good season

Chapter 120 Fan Qiuyun (two chapters in one)

On the day Zhao Shiqing arrived in the capital, Mr. Nie's brother-in-law and niece - the father and daughter of the Fan family finally arrived in Liangdu.

Why do we say “finally”?

That’s because this trip to Liangdu was a bad start for Fan Qiuyun.

Although Zhao Tinghan was a sickly person, as many people thought, even if Zhao Tinghan was dying, as long as he held on until he bowed to heaven and earth and breathed his last, his wife was the widow of King Liang. Even if she had no biological children, she could adopt a child from the Zhao clan to inherit the throne. For his wife's family, it would only mean changing from King Liang's in-laws to the young King Liang's in-laws. The benefits would not decrease but increase.

And this is probably what the emperor would like to see.

After all, whether it was the emperor or the maternal relatives, in their eyes, an adult King of Liang was no match for the babbling little King of Liang.

The Fan family thought the same.

Although the Fan family and the Nie family are relatives, their backgrounds are different.

The ancestors of the Nie family relied on studying to make their mark. There were several great scholars among them. Although their descendants were not successful, they all chose the path of studying and taking the imperial examinations. Even the second master Nie who "committed suicide" in a brothel had achieved academic success.

But the Fan family is different.

The Fan family comes from a merchant family and are businessmen.

In some dynasties, descendants of merchants were not allowed to take the imperial examinations, but this was not the case in Dayong.

The imperial examinations of the Yong Dynasty were fair to everyone. Whether merchants or members of the royal family or the children of nobles, everyone could take the examinations.

The reason why we have hardly heard of any royal family member or nobleman's son passing the imperial examination is not because they cannot take the imperial examination, but because they cannot pass it.

Some children of royal family and nobles inherited their titles while they were still in their mother's womb, so there was no need for them to take the imperial examinations; another part of the children did not inherit their titles, but they still had fathers and brothers, and no matter how they ate, drank and had fun, as long as they did not rebel or start a business, they could rely on their parents until they died; and a small number had neither inherited their titles nor had parents to rely on, and they would rather spend all their energy on looking for childhood friends and building relationships with relatives than studying to take the imperial examinations. What a joke, asking them to compete with a group of poor scholars would make people laugh to death if they told others about it.

Of course, they couldn’t pass the exam.

But merchants are different.

For example, the Fan family, after becoming wealthy, on the one hand urged their own children to study hard and make progress, on the other hand, they sponsored talented but poor young students. They persisted in this for 30 years, and the Fan family produced two Jinshi and seven Juren. In addition, the Fan family had connections in the official circles of the capital and Wu.

Although it is still a little behind the Nie family, a family with a deep foundation, at least now, no one says that the Fan family is full of money.

However, two years ago, when Nie Wanhua, the eldest lady of the Fan family, wanted to marry her daughter to Zhao Tingxuan, the second son of Prince Liang, Master Fan did not agree.

So what if he was born in the Prince of Liang's Mansion? He is just the second son. When the family splits up and moves out of the Prince of Liang's Mansion in the future, he will be just a rich and idle person.

Master Fan did not know anyone from the lineage of King Liang, but he had met several nobles in Wu. They were all uncles or brothers of King Wu. They knew how to do nothing except eating, drinking and having fun. Some of them even lived on their wives' dowries.

Zhao Tingxuan will be like this sooner or later.

But this time, the mother-in-law wanted Fan Qiuyun to marry the sickly Zhao Tinghan and become the Princess of Liang, and Master Fan was tempted.

Princess Liang, that is Princess Liang. The Nie family is a bunch of prodigal sons who only know how to indulge in romantic affairs, but they can still maintain their dignity today. In the final analysis, it is because the Nie family has a Princess Liang.

The Fan family is engaged in business. They have many businesses in Liang. If a daughter of the Fan family becomes the Princess of Liang,
Whenever Mr. Fan thought about it, he felt overjoyed.

Therefore, he made the decision as quickly as possible and personally took his daughter to Liangdi in the name of visiting the old Princess Nie of Liang.

However, on the second night of the father and daughter's journey, Fan Qiuyun fell ill.

Not only did the high fever persist, but the whole body was covered with red rashes.

Master Fan was shocked, as he had experienced this situation before.

Fan Qiuyun had this incident once when she was three years old and again when she was five years old. Both times she almost lost her life.

The second time, Mr. Fan invited a famous doctor to treat Fan Qiujun, and only then did he find out that Fan Qiujun was actually intolerant to peanuts.

For the wealthy and powerful, such matters are kept top secret to prevent them from reaching the ears of people with bad intentions and causing disaster.

From that time on, Fan Qiujun never ate peanuts again, and the maids and servants around her did the same, for fear that they would pass on the disease to the young lady by eating peanuts (of course, this was impossible).

