Chapter 19 Curious

"Mr. Shen is right."

Xie Hui had been accustomed to his parents' love at home since he was a child. When he went in and out of the palace, he had witnessed the emperor's concubines fighting openly and secretly. Therefore, he made up his mind early on that he must get married like his parents in the future.

Everyone present knew that Shen Yun and his wife were deeply in love, and that they had not remarried for so many years after his wife passed away. Seeing him look emotional when talking about his marriage, everyone was afraid that this would make him sad, so they changed the subject and talked about other things.

"I heard that Shangshu Wang's family is planning to split up the family. His eldest son said he wants to move out and live on his own."

The Lord Fang who was speaking was the one who said that day that his wife's cousin's niece was marrying the eldest son of the Wang family. These days, whenever the duty bell rang, Lord Fang would rush home to listen to his wife talk about the fun of the Wang family.

"Minister Wang is still alive, but the eldest son wants to divide the family property. It won't sound good if this gets out to others."

"So what if it doesn't sound good? No matter how bad it sounds, how can it be bad to have a son who is a cleavage-sleeve? His eldest son said that if the family is not divided, his children will not be able to marry in the future."

Isn't it? Ask yourself, who dares to discuss marriage with the Wang family now? The Wang family has been in chaos these days, but nothing has come of it. It has made people laugh again.

"It's strange to say, I don't know how the matter of Wang Jia Erlang was leaked out, I've never heard of it before."

Hearing this, Shen Yun remained expressionless, but a closer look revealed that the tea in his hand was shaking slightly. He had confirmed with his daughter that when she spoke to the eldest daughter of the Li family about this matter, there was no one else around, and the Li family would not publicize the matter to the outside world.

But after the incident, Madam Li had visited his home, and Li Dai had come to the Dali Temple. If they met someone with ulterior motives...

"Maybe Wang Erlang was flirting with the servant outside and was seen by someone. God was merciful and let Miss Li escape from the pit of fire."

"Very, very much. In the past, when looking for a son-in-law, people always looked at the family background, character and knowledge, and no one paid attention to these things. I have to find out more in the future."

It seemed that no one in the Dali Temple had remembered that Li Dai had come to look for Shen Yun, and as they talked, the topic turned to how to find a son-in-law, which made Shen Yun breathe a sigh of relief.

Shen Yun had just breathed a sigh of relief and taken a sip of tea when he heard Lord Wei, the Temple Secretary, talking to him.

"Sir Shen, your daughter is now old enough to get married, right? What do you think of my second son? If he is satisfied, our two families can be colleagues and relatives at the same time, which is a perfect match."

Speaking of family background, the Wei family is indeed good. Although Wei Wenyuan himself is only a temple secretary and a low official position, he has a capable father and brother. The eldest son of the Wei family was the prime minister before his retirement, and the eldest son of the Wei family is now also a bachelor of the inner cabinet. Speaking of family background, the Shen family is really not as good as the Wei family.

However——

Shen Yun picked up the teapot and poured a cup of tea for Lord Wei, half jokingly saying, "Thank you Lord Wei for your kindness, but my daughter is still young, and it's far from time for us to get married."

This was a polite refusal. Shen Yun thought to himself that he had seen the second boy from Wei Wenyuan's family. When he stood up, he looked like a winter melon, and when he sat down, he looked like a sweet potato. From a distance, he looked like a meatball. He agreed because he was blinded by greed.

Hearing this, Lord Temple Minister, who had been sitting aside and silent for a long time, spoke up to smooth things over.

He nodded at Wei Wenyuan and said, "You are too anxious. I remember that the daughter of the farming family has not yet reached the age of marriage this year. Everyone knows that he loves his daughter as much as his life. How could he not want his daughter to be married off so early?"

Wei Wenyuan laughed, "Your Excellency is right. It seems that my boy is unlucky."

He also valued Shen Yun's character, the Shen family's upright family tradition, and he heard that the eldest son of the Shen family was very good at academics, so he thought of mentioning this matter. If it succeeds, it would be great, but if it doesn't, it doesn't matter.

