The Incense Monopoly Order

Chapter 42 Engagement Trouble
The fifth day of August is an auspicious day, and everything goes well.

There is a lively event in Huizhou Prefecture. Lin’s silk and cloth shop and Yao’s medicine shop are getting married and have chosen today as the “engagement day”.

Lin hosted a banquet to entertain the elders from Yao who came to present the betrothal gift, and also invited relatives and friends to witness the completion of the marriage.

The merchant set off early in the morning after receiving the invitation. Ever since the three sisters had talked it out that day, they had always felt a little uncomfortable getting along with each other. After avoiding each other for two days, all the grudges were gone, and today they rode in a carriage together affectionately.

The Lin Mansion was hung with red silk. Shang Mingshu marveled at Yao Zongsi's quick action. As soon as she stepped through the gate, she could see boxes of opened betrothal gifts filling the entire yard. In such a big house, there was almost no place to stay.

Mr. Lin's face was full of joy, but Mrs. Lin's smile was a little forced.

Shang Mingshu went forward with her father to congratulate her and then went to Lin Yuanyuan's boudoir with a gift she had prepared for herself.

Lin Yuanyuan was embroidering her wedding dress herself. For wealthy families like theirs, wedding dresses were usually carefully made by embroiderers. Lin Yuanyuan was good at embroidery, and since she was marrying the person she loved, she didn't need to rely on anyone else for a single stitch of the wedding dress.

"When is the wedding date set?" Shang Mingshu looked at the gorgeous phoenix crown with rubies hanging beside it, shining brightly in the sunlight.

Today is the day of paying the betrothal gifts, and the date will be set only after the engagement is paid. But at this point, the wedding date must have been decided by both families.

"The last day of October." Less than two months left.

Shang Mingshu handed a box to Lin Yuanyuan: "This is my gift."

Lin Yuanyuan couldn't wait to open it. Two strings of Taoist prayer beads lay quietly in the box, one long and one short, both made of half white jade and half obsidian.

"I have asked the abbot of Fuqiu Temple to consecrate them. May they bless you and your wife with a lifetime of peace."

Lin Yuanyuan stepped forward and gave Shang Mingshu a tight hug: "Mingshu, you are so nice."

Lin Yuanyuan couldn't let go of the two strings of rosaries. She took them out on the second day after her wedding and she and Yao Zongsi carried them with them.

"You can get what you want, and you will be happy in the future." Now that things have come to this, I just hope Lin Yuanyuan will be worry-free every day.

"I will." Lin Yuanyuan nodded vigorously. "My mother and father have been arguing about this marriage for a long time. My mother even secretly sent someone to stop Mr. Cheng..."

Lin Yuanyuan could understand that Mrs. Lin wanted her marriage to go smoothly. Although the Yao family was a good match for theirs, Yao Zongsi was in poor health. Mrs. Lin could not convince Mr. Lin, so she had to pin her hopes on Cheng She. As long as Cheng She was willing to this marriage, she could still fight for her daughter.

The Cheng family rejected the marriage, and Mrs. Lin had no choice but to accept her fate.

"Your mother really cares about you." Shang Mingshu sighed softly.

"I know, I didn't even dare to stop her and tell her that I like Zong Si..." Lin Yuanyuan looked guilty, "I was afraid she couldn't bear the blow."

Mrs. Lin now only blames her husband for being unkind and selling his daughter to get rich, and she won't transfer this resentment to Yao Zongsi. If Lin Yuanyuan herself insisted on marrying Yao Zongsi, Mrs. Lin would resent Yao Zongsi for seducing her daughter.

"Your father, it's not unfair." Mr. Lin did not take Lin Yuanyuan's wishes into consideration. Even if Yao Zongsi and Lin Yuanyuan had never met before, he would agree to it with such benefits in front of him.

The Yao family runs a medicinal materials business and is one of the largest drug dealers in the entire Jiangnan region. Their wealth is even greater than that of the Lin family.

