Chapter 339: 335: It turns out that the marriage partner is _1

Startled, Yingbao sat up from her bed, pressing her hand against her pounding heart, trying to calm herself down.

The dream came unannounced and was extremely real, leaving a strong smell of blood in her nostrils.

After breakfast, Yingbao shared her strange dream with her father and Old Master Wu.

Jiang Sanlang thought his daughter might have been frightened by the crowd viewing the examination results, but considering his daughter’s ability to have premonitions, a sense of urgency suddenly arose in his heart.

Did his daughter dream of foreigners invading? Was that even possible?

But what if it was true?

If a real disturbance were to happen, they couldn’t sell their grains anymore.

Old Master Wu had different thoughts from Jiang Sanlang.

Stroke his beard, he thought of a possibility—the Jurchen invasion.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The foreigners described by Yingbao looked like Jurchen, who were indeed restless.

Over the years, the Jurchen have become increasingly powerful. They took money from Daqian to raise horses for him, but not a single horse was seen. Instead, they fattened the Jurchen tribe.

However, he had no official position, and his son was merely a sixth- or seventh-grade official who had been moved from one poor county to another, far away from the center of power, and he couldn’t even get a document presented before the emperor.

Nowadays, the entire court politics is monopolized by Imperial Teacher Xiao, and the opinions of other officers, whether right or wrong, will either be dismissed or exiled if they contradict him.

People saw the prosperity in Beijing, but that was just surface-level.

Step out of the prefecture city or county to see famine and bandits everywhere; peasants lived a miserable life, with crowds of refugees on every path.

Jurchen were restless on the border, growing more audacious each time. It wouldn’t be surprising if they attacked the capital of Daqian one day.

Upon seeing the two men lost in their thoughts and getting no definitive answer, Yingbao ran over to Madame Wen’s house to chat with Wen Jiejie.

She didn’t get a chance to ask about Wen Shu’s marriage arrangements due to the crowd yesterday. Today was a good day to ask.

Wen Shu was somewhat embarrassed and reluctant to speak about it.

However, seeing Yingbao staring at her persistently, she had to say, “My grandmother arranged for me to marry Xiao Langjun.”

“What…what?” Yingbao thought she heard wrong: “Which Xiao family?”

Wen Shu: “It’s the second young master from the family of Xiao the Censor.”

Yingbao couldn’t believe it, her face twitched, “You mean Xiao Chengjun?”

Wen Shu shyly nodded.

After a long hesitation, Yingbao finally decided to speak ill of Xiao Chengjun, “Wen Jiejie, let me tell you, Xiao Chengjun is not a good person, he, he already has someone in his heart. You shouldn’t marry him.”

Wen Shu was surprised, “Why would Yingbao say this? Who is he interested in?”

“You know Chen Tiantian, right? Xiao Chengjun fancies her. The last time on her account, he even wanted to hit me.” Yingbao was determined to ruin Wen Jiejie’s marriage.

That Xiao Chengjun is selfish, dictatorial, and very stubborn. Regardless of whether he would end up with Chen Tiantian or not, Wen Jiejie marrying him would certainly ruin her life.

“Also, the other time he deliberately left my mother and me halfway, and he gave away my suitcase. Guess who he gave it to?”

“Who? Not Wen Jiao and Wen Tian, right?” When Wen Shu returned to Yuzhou, she seemed to have heard something about Xiao Langjun giving five suitcases of gifts to Wen Jiao and Wen Tian. But when they opened the boxes, they were filled with worthless items. The sisters were furious, suspecting that Xiao Langjun did it on purpose.

Yingbao: “Exactly. He gave it to Wen Tian and Wen Jiao.” She found out about it later.

Wen Shu furrowed her brows.

She knew something was strange when she returned to Yuzhou. So that’s how the Xiao family set up this marriage.

It probably wasn’t meant for her at first, but it was changed later on.

“I will talk to my mother about this.” She didn’t want it initially but had to reluctantly agree after her grandmother and second aunt kept praising how good Xiao Chengjun was at this or that.

At first, her mother was unaware, but then she found out. Knowing her grandmother was eager to get this done, she decided to wait and see.

They’ve only exchanged the betrothal gifts, the matter hasn’t been finalized yet.

Seeing that Wen Jiejie didn’t have feelings for Xiao Chengjun, Yingbao breathed a sigh of relief. She chatted with her a little more before saying goodbye and leaving.

When she returned to her yard, she saw her father already packing, preparing to return to Qinchuan County by boat tomorrow.

Everyone else was ready and waiting to leave the city before dawn tomorrow.

It was now July, the hottest time of the year.

Yingbao stealthily made a pot of mixed iced beverages, giving it to Old Master Wu, Jiang Jie and Yuanbao to enjoy.

The iced beverage was made from cooked peaches, apricots, litchi and longan, with a bit of rice wine added.

Old Master Wu enjoyed this type of iced beverage, quickly eating half a bowl in one breath.

After finishing, he still lingered for more, stroking his beard and saying, “It would be nice if Zhizhi could also have a taste.”

Seeing him mention Wu Shi, Yingbao took the opportunity to ask, “Where did Uncle Wu go to take up his official post?”

“Shu Region.” Old Master Wu sighed, “I originally thought he could stay in Beijing, but he was assigned to the Shu Region.”

That place had more mountains than land, it was the poorest place. The people there were uncivilized and couldn’t be taught, some places still wore animal skins and lived in caves as families. They moved around like wild people, not understanding the human language at all.

Yingbao: “And Great-Grandmother Wu? Where did she go?”

“Your Great-Grandmother Wu moved to Jianglin. I have an elder daughter who married there. She went to her daughter’s house.” It wasn’t exactly living in her daughter’s house—they also had a residence in Jianglin. His wife found it lonely to stay at home alone, so she took two serving ladies with her. At least, she could see her daughter and grandkids every day.

Moreover, her maternal family was from Jianglin. She knew a lot of people there and wanted to look for a noble match for her son in the meantime.

“Oh.” Yingbao’s hometown, Qinchuan County, was far from Jianglin. She knew about the general direction but had never been there.

Yingbao again took out some medicine pills and handed them to Old Master Wu. “These are Prolong Life Pills. One pill a day prolongs life. They can be taken together with the ones from last time.”

She has always provided Old Master Wu with the pill, even on her travels—she had prepared one to two years of medicine in advance for him and her brother.

Including her own grandparents—they all have set aside pills for them.

Now they were all incredibly healthy. Old Master Wu even traveled up the mountains and across the rivers with his junior disciple to see his son. When he came back, he was still full of energy, showing no signs of fatigue.

“Alright, alright.” Old Master Wu happily took the pills and put them in his bag.

Like Yingbao did, he also carried a big sling bag full of various bits and pieces, silver taels, copper coins, and so on when he was traveling.

Yingbao took out another packet, “This is for Uncle Wu. I don’t know the address, so I can only entrust it to Grandpa Wu.”

She was still concerned about whether the lump on Wu Daozi’s neck would reoccur, so she continued to prepare medicine for him.

Old Master Wu had been teaching her brother selflessly, and nurtured him into a scholar. No matter what, they couldn’t repay his kindness.

So, it was necessary for her to prepare medicine for them using Five Dingzhi.