Zhou Shaojin had no idea what Mrs. Mian was thinking. She and her sister smiled and nodded, and were happy for Cheng Gao. But when Cheng Gao saw Cheng Mian coming to pay respects to Old Madam Guan, he became a little shy, which made the Zhou sisters giggle and Cheng Gao's face flushed red. He didn't know whether to move forward or backward.
"You two!" Old Lady Guan explained for her eldest grandson with a smile, "Come, come to me. Don't pay attention to your two cousins. They are happy for you!"
Cheng Gao nodded, and under the smiling gazes of Zhou Shaojin and Zhou Chujin, he sat down next to Old Lady Guan.
"Once you're engaged, you'll be an adult. You need to be more prudent in the future. In addition to being filial to your parents and loving your wife and children, you also have to take care of your younger siblings. Do you understand?" Old Lady Guan took Cheng Gao's hand and expressed her expectations for her eldest grandson.
"Yes!" Cheng Gao stood up and bowed respectfully to Old Lady Guan.
Old Madam Guan smiled with relief, and then told Cheng Gao about the engagement: "… On our side, your father has decided to ask your Uncle Chi and the eldest master of the Gu family to be matchmakers, the eldest wife of the Gu family to be the bride, and your Aunt Lu to help you propose marriage."
Zhou Shaojin was stunned and couldn't help asking, "Uncle Chi is back?"
"No." Mrs. Guan did not take it as an offense and smiled, "I went to Mrs. Guo's place last night, and Mrs. Guo has already agreed."
No wonder!
Zhou Shaojin heaved a long sigh in his heart.
She sent Fan Qi to keep an eye on when Cheng Chi would return home, but when Fan Qi came to visit her yesterday, he said that Cheng Chi had not returned yet...
But let Uncle Chi be the matchmaker...
She found it strange when she thought about it.
But now, among the male members of the Cheng family, only Uncle Chi and the ancestor of the second branch were successful candidates in the imperial examinations. The ancestor of the second branch would definitely not do such a thing, so Uncle Chi had to go.
The eldest master of the Gu family is now the headmaster of the Gu family academy, but I don't know what his personality is like? If he is a smooth talker, it's not a big deal. If he is a pedantic person, then Cheng Gao's wedding... Zhou Shaojin was worried about Cheng Gao just thinking about it.
Afterwards, she didn't pay much attention to what Mrs. Guan told Cheng Gao, she just heard Cheng Gao nodding his head.
It was not until after Cheng Gao left that she came to her senses when Mrs. Mian comforted Mrs. Guan not to worry and said, "Gao'er has lived in Pukou for some time. Everyone in my family likes her very much. You can rest assured. We won't make things difficult for him."
According to etiquette, when proposing marriage, the new son-in-law must come to the house with the matchmaker.
Zhou Shaojin has lived two lives and has never cared about his own wedding. He only watches other people's weddings and has never participated in them.
Cheng Gao was like her brother, and she was naturally very curious about her brother's marriage.
She remembered that in her previous life, when Cheng Gao was engaged, her sister had accompanied Mrs. Lu to the He family to give a gold hairpin. She asked Mrs. Guan: "When the engagement is made, can I go to Pukou with my sister and Aunt Lu?"
When the engagement is made, the man will go to the woman's house to give her a gold hairpin. The man's female relatives can then send someone to go with the matchmaker to see the bride.
Those who come to see the bride can be the bride's future aunt, sister-in-law, or sister-in-law.
Zhou Shaojin and Zhou Chujin can barely be considered sisters-in-law.
Old Mrs. Guan was a little hesitant.
Zhou Shaojin is so beautiful. If she goes there, she will definitely be one level or even several levels better than the bride. The family is afraid that the He family will misunderstand that this is a show of power from the Cheng family to the bride.
Mrs. Miao didn't care.
