"Miss, the Crown Prince and the Young Mistress are already coming this way." Grandma Gao told Grandmother Pei the news she heard from the little girl.
Grandmother Pei nodded, spinning the Buddhist beads in her hand. She cast a sharp glance at the several illegitimate sons and their wives and children who were sitting impatiently below her, coughed softly, and the crowd immediately became extremely quiet.
Here, Pei Che and Jiang Miao walked towards this side with big dark circles under their eyes. Jiang Miao's leg wound was smeared with medicine, and after a night of absorption, it was almost healed. Jiang Miao applied it again in the morning to be on the safe side, so that it would not be wiped off when walking, so he walked very carefully.
This strange posture and the expressions on their faces were seen by others as evidence of their "fighting all night" yesterday. Seeing this scene, everyone couldn't help but sigh, it seems that their prince really likes this male wife!
"Che'er and A Miao come together to pay respects to grandma and invite her to have some tea." Pei Che led Jiang Miao inside. Grandma Gao had already placed two thick cushions on the ground so that they could kneel down and offer tea.
"Please have some tea, grandma." Jiang Miao took the tea from the tray of the little maid, and lowered his head and raised it forward, imitating Pei Che's way.
Grandmother Pei took Pei Che's tea and sipped it, then took the tea from Jiang Miao's hand and touched her lips. She put down the cup, wiped her lips with a handkerchief, and then said: "The wedding banquet is over, and you are husband...husband. In the days to come, you must support each other and help each other. This is the right thing to do."
"Che'er/Jiang Miao, follow your grandmother's instructions." They said in unison.
"Be good, get up." Grandmother Pei said. She glanced at Grandma Gao, and Grandma Gao understood and took out two purses from her pocket and put them in Grandmother Pei's hands.
"This is a little gift from grandma, please accept it."
"Thank you, Grandmother!" Pei Che and Jiang Miao took the purse, but found it was very light. However, for a reward from an elder, the lighter the better. The heavy one was no surprise, nothing but gold and silver. The light one was different, it could be anything.
After paying respects to Grandmother Pei, the two of them also had to serve tea to Pei Che's three uncles and aunts. There was no need to kneel to serve them tea, just bend down slightly and pass the tea over.
According to the order, they should first serve tea to Pei Shiyuan and Li Yijia. After the tea was served, the two of them took the teacup and drank it honestly under the gaze of Pei's grandmother. After drinking the tea, the atmosphere in the hall suddenly changed. The reason was the gift that Li Yijia gave to Jiang Miao.
She gave him a ruby headpiece. In fact, whether in terms of workmanship or material, this thing is a rare treasure. However, such a good thing, appearing at this moment, is inevitably a bit meaningful. Pei Che married a man, but this headpiece is for women.
The whole hall was silent, and everyone held their breath, waiting for Jiang Miao's reaction. The quarrel between him and the group of scholars yesterday had spread throughout the mansion. This male wife was so sharp-tongued, and now she was intimidated by Li Yijia, could she swallow this breath? Grandmother Pei was also observing, she wanted to see how Jiang Miao would respond.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Miao was not dissatisfied, but thanked her with a smile on his face. Seeing this, Grandmother Pei finally put down a big stone in her heart.
Being more powerful is a good thing, but if you act recklessly regardless of the occasion, it is not appropriate. This kind of situation is obvious to anyone with a discerning eye. If they go their way, a big fight will happen on the first day of the wedding, which will be a bad thing.
Jiang Miao and Pei Che came to Uncle and Aunt Pei again.
Their family currently had no conflicts with Pei Che, so the gift they prepared was something that men could wear. Although it was not as valuable as a ruby headpiece, it was given with great care. After Jiang Miao thanked them, Pei Che also smiled at the two of them.
As for the Fourth House, last time Pei Qi and Pei Mu had a conflict, they were punished by Grandmother Pei. They didn't dare to express their dissatisfaction openly, but secretly hated everyone. This time, after they found out what the Second House was going to send, they decided to send something similar, so that they could disgust Pei Che and the others and also get along well with the Second House.
Jiang Miao and Pei Che accepted their gifts, but their expressionless faces made them feel even more uncomfortable.
After toasting, it was their turn to present gifts to the elders, and also to present gifts to the younger generations. These gifts were prepared by Pei Che. Except for Grandmother Pei, the gifts from others were all in the right order, so that no one could find fault with them. Even this was more decent than the two families who deliberately disgusted people.
Pei Shiyuan didn't expect Jiang Miao to be so tolerant. The intelligence he had heard said that he was very strong-willed and would not suffer any loss or humiliation. Now that Jiang Miao was so considerate, it made them feel awkward. In fact, they had prepared another thing, waiting for Jiang Miao to make a fuss before taking it out. At that time, they would just say that the maid took the wrong thing in a hurry. They didn't expect him to take it without saying a word.
In fact, what he had inquired about was correct, but he had missed one thing. That was that Jiang Miao treated all valuable things equally. As long as they were valuable, why would he care what they looked like
Jiang Miao was very sacrificial for these lovely and valuable items. The reason why he and Pei Che both had dark circles under their eyes was because they counted the gift list until very late.
