Chapter 114: The Marriage between Fan and Lu [Jinjiang Official Edition, Impossible!]...
Lu Gong was so angry at the hurtful and unpleasant truth told by his youngest daughter that his face turned red and his neck became thick. He pressed the table with one hand and covered his chest with the other hand, breathing heavily. It can be seen that since his second daughter became successful, the influence and deterrence of him, the old father, in the family has been decreasing day by day.
Mrs. Lu, who was sitting by and watching the fight between the father and daughter, had no choice but to tell her little daughter to shut up first. She then reached out and stroked her husband's chest to help him breathe, lest her little daughter really get so angry at her father that she kicks her legs and closes her eyes.
Only after the red-faced father and daughter calmed down did she turn around and look at her little daughter with a cold face and said helplessly:
"Auntie, even if your father was wrong about your fortune telling once, he certainly hopes that the five of you siblings can find good wives and support each other, living a happy life together."
"Mother knows you're tired of hearing about marriages, but most daughters in this world eventually marry and have children. Your second sister's situation is just special. Although she's promising, you can't follow her example. She's now in Xianyang, working for His Majesty's palace. You might not have such a good opportunity even if you wait your whole life. It takes the right time, the right place, and the right people. Even missing any of them would make a difference. Among millions of women, you'd never find another one as lucky as you. You need to understand this sooner rather than later."
Hearing her mother's heart-wrenching words, Lu Shi couldn't help but turn away her eyes in embarrassment. From the bottom of her heart, she was extremely envious of her second sister's current life. She not only envied her second sister for being able to live in the most prosperous place in the world and work with the most noble people in the world every day, but also envied her for being able to break through her father's strict control and seize the opportunity to change her fate and become the master of her own family.
All of them were daughters of the Lu family, and all of them had been studying since childhood. She believed that even though she was not as good as her second sister, she was not much worse if she was really qualified. Unfortunately, when the court was selecting officials, she was only thirteen years old. Now she was finally seventeen, but she could no longer wait for the good opportunity for women to become officials.
Seeing the desolation in her little daughter's eyes, Mrs. Lu felt very uncomfortable, but she knew her little daughter was stubborn, so she continued to persuade her:
"You have been a marriageable girl for two years now. Naturally, Liu Ji's mother looked down on you. So even if she cried and made a fuss, she had to hold your second sister back and prevent her from jumping into the fire pit. But Fan Kuai's situation is different from Liu Ji's. Although Fan Kuai's family has been butchering for generations, mother has inquired and found that the Fan family is not a family that does evil to others. Fan Kuai does not have any concubines, let alone illegitimate children. He is a clean family. Although he is ten years older than you, he is still a smart young man in his prime. Even if mother says something unpleasant, you are reluctant in your heart, but our family has only mentioned to you that we hope you can find a time to meet him. Fan Kuai is no longer a man, and his future will definitely not be bad. He may not be interested in our family?"
"You're not that young anymore. Why don't you calm down and think about it carefully? Find a time to meet with him first. If it really doesn't work out, then forget it."
Listening to her mother's gentle persuasion until dusk, Lu Shi finally agreed to her mother's request to meet Fan Kuai first.
When Lu Gong saw that his stubborn daughter finally gave in, he was overjoyed and hurried to find a matchmaker to set a date for the two families to meet.
The next morning, the snow stopped and Fan Kuai went to the county magistrate's house as a guest, bringing gifts.
After I got home in the afternoon, the light snow started falling again.
He also prepared a delicious feast at home and invited Liu Ji, Xiao He and Lu Wan to come home for a drink.
After the four of them got together, snowflakes fell outside the wooden window, and inside the wooden window, four men gathered around a pot of mutton and ate and drank to their heart's content.
The four of them hadn't seen each other for a long time. When they were chatting excitedly, Fan Kuai talked in detail about many things that happened on the battlefield of Baiyue. Liu Ji and the other two were so stunned that their eyes almost popped out and they were amazed.