What if Zhou Shaojin marries Cheng Yi, can He Fengping never see Zhou Shaojin again in her life
Moreover, she had already informed her sister-in-law that her two cousins were both first-rate-looking. Her sister-in-law had even asked her to bring them over to see. If they were really as good as she said, then the two families would further strengthen the relationship and marry Zhou Shaojin, who had no engagement, to her nephew from her mother's family. If she hadn't leaked the information, her sister-in-law might have really come to see Zhou Shaojin!
Mrs. Miao smiled and said, "Let them go! Our Shaojin is so pretty, she is not afraid of others seeing her."
Zhou Shaojin knew that she was pretty, but she never thought that she was prettier than her sister, so she underestimated how pretty she was. She didn't realize what Mrs. Guan was worried about, and thought that she was afraid that she would play around and lose face for the Cheng family. After hearing what Mrs. Miao said, she hurriedly said, "Grandma, I will be obedient and follow my sister obediently."
“Well, then you go with your sister!” When Mrs. Guan saw that her daughter-in-law said so, she must be sure that the He family would not have any ideas. She did not notice that she did not mention that Zhou Chujin should go with them to deliver the gold hairpin, and Zhou Shaojin said with certainty that Zhou Chujin would go to deliver the gold hairpin.
No one in the room noticed.
Everyone was happily talking about Cheng Gao's engagement when Mrs. Lu came over.
Also coming with Mrs. Lu was Cheng Ji.
As soon as she entered the room, she shouted, "I want to give a golden hairpin to Sister-in-law Gao, too."
"Don't listen to her nonsense." Jiang rubbed her forehead with a headache, bowed to Old Lady Guan, and said, "She just wants the world to be in chaos. If she goes, who knows what kind of joke she will make, and then our family will be embarrassed to the end of Pukou."
Cheng Ji was so aggrieved that tears came out when he heard this.
Mrs. Miao looked at Cheng Ji, who had bright eyes and white teeth, and her heart moved. She quickly hugged Cheng Ji and said to Jiang, "Sister-in-law, the same is true. Our Ji girl is already an adult. She is not as ignorant as you say." As she spoke, she winked at Jiang.
Jiang swallowed the reprimand that was about to come out of her mouth, took out the marriage proposal list she had prepared at home and handed it to Old Lady Guan: "Please take a look at it and see if it's okay."
Zhou Chujin took it and read it word by word to Old Lady Guan.
Cheng Ji had already pulled Zhou Shaojin aside to whisper.
She wanted to persuade Zhou Shaojin to go to Pukou with her.
After finally reading the long list, Old Lady Guan praised Jiang for her "steady and careful work" with satisfaction. She smiled and asked Zhou Chujin to pass the list to He, saying, "Take another look. If there is nothing to add or subtract, prepare according to what is on the list!"
Mrs. Mian was also very satisfied. She thanked Jiang with a smile and wanted to take her to Hanqiu Pavilion for tea to discuss some specific matters.
Except for Old Lady Guan, everyone went to Hanqiu Pavilion.
On the way, Mrs. Miao left Zhou Shaojin and the others behind and kept whispering to Jiang. Several times, Jiang even looked back at Cheng Ji.
Cheng Ji thought her mother was warning her not to be naughty, and she smiled at her mother attentively every time she turned around, hoping that her mother would agree to let her and Zhou Shaojin go to Putian to betroth Xiao He because of her fawning.
Unexpectedly, when she got home, before she could even open her mouth, her mother had already told her: "I can take you, but if you do anything inappropriate, don't even think about me taking you out again."
Cheng Ji was overjoyed and kept assuring his mother.
The next day, Jiang called a tailor to make clothes for Cheng Ji. She also picked out a few pieces of jewelry suitable for the little girl from her dressing table and warned her again before going to work on Cheng Gao's engagement.
Cheng Ji hurried to tell Zhou Shaojin.
Zhou Shaojin was also very happy, but she had no time to pay attention to Cheng Ji at this moment, and said: "I am going to Hanbi Mountain House to copy scriptures. Let's talk about it in detail when I come back!"