Shen Yun noticed Xie Hui who was drinking tea at the side, "We only talked about children's matters, but we neglected Master Xie."

As soon as Shen Yun said this, everyone looked at Xie Hui again.

All of them are married with children, and are fathers. They often talked about their children when they talked to each other before, and for a moment I forgot to thank them in return.

Xie Hui smiled faintly and said, "Although I am not married yet, as a child, after listening to the words of the adults, I understand more about the love of parents for their children."

Xie Hui was not a talkative person, and during his time at the Dali Temple, he listened more than he spoke. The adults at the Dali Temple talked about everything under the sun, and it was quite interesting to listen to them.

The current emperor has many offspring. There are already seven or eight adult princes, including the third prince born to the harem, the eldest prince born to Consort Xiangui, and the sixth prince, the emperor's favorite. Two years ago, the competition for the position of crown prince had already begun to brew. Xie Hui did not want to get involved in this matter, so he went to the northwest.

Last year, the old general who had been guarding the northwest had to retire due to a recurrence of his old illness and was unable to carry on. He was succeeded by Consort Xian Gui's brother. Because of this, the undercurrent of the dispute over the position of crown prince almost came to the surface. In order to avoid suspicion, and because his mother often wrote to him saying that she missed him, Xie Hui returned to the capital.

Xie Hui didn't want to be dragged into the princes' fight, but he also didn't want to be idle. After thinking about it, he chose the Dali Temple. The Dali Temple was neither an idle department nor would it be involved in the power struggle in the officialdom.

The Dali Temple was generally responsible for hearing more difficult cases that the prefectures and counties were unable to resolve. In this dynasty, cases involving officials were generally handled by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of History, and the Dali Temple did not get involved.

Now that I think about it, this decision was quite correct. When there was a case, the people in the Dali Temple investigated it. When there was no case, they looked at the files or found an excuse to have a cup of tea and sit down to chat.

At the beginning of the third hour, the bell in the bell tower rang to signal the end of their duty. Officials of all ranks from various government offices poured out, and their duty for the day was over.

It was still early, so some officials made plans to go to a restaurant with a few friends and colleagues, some went to the theater, and some who didn't want to go anywhere went straight home.

In a year of good weather and favorable harvests, officials generally have a lot of free time. If we were to say who is the busiest department in the capital, it would probably be the Imperial City Department.

Because Xie Hui's mother was a princess, the princess's mansion was not far from the palace, so when the weather was fine, Xie Hui would walk home after work. As soon as he turned the corner where the Five Temples and Three Prisons were located, the smell of fireworks hit him in the face. As he walked, his sleeves and clothes had to be stained with the smell of steamed buns and bacon before he could get home.

"Shen Laoliu! I was wondering why I haven't seen you for a few days. Did you move your stall to a new location? Are you still going to use sick pork to make dumplings this time?!"

"Master Fan, I really know I was wrong and have been punished. How dare I do it again? This is all top quality meat. I saw the killing with my own eyes."

Xie Hui looked in the direction of the sound and saw a man with a bitter face. The baskets behind him were piled high, and next to him were two baskets of buns. From a distance one could tell they were snow-white and soft. It was hard for the street department to find out that the buns were made with sick pork, Xie Hui thought as he walked.

After Fan Lutong and his men checked the steamed bun shop, they continued to patrol the streets and happened to pass by Xie Hui.

Fan Lutong couldn't tell whether the pigs sold at the stall were freshly slaughtered, so he complained to his subordinates, "It's a pity that Miss Shen can't come to our street office. She can tell whether the meat is fresh or not just by smelling it. It's a pity that such a person doesn't come here!"

"Director Fan, she is a lady from a rich family, how can she come to work in public here?"

“What a pity, what a pity…”

Xie Hui did not stop walking, but he took the words he just heard to heart.

Miss Shen? Is that her?