The wind is gentle and the fun is endless

It's not just the Feng family that is planning the marriage, the Xu family is also discussing it.

"Qu'er, are you sure you want to ask for the hand of Miss Feng from Heyang?" asked Mrs. Xie of the Xu family. Mrs. Xie was the stepmother of Mr. Xu Qu and the biological mother of Miss Xu Xiangyue. She came from the famous Xie family.

Xu Qu, who was standing opposite her, was a tall, handsome and romantic young man, but he was already 22 years old and his marriage had not been decided yet. As a stepmother, she was in a dilemma. It was not that she did not care about his marriage. On the contrary, she had been arranging a marriage for Xu Qu since he was 17 or 18 years old. She hired the best matchmaker and asked people to introduce her to any wealthy and prestigious family who had a young lady of the right age. She actively dealt with them and wasted no time, fearing that others would say that she, as a stepmother who managed the family, did not care about her stepson.

Even so, they still didn't talk about engagement. There were several times when it was almost agreed, but the woman didn't agree in the end. She asked around and found out that it wasn't because Xu Qu's hidden illness, which they had deliberately concealed, was discovered. The woman refused to say what the reason was, and only vaguely said that it was not their destiny yet.

But Xu Qu himself was not interested. He didn't even look at the invitations from the girls of the same social status. Finally, Mrs. Xie's daughter, Xu Qu's sister, was anxious and vowed that she would not talk about marriage until her brother got married. Seeing that her daughter was sixteen or seventeen years old, she had reached the age of marriage and the number of people who came to propose marriage was almost overwhelming. How could she not be anxious?

After the outing banquet this year, Mrs. Xie paid a lot of money to ask the matchmaker to deliver the invitations of the young ladies of marriageable age at the banquet. The matchmaker also delivered a lot of invitations to her daughter. Mrs. Xie accepted the two packages of invitations with both joy and reluctance. She was happy that her daughter had many suitors, most of whom were noblemen from wealthy families; but she was helpless because her daughter insisted on her oath, which gave her a headache.

After persuading her to no avail, Mrs. Xie had no choice but to put away the marriage proposal and focus on arranging for her stepson to look at the proposals. She had originally prepared to persuade her stepson to select the proposals from the ladies, but what surprised her was that Xu Qu took the initiative to study the proposals from the ladies.

However, she soon found herself in a dilemma again. Xu Qu chose the daughter of a little-known returnee from Heyang City, a young lady named Feng Huanhuan. Regardless of the fact that Heyang City was separated from Shanghuai City by a mountain and was far less prosperous than Shanghuai City, and that Miss Feng's father was only an eighth-rank official and was not a good match for the Xu family, the matchmaker's message that the Feng family could not afford a dowry was enough to make their family look bad in front of their relatives.

"Qu'er, you may not know much about Miss Feng's situation." Mrs. Xie said in a persuasive tone. She was dressed in brocade clothes, with a dignified temperament, and a delicate gold hairpin inlaid with rubies hung on her meticulously braided hair.

"It's written on the note that Miss Feng is from Heyang, and her father is an eighth-rank county magistrate who resigned from his post and returned home." Xu Qu said in a flat tone.

"Now that Qu'er knows, she also knows that Miss Feng is much different from the girls I introduced to Qu'er in previous years." Madam Xie spoke earnestly, and the hairpin on her head swayed with her movements.

"My son knows." Xu Qu nodded slightly, his tone still calm.

"Besides, there is one more thing, which is not written on the invitation. It was told by the matchmaker that Miss Feng's family cannot prepare a decent dowry." Mrs. Xie added, "Although our Xu family does not covet dowries, it is not ideal to have no dowry both morally and logically." Mrs. Xie shook her head, and the hairpin on her head swayed even more violently.

"My son has met Miss Feng Huanhuan at the outing party. She is beautiful, gentle, and graceful. She is exactly the type of person my son has in mind." Xu Qu clenched his fists in his wide sleeves.

"Since dowry is not important to our family, I would like to trouble mother to go and ask for a marriage for her son." Xu Qu insisted.

Although Xu Qu's tone was calm, Mrs. Xie knew her stepson's temperament very well. He was always cold and distant, and it was difficult for him to open up to others. Today's words were a rare opportunity for him to express his true feelings. She probably couldn't ask him anything else. Over the years, the mother and son had always been harmonious on the surface, but after all, there was a layer of kinship between them. Although Xu Qu had never disobeyed her, he was actually a very opinionated person. It was a conclusion to this extent, and she couldn't say anything more.

Just telling her stepson about such a marriage, not to mention what outsiders and family members would think, even her daughter might misunderstand that she did it on purpose because she was afraid that her stepson would get help from his wife's family.

