Chapter 444 Jinyu's Wedding
After returning home, Gu Jingxi instructed the maid to prepare clothes, jewelry, and other necessities for Meng Jinyao, and to have the maid deliver them to Shou'an Hall, so that no one would have to come and pick them up after she got up the next day.
After the maid left, Gu Jingxi looked around the bedroom. Everything seemed familiar, but something felt off.
That's probably the scary thing about habits.
When you get used to someone's presence, if you don't see them in a familiar environment, you feel lonely, lost, and like something is missing.
At this time of year, Ayao would usually be sitting in front of her dressing table, her maidservant removing her hair ornaments, preparing her to bathe and then go to bed.
After glancing at the dressing table, Gu Jingxi instructed the maid to prepare water for a bath.
Inside the clean room, smoke curled up.
Gu Jingxi usually disliked servants attending to him closely, and he did everything himself, including dressing, undressing, and bathing.
Suddenly, Gu Jingxi heard a noise behind him, his face darkened, and he asked coldly, "Who's there?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Xia Zhu's voice came: "My lord, this servant is Xia Zhu. I forgot to put your clothes in earlier, so I'm bringing them to you now."
Gu Jingxi said calmly, "This is a one-time exception. If you are so forgetful again, you will not be fit to serve Madam."
Xia Zhu quickly nodded and replied, "My lord, please calm down. This servant promises that it will not happen again."
Gu Jingxi then said, "Put the clothes down and get out."
"yes."
Xia Zhu responded, took a few steps forward, put down the clothes, and then retreated.
After taking a bath, Gu Jingxi dressed and left the bathroom to rest in his room. However, he felt uncomfortable with someone missing from his side and tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
Meanwhile, Meng Jinyao was sleeping soundly, falling asleep soon after lying down.
Madam Gu has only ever put two younger relatives to sleep with. The last time was when her son was still young, and now it's her daughter-in-law. Seeing her daughter-in-law sleeping peacefully beside her, she truly feels like she's raised a daughter.
After looking at her daughter-in-law for a while, she tucked the blanket around her. The next moment, she saw her daughter-in-law move closer to her and hug her arms.
Madam Gu was surprised, but she quickly understood. This subconscious behavior showed how well her son and daughter-in-law got along.
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The following day was the second day of the tenth lunar month.
Gu Jingxi woke up early in the morning, washed up, dressed neatly, and went to his mother's place for breakfast. Since A Yao wasn't there, he didn't enjoy his breakfast.
Meng Jinyao and Madam Gu were about to have breakfast when they saw Gu Jingxi rushing over.
Madam Gu smiled and said, "Yaoling, why did you come so early? Even if you were going to attend a wedding banquet, there was no need to rush."
Gu Jingxi replied, "My son is afraid he'll miss breakfast." After saying that, he glanced at Meng Jinyao with a resentful look in his eyes, like a wronged woman abandoned by her husband.
Meng Jinyao slept well last night and felt refreshed. Seeing him like this, she smiled at him.
Seeing their interaction, Madam Gu's smile grew even more loving: "Then sit down and eat together. After you finish eating, you will have to attend a banquet."
Gu Jingxi responded, took a few steps forward, and then sat down.
The maid immediately brought him a bowl and chopsticks.
After breakfast, Meng Jinyao and Gu Jingxi left Shou'an Hall together. Today was Meng Jinyu's wedding day, and as her older sister and brother-in-law, they had to go to the wedding banquet.
Madam Gu did not go. As she got older, she preferred quiet and disliked attending banquets. When other families invited her to banquets, she would ask the younger members of her family to go. The rare occasion she would go out was to visit a temple to burn incense and worship Buddha.
Gu Jingxi asked, "Did Ayao sleep well last night?"
Meng Jinyao replied with a smile, "Very good, I slept soundly until dawn."
Gu Jingxi said, "I didn't sleep well." His tone was aggrieved. He stopped and looked at Meng Jinyao with accusatory eyes, then said, "Ayao is really heartless, leaving me alone in an empty room."