Mr. Lin has accumulated and managed his family business for several generations. Now his assets will double if he marries his daughter, and he can also step into another business without any effort. He cannot resist such temptation.

"I don't blame him." Lin Yuanyuan felt secretly sad, but she also understood her father's choice. After all, she was marrying the man of her dreams. Shang Mingshu held Lin Yuanyuan's hand and was about to speak when Jinshu's anxious voice came from outside the door: "My wife, go to the front yard quickly, the Yao family's people are making a fuss!"

Lin Yuanyuan's face changed, and she lifted her skirt and strode towards the front yard.

"Da Lang, if you want to marry the girl from the Lin family, you can't cheat. You two are clearly incompatible, and yet you bribed a fraudulent and deceitful Taoist priest just to marry her! You are going to destroy our entire Yao family—"

Shang Mingshu and Lin Yuanyuan rushed to the front yard, only to see a plump woman sitting on the stone steps at the main hall door, crying loudly. Next to her was a man with a goatee dressed as a Taoist priest, huddled together and held down by the shoulders by a servant.

Lin Yuanyuan's eyes went dark and she almost fell down. Shang Mingshu supported her.

Lin Yuanyuan, feeling powerless, grabbed Shang Mingshu's arm, leaning on her for support. Her voice trembled as she said, "She is the aunt of Zong Si's cousin."

Old Madam Yao raised Yao Zongtian, who came from the next room, as her own. Although she did not agree to adopt him, the Yao family members tacitly agreed that Yao Zongtian would be the future heir of the Yao family.

Yao Zongsi could marry, but he had to spend half of the Yao family's wealth, which they thought was robbing them of their money.

The two families came to the stage of engagement smoothly. Shang Mingshu thought that all the roads were paved, but she never expected that the other party was holding back and was going to use a big move here!
With so many guests gathered at the girl's house, and such an embarrassing situation has occurred, can the two families still get married?

It’s right to make enemies!

Mr. Lin was as happy as he was just now, but now he was burning with anger, and Mrs. Lin was so angry that she was trembling all over.

"Third Aunt..." The engagement was going on today, and Yao Zongsi, to show his respect, had come in person despite his illness. When Shang Mingshu and the others arrived, he had been inside greeting them. Now, he came out with the help of a servant, "Third Aunt, today is the big day I decided on. If you have any questions, I'll tell you everything when I get home..."

"Is there anything that cannot be explained in front of everyone?" The woman from Yao San's family retorted to Yao Zongsi.

Everyone loves to listen to gossip, and as soon as the woman finished speaking, many people who were just watching the fun responded loudly.

Seeing someone trying to support her, Aunt Yao San became even more aggressive: "Da Lang, you left Fuqiu Temple for a horoscope match, saying that it just happened to be a good match for you, and this Taoist priest was passing by, it was fate, and you invited him to deceive us! Your horoscopes are incompatible. You and the Lin family girl are incompatible, and the man's fate is against the woman, and the woman's fate is against the man. The couple will not prosper! You are willing to give up your life to marry this girl! And you want to drag us to be buried with you?"

"Third aunt..." Yao Zongshi was so angry that he spat out blood and fell into the arms of the servant behind him.

"Look, look, as soon as you guys made the betrothal gift, my Dalang was so angry that he vomited blood..."

"Third Madam, please stop talking. The doctor said that our husband cannot stand the stimulation and it may be fatal!" Yao Zongsi's servant cried out in anxiety.

"Third aunt, please come back home and save some face for your nephew..." Yao Zongyi's face was as pale as gold paper, as if he was holding on to his last breath to beg.

Aunt Yao San shouted even louder when she saw this: "You can do such a shameful thing, and you are still afraid of what others will say? You asked for half of the Lin family's property. Tell me, did you get someone pregnant and get caught..."

"shut up!"

"enough!"

Two majestic voices roared at the same time.

(End of this chapter)