Cheng Ji looked at the funnel in the room and said, "It's just past noon... What are you doing there so early?"
Zhou Shaojin suddenly had an idea and said, "Go earlier so you can come back earlier!"
Cheng Ji had no doubts and said hurriedly, "Then go quickly and come back soon."
Zhou Shaojin asked Shi Xiang to accompany her, and she hurried to Hanbi Mountain House - she had just received news that Cheng Chi had returned.
She was anxious to know whether Jiying had returned to Cangzhou or followed Cheng Chi back.
In Hanbi Mountain House, Huaishan was instructing the servants to unload boxes and crates, while Cheng Chi was talking with Old Madam Guo in the room.
Zhou Shaojin turned into the tea room next door.
Jasper and Pearl were sitting and talking in the tea room.
Zhou Shaojin asked hurriedly: "Have you seen Jiying?"
"I saw it!" Biyu said with a smile, "She went back to her room with a gloomy face. She didn't even respond when I called her."
Zhou Shaojin's heart sank, and he said, "Then I'll go to the Buddhist temple to copy the scriptures first."
Biyu walked her out of the tea room.
Zhou Shaojin turned into the Liyin Pavilion from the back.
The door of Jiying's side room was closed, and several maids were standing under the veranda, looking at each other in bewilderment.
Zhou Shaojin walked over in two steps, nodded calmly to the maids, and gently patted Jiying's window: "Jiying, it's me, what's wrong? Open the door!"
She thought she would have to knock on the window a few more times, but as soon as she finished her words, the window frame creaked open.
Zhou Shaojin almost failed to dodge and got hit in the face.
But she had no time to care about these. Ji Ying looked like a vegetable that had been boiled in water. She was wilted and her eyes were red and swollen. Fortunately, she spoke calmly: "You're here! Come in and sit down!" As she said that, she went to open the door for Zhou Shaojin.
Zhou Shaojin asked hurriedly: "What happened?"
Ji Ying closed the door again, sat down with her on the Luohan bed by the window in the room, and whispered: "I went back to see Jiao Ziyang, and he said that our two families had broken off the engagement, but that was his father's intention, and he would not marry anyone else except me. He also told me to elope with him..."
"Absolutely not!" Zhou Shaojin's face turned pale, and he hurriedly said, "The one who is engaged is the wife and the one who runs away is the concubine! You must not do such a foolish thing. If you really want to marry her, you'd rather kneel down and beg your parents than follow him and leave like this without knowing why."
Seeing Zhou Shaojin's anxious expression, Ji Ying's tense face showed a long-lost smile.
"I know." Her voice was still low, but it was softer. "I'm not stupid. Whatever he said is what it is. When I heard him say that, I thought, it was because I had to be your uncle Chi's maid for ten years, so I agreed to cancel the engagement. Now that I'm back, Jiao Ziyang is unmarried, and I'm unmarried. Instead of eloping with him like Jiao Ziyang said, I might as well persuade Jiao Ziyang's father to agree to resume the engagement with Jiao Ziyang..."
Zhou Shaojin couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and praised: "You are really good! You thought of a solution right away."
Ji Ying smiled slightly and said, "Guess what I found when I went to Jiao's house?"
Zhou Shaojin thought that she would rather go back to Cheng's house than stay at home, and he felt cold in his heart. He murmured, "Could it be that he has already married?"
Ji Ying smiled and said, "Getting married is normal, so what's so strange about that?"
That smile only hung on the corner of his mouth, but his eyes were icy cold, like a sword drawn from its sheath, emitting cold light.
Zhou Shaojin shuddered and said, "Then, what happened?"
※
Today's update, sisters.
PS: I wish you all a happy weekend!
Bring me the pink ticket!
Does it sound like asking for red envelopes during Chinese New Year? I think it even rhymes a bit... O(∩_∩)O~
※(To be continued)