After drinking a few cups of wine, Liu Ji, with red cheeks, burped while holding a ceramic cup. He looked at Fan Kuai with drunken eyes and said:
"Kuai, so according to you, the imperial court attaches great importance to the Three Commanderies of Baiyue? His Majesty not only intends to build many military fortresses in Baiyue, relying on its natural defenses, but also intends to develop that wild land in the future when he has time."
When Fan Kuai heard Liu Ji's words, he quickly swallowed the wine in his mouth and said cheerfully with gestures:
"Yes, brothers, you haven't been to Baiyue, so you don't know the real situation there. Although the miasma in Baiyue is terrible, it's truly a place of great feng shui. Not only is the climate humid and easy to farm, but the products are also very abundant. During the war, we were careless and the enemy cut off our food supplies. We relied on eating wild animals from Baiyue to wait for new food supplies."
"There are so many forests and rivers over there, and there are countless wild animals of all sizes in the forests. They are not afraid of people at all. The fruits growing on the branches are so round and so big! There are so many fish in the river that you can just scoop them up with a ladle! The weapons made by the Yue people are not as sharp as ours, and their fighting power is not as strong as ours. However, their methods of using poisons are too powerful, and you will fall into them if you are not careful. In fact, among the soldiers killed on the battlefield, many died not from the weapons of the Yue people, but from the strange poisons they used."
"Your Majesty has established many important military bases in the Three Commanderies, and will be stationing troops there for years to come. He also intends to relocate merchants and craftsmen who have committed crimes in the Seven Heroes to Baiyue. I suspect Baiyue will be a county that the court values in the future. If nothing unexpected happens, I will take root in Baiyue. Once I'm settled, I'll gradually move my family there."
When Liu, Xiao and Lu heard what Fan Kuai said, they all had their own thoughts.
After a long while, Xiao He couldn't help but clutch the ceramic cup in his hand, shook his head and smiled with emotion, saying: "Alas, Your Majesty is worthy of being Your Majesty. In terms of age, we are all the same age as Your Majesty, but your vision is indeed far from yours."
"Hey, Xiao He, although the First Emperor is powerful, we don't need to underestimate ourselves. The First Emperor has so many wise men around him to assist him. He is in a very high position and can see far ahead. His vision must be longer-term than ours. In my opinion, you are just not so lucky. If you were sitting in that position today, maybe you could see as far as that, hiccup~"
After Liu Ji raised his wine glass and shouted these words which were so bold that they could exterminate three tribes, he fell straight onto the floor behind him with a red face and fell into a deep sleep.
Frightened by Liu Ji's last words, Xiao He's hands trembled, and he almost spilled the wine in his cup. When he came to his senses and saw his friend sleeping soundly with his eyes closed after shouting his bold words, he breathed a sigh of relief and laughed at Fan Kuai and Lu Wan, who were also frightened, "Hahahaha, Liu Ji is really drunk!"
When Lu Wan finally reacted, he covered his stomach with his hands and laughed so hard that he fell down.
The three sober people tacitly brushed aside this extremely dangerous topic, clinking their glasses and chatting for a while. Then Lu Wan took a chopstick of cold-mixed pig ear shreds and chewed the crispy bones in them. While Fan Kuai was pouring him some wine, he looked at his younger brother, who was a dozen years younger than him, and said jokingly, "What are you doing?"
"Fan Kuai, you are now considered successful and famous. Now that you have finally returned from the battlefield, you must hurry up and get married. Don't follow Ji Xue. If you don't get married at your age, you will be called "father" in a few years."
When Fan Kuai heard Lu Wan's words of concern, his ears couldn't help but turn red and he nodded repeatedly.
In the next few days, Fan Kuai began to meet the beautiful girls in the county town under the arrangement of his elders. He seemed to be in a hurry from morning to night, meeting ten young girls a day, which made him dizzy and dazzled. He had been chatting with the girls happily, but when the girls heard that after getting married they would have to go to Baiyue with Fan Kuai and become family members of the garrison, they were immediately frightened and said goodbye one after another.
Which good girl would be willing to live in a barbaric land filled with miasma and crawling with snakes, insects and poisonous ants?
