Going out in winter days was a suffering thing. After being served so cordially, Liu Kun’s wife felt a lot better. She knew that Minglan and Rulan had always made fun of each other since their childhood. Then she talked casually with a smile, “My lady, Old Madam Sheng said that the flowers would bloom first and then bear fruits. Madam Wang and Young Madam both gave birth to a girl when they first delivered a baby, but their second child were both boys. It doesn’t matter. Having a strong and healthy body is the most important thing.” Liu Kun’s wife was trying to imply that Rulan and Wang shi had been a bit disappointed.

Minglan chuckled inwardly and then said, “Grandma’s words make sense. Mama, thanks for coming here.” As saying this, she gave the warmer to Liu Kun’s wife and continued with a soft voice, “It’s such a shame that it’s not convenient for me to go out, so I can’t attend the one month and the one hundred days celebration feast for my niece. Please tell Madam Wang how sorry I feel about this.”

Liu Kun’s wife held the warmer in her hand with a beaming smile, “Sixth Lady, there’s no need to be so polite to your own families. You don’t have to apologize. After you give birth to a boy, the whole family can reunite then. It’s just too bad that you can’t not come to Third Master Feng’s wedding.”

“Oh, is Third Brother’s wedding date fixed?”

“Yeah.” Liu Kun’s wife took a sip of the tea carefully and said slowly, “Our future Third Madam is the eldest legal daughter of the Liu family and was raised by her grandparents. I heard that she was Old Master Liu and Old Madam Liu’s favorite grandchild. The two elders insisted on attending their granddaughter’s wedding. Because of that, the wedding date was set for the middle of this month. Alas, Third Master truly is a lucky man. I wonder how First Master is doing at the outside. He always said that everything was fine in every letter he sent home, but Madam wang truly worried about him.”

Changfeng was a handsome guy. Also, thanks to Sheng hong’s instruction at home, Changfeng was very careful with his behavior when he was in the Liu’s mansion. When he met the women of the Liu’s family, his face turned red right away. With the shy look on his fair and pretty face and his tender response to all the questions, he managed to make all the people in the Liu family satisfied with him. Madam Liu, Changfeng’s future mother-in-law, also likes him a lot. The Liu family prepared a lot of dowries this time. Not only have they presented lots of expensive betrothal gifts to the Sheng family, the New-year gifts they had given were also quite impressive, which showed how wealthy the bride’s family was. Wang shi couldn’t help but get jealous. When she saw Sheng Hong grinning from ear to ear as if he was even happier than the bridegroom, she got even angrier.

Minglan understood Liu Kun’s wife’s words and smiled, “Master has received the message that Eldest Brother is a diligent official who loves the people. He has built the bridge, paved the road and encouraged the farming. Not only is he respected by the civilians, he’s also favored by his superior. He truly has a great future. Please tell Madam to rest assured.” Liu Kun’s wife was well aware that Changbai’s future was brighter than Changfeng’s. However, Wang shi was too narrow-minded and couldn’t let it go. After they chatted for a while, Minglan suddenly mentioned that Jiu’er was about to get married and she decided to present some gifts to Jiu’er for the old-time sake. Then, Minglan told Danju to take out a pair of gold bracelets which were wrapped in a red silk.

Seeing the gold bracelets which weighed about three or four grams with a large pearl inlaid in each of them, Liu Kun’s wife was overjoyed, “My lady, I never expected that you still remember my daughter. Thank you so much. Madam Wang has granted special favor to her. She freed Jiu’er from the indenture last year and also betrothed her to a farmer.”

Xiaotao wasn’t joking when she said that she was good at prying. Before the New Year’s Eve, she had gone to send presents to the Sheng family and come back with lots of gossips which enriched Minglan’s pregnant life. The grand steward of the Madam of the Sheng family would never pick a normal farmer to be her son-in-law. Nevertheless, over the past few years, Liu Kun’s wife had been taking charge of all the affairs of the Sheng’s family. She had behaved fairly in distributing the food and clothing to each person and regulating the maid. Never had she made a scene. Considering of her contribution, Minglan then decided to give her blessing to Liu Kun’s daughter.

On an early spring day in March, the emperor finally selected a guy to censor the salt affairs.

It was said that Official Qi, Qi Heng’s father, after being recommended by the Shen family for many times, had got the chance to go to meet the emperor and explained the salt affairs to the emperor and a few high-ranking officials. He had even revealed the root cause for lots of the malpractice. The emperor was glad to hear that and highly praised him. Then, Princess Ping Ning had been invited to the imperial palace to meet the two empress dowagers and the empress with her daughter-in-law, Shen shi, after so many years she hadn’t been summoned.

Gu Tingye sighed, “That old fox really is good at selecting his son-in-law. I wonder whether he’s capable of squeezing water out of the stone.” After he paused for a second, he turned to Minglan, “Actually, Princess Ping Ning is good at picking a daughter-in-law too. I guess Qi Heng’s career would be very promising.”

Minglan said with a flat tone, “That’s true, but his luck with wife isn’t that good.” After all, everyone knew that his previous wife had cheated on him. Anyway, every time Gu Tingye talked about Qi Heng, his voice would sound so sarcastic. He had known about what had happened between Minglan and Qi Heng, but he still acted like that. Now, he smiled and said, “Everyone in the palace said that Shen shi was virtuous, gentle, well-educated and a great wife who could support her husband and teach her son well.” Minglan replied with an ironical tone, “She’s only been there for once and those people have already seen so many good virtues in her. No wonder they say the people in the imperial palace all have sharp eyes.” Gu Tingye ruffled her feathers deliberately, “Everyone in the palace was trained to have sensitive eyes. Of course they’ll be able to see that.”

