Manager Mu has said several times that if Song Liyun agrees, he will choose a girl from his family to marry into the family.
However, Hong Jingtian had not yet been caught at that time, and Song Liyun did not want to implicate others, so she postponed the meeting until winter.
Later, Song Liyun's infamous reputation spread far and wide. With such a formidable sister-in-law remaining unmarried in her husband's family, other families with daughters dared not approach her rashly.
Only Sister-in-law Xu was bold enough to go directly to their door.
In fact, given Song Zhenping's age, it is indeed time to arrange a marriage. However, Xu's sister-in-law is not a good person, and Song Liyun's impression of her cousin has also been greatly diminished. Even if she praises her to the skies, she still has doubts in her heart.
Unexpectedly, Song Zhenping also refused.
Why refuse?
Song Zhenping blushed deeply before finally speaking, "Sister-in-law Zhang said that a distant cousin from her family's village is coming to the market in a few days, and she asked me to come to her house to help with the rice harvest..."
Song Liyun burst out laughing.
Zhang's sister-in-law is Chun Tao, the young woman who asked Aunt Ma in town to find work at the Song family's house.
That family was hardworking; they leased land from Hu Qing and Xue Zhuang in town to grow grain.
Because they both farmed in the same area, he naturally had a lot of contact with Song Zhenping, and Song Zhenping often helped his family with chores. Over time, they became very familiar with each other.
Under Song Liyun's questioning, Song Zhenping readily explained the woman's situation.
The girl's surname was Yang, and her given name was Yang Hua. She was older than Song Zhenping, already twenty-two years old, which would be considered an old maid in the Wu Dynasty who was unable to get married.
Chuntao's sister-in-law didn't hide anything, saying that because her parents died early and her younger siblings were small, the girl had to raise them all by herself.
Now that her younger sister has gotten married and her brother's wife has moved in, she can't stay at her parents' home anymore and wants to find a family to marry into.
However, most boys disliked her because of her age and the lack of a dowry, and were unwilling to marry her. Now, they are talking about widowers or divorced men.
Chuntao said that the girl was diligent and down-to-earth, a good homemaker, and also had a decent appearance, but she was delayed because of her younger siblings.
Moreover, her distant cousin has a good personality, and if she marries into the Song family, she will definitely be able to take good care of Xiao An.
Others might fear that Song Liyun was too fierce, but the Zhang family, having had much contact with Song Zhenping and Xiao An, naturally knew that Song Liyun was cold on the outside but kind on the inside.
I was just worried that the Song family would look down on the girl because she was too old, so I wanted Song Zhenping to meet her first.
When Song Zhenping heard that the girl had delayed her own marriage because of her younger siblings, he immediately thought of himself. He was also willing to give everything for his younger siblings.
If Yun'er hadn't helped me escape, I don't know what my life would be like now.
Feeling a sense of shared suffering led him to decide to meet with them.
He also thought that Yun'er was already eighteen years old, and if he got married soon, there would be an older sister-in-law in the family to help his younger sister with her marriage.
He was just worried that Yun'er would object to someone older than him, and he had been considering whether or not to say it for the past few days.
Song Zhenping wasn't a scheming person after all, and now that his sister asked, he didn't hide it.
Song Liyun nodded repeatedly as she listened: It's not a big deal that the woman is two years older, but we need to meet her first and find out what her situation is.
No matter how good a girl is, she should not be married if she sacrifices her youth for her younger brother before marriage and then sacrifices her family for him after marriage.
Regarding Song Zhenping's marriage, Song Liyun felt that finding a farm girl who matched his temperament would be a good idea.
Song Zhenping was an ordinary farm boy, and now he was a military household member, so he could forget about his future.
A perfect life is one where one can live a life free from worries about food and clothing and where husband and wife live in harmony.
In the future, Xiao An can also go to Qili County to live with me, so that Song Zhenping and his wife can live a peaceful life.
Song Liyun asked the Zhang family about the time they would arrange for the rice harvest, which was also the time for them to meet and select girls, so that she could stay at home.
Song Zhenping blushed and said, "Brother Zhang said my family has a small amount of rice, so our two families will harvest it together."
Is this some kind of matchmaking contest held in the fields?
Okay! No problem!
Song Liyun was also looking forward to meeting this great girl.
Song Zhenping is going on a blind date, and Song Liyun is inexplicably excited.
Not only did his smile remain unchanged for the past two days, but he even walked briskly while carrying plates, making Zhou Xiang and Lin Tao wonder what good thing had happened to him.
This is something that's still in the early stages; how can I reveal it?
She made up a random excuse, saying that Commander Luo had instructed that if Lord Jiang wanted to take the money, he had to get approval from Commander Luo first.
At mealtime, Xiao Cui, who had stopped her and questioned her about the private room that day, came again.
When she saw Song Liyun serving dishes, she looked disdainful: "So you're just a lowly maid. Come here and order for me."
Song Liyun already knew the girl's name through the membership card. Her name was Xiao Cui, and she was from Pingyang Prefecture. She was staying at Zuichunlou with her host family.
It seems that Xiao Cui is very favored by her master, as she is allowed to come out to eat.
They're quite generous; last time they ordered a huge amount of various grilled skewers, plus fruit wine in a takeout box, which cost at least two taels of silver.
"Miss Xiao Cui, people have different social statuses, but jobs have no such distinction; it's all about making money. What would you like to eat today, Miss?" Song Liyun didn't want to discuss social hierarchy with the people here.
As long as there are people, there will be social classes, and there will be high and low status.
The only thing they have in common is that they all use different methods to make money. Some work diligently to gain small profits, while others are ruthless and greedy.
She casually steered the conversation to the dishes Xiao Cui had ordered.
Upon hearing that there was no distinction between noble and lowly jobs, Xiao Cui curled her lips. All the rough maids and cleaning ladies in the mansion were lowly servants doing lowly jobs.
However, the young master's orders were more important now, and she couldn't chat any longer. So, she began to order with her delicate hands: "Today, I want 100 skewers of mutton, 50 skewers of grilled kidneys, chicken skewers, grilled chicken heads, chicken hearts, chicken feet, shrimp balls, lamb testicles, lamb kidneys, pork skin, fish tofu, and grilled chives... grilled eggplant, grilled..."
Song Liyun frowned as she listened; this was a bit too much!
Xiao Cui finished speaking in one breath, then said smugly, "Ha! So much today, can Tianxiang Restaurant even bake it all?"
These things can definitely be grilled, but some ingredients don't have that feature, such as grilled chicken feet or grilled lamb testicles.
The Wu Dynasty did not have dedicated feed chicken farms; each family would raise a few to ten chickens to eat eggs, and the chickens sold in the market were all live.
Tianxianglou buys several chickens every day to make soup and roast meat, and that's how they get some chicken feet and hearts.
Xiao Cui now orders twenty skewers of chicken feet and twenty skewers of chicken hearts in one go, and the shop doesn't have enough stock.
"Miss Xiao Cui, we can make as many lamb skewers as you want, but we don't have lamb testicles or lamb kidneys, nor chicken hearts or chicken feet. Could we please change to something else?" Song Liyun explained politely.
"If you don't have any, go buy some right away! I'll order twenty skewers of chicken hearts, and you guys go buy chicken instead," Xiao Cui said nonchalantly.
Song Liyun was speechless: for twenty strings of chicken hearts, she would need to buy sixty chickens. She was only lucky to have gone to her maternal grandmother's house.
She didn't want to talk to this fairy who didn't understand the hardships of human life, so she forced a smile and said, "We really don't have chicken hearts and chicken feet. Little Cui, please change it to something else! Grilled cold noodles are also very delicious now."
"Oh, then give me another twenty skewers of grilled cold noodles, and fifty skewers of chicken hearts and chicken feet..."
Song Liyun's eyes narrowed: Instead of decreasing, they're increasing; they're deliberately looking for trouble!
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