Mrs. Su felt that Su Qiuya was a troublemaker and that it was definitely not a good idea for her to stay at home. She knew that Su Qiuya would definitely ask the family to give up some things, such as the things left by Su Qiuya's mother.
Mrs. Su was no novice, and she knew that some families had not given the girl her deceased mother's dowry, and the girl would later ask for money. The girl then went to her grandfather's family to ask for her mother's dowry. If that family used her mother's dowry, it would be bad.
The Su family itself is rich, and their ancestors have accumulated a lot. Su Qiuya does not have a brother from the same mother, so the Su family should give her all the dowry of Su Qiuya's biological mother.
So Madam Su went to find Master Su and said that Su Qiuya had married in a hurry and they did not prepare much dowry for her. If they had prepared a large dowry for Su Qiuya at that time, it would have been confiscated during the house raid.
Things were different now. Even if they gave the dowry to Su Qiuya, the house of Su Qiuya and Liu Yanbo would not be raided. Then they could give Su Qiuya the dowry she deserved, so that she could have some confidence. A woman should have money in her hands.
"Before, I didn't say much, nor did I say to send her more things. That's because the road from the capital to the northwest is so far. If the things are robbed by bandits, wouldn't it be a waste?" Mrs. Su had a reason. She was doing it for Su Qiuya's good.
To prevent Su Qiuya from criticizing her later, Madam Su simply told Master Su early on. Even though she didn't like Su Qiuya, she had already done something to her. There was no need to wait any longer. If she continued to wait, she was afraid that someone from Su Qiuya's maternal grandfather's family would rush over.
The Su family is wealthy and they are not short of these things. They can prepare some dowry for Su Qiuya.
"No matter how stingy I am, I can't be stingy in this regard," Mrs. Su sighed. "I'm doing this for this family. You know, I didn't come from a good family, so it's inevitable that I'm attached to those things."
Mrs. Su said that on purpose. She just wanted to let Mr. Su know that she still cared about her stepdaughter.
"If you hadn't said that, I wouldn't have thought of this." Mr. Su hadn't contacted Su Qiuya much before, thinking that the capital was far from the northwest, and if the things they prepared were taken away by the bandit sister, wouldn't it be a waste?
Master Su was also a stingy person. He didn't even think about letting those things be robbed. He was usually pretty good to his family members, and he wasn't willing to give Su Qiuya a dowry. This kind of thing had to be done well. If it wasn't done well, it would be easy for people to say it.
"Go, go and call the eldest lady over." said Master Su.
When Su Qiuya came over, she saw Madam Su. She thought that Madam Su was trying to sow discord, but she didn't expect that Madam Su and Mr. Su would talk about compensating for the dowry.
Su Qiuya felt a little depressed. She had originally planned to wait for some conflict to happen at home, and then she would go to her grandfather's house and ask her grandfather and uncle to help her ask for her dowry from the Su family.
"Before, the Marquis of Jingning's mansion was in turmoil. If you had taken those things with you, your house would have been confiscated." Madam Su acted very kind to Qiuya. "Now that you're back and living at home, you need money to make arrangements. Otherwise, people will accuse you of being a profiteer."
Madam Su said that deliberately, "After all, you are the eldest daughter of the mansion. You live at home. How can that be considered as extortion?"
"Yes, I'm not asking for money." Master Su said, "You can stay at home as long as you want."
"Okay." Su Qiuya was speechless after these two people said everything.
Su Qiuya looked at Madam Su. She had long known that her stepmother was not an easy person to deal with. She was really cunning. Madam Su was always so smooth. Whenever Madam Su thought of something wrong, she would correct it.
"I've already told your father that, in addition to your mother's dowry, we'll give you two shops and a farm." Madam Su smiled and said, "You've suffered a lot in the northwest these past two or three years. We didn't send you much for fear of being robbed by bandits along the way. Your grandfather sent you more because we figured you'd return to Beijing sooner or later. Now that you're back, it's time to give you some things."