Therefore, over the past ten years, Fan Qiuyun has been healthy and safe.

But now, the thing that Mr. Fan least wanted to happen happened on the way to Liangdi to discuss marriage.

If you say this is a coincidence, Master Fan would never believe it.

Although we stayed in the inn, we brought our own food and drinks, and even the chef was our own, so there was no chance of mistakes with the ingredients.

Master Fan investigated and investigated, and finally found the source of the problem in the two snacks that Fan Qiuyun ate before going to bed.

This snack was given to me by the Third Old Lady when I went to the Nie Mansion to say goodbye before coming.

Of course I have to accept the snacks sent by my grandmother.

There were still a few pieces of the same snacks. Although Mr. Fan felt that the third old lady would not harm Fan Qiujun, he still asked someone to investigate.

The results came out very quickly. Among the snacks, two tasted different from the others because they contained peanut powder.

The method is to grind the roasted peanuts into fine powder and add it to the snack ingredients.

People who often eat peanuts can taste the difference as soon as they eat it. However, for Fan Qiujun, who has not eaten peanuts since she grew up, she cannot taste it at all. She just thinks the snack is very fragrant, but she doesn't know that this is the taste of peanuts.

Some of the same snacks were mixed with peanut powder, while others were not. Whether you could eat the ones with added ingredients depended entirely on luck. Fan Qiuyun was unlucky and she got to eat them.

Master Fan was so angry that he smashed a whole set of teacups.

This is not a coincidence, this is murder!

The purpose is to prevent Fan Qiuyun from going to Liangdi!
But if you say that it was the Third Old Lady who did it, Master Fan wouldn't believe it.

The person who wanted to arrange this marriage was the third old lady. If Fan Qiujun became the Princess of Liang, the Fan family would benefit, and the Nie family would also benefit.

Of course, Master Fan also knew that the main reason why this good thing fell on Fan Qiuyun was because Master Nie II had died, Nie Rongrong had to observe mourning, and the Nie family owed a life to the third branch of the Nie family. One life in exchange for a princess, so Master Nie II died a worthy death.

If Nie Rongrong didn't have to observe mourning, Fan Qiujun wouldn't have to worry about it. However, the premise for Nie Rongrong not to observe mourning is that the second master Nie is not dead. If he is not dead, there will be no subsequent events. While treating his daughter, the first master Fan sent someone to rush home to inform Nie Wanhua of this matter.

Nie Wanhua is a woman in the rear house, and her perspective on things is different from that of Master Fan.

She guessed immediately who had done it.

Her second sister-in-law, Mrs. Nie!
It is not known whether Nie Rongrong was also involved, but this matter is definitely related to this mother and daughter.

But Nie Wanhua cannot expose this matter now, because if she does, the third old lady will also lose face. Now Fan Qiujun and Zhao Tinghan’s marriage still needs the help of the third old lady, and Nie Wanhua does not want to offend her natal family.

But she didn't want to let the mother and daughter go so easily.

So not long after that, Nie Rongrong went to hire a midwife because of her dysmenorrhea.

It was not her first menstruation. She had just felt unwell before, but never in such excruciating pain as this. She endured it at first, but later she could bear it no longer, so her maid told Mrs. Nie, who then asked someone to invite a midwife.

Female doctors are rare these days, and there are none here. All the doctors in the Qianjin Department are men. Nie Rongrong is an unmarried girl, so it is not convenient for her to ask a male doctor to see this.

After the midwife left the Nie family, rumors spread outside that Nie Rongrong was in poor health and would not be able to have children.

Then, news came out that the Second Wife and her daughter Nie Rongrong were both unlucky in their fates. For a while, everyone in the backyards of the local wealthy families was talking about this matter.

Which wealthy family would dare to marry a woman who is not likely to have children and has an unlucky fate?

The Nie family is all in mourning. The second master Nie has just passed away, and no matter whether they are wearing the mourning attire of a hanshen or a chengshen, they are still in mourning.

Therefore, when these rumors spread, the Nie family was completely unaware of it. By the time they found out, the rumors had already been exaggerated several times and spread widely.

Of course, these are all things to follow.

Fan Qiuyun recovered soon after and the rash faded away, but a few noticeable red marks were left on her face.

In desperation, she had to cancel the trip, but she didn't want to go back home and be laughed at by her cousins, so Fan Qiuyun could only temporarily live in a house outside the Fan family, and spent the New Year there.

The teenage girl was full of vitality. After the Chinese New Year, the red marks on her face disappeared completely, and she was still the fair-skinned and beautiful Miss Fan.

The father and daughter of the Fan family set out again and hurried to Liangdi, but before they arrived at Liangdu, they heard the news they least wanted to hear.

