Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 104: Chicken and Duck Talk (Fifth update, please subscribe)
Sun You exchanged polite greetings as he followed Zhang Luan into the courtyard.

When the two men arrived at the main hall, Zhang Yanling did not tactfully avoid them, but stood directly behind Zhang Luan... He wanted to know what Sun You's other purpose was.

Zhang Luan finally couldn't help himself and took the lead in explaining: "Brother Sun, the cancellation of my daughter's marriage to your son has nothing to do with me bringing her to the capital and participating in the selection of the Crown Princess... It can be considered a coincidence."

"understand."

Sun You understood, "The Eastern Palace has always been shrouded in mystery. No one knows how the prince is being raised in the Forbidden Palace. In addition, there have always been rumors among the people that Concubine Wan and the prince are not on good terms. Everyone thought that the prince's position as heir would not last long. Who would have thought that one day His Majesty would suddenly issue an order to choose a marriage partner for the prince?

"Even if you, Brother Laizhan, had a far-sighted vision, you couldn't have predicted all this and chosen to break off the engagement with my son, so don't worry about it.

"Besides, the engagement between our two families has been cancelled long ago. Whatever choice you make is your own business. I and my family will never make any comments on it, so as not to ruin the relationship between our two families."

"Ah."

Zhang Luan nodded with relief.

It’s great that you think so.

Don't go around spreading the word that I'm trying to curry favor with the rich and powerful and that I brought my daughter to the capital on purpose to choose the Crown Princess. If my daughter doesn't get chosen, how will we keep face among the villagers in the future?

Sun You continued, "Since Laizhan arrived in the capital, he must have met many officials besides the people from the Imperial Hospital, right? As for running a medicinal material business... it might be inconvenient for you to come in person, so why not... we can communicate with each other secretly, and it would be more convenient when it comes to purchasing, right?"

Zhang Luan felt relieved after hearing this.

Sun You in front of him obviously did not expect that he had already leaned against the towering tree of Li Zisheng. If he knew, he would definitely discuss the matter of the prince's selection of a concubine first.

Now Sun You just thought that he was going to work in the Imperial Medical Bureau and just wanted to talk about business matters. However, Zhang Luan didn't care much about this.

The two talked for a long time. Sun You was very concerned about Zhang Luan's recent situation, especially the situation in the Imperial Medical Bureau. After all, in this era, the Imperial Pharmacy, the Herbal Medicine Storehouse, Anletang, the Dian Pharmacy, etc. were all under the management of the Imperial Medical Bureau and were closely related to the medicinal materials business. Unfortunately, they were talking at cross purposes. Zhang Luan had no idea what Sun You wanted to know. The atmosphere became cold for a while, and finally they had to serve tea and send him off.

After sending the man away, Zhang Luan complained to Zhang Yanling: "He must have known something and is here to test my words. He keeps talking about my father's admission to the Imperial Hospital."

Zhang Yanling asked back, "Dad, apart from our relationship with Minister Li, is there anything else in our family that is worthy of praise?"

"That must be about my father treating people, and also about my studies at the Imperial College." Zhang Luan said as a matter of course.

Zhang Yanling asked again: "Do you think that Uncle Sun's words have strayed from this scope?"

Zhang Luan thought about it seriously and suddenly felt that Sun You didn't know much. After all, the other party didn't mention anything about Li Zisheng.

"Dad always boasts about his good relationship with Minister Li in front of outsiders, especially in front of Huizhou merchants. Why doesn't he say anything when it comes to Uncle Sun?"

Zhang Yanling continued to ask with a smile.

Zhang Luan looked unhappy: "It's best if you have nothing to do with the Sun family in the future. Before your sister is chosen as the Crown Princess, you can't let him know too much...

"Hey, why did he let his daughter come out to choose the Crown Princess? Isn't this just to make things difficult for me?"

Zhang Yanling said, "Uncle Sun probably didn't consider my father's feelings when he decided to choose his daughter as the Crown Princess. Or maybe he thought it would be extremely difficult for either of our two families to be chosen!"

"Then if he comes again, especially when my father is not at home, do not receive him. Especially, he must not reveal the secret that our family is on good terms with Minister Li. Do you understand?" Zhang Luan instructed.

Zhang Yanling shrugged, meaning, do I need you to remind me? Do you really think this family can't survive without you?
It is still uncertain who will be the head of the Zhang family in the future.

……

……

Sun You met Zhang Luan but did not get the information he wanted. He returned to his temporary residence after arriving in the capital, a private house near Didian in the east of the city, in a bad mood.

Sun Chengying is also living here temporarily to prepare for the upcoming selection of concubines for the Eastern Palace.

"Why did father go to see the Zhang family? Everyone praises Zhang Laizhan for his kindness and righteousness, but they don't know that he is actually a treacherous villain... When our two families made the marriage contract, they should have fulfilled it honestly, but they found an excuse to break the contract, and finally made our Sun family take the initiative to cancel the engagement, bearing the stigma of regretting the marriage. It's really annoying and hateful!"

Sun Chengying became angry when she mentioned the Zhang family and spoke up for her brother.

Sun You smiled bitterly and shook his head, asking, "Besides Zhang Laizhan, who else can we rely on in the capital?"

"Don't look for anyone but the Zhang family!"

Sun Chengying said disdainfully: "Perhaps father can go and look for merchants in Huizhou, especially the head of the Qin family. She is good at managing the household and business, and can be called a heroine."

"My son."

Sun You said seriously, "The reason why we chose to do the medicinal materials business is because we saw Zhang Laizhan's connections in the Imperial Hospital. He even has the opportunity to enter the Imperial Hospital, which will be of great help to us in this business in the future.

"As for the Huizhou merchants, the last grain transaction with them almost caused a big problem. They said they didn't know the court would conduct a thorough inspection of the granaries. But why do you think they didn't make money for themselves and insisted on handing the business to us?"

Sun Chengying saw that her father was angry, so she lowered her head and remained silent.

Sun You added: "Although the Zhang family has cancelled the engagement with us, they used the family's ancestral secret recipe to treat your brother's illness, which has greatly improved his condition and he is now no different from an ordinary person; secondly, they reminded us of the huge risks of selling the court's grain reserves, which helped us avoid a crisis of ruining our family.

"So, now it's not Zhang Laizhan who owes us, but we owe him a favor!"

Sun Chengying bowed and said with a bit of dissatisfaction: "Just think of it as my daughter saying something wrong."

"Ugh!"

Sun You sighed, "It's strange. Lai Zhan is already a student of the Imperial Academy, and he can be a royal doctor at any time. He can obviously marry his daughter off well, but why does he insist on being a candidate for the Crown Princess of the Eastern Palace?"

"Isn't it the same with father?"

The reason why Sun Chengying was unhappy was that her father insisted on asking her to participate in the selection of the Crown Princess without caring about her feelings at all.

Sun You sighed, "Perhaps we all have the same idea. For the lifelong happiness of our daughter and for a bright future for our family, we have to risk everything. I understand that you are reluctant, but if you are chosen by chance, you will be grateful for the decision I made today."

Seeing her father's resolute look, Sun Chengying probably felt that her father was willing to sacrifice her in exchange for the family's future.

With no one to confide in her grievances, Sun Chengying's eyes were filled with tears. Unfortunately, she could only lower her head silently and bury all her sadness and sorrow deep in her heart.

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(End of this chapter)