Mrs. Su thought to herself that Su Qiuya had brought her mother-in-law and husband to the Su family. She didn't believe that Su Qiuya had no other ideas. She had fought with Su Qiuya for so many years, and of course she understood that Su Qiuya was a cunning fox.
When Su Qiuya was young, she knew how to take advantage of her grandparents' family. Now that Su Qiuya has grown up, it is even more impossible for her not to take advantage of her grandparents' family.
Then Madam Su naturally had to think of all these things. If there was anything that could make Su Qiuya attack her, it would be Su Qiuya's mother's dowry. The dowry was not particularly large, and it was nothing to the Su family.
Mrs. Su is not stingy. Su Qiuya will want those things sooner or later, so she should give them to Su Qiuya as soon as possible. Otherwise, Su Qiuya will ask someone to come. Mrs. Su doesn't want to ruin her reputation.
"I'm sorry to bother you." Haha, how could Su Qiuya not know? If she hadn't returned to the capital, Madam Su would never have said these words.
Mrs. Su didn't want to see her live a good life at all. Su Qiuya thought that she hadn't been able to conceive a child yet, and it was definitely Mrs. Su's fault.
"You call me mother after all, so how can I not take care of you?" Madam Su said, "These things are not much. If you give more, they will be gone. You still have brothers and sisters. If I give you more, your sisters will probably complain."
Madam Su said that she gave Su Qiuya these things because she had suffered in the northwest. It was also a good opportunity to make other illegitimate girls have opinions about Su Qiuya. Before Su Qiuya got married, she had offended many people.
Among those concubines, illegitimate girls and young masters, how many of them like Su Qiuya?
Everyone wished that Su Qiuya would never return to the Su family in her life, but who would have thought that Su Qiuya would come back.
But Su Qiuya is the daughter of Master Su's original wife, so Su Qiuya is naturally in an advantageous position.
Madam Su didn't intend to wait for those concubines' daughters to make trouble with Su Qiuya, she had to at least do a good job on the surface first.
"Look, if it doesn't work out, I still have some private money and I can give you some more money." Mrs. Su said.
"Then give me some money." There was no way Su Qiuya would refuse it. After all, she was the younger generation, so she took the money from Mrs. Su.
Madam Su looked at Su Qiuya. Wow, this stepdaughter is not making too much trouble now. She thought her stepdaughter didn't want her to give her money, but she didn't expect Su Qiuya to accept it. If Su Qiuya wants it, then she will give it. Madam Su doesn't want to be accused of being pretentious.
Anyway, the Su family will be inherited by Mrs. Su's son, so she is willing to give Su Qiuya some benefits.
Su Qiuya is already married, and Liu Yanbo has severed his relationship with the Marquis of Jingning's Mansion, which shows that the situation of Liu Yanbo and his wife is not much better.
It is good to beat a drowning dog, but the fear is that the dog may not be killed but splash water all over them, which would be a problem.
"Master, Qiuya is the only daughter left by my sister." Madam Su looked at Master Su, "We should prepare more things for Qiuya. Didn't you buy a house before? Give it to Qiuya."
"Okay." Mr. Su had no objection.
It is not good to let a married daughter live at home forever. It is okay to let her live at home for a while, but it is not good for a long time.
Mr. Su is a businessman. He is sometimes stingy, but that doesn’t mean he has no sense of the overall situation.
"Why don't you wait until after the New Year to move out?" Master Su said, "Now that you're all back, you can live at home this year."
"Okay." Su Qiuya was not in a hurry to move out.
Su Qiuya felt that she was being suppressed by Madam Su again. She didn't get much advantage from Madam Su. Even if it was just a little money, it was not a very important thing for Madam Su.
So in the eyes of outsiders, Mrs. Su wanted to be a good stepmother, so she directly gave Su Qiuya these things so that Su Qiuya's family could gain a foothold in the capital.
When Su Qiuya returned to the yard, she told Liu Yanbo that Madam Su and Master Su wanted to compensate her.
"That's good." Liu Yanbo said, "It seems your stepmother is not bad."
