Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 397 The Picky Buds

Hualei took a closer look at a few pieces of rice paper, nodded involuntarily, and said, “Indeed, these people are not very good.

This one is too fat, with big ears and a double chin, and he definitely has an overeating habit. This one is too thin, with a pale face and skinny body, and it's obvious that he doesn't have enough nutrition. Um... this last one... is really too short. You have to know that a person's fatness or thinness is temporary, but a person's shortness is lifelong... "

Seeing Hualei being picky, Xiaoyuan said with some sorrow, "Sister, we have to be picky. But we can't be picky like this. No one is perfect, as long as it's almost perfect, it's fine."

After a pause, he continued, "Fat people can lose weight, and thin people can eat more. I have already understood these people, and they are already very good, it's true."

Seeing Hua Lei's unconvincing expression, Xiao Yuan said, "Sister, Senior Brother Jing An is already married, so we can't think about others anymore.

Yunhai's Sixth Brother already has four young and beautiful girls in his room. They are to be his concubines in the future. The mistress hasn't even entered the house yet, but the concubines have already been arranged. I think, no matter how good he is, we should just forget about it."

Bai Yunhe has a concubine? Hualei really didn't know. Curious, she couldn't help but ask, "How do you know? No one outside has heard of it. Did your teacher write down whether these scholars have concubines in order to let you know more?"

After a pause, he shook his head and said, "That shouldn't be the case. Whether or not someone is married might be written down, but whether or not the family has concubines is generally not written down."

Looking at Xiao Yuan, he remembered what Xiao Yuan had not finished saying just now. When the lights were turned off at night, he said the same thing. He couldn't help but raise his voice and asked again, "Did Yun Hai tell you that you didn't sleep well at night, but were discussing these men, women, and concubines?"

"No, sister, what are you thinking about? This is just something we talked about unintentionally when we were studying the marriage code in the Imperial College last time. I didn't say it on purpose."

"Then why did Yunhai suddenly tell you about his sixth brother's concubine?" Hualei asked. "As a younger brother, this is not something he can talk about."

Xiao Yuan looked at the bud and replied, "He didn't mention it specifically. When I was studying the canon of intermarriage, the book said one wife and multiple concubines. I didn't quite understand it, so I asked him."

"You don't understand? If you don't understand, just ask the teacher. Why are you asking Yunhai. Also, why do you need to know so much about this kind of thing? Don't forget, you are only twelve years old." Hua Lei said with a serious look on his face.

"Sister, we're going to take an exam, so of course I need to know everything. You said you should ask the teacher, but the teacher has to be there. If the teacher isn't here, isn't it normal to ask my classmates?" Xiaoyuan looked like a person of integrity who had nothing to fear.

Hua Lei looked at Xiao Yuan with some suspicion, always feeling that things would not be so simple. However, she could not find the problem for a moment, so she stopped talking and did not dwell on this topic.

Xiao Yuan looked at Hua Lei, breathed a sigh of relief, and asked, "Sister, we won't consider a family like this if they have already prepared a concubine before getting married, right?"

Hua Lei nodded and said, "Well, this is indeed annoying. However, I don't like Sixth Brother Yunhai, so whether he has concubines or not, I probably won't consider him."

"Why?" Xiao Yuan was puzzled. "I think it's not good to prepare a concubine before the mistress even gets married. Otherwise, it's not a big problem for Sixth Brother Yunhai."

"Well...how should I put it? Xiaoyuan, I'll tell you, but you can't tell Yunhai, not even Rongjue, okay?" Seeing Xiaoyuan nodded, Hua Lei continued.

"In recent months, when I was walking around the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Industry, I heard some gossip about myself. One of the rumors was that I made a lot of money in the wool sweater business, but I was holding back the money and not paying it to my partners.

I thought about it carefully for a long time, and I think that this rumor is most likely spread from Dingxi Marquis Mansion. Because I directly give the silver to Zhenbei Marquis Mansion and Zhou Ziren's uncle every quarter, so there is no such thing happening, and there is no reason to say that I am holding back the silver.

Only Yunhai Sixth Brother, at the beginning of the year, asked me not to give him his share for the time being, saying that he would spend money recklessly and couldn't keep it, so I agreed. In the past six months, I really haven't given him the money in his share.

So such gossips might have come from Dingxi Marquis Mansion. Of course, it couldn't have been spread by Bai Yunhe himself, after all, he took the initiative to propose this request, not because I didn't give it.

It is also impossible that it was spread by Lord Bai. If he had any objections and felt that I was deliberately suppressing the news from his family, he would definitely go to Bai Yunhe to confirm it first, and Bai Yunhe would not lie to him.

Even if Bai Yunhe lied to him, according to the character of the old Marquis Bai, he would come to me directly and ask me clearly instead of gossiping behind my back. The old Marquis Bai is not such a person.

I think the people who are most likely to spread gossip are Bai Yunhe's mother and several sisters-in-law. But among these people, I am more inclined to believe that it was Bai Yunhe's sisters-in-law who spread it.

On the one hand, Bai Yunhe's mother is the same as Lord Bai, so she can ask Bai Yunhe directly about this matter. On the other hand, I heard that his mother is a very reasonable person, not the kind of person who makes trouble out of nothing or is very critical, so I think it is unlikely that his mother would spread gossip about me.

The only ones left are Bai Yunhe's sisters-in-law. When Bai Yunhe first came to me to discuss cooperation, he specifically stated that it was he and I who would be cooperating, not the Dingxi Marquis Mansion and me.

At first, I didn’t understand the reasoning behind this, but when I heard these words recently, I realized that there is a difference.

If Dingxi Marquisate cooperates with me, then the money earned will belong to their public treasury. If Bai Yunhe cooperates with me, then the money earned will be kept by Bai Yunhe himself, and at most a part of it will be paid to the public treasury.

This is the same reason why Old Madam Pei put the wine shop under the name of the Marquis' Mansion to the outside world, but under the name of Master Pei to the inside. Think about it, isn't this the reason?

Precisely because the money earned from the woolen sweaters was not handed over to the public treasury of the Dingxi Marquis's Mansion, his sisters-in-law must have had opinions. At the beginning, the money earned was not much, and they did not understand it very well, so they had no complaints.