The family had been sitting together for a while. Yan Liangrong was carefully choosing his words, planning to ask Lady Yan for some silver and connections to help Zheng Chun, when Chen Meirong arrived.
As soon as she stepped through the door, Yan Tongshu caught a whiff of a cool, crisp fragrance of white angelica. Chen Meirong moved with a slender grace, her features elegant and refined, her skin fair as snow. Her temperament was like that of an orchid—pure, bright, and untainted. Standing there quietly, she seemed like a celestial maiden descended from the Nine Heavens, untouched by worldly dust.
Back then, Lord Yan had fallen deeply in love with her ethereal, otherworldly air and married her for it.
But there was a catch: Chen Meirong could not speak.
The moment she opened her mouth—one word, and it was vulgar.
Chen Meirong was not particularly learned. She had no love for the refined pursuits of chess, music, calligraphy, or painting. Instead, she delighted in gossiping about this family and that, and when it came to the secret scandals and amusing tales of noble households, her face lit up with excitement and her spirits soared.
Her true passion lay in gold, silver, jade, pearls, bracelets, and rings. She wished she could drape every piece of jewelry in the house over her body.
When Lord Yan was alive, he kept her in check, forbidding her from decking herself in gold and silver or anything overly flashy and gaudy. After Lord Yan passed away, Lady Yan took over managing her, which left Chen Meirong feeling stifled. Bored, she often sought out Yan Tongshu to vent.
Back then, Yan Tongshu had just time-traveled into this world and been demoted to the Xianlin Academy. The Yan family had strict rules, and Yan Tongshu was tightly controlled, which annoyed her to no end. So when Chen Meirong came to her, Yan Tongshu didn’t lecture her on reading more classics, as the original owner of the body would have. Instead, she snuck out to “frolic” with her.
Over time, the two discovered they had similar temperaments. Neither liked refined, elegant things, nor did they fancy the exquisite but bland dishes favored by nobles.
Chen Meirong often took Yan Tongshu to wander the streets, eating all kinds of street snacks and listening to storytellers in teahouses.
Sometimes Chen Meirong would bring the gossip she’d heard to Yan Tongshu, who could listen with rapt attention all day long.
Of course, when Lady Yan found out, she often punished them both.
Later, in the seventh year after Lord Yan’s death, when Yan Tongshu turned fifteen, Chen Meirong remarried. Her new husband was Qian Buping, the owner of a silk and satin shop in the capital.
The Qian family wasn’t the wealthiest in the land, but they were well-known in the capital, and money was not an issue.
Now, finally, no one could stop Chen Meirong from piling her hair with gold ornaments, covering all ten fingers with beautiful rings, or wearing bright red and purple clothes. In an act of rebellion, Chen Meirong donned every piece of fine jewelry she owned.
That meant that the moment she entered the hall, the whole place glittered with a blinding golden light.
Yan Tongshu instinctively raised a hand to shield her eyes from the overwhelming gleam.
Lady Yan admired plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, and chrysanthemums. She had a broad-minded and generous nature, a perfect match for Lord Yan’s temperament. Naturally, she couldn’t stand Chen Meirong’s attire.
Frowning, Lady Yan called out with a mix of exasperation: “Chen Meirong.”
Chen Meirong flashed Lady Yan a bright smile. “Sister, I brought you a gift.”
With that, Chen Meirong took a box from her maid and opened it in front of Lady Yan. Inside was a massive gold bracelet, about eight inches wide, studded with various agates and emeralds. It was not only astonishingly wide but also shockingly thick.
Chen Meirong raised her own slender, fair wrist triumphantly. “Sister, look—this one’s a match for mine. Beautiful, isn't it? And it was expensive!”
Lady Yan pressed a hand to her forehead. “Look at how you’re dressed. Don’t you think you’re wasting that elegant face of yours?”
“What’s wrong with it?” Chen Meirong pouted. “Sister, I give you a gift, and you still criticize me?”
Lady Yan said helplessly, “I’m not criticizing you. I’m just saying, I understand you like jewelry, but there’s no need to wear everything at once.”
The hairpins on her head alone must weigh over two pounds. Didn't her head ache?
Chen Meirong stuck out her lip. “Fine, Sister. Do you still want the bracelet or not?”
Lady Yan shot her an annoyed glance. “You keep it for yourself.”
Chen Meirong snorted in defiance. “Fine, if you don’t want it, I’ll give it to Xiao Shu. It can be a betrothal gift for Xiao Shu’s future wife.”
With that, Chen Meirong hurried over to Yan Tongshu and handed her the bracelet.
Though she claimed it was for Yan Tongshu’s future bride, the bracelet was really a token of gratitude for Lady Yan’s painstaking efforts for her own daughter, Yan Liangyu.
Yan Tongshu understood Chen Meirong’s intention and accepted it gracefully with a smile. “Thank you, Auntie.”
Chen Meirong lowered her voice and said, “Now that you’ve taken my gift, when the Zhou family gets here, beat down their pride for me. Hmph, they bullied my daughter.”
Yan Tongshu gave Chen Meirong a reassuring look and made a gesture of cutting the Zhou family down.
