Dinner time, and they were once again gathered as a large family.
Whether it was in Jiangning County, Jiangzhou City, or the Xie Residence in Capital City, the Su Family’s customs always remained the same. Unless there were special circumstances, the entire family would have their lunch and dinner together every day.
Dinnertime was always a lively affair, the Su Family didn’t have many strict rules.
The Lady of the House was in a good mood today and told her daughters proudly: "Xiaoqi slept with me last night, she said she had a great sleep and agreed to sleep with me for the foreseeable future."
Su Rong had only agreed to tonight, but it seemed like the Lady of the House had decided to interpret it as "for the foreseeable future".
The Lady of the House saw her look and raised an eyebrow at her, "You agreed, why are you looking at me? Is there a problem?"
Su Rong smiled, "No problem."
In reality, the main purpose of her trip to the capital was to spend time with her mother.
The Lady of the House, pleased by Su Rong’s response, turned to her other daughters and said: "Did you all hear that?"
All six of them nodded in unison, "Mother, we heard you. We know that you miss Seven a lot and have been practicing your sleeping posture every day so that she can sleep with you when she gets back." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶
The Lady of the House hummed approvingly, "I knew it would help. Xiaoqi told me she slept soundly last night."
All six daughters looked at Su Rong, saw her nod earnestly, and couldn’t help but secretly chuckle, "Mother’s efforts have not been in vain."
During the meal, the Lady of the House and her six daughters discussed seemingly endless topics, eventually tangling onto the topic of the three older daughters’ upcoming weddings next spring.
The Lady of the House turned to Su Rong and asked: "Can you stay until the end of the year? There’s only a month left. If you can stay, I will talk to the three families and adjust the dates so that you can see your three sisters get married. If we hurry up a bit, we should still be able to make it."
The original plan was to have a half-year traditional wedding process, yet the Lady of the House seemed ready to compress it into three months. This was indeed pressing and hasty.
Hearing this, the three elder sisters looked towards Su Rong, seemingly somewhat moved at the idea of their younger sister staying to send them off, despite the potential backlash from their future in-laws due to the sudden change of plans.
"Isn’t it inappropriate to casually move the wedding date?" Su Rong asked.
The Lady of the House straightened her posture, "It’s not ideal, but the process of marriage always begins with the bride’s family’s customs. When we set the wedding dates, I left room for adjustments, and I didn’t say that we couldn’t change. All three families expressed that they would cooperate as much as possible according to our family’s wishes."
Su Rong laughed, "Mother, we can’t be too unreasonable."
Weddings have always been important events in history, with auspicious dates carefully selected. You can’t just change the date as you like, especially just for their younger sister to send them off. It’s not in accordance with customs.
"What’s wrong with being a little bit unreasonable?" The Lady of the House did not see a problem, "Just by the connections our family has with the Eastern Palace, the Duke Residence, the Princess Residence, the Rui’an King Residence, the Shen Residence, and others, as well as your status, combined with your older brother’s capabilities, many high-profile families would bend over backwards for us. The families your sisters are marrying into, we didn’t choose them for their status. Otherwise, we could have daughters marrying into ducal families, but we don’t. You should know how many other families envy the ones that are marrying our daughters. What is there to fear in changing a wedding date?
Su Rong shook her head, "Mother, we can’t move the wedding date. I will stay longer at home with you and my sisters."
The Lady of the House, seeing that she disagreed, had no choice but to give up and ask, "Then how long can you stay with us?"
"Ten days."
"Alright then!" The Lady of the house sighed, she was also satisfied, "Ten days is not a short time."
A lunch meal took an hour to complete. Afterwards, Su Rong laughed and said to the Lady of the House, "Mother, I thought that since my three older sisters are getting married, you would urge them to learn more formalities!"
From the time she returned home yesterday to the lunch today, she realized that her sisters didn’t seem to have gotten stricter. Instead, they seemed much more relaxed than before.
The Lady of the House immediately replied, "Formalities are for show. I used to strictly teach them formalities, because they must be learned. But once they were learned, it doesn’t mean that they can’t be broken. We need formalities to maintain order, but if we are bound by them, we become like puppets, which is no fun. If a person becomes boring, how can they be liked by others, let alone their husbands?"
Su Rong remembered Wet Nurse Zhao who seemed to understand this essence of formalities and nodded, "Makes sense."
The Lady of the House added, "They are all going to be main wives. The rules of a main wife aren’t set by others, but by themselves. Besides maintaining appearances in public, they should do whatever makes them feel comfortable in private."
She pointed to Su Rong’s forehead, "If a person is capable and likable, why should they be afraid of rules? You have been in the capital for so long and have done many out-of-line things, but apart from keeping up appearances at the beginning, you later just did as you pleased. Until today, everyone is talking about how capable Lady Su Qi is—her medical skills, her knowledge in medicine, her martial arts skills. And how fitting it is that she is the Princess of Nanchu. Isn’t it true that no one is gossiping about you disregarding the rules? This is why."
Su Rong, who usually didn’t have the patience to hear her preachings, was surprisingly patient today, "Yes, yes, you are absolutely right."
She turned to her six older sisters and said, "Sisters, even after you get married, please remain strong in your in-law’s house. Don’t let anyone bully you with their rules. If I hear about anyone being taken advantage of, don’t consider me your sister anymore."
The eldest sister covered her mouth and laughed, "We understand, Seven. Mother has told us. If anyone bullies us, we should fight back. If we can’t beat them, we should let the family know. If the family can’t solve it, we should go to the Eastern Palace and let them know."
"The Crown Prince is terribly busy," Su Rong reminded the Lady of the House.
The Lady of the House gave a hum, "If the day comes where we need to report grievances, of course, we will find the most influential person. Even if the Crown Prince is busy overseeing a myriad of state affairs, he would definitely help us out of respect for you and your brother. If we don’t find him, he might even feel displeased."
Su Rong laughed and squeezed the Lady of the House’s face, thinking, "Mother, you’re so smart. If it wasn’t for your bad sleeping habits, why would you have married father? Ah, if he wasn’t so reluctant to put up with you, you wouldn’t have to sleep alone most of the time and struggle with your sleeping position."
Wasn’t it because no one endure the torment of adjusting her sleeping position every night? Otherwise, it would have been corrected long ago, right? There’s no woman in the world who can’t be subtly influenced by a man’s love.
The Lady of the House swatted her hand away, "What are you doing? Why do you always have these bad habits? Despite being a young lady, you like to grab people’s faces like a hooligan."
Su Rong rubbed her hand that had been slapped, giggling, "I’m leaving for the Eastern Palace."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
