Tang Baozhu had no idea that his eldest son had already been betrothed to the emperor's favorite daughter.
When they saw Li Jun return with his two sons unharmed, they were a little surprised; their clothes weren't even in disarray.
For a moment, I was thinking, is my son really that unpopular? Nobody's even trying to take him away.
She quickly shook off those thoughts. Did she not know whether her son was popular or not? There were countless people throwing handkerchiefs and purses at him from both sides of the restaurant.
He figured Xiao Qiangzi must have protected him. Thinking of this, he glanced at his youngest son with satisfaction, nodded, and said, "He's an adult now, and he can share the burden of the family."
"You've had a long day, go back to your room, wash up and rest for a while. We can talk after you've rested."
It's not that I don't want to chat with my son for a while, but seeing how tired they look, I figured that even though they didn't suffer any real loss, they must be mentally exhausted to be so listless.
"Mother, I'll go wash up now and get some rest. I'll come back to pay my respects to you after that."
"Go ahead, all of you go ahead. Your father and I have something to discuss."
After the children left, Li Jun took his wife's hand and went straight into the inner room. "Is there something urgent you need to say?"
I sat down on the stool and poured Li Jun a glass of water. He must be thirsty after walking around outside for so long.
"I just wanted to discuss with you what you think about Xiao Ping'an's other half. He's not young anymore, he's 19 years old by the Chinese age reckoning. People his age are already fathers. He didn't want to get married before, but now that he's finally finished the imperial examinations, it's time to find him a wife."
Li Jun thought for a moment and figured that since his son was good-looking and a third-place scholar in the imperial examinations, his other half should be quite good as well. It was possible that the officials had already noticed his son and, if they really liked him, they would probably make a move in the next few days.
"Don't worry, with your son's looks, why would you worry about not having a girl who likes him? He should be granted an official position soon, and then matchmakers will be knocking on your door. There's no need to rush now; take your time to choose."
Tang Baozhu thought about it and agreed. Especially since her son came from a poor family, those aristocratic families liked this kind of son-in-law. It was like sacrificing a daughter to win over a future pillar of society.
"In that case, there's no rush. But if we have some free time, we should go for walks around the streets more often. Our four children are all getting old, so it's good to have everything ready so we won't be caught off guard."
"Okay, anyway, everything's been cleaned up over there in the barren mountains, so I'll have plenty of time to spend with you from now on."
Li Jun thought that Huangshan had been fully restored and the entire mountain was planted with various fruit trees. Especially with the hot springs there, fruit trees of almost any season could be planted. Just thinking about the flowers blooming and the mountains and fields covered with flowers was beautiful. The slightly flatter areas were cleared out to plant winter vegetables.
Now that things are mostly arranged, and there are plenty of people at home who can help, he can finally get some rest. He hadn't had much time to spend with his wife while he was busy working on the barren mountain recently, so this is a good opportunity to make up for it.
The next morning, I was planning to take the children out to buy some nice things, when a eunuch came to deliver an imperial edict.
They quickly set up an incense table, and the whole family knelt on the ground waiting for the imperial decree to be read. They were dizzy from listening, but they understood the general meaning: Xiao Ping'an had performed exceptionally well and was a very talented person, so the princess would be married to him, and he would become the princess's consort.
He originally thought that after becoming a third-ranked scholar, he would be able to marry a better wife, but he didn't expect to marry the daughter of the best family in the world. The emperor's daughter is indeed the daughter of the best family in the world.
He quickly kowtowed to express his gratitude, but the thought of marrying a princess as a daughter-in-law and having to kneel and kowtow to her all the time was giving him a headache.
Fortunately, she wasn't the type to torment her daughter-in-law, and her daughter-in-law had her own princess residence. She would let the couple go there to live their lives and cultivate their relationship on their own.
As the eunuch was leaving, he said that after the Qionglin Banquet, officials from the Ministry of Rites would come to discuss the procedures so that the family of the third-ranked scholar could make preparations.
Tang Baozhu now felt that although her family seemed quite good at first, it wasn't grand enough if she were to marry a princess. It seemed she would have to buy a more impressive house to save for Xiao Ping'an.
Although the princess has her own residence, our son isn't going to be a live-in son-in-law. He'll definitely need his own place. We're planning to look around the area near the princess's residence to see if there are any suitable houses for sale. That way, the two families will be close by, so he can live wherever he wants, and it'll also improve our reputation.
"Congratulations, brother! I didn't expect you to marry your sister-in-law so soon."
"Where is the speed? If Xiao Ping'an wants to get married, he still has a long way to go. Royal princesses are not so easy to marry. Just going through the procedures might take two years. It would be quite good if he could bring the princess back after two years."
Tang Baozhu recalled that when she was doing a mission in the first small world, the princess she gave birth to took two or three years to conceive. Even after getting married, she was still worried and would send someone to check on her every few days.
I didn't realize it then, but now when I think about my family marrying a princess, I feel a different way.
"Don't worry, my dear wife. The most important thing now is to go to the storeroom and see if the betrothal gifts we've prepared are worthy of the princess. If not, we need to hurry up and search outside for better things. No matter what, we can't let the princess suffer."
"I know, what do I have to worry about? At least we've married a princess, so our family is quite fortunate. We won't have to worry about this or that anymore. I'll go check the storeroom now. If it's not enough, we'll have to buy something quickly. I'm just glad our family is quite well-off, otherwise we wouldn't even be able to come up with a dowry worthy of a princess."
“I’ll go with you. You guys go back to your rooms and rest. Don’t worry about Xiao Ping’an. Your mother and I will handle things. Right now, you should focus on making sure there are no mistakes at the Qionglin Banquet. Don’t worry about anything else.”
Li Jun wanted to go with his wife, but halfway there he remembered something and quickly turned back to give her some instructions.
"Understood, Father."
Xiao Ping'an felt a jumble of emotions as he listened to his younger siblings congratulate him.
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