"She's not good at anything, but she is calculating. Maybe she knows the purpose of our staying at home this time, so she gave it to us." Su Qiuya really felt that Madam Su took everything into consideration. It was no wonder that Madam Su could hold the position of the principal wife.
Mr. Su was often out doing business, and he also had concubines in other places. Those concubines were used as principal wives, but they were not in the capital. Mrs. Su was in the capital, and Mrs. Su was Mr. Su's legitimate principal wife.
"Just give it to me." Liu Yanbo was not good at the struggles in the harem, and he couldn't see any problem here.
"Yeah." Su Qiuya nodded, "We have to wait until we get the things."
Su Qiuya was afraid that they were just talking about it, she had to really get those things.
At the Marquis of Jingning's mansion, Liu Yulian was looking at a newly printed exercise book. It contained fill-in-the-blank questions, calculation questions, and other types of questions.
"How does it feel?" He Xiyuan asked.
"Not bad." Liu Yulian said, "These don't look too difficult, they're not bad."
"But many people probably don't know the answers to these questions." When He Xiyuan first looked at them, he couldn't answer all the questions.
Some of the questions there seem simple, but are actually not easy at all.
"If you don't know, you have to learn." Liu Yulian said, "Some natural phenomena have scientific knowledge behind them."
How could Liu Yulian possibly produce those stereotyped essays? It's impossible.
"Yes, I should learn more." He Xiyuan also planned to take a look. Just because he didn't take the entrance exam for graduate school, it didn't mean he wouldn't do related work in the future. Maybe he should understand some of the content.
"Memorizing by rote isn't necessarily good; you still need systematic theoretical knowledge," Liu Yulian said. "Some books nowadays are just too disparate. Not really, but they're not disparate either. They're mainly unsystematic, lacking a step-by-step approach."
"Indeed." He Xiyuan said, "Three Character Classic, Hundred Family Surnames...these are really different."
When the men were studying, they had these enlightenment materials, and then they would slowly improve their reading and then take the imperial examinations. Instead of writing articles right away, some of the questions given by the research institutes were quite complex.
These questions were selected from a large number of questions, and it can be said that the content is relatively simple.
"That's right." Liu Yulian flipped through the exercise books. "We just need books on the relevant subjects. Now we just need to take our time. It's just right that while everyone is doing research, we can record it bit by bit. Later, others can read it and learn something from it."
"This is still quite difficult." He Xiyuan said.
"Yes, those people do research based on some theoretical foundations," said Liu Yulian.
At the Duke of Cheng's mansion, the family of the Duke of Cheng's wife came. Her family certainly didn't expect their daughter to marry He Xiyuan. He Xiyuan's fiancée was Princess Rongning, which already put him at a disadvantage. If He Xiyuan took his cousin as a concubine, how could Princess Rongning be happy?
Madam Qi wanted her daughter to enter the research institute, but she knew her daughter's level. She thought that He Xiyuan's fiancée, Princess Rongning, was the director of the research institute, so could Princess Rongning let her daughter enter the institute directly?
"Didn't you say before that you would let my daughter marry into your family?" Madam Qi said, "But... things turned out like this. Your niece's reputation is not in good shape anymore."
Madam Qi believes that the Chengguo Mansion must compensate the Qi family, and they cannot just ignore the second Miss Qi.
"We didn't say it directly to others at the time," said Lady Chengguo. "At that time, Yuan'er had already fled to the northwest, and Chen'er's legs were not in good condition. Who said your daughter was going to marry in? If she was going to marry, it was Chen'er."
Lady Chengguo would never allow her niece to marry He Xiyuan. If her niece really wanted to marry in, she would not stand on her niece's side, especially when her son already had a wife.
At this time, it would not be a good idea to let your niece from your mother's side come in as a concubine.
"What's the point of talking about whether to get married or not? As long as she is like this...it would be good if she can get into the research institute." Mrs. Qi said.
"Then go take the exam," said Lady Chengguo. "It's not a big deal."
