Chapter 49

Although Xiao Yi did not say anything, his look clearly confirmed this.

Nan Baoyi laughed angrily, “Zhang Yuanwang is the number one scholar in Shu County, handsome, talented, and from a good family background. A lot of girls admire him but I’m not one of them.”

The little girl’s phoenix-like eyes shone brightly. She did not look like she was lying.

Xiao Yi’s hands behind his back unconsciously rubbed the lucky coin.

Nan Baoyi raised her eyebrows and continued, “The man I want to marry must be the most indomitable man in the world. He has power, has authority, and has money! He can protect me all my life without worries and protect the Nan family’s honor and prosperity! Zhang Yuanwang is selfish, unkind, and inconsiderate. The Zhang family is even more of a stinking muddy pile of water. I would be crazy to be interested in him!”

If these words were to be heard by others, they would laugh at her for being overachieving.

After all, although the Nan residence was a wealthy family, among the four classes of society, merchants were of the lowest class. Merchant families were always sucking up to official families, how could they dare to be picky when it comes to being married to the first wife’s son of an official?

[Translation note: The four classes refers to scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants]

But Xiao Yi did not laugh.

He never thought that the little girl had such high expectations towards her husband.

Her eyebrows were as delicate as a portrait of a lady, but her temperament was cold and arrogant.

The Nan family was rich. Everything the little girl ate and wore was all the best of the best, comparable to a princess of a small country.

Neither the Zhang family nor the Cheng family would be able to afford to sustain such an expensive flower.

The fire that had been burning in his chest for days inexplicably subdued and his toned eased a little, “As long as you don’t have that idea that would be best.”

When the misunderstanding was cleared up, Nan Baoyi was also relieved.

She coyly nestled against him, “Second Brother, I’m only twelve years old, I’m not in a hurry to get married. Wait till Second Brother enters the courts in Shengjing, please help me choose a suitable dignitary as a husband, for example, the prime minister, the state minister, or even the emperor’s son! I heard the crown prince is very kind and good, I definitely will not need to endure any hardship by marrying him.”

She was only joking, but it was serious to Xiao Yi.

The prime minister, state minister, crown prince…

She had even thought about it, why doesn’t she just marry the emperor himself?!

His eyes were gloomy and his lips were pressed into a line. He really did not want to pay any attention to her.

Nan Baoyi watched him walking towards the villa without any expression. She was at a loss.

Everything was fine, why is the powerful minister angry again?

Did she say something wrong?

She shook her head, held Zhang Yuanwang’s belt and Sun Xianxian’s hairpin, and decided to expose their hideous activities right now in the pavilion.

…

Right now at the pavilion in the villa.

The elders could not bear to be up so late and so they were already resting.

The young dames were playing mahjong and brought their daughters along to play in the pavilion.

Because of her in-law relationship, Nan Baorong sat behind Military Officer Madam Zhang.

She helped Madam Zhang to see her tiles while answering questions from some of the madams.

“Six Circles.” A madam put out a tile and smiled, “I remembered Baorong is always sick and in bed since you were a child, were you nursed back to health these few years? What medicine did you take?”

“Because of Grandmother’s care, I’m much better now than when I was young.” Nan Baorong said gently, “I have never stopped taking medicine. The prescription, from an excellent doctor Doctor Jiang, is called Gong Blossom.”

“Gong Blossom? That’s rare. What kind of prescription is that?”

Nan Baorong helped Madam Chang to play a tile and said gently, “Twenty four different kinds of flowers are gathered from all four seasons, adding that same year’s rainwater from the Rain Festival, dew from the Bailu Festival, frost from the Shuangjiang Festival, snow from the Snow Festival, supplemented with pearls from Donghai and peach resin, grinding them all to powder, creating this medicine.”

“So troublesome, only a rich family like the Nan residence could make such a medicine.” That madam sighed and joked again, “The Zhang family is not as rich as the Nan family. Once Baorong is married over, there won’t be any more expensive treatment like this ―”

She had not finished speaking when she realized something was wrong.

But words are like water that was splashed out, everyone heard what she said.

Nan Baorong awkwardly looked at her future mother-in-law. Her face was clearly darkened.

To ease the tension, she brought over a cup of hot tea and respectfully presented to Madam Chang, “I heard you have a lot of experience in tea tasting. This is a new tea for this year’s spring, why don’t you have a taste?”

That unobtrusive madam tried to smooth things over, “This is Longjing tea. I heard Old Madam Nan purposely brought it over from her residence, extremely expensive ―”

“Expensive?” Madam Chang sneered, “Why, is it because my Zhang family can’t afford to drink such an expensive tea so I have to come here to her Nan family to drink it?”

The pavilion was quiet.

The other madams and miss who were present looked over.

Nan Baorong became more awkward, “It’s late, shall I accompany you to your room?”

“Bang!”

Madam Chang raised her hand and knocked over the tea she was holding.

Nan Baorong retreated two steps back, the tea dripping down from her dress and her face was pale.

Madam Chang pointed at her and scolded, “You pretentious thing! You’re only a merchant family’s daughter and you dare to look down at my family and resent the Zhang family for being poor? Let me tell you this, don’t think that we are after your lousy dowry. If it wasn’t for Old Madam Nan’s begging do you think my family would promise to marry you?

Nan Baorong was embarrassed, “Aunty…”

That madam who said the wrong thing did not know what to do.

Seeing that she was about to mess up a marriage, she was so ashamed she wanted to hide in a hole.

She could only bite the bullet and stepped forward to persuade her, “It was all my fault, Baorong had nothing to do with it ―”

“Move away!” Madam Chang would not stop, “You’re only a sickly person and from a lowly merchant family background. Your ancestor’s accumulated good merits for you being able to marry into our Zhang family. Being sick all year long, who knows when will you be dead, who knows if you were going to pass on your sickness to our Yuanwang? Whoever marries you is unlucky and you don’t even know how to be grateful. You teamed up with an outsider and made our Zhang family lose face! The way I see it, we should forget about the marriage!”

“Aunty is right, this marriage should be abolished.”

A soft child-like voice was sounded.

Everyone looked over and saw Nan Baoyi pushing the door open and came in.

She wore a lotus-colored cloak woven in gold and stood over the bead curtain like a fine painting of a lady.

She widened her eyes, “Only we have to clarify things. Today, it is our Nan family who rejected your marriage proposal and not your Zhang family who rejected our marriage proposal!”

She had lived for two lives. She knew that if the male side was the one who rejected the marriage, the girl’s future would be destroyed.

Because everyone always liked to speculate on women with the greatest malice, thinking it was the girl that misbehaved and that was why the marriage proposal was rejected.

She had to protect Big Sister’s reputation.

Madam Chang was shocked!

She screamed in exaggeration, “Is the Nan family without manners, the eldest daughter is not sensible, even the young daughter is joining in?! Since when you are in a position to reject the marriage proposal?!”

“If I call the shots, would it be good enough?”

A cold and low voice suddenly sounded.

Everyone looked over.

A handsome young man in black robes stood firmly behind Nan Baoyi. It was Xiao Yi.

Although he was the adoptive son, he became an official after all. Of course, he was able to represent the Nan family.

Moreover, he was only eighteen when he became an officer of the sixth rank and highly regarded by Situ Lin. Those who had any vision would know that this young man’s future was limitless.