The fat white nanny looked at the princess's face carefully and said with a smile: "I dare to say that the princess seemed to like that girl just now. Isn't the prince's good fortune coming soon?"
Princess Minhua leaned back in her chair and snorted softly, seeming to be regretful and helpless, "She looks good, and everyone likes her. Her handwriting is also very good... What a pity!" The princess sighed and looked at the fat white nanny with displeasure in her eyes. She said slowly, "She has been married and divorced before, how can she be worthy of Yan'er? She is not of high birth..."
The fat white nanny didn't dare to respond and just stood by with a smile on her face.
After a while, the princess sighed again: "Whatever, whatever, as long as Yan'er likes her, it doesn't matter if she is divorced or has given birth to a child."
The fat white nanny understood her master's thoughts and said with a smile, "Isn't it because His Royal Highness likes her? Besides, I heard that she is just marrying in and is not yet old enough to consummate the marriage. Although the Anxi Marquis's Mansion is located in the wild northwest, it is still a noble family and will definitely not do anything disgraceful."
The princess nodded, thought for a moment, and shook her head, "No, I'm worried. I still have to wait and see for a while to see what kind of character she has. If she were an ordinary girl, how could she be so bold as to run back to her parents' home to ask for a divorce? I have wronged Yan'er over the years, and it's not easy for him to meet someone he likes. As a mother, I always want to make it up to him."
"But..." The princess sat up straight, her eyes suddenly opened, emitting a cold light, "We can't let him do whatever he wants. If Xu Mingyu is a well-behaved and sensible girl, I will tolerate it for the sake of making Yan'er happy. Hire her. If she is a restless and troublesome person, don't even think about entering the Qin family!"
The fat white nanny quickly flattered, "The princess has made very thoughtful remarks."
Mingyu knew nothing. She had a conversation with Fu Lemei in the flower hall. Then a maid led everyone to the banquet hall, where the male and female guests sat in separate halls.
When entering the banquet hall, Mingyu and Fu Lemei ran into Xu Mingye who was walking with Lu Hao. Mingyu was stunned when she saw Lu Hao again. She immediately bowed her head and saluted, then stepped aside. Lu Hao had a smile on his face, but he was holding back a nameless anger in his heart. Seeing his retreating attitude, it was as if he was a flood beast!
When Fu Lemei saw the handsome Xu Mingye again, she couldn't help but blush again. Xu Mingye also saw her and Mingyu. He politely nodded to her. Fu Lemei bowed slightly, and the handkerchief in her hand was unconsciously clenched into a ball. Her heart was pounding and she was a little nervous. However, she felt more joy and sweetness in her heart.
After Lu Hao entered the banquet hall, Xu Mingye walked up to Mingyu and whispered, "We'll meet here after the banquet and go home directly."
Mingyu waited until Lu Hao entered before she raised her head and nodded to Xu Mingye with a smile. When she saw Lu Hao just now, she was not prepared at all and could only lower her head and hide aside. However, Lu Hao did not say anything. His expression was normal. Mingyu thought about it and could only think that she was overthinking. "Uncle Lu" was just concerned about her future that day, and there was no other meaning.
Not long after Fu Lemei and I entered the banquet hall, Miss Shang and Luo Lingxian also came in and saw Mingyu. Miss Shang looked arrogant, and walked past them with her chest held high, without even glancing at them.
"Look at this." Fu Lemei muttered in dissatisfaction in Mingyu's ear, "Aren't you afraid of breaking your neck?"
Mingyu couldn't help but smile with her lips curved, her eyebrows and eyes were as beautiful as crescent moons. She liked Fu Lemei very much. She had a straightforward personality and was not as unreasonable as Luo Lingxian, a rich girl. She was very much to her taste.
After the banquet, Fu Lemei accompanied Mingyu to wait for Xu Mingye at the entrance of the banquet hall. Xu Mingye probably drank some wine, his fair cheeks were stained with a layer of red, and his peach blossom eyes were also a little hazy. Fu Lemei felt a little feverish, and hurriedly said goodbye and left with her maid Cui'er.
Mingyu smiled as she watched Fu Lemei walk away with her head down. She could also see Fu Lemei's red ears and neck. Xu Mingye smiled and said, "What are you looking at? When did you become so close to this lady?"
Seeing Xu Mingye didn't know anything at all, Mingyu snorted and said, "You don't know who she is yet, do you?"
Xu Mingye spread his hands. He was not a dandy boy who hung out in boudoirs, so how could he know who that shy girl who was always blushing was.
"My surname is Fu, and my name is Le Mei!" Mingyu said with a smile.
Xu Mingye was dumbfounded. No way, it was the "shrew" who ran to their house to mess things up? ! Who has ever seen such a cute and shy "shrew"
In the blink of an eye, autumn turned to winter, and the days passed quickly after Xu Mingye took office. Her son passed the imperial examination and was assigned a satisfactory position, and Mrs. Xu finally put one worry to rest, but soon another worry came to her mind.
"After the Chinese New Year, Mingye will be seventeen, and it's time to talk about marriage." Mrs. Xu was worried and could only talk to Mama Liu, "But we don't know anyone in the capital, so we can't find anyone good, which has delayed him."