Slip away!
When Lü Shi and Fan Kuai finally met, it was already the middle of the twelfth lunar month.
Maybe it was a marriage destined by heaven, or maybe it was just a matter of chemistry.
When the two met for the first time and their eyes met, the same thought crossed their minds: "What's going on? This person looks so familiar, like I've seen him many times in a dream?"
A seventeen-year-old girl is at the age of freshness and beauty. When Fan Kuai saw the third daughter of the Lu family for the first time, his eyes widened. It’s not that Lu Shi was extremely beautiful, but the energetic feeling emanating from the girl from the inside out made Fan Kuai feel refreshed.
When Lü Shi came, she actually didn't have a very good impression of Fan Kuai. Firstly, she was seventeen and Fan Kuai was twenty-seven, a full ten years difference between the two; secondly, Fan Kuai was Liu Ji's loyal younger brother, and the two had a very good relationship, but she just had a very bad impression of Liu Ji. Not to mention the tug-of-war between Liu Ji and her second sister that day, in her opinion, Liu Ji, this old street thug, did nothing all day long. She wanted to hold the young widow's hand, kiss her mouth, and get into bed with her every few days. The eldest son she gave birth to for him had grown up so much, and in a few years, his son would be able to meet a little girl. Liu Ji, this old thug, slept with her for so many years in vain and was unwilling to give her a status. What else could he be but a scumbag?
As the saying goes, "He who keeps company with vermilion becomes redder, and he who keeps company with ink becomes blacker."
Fan Kuai loves to follow Liu Jihuang all day long. Who knows if he has no lover in public and is hiding a beautiful wife behind his back?
Fortunately, when they really met, she found that Fan Kuai was indeed different from Liu Ji.
Because the two of them had a good first impression of each other, the conversation went smoothly and they got to the most crucial point in just half a day.
When he thought of the other girl who left without looking back when she heard that she would leave her family and go to Baiyue to serve as a garrison family member after marriage, Fan Kuai's heart began to tense up. He did not dare to look at the bright girl opposite him, and lowered his eyes and said:
"Miss Lu, I have something I need to explain to you in advance."
"What's the matter? Could it be that you actually have an illegitimate child before marriage like Liu Ji?" Lu Shi raised her eyebrows and joked.
Fan Kuai was anxious when he heard this and waved his hands repeatedly, saying, "How is that possible? Brother Liu is eloquent and can please Sister Cao. I am not good at speaking, so how could a girl want to pay attention to me?"
Hearing Fan Kuai's sincerity, her face turned red as she spoke, and Lu Shi couldn't help but burst out laughing.
The girl is already bright and pretty, and with this smile, she looks even more beautiful.
Fan Kuai's face turned even redder, and he scratched his head embarrassedly and said:
"Miss Lu, you should have heard that my current title remains unchanged, and I am considered a well-known figure in the army. Now that the land of Baiyue has been conquered by the Qin Dynasty, His Majesty has ordered the construction of military fortresses in various fortresses of Baiyue, and has also ordered officers and soldiers to garrison there, and encouraged the families of the soldiers to gradually follow the army."
"If you really want to marry me, when the time is right, you must go to live with me in Baiyue."
Upon hearing this, Lu Shi subconsciously bit her lower lip and frowned.
Fan Kuai also clenched his hands and pursed his lips, as if waiting for some kind of verdict, waiting quietly for the woman to give him an answer.
The atmosphere that was originally very lively gradually cooled down.
After a long silence, Fan Kuai felt that the other party had rejected him. Just as he was about to sigh, he heard the girl kneeling opposite him ask anxiously:
"Could it be that after I go to Baiyue with you, I won't be able to leave?"
Fan Kuai was startled, then shook his head subconsciously, saying, "That's not the case. Your Majesty considers that the Baiyue are too wild and barbaric, and that few people are willing to go there to serve as family members of the garrison. Since this matter cannot be forced, the rule is that the garrisons of the Baiyue take turns to return home to visit their families. For example, I am now a fourth-rank military noble, and I have one month of home leave every year. Since I came back this time mainly to meet and get married, before I left, I asked my superiors to use next year's home leave as well. This means that I can stay at home until the beginning of spring in January this year."
