However, starting from the next day, he always took her to visit Rèn Yuàn's house for no reason, and whenever he got something delicious or fun, he would let Xīn Suǒ call him first. At first, Xiè Wǎn didn't pay attention, but later she saw that he was intentionally praising himself in front of Rèn Yuàn, so she understood a bit, and it seemed that her brother wanted to pair her with Rèn Yuàn!

  It was Master Ren who came to their doorstep in his past life, so why should they be the ones to go to him in this life?

  Xie Wan said seriously to Xie Lian: "From now on, don't get me involved in your affairs, I don't like Ren Yao!"

  She wouldn't let Xie Qi's wish to marry her come true, but she also wouldn't take the initiative to approach him. Since that incident with the jade almost got her dragged down by Ren Yun, she didn't want to have anything to do with him again.

  "Wan Wan!" Xie Lian was baffled. Rong Yun was gentle, considerate, and elegant, making him a great match. Yet, Xie Lian didn't like him! "Wan Wan, don't think that just because you're young, you can be careless about these things. Since we don't have parents to make decisions for us, let's take the initiative. I need to find you a good partner before I can rest assured!"

  Xie Wan was speechless. "Just because we've engaged, does that mean we can rest easy? Engagements can be broken off too, and it's better to have no one asking for our hand than to be rejected and humiliated. Brother should focus on his own affairs! If he doesn't study hard, he should at least learn about accounting, even if he won't be the head of the household, he can't remain completely ignorant."

  "Wan Wan!"

  Xie Lang stared at her back and shouted loudly, but she had already entered the house and slammed the door shut.

  Xie Lang felt deeply frustrated, but he was a brother slave, so this matter could only be left unsettled. As for what he thought in his heart, no one cared about it.

  Luo Sheng went to the capital and just returned, Xie He's place had already finished the harvest at the end of July.

  Next comes the preparation for the grand ceremony.

  The oil shop's daughter-in-law may not be as precious as the young lady from the Xie estate, but after all, she is a daughter-in-law who was married in with a dowry of over 500 taels of silver. According to custom, the other party's dowry would only double to 1,000 taels. Nowadays, even ordinary rural gentry families require at least 2,000 taels of silver as a dowry when marrying off their daughters. A dowry of 1,000 taels is not enough to be considered respectable in a family like the Xie estate.

  Wang has been very attentive to Xie Qigong in the past few days, and Xie Hong also found out what he likes and brought back a few paintings to present to him.

  So Xie Qigong has been spending more days in the mansion recently, and Zhengyuan often hears him chatting with Wangshi, even Xie Qi got a good chess piece from him.

  Xie Wan let Yu Xue go and ask around, Xie Qi Gong finally agreed to give Wang Shi how much silver to handle Xie Hong's marriage. Pang Sheng's family personally came over and said, "The old master hasn't made a decision yet. But it seems that he has already been thinking about this matter, yesterday he asked Da Bo to bring the account book from the warehouse to flip through, and then asked Ren Gongzi some things about the Ren family's marriage."

  Xie Wan smiled and let Yu Xue grab two handfuls of money for her.

  Pang Sheng's family smiled and stuffed it into his arms, "Third girl is always so polite. When there is news, I will come back to tell you again."

  Chun Hui gave her a fan, and also got a smile from her.

  These days, Yu Fang had been persuaded by Yu Xue and realized that her thoughts were misplaced on Xie Cang. She never appeared in Xie Cang's house again. And Xie Cang didn't ask about it either. This made Yu Fang even more heartbroken, so when she saw Xie Cang, she always bit her lip and lowered her head, with a melancholy expression.

  As a woman, Xie Wan understood her feelings. So in the past few days, she didn't call her to serve, but instead let Chun Hui take charge of her clothes.

  Chun Hui is a maid sent by the government, and she has been quite cautious in everything for the past two years. She hasn't made any mistakes. Except at the very beginning when Wang Shi called her to ask questions twice, there was nothing unusual afterwards. Later, she didn't even have contact with Wang Shi's people again. She is considered one of the more honest ones among this group of people.

  But it's actually halfway through, and it doesn't feel right in hand.

  She was idle and had nothing to do. She went out to the front yard for a stroll, saw Qian Zhuang in the yard under the big locust tree, picking locust bean pods as projectiles to play with, her heart moved, so she beckoned him to come down, and asked: "I don't know if there is a little girl like you who knows some skills and needs to find a job?"

  Qian Zhuangdao said: "There are naturally such people. I just don't know what the young lady wants to use them for?"

  She said: "I'm a girl, sometimes it's not very convenient to take you out and about. Yuxue and the others are all grown up, at most in two years they will be let go. If there is such a person who can help me with some trivial matters like Yuxue, and also learn some martial arts to protect myself, wouldn't that be perfect?"

  Qian Zhuang listened and smiled suddenly: "So that's what it means. There isn't anyone readily available in our small town, but I can ask around in Cangzhou where my master is from. Many of the local families there have martial arts traditions passed down through generations, although high-level ones might be hard to find, some basic self-defense skills shouldn't be too difficult to come by."

  Xie Wan was overjoyed: "This is wonderful!"

  Qian Zhuang immediately sent a letter to Cangzhou.

  Xie Wan was just a momentary whim, after all, in two lifetimes she had never seen a woman who knew kung fu, now hearing from Qian Zhuang that this idea was not a fantasy, she was overjoyed.

