When Guard Chief Ying and his troops withdrew to Xiliang, as usual, Huang left her daughter-in-law in the imperial capital to clean up the mess, and only took her granddaughter Ni Weiyi with her.
A few years passed in the blink of an eye, and the little girl grew up.
Mrs. Huang has been looking for a husband for her since last year. She has looked at almost all the men in Mingpei Hall who seem to be good-looking and good-looking. In the end, she settled on a commoner introduced by Ji Chunmian - Ji Yuan's next door neighbor. The second son of the Ban family.
This family was a wealthy businessman in the Central Plains in their early years. They traveled for several generations and accumulated a large fortune.
But because he was a businessman, he also suffered a lot of losses. Later, he accidentally offended a small noble family in his hometown. To prevent his family from being ruined, he reluctantly gave up most of his family's assets and fled to the remote Xiliang.
After arriving in Xiliang, he used money to clear the way and gave the family the status of common people... But there was no way to go further. Fortunately, due to the poor natural resources in Xiliang, the Shen family encouraged merchants to come and go, and took good care of merchants like the Ban family who were willing to settle in Xiliang. Therefore, after the Ban family settled there for several years, they relied on the contacts they had accumulated in the Central Plains to do business several times. I came down and regained my strength.
It's just that the nobles who had forced them to abandon their homes and run away didn't dare to go back after all. After suffering such hardships, the Ban family particularly hoped to get involved with the nobles.
With their family's background, it was impossible to marry directly to the nobles; they would not be willing to become servants of the nobles. Therefore, we can only start from the people around the nobles. Although the Ban family has some wealth, they are not considered rich. The common people who can serve as staff or retainers for the nobles do not look down upon their family background as merchants.
Therefore, after assessing the situation, the Ban family set their sights on the servants of the noble clan.
But even this is very difficult, because children in large families usually marry each other to consolidate their status among the servants in the world.
What's more, they are certainly slaves, because the master's family has a high status and is more prestigious than the common people and even many small noble families. Nor does he look down upon freedom without shelter.
Of course, there are also some servants who are interested in the Ban family's property and are willing to marry them.
The problem is that this type of servant often has little status in front of the master's family, and they don't even have the dignity to seek freedom after leaving the cabinet - and the Ban family is unwilling. They want to cling to the noble clan, but they don't want to have a house where their grandchildren will be slaves. In that case, it would be more reliable to directly send their children to be servants of the noble clan.
According to Ni Weiyi's identity - her direct grandmother Huang is not only the wife of the current head of the Shen family, but also the most trusted steward aunt in the backyard of Ming Peitang. Even nobles like the fifth and sixth ladies of the Shen family were extremely polite to Mrs. Huang. The young lord Shen Shuguang had to bow and call Mammy when he saw Mrs. Huang...
With such a proud grandmother, let's talk about the Ban family. If the Huang family hadn't spread the news, her granddaughter would only be the principal wife and not a concubine. Many children of the Shen family wanted to ask their elders to try Wei Changying's style.
This time Huang was willing to give Ni Weiyi to the second son of the Ban family. Naturally, it was not all because of Ji Chunmian's face, but because the second son of the Ban family, Ban Zheng, was the one she had personally chosen.
The Huang family has a deep palace and a vicious eye. Of course, the person she likes has something extraordinary - in fact, I heard that the Huang family picked and discarded capable servants, but chose a commoner, Ban Zheng, the Chief of Guards. Ying was so curious that he even found an excuse to take a look at it himself - he was indeed a man of both talent and appearance.
Both Wei Changying and Huang are used to seeing beautiful men, and this Ban Zheng is considered good among all the handsome men they have seen. For this reason alone, they have a good impression of him. Moreover, he was very studious. Huang personally went to test his classics and history books. Not only did he answer fluently, but he also had quite a lot of insights.
Later, Wei Changying was curious and called the teacher who taught Shen Shuguang - this was the person Shen Zangfeng personally hired to teach his eldest son, who had high hopes for him. Needless to say, he was talented and learned - to meet with the class once. The teacher came back to talk to the class. Zheng was full of praise and even said that it was rare to find such a knowledgeable person among the common people.
In this way, the marriage is settled.
This Banzheng is eighteen years old this year. Because the family hopes that the second son will have a relationship with the noble family, they have never arranged a marriage for him. The personal maids are all unattractive and honest.
Therefore, Wei Changying and the Huang family checked again and again, and the more they checked, the more satisfied they became. As for the Ban family members deliberately trying to get along with the nobles, this is also the way of the world, and there is nothing to worry about. Because of this, they are less likely to treat Ni Weiyi badly.
Therefore, the marriage was decided quickly. According to the previously agreed date, Ni Weiyi will leave the court in one month.
The Ban family was rich, and unexpectedly hired a direct descendant who was in charge of affairs in Mingpei Hall as his daughter-in-law, so they put a lot of effort into these six rituals. Especially during the Welcoming Festival, it is necessary to spread money widely and make it colorful.
In this regard, Wei Changying and Huang were naturally happy to allow Ni Weiyi to leave the cabinet with dignity.
Therefore, both the Ban family and the Huang family were in high spirits during this period.
But now the Wei family has received two bad news. The lord's uncle and the lord's wife's maternal grandfather have both passed away. Although the servants do not have to pay tribute to these two people, it is impossible to make such a fuss at this juncture. Done.
