Chapter 20: Marriage

Concubine Xiangui cordially took Ran Ning's hand and said to Wan Pingbo and Yu: "Today, the brother and sister-in-law of the palace should have come together, but the sister-in-law has been ill in recent days and is inconvenient to move around, and the brother is not very good at marriage, so the palace has trespassed, and invited the emperor's grace to come to discuss the marriage between Su'er and Ran Ning for the sister-in-law." I hope Wan Pingbo doesn't want to be surprised. ”

Concubine Xian's words were beautiful, and no one dared to be dissatisfied. This is agreed by the emperor, you must know that it is not easy for concubines to leave the palace in general, since the emperor can allow the virtuous concubine to leave the palace for Zhong Su's marriage, it can be seen that the emperor favors the virtuous concubine and attaches great importance to the Zhenbei Hou Mansion.

"It is an honor for the virtuous concubine to arrive at Wanpingbo Mansion, how dare you say that you are to blame." Wan Pingbo hurriedly said.

Concubine Xian smiled slightly, and then said: "Ran Ning wants to marry into the Zhenbei Hou Mansion, and our Zhong family will not treat her badly." You can mention the dowry, as long as it is within the etiquette system, we will not shirk it, after all, the Zhong family only has Zhong Su, a sister-in-law, and the concubine in front of him has already married, and now he is focusing on the marriage of his son-in-law, and there is nothing to save. ”

"Yes." Wan Pingbo responded. The Zhong family can't say that they are wealthy, but they are willing to do their best to marry Ran Ning, and Wan Pingbo feels that this heart is quite rare.

"In terms of the wedding date, since it is a marriage, it is naturally better to be sooner rather than later, and there is no requirement for the Zhong family to pay the dowry. After the virtuous concubine finished her thoughts, she took a sip of tea.

"The mother is thoughtful." Wan Pingbo didn't have any opinion on what the Zhong family meant.

Yu Shi after listening to this. The graceful smile on his face stiffened. The wedding dress is prepared by the palace, how much grace is this? Even in order to be worthy of this wedding dress, the dowry of their uncle's mansion did not dare to be too thin, otherwise it would be a refutation of the face of the virtuous concubine. And if they prepare the wedding dress themselves, they can also make an excuse that the time is in a hurry, and they can save a few more points on the dowry, but now that they don't need to prepare, she has no reason not to concentrate on preparing the dowry for Ran Ning. Thinking of this, Yu felt that his silver teeth were about to be crushed, and he had to swallow it silently in his stomach.

Ran Ning was about to thank her, but she didn't think that Ran Ning was one step ahead of Ran Ning, got up and saluted the virtuous concubine: "Niangniang has made comprehensive arrangements. Ran Ji thanked Niangniang for her third sister. ”

Concubine Xian raised her eyebrows, smiled a little, looked at Ran Ji, and asked, "Are you Wan Pingbo's concubine?" ”

"Yes." Ran Ji immediately smiled.

Concubine Xian nodded, "What Wan Pingbo Mansion taught will naturally not be bad." Can you get married? ”

"Hui Niangniang, I haven't married yet." Ran Ji softened her voice.

Yu's face looked much better, and he seemed to be very satisfied with Ran Ji's appearance. As long as she can steal the limelight from Ran Ning, she will be happy.

Concubine Xian smiled and said, "It seems that Ran Ning is about to rush in front of you." But the emperor gave him a marriage, and there was no way. ”

"Yes. Ran Ji understood. Ran Ji looked knowledgeable.

Concubine Xian Guifei turned her head to look at the general of Weiqi and asked, "Big brother, it should be okay for the little sister to arrange it like this, right?" Naturally, she was referring to marriage.

General Weiqi nodded and said, "Niangniang is thoughtful, and the Zhenbei Hou Mansion should do its best to prepare." ”

The general of the mighty cavalry looks majestic and has a burly figure, Zhong Su is not too similar to this army general in terms of appearance and size, Ran Ning guessed that he was more like the general's wife. The general of Weiqi knew that he was a military general just by looking at his physique, but if Zhong Su didn't sign up, others would only think he was a scholar.

"That's good, if there's anything you have any trouble, you have to tell me." Concubine Xian said with a smile. In front of her brothers, she will always be just a sister.

Ran Ji saw that Concubine Xian no longer paid attention to her, and she felt a little embarrassed in her heart, she didn't stand or sit, and it was very abrupt to stand there.

Yu frowned, he couldn't do anything.

"After those three days, I will ask someone to come to my door to propose." General Weiqi said.

"Okay." Wan Pingbo responded.

After the marriage was discussed, the virtuous concubine and the general of Weiqi did not stay long, and got up and left.

After sending the two away, Wan Pingbo said to Yu: "Since the virtuous concubine Niangniang has spoken, Ran Ning's dowry can't be unpresentable." In this way, the dowry is prepared according to the preparation of the girl, don't lose the face of Wan Pingbofu. ”

"Uncle!" Yu Shi was blinded, she never thought that after Concubine Xiangui came to talk about it, Ran Ning's dowry would become a share of the concubine.

Wan Pingbo frowned and said: "The wedding clothes are all made by the palace, which represents the emperor and the concubine, and if the dowry does not match the wedding dress, it is a great disrespect to the saint and the mother." Let you prepare according to the concubine's preparation, you will prepare yours, and our uncle's mansion will not be short of these dowries. ”

Yu's nails were about to be broken by herself, "But ......"

