"What's wrong with that?!" Mrs. Lu raised her voice, her face full of frost. Hong Fang'er would be a member of their Lu family in the future, and the lost golden hairpin would naturally be the property of the Lu family. Mrs. Lu's heartache and anger finally found a way to vent. "This is God's warning to us. Now it's just a lost object. If we really marry an unlucky person, who knows what kind of natural disasters will happen!"
Lu Hao took a deep breath, smiled bitterly and shook his head, then said to Madam Lu, "It's getting late, mother, go to bed early."
Mrs. Lu was still indignant, and she scolded Lu Hao in her outer robe, "I really don't know what's so good about Xu Mingyu. You are just blinded by greed. I have seen several girls from good families in the past few days. Each one is more outstanding than the other. Even the young lady of the Fu family is better than Xu Mingyu..."
Hong Fang'er didn't expect that she was afraid of being scolded and put all the blame on Mingyu, which would lead to such a result. Thinking of Fu Lemei, she heard from her aunt that Master Fu was a second-rank official and a family that her aunt liked, but he was a sharp-tongued person. Tonight, it was just the first time they met, but he looked down on her and gave her a look everywhere. If all the rich ladies were like this, how could she live in the future? It would be better to let Xu Mingyu marry her cousin. After all, Xu Mingyu was much kinder to her.
"Actually... it has nothing to do with Sister Mingyu..." Hong Fang'er said hesitantly, "That Fu Lemei has her eyes on the top of her head, and her words are so rude. She always looks down on our background."
Mrs. Lu glared at Hong Fanger and snorted, "What kind of person can be mixed up with Xu Mingyu? I know it without you reminding me..."
"Mother, please be careful with your words!" Lu Hao raised his voice to stop Mrs. Lu from speaking. Fu Lemei was not someone who could be criticized by Mrs. Lu. He had always been cautious and didn't want to offend the Fu family over these matters.
Mrs. Lu frowned and shut up, realizing that she had gone too far. She dared to speak rudely to Mingyu, but she didn't dare to make the same comment about Fu Lemei. Although the Lu family is no longer in such a state of decline, she is still the humble and destitute wife of a convicted official in her subconscious mind. She has a natural fear of those who are high above her.
"It's getting late, mother, you should go to bed early." Lu Hao spoke first. Madam Hong was used to seeing the expressions of Madam Lu and Lu Hao. She quickly pulled Hong Fang'er to leave. After Lu Hao helped his mother fall asleep, he also left Madam Lu's yard.
Under the deep blue starry sky, there is the house that the emperor gave him. It was built by Dong Ze at great expense. It is exquisite and luxurious, and is one of the best houses in the capital. It is said that Dong Ze built it for one of his concubines because he was afraid that his original wife would bully his concubine. When he first entered this house, passing by the long corridor with vines, others complimented and teased him that the only thing missing here was a hostess. The first thing he thought of was the image of Mingyu in white standing under the eaves in the tile-roofed house in Tianshui.
If she changed into gorgeous clothes, combed his hair into a bun, and called herself Mrs. Lu, and walked on this winding corridor, what a touching sight it would be!
A few days passed, and there was still no movement from Lu Hao. After the Chinese Valentine's Day, most of the stock in the store was consumed, and Mrs. Xu was busy buying goods to run the store. She didn't pay much attention to it for a while. In fact, she also figured it out. If Lu Hao was sincere, he would have asked a matchmaker to propose marriage long ago. Now that he was hanging in the balance, without even a definite news, she didn't have any hope for Lu Hao in her heart. She just waited until August. If there was no news from Lu Hao, she would ask Xu Changqian and Xu Mingye to return the gifts. Just pretend that Lu Hao never proposed marriage.
However, Mrs. Xu could sit still. The Xu family could not sit still. Old Mrs. Xu was busy preparing a dowry for Mingyu. She had been looking through the family's assets for several days. She wanted to find something that looked expensive but was actually not worth much to show off to Mingyu. After all this busy work, she suddenly slapped her thigh and found that Lu Hao had not sent a matchmaker to the door at all! In the blink of an eye, a month had passed, and there was no movement at all.
Mrs. Xu couldn't sit still after thinking about it, so she asked Xu Mingrui to help her go to the main courtyard. Xu Mingrui, an unmarried girl, was not suitable to listen to such topics, so Mrs. Xu asked her to wait in the courtyard and went into the house alone to talk to Mrs. Xu.
After sitting down, Old Madam Xu asked, "Old lady, has Lord Lu asked a matchmaker to propose marriage?"
Mrs. Xu frowned and shook her head.
Old Madam Xu was anxious. She rubbed her dry hands and said, "What's going on? Everything was fine, but he still hasn't come to propose marriage. It's been almost a month... Is it because Lord Lu is too busy and has forgotten about this? How about this, let the eldest and second sons go to Lord Lu's house tomorrow to have a visit?"
"How do I know what's going on with Lord Lu?" Mrs. Xu said indifferently. Have you forgotten? You even forgot about marrying a wife? She hated the way Old Lady Xu behaved. She was so servile in front of Lu Hao. She wished Mingyu would kneel down and marry into the Lu family.