If it were the marriage of other servants, Wei Changying wouldn't bother to care about it at the moment.
However, the Huang family and Wei Chang Ying have different friendships, and they have become both servants and teachers over the years. When the imperial capital fell, if not for Huang's help, even though Wei Changying could have survived by hiding in a secret room, the second son would have been too late to save him. This was unacceptable to Wei Changying.
She knew that although the Huang family had several grandchildren now, she loved Ni Weiyi, her eldest granddaughter, the most. Otherwise, she would not have left all the other juniors in the imperial capital and only brought this granddaughter with her.
Now that Ni Weiyi's major life events are going to be affected, Wei Changying has to comfort Huang.
Mrs. Huang didn't care, and said with a smile: "These are all false. As long as the Ban family treats Xiao Weiwei well in the future, it doesn't matter if the wedding is shabby? It's just such a day, and I can still hold this wedding when I look back on it. Don’t you want to show off your pomp?”
Wei Changying sighed: "Auntie, you are considerate of me." He said, "But I can't treat little Weiwei badly. When she comes out of the cabinet, I will put the pair of mutton-fat jade mandarin ducks in for her."
Mrs. Huang asked, "Are they the pair of jade mandarin ducks given by the second master of the family back then?" On the eve of his marriage from Fengzhou to the imperial capital, Wei Changying met his second uncle Wei Shengyi on the eve of entering the Shen family. In addition to the congratulatory gift, she also brought a pair of mutton-fat jade mandarin ducks to add to her makeup - the jade was a piece of fine mutton-fat jade that Wei Shengyi had obtained in his early years. In order for his niece to leave the court, he specially asked the Ye family to carve the mandarin ducks with beautiful meanings. At that time, it was also equipped with eight palace ribbons.
Before the fall of the imperial capital, this pair of mandarin ducks were not considered top-notch good things in the hands of Wei Changying. So Huang didn't take it with him when he packed the luggage for the breakout of the encirclement for Wei Changying. Later, it was a matter of course that the Rong people took it with them. After the imperial capital and Yanzhou were recovered, a batch of plunder was recovered from the captured Rong people. The pair of jade pendants were also among them, and after going around for a while, they fell back into Shen Zangfeng's hands.
Shen Zangfeng naturally returned it to his wife.
With Ni Weiyi's background, she was really not qualified to use something as high as the Yiqi Lian Lizhi Blood Jade Pair of Hairpins, and secondly, giving it to her would actually harm her. This pair of jade mandarin ducks happens to be the highest level good thing she can get.
"That's the pair." Wei Changying nodded, "Although that jade is not rare, it is still good. The carver belongs to the Ye family. Let's make it for little Weiwei to put on the bottom of the box."
Huang immediately declined: "The second master of the family added makeup to you, how can you give it away? Besides, it's not like you don't know about Xiao Weiwei's husband's family. They were just merchants in the past. Now that they have changed their registration, they are not. What a wealthy family, you can’t afford this!”
"Why can't you accept it?" Wei Changying shook his head and said, "It's nothing more than a pair of jade mandarin ducks. There was an accident in the imperial capital in the early years, and too many good things were lost. Otherwise, I could have put a few more things in the box for her..."
"If this thing is packed in the bottom of the box for Xiao Weiwei, the box will be damaged." Huang said, "Just give it whatever you want - just give it away, and Xiao Weiwei will be nothing in front of the Ban family." Now that I have dignity. The gift you gave me is so great, I’m afraid the Ban family members will be too arrogant, and it won’t be beautiful at that time.”
Wei Changying said: "Auntie, this is just a refusal. I won't be fooled by you. Besides, I'm here for Xiao Weiwei, not you, Auntie. What are you rejecting?" He called Lianju. , asked her to fetch the jade mandarin duck, and gave it to Ni Weiyi.
After the matter was settled, Wei Changying called his eldest son: "Your great-grandfather and great-uncle are gone. These two news will definitely be reported to your father and the others, but we have to express it."
Shen Shuguang had never met Song Xinping. Although he had impressions of Su Xiuming, they were only vague memories from when he was very young, so he was not very sad now. After thinking seriously for a moment, he asked: "Do you want the child to go to Jiangnan or... Do you want to express condolences in Qingzhou?”
"How is this possible?" Wei Changying nodded his forehead and said angrily, "It's so far away. Our army is busy now. Can I trust you to travel far away?" He told him, "It must be in your name." Write a condolence message and explain why you can't go to express your condolences in person... Just ask someone to make a trip."
"The child is still young, so I can just pay it back to my uncle's family. It is said that my great-grandfather's family is the same as my grandfather's family. They are all famous for their literary style. I'm afraid it's beyond my ability." Hearing this, Shen Shuguang did not agree immediately. , but muttered.
"You write it first, then ask your master to polish it for you later, and then you copy it again and it's done?" Wei Changying poked his forehead again angrily and funnyly, "Why have you become so stupid now?"
Shen Shuguang said awkwardly: "Isn't my child telling the truth to his mother?"
The mother and son talked some more, and then a servant came in to report that they heard Yu Lan asked to see him.
"Mother, should I leave first?" Shen Shuguang was about to go back to his room to warm up his books, so he took advantage of the situation and said.
Wei Changying touched his head, gave him a few words of advice, then let him go and ordered: "Please hear Miss." (To be continued)