Madam Liu said with a smile, "Madam, why are you worried? The young master is a handsome man, a Jinshi selected by the emperor, and an official. Once the news that you want to marry a daughter-in-law gets out, many rich ladies will be vying to be your daughter-in-law!"
Madam Xu smiled and sighed, "You don't understand... Mingye is just a seventh-rank official. In the eyes of a real rich lady, this is nothing!" She really wanted to find a good marriage for Xu Mingye, a girl with good character and a good family background.
As parents, they were not very capable and could not help Xu Mingye in his career. Mrs. Xu hoped that her son could marry well and be promoted by his in-laws. Her son was handsome and a Jinshi. She was afraid that her son would be wronged if he was married to a daughter of an ordinary family, but she was also afraid that a good family would look down on Xu Mingye, so she sighed in worry.
Mingyu listened secretly for a while, and when Madam Liu left, she went to Madam Xu and said with a smile, "What's there to worry about? I think it's good to have someone who is very suitable for my brother."
"Who?" Mrs. Xu asked, smiling and tapping her daughter's forehead. She didn't believe Mingyu would have any suitable candidate, but just asked casually to cheer her daughter up.
Mingyu said quickly, "It's Fu Lemei!" She saw Fu Lemei's shy and timid look when she saw Xu Mingye. Besides, Mingyu also had her own selfish motives. She liked Fu Lemei's personality very much. It would be easier for them to get along with each other in the future.
Mrs. Xu couldn't help laughing, patted the back of her daughter's hand, and shook her head.
Mingyu was anxious. Seeing Madam Xu's expression, it seemed as if she didn't consider Fu Lemei at all. "Mom, Miss Fu is a really good person. She is kind-hearted and not unreasonable like other rich girls..." Seeing that Madam Xu just smiled and said nothing, Mingyu became discouraged and asked, "Don't you like her?" It was probably because of Fu Lemei's reckless and impulsive behavior that time when she came to her house, which made Madam Xu unhappy.
Madam Xu shook her head, hugged Mingyu and said with a smile: "Silly girl! Miss Fu is nice, but she is the only legitimate daughter of the Fu family. Marriage is a matter of parents' decision. Will the Fu family be willing to marry their daughter to our poor family?"
Mingyu was speechless, thinking back to Fu Lemei's family, the second son married the only daughter of the Marquis's mansion, and Mrs. Fu felt that Sima Lian was not of high enough status. The Fu family had seven sons, but only had one daughter, Fu Lemei. Looking at Fu Lemei's dress, she knew that the Fu family loved her like the apple of their eye, and they might look down on the Xu family. But Fu Lemei had always been a boyish temper, never put on airs in front of her, and made friends with her sincerely, which made Mingyu forget the gap between their family backgrounds.
Mrs. Xu had never considered Fu Lemei. It wasn't that she didn't like her, but she had seen too many of them and knew that a girl like her was not someone Xu Mingye could marry.
"What a pity." Mingyu couldn't help but mutter. She really liked Fu Lemei. If Fu Lemei became her sister-in-law, there would be no problem between them.
After entering winter, Mingyu followed Madam Xu to run the store business as before. Madam Xu worried about the business during the day and worried about her son's life-long affairs at night. Halfway through the winter, Madam Xu had lost several pounds. She looked at her son with a conflicted and sad look, as if she was looking at the cabbages she had grown with great effort, which were growing well but no one came to buy them and were about to rot in the field. What a tragedy.
Xu Mingye was terrified by his own mother's eyes. He stayed in the government office during the day and retreated to his room after dinner at night. After racking his brains, the handsome and elegant Master Xu couldn't figure out what went wrong.
After entering the twelfth lunar month, rumors began to spread in the capital that Sima Hong, the pioneer of the Northwest Army who had killed the Tartars in the northwest, was returning to Beijing to surrender his captives. The news spread like wildfire, and there were even rumors that Sima Hong, the Marquis of Anxi, had inherited magic from his deceased father and brother, and that he could blow on the battlefield to make sand and rocks fly, and that his steel knife was like a divine aid, killing anyone he pointed at.
When Mingyu first heard these absurd rumors, she was stunned, but after hearing them so many times, she just laughed it off.
By the time Sima Hong led his troops to escort the captured Tatars back to the capital, it was already the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the Chinese New Year's Eve. The main force was stationed outside the capital, and Sima Hong only brought a thousand elite soldiers to escort the prisoners into the capital.
Naturally, Fu Lemei couldn't miss such a lively scene. She had never seen what the rumored vicious Tartars looked like in her life. She immediately ran to Xu's house and asked Mingyu to accompany her to watch the fun. They booked a private seat on the second floor of a teahouse that Sima Hong passed by along the way. Mingyu and I drank tea and looked around. The streets were already full of people who wanted to watch the fun. The crowds were so crowded that it was impossible to move, and the noise was chaotic.
Just as Mingyu was getting impatient, the sound of uniform footsteps and the sound of iron chains rubbing against stone slabs came from the end of the street. The crowd at the street corner gradually dispersed, leaving a path.
A graceful figure riding a black horse gradually emerged in the morning mist and gradually became clearer.