But what does this have to do with her?

Yu Tang was stunned and said, "Dad, can't you explain yourself clearly? You called me back so early in the morning without any explanation. I was so scared!" She patted her chest as she spoke.

Yu Wen chuckled and glanced at Pei Yan who was standing next to him with a stern face.

Pei Yan used to be able to pretend to be deaf and dumb in front of Yu Wen, but now he couldn't do that. He had no choice but to bow to Yu Wen and said, "Then I'll go sit in the courtyard for a while and taste your treasured Biluochun," and then left the hall.

Yu Wen became relaxed, and immediately pointed at Yu Tang, lowering his voice and saying, "Are you stupid? Why did you bring Pei Xiaguang back? The things on Jiang Chao's ship should have been divided among our family, and I was going to give them all to you as a dowry."

Now that Yu Tang has brought Pei Yan back, not only has the family's wealth been exposed, but he had originally planned to secretly prepare a generous deposit for Yu Tang as personal money, but now he can no longer keep it a secret.

Yu Wen couldn't help but lecture Yu Tang: "Just be careful! The Pei family will definitely not take your money, but you must have expenses that you don't want Pei Xiaguang to know about, and you can't let him know everything!"

Yu Tang felt that what attracted her to Pei Yan was not only his good looks, but also his respect for her as a person. If Pei Yan couldn't even tolerate this, then what was the point of them being husband and wife and treating each other with respect?

But she didn't want to argue with her parents about this.

No matter how much you say, it will not be as reassuring as doing well.

She laughed and teased her father: "How much private money do you have? Does my mother know?"

Yu Wen was stunned for a moment, then he puffed out his chest with some pride and said, "Do I still need to hide my private money? All the money in the house is mine."

Yu Tang pursed his lips and smiled at his father.

Yu Wen could only sigh and said, "Since you have such confidence in Pei Xiaguang, then it's up to you."

He had a kind of magnanimous spirit of "spending all his money and making it back again", and he felt that if he could see what kind of person Pei Yan was because of the dowry, it would not be too late to avoid being at a disadvantage.

Yu Tang hugged his father's arm and said coquettishly: "I know you care about me, don't worry, the Third Elder is not that kind of person. Even if you don't believe in my judgment, you have to believe in the family tradition of the Pei family!"

Yu Wen was indeed not as nervous as before.

Yu Tang asked about this trip: "Is everything okay with Master Jiang? Did anything happen? What are you going to do with the goods you brought back this time? Are you going to sell them at those grocery stores? Will you still be partners next time you go out to sea? Have you told Master Jiang what the Third Master said before?"

There are so many things and so many questions.

Yu Wen did not hide the secret from Yu Tang and told her: "According to the proportion of the previous investment, the cargo on the ship was divided and dealt with by each person. I discussed with Master Wu that we would like to take some valuable jewelry as your dowry. The rest will be converted into silver and handed over to Master Wu for disposal. In this way, your wedding dowry can be prepared. Fortunately, Master Wu helped a lot and asked Mrs. Wu to come and give it to you. "Mother, please lend a hand. I'm keeping you for a few days so that you and your mother can finalize the dowry list. If Lin'an doesn't have it, go to Hangzhou City to buy it. If Hangzhou doesn't have it, go to Quanzhou to buy it. Master Jiang is in Ningbo guarding the goods on the ship and can't leave for the time being. Master Wu and I have discussed it. We will go to Ningbo and tell Jiang Chao what Pei Xiaguang meant to do to see what he means."

This arrangement is very good.

Yu Tang said: "Then I'll stay."

It's not good to just leave the preparation of the dowry and other things to her mother.

Yu Wen learned from Chen that Pei Laoan was teaching Yu Tang how to manage the household. He was very grateful and naturally supported her. Hearing this, he waved his hands and said, "Since Pei Laoan didn't ask you to come back, you should not come back for the time being. You should deal with the matter with Pei Laoan first. She is an experienced person and she must have a plan of what to do and what not to do. Just listen to her. Besides, preparing dowry is not something you should worry about."

Otherwise, why is there the saying of parents' orders and matchmaker's words?

Yu Tang nodded slightly.

Yu Wen invited Pei Yan in for tea and told him his plan.

Pei Yan guessed that the Yu family would definitely try their best to help Yu Tang with her dowry, but he didn't expect that Yu Wen gave all the family's belongings to Yu Tang. He immediately felt that he had a heavy burden on his shoulders, and said to Yu Wen respectfully: "You treat Miss Yu as your precious daughter, and I will never let you down. From now on, your affairs are my affairs. Whether it is Miss Yu's adopted brothers or nephews, I will help them learn to read and take care of their future careers."

Yu Wen was very happy to see that Pei Yan understood his intention, so he asked Chen to order a table outside and treat Pei Yan to a drink.

Pei Yan was reluctant to refuse, but was stopped by Yu Tang: "The old lady won't be wearing mourning clothes until September!"

Yu Wen blamed himself very much, so he ordered a vegetarian meal and replaced the wine with tea. He invited Pei Yan to have lunch, and then Pei Yan went back.

But as soon as he entered the mansion, he was called away by Pei Laoan.

"It's a good thing, so I don't have to worry." The old man asked, "What good thing is it?"