Last night, Pei Che came back drunk. When Jiang Miao was about to accept his fate and take care of him for the night, Pei Che suddenly sobered up again. Because at this time, the people who sent him here had left the yard, and he was just pretending to be drunk to avoid being seen by others.
When Pei Che woke up, the towel he had prepared to wipe his face was in his hand. Pei Che felt a little regretful. If he had known earlier, he would have pretended a little longer.
He wiped his face and prepared to go out to call Chan Yi and Wen Jing, asking them to carry the sleeping Pei Mu back to Pei Mu's room to sleep.
"No, you'll be startled. Just sleep here. The bed is big enough." Jiang Miao said.
"I didn't think it through. You can have someone take him back." Jiang Miao thought he was right. It was indeed suspicious to have a third party in the wedding night.
However, when he thought of the words "wedding night", Jiang Miao couldn't help but blush. Whether in modern times or ancient times, he was a virgin. Although he knew that this marriage was fake, the room was red and there were wedding characters posted everywhere. The atmosphere was too good to not have any thoughts. Especially after Pei Mu was taken away, he and Pei Che were the only ones left in the room, and Jiang Miao felt even more embarrassed.
So he cleared his throat and said, "Just now those two girls handed me a key and asked me to take care of it. I think you should take care of it yourself."
He took out the key, put it on the table, and pushed it in Pei Che's direction.
Pei Che frowned: "What girls? From now on, you can just call them Chan Yi and Wen Jing." It's not that Pei Che looked down on them, he just felt that the names of young master and young lady were very ambiguous.
"Okay, then you take the key back." Jiang Miao said.
"As for the keys, you can help me take care of them." Pei Che saw Jiang Miao frowning and immediately added, "You are my partner now. If others knew that I didn't let you take care of my private property, they would probably be suspicious."
In fact, this is bullying Jiang Miao because he has little experience. The children of the aristocratic families in Daliang rarely give their private property to their wives after marriage. Similarly, the husbands can't even think of touching their wives' dowries. The money in the public treasury is the money that the wife spends on taking care of the yard.
"What if I don't take care of you enough?"
"So what?" Pei Che asked back.
That's right, Jiang Miao thought, this guy has a lot of money, he's not afraid of less. Since he insists on giving it to me, then I'll take care of it.
He came to where Chan Yi Wen Jing had just put the box and carried it back to the table. In fact, he was quite curious about how much belongings Pei Che had, but he was embarrassed to show it in front of the two of them before.
The key was inserted into the lock and turned, and the copper lock was removed. When the box was opened, what came into view were things like books, which were far from the gold, silver, jewelry, and land deeds that Jiang Miao had imagined in his mind.
His disappointed expression was too obvious, and Pei Che saw the clue at a glance.
"A Miao, you don't think that my private property is just this one box, do you?"
Jiang Miao came to his senses and flipped through the books in the box. He found that they were all account books of some stores and lists of items stored in the warehouse. He opened a book at random and found that the daily turnover in it was equivalent to Jiang Miao's income for two months. Jiang Miao closed it quickly, fearing that he would be stimulated. But curiosity immediately surged up again, causing him to open and close the book repeatedly.
Pei Che watched his every move with great interest, and suddenly remembered that they had just delivered today's gift list. Without saying a word, he pulled Jiang Miao and walked out to an empty room.
"What are you doing?" Jiang Miao was enjoying the show when he was suddenly pulled out. He couldn't help feeling a little unhappy.
"This is the list of gifts for the guests attending the banquet today. They will be put into storage tomorrow. You can take a look first. If you like anything, put it outside." Pei Che pulled him to sit down and stuffed a booklet into his hand.
"Isn't this wedding banquet held in the mansion? Don't the things belong to you and don't have to be put into the treasury?" Jiang Miao was a little curious. He flipped through the booklet and found that many of the things in it were things he had never heard of or seen before.
"Of course not. Every man in the mansion has 30,000 taels of silver to take care of everything when he marries a wife. For the prince, an additional 20,000 taels will be added, making a total of 50,000 taels. This money is not in the public account, and the accompanying gifts naturally belong to you. Of course, you will also have to pay for future social interactions. Most of the betrothal gifts and dowry this time were purchased from the private property of my grandmother and my parents, so in fact, not all of the 50,000 taels were used for this marriage. The extra money will be transferred to our accounts after the settlement is completed. If you need money in the future, you can go directly to the account office to withdraw it."
Jiang Miao was stunned and envious. The aristocratic families were really amazing. No wonder everyone wanted to become a wealthy family. Their money was money, while other people's money was just a string of numbers.
Jiang Miao suddenly admired Pei Che. He was so rich, but he could study so hard. If he could achieve financial freedom, he would have been a salted fish who did not work and wandered around the country.
The two of them read the book for most of the night, and were called up to serve tea not long after they slept. How could they not feel tired? But since it was fun, it didn't matter if they were tired.
(End of this chapter)