Qin Jinrong was taken away, and Lu Yan stood by the wooden house of the wild geese, still fuming, warning no one to touch her.
Later, she even took red silk and embroidered her wedding dress in a nearby pavilion, watching it every day.
The fabric for the wedding dress was sent by Cui's men—a bolt of silk and a bolt of brocade. Qin Xiaozhou couldn't help but examine it closely; such fine fabric would cost a fortune to make a dress in the embroidery room.
Also arriving were the last batch of betrothal gifts and marriage certificate lists.
When Qin Xiaozhou saw that the last item on the gift list was a pair of Huizhou inkstones, he patted his chest to calm himself down. Well, the Lu family didn't need to struggle with the dowry issue anymore; just these Huizhou inkstones alone were worth a hundred or so taels of silver.
The betrothal gifts included two shops in the prefectural city.
In the end, Qin Xiaozhou underestimated the strength of a thousand-year-old family like the Cui family. So what if a branch of the family is not favored? It still bears the surname Cui. Even if the Lu family poured all its wealth into it, it wouldn't be a tenth of theirs.
In the warm spring of March.
Lu Yunxing bid farewell to his family and went to study at Wanzhou Academy.
Educational resources in the county town are limited, and it is not possible for a scholar to advance further if he only studies in the county town.
Only by going to the prefectural city can you find large academies, renowned teachers, and a vast collection of books.
Lu Yan also went along, her reasoning being, "Second Brother will be studying in Wanzhou for at least a year and a half. Does he expect to live in a rented house with Zhao Qianxun the whole time?"
“That’s too inconvenient. Why don’t I go with you? We’ve bought a small two-courtyard house in Wanzhou. That way, we’ll have a place to stay when we go to Wanzhou for business or when my fourth brother and my aunt’s cousin go to school.”
That's a very thoughtful consideration.
Qin Xiaozhou immediately made the decision, "Okay, we should definitely buy a house. It will be convenient for us to visit Wanzhou in a few years, not to mention for the future."
Lu Yunfeng also went with them; he was going to buy a manor near Wanzhou Prefecture as a dowry for Lu Yan.
On the third day of the fourth month, Lu Yunfeng rushed back from the prefectural city.
Zhao Fang pulled Lu Yan aside and asked, "How big is that estate? How much did it cost?"
Lu Yunfeng simply said, "Mother, that's for Third Sister's dowry. It's only right to spend some money."
"I'm just asking," Zhao Fang said, her voice trembling with anxiety. "What can't I know about Xiao Yan's dowry?"
Lu Yan couldn't withstand the questioning and told everything in detail.
Zhao Fang felt dizzy. "Two thousand seven hundred taels?"
Lu Yunfeng explained, "That estate is very large, with more farmland than the entire Wangjia Village, and it's located near the prefectural city, so the price is very reasonable."
What he didn't mention was that he also bought five shops in the city and a forest on the outskirts of the city.
All in all, it cost a total of 80,000 taels.
Qin Xiaozhou didn't say anything.
In early August, the Lu family was overjoyed.
Cui Yanqing, dressed in a bright red robe and riding a tall horse, was dashing and debonair as he led his wedding procession to Wangjia Village to fetch his bride.
On the steps in front of the Lu family's gate, relatives stood and played a series of amusing games, one step at a time, which were lively but not inappropriate.
Lu Xiaosi, holding Qin Jinxiu's hand and tilting his chin up, said seriously, "The groom must recite five good lines from the Book of Songs."
Cui Yanqing recited it without pausing, while Xiao Si frowned, unable to think of any other ideas.
Qin Jinrong put his hands on his hips and said domineeringly, "I heard from a storyteller that someone can shoot an arrow through a willow leaf from a hundred paces away. You should perform one too."
She pointed to the walnut tree behind the house, where there was a squirrel's nest on a branch. "You, knock it down!"
The people around looked at each other, then burst into laughter. "Hahaha, not bad, not bad at all. Today's groom is a rat-catching expert."
Cui Yanqing was not annoyed. He took out his bow and arrow, drew the bowstring, and shot at the squirrel. With three swishes, the squirrel's nest was shot down.
Qin Jinxiu's eyes lit up as she fawned over Cui Yanqing, clearing a path for him.
Unfortunately, Qin Shiyan was guarding the very end. She was Qin Xiaozhou's daughter, only one and a half years old, chubby and fair-skinned, grinning with drool practically dripping from her mouth, "I want three... two candies."
She gestured with her fingers, unsure whether it was more than three or more than two, only knowing that her mother always told her that her teeth were bad and she shouldn't eat too much.
Cui Yanqing and the people behind him were completely charmed and grabbed a handful of food for Xiao Shiyan.
She grinned from ear to ear, while Lu Xiaosi covered his face, looking utterly dejected, and carried his little niece away.
Many of Cui Yanqing's cousins came. They had already heard that he was marrying a merchant's daughter, but they didn't expect that she was actually a country girl from the mountains. They all had some doubts.
At this critical moment, his cousin pulled Cui Yanqing aside and said, "Why are you really going to marry a peasant girl? If your father doesn't care about your marriage, you can come to my house and talk to my grandparents. They certainly won't abandon you. It's better than marrying someone who is not your social class."
Cui Yanqing patted his cousin on the shoulder, straightened his clothes, and headed towards the steps of the Shen family's house.
He had a detached view of marriage since childhood, and it seemed that there was no big difference between his biological parents in the Cui family and the many wives and concubines in the Crown Prince's mansion.
Later, after getting to know the Lu family, he saw Lu Yan's smiling face. He wasn't immediately smitten, but he felt that spending his life with such a woman wouldn't be bad.
After years of coldness, a ray of sunshine suddenly entered his heart. Later, when he was about to leave Fenggu County with Zhu Xian, he used the excuse of discussing his studies with Lu Yunxing to arrange to correspond with him.
Later, he took the initiative to find Cui Yun and said that he wanted to ask Lu Yan for her hand in marriage.
Although Cui Yun was his cousin, he was ultimately from a collateral branch of the family, and his marriage was far from being something that Cui Yun, a direct descendant of the Cui family, should worry about. But he just wanted to take this chance.
Sure enough, with her aunt's intervention, her parents had no choice but to agree.
Today he is going to marry that smiling woman.
There's no such thing as a perfect match in terms of social status, it's just about finding the right person.
He admired Lu Yan's freedom and happiness.
She was well-mannered but unrestrained, and she was often happy. All the hardships in her life were caused by the disaster that took away her father and grandfather from Xishan.
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com