Lady Yan shook her head. “Vulgar.”
Yan Tongshu and Chen Meirong exchanged a knowing glance. Vulgar, so what?
Gold and jewels—who doesn’t love them?
Chen Meirong sat down and threw a glare at Yan Liangyu. “You, too—what a disappointment. You had to fall for that useless softy Zhou Zhengxun.”
Yan Liangyu kept her eyes lowered, her face pale.
Seeing her daughter on the verge of tears, Chen Meirong quickly backpedaled. “I didn’t say you can’t marry him. I just don’t want us to appear too eager and have you suffer in his house. I want to knock the Zhou family down a peg, that’s all.”
Hearing this, Yan Liangyu felt even guiltier toward her mother.
For her sake, her mother and her aunt had been running around, bowing to the Zhou family, swallowing their pride. And still, she couldn’t let him go.
With all the important matters discussed, everyone relaxed and began chatting casually.
About the time it takes to burn an incense stick later, a maid announced that the Zhou family had arrived.
As the eldest son of the family, Yan Tongshu rose to greet them. But the moment she reached the front gate, her face darkened.
Today, they were supposed to discuss the wedding date. Out of respect, the entire Yan family had shown up. But the Zhou family had sent only three people: Lady Zhou, her sister An Chang’e, and Zhou Zhengxun.
Master Zhou hadn’t come at all.
Yan Tongshu sneered. Chen Meirong had just asked her to humble the Zhou family, but now the Zhou family had walked in and thrown the first punch to humble them instead.
Yan Tongshu greeted them with a lukewarm tone.
Lady Zhou acted as if she hadn’t noticed Yan Tongshu’s cold demeanor and smiled. “Nephew, you’re not on duty at the Xianlin Academy today?”
Yan Tongshu raised an eyebrow and smiled. “My job is only a rank of third-class position, so I’ve got plenty of free time. Not like Master Zhou, a fourth-rank Imperial Aide, a pillar of the state, a loyal minister, busy with a thousand matters a day.”
Her words cut to the bone. Beside them, Zhou Zhengxun’s face alternated between pale and red.
Lady Zhou, however, pretended she hadn’t caught the sarcasm and said, “His Majesty has only just ascended the throne. Zhengxun’s father is in His Grace’s favor. Soon, he’ll probably rise again.”
Thick-skinned.
Yan Tongshu took a deep breath and silently cursed Master Zhou to trip and fall hard when stepping off his carriage today.
The group entered the main hall.
Lady Yan, Chen Meirong, and Yan Liangrong saw that the Zhou family had come with only three people, and their faces also turned cold.
Yan Liangyu looked at Zhou Zhengxun, her brow full of reproach.
Zhou Zhengxun mouthed guiltily: I tried to persuade Mother.
Yan Liangyu opened her mouth to say something but recalled Lady Yan’s instruction for her to remain silent and quickly shut it.
The two families exchanged pleasantries, asking about each other’s well-being before turning to the main topic.
Lady Zhou wore a perfectly measured smile. “Lady Yan, our Zhengxun and your Liangyu have shared a deep bond since childhood, and our two families have been betrothed for quite some time now, yet we have yet to discuss the wedding date. This, I admit, has been our fault. However, we mainly considered that Zhengxun, being a man, still has no official title or merit to his name. I feared that seeking Liangyu’s hand in marriage like this might do her an injustice.”
Chen Meirong rolled her eyes and made an exaggerated grimace at Yan Tongshu, mouthing silently, “Oh, no title or merit, he’s afraid to wrong Liangyu—then why get engaged in the first place? Engagement isn’t exactly asking for her hand, is it?”
Though displeased, Chen Meirong knew her child was a daughter, while the Zhou family had a son. A man of age would not suffer much from a delayed marriage, but the same delay only put her own daughter at a disadvantage. So she swallowed her frustration, letting only Yan Tongshu glimpse a sliver of her true feelings. Yan Tongshu gave her a slight nod of reassurance.
Lady Yan sat in the seat of honor, sipping her tea with downcast eyes, quietly taking in everyone’s reactions, her expression unreadable.
Yan Liangrong timely grasped Yan Liangyu’s cool hand and stepped in with a smile. “Now that Young Master Zhou has passed the imperial examination and earned the rank of presented scholar, if we set the wedding date now, by the time the ceremony takes place, he’ll just be appointed to an official post. Wouldn’t that be a double blessing upon the household?”
Lady Zhou chuckled. “Speaking of the wedding, we must not do Liangyu any wrongs. As for the betrothal gifts—how about the three types of gold and the eight treasures?”
Yan Tongshu responded with a polite, formulaic smile. “May I ask, which three kinds of gold and which eight treasures are you referring to?”
As a rule, the bride’s dowry should not fall short of the groom’s betrothal gifts. They naturally had to clarify the value of the groom’s side in order to prepare the dowry accordingly.
Moreover, Lady Zhou was surprisingly cunning: deliberately avoiding settling the wedding date first and instead bringing up the betrothal gifts early made it plain that if the two sides could not reach an agreement on the gifts, then the wedding date wouldn’t even be worth discussing.
