Chapter 185 A woman's marriage is not entirely up to her.
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After watching Jiang Huijun enter the side hall, Li Shiyue quickly tore open the envelope in her hand, took out only two sheets of paper, and began to read them.
Anxious, she quickly skimmed through both letters.
Having grasped the general idea, Li Shiyue carefully read through the two pages again in her mind from beginning to end.
The mere two pages of paper reveal that Yan Jiuniang, who was writing the letter, must have been angry and anxious. The handwriting was somewhat messy, and the strokes were forceful.
In essence, the letter boils down to just one sentence: The Prince of Zhenbei wants to choose a husband for Yan Jiuniang.
Moreover, the Prince of Zhenbei already has a candidate in mind. According to Yan Jiuniang's letter, one of them is Gao Rong'an, the second son of the eldest branch of the powerful Gao family in Andong, who has foreign blood.
However, Yan Jiuniang also wrote in her letter: "Gao Rong'an is nine years older than me. If I marry him, I will be his second wife."
"You don't even need to have children; you can just go there and become a mother!"
The second candidate is said to be a descendant of the Sun family in Guanzhong from the Guanlong aristocratic family, but the specific candidate has not yet been decided.
But Guanzhong is far away, and its distance from Andong is only separated by the sea.
That's not only separated by the sea, but also by land thousands of miles away.
In Yan Jiuniang's own words from the letter, "This means I won't even have to wait until I get married; the journey to my new home will exhaust me to death!"
Moreover, the marriage proposals between the Sun family and Yan Jiuniang have not yet been finalized. Who knows if the young man from the Sun family will be worse than the one from the Gao family?
In short, Yan Jiuniang absolutely disagreed with the marriage arranged for her by her father, the Prince of Zhenbei.
The Prince of Zhenbei is simply using Yan Jiuniang as an object to pawn for what he wants.
Even though Yan Jiuniang's maternal clan could protect her mother back then, the Yan family has declined considerably in the past ten years, while the Prince of Zhenbei is at the height of his power. At present, the Yan family can no longer protect Yan Jiuniang.
Otherwise, Yan Jiuniang's surname is Yan, and Zhenbei Wang's surname is Liu. How could Liu possibly manage the marriage of someone surnamed Yan?
Li Shiyue looked at the last sentence on the letter from Yan Jiuniang: "I asked my sister-in-law's family, the Jiang family, to send you a letter on their small cargo ship. Now that things have come to this, I really don't know what to do."
I don't want to be controlled by him!
He deceived my mother back then, and now he just wants to use me to exchange for what he wants.
Where is there even the slightest bit of fatherly affection between him and me?
He wouldn't even let me go back to Andong to see my mother. Instead, he sent people to trap me, wanting me to wait to be married in this house in Dongmu!
In October, I hated him!
I hate him so much!
Looking at the slightly blurred ink at the end of the letter, Li Shiyue knew that Yan Jiuniang must have shed tears when she wrote this.
After refolding the letter and putting it back in the envelope, Li Shiyue got up and walked into the side hall, where she exchanged glances with Jiang Huijun, who was sitting on a low couch.
"October, come, sit down."
After Li Shiyue arrived, she also sat down on the low couch. She thanked Jiang Huijun for the teacup that was pushed towards her, took a small sip, and found that it tasted good; it must be good tea.
However, while Li Shiyue could tell that this was good tea, he couldn't explain why it was good tea.
She looked at the tea in her cup, thinking about Yan Jiuniang and what she had said in her letter.
"October?"
Li Shiyue looked up at Jiang Huijun across from her. Jiang Huijun put down her teacup and sighed first.
“Sigh,” Jiang Huijun smiled awkwardly at Li Shiyue, “Ninth Sister also wrote letters to me and her eldest brother. These letters were delivered to me seven days ago by my family’s cargo ship after it arrived at Sanshan Port.”
I took the letter and immediately sent someone to the garrison to find the General, but he was busy with military affairs and hadn't returned yet. However, he did send me a message as well.
