Xu Tao found out all of this herself. The thought of leaving the place where she had lived since childhood to go to a strange family and live with someone she didn't know very well made Xu Tao very nervous.
Xu Tao was a gentle and quiet girl who kept her thoughts to herself. To be honest, she didn't really want to get married, but seeing her mother's high spirits, she had to suppress her feelings. When she saw her mother going to Jinyige to buy a wedding dress, she stopped her and insisted on embroidering it herself.
Xu Tao's embroidery skills were quite good, and with the help of the embroiderers in the mansion, the wedding dress was almost finished.
Looking at the bright red wedding dress hanging in front of the window, the patterns on it were all embroidered with gold thread. Under the light, the patterns seemed to have a hazy halo. Xu Tao felt that she had no hope for the future. She was just following other people's instructions. After the wedding dress was finished, she began to make shoes for the heads of the Feng family. The day after the wedding, the new bride had to give the shoes she made herself to her husband's family when she met them.
Xu Tao looked at the several pairs of unfinished shoes on the table in the room. The Feng family had sent the shoe sizes long ago. The soles were made by the embroiderers in the mansion, while the uppers were made by Xu Tao herself. Xu Tao selected several pieces of fabric suitable for the owner of each pair of shoes, and after making them, she embroidered patterns on them before starting to sew them onto the soles.
She was pricked twice in the hand by a shoe-making awl. Although there was no bleeding, the pain was so intense that it went straight to her heart. The hissing pain made Xu Tao feel extremely suffocated.
Xu Tao's personal maid, Xiao Cui, came in from outside and said softly, "Second Miss, it's getting late, you should rest."
Xu Tao looked at Xiao Cui and said, "Xiao Cui, why do you think girls have to find a husband and get married?"
When Xiao Cui heard Xu Tao's question, she thought for a moment and said, "My grandmother and mother both married into families with husbands. If a girl doesn't marry into a family with husbands, who will take care of her in her own family? My mother said that if a girl doesn't marry into a family with husbands, her brothers in her own family will all get married and she won't have a good life in her own family."
Xu Tao said, "Yes, girls, when they reach a certain age, they find a husband and get married, and then they have to live with people they've just met. Just thinking about it makes me feel bored."
Like Xu Tao, Xiao Cui was a gentle and somewhat quiet person. After listening to Xu Tao's words, she nodded and said, "This servant also feels that it is meaningless, but this is how generations have lived, and we can't change it. Miss, it's getting late, let's rest first."
Xu Tao sighed, glanced again at the shoe uppers in the sewing basket on the table, and lay down with Xiao Cui's help.
After Xiao Cui settled Xu Tao in, she went to the outer room. Xu Tao had always insisted on sleeping in her own room since she was a child, while the maids and servants on night duty slept on a couch outside.
A ram's horn palace lantern remained on the bedside table. Xu Tao looked at the somewhat dim bed curtains and the quilt tightly wrapped around her body, but her mind was still on the wedding. She didn't know when she finally fell asleep.
Zhang Zhaoci wasn't particularly concerned with the affairs of the household, but she was quite attentive to medical matters. Now everyone in the household knew that the Third Madam was a highly skilled doctor, and some servants who were favored by their mistress would come to ask Zhang Zhaoci to examine them. As long as they came, Zhang Zhaoci would treat them seriously. It just so happened that it was the change of seasons, and someone had a headache or fever. Zhang Zhaoci would prescribe a few simple herbal remedies, brew them into a decoction, and drink it, and it really worked.
The girls' school in the family started again. Xu Tao didn't come to class because she was preparing for her wedding. The seven girls attended class on time every single day without fail. Xu Zhi wasn't thinking about learning anything at the school. She just felt that she could whisper secrets with her sisters at the school.
Xu Zhi's favorite people are Xu Mian from the second wife's family and Xu Tong from her fourth uncle's family.
Xu Mian is the oldest among the girls in the school, and she is also the eldest child in her family, so she likes to take care of her younger siblings. Xu Mian always felt that Xu Zhi was not used to life in the capital because she lived with her parents in Ganzhou, so she always took extra care of Xu Zhi.
As for Xu Tong, it was because the two girls were kindred spirits and their seats were next to each other. After class, the two girls would huddle together and whisper to each other.
After returning home from school in the afternoon, Xu Zhi whispered to Zhang Zhaoci, "Mother, Fifth Sister told me that Second Sister seems unwilling to get married."
Upon hearing this, Zhang Zhaoci exclaimed in surprise, "You can't just say things like that! Your second sister has been preparing for so long, and she spent three months embroidering that wedding dress alone. How could she not want to get married?"
Xu Zhi said, "I don't know either. Did Fifth Sister say that?"
Zhang Zhaoci frowned. He thought his second daughter, Xu Tao, was a quiet and gentle girl, just like Jia Yingchun from "Dream of the Red Chamber." Zhang Zhaoci believed that Xu Tao's marriage was arranged by her maternal grandfather. He had heard that the family that got engaged wasn't very prominent at the time, but after the engagement, they were promoted, from Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel to Minister of the Ministry of Rites. Many people said that Xu Tao's second daughter was a lucky charm for her husband's family. As soon as the engagement was arranged, her husband's family got promoted. It just so happened that the wedding date was approaching, and everyone felt that it was only natural for Xu Tao to marry into the family at this time.
How could Xu Tao's own sister say that her older sister is unwilling to get married?
Zhang Zhaoci wondered if she had pre-wedding jitters. However, she was only Xu Tao's third aunt and couldn't have a proper talk with Xu Tao.
Zhang Zhaoci felt strange because she was helping the people in the mansion to diagnose their pulses and prescribe medicine. Fortunately, the old lady had tidied up the back of her courtyard and set up a row of medicine cabinets. She asked Zhang Zhaoci and the two servants she had trained to diagnose their pulses and prescribe medicine for the people in the mansion. When she got busy, Zhang Zhaoci forgot about the matter of Xu Tao that Xu Zhi had told her.
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