novelhk Chapter 181
Chapter 181
Guo Ruo looked at his younger sister and Liu You holding hands tightly, and his expression became increasingly gloomy.
Youmei and Liu You have known each other since childhood and have been inseparable. Although such a relationship is rare, with the growth of the family business and the change in their status, the two are no longer suitable. As their eldest sister, she is naturally also an elder and should take care of them more.
"What are you doing?" Guo Ruo stared at the two people holding hands and asked in a deep voice.
Seeing this, Liu You wanted to let go of his hand, but Guo Zhi held his hand tightly and looked at Guo Ruo and said, "I want to marry Liu You."
Guo Ruo was so angry that he was out of breath and shouted angrily: "Do you know what you are talking about!?"
"I know."
Liu You shook Guo Zhi's hand, signaling her to stop talking, and then looked at Guo Ruo and said, "Sister Guo Ruo, don't be angry. Guo Zhi was impulsive."
"We are not impulsive. Big sister, my classmates have already arranged their marriages. They have dropped out of school and are waiting to get married. My marriage should also be on the agenda." After saying that, Guo Zhi looked at Guo Xin who was silent at the side and said, "Second sister, don't you agree?"
Guo Xin had been observing Liu You's actions since they entered the house. At first, she was willing to offer Liu You a job as a shopkeeper and accountant because she had the idea of marrying him to Guo Zhi.
But judging from the details, Guo Zhi had been very brave in expressing her desire to get married, but Liu You wanted to shake off Guo Zhi's hand as soon as he entered the room, and even pushed all the responsibility onto Guo Zhi, indicating that he was no longer Guo Zhi's ideal man.
Guo Zhi kept looking at Guo Xin, begging for her answer, so Guo Xin had no choice but to answer: "The truth is revealed in the details. He mentioned it to us so hastily, which has already violated the three letters and six etiquettes. How can we talk about sincerity?"
Liu You immediately said, "Sister Guo Ruo, Sister Guo Xin, don't worry. I will go home and ask my parents to find a matchmaker to propose marriage according to etiquette. I will definitely not let Zhi'er down."
"Yes! I believe in Liu You, he will never let me down." Guo Zhi said, "And hasn't my second sister always taught us to be independent and self-reliant? In marriage, it only takes love between two people, and there is no need to consider various conditions. Big sister, what do you think?"
Guo Ruo sighed deeply. It was not that she did not support freedom of marriage, but she definitely did not want to marry a bad person. However, if her younger sister insisted, she could only give up. She said helplessly, "If you can accept being criticized for your marriage in the future, then go ahead."
"Thank you, sister!" Guo Zhi happily pulled Liu You to salute Guo Ru.
Guo Xin saw that Guo Ruo still had a lot to say, so he said to Guo Zhi and the others, "You can go down first, but you must remember not to overstep the line."
Guo Zhi glanced at Liu You and raised her eyebrows: "I know." Before she finished speaking, she turned around and pulled Liu You out.
Guo Ruo gently took out a crystal clear glass bottle from the secret compartment. There were wave patterns engraved on the wall of the bottle. It was specially picked out from batches of glass and presented to the emperor.
"Second sister, you see, we never slacked off in teaching our youngest sister, and spared no effort to send her to the academy to study, so that she could be raised to be a well-educated, sensible woman who could support herself and not indulge in love. But now, how come she is just like this vase?"
She paused, "It's gorgeous on the outside, but empty on the inside. It's not that you can't indulge in love. Love is beautiful and naturally intoxicating, but you shouldn't be intoxicated by a man who doesn't take responsibility."
Guo Xin was speechless and stood quietly beside Guo Ruo. At this moment, the lines from his childhood poems kept emerging in his mind: "The infatuation of a girl is beyond words."
……
Capital city, He Mansion.
"A letter?" He Jingmin shouted to the woman excitedly, "God knows how long it has been since our daughter wrote back to us. I wonder if she has forgotten us as her parents."
The woman nodded, then shook her head, her expression solemn yet a little happy.
"Huh?" He Jingmin looked puzzled, his eyes fixed on the letter. He snatched the letter and read it in the candlelight.
After a while, He Jingmin's expression was like that of a woman, and after a long while he said, "I had originally thought of delaying this matter until Dad came back, but who could have thought that so many unexpected events would happen."
The woman smiled and said, "No matter what, it is a happy event for our daughter to come to the capital. We haven't seen her for a long time."
He Jingmin sighed and said, "Although we can meet, the He family is not a good place now. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a den of dragons and tigers."
The He family was originally a family of noble origin with no background. They became rich thanks to Grandfather He's excellent fighting skills and his life-long friendship with His Majesty. After they became rich, all the uncles and uncles came to the door and begged Grandfather He to find them an official position or a title.
It happened that His Majesty did not want the power of the aristocratic families to be greater than the imperial power, so he vigorously supported his confidants. The close and distant relatives of the He family took advantage of the opportunity and rose to prominence. They even became leaders in the court's civil service team. Since then, the He family has been divided into two forces.
On one side were the military officers headed by my grandfather, and on the other side were the civil officials headed by the clan elders. However, my grandfather was unable to return to Beijing for the time being due to border issues, and because of His Majesty's caution, the civil officials still had less power. Therefore, the plan of Guo Xin and the other two to return to their ancestral home was opposed by many clan members.
Although he wanted to give them a complete ceremony at first to show the importance the He family attached to their offspring, as time went on, he was worried about more accidents, so he planned to directly write Guo Xin and the other two into the family tree and keep the ceremony simple.
But I didn't expect that just by mentioning it to the He family, the elders would oppose it desperately as if they were crazy, with reasons such as the second brother was dead and now there was only the jade pendant as a token, so even if they looked similar, it was most likely just a coincidence...
However, these reasons were just excuses. He knew that these elders simply looked down on his daughter for her country background and for being involved in the kitchen. His daughter's eldest sister had been rejected by her fiancé, and they were worried that if they were included in the He family's genealogy, it would ruin the He family's reputation.
The quarrel became more intense, and he suddenly lost control and rushed forward to punch the clan elder. This time, the feud became even bigger.
The elders were even more reluctant to allow Guo Xin and others to enter the He family tree. He was also in the wrong, and was afraid that the elders would bring more trouble to his daughter by holding on to this matter. That was why he thought of dealing with it coldly and would confront those people with bound feet after his father came back from the border.
Thinking of this, He Jingmin said listlessly: "It's all my fault for acting impulsively. If it weren't for me, how could my daughter be rewarded as a farmer's daughter? How could people all over the world know that my daughter was born as a farmer's daughter, thus affecting her marriage prospects?"
The woman shook her head and said, "You can't be blamed for this. It's because the elders are feudal. In addition, my brother made the decision to apologize to the elders on your behalf. If it weren't for this, we wouldn't be so low-key."