At this point, Jiang Huijun picked up a note she had prepared in advance from the side of the low couch and handed it to Li Shiyue.
"I am on military duty and cannot return."
"The matter of Jiu Niang can be handled secretly."
When Li Shiyue saw the words "secretly crossing the Chencang pass," she combined them with the fact that Jiang Huijun had insisted on keeping her for dinner and had said these things to her earlier that day, and she had some guesses and ideas.
As soon as she looked up, Jiang Huijun could tell from the expression on her face that Li Shiyue had guessed it.
“You and Jiu Niang are kindred spirits and bosom friends. At this time, besides writing to us, she only wrote to you.”
The general's idea was to secretly send someone to bring Jiu Niang out of Dong Mou, but once she was out, it would be too difficult to completely avoid the search of the Prince's Mansion.
In October, Liujiatun, where you are, is not close to the prefectural city, but it is not too far either. It is located at the foot of Daheishan Mountain, where there will be a trade market after autumn.
A large group of people makes it easier to hide one's tracks.
Therefore, the general's idea is to send Jiu Niang to your place to hide for a while. Once Jiu Niang is gone, the marriage will naturally be called off.
Then we'll bring Jiu Niang back.
In October, would you be willing to...?
Li Shiyue immediately answered, "Okay!"
Madam, please give me a heads-up beforehand.
"We'll be opening that shop on Shuyuan Street soon. If you have any news, please send a message to the paper shop. I'll be on my way to the dock to pick up Jiu Niang!"
Jiang Huijun knew that Li Shiyue would eventually agree, but she didn't expect Li Shiyue to agree so readily!
Seeing the look on Jiang Huijun's face, Li Shiyue knew her doubts. "Madam, in this world, it's not easy for women."
Even though Jiu Niang was a noblewoman from a royal family, she still had to use her marriage to secure the man's interests.
Back when we were fleeing famine, it was thanks to her boat that the people of our village were able to come to Andong and live the peaceful life we have now.
Even disregarding that, I've known her for a while, and as a friend, I'll naturally help her if I can!
After agreeing with Jiang Huijun on how to inform her, Li Shiyue was properly escorted out of the General's Mansion. She was even transported by carriage, with two boxes of gifts from Jiang Huijun in the back.
Sitting in the carriage, Li Shiyue lifted the curtain on the carriage window and looked at the bustling streets of the prefectural city, but in her heart she was thinking about the matter of taking Yan Jiuniang to Liujiatun in the future.
The first reason she agreed to Jiang Huijun's offer was that she was genuinely angry and heartbroken about Yan Jiuniang being forced into marriage, and wanted to help Yan Jiuniang, a friend who had once helped her and with whom she could get along very well.
Secondly, it's for profit.
Clearly, Yan Jiuniang and Liu Tan had a good relationship and genuine sibling affection.
However, Liu Tan is currently the Grand General of Andong, and he cannot openly have a conflict with the Prince of Zhenbei. Moreover, judging from the news about the sale of Xingshenglou, Liu Tan's position as Grand General is not easy to hold.
Therefore, by helping Yan Jiuniang, we can maintain a good relationship with Liu Tan.
This is what Li Shiyue needs!
She needed to maintain a good relationship with the General of the Xuanjia Army in order to deter the old Li clan forces led by Li Youfu and his eighth uncle, and to make Li Shiyang side with her for the sake of power and status.
She had previously said that she would kill someone if she dared to cut off her eighth great-uncle's finger, and while she did say that, she was indeed capable of killing, but that wasn't necessary.
She's not a serial killer; she still wants to live a good life in this world, using the identity of Li Shiyue.
Thirdly, Li Shiyue set her sights on Yan Jiuniang's business acumen.
Regardless of whether Yan Jiuniang stays in Liujiatun for a few days or a few months, it's worth asking her to manage the paper mill and the shops prepared for the trade well.
In short, Li Shiyue's agreement to this matter was genuinely driven by self-interest.
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