A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Chapter 149: The Young Master of Sha Mansion Prepares for the Wedding

Two months passed in the blink of an eye. One day, when Gui'er was leaving school, Dali said to him, "The lake is bustling today. The third young lady has given birth to a boy."

After hearing this, Gui'er was happy for Sanmei. This way, her position in the Zhang family should be stable. However, Marshal Sha has now annexed Fengcheng. I wonder what fate this newborn boy with Marshal Zhang's blood will face in the future.

When they returned to the Marshal's residence, everyone was in high spirits. As soon as they entered the courtyard, Dingxiang ran over and said happily, "The Marshal gave each servant a reward of 50 coins to celebrate Miss Sanmei giving birth to a boy."

During dinner in the evening, the Marshal announced that Sha Yanxiao and Sha Yanwen would be married next month. Everyone congratulated Sha Yanxiao, Sha Yanwen, and the fourth concubine, but those who were congratulated just smiled and let it go.

After dinner, Gui'er went to the fourth concubine's room to play with Sha Lili. She saw the steward sent by the Marshal discussing with the fourth concubine whether to repair the yard. The fourth concubine sat on the sofa and said lazily: "The Marshal wants us to repair the house, but did he say how much silver he would allocate?"

The housekeeper said cautiously, "The Marshal said to allocate 300 silver dollars first. If it is not enough, each courtyard can pay for it."

The fourth concubine was displeased when she heard this: "Why is there only a 300 yuan budget for my son's wedding? What can we do with such a meager amount?"

In fact, as far as Gui'er knew, 300 yuan could buy a house in a good area in the city, but the spending of rich families was definitely not comparable to that of ordinary people. For example, any piece of furniture in the fourth concubine's room might cost no less than 300 yuan.

Seeing that the Fourth Concubine was unhappy, the steward could only smile and say, "How about you, Fourth Concubine, talk to the Marshal yourself?"

The fourth concubine rolled her eyes and said with a smile, "Forget it. Although we are a wealthy family, it is understandable that the master would want to be frugal. I will have the maid go to you tomorrow to collect the salary. By the way, I heard that the mansion has just received a batch of peonies and other flowers. It would be more festive if we could bring more of them here."

The steward agreed repeatedly and left.

As soon as the steward left, the fourth concubine, completely ignoring Gui'er's presence, said indignantly, "What bad luck! He married a servant as his daughter-in-law, and even the wedding only gave him so little money. What can he do with it?" Then she said to the steward of their courtyard, "You don't have to bother figuring out what to do. Just clean it up casually, hang up red lanterns on the wedding day, and put up a couple of wedding characters. That's it."

Turning to Gui'er, he smiled and said, "Your brother Yan Xiao is still the best. He married the daughter of a Shanghai gang leader. Even if the family doesn't spend a penny, I guess the woman will pay for a beautiful wedding."

Guier smiled and thought that Ji Zhongqing was only hoping that Marshal Sha would give him a mine as a betrothal gift, so how could he expect him to contribute much money?

Seeing that she didn't say anything, the Fourth Concubine smiled and said, "But I think this Miss Ji is not easy to get along with. Gui'er, you are a good child. If you can't stay over there, you can come to my place. It's just a matter of an extra pair of chopsticks."

Gui'er quickly said, "Thank you, Auntie, but Brother Yanxiao asked me to live with him, so I don't need to move." When Gui'er was considering moving out of Sha Yanxiao's courtyard, she considered everyone in the mansion, except the Fourth Concubine, because she had seen her ruthless methods of dealing with the Eighth Concubine, so how could she dare to live in the same courtyard with such a person?

Just after returning to Sha Yanxiao from the fourth concubine's place, the moment he entered the door, he saw Ji Yiru and the steward giving instructions in the yard, such as what kind of tree to plant here, where to add a pavilion, and even where to put up a swing nearby.

The manager stood beside her, looking as if he wanted to say something but hesitated. When he saw Gui'er come back, he smiled awkwardly. He probably didn't know how to tell Ji Yiru that the budget for the Marshal's Mansion was only 300 yuan.

Gui'er didn't want to bother with this matter and turned into the house.

Sha Yanxiao was calmly reading the newspaper in the room. Gui'er asked, "Brother, don't you want to go out and see what to do?"

Sha Yanxiao crossed his legs and said, "What can you do with this little money?"

Gui'er knew Sha Yanxiao had his own property. Seeing that no one was around, she whispered to him, "Marriage is a big deal. Aren't you going to use some of your own money to renovate it?"

Sha Yanxiao smiled, blinked, and said to Guier, "I told my father that a budget of 300 yuan would be enough."

"Why is this?" Gui'er was puzzled.

"Is that even a question? I'm telling you, we've already captured Marshal Zhang's eldest son-in-law and daughter and secretly executed them. Now Fengcheng is completely under our control. Next, we need to vigorously govern. Building roads and running schools doesn't cost money. I don't want to spend too much money on such a meaningless wedding."

"What are you whispering about?" A voice suddenly sounded behind him.

Gui'er was startled and turned around to look. Ji Yiru appeared behind them at some point.

Sha Yanxiao smiled and said, "I was telling Gui'er that our fiscal revenue and expenditure this year are less than in previous years, so I'm afraid I'll have to put you in a difficult position regarding the wedding."

Ji Yiru smiled and said, "Don't worry, dear. I know you want to be frugal, so I won't spend too much. I don't plan to do any major renovations, just a few additions and some renovations to the yard. By the way, I had my parents order a whole set of leather furniture for our living room in Italy a long time ago. It's already been shipped to Shanghai and can be shipped here directly."

After a pause, he continued, "By the way, Gui'er's room was originally adjacent to your bedroom. I think it can be moved here." Ji Yiru pointed to a room used to store sundries in a secluded corner of the second floor. "Although this room is on the side, there is a small staircase next to it, which is very convenient for my sister."

Sha Yanxiao and Gui'er's rooms are both near the main staircase, so there is no question of inconvenience at all. Moreover, the small staircase that Ji Yiru mentioned is the one that the servants usually take. In addition to the room she mentioned, there are actually several other rooms, but they are all similar in layout to the room Gui'er lives in now. Only the room she pointed to is a single room used to store miscellaneous items. Gui'er didn't know whether she did this to test or control Sha Yanxiao or Gui'er.

"No, that's too far." Sha Yanxiao said.

"We're all in the same house, how far can it be? It's only a few steps away. As a brother, you're about to start a family, so why should you stay with your sister? I'm sure Gui'er is sensible, right?"

Gui'er hesitated to let things go peacefully, but then she thought, if she gave in now, wouldn't she be at the mercy of others in the future? Besides, Ji Yiru wasn't the type to get along peacefully just because she gave in.

So she smiled and said obediently, "I'll listen to Brother Yanxiao."

Sha Yanxiao smiled and said, "You mean that's a storage room? You probably don't know, it's so messy and full of stuff in there, it would be troublesome to move it out. But since we're married, we should have some private space. Let's just move Gui'er's room over to the side."

Ji Yiru accepted it reluctantly and said with a smile: "You're right, let's do this."