Next, Li and Ren Yaoqi began to prepare for the New Year. Fortunately, they were few in number and did not have multiple families living together, so there was less work to do.
Li did not force Ren Yaoqi to embroider her dowry all day long. The wedding dress of the Yanbei Palace was prepared by the palace according to the custom. Ren Yaoqi did not need to embroider the wedding dress herself. She only needed to embroider a red veil for herself.
Li also made fun of Ren Yaoqi. Fortunately, she married into the royal palace. Otherwise, with Ren Yaoqi's embroidery skills, in order not to embarrass her parents' and husband's families, she could only secretly hire an embroiderer to embroider for her.
In reality, while Ren Yaoqi's needlework wasn't particularly good, it wasn't so bad it was shameful. It was just much more ordinary than Li and Ren Yaohua's. Her only real strength in needlework was drawing patterns and matching colors.
Because Ren Yaoqi saved significantly more time than others in embroidering her dowry, Li Shi didn't restrict her like she had with Ren Yaohua. Instead, anticipating the many challenges she'd face after marrying into the royal palace, she often kept her by her side, having Nanny Zhou teach her about socializing. Even if Li Shi wasn't particularly intelligent, she knew that marrying into a common family required vastly different skills than marrying into a royal palace.
A few days before the Lunar New Year, the Ren family sent another invitation to invite Ren Shimin back home, but he again refused. Li asked Ren Shimin about sending a New Year's gift, but he said no. Perhaps no one in the Ren family could match Ren Shimin's decisiveness. If he said he was leaving the Ren family, he meant it, with no room for maneuver.
The year passed uneventfully. Nanny Zhou didn't return until after the first lunar month. Li had originally wanted her to wait until Ren Yaohua gave birth safely, but Ren Yaohua refused. Ren Yaohua had no choice but to seek help from her natal family. Her baby was already three months pregnant, and Nanny Zhou had already taken care of most of the Lei family's affairs. If Nanny Zhou, the head of the inner courtyard from her natal family, remained at the Lei family, it would inevitably lead to gossip. So, after the first lunar month, Nanny Zhou returned. Fortunately, the dowry Ren Yaohua brought with her was capable, and after a year of training under Nanny Zhou, she began to handle the affairs of the inner courtyard with ease.
After the New Year, rumors began to spread that the second young master of the Yun family was about to get engaged again, and this time the girl was the eldest daughter of the Meng family. The Meng family was one of the most powerful families in Yanbei. The eldest daughter of the Meng family was the eldest son of the eldest son, and had been raised by the old lady of the Meng family since childhood. She was well-educated, gentle and virtuous, and was naturally worthy of the second young master of the Yun family.
However, the eldest wife of the Guo family, and the mother of the eldest daughter of the Meng family, had initially had some reservations about this marriage. The previous time, Guo Yujiao and the daughters of the Jiang family had a fight, Guo Yujiao was pushed into a pond in the middle of winter. The two daughters of the Jiang family had even gone on to make a scene, which had earned Guo a lot of resentment from her own family. And all of this was caused by a jealous rivalry between the young ladies over Yun Wenfang. Consequently, the relationship between the Meng and Yun families had become increasingly strained.
However, it is said that this time, the marriage between the Meng and Yun families was arranged by the princess, and the Yun family also wanted to repair the relationship with the Meng and Guo families, so the marriage was finally agreed upon.
It was rumored that the Second Young Master Yun had been injured on the battlefield and needed to recuperate at home for a few months. As a result, the parties involved were nowhere to be seen after the news of the marriage was revealed. The wedding of the Second Young Master Yun and the Eldest Miss Meng was scheduled for October of this year.
After Yun Wenfang's marriage was settled, it was the turn of Yun Qiuchen, the eldest daughter of the Yun family.
Yun Qiuchen and Han Yunqian, the young master of the Han family, were a perfect match. The two families had previously expressed interest in marrying, so the two families became increasingly close.
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