Meng Jinyao chuckled: "Who told you to be dishonest?"
Gu Jingxi immediately admitted his mistake: "I know I was wrong about what happened the night before last."
Meng Jinyao scoffed, "When have you ever said you knew you were wrong? But you've never corrected it. You're about to become a father, yet you still refuse to change your ways. You're setting a bad example. Be careful that your child doesn't become someone who refuses to change their ways in the future."
Gu Jingxi hurriedly said, "Ayao, please calm down. Your husband really knows he was wrong this time, and he will definitely behave himself tonight."
Meng Jinyao was too lazy to argue with him anymore. She returned to Weirui Pavilion, had the servants prepare a carriage, and then took her congratulatory gifts to the Yongchang Earl's Mansion for the banquet.
When the second daughter of the main wife got married, the Meng family decorated with lanterns and colorful streamers, but the scale was far less grand than when the eldest daughter of the main wife got married. The Meng family members who knew the inside story knew that this was because they were short of money. Outsiders who did not know the inside story thought that it was because of the second daughter's mother, Sun Shi, that the Meng family had abandoned and did not value this daughter.
Nowadays, the Meng family only invited close relatives and friends they usually visit.
When Meng Jinyao and Gu Jingxi arrived, there were already quite a few guests present.
Gu Jingxi chatted with the other male guests in the front yard, while Meng Jinyao exchanged pleasantries with Madam Dong before going to the back yard to see Meng Jinyu. As the eldest sister, she had to go through the motions of meeting her soon-to-be-married younger sister and present her with a congratulatory gift.
With so many guests today, to avoid any accidental bumps, Chan'er and Qingqiu stayed close to Meng Jinyao, following her wherever she went.
Meng Jinyu had already dressed up and was sitting quietly in her boudoir. She used to have many friends, but after the incident with Sun Shi, most of her former friends gradually drifted away from her. Today, she was getting married, and to a businessman no less, so even fewer people came.
Just recently, two of her close friends came to visit. Their elders were all on good terms with the Meng family. They came with their elders to attend the wedding banquet and took the opportunity to visit her and bring her a dowry gift.
Qing'er came in and announced, "Second Miss, the Eldest Miss has arrived."
Upon hearing this, Meng Jinyu's face darkened.
Immediately afterwards, she saw Meng Jinyao, dressed in a magnificent and elegant manner, walking gracefully towards her. Meng Jinyao was already superior to others as a marquis's wife, but now that Gu Jingxi's hidden illness was cured and they had a child, they were living a happy and fulfilling life.
And what about her?
Her money-grubbing father married her off to a merchant. She didn't want to marry him and went to her grandmother for help. But her grandmother told her, "Ayu, if you have any complaints, blame yourself for having a mother like Sun. With such a vicious woman as your mother, you were raised by her and your reputation is ruined. Even families of equal social standing don't want to marry you. There are good families, and the marriage they found for you before was quite good, but you didn't want it because you thought the man was over forty."
She found these words ironic. The old man, over forty years old and having lost his first wife, was even older than her father. If she married him, she would immediately become a grandmother, a maternal grandmother, with her stepson and stepdaughter both older than her. What hope could there be in such a marriage?
The so-called good marriage was only considered good because the old man could help and support her father, completely disregarding her life.
Later, Grandmother said, "If you marry someone of lower social standing than ours and their family isn't wealthy, won't you suffer? Young Master Deng's family is in business and has a lot of money. You'll live a life of luxury if you marry into their family. What's wrong with that? Just wait to get married and live a good life with Young Master Deng. Don't be willful."
That sounds nice, but don't think she doesn't know that this marriage is no different from a cash-on-delivery transaction. She's just like a commodity, sold to the Deng family.
My father accepted money and gifts from the Deng family. The Deng family married a daughter from a prominent family and became related to the Marquis of Changxing by marriage. This was a prestigious thing, much better than marrying a girl from a merchant family.
She married far away to Yangzhou, a place she knew no one in. Even if she was bullied, she had nowhere to go and no one would listen to her cries for help. She could only swallow her grievances.
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