Chapter 162 The Matchmaker Arrives
Almost that night, the news that Master Xie from the princess's family was going to be engaged to the daughter of the Shen family, the Supreme Court Justice, spread throughout most of the capital.
Of course, the big-mouthed officials in the Dali Temple deserve credit for this.
Their Shaoqing is going to be the son-in-law of the Temple Minister?! This matter is so shocking that the people in the Dali Temple don't even bother to compete with the Ministry of Justice.
Especially Wei Wenyuan, he thought about the previous times when he wanted to propose marriage to Lord Shen in front of Lord Xie. Isn't this trying to steal someone's heart in public? !
It seems that it is time to ask his elder brother to find him another place. The Hanlin Academy is good and there is no need to worry about anything. But then he remembered that Master Xie's father was in the Hanlin Academy! Could it be that he was asked to go to the Ministry of Justice?
The Xie and Shen families are getting engaged, and Lord Wei is getting very anxious at home.
First, Shen Su ranked second in the joint examination, then He Ying gave birth to a child, and then Shen Yuan was engaged to young Master Xie. Then on May 18th was the day for the palace examination. In the past two months, happy events have happened one after another in the Shen family.
When the servants of the Shen family went out shopping, their backs were straighter than those of other servants.
The engagement is about to take place, and the person getting engaged kept talking about the case when they met recently. Even Old Madam Shen has heard about the case and knows that the two children are worried about it every day.
On April 30th, Xie Hui had just come out of Shen's house when a little kid ran up to him and handed him a letter.
Xie Hui stood by the roadside, opened the letter, quickly scanned the words on it, and immediately returned to Shen's house to find Shen Yun.
"This matter is of great importance and must be reported to His Majesty."
"Yes, that's what I meant."
The two of them did not delay and went straight to the palace to ask for an audience. The letter was sent by Yanzhou prefect Liu Mingchong, and it was sent out secretly.
It was all because of the case that was previously involved.
As a prefect of a state, he had to deliver a letter secretly. When Xie Hui was investigating the Xiaoyao Pill case in Yanzhou, he did feel that the Yanzhou noble families were in power and had sidelined the prefect, but he did not expect it to have come to this point.
According to the letter, the Master Cheng they were looking for was not named Cheng, but Shi. The Shi family of Yanzhou was an aristocratic family that had been in power for many years. They were even more powerful in the previous dynasty. Most of the children in the family were officials in the capital. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Shi family controlled half of the dynasty. However, their ancestral home was in Yanzhou. After Da Zhao came to power, he began to crack down on the aristocratic families. The Shi family then retreated back to their old nest in Yanzhou, and most of the children of the clan leader did not serve as officials in the capital, but sought posts outside the capital.
After reading the letter, Emperor Zhaoming slammed his hand on the table, "How can this be possible! Does the Shi family want to be the emperor in Yanzhou?!"
The letter said that the historian had learned about the arrest warrant in advance, but did not allow the government to post it or discuss it. Although Liu Mingchong wanted to protect himself, he still had a conscience, so he found a way to secretly send the letter out.
"There is a period, you bring..."
The emperor was about to let Xie go back, but then he remembered that he was going to get engaged in a few days, so he changed his mind and said, "Forget it, you don't have to go this time. I'll let the eldest brother go. Now that you're married, it's time to do some serious work."
When the eldest prince came and saw Xie Hui and Shen Yun here, he thought of Xie Hui's engagement and said a few auspicious words happily.
"Don't be silly, I have a job for you."
"ah?"
"What? Is it possible? If not, I will call the second and third brothers to come."
The eldest prince quickly said, "Yes, I can do it. Father, please tell me."
The Emperor first asked Shen Yun to tell the eldest prince about the case, and then said to him:
"I want you to take the imperial guards and go to the Shi family in Yanzhou to arrest the man. Remember not to leak the news first, and don't let the Shi family have a chance to prepare."
"Yes, I obey your order!"
The eldest prince was very happy that he finally had a job.
Xie Hui then added, "Grand Prince, I have to trouble you again. Please protect the family of Yanzhou Governor Liu Mingchong and don't let anyone harm them."
"Okay, I understand."
Naturally, the emperor was worried about letting the eldest prince go alone, so this time he asked Yuwen Mu, the commander of the Imperial City Bureau, to go to Yanzhou with the eldest prince.
The eldest prince was able to go out on errands, which made the third prince envious. He wondered when he would be able to get a proper job.
Seeing her husband like this, the Third Prince's wife said to him, "Since Father has already started to let the eldest brother do the work, it will be your turn sooner or later. The eldest brother is older than you, so this time he got the job first."
The Third Prince smiled at his wife and said, "You are right. It will be my turn sooner or later. But besides the errand, there is another important thing."
"What?"
"Of course, it is to give my father a grandson..."
…
The eldest prince led his men out of the capital quietly. Originally, the eldest prince had no work, and after he got married, the Liu family seldom interacted with the eldest prince in order to avoid suspicion. He was about to arrive in Yanzhou, and few people in the capital knew that he had gone out on a business trip.
As time goes by, every family in Beijing is paying attention to two things. One is the annual Dragon Boat Race during the Dragon Boat Festival, and the other is naturally the engagement between the Xie and Shen families.
Xie Jia was born into an outstanding family, was handsome, and was favored by the emperor. Originally, there were many noble families in the capital who wanted to marry the princess, but the princess herself said early on that her son's future marriage would have to be approved by him.
At this time, everyone thought that Shen Yun was the Dali Temple Minister, so he was Mr. Xie's superior! For a while, everyone said that the Shen family was close to the water.
Before the formal engagement, the man's family must first send a matchmaker to propose marriage. Only if the woman agrees can the man come to discuss marriage. After that, the engagement letters are exchanged and the two families write an engagement letter, indicating that the marriage is settled.
Old Madam Shen was worried about her granddaughter's engagement. One day before the matchmaker came to her house, she asked her granddaughter, "When the Xie family sends gifts, you will have to give gifts in return. Have you prepared the shoes and socks for the return gifts?"
"Grandma, I can't sew, and you've known this for a long time. Can I give away the things I made?"
"Who asked you to make it? No one dares to wear it. You can just sew it twice as a token of your courtesy."
Shen Yuan agreed, "Okay, I'll do it later." Shen Yuan also prepared return gifts, a painting for each person, and the rest were prepared at home, including shoes and socks. She even asked Xie Hui for the measurements and had them made.
"Don't wait any longer, do it now. I'll watch you do it. Qingdai, go get the stuff and let her give you two injections."
When the item was brought in, she said it only needed two stitches, no more than that. In fact, if she had added a few more stitches, the item would have been ruined.
The matchmaker invited by Princess Kangle was Zhou Zhongan's mother. This was the first time that the wife of Duke Xin acted as a matchmaker.
On the third day of May, Madam Zhou arrived with gifts from the Princess's Mansion. In fact, in most families, the matchmaker is just a formality, and the two families must have discussed the marriage privately a long time ago.
The same thing happened when Madam Zhou came. Without saying anything else, she just pulled Shen Yuan over and started praising him. She kept praising him for a quarter of an hour without stopping. This time, Shen Yuan finally knew who Mr. Zhou took after.
On the fifth day of the first lunar month, the princess and Lord Xie brought Xie Hui to the Shen family to formally arrange the marriage of the two children.