Pearl smiled and said, "My son-in-law just told me to tell you to wash up and have breakfast as soon as you get up. He got up at 11:00 AM, and I saw him going to the study."
I guess he went to handle official business.
I was supposed to serve tea this morning and should be back soon. Yining sat down on the small table by the window, leaning against the large kang, and let Zhenzhu wash her face. She took the dowry book and flipped through it, then suddenly froze. "Why are there so many extra pages?"
There were farms in Wanping, shops in Daxing, and even plum vases carved with pure gold and depicting good fortune and longevity, and jade Buddha statues...
Yining remembered that these were the things on Luo Shenyuan’s betrothal gift list!
Those were betrothal gifts, how could they also include those things? That's a full 40,000 taels. Could it be that Wei Ling just let her bring them here as a dowry?
Yining immediately asked Zhenzhu to invite in Mama Lou and Mama Fan, who came with the dowry. These two were pointed out to her by Wei Ling, who said they were old servants.
As the two old ladies entered, they noticed from Yi Ning's complexion and sitting posture that the son-in-law and the young lady had not had intercourse last night. Their smiles softened, and they knew exactly how to report back to the Duke of Ying's residence. Then, bowing, they asked, "What are your wishes, Madam?"
Yi Ning placed the dowry list on the small table and pointed at the pages: "What's going on?"
The two maids looked at each other, and then Lou Mama said, "The Duke said it would be your dowry, so I added it in."
Yi Ning's hands trembled a little as she held the thick dowry list. It was so heavy, sixty thousand taels of silver! She took a deep breath. Even if Wei Ling doted on his daughter, this sixty thousand taels of silver dowry was still too heavy.
But there was no reason to return the dowry, so Yi Ning could only look at it again and again. She didn't know whether to sigh that her third brother was rich or that her father was rich. She didn't care about these priceless things, because now they were all hers.
The shock of seeing the dowry list had barely subsided when another maid arrived to pay her respects. It was the maid Luo Shenyuan had recently assigned to her. Several people entered one after another, and Yi Ning immediately spotted the tall, slender, fair-skinned Fu Jiang. Last time, she had secretly spoken to Lin Hairu, saying that her third brother didn't want to touch them, but she had...
When she saw Fu Jiang, she didn't know why she remembered what happened last night. Their breaths were connected, and he was very hot against her. She could clearly feel the reaction, but she did nothing.
Yi Ning coughed. She was not used to being waited on by unfamiliar people. These new girls were assigned to the back room to do some idle work.
The girls had been serving Luo Shenyuan first, and he had probably given half of his people to her. The girls were respectful and obedient, showing no signs of discontent. They were extremely respectful to her, as expected, because they had been serving Luo Shenyuan first.
Yining saw that the sun had already shone into the yard and estimated that it was time, so she asked the maid to comb her hair.
Luo Shenyuan returned from outside and saw her leaning against the pillow through the partition. Her maid had spread her hair loose, spreading it across the bright red Lu Chou bed. Her hair was like silk, surely of precious silk, with a lustrous, pale green sheen. She lowered her head to read the list in her hand. Her bright red jacket, embroidered with the Four Joys and Ruyi patterns, made her face as white as a jade plate, appearing translucent and luminous. A thin layer of warm velvet made her seem even more delicate, as if she could be ripped apart by a bite.
Only after the maid outside passed the message did Luo Shenyuan go in.
He looked even taller in the morning light, his body instantly blocking the light from her reading the list. But in a flash, he walked to her side and asked, "What are you looking at?"
When Yi Ning heard his voice, she felt a little lost, her mind racing back to what happened last night. Although they were siblings, they had never lived together before. Now that they were living together, when he walked over to her, Yi Ning could still smell the clean scent of soapberry on him. It was a sudden closeness.
She was a little afraid to look at him, and her hand holding the list tightened slightly.
While she was stunned, the bony hand took the dowry list from her hand.
"Dowry list..." He looked up at her, "Why are you studying this?"
Yi Ning saw his thick eyebrows, high nose bridge, and handsome jaw. She wanted to snatch the dowry list from him: "You can't look at this..."
Luo Shenyuan looked at her and asked, "Why can't I see it?"
Yi Ning had to get it back anyway! It wouldn't be nice if he saw the betrothal gifts she had sent in turned into dowry. But he was so tall, so Yi Ning had to kneel down on the Luohan bed to fight him for it. But she was still not as tall as him, so he deliberately didn't let her get it. When she was about to grab it, he would immediately hide away and then turn his back to continue watching.
Yi Ning felt like a little girl being bullied in front of him. He was just teasing her. She didn't care about anything else and didn't dare to look at him. She stretched out her hands several times to grab it, and said angrily and amusedly, "It's nothing. My father just added your betrothal gift to my dowry! Don't worry about it."
Luo Shenyuan saw a healthy blush on her face and raised an eyebrow. "Didn't I deliver the things above to the Duke of Ying's mansion? Why are you thinking about it?"
Yining clearly didn't mean to be concerned about him. She had never been teased like this before and didn't know what to say.
Luo Shenyuan looked at her with a softer look in his eyes. He smiled and said, "Now you finally dare to look at me, right?"
He did it on purpose, Yi Ning realized. He noticed that she was not used to him, so he wanted to break the barrier between them last night.
Luo Shenyuan returned her dowry list to her like a puppy guarding its food, and patted her head again, adding, "Don't worry, Third Brother won't take your things."
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
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