After all, I'm still worried.

Pei Yan didn't want Yu Tang to become a target, so he sent away the people serving Pei Laoan and told Pei Laoan about Yu Wen's intention.

Old Pei was stunned. He glanced at Pei Yan dimly and said, "You are a lucky child. Although the Yu family is of ordinary origin, they have not held you back. You really need to be nicer to the Yu family and the people of the Yu family in the future."

Mr. Pei'an was in a similar situation to Yu Tang back then.

Her elder brother died young, and Yu Tang is an only child.

Both of them married into the Pei family with no one to rely on, bringing most of the family's property with them. When Old Lady Qian passed away, she left all her money to her grandchildren.

Mr. Pei believed that when Yu Wen passed away, if he still had any money, he would definitely leave it to his grandson.

She told Aunt Chen, "Go and get me the list I wrote a few days ago."

Aunt Chen went to get the list.

But Old Man Pei sent her away, went to grind ink himself, added a dozen shops in Tianjin Wei to the list, and then gave the list to Pei Yan, saying, "Originally, I was going to give it to Yu Shi to show her respect. Although her family has prepared some for her, some things cannot be bought with money. I'll give it to you anyway. Please give it to Yu Shi when you have time."

Pei Yan had long guessed that for the sake of his own face, Pei Laoan would not let Yu Tang in like this, but he did not expect that Pei Laoan would give Yu Tang the dozen or so shops in Tianjin Wei.

You know, this was the dowry of Pei Laoan's own mother, Pei Yan's grandmother. Those dozen shops were on the most prosperous street in Tianjin, and the annual income was very considerable.

Pei Yan could not help but kneel down in front of his mother, calling her "Mom", and said, "You should keep this shop, right? If you really care about Yu, you can give her some personal money every year. I will prepare her share."

He and Yu Tang would be husband and wife in the future, so even if he gave Yu Tang some as a dowry, it would be a matter of one hand giving out and the other receiving in. It was not like Pei Laoan, whose property should be divided equally among the three brothers.

Seeing her son's filial piety, Mrs. Pei smiled with relief, motioned Pei Yan to stand up quickly, and said: "I know all these things. As for you, you have been wronged, and your father and I can only give you some financial support. Your eldest sister-in-law has never cared about me, and she probably won't care about my things either, so I won't dislike her. I won't treat your second sister-in-law badly either. Just take it with confidence. However, Yu must have a lot of eyes watching her after she married in, so in order to avoid trouble, don't tell anyone about the things I gave you. If you really love me, just be more filial to me in the future." At this point, she smiled bitterly and sighed, "I never thought that when I'm old, I would actually live with my youngest son."

Logically, she should follow her eldest son.

Pei Yan felt heartbroken when he heard this, and he had even less good impression of the first wife and his two nephews, Pei Tong and Pei Fei.

He simply consulted with Pei Laoan: "If the eldest sister-in-law wants to go back to her parents' home, let her go back. A distant place smells better than a nearby place. When Pei Tong and Pei Fei grow up and know what the Pei family means to them, they will naturally know what to choose. Maybe by that time, it will be too late for the eldest sister-in-law to regret!"

Pei Laoan was terrified when he heard this, and hurriedly said, "Xiaguang, you promised your father not to get involved in royal affairs. You can't break your promise!"

"I won't break my promise!" Pei Yan assured his mother, "But I am also confident that I can control Pei Tong and Pei Fei. You have to believe in my ability."

"It's better to have less trouble than more!" Mrs. Pei trusts her husband the most and believes the advice that Old Lady Pei gave her before her death.

"I know." Pei Yan assured Old Man Pei again and again, and accompanied his mother in reminiscing about Old Master Pei for a while. Only then did he comfort his mother and help her go to the Buddhist temple to copy scriptures before leaving Old Man Pei's yard.

Yu Tang stayed at home for three days before she drafted her dowry list. During this period, she also talked to Aunt Chen, who was sent by Mrs. Pei to bring her ice, and referred to the dowry of the first wife before finalizing it.

Only after it was decided did she realize how tedious it was to prepare her dowry.

Even brooms for sweeping beds have to be prepared in pairs.

Yu Tang fled back to the Pei family's summer villa.

Yu Wenzhe and Master Wu went to Ningbo. When they left, Master Wu said to Yu Tang, "Let's go see if there are any Western toys. We'll bring you some as a dowry. You've definitely never seen anything like it in Lin'an."

That's what it means to be in the spotlight!

Yu Tang didn't think much of it, but Yu Wen felt very happy and talked to Mr. Wu for a long time.

By the end of July, the autumn wind started to blow and the weather began to turn cooler. Yu Tang and his friends began to pack their luggage and prepare to go down the mountain.

At this time, Li Duan accompanied his mother Lin and quietly returned to Lin'an City.

Li Yi was eventually sentenced to exile. Li Jun was unwilling to return to Lin'an, and Lin was still thinking about reviving the family business, so she had to let Li Duan continue to take the imperial examination. Li Jun accompanied Li Yi to exile in Gansu, while Li Duan and Lin returned to their hometown to deal with some unsold properties in the family, preparing to move to Hangzhou City to live permanently.