Chapter 171 New Educated Youth
"Imperial edict has arrived! Lady Wang, receive the edict!"
Finally, accompanied by a sharp tone, the palace servant who was delivering the imperial edict respectfully arrived at Wang Erya's house with the edict in a high-pitched voice.
Wang Erya, accompanied by her two daughters and a group of servants, knelt and bowed to receive the imperial decree.
"By the mandate of Heaven, the Emperor decrees:"
Today, there is a woman named Wang Shulan, who is gentle and kind, resilient and righteous, and has donated high-yield seeds... Her contribution is great, benefiting the present and future generations.
"Now, I hereby exceptionally bestow upon you the title of County Princess, with the name Sheng'an. Your fief shall consist of 2,000 households, and your annual stipend shall be in accordance with regulations. I hereby grant you a County Princess's residence, 1,000 taels of gold, and 5,000 taels of silver..."
Wang Erya had been practicing the etiquette of receiving imperial decrees recently. Although she was shocked, muscle memory helped her complete the process smoothly, and she didn't forget to slip money to the palace servants as a gift.
Seeing how polite Wang Erya was, and considering that she was a rising star, the palace servant who delivered the imperial decree praised her, saying, "This servant congratulates Princess Sheng'an. His Majesty said that with the grain seeds you presented, our Great Jin Dynasty's peaceful and prosperous era and the country's peace and stability have an extra layer of protection, so he has addressed you as Princess Sheng'an."
Upon hearing this, Wang Erya understood the meaning behind her title. She thanked the palace servants for their kindness once again. After placing the imperial edict on the table, she tried to persuade the palace servants to stay for dinner, but they refused.
Wang Shulan was the name Wang Erya changed to when she settled in the prefectural city. However, she was actually used to this name, so sometimes when she first heard the name Wang Shulan, she often couldn't realize that it was her own name.
Because she envied the women who could also read and write, and she remembered that she had once overheard a village scholar talking about being intelligent and virtuous, she particularly liked the character "兰" (lan, orchid).
Upon arriving in the prefectural city, after deciding to settle there and change her name, she paid someone to write down the two characters "Shulan" that she wanted, and then used that name directly when registering her household.
She also asked a roadside scholar who wrote letters for people to help her come up with the names for her two daughters based on her own ideas. The eldest daughter was named Wang Jinyan, and the younger daughter was named Wang Jinhua. Both names have beautiful meanings. When Wang Erya heard them, she thought they sounded very nice, even though she couldn't read yet, and immediately decided to use them.
Of course, she was also afraid that the scholar would take advantage of her illiteracy and try to fool her with other characters. So she took the paper with three different names written on it and asked several people to make sure there were no mistakes before she went to complete the household registration.
After the palace servants left, Prefect Shen and well-informed families from Xuzhou Prefecture all sent people to give gifts to Wang Shulan. (Our Er Ya will be attending many important occasions in the future, so to avoid confusion, we will start using a new name for Er Ya from this chapter onwards.)
The gift from Prefect Shen is a jade carving that looks very expensive; it can be displayed in the county magistrate's mansion.
Other officials, as well as local gentry and wealthy people, also sent gifts to Wang Shulan, and Wang Shulan accepted them all as long as they were not out of line.
The Emperor had already bestowed many gifts, including gold, silver, the county princess's ceremonial robes, jade ruyi scepters, and jewelry, but all of them bore the mark of the Imperial Household Department and could only be used by the princess herself.
Next, Wang Shulan will be busy moving into the county magistrate's mansion. From today onwards, Wang Shulan has finally achieved a leap in social class, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that she has soared to new heights.
This also shows that the emperor of the Da Jin Dynasty was a wise ruler who was fair in rewarding and punishing, and who cared about the people. Therefore, he recognized Wang Shulan's merits and bestowed upon her a title, which was an exception to the usual practice.
It's important to know that having a title is definitely better than not having one. In the current dynasty, there were no more than 10 princesses, county princesses, and county princesses with titles combined.
Wang Shulan, a commoner, was not only granted the title of county princess, but also a title with such profound meaning. One can imagine how many people envied her.
At the same time, many people know Wang Shulan's background and that she is now raising two daughters alone, so some people have started to have wicked ideas.
The imperial edict arrived rather late, and Wang Shulan missed the New Year's banquet. However, the emperor issued a special decree allowing her to attend the banquet on the Lantern Festival.
So, having just moved into the county magistrate's mansion and before she could even properly settle in, Wang Shulan had to take her daughter to the capital. Fortunately, Wang Hongyu was also returning to the capital to take up his post, so the two families traveled together.
While Wang Shulan and Shen Hongyu's families were heading to Beijing in a grand procession, Ning Xuan and her family had already celebrated the New Year, and then new educated youth arrived at the Hongxing Brigade.
However, Ning Xuan was surprised to find that none of the names of this group of educated youth were familiar. After she cultivated, her memory improved, and she remembered a lot of the plot of the original book.
In the original book, among the educated youth who came this time were two outstanding male educated youths, the kind of sons of high-ranking officials who were completely infatuated with Xu Jiajia, and Gu Yunze was often jealous of them.
Similarly, the male lead is also attractive to the opposite sex, and the female educated youth are also infatuated with Gu Yunze. Then the male and female leads get jealous of each other, and their relationship gets better and better.
However, none of the educated youth who came this time were people Ning Xuan remembered from the original book. She suspected that the plot had been altered by Butterfly.
After all, in the original book, several of the educated youth were children of high-ranking officials who were specially arranged to go to the countryside by their families. However, recently, thanks to Ning Xuan's help, Ueno Miko was captured, which exposed a group of Dieter and rebels. Pulling out the radish brought out the mud, and who knows what might have happened to the families who appeared in the Red Star Brigade in the original book because of this butterfly effect.
Ning Xuan thought to herself that the plot was deviating more and more from the original book, but this didn't really affect her much. As long as the general trend of the future remained unchanged, she would have more opportunities. As for the male and female protagonists in the Red Star Brigade, she would just not interfere with their love story.
Because the original book is a romance novel, the male and female supporting characters almost always provide various positive or negative assistance to the main couple's love story. The former will receive the main couple's halo and benefits, while the latter will be cannon fodder.
But now even the romantic relationship between the male and female leads has made no progress, so she suspects that the plot has completely collapsed.
Besides Ning Xuan, Xu Jiajia was also surprised. Although she hadn't dreamed about Gu Yunze for a long time, she remembered her previous dreams very clearly, including the group of educated youth who had come. But this time, she didn't.
However, Xu Jiajia soon realized that it was because she hadn't made the same choice as in her dream. She and Zhou Zhipeng moved out, and when Gu Yunze came to visit, she didn't respond or have any further contact with him.
Actually, it wasn't just that the educated youth who came this time were different; they even moved out to live together, and Ning Xuan lived with them. Later, the brigade even set up a chicken farm, and Ning Xuan was different from Mengli...
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