The Legend of Concubine's Daughter Minglan

Chapter 102

The day when the examination finished, Sheng family sent steward Fu to wait outside the examination hall. After steward Fu had waited for a long while with his neck stretched out, Changfeng and Wen Yanjing finally walked out totteringly. The former wore a purple face as if he had suffered from excessive sex. The latter's face was sallow like he had been starving for days. Unlike Changfeng who cared a lot about this examination, Wen Yanjing was in a rather good state of mind. After all, no matter he could pass the exam or not, he could still get a wife who was from a wealthy family.

Maybe their different mental states also influenced the results of their examinations. After half a month, the result came out. Wen Yanjing passed the exam as the thirty-second of the second class and became an advanced scholar (Jinshi). After another test, he would work in the Imperial Academy or be granted an official position. Meanwhile, Changfeng... Eh, he would have to try again.

As Rulan's wedding date was approaching, she was getting a bit weird. Lately, she was subject to changing moods. Sometimes she was totally delightful but then she would suddenly fly into a rage with no reason. Wang shi wanted to say some intimate words to Rulan, but was also contradicted by Rulan. Xique was anxious about the situation, so she went to Minglan for help.

"Sixth lady, you see..." Xique didn't know how to start.

"It's fine. I'll go take a look." Minglan knew why Xique was here. Since Minglan always knew when to play dumb and how to coax little girl, at some point, she almost became Rulan's personal fire extinguisher. Even Xique always asked favor from her.

The moment Minglan stepped into the House of Carefree, she saw Rulan sat by the window in a trance. The dowry had already been carried away, so now the room which used to be full of treasures now seemed a bit empty. A splendid red wedding dress was hanging on the dark red lacquer wood hanger. And thanks to the dress, the room could seem brighter.

"Look who it is! My extremely popular sister! What brings you here today?" Seeing that Minglan was here, Rulan braced herself up and talked in a tart tone.

Minglan sat by Rulan's side quietly, saying with a smile, "What's wrong, sister? Tell me about it."

Rulan glanced at Minglan with the corner of her eyes and snorted, "I'm just a total loser! Don't think I deserve your concern!" On these words, Rulan turned around angrily and used her back against Minglan, leaning on the table heavily with her elbows.

Minglan pondered for a while and tried to ask, "What did madam say to you?"

Without turning her head, Rulan only hummed with her nose. Then Minglan understood what had happened right away. But she found herself helpless about the situation. Then she thought, 'It's all your fault, Gu Tingye!"

A few days ago, the people of the Wen family had chosen a lucky day to present the betrothal gifts. Gu Tingye had also checked the almanac and found that day happened to be the best day during this period. So he had sent someone to ask if he could also present the betrothal gifts on the same day. Wang shi had not thought too much about it. So Sheng Gong had agreed without any hesitation.

On that day, the Wen family had prepared plenty of scented tea, reunion fruit, gooses, sheep, wines, wild gooses and a few pieces of excellent cloths. However, Gu Tingye had been like some overnight millionaire who had managed to dig gold in South Africa. The gifts from him had been piled up in the whole yard. First, there had been one hundred and twenty-eight pairs of a gold pig (Because Minglan's zodiac is a pig), which were worth one thousand ounces of silvers. And the clothes had included eighty-eight pieces of gauzes from Jiangnan Region, eighty-eight pieces of camlets from Jiangbei Region and one hundred and eight pieces of all colored Sichuan figured satins. The jewelry had included eighteen dragon and phoenix pattern pure gold bracelets which weighed three to four ounces and eighteen pairs of dragon and phoenix pattern pure gold hairpin with pearls inserted. Also, there had been all the classy seafood such as the abalones, the fresh oysters, the scallops, the dried mushrooms, the small shrimps, the sleeve-fish, the sea cucumbers, the shark fins, the fish maws, and the hair seaweeds. Hai shi and Old Madam Sheng had both doubted the food had meant to be the tributes to the emperor. And the gift list hadn't just ended there because the livestock, the fish, the wines and the snacks had been countless. It was also worth mentioning that there had also been a pair of living fat wile gooses.