Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

Upon hearing the Emperor's question, Shen Jingheng's heart skipped a beat. His mother was still waiting for that girl to become her daughter-in-law. At this moment, it was clear that the Emperor intended to personally inquire about her marriage.

But he still steeled himself and addressed the emperor.

"Your Majesty, what do you think of my younger brother?"

"..." Upon hearing Shen Jingheng's answer, the Emperor was momentarily speechless. He stared at him for a while before asking in confusion.

"Is Wenfu engaged to your younger brother?"

"Your Majesty, no. It's just that my mother has been friends with the Zhang family for a long time and has long taken a liking to Lady Wenfu. Originally, she planned to propose marriage to her after she came of age. However, now she sees that my younger brother is not good enough for her."

"Oh, so that's the situation. If we're going to go by what you said, then the previous Lady Wenfu was considered to have married into the Shen family at a high level. But now, does your younger brother have any official rank?"

"Uh, no." Shen Jingheng was speechless for the first time in front of the Emperor.

"Well then, I will not arrange a marriage for Wenfu before she comes of age. Your younger brother must also strive to improve himself." The Emperor said this, seeing Shen Jingheng's slightly flushed face. It could be considered that he was giving his younger brother two years out of consideration for Minister Shen.

"Your Majesty, I thank you for your great kindness. I will definitely write to my mother to urge my younger brother to make progress." Shen Jingheng breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing the emperor's words. Fortunately, his younger brother still had a chance, and he, as the older brother, had done his part in securing it for him.

When Xia Yu, his fourth uncle, and Li Taifu returned to the Ming'an County dock, the Zhang family's carriage was already waiting for them.

"Grand Tutor, Fourth Master, Miss, was your journey smooth?" Uncle Ma and Aunt Ma stepped forward to greet them, while the other servants went to carry the luggage.

"Good, everything is fine. Thank you for waiting here." The Grand Tutor said to Uncle Ma.

"You're too kind, Grand Tutor. This is what we should do. My husband and wife have been waiting here every day for the past two days, but they couldn't get away today because they have a banquet at home, so they sent this old servant to keep watch here."

After finishing speaking, Uncle Ma glanced at the servant who was packing the luggage, and respectfully addressed Grand Tutor Li and the others.

"Grand Tutor, Fourth Master, why don't you rest in the carriage for a while? It's cool there, and there's tea, snacks, and a chessboard. The young lady's carriage has the same things."

Upon hearing Uncle Ma mention that there was a chessboard in the car, he turned to Zhang Chengwen and said...

"How about we play a game?"

"I will obey your command, and I beg you, Grand Tutor, to show mercy!" Zhang Chengwen smiled and bowed to Grand Tutor Li.

"Haha, then you'd better watch out."

Then, the two followed Uncle Ma toward the carriage. As for Xia Yu, she boarded another carriage accompanied by Aunt Ma.

"Wow, it's so cool here! They even put an ice basin in there?"

Xia Yu saw that the large block of ice in the copper basin inside the carriage was slowly melting. Because of the ice, the carriage was a little cooler in the hot weather.

"Madam was worried that Miss would get too hot, so she brought a lot of ice with her when she went out. It was all stored up from the winter. Here's an ice bowl, Miss, have some to cool off!" Aunt Ma said, taking out an ice bowl filled with fruit and shaved ice from the refrigerator in the carriage.

"Grandpa and Fourth Uncle had these in their car too, right?" Xia Yu asked before eating, holding a bowl of ice.

"Yes, we have it here, Miss, and we also have it at the Grand Tutor's place. He even has more tea there than Miss does. I know Miss doesn't like tea in the summer, so I didn't prepare any for you." Aunt Ma took a clean handkerchief and gently wiped the sweat from Xia Yu's forehead, explaining softly.

"Ah, home is still the most comfortable!" Xia Yu took a bite of the watermelon in the ice bowl and sighed contentedly.

Aunt Ma looked at Xia Yu's face, which was thinner than before, and asked with some heartache.

“Miss doesn’t eat well when she’s out. She looks like she’s lost a lot of weight since she was at home.”

"Sigh, I've been spending two months with Prince Lip and the others from Russia, so I guess I'm pretty much out of control. I'm eating more than before, probably because I've been walking a lot, which is why I've lost weight," Xia Yu said to Aunt Ma after thinking for a moment.

After hearing Xia Yu's explanation, Aunt Ma became even more dissatisfied with the Emperor, muttering to herself...

"You know, our Emperor is really something. How could he let a young girl like you go sightseeing with those Russians? It's such an eyesore!"

"Nothing much, my fourth uncle is with me every day." After saying that, he leaned closer to Aunt Ma's ear and whispered.

"Besides, the imperial court is paying for it, letting me take people out to eat and have fun. I'll just treat it as a publicly funded trip."

Aunt Ma didn't understand what Xia Yu meant by "publicly funded travel," but she could guess the general idea based on what she had said before. Seeing the sly smile on Xia Yu's face, she smiled too. As long as her mistress was happy, she was happy.

"Aunt Ma, did you notice my fourth uncle's face just now?" Xia Yu suddenly asked again.

"I wasn't paying attention, what's wrong?" Aunt Ma asked, puzzled. Her attention had been focused on the young lady.

"Fourth Uncle, you've been tanned to a crisp these past two months." Xia Yu chuckled as she thought of her fourth uncle's face.

"Then the old man and woman will be heartbroken," Aunt Ma said with a smile.

"Yes, definitely." Xia Yu thought for a moment and nodded. Then, she continued to say to Aunt Ma...

“When I took the Russians out for fun, I always wore a straw hat. I advised my fourth uncle to wear a straw hat too. But he said, ‘I am a dignified man, how can I be afraid of the sun? Besides, none of the men in the delegation wore straw hats. Wouldn’t it be a disgrace to the men of Dahuai if we wore them?’ As a result, the Russians got whiter and whiter in the sun, while the officials from Dahuai who accompanied us all got tanned to a dark brown. It was unbearable to look at.”

"Well, that's no fault of yours, Miss. But it's fine for a man to be a little dark-skinned!" Aunt Ma said while fanning Xia Yu.

As the two were talking, they heard the voices of Nineteen and Da Niu outside.

"Is the young lady in the car?"

Aunt Ma quickly lifted the curtain and said to the two people standing there.

"Come in quickly, it's cool here, and there are ice bowls to eat."

Upon hearing that there were ice bowls to eat, the two of them stepped onto the stools on the ground and boarded the carriage.

"Oh dear, it's so hot! I've finally managed to put all the boxes on the carriage," said Da Niu, fanning herself with her hand.

"Hurry up and have some iced bowls." Aunt Ma took out two more iced bowls from the refrigerator and handed them to the two of them, while fanning them with a fan.

"It's so hot this year, it's never been this hot in previous years." Da Niu's face was sunburned and turned a dark red. She took a bite of the fruit in her ice bowl and looked up at the people in the car to complain.

"Yes, not a drop of rain has fallen since the wheat harvest. Now many people have started carrying water in buckets to irrigate the fields," Aunt Ma said helplessly, fanning herself. "There's nothing anyone can do when God doesn't send rain!"