Chapter 358 Haitang's Wedding
The other party has deep roots here, and even though their shops sell glass products that are not imported, ordinary people wouldn't dare to try anything funny.
Xie Wanniang didn't intend to make a fortune from this stuff in the long run, so she didn't bother to set up a new shop.
After reaching a cooperation agreement with that lady, she relinquished control of the glass business, only assigning a trusted confidant to secretly monitor the workshop's operations to prevent her management from going astray.
As for herself, since Haitang was already twenty years old, which was the age when maids should generally get married, Xie Wanniang planned to marry her off after the New Year.
This girl is a woman of her own mind. Without Xie Wanniang making any arrangements, she picked out one of the young guards in the manor who she could get along with.
The child's name was Wu Qing. Xie Wanniang bought him from a brokerage firm and entrusted him to Hao Yu for careful instruction. Because he had good martial arts talent and was very hardworking, he was already quite skilled at a young age.
Among the guards of similar age, only Shanzi could fight him to a draw; the others were no match for him.
According to Xie Wanniang, he was sold by his own uncle after his parents passed away.
His grandparents were still alive, but they chose to tacitly allow him and his sister to be sold.
His sister was in poor health and died of illness half a month after being sold. Because of this, he hated his uncle who had seized his parents' inheritance and caused his sister's death.
After hearing about what had happened to the brother and sister, Xie Wanniang asked him if he wanted to report it to the authorities to avenge his sister. The boy agreed without hesitation.
After receiving the complaint, the authorities dealt with his uncle according to the law, and he also received about half of the inheritance left by his parents.
With this money, he could have easily redeemed himself, but he chose to stay by Xie Wanniang's side.
In his words, since he had no relatives left anyway, he might as well stay with good masters like Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan rather than live a lonely and miserable life.
Just like many respectable servants in this world, would they be unable to afford their ransom? Of course not.
So why didn't they rush to redeem themselves and become free and law-abiding citizens?
The reason is simple: they will live a more comfortable life under the protection of their master.
Later, he and Haitang fell in love, and he became even more unwilling to redeem himself and leave, because in Haitang's heart, Xie Wanniang was the one she would never leave.
The fact that his future daughter-in-law didn't consider him her number one priority was certainly bittersweet, but Wu Qing, who had known Haitang's thoughts for a long time, never thought of changing her.
The main thing is that Xie Wanniang is a master who makes people extremely loyal to her.
Leaving aside distant examples, let's take the present as an example. When Haitang got married, she didn't follow the custom of simply giving Haitang some money. Instead, she prepared a generous dowry for Haitang, just like she was marrying off her own daughter.
In addition, she even gave Haitang a two-courtyard house in Tang County, as well as a sum of five hundred taels of silver as a dowry.
Haitang herself has saved a lot of money over the years. After all, Xie Wanniang has taken care of all her food, clothing, housing and transportation. She has saved most of her monthly allowance and reward money.
With the money from both sides added up, Haitang's dowry was actually more than that of the daughters of ordinary wealthy gentry families.
This is one of the reasons why there was a saying in this era: "It is better to marry a maid from a wealthy family than a girl from a poor family." As for another reason, maids from wealthy families were generally superior to girls from poor families in terms of appearance, temperament, knowledge, manners and etiquette.
Aside from the fact that marrying a maid would give men of good birth, especially those of some standing, a bad reputation, it was truly impeccable in every other respect.
As for Wu Qing, he himself was a slave, so naturally he wouldn't mind that Haitang wasn't of good birth.
Although the two had no parents or relatives, they had Jiang Yuan and Xie Wanniang to take charge of things, and many guards and servants who were on good terms with them came to join in the fun.
Xie Wanniang even lent them two cooks and six assistant cooks on their wedding day so that they wouldn't have to worry about the dishes at the wedding banquet.
This kind of treatment is unique to Haitang.
With the master so openly praising them, any other guards and servants in the household who weren't fools would inevitably want to share in the joy.
Not to mention that Haitang and Wuqing were not difficult people to get along with, and the two of them had always been very popular in the mansion.
On the auspicious day, after a lively wedding banquet, Haitang styled her hair into a married woman's hairstyle and became the head housekeeper's wife.
Xie Wanniang always trusted and relied on her. After Haitang returned from her vacation, Xie Wanniang immediately promoted her to be the head housekeeper in her daughter An'an's courtyard.
An'an prefers martial arts to studying. If Haitang goes to her place, she can not only help with management, but also practice martial arts with her every day.
Occasionally, when An'an goes out without an adult, with Haitang accompanying her, Xie Wan's mother can feel more at ease about her safety.
As for Linlin, the little guy is not even seven years old yet and doesn't have his own courtyard, so Xie Wanniang isn't in a hurry to assign him a steward or servants.
Unlike his older sister, Linlin prefers to study with the teacher. Although he is still young, he has already shown considerable talent for studying.
Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan didn't have high expectations for their children, nor did they pre-define their future development. They let their children learn whatever they liked.
An'an is like this, and so is Linlin, Jiang Yuan's eldest son.
As for whether Jiang Yuan's connections and privileged positions in the military would be inherited by anyone, the couple were indifferent.
What they didn't know was that what they took for granted was something that someone in the distant capital was thinking about with great interest.
Those people were Jiang Yuan's actual blood relatives. Ever since Jiang Tong started shamelessly and unilaterally trying to win over Jiang Yuan, the Jiang family members gradually changed their attitude towards Jiang Yuan.
From initial shock and disdain, to later vigilance, aversion, and rejection, and now to envy, jealousy, and greed, they have gone through a long process of cognitive and attitudinal transformation.
However, Jiang Yuan and Xie Wanniang's attitude towards their family remained unchanged. They would always return the things they sent unopened, and the same went for the letters they wrote. Naturally, they never took the initiative to contact anyone with the surname Jiang.
Both of them thought that with their stance so clear, the Jiang family would soon back down, but Jiang Yuan's steady rise in rank actually stirred up the Jiang family's jealousy and greed.
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