"Nothing. The house has always been frugal, you have been in charge of the affairs of the house for many years, you will not save a little money for the house, right? took out a part of it to buy a dowry, and the house was not hungry. Wan Pingbo looked at the handwriting of the Hou Mansion in Zhenbei, and knew that their Uncle Mansion should not be too provincial. In addition, when he mentioned Ran Ning's marriage in recent days, he would always think of the late Yuan. He didn't give anything to Yuan before his death, nor did he enjoy the blessings of his children, and what he thought about day and night before his death was only Ran Ning, a daughter who was born not long ago. Now that Ran Ning is going to get married, it can be regarded as compensating the Yuan family or compensating Ran Ning, anyway, he has already made up his mind.

Yu was choked up and speechless for a while. Ran Ning's face is not good-looking, she is the lady in the house, how can she let Ran Ning steal the limelight?

Wan Pingbo didn't want to say much, he had already said what he wanted to command, and Yu just had to do what he said. He looked around the house and asked, "Where's Mi'er?" Haven't gotten up yet? ”

Yu hurriedly said: "Mi'er was infected with some heat yesterday and was a little unwell, so let him rest in the house today." ”

Wan Pingbo nodded and didn't ask more.

Wan Pingbo didn't know, but it didn't mean that Ran Ning didn't know. Ran Mi has always gotten up late, and he won't get up until three poles in the morning. Every time Wan Pingbo asked, Yu would find various reasons to prevaricate. Anyway, Yu is Ran Mi's biological mother, she doesn't need Ran Mi to settle down in the morning and dusk, and others naturally have no right to ask.

Wan Pingbo returned to the study, and Ran Ning also retired. Yu looked at the back of Ran Ning leaving, and his eyes were vicious that he had never seen before. In her heart, Ran Ning not only snatched the opportunity to be taught by Lao Wan Pingbo, who should have belonged to Ran Mi, but now she wants to rob Ran Mi of the rights of her daughter. She now can't wait for Ran Ning to be tortured to death by the scholar as soon as she gets married, and then the dowry can be brought back to fill the treasury. And her biggest headache now is how to prepare a dowry for Ran Ning.

According to Wan Pingbo's thoughts, the treasury of the house should indeed have a lot of silver. But over the years, Ran Mi has been spending money on the outside, and he often has to take money to settle down when he gets into trouble. Ran Ji is also getting bigger, and the things to be used are naturally the best, and this expense should not be underestimated. Speaking of herself, although the house did not take any more concubines, but in the face of her declining appearance, she had to bother to spend a lot of money to buy some beauty things for herself, and the government also gave her rouge gouache money, but how could she buy beauty things that could be bought at the price of ordinary fat powder? In this way, after a few years, there is not much silver left in Wanpingbo Mansion. Now Wanping Mansion has asked her to open a treasury to get silver, where will she get it?

She can't sue others, and she won't blame her children, after all, it's the meat that fell from her body, how much money it costs, as long as the children are good, she is willing.

Three days later, the matchmaker came to the door as scheduled. The Hou Mansion in Zhenbei invited the best matchmaker in Beijing, known as Ye Matchmaker. Mrs. Ye has been a matchmaker since she became a new daughter-in-law, and the husband and wife she has facilitated can probably go around the capital for a week, and all of them are doing well, and they are full of children. It is precisely because of this that the red envelopes given to Mrs. Ye are about six or seven times that of ordinary matchmakers, and they are not invited by ordinary people, even at that time when Ran Xiao was, the Shen family was not willing to invite Mrs. Ye.

Mrs. Ye has a clever mouth, and she looks blessed and festive. As soon as he entered the door, he first praised Ran Ning, and then praised Zhong Su, which made people feel that Ran Ning and Zhong Su were simply heaven and earth, and they would be sorry for God if they didn't get married together.

Of course, none of these Ran Ning need to come forward, they are all received by Wan Pingbo and Yu, and Ran Ning only needs to wait for the makeup to appear again.

After that, the question and answer were also held the next day. In fact, the eight characters or something, the virtuous concubine should have been married before the marriage, she could not allow the people who did not agree with the eight characters to be with Zhong Su, and she would not be so reckless to ask the emperor for marriage, so they didn't need to worry about this. Ordinary people will quietly close together, and then decide whether to invite a matchmaker to the door. So the next steps are just a formality.

On the second day after Najib ended, Ran Ning saw the jade pendant worn by the murderer in the murder of the palace maid. I heard that this rumor began to spread in the yamen, so its credibility was greatly improved. The rumor also said that Ran Ning felt that the jade pendant was very familiar, but she couldn't remember it for a while, and Lord Xu had already asked people to start a comprehensive screening according to the drawing described by Ran Ning. If there is no news, it will be posted in the city, so please help identify it.

After listening to the rumors for several days and not seeing any movement, Bizhu questioned this approach a little and asked Ran Ning: "Third girl, do you think this can be useful?" It doesn't feel very reliable. ”

"It should work." Ran Ning thought for a while and replied: "If the murderer is really Yu Fang, with Yu Fang's character and style of acting, it is impossible to calm down. As long as the timing is right, he will wait for him to fall into the net. ”

"I hope so." Bizhu was still a little worried, "The slave is worried about your safety. ”

"Don't worry, I'll stay at home for a while and won't go out, it should be fine." Ran Ning still believes in Zhong Su.

"Hmm." The matter has come to this, and Bizhu can only protect her with all her heart.

Ran Ning is not thinking about her own safety now, but how to explain to Wan Pingbo.

But before Ran Ning could come up with a reason, the big girl in front came to report, saying that Lord Lile Si Leqing was visiting and wanted to see Ran Ning.