  With a capable maid, even if it takes some extra time to move out of the mansion, it's no big deal.

  It suddenly arrived in August, and the yard was already filled with the strong fragrance of osmanthus flowers.

  According to Pang Shengjia, Xie Qigong allocated 3,000 taels of silver for Xie Hua's wedding. That night, Xie Qigong stayed in the side room of Deng Yiniang's house, and Wangshi personally had someone add more bedding.

  Xie Qigong had taken in three concubines, but none of them bore him any children. One had already passed away. Another was sent to Wutou Village ten years ago and is now bedridden with illness, being cared for by the village head's wife. Pang Xin would visit her every quarter to bring supplements and medicine.

  The one left is Deng Yiniang, who is also over 40 years old. She has been silent and taciturn all year round, living in a small wing room behind the main house. She rarely goes out on weekdays. Xie Wan only sees her at the dinner table during Chinese New Year or major festivals. As a concubine, she cannot meet external guests, so even when Xie Rong performed the big show, she did not come out.

  Xie Qigong seems to have remembered and will go once more.

  Calculating it, Deng Yiniang is only two or three years younger than Wang Shi, and should have been brought into the house before Wang Shi remarried.

  Xie Wan would never have believed that Xie Qigong had initially taken a liking to someone as dull and lifeless as her, thinking that she must have been charming and lovely in the past, but as for why she became like this now, only Wang Shi would know.

  Xie Wan had no intention of interfering in their family affairs, nor did she need to use these things to achieve her goals. It was just that recently, things had been going smoothly, and with a happy mood and idle time, she happened to notice it.

  But she didn't expect that she would run into Aunt Deng on the stairs, and what's more surprising is that Aunt Deng even smiled at her.

  It was dusk, with the autumn wind blowing under the corridor, and a few fallen leaves scattered on the ground. Deng Yiniang wore a dark blue blouse, with a black velvet headband around her forehead, walked out from inside the door, and exchanged a glance with Xie Zhu. As soon as their eyes met, Deng Yiniang smiled at her gently.

  Xie Wan couldn't remember how many times she had seen her, but in her impression, she had never smiled at anyone before, let alone this kind of smile that seemed to have some special meaning.

  At that time there was no one under the corridor.

  Xie Wan hesitated and turned around, wanting to see if she really had something to say, but she had already gone to the small courtyard in the back with her usual steady footsteps, without looking back.

  Days later, Deng's wife seemed to have evaporated into thin air, without showing her face or any news about her.

  Xie Wan could only believe that the smile was just her illusion after all.

  The Zhang and Xie families have decided to hold the grand wedding ceremony on August 18th.

  Xie Hong and his wife have been busy lately, rushing to renovate their new house, preparing for the wedding banquet, and also adding some furniture to the new courtyard.

  Although Qifengyuan was not small, it couldn't accommodate the many children in the house and two more wives, making it somewhat crowded.

  So Xie Hu's small courtyard was not big, and when Zhang Shi came in, he had to add some servants. The servants' quarters and beds, tables and chairs had to be prepared, so the original large hall in the courtyard had to be converted into two rooms, walls had to be built and windows opened, all of which required money, and it was very troublesome.

  Fortunately, Wang also privately made up for over a hundred taels of silver, so it didn't have to use the three thousand taels of public funds.

  However, Ruan Shi still felt constrained and secretly suggested to Xie Hong: "Madam has been in charge for so many years, she must have some private savings, why not borrow some first and use it, we can return it later when we have the money."

  Xie Hong thought for a moment and then really went to ask.

  Wang was so angry that he almost burst his lungs: "What private silver of mine are you talking about?"

  "You all know how I got in the door, don't you?! This handful of cash and the cabinet are all filled with public money. Although a few small silvers were deducted over the years, isn't it true that you usually take extra money from me?! Master is such a shrewd person, how much money can he let me deduct?! You unscrupulous things, are you intentionally trying to drive me to death?!"

  Xie Hong was so frightened that he hastily knelt down and apologized, slapping his own ears and saying he was muddled.

  It's just the eldest son who is most pitiful, and Wang's anger has finally subsided.

  Just then, Zhou Er suddenly rushed in from outside and said: "Madam! Wei Gongzi has arrived!"

  Wang sat up: "Which Wei Gongzi?"

  "It's that Wei Gongzi who came with Hejian Qi's young master last time! The young son of the Participating in Governance Grand Master's family in the capital!"

  "What?!"

  Wang was also shocked and didn't know how he suddenly came back.

  However, he didn't dare to slack off and hastily went out the door. When he arrived at the second gate, he looked up and saw a half-grown boy wearing brocade clothes standing by the screen wall. It was surprisingly Wei Cui, who had come before, and his face was beaming with joy!

  "Prince Wei!"

  The weather gradually cooled down, and after lunch, Xie Wan took Cheng Yong and Qian Zhuang to the shop for a walk.

  Xie Wan kept Luo Sheng's whereabouts confidential.

  Cheng Yuan took advantage of Xie Wan's selection of new goods and asked her: "Why haven't you seen Luo Zhuanggui in the past few days?"

  Xie Wan smiled and said: "He went to Beijing to visit his relatives, he will be back in two days."

  Cheng Yuan was surprised: "Miss wants to open a shop in the capital?"

  "Yes," she nodded calmly, "just at the front door of Xueyuan in Shuntian Prefecture, it was settled yesterday."

  Cheng Yuan's eyes were even more astonished. He silently bowed and backed out after a while.