Minglan said confidently, “That’s right. I’ve been to the palace twice. They also called me a tender and kind-hearted woman.” That was the exact words Little Shen Shi had said.

“Is that so? I guess the silvers I sent to them worked.” Gu Tingye answered nonchalantly. Lately, he wasn’t in a good mood. The business affairs were very complicated. When he faced those officials whose facial expressions never exposed anything, he could only control his hot temper and speak in a bureaucratic tone. “Then why didn’t you marry me?” Minglan also fumed. She hadn’t had her days too. Every day, she had to bury herself in all those accounts and registers in order to sort out the intricate relationships among all the people in Marquis Ningyuan’s mansion. When she looked at herself in the mirror, she even found her face quite insidious.

Now she truly flew to a rage. Her long and pretty eyebrows were raised, her eyes were widely open and her cheeks were red, making her look quite charming and tempting. Seeing that, Gu Tingye finally couldn’t restrain himself and held her in his arms at once. Then he kissed on her face hard and gave out a loud laughter, without caring for the feelings of the maids in the room. After that, he felt that his depressed feelings during the past few days seemed to have faded away.

Minglan truly despised the action of enjoying making others suffer. However, not for long, she met this so-called virtuous wife. On March 9th, Tingcan got married.

These days, First Madam Xuan lived in Marquis Ningyuan’s mansion straightly because she had to get busy sending the dowry, assigning servants, greeting the guests and giving instructions. Every time she turned her head or moved her legs, there would be servants stepping forward to ask for her instructions. However, the result of her work came out great. With so many people coming and going, the whole procedure still stayed under control. Also, the jubilant atmosphere didn’t affect the order in the family. Old Madam Qin was very satisfied while Minglan also spared no praises about her capable and warm-hearted sister-in-law Xuan. The special gift Minglan had sent to Gu Tingxuan’s family on the Lantern Festival was costly and valuable.

First Madam Xuan was both tired and joyful. She had got up early in the morning to prepare for everything. No matter how pretentious Seventh Lady Tingcan was, she still had to accept the make-up which made her look like a pink bun as well as all the red decorations in her room. Minglan followed Shao shi and said some good words of good omen. Tingcan had already got a bit giddy. However, as she heard Minglan’s voice, she suddenly kept up her spirits and gave a cold stare to her Second Sister-in-law. Minglan pretended not to have seen that. – Yesterday, she ordered someone to send a box of newly casted silvers to Tingcan as a gift, which were 1999 ounces, 9 pennies and 9 coins in total, representing her best wishes for Tingcan’s wonderful life forever.

The moral was not bad and the amount of the money was satisfactory. However, when Gu Tingcan, the talented girl, had seen those money, she had nearly choked herself. Old Madam Qin had also got a bit displeased, thinking, ‘Why can’t you change those things into bank notes? Do you really have to make it so dramatic?’ Anyway, when Tingcan left the Gu’s mansion, Old Madam Qin still couldn’t help shedding tears. At last, she went back to the hall with other’s support.

On the wedding of Old Madam Qin’s beloved daughter, lots of her relatives and friends were invited. The female guests had filled eighteen tables and there was even not enough room in the inner hall. The famous players in the capital had been invited to act in the banquet. Before the feast began, the women all chatted with each other in the inner hall.

Zhu shi was still recovering her body after giving birth to the baby. Minglan pretended to be weak with a handkerchief in her hand the whole time. First Madam Xuan was too busy to show up in the hall. It was funny to say that after so long Shao shi had married into the Gu family, this was the first time she played a lead role in an occasion like this. She sat with Old Madam Qin and Minglan while greeting the guests respectfully and cautiously. She also had to check her sister-in-law’s condition from time to time.

Second Madam Di took a look at the surroundings and approached with a smile, “This is quite a shindig. You have to take care of your body, don’t exhaust yourself.” Minglan reclined against a soft chair and said with a delicate but also grateful expression, “Thanks for your consideration, sister-in-law. It doesn’t matter. I have to thank Sister-in-law Xuan for her hard work these days. She has saved me from a lot of troubles.”

Hearing that, Old Madam Qin who was chatting with someone took a glance at Minglan while hating Minglan secretly for acting so weak. Everyone who saw Minglan today all said that Minglan was such a tender and fragile girl who would never get into a fight with anyone. In the meantime, the noble madam who had been talking with Old Madam Qin also looked over and then said, “You second daughter-in-law seems an honest and ingenious girl. I never see her talk too much. Look how adorable she looks with that timid look. I’m just afraid that she won’t be able to control the servants.” Old Madam Qin gnashed her teeth secretly. Always choose a quiet place to speak ill of someone, a secret room would be the best choice. Right now, everyone was talking loudly, so there was no way for Old Madam Qin to tell others that Minglan was only acting weak now and that this girl was more scheming than she seemed.

Another madam also stared at Minglan for a while. Then she said gently, “You shouldn’t worry for her daughter-in-law.” Then she turned to Old Madam Qin, “They all said that your second son has changed to another person. Not only is he a capable man and favored by the emperor, he also cares for her wife a lot. My sister-in-law regrets deeply now. If she knew that your prodigal son would return, she would have married her daughter to him. My niece complains tearfully about her husband every now and then…”

Old Madam Qin didn’t even bother to sneer at Gu Tingye secretly and only said in a low voice with a fake smile, “Since you talk about that, I actually like your niece too. Our two families are fairly well matched too… Ah-hem, it’s just destiny.”