An ugly girl starts off, then becomes a beauty

In autumn, all counties held examinations in August. Soldiers in border areas practiced autumn archery together with officers and soldiers in the capital. Nie Ce was naturally very busy as he was busy with military affairs. He was urgently summoned to the palace early the next morning and then went straight to Tianliang. He did not return for several days.

In the middle of the month, the West Mansion welcomed a group of guests, who were the ones mentioned by Madam Zhaoyu last time: Mrs. Xu, the wife of the Luo family, the governor of Luzhou, and her son Luo Yu.

The eldest lady personally arranged the wedding, so people from the East Palace also went along to support her.

Mr. Luo has just reached the age of twenty this year. He has red lips and white teeth. Although his facial features are not very superior, his skin is snow-white. As the saying goes, "a white complexion conceals a hundred uglinesses." This conceals his mediocrity in appearance. Especially his eyes, which are like a crescent moon when he smiles, and appear very kind.

This guy looks like he has a very good personality.

In fact, it was not bad for the niece of the Shen family to marry such a poor young man. Sang Ling knelt on the felt mat next to him and listened quietly to the elders socializing with each other.

Today in the Changning Garden of the West Palace, the elders sitting at the top were Madam Zhaoyu and Second Madam Shen, with Su and Sang Ling sitting on the side. Because Nie Guang came in last, he temporarily sat in the seat outside Sang Ling.

Shen Huajun was behind the screen, and opposite her were Madam Luo and Master Luo Yu.

At the beginning, Madam Zhaoyu exchanged a few words with Madam Luo and asked about her son's current situation. The first lady then glanced at the second lady and wanted her to ask as well, but Shen refused to respond and just smiled.

It's just what's meant by the question, but everyone present here knows it clearly.

What Shen really wanted was for Shen Huajun to marry Nie Ce, no matter if she was a wife or a concubine. As long as she could get hold of the person beside Nie Ce, it would only be a matter of time before she would be the head of the family.

It is better to take an unconventional approach than to have no way out.

As for the Luo family in front of them, it was only because it was arranged by Madam Zhaoyu herself that they had to go through the motions.

Thus, the marriage discussion between the two families passed with Shen's cold smile.

Madam Luo was also a person who had gone through many ups and downs. After just one or two rounds, she figured out the intention of the Second Lady of the Marquis's Mansion, which was that she was still polite to Madam Zhaoyu. After all, she completed the whole journey, but in the end she still declined the meal and left before 9 o'clock.

Until he left, he didn't mention Shen Huajun at all - as if today's visit was just for the purpose of socializing with Madam Zhaoyu.

The housewife of the Marquisate turned around and glanced at Shen. It was hard not to be angry. Her eyes flashed, and she managed not to lose her temper in front of the younger generation. She only spoke a little more sharply, "If my second brother's wife doesn't like the Luo family, it's easy to deal with. There are many families in the capital that have dealings with them. Even if their family backgrounds are not as good as the Luo family, they are all clean. Next time, you must be more careful. My niece's marriage must be arranged this year."

"Thank you for your concern, sister-in-law." Shen was not frightened by Madam Zhaoyu's fierce attitude. Although she was shorter than her sisters-in-law, she still held her head high and remained calm, unmoved by anything.

Sang Ling had no choice but to stand up from his side seat calmly and follow behind his mother-in-law, secretly feeling the undercurrent between the two of them.

I really couldn't help but tease. With the two women quarreling like this, it seemed that Shen was going to stuff her niece into Nie Ce's room and she had no intention of following Madam Zhaoyu's path. Then, in the Marquis' Mansion, only the one in the Hall of Right and Wrong could really help her.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law returned to the East Mansion together. Just as they passed the gate, a servant was waiting at the corridor to answer questions and whispered a few words into Madam Zhaoyu's ear. Sang Ling didn't hear it clearly yet, but she saw that Madam Zhaoyu also showed a stunned expression for the first time. He glanced at her, said nothing, and led her into the back house in the front yard of the East Mansion.

It turned out that the mother and son of the Luo family had not left the house yet. Halfway through the journey, Mrs. Luo asked the maid to take them to a place where they