save the bachelors

Chapter 4754 [Listening]

When Lady Jia saw the holiday gifts bestowed by Yuanchun, and that Xiang Nan's were the same as those given by Lin Daiyu, Shi Xiangyun, and Xue Baochai, she understood what she meant.

After careful consideration, I decided to follow her wishes.

Firstly, the Jia family's current power does not need to cling to any powerful people. Marrying the daughter of King Beijing is not much different from marrying Xue Baochai. They are just icing on the cake.

Secondly, Yuanchun is the queen after all, and will be the empress dowager in the future. She is the most honorable person in the Jia family, and her opinion cannot be ignored.

Besides, Yuanchun was sent to the palace at a young age for the sake of the Jia family, and she had to endure a lot of hardships. Just for this reason, she was willing to fulfill her granddaughter's wish.

Therefore, Xiang Nan's marriage was finally arranged, with Lin Daiyu as the Crown Prince's consort, and Shi Xiangyun and Xue Baochai as concubines.

Afterwards, the Jia family formally proposed marriage to the Lin family, the Shi family, and the Xue family, and the Lin family, the Shi family, and the Xue family were naturally very willing and none of them were unwilling.

Even Emperor Jiaxing, after hearing about this, issued an imperial decree to make it happen. In this way, these three marriages were equivalent to marriages granted by the emperor, which was even more extraordinary.

Lin Ruhai, Baoling Hou Shi Nai, Zhongjing Hou Shi Ding, and Aunt Xue all felt very honored. After all, this was a marriage granted by the emperor, and ordinary people could not have such a blessing.

Therefore, the three families were very happy and started to prepare for the wedding together with the Jia family, including the wedding proposal, the betrothal gift, and the wedding date. The wedding was scheduled for two years later.

First, the children were still young, Xiang Nan was only sixteen, Lin Daiyu and Shi Xiangyun were only fifteen, so it would be just right to wait two more years.

Secondly, Xiang Nan was the prince, so his wedding naturally had to be carefully prepared. Not to mention the various items needed for the wedding, even the house alone had to be well prepared.

Although the Grand View Garden was nice, it was Yuanchun's villa for visiting relatives and was "property of the royal family." It was just that Yuanchun loved her brothers and sisters and was willing to let them live there.

But it cannot be used as Xiang Nan’s wedding room, otherwise when Yuanchun comes home to visit her parents in the future, she will have nowhere to stay, so another house must be built.

For this purpose, the Jia family specially bought 150 acres of land in the west of Rongguo Mansion and started large-scale construction to build a prince's mansion for Xiang Nan.

Even the emperor allocated 50,000 taels of silver from the inner treasury and sent skilled craftsmen who were used to build gardens and palaces for the emperor to build it. It can be said that the specifications were extremely high, even more magnificent than those of Ningguo Mansion and Rongguo Mansion.

After all, the Ning and Rong mansions are just duke mansions, while Xiang Nan's is the prince's mansion, and its specifications are built according to those of the imperial palace.

……

After Xiang Nan's marriages with Lin Daiyu, Xue Baochai and Shi Xiangyun were settled, he moved out of the Grand View Garden and returned to his original residence.

Firstly, he was old, not a child anymore, and should follow some rules and not hang around in the inner chamber anymore;

Secondly, his relationship with Lin Daiyu, Xue Baochai, and Shi Xiangyun has changed from siblings to engaged couples, so he must observe etiquette. He can no longer be as unscrupulous as before.

Otherwise, even if they themselves are innocent, it will be seen as indecent by outsiders.

……

In addition to Xiang Nan's marriage being arranged, Tanchun's marriage was also arranged, and the man was said to be the grandson of the Prince of Nan'an.

Given her illegitimate status, it was a very good thing for her to be able to marry the grandson of the Prince of Nan'an as his legal wife.

Moreover, Xiang Nan had met that man before and knew that he was a pretty good guy, well-educated, gentle and elegant, which was rare in the aristocratic circle of the capital.

In addition, Aunt Xue asked Lady Jia to act as a matchmaker to help bring Xue Ke and Xing Xiuyun together.

Different from Xue Pan who was uneducated and only knew how to eat, drink, play, pick flowers and break willows since childhood, Xue Ke was not only honest and dutiful, but also very capable.

