She whispered to Eleventh Lady, "... Steward Wan Daxian asked me to tell you something. When the Marquis was settling accounts with several shopkeepers, the Fourth Young Master was yawning nearby. Shopkeeper Tao, who was in charge of the fur business in Baoding, was very arrogant. He asked the maid who served tea and snacks to take the Fourth Young Master back to his room to sleep. The Marquis only said that the Fourth Young Master was young and ignorant. But his face was livid."

Eleventh Lady felt a little helpless after hearing this.

She never really understood Xu Sizhun and felt that he didn't seem to be very attentive in anything he did.

"I understand!" Eleventh Lady sent Mother Song away, and Grandma Huang came.

She drank the iced mung bean soup and breathed a sigh of relief: "Well, this marriage is finally settled - the third lady asked the Earl of Zhongqin to be the matchmaker, and the other party asked the commander of the Five Cities Army to be the matchmaker. I just have to wait for the day of the wedding and go over to pick her up."

"Thank you for your hard work, sister!" Now that things had been settled, Eleventh Lady felt relieved.

When the Jin family's dowry was delivered to Sanjing Hutong on August 19, everyone was a little surprised.

Although the dowry consisted of only sixty-four loads, it was arranged very neatly, and the boxes for clothes were so large that one could not even fit one's hands into them.

The third wife felt very proud, and her face was slightly raised when she spoke to people: "...Jin's relative said that Miss Jin has a sister-in-law above her, so she had to consider her sister-in-law's face, so she stuffed the original 124 loads of dowry into 64 loads. Speaking of which, my relative is really a real person."

Everyone came forward to congratulate the Third Madam.

There was a faint glow on the third lady's face.

Fang's nurse gritted her teeth in anger: "Madam is too disrespectful to the eldest young lady. She uses the people of the Jin family to humiliate us. No matter how many things she has, are they as much as our eldest young lady's dowry?"

Fang waved her hand calmly and said, "There will be more such things in the future. You all should remember this. When you meet the Third Young Madam in the future, you must be courteous and treat her like me. Otherwise, don't blame me for turning my back on you."

The wet nurse knew that Fang was a man of her word, so she looked serious and replied respectfully, "Yes."

The Fifth Lady yawned and asked Eleventh Lady: "Are you staying here tonight? I want to go back early!"

There were too many people here and they were too fussy and trivial, so she didn't bring Jing'er here.

"We have Madam Song and the others to help watch over us, and we also have the people from the back office, they are all capable people." Eleventh Lady smiled and asked Zhu Xiang to put away the cards, "I'm thinking about Jing'er, so I'm going to go back and see him!"

"Then let's go together!" Madam Wu yawned again, "Mrs. Lin and the others won't be here until tomorrow, and there's no need to entertain guests. There's nothing to do if we stay!"

Eleventh Lady smiled and nodded, and went with Fifth Lady to bid farewell to Third Lady.

While the Third Lady was playing cards with Gan's relatives, she was talking about the Jin family's dowry: "...with two 300-acre estates in Daxing, plus a shop on East Street, we will never lack food and clothing for the rest of our lives!" When she heard that the two were going back to Hehuali, the Third Lady asked Xingjiao to help play cards and sent them to the door: "Although my place is small, I have lived in the mansion for more than 20 years, and my house is considered clean and tidy. You just bring Jing'er and Shen'er here." She seemed to be blaming them for not bringing the children here.

"Bring it here early tomorrow morning." The Fifth Lady responded with a smile and got into the carriage with Eleventh Lady.

"Fortunately, Third Sister-in-law and her family moved out, otherwise, our house would be bustling." She curled her lips, "Did you notice when we were decorating the wedding hall this morning? Third Sister-in-law said she wanted to use bright red gilded paper, but the eldest young lady said bright red gilded paper. For such a small matter, Third Master actually came out to mediate. Although he agreed with Third Sister-in-law to use bright red gilded paper, when it came to offering fresh fruits, he agreed with the eldest young lady to use a blue and white porcelain high-footed plate..." At this point, she covered her sleeves and laughed, "I think Third Master thinks he is right and wrong. He is not sure. However, Third Sister-in-law and Third Master are married after all, but our eldest young lady can speak in front of father-in-law. I feel that our eldest young lady is different from others."

At first, Eleventh Lady was worried that if the Third Master and the Third Lady were idle at home, the Third Lady would use the money from her mother-in-law to pressure Fang Shi, and Fang Shi's life would be difficult. Now it seems that Fang Shi is also a very smart person.

"That's because they both have their own reasons." She smiled, "I think our grandmother is a good person, she is a wise person!"

Mrs. Wu thought of the ancient book that Fang had given to Chen Ge'er as a first-year-old gift, and laughed, "Yeah, I think so too!"

As they talked, they smiled at each other.

* * * * * *

They stepped over the money and grain basin, worshipped heaven and earth, sat in the tent, and recognized their relatives the next day.

Perhaps she had learned from the last lesson, so this time the Third Lady dressed very simply. Compared with Fang, the Third Lady's gift to Jin lacked a phoenix hairpin, but had an extra gold necklace, which was considered fair. Eleventh Lady and Fifth Lady rewarded Jin in the same way they rewarded Fang last time. None of the three grandmothers from Nanjing came, only the steward and the capable steward's mother brought the gift money and the gift. Several relatives of the Gan family left last night on the pretext of having something to do as soon as the newlyweds entered the house. Compared with the scene when Xu Siqin got married, it was inevitably a little inferior.

The newly-married Jin didn't know this. She just felt that the Xu family was indeed as wealthy as her mother said, and the gifts from the two aunts were very valuable, which showed that they were very satisfied with her.

After offering the shoes and socks, Jin didn't even have lunch. She was accompanied by the Fifth Lady and led by the Third Lady to the lotus flowers to kowtow to the Lady Dowager.

The lady was very satisfied with Jin, who still had a childish face and a pair of clear big eyes, and she talked to her for a long time. When they returned to Sanjing Hutong, Jin's face was still full of excitement.

The third wife was also very satisfied when she saw her little daughter-in-law with a bunch of children.

Children are easy to coax, and what she says is what matters.

When Xu Sijian brought Jin back home, Jin began to visit him every morning and evening and became the daughter-in-law of the Xu family. Meanwhile, people in Hehuali were anxiously waiting for the result of Shao Zhongran's martial arts test.

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