Mrs. Xu was so angry at Madam Xu's attitude that she gnashed her teeth and said with anger, "Don't take it lightly. It's better to settle this matter as soon as possible. I'm telling you this for Mingyu's sake. Otherwise, why would I bother with this effort? It's thankless work."
Madam Xu nodded indifferently, "Mother is right. But when it comes to marriage, it's always the man who asks for marriage, how can the woman ask for the man's approval? Let's wait a little longer. If Lord Lu doesn't have this intention, we can only pretend that it never happened."
"What do you mean by 'not meaning that'?" Old Madam Xu was shocked and angry. She stomped her cane hard and said, "How can you say such nonsense? I am not deaf or blind. I remember everything Lord Lu said!"
Mrs. Xu had originally been speaking to Old Lady Xu in a calm and peaceful manner, and what she said were her true thoughts. She had never expected that this would cause such a big reaction from Old Lady Xu, who was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. If Old Lady Xu had not been in poor health due to her old age, she would have jumped three feet high.
Looking at Old Lady Xu who was gasping for breath with excitement, Madam Xu was speechless for a long while. If she said something like "Lu Hao can't be relied on, find another marriage for Mingyu", Old Lady Xu would probably faint on the spot.
"I understand. Wait two days and I'll let Changqian sound out the situation and give us a definite answer." Mrs. Xu readily agreed. As for how many days she meant by "wait two days", that was unknown.
Seeing that Mrs. Xu was "reprimanded" by her, Old Lady Xu breathed a sigh of relief, stroking her chest that was panting a little, and slowly told Mrs. Xu about preparing Mingyu's dowry. She was not kind enough to take on all the responsibilities to prepare Mingyu's dowry, but cleverly said that she and Mrs. Hu and Mrs. Li would add to Mingyu's dowry, and even said that she was bleeding for Mingyu. Mrs. Xu patiently dealt with it, just waiting for Old Lady Xu to say that she was tired and left.
Xu Mingrui was sitting outside, feeling bored, when she ran into Mingyu who had just returned home from the shop. Mingyu was a little surprised that Xu Mingrui was here, and thinking of the girl's various petty thoughts before, Mingyu just called out lightly, "Big sister is here." Holding a thick stack of account books in her hand, she was about to go to Mrs. Xu's room.
"Hey, wait a minute." Xu Mingrui called out, waved to Mingyu, and whispered, "Don't go, grandma is discussing something with the aunt."
Mingyu glanced at the closed door and roughly guessed what was going on. The only thing that could trouble Old Lady Xu to come in person was probably her own marriage. Nodding to Xu Mingrui, Mingyu turned around and went back to her room.
Xu Mingrui didn't expect Mingyu to ignore her. Her maid and Lixiang were watching her. She couldn't bear it and called out in a low voice, "Mingyu, come here, I have something to tell you." However, Mingyu stood there motionless. In a hurry, she stepped over first.
When she was one step away from Mingyu, Xu Mingrui stopped, with a mysterious look on her face, as if she had mastered confidential information, and smiled: "Don't you want to know what grandma came to discuss with aunt?"
Whenever a girl talks about her marriage, she is nervous and shy in happiness. Although they pretend to be more indifferent than each other, their eagerness and expectation in their hearts cannot be deceived. They must not miss the opportunity to know more about the inside story. Xu Mingrui doesn't believe that Mingyu finally got married for the second time, and she married a man of the highest quality. How can she not be nervous and expectant
"How can we know what our elders discuss?" Mingyu said with a smile.
Xu Mingrui rolled her eyes at Mingyu and sneered, "Just pretend! Let me ask you, last time Lord Lu came to propose to you, why hasn't he responded yet?"
Mingyu stared at Xu Mingrui and asked, "Who told you that Lord Lu came to my house to propose marriage? Don't talk nonsense, our family has never said that."
Xu Mingrui's expression froze, and the words she was about to say were choked in her stomach. Thinking about it carefully, it seemed that the people in the first house had never directly said that Lu Hao came to them to propose marriage. However, Mingyu's cold and vaguely contemptuous attitude made her quite unhappy. For a long time, the anger accumulated because of Mingyu was rekindled little by little. From the first house's division of their family property as soon as they returned to the capital, to Mingyu becoming the most important girl in the Xu family because of Lu Hao, she was ignored by her parents and grandmother who always loved her. They scolded her whenever they saw her, asking her to please Mingyu well, hoping that Mingyu would help her in the future and let her become Lu Hao's aunt.
Xu Mingrui couldn't accept it. She was used to being arrogant. Before Mingyu came, she was the most pampered in the entire Xu family. Now she was asked to curry favor with Mingyu just to kowtow and serve tea to Mingyu in the future
Xu Mingrui sneered, raised her chin, and said sarcastically: "Sister, don't always pretend to be so serious. Everyone knows your story. I just envy your good luck. As soon as the Prince of Qin left, Lord Lu walked in! How can someone like me who stays at home every day have such good luck as you, don't you think?"