Although Mrs. Xie sighed in her heart, she thought that Xu Qu was getting older and older, and her daughter had made such a vow. If Xu Qu's marriage was not settled, it would inevitably delay her daughter's marriage. Moreover, Xu Qu's previous marriages had not been finalized, so she decided to try to propose to Miss Feng Huanhuan this time.

Mrs. Xie, who was always proactive, began to plan for marriage. She immediately spent a lot of money to hire the most famous matchmaker in Shanghuai City to go to Feng's house to propose marriage the next day. After learning that several families had proposed marriage to Feng's family, she also found out that Mr. Feng was best friends with Mr. Qi, a great scholar from Heyang. Mr. Qi had served in the same court as the eldest master of the Xu family. So Mrs. Xie asked the eldest master of the eldest house to invite Mr. Qi to come to propose marriage in person. Mr. Qi and Mr. Xu had been colleagues and knew about the Xu family's family style. He was happy to see it happen. As soon as he received Mr. Xu's letter, he readily agreed to go to Feng's house to make peace and promote this beautiful relationship.

As a result, among those who proposed to Miss Feng, Master Xu Qu from Shanghuai City appeared to be full of affection and sincerity, which attracted more attention from Mr. Feng and Master Feng.

At this moment, Miss Feng Huanhuan's brother Feng Shunqing was in the hall reporting the news he had heard to Master Feng.

"Although Xu's ancestors were just wealthy businessmen, they were involved in many fields and were rich and powerful."

Although Mr. Feng was of ordinary talent, he was a loyal scholar. He said, "We are a family of scholars, and we don't choose a son-in-law based on how much money he has."

Master Feng replied, "Yes. According to Uncle He from Shanghuai City, the Xu family is mainly divided into two branches - the first branch and the second branch. The old man of the first branch and the old man of the second branch are brothers, both of whom have passed away. The first branch mainly pursues a career in government. The eldest son of the first branch, Master Xu Zongwen, is currently serving as an official in the court, and is appointed as a minister. There are also several other sons of the family serving as officials in the court. The Xu Qu, the one who proposed marriage, is the grandson of the second branch master. His father died early, and now his mother, who comes from the famous Xie family, is in charge of the family. However, this lineage does not focus on studying and becoming an official, but on doing business."

"This..." Master Feng hesitated, stroking his beard. He did not mind the Xu family's identity as merchants. In fact, his wife, Jiang, was the daughter of a merchant. He was just worried that his son-in-law was an opportunistic and calculating person.

"More importantly, the old lady of the second house who is seeking marriage, that is, the biological grandmother of Master Xu Qu, is a cousin of the late mother of the current emperor. Although the biological mother of the current emperor died early and the biological grandmother of the Xu family is no longer with us, the Xu family has been on good terms with the current emperor since he was the Prince of Jin, and provided strong support for the current emperor to fight for the throne and ascend the throne smoothly. They can be regarded as a royal family with meritorious service." Feng Shunqing took a sip of tea after he finished speaking.

"We shouldn't marry into such a wealthy family." Mr. Feng thought for a moment and said, "What is this Mr. Xu like? What is his reputation?"

"This Mr. Xu is twenty-two years old and has not passed the imperial examination."

Mr. Feng asked, "This Mr. Xu is 22 years old and still unmarried, what's the story?"

"This... I asked about Mr. Xu, who was on the same list as me in the Huai River. Since Mr. Xu did not participate in the imperial examination and was not in the circle of fame, I didn't know him very well. I only heard that he was a bit arrogant and didn't talk to people much, but I didn't hear that he had any bad habits." Feng Shunqing paused and said, "The matchmaker sent a message saying that the Xu family can accept my younger sister not having a dowry."

This last sentence really touched Mr. Feng's heart.

He sighed and said, "In the past two years, many matchmakers have come to propose marriage. Your little sister is well-educated and intelligent, but she has remained unmarried all this time, all because of this dowry."

Feng Shunqing said, "It's all because of me, your brother. I feel so ashamed of my younger sister."

Master Feng replied, "This is the way it is when you want to marry a daughter of a famous family. You don't have to blame yourself. Your younger sister also took the initiative to offer the dowry left to her by her grandfather as a betrothal gift. Now that I see that you and your wife treat each other with respect and love, it is worth the efforts of the whole family."

After a pause, he continued, "For those families who care about dowry, we are afraid that your sister will be looked down upon if she marries there. Since the Xu family is so sincere and has gone to great lengths to propose marriage, and has responded so quickly, perhaps they really don't mind the dowry. For your sister, the Xu family may be a good match."

In this way, the Feng family agreed to the Xu family's marriage proposal.