After hearing this explanation, Lu Xi felt relieved. Although she felt that her old father was a little annoying, she still couldn't bear to leave her old mother.
She clasped her hands together and thought carefully for a long time, then looked at Fan Kuai seriously and said:
"Fan Kuai, you are ten years older than me. If you can promise to hand over all your salary after marriage and to be my only woman for the rest of my life, I will marry you. Can you agree?"
When Fan Kuai heard this, he felt as if an electric current had passed through his body. His whole body went numb and he answered reflexively, "Miss Lu, if you marry me, I will naturally hand over all my wealth to you. However, our Fan family has been a single-line family for three generations. My father passed away when I was just coming of age. He regretted not having seen his grandchildren. I, I definitely want children. After all, I am already twenty-seven years old. If you can give me a boy and give our family an heir, I will spend the rest of my life with you alone."
Lu Shi could tell that Fan Kuai was speaking from the heart, and that it was not too much to say. It would be good for both parties if the truth was made clear before the marriage. She was not the one to be shy, and once she had made up her mind, she smiled and said:
"Okay, I agree. Can you arrange for a matchmaker to come to my house and propose marriage as soon as possible?"
"What? You agreed?" This was the first time Fan Kuai met such a straightforward girl. Because she agreed so quickly, he didn't react for a while.
"What? You don't want to?" Lu Shi said with a smile, her arms folded across her chest.
Fan Kuai's face turned red instantly and he nodded in agreement.
When the elders of both sides heard the news, they were all overjoyed. Fan's mother seemed to have put down a heavy burden from her shoulders. She hurried to find a matchmaker, and the two families began to perform the six rituals as quickly as possible.
After the beginning of spring in January, the two families got married. When Fan Kuai returned home with his beauty, there was little time left of his marriage leave.
At the end of January, Fan Kuai reluctantly bid farewell to his wife and old mother, packed his bags again, mounted his war horse, and headed for Baiyue, looking back every few steps.
It was already mid-February when Lü Zhi received the letter from home, informing her of her younger sister's marriage to Fan Kuai. She sighed, thinking the matter was done and there was nothing more to say. She simply wrote a letter to her younger sister. The contents of the letter were simple: "Sister, I can now protect you. If one day Fan Kuai treats you badly and you no longer want to live with him, I can help you to reconcile with him."
Along with the letters came gifts that she and her elder and second brothers had prepared for their family.
When Lu Shi received the letter from her second sister, she was so moved by what was written on the paper that she cried and laughed at the same time. She carefully put away the letter from her second sister, and combed her long black hair into a bun in front of the bronze mirror. She believed that she was the one who should live her own life, and she should be the master of her own house, and she would never live like her eldest sister who was bullied by others.
In March, clusters of pink and white peach blossoms bloomed in Xianyang City, as bright as clouds.
At Qin Ying's instruction, the Xiongnu prince, who had been imprisoned in the hostage house in the northern suburbs for two years and had been extremely isolated from the news, finally heard the Qin soldiers speaking to him again and heard the news from the outside with his own ears.
But this news left him stunned and he was unwilling to believe it.
At noon, the Xiongnu prince, with disheveled hair and beard, knelt beside the table, holding a bowl of wheat rice, and looking dirty from head to toe like a savage from the grassland, looked up at the cold-faced Qin soldiers in front of him in disbelief, his voice stumbling with shock:
"You, what did you say? Have you Qin people completely conquered Baiyue?"
"yes!"
The tall and cold-looking Qin soldier lowered his eyes and looked at the slovenly Xiongnu prince in front of him and nodded indifferently.
Maodun, sitting at the table, stared intently at the Qin soldier's face, his eyes full of disbelief. Seeing that the soldier's expression didn't seem fake, he couldn't help but "slam" the bowl of extremely unpalatable wheat rice in his hand upside down on the table, waving his hands repeatedly and shouting in a defensive tone: "Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
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