The Prince of Liang's Mansion is discussing a marriage in private with the family of Mr. Meng, an old Hanlin.

Why did private information leak out?

That was because the Liang Palace was still in mourning, so it couldn't publicize it widely. However, during the New Year, after Miss Zhao came back from Baihe Mountain, she went to the Meng family in person and brought Miss Meng into the palace. The Meng family also spread the news that before this, Miss Meng, who was brought back from the mountains, had already been a frequent visitor to Duanxiu Palace.

There are also rumors that the reason why the Meng family was able to find Miss Meng smoothly was thanks to the eldest princess. It was the eldest princess's people who first found out the whereabouts of Miss Meng, and then the Meng family brought her back.

There are even rumors that when Miss Meng first came to Liangdu, the maids who taught her etiquette were all sent by the Prince of Liang's Mansion.

It turned out to be the case.

All the ladies in Liangdu were vying to marry Zhao Tinghan, but this sudden appearance of Miss Meng took advantage of the opportunity.

Everyone knows that the old princess Nie is no longer in charge of affairs, and the only one who can have a say in front of Zhao Tinghan is the eldest princess Zhao Yunnuan.

This Miss Meng had already become involved with Zhao Yunnuan before she even acknowledged her ancestral roots.

Upon hearing the news, Fan Qiuyun was so angry that she tore several embroidered handkerchiefs.

Although they lived in different houses, she was still the niece of the old princess, Nie. With her status, she would definitely be ridiculed if she became a concubine instead of the principal wife.

Master Fan frowned and began to re-examine this marriage.

Sure enough, distance causes delays in messaging.

Master Fan was well-informed. He even found out that Nie Qionghua died in unclear circumstances and that the adopted daughter of Prince Liang's mansion lived in the mountains because she was disliked by Nie. However, he did not find out that Nie had no longer been in charge of the affairs of the mansion.

Of course, even if he found out about this, he would mistakenly think that Nie had temporarily given up her power due to poor health and would no longer care about trivial matters in the palace. However, the marriage of her children would still be decided by her, the biological mother.

But when we arrived in Liangdi, although we had not yet reached Liangdu, the wind direction had already changed.

When people in Liang mentioned the Liang Palace, they would always mention the eldest princess. Zhao Tinghan was ill and was in mourning at the royal tomb, so it was normal not to mention him. However, as they were both female members of the family, the old princess seemed to be non-existent, while the eldest princess was famous.

The girl that the Meng family found from the mountains became the designated Princess of Liang just because she had a little relationship with the eldest princess.

Master Fan was thinking of backing out, so he went to ask his daughter what she thought. His daughter was still in her prime and very beautiful, so if she didn't marry Zhao Tinghan, she still had other options.

But Fan Qiujun said, "It's just a rumor. I heard that the daughter of the Meng family grew up in the mountains and missed her prime because of mourning. How could such a girl be worthy of my aunt's eyes? Besides, my cousin grew up in the capital and has seen all kinds of girls. How could he be interested in her? What if the eldest princess has a relationship with her? Can I interfere with my brother's marriage?"

Although Mr. Fan felt that his daughter was thinking too simply, he had always doted on her. After hearing what his daughter said, he felt that he could argue with her.

As soon as the father and daughter of the Fan family entered Liang, Zhao Yunnuan got the news. When they handed a visiting card to the Liang Palace, Zhao Yunnuan smiled. It was interesting that the visiting card was actually for her.

The Fan family is a relative of Nie's family, so it is reasonable for them to pay a visit to Nie first.

Zhao Yunnuan guessed why the father and daughter of the Fan family came to Liangdu. She pretended not to know and received them in her mansion.

Fan Qiuyun wore a lake green spring gown with a moon-white skirt, a pearl headpiece, bright eyes and white teeth. She was dignified yet lively, and was indeed a beauty.

It’s a pity that she is related to the Nie family by marriage.

Zhao Yunnuan took Fan Qiujun's hand and said with a smile, "Cousin Fan, you came at the perfect time. You can attend the Spring Banquet at Wisteria Villa in three days. Then you can meet many famous ladies in Liangdi."

Fan Qiujun was overjoyed and asked hurriedly, "Is my cousin going too?"

Zhao Yunnuan smiled: "I will go."

Although the royal family’s mourning period is short, except for the eldest son who inherits the throne, everyone else must observe the mourning period for twenty-seven months unless there is an imperial decree.

During these 27 months, although you don't have to stay at home like ordinary people, you can't be too ostentatious. For example, banquets should be avoided if possible. Of course, if you really need to attend, it is fine as long as you don't go too extravagant.

This spring banquet was held at Zither Villa in the Prince of Liang's Mansion. Zhao Yunnuan was the host. She said she would go, but she would just show up. However, for Fan Qiuyun, it was enough.