It's just that he is the second branch of the Xue family, and most of the Xue family's resources are concentrated in the hands of the first branch, that is, Xue Pan, so Xue Ke is not prominent.

After all, even if you have the ability, you still need a platform to display it.

If Xue Ke were the head of the Xue family now, he would definitely run it better than the dull bully Xue Pan.

Although Grandmother Jia had only met Xue Ke a few times and was not familiar with him, as the ancestor of the Jia family, she was very well-informed. She knew that Xue Ke was diligent, down-to-earth, well-educated, and conscientious, completely different from Xue Pan, and was a good child.

Xing Xiuyan was also a good girl who was beautiful, intelligent, thrifty and frugal, so she was willing to arrange this marriage and agreed to be the matchmaker.

When Mrs. Xing learned of Aunt Xue's idea, she strongly supported the marriage.

Firstly, although the Xue family had fallen and lost its former glory, as the saying goes, a rotten ship still has three thousand nails, so there is still some foundation. As the owner of the second house, Xue Ke naturally also has a share of the family property.

Secondly, the Xing family was not a wealthy family, otherwise she would not have become Jia She's concubine. Her brother, Xing Dajiu, was even more addicted to alcohol and gambling, so he squandered the family fortune early on.

As a result, he didn't even have a house of his own and could only rent a house to live in. Therefore, given his family's conditions, being able to marry into the Xue family was considered marrying up.

So she naturally had no reason to refuse.

……

In this way, the marriages of Xiang Nan, Lin Daiyu, Shi Xiangyun, Xue Baochai, Yingchun, Tanchun, Xue Baoqin, and Xing Xiuyun in the Grand View Garden were all settled, only Li Wen, Li Qi, and Xichun were still undecided.

Xichun was only thirteen years old, so she was not in a hurry to get married. However, Li Wen and Li Qi were also of age. Li Wan specifically asked Lady Jia and Lady Wang to introduce good ones to the two sisters.

Besides, Xue Pan was also nineteen years old, and he should have been married long ago.

However, his reputation as "Big Fool Xue" and "Dumb Bully" had spread far and wide. Not to mention the aristocratic circles in the capital, any prominent figure would not consider marrying their daughter to him.

As for the daughters of common people, the Xue family was really unwilling to accept them, so they were in a situation where they were neither high nor low.

Aunt Xue was worried about this every day and didn't know what to do.

Xue Pan himself was also very depressed. He also wanted to get married as soon as possible, but he just couldn't find a good one. Either he looked down on others, or others looked down on him.

So out of desperation, he decided to go out and do business with a guy named Zhang Dehui.

Firstly, he wanted to avoid embarrassment. After all, his sister was already engaged, but he was still single. It was hard to explain this matter. He could go out for a walk to avoid being a joke.

Secondly, to broaden his horizons. Although he was willful and arrogant and called himself a tyrant, he had never been to other places except Jinling and the capital. It would be good to go out and explore the mountains and rivers.

So, just after the Chinese New Year, Xue Pan set out on the journey with his friends.

Aunt Xue and Xue Baochai were naturally reluctant to let Xue Pan go, but they also knew that it would not be good for him to stay in the capital, and that it might be an opportunity for him to go out and try his luck.

……

Not long after Xue Pan left, another incident happened in the Jia family: Jia Jing died.

Jia Jing is the father of Jia Zhen of Ningguo Mansion. He passed the imperial examination and later became fascinated with cultivating immortals. He resigned from his official position and became a Taoist priest. Over the years, he has been staying in the Taoist temple and only returns to the Jia Mansion during the New Year.

The reason why he died was because he took the elixir he made.

His elixir was made of lead and mercury, which was highly toxic and could not be eaten. But he ate it anyway, and the poison really took effect.

After Xiang Nan heard this, he just shook his head.

Anyone who has learned junior high school chemistry will not eat that stuff.

After Jia Jing died, the Jia family began to prepare for the funeral.

In fact, Xiang Nan could have saved Jia Jing, but he didn't.

Because whether Jia Jing is alive or dead, he is of no use to the Jia family.

Jia Zhen, Jia Rong, and Xichun didn't have much affection for him, and they didn't ask Xiang Nan to save him. In this case, Xiang Nan naturally didn't interfere.