"There are so many people taking the entrance exam for the research institute, both men and women. You also know what your niece is like. She usually studies some books on women's precepts and rules. How could she possibly know so many other things?" Madam Qi sighed.
"How many young ladies have learned that knowledge?" Lady Chengguo asked. "Just study hard and take the exam."
"I'm afraid I won't pass the exam." This is what Madam Qi was worried about. "I heard that Princess Rongning has other people around her. Some are from the palace, and some are her maids."
"Those are servants," said Lady Chengguo. "They're servants, not ladies-in-waiting. Why are you asking your daughter to be a maid? Forget about learning from her. Your daughter is a rich lady, and no one else would dare to order her around."
The wife of the Duke of Chengguo didn't think her niece was not afraid of hardship. She couldn't possibly say those things to her future daughter-in-law who hadn't even married into the family yet. She didn't have the face to say that. Even if no one knew that Madam Qi's daughter might marry into the Duke's Mansion, others would have known it even if they hadn't thought about it.
Since ancient times, cousins have been family members. Everyone knows that the old lady of the Chengguo Mansion originally planned to cancel the engagement between Madam Qi and Liu Yulian.
The old lady of the Chengguo Mansion had said something outside. Even though she hadn't said who she liked, everyone knew that He Xiyuan was going to break off his engagement with Liu Yulian. So some people were tempted and wanted to marry their daughters to the Chengguo Mansion.
The Liu family wasn't stupid either; they might have known the Qi family's intentions after just a moment's thought. That wouldn't be a good thing, and Lady Chengguo wouldn't have said those things to Liu Yulian.
"Just to be ordered around," Madam Qi said. "Learning is bound to be hard work. Whatever Princess Rongning can endure, she can endure, too."
"No, this isn't a question of whether your daughter can endure hardship," said Lady Chengguo. "If she wants to go, she should pass the exam with honor. It's ridiculous for us to ask for favors when Princess Rongning has just become the director of the academy. Our family still owes her, not her to us."
Lady Chengguo couldn't bring herself to say this. If she did, what would she become and how would others view her?
"But..." Madam Qi still felt something was not right.
"After your daughter takes the exam, if she fails, she can continue studying. If she passes, she can go in," said Lady Chengguo. "If she doesn't know anything, what's the point of her going in? Princess Rongning lets someone else in at will, and what will the emperor think? Why should others ruin their own future just for your daughter?"
If Liu Yulian just set up a small workshop, no one would say anything.
It's a small workshop, so if Madam Qi's daughter wants to study there... that's not a good idea. Others do research to make money, so why should they teach you for free? There's no such good thing in the world. Madam Chengguo thought that if they wanted to research, then they could do it on their own.
The books were in the shop, and they could buy as many as they wanted. There was no need to think about Princess Rongning's things. They could buy books, read books, and study those things. They didn't have to be accompanied by Princess Rongning to do those things.
"I'm not going to let her ruin her future. I'm just going to keep her by my side to learn. After she studies for a few years, she'll be able to take the exam, right?" Madam Qi said.
"How many years of study? Then won't your daughter get married?" Lady Chengguo asked, "Or get married while still studying? Actually, getting married while still studying is not impossible, but your daughter has no foundation at all."
By then, the girl from the Qi family will be getting married and having children. Will Liu Yulian wait until the girl from the Qi family has gone through all that before continuing to teach her?
Lady Chengguo didn't think that people were willing to wait. If the time came, no matter what they did, it would be wrong and they would be in a difficult position.
That's too difficult!
"Why not?" Madam Qi frowned. "She's your niece. It's just a matter of your words."
"The Marquis of Jingning's mansion also has daughters," Lady Chengguo said. "Princess Rongning isn't bringing her own niece, but your daughter. Do you think that's possible?"
"Isn't her niece still young?" Madam Qi had a reason.
Lady Chengguo was thinking, is this the last thing she can do to convince this person? She couldn't possibly tell Liu Yulian, "Why do you have to keep an eye on Princess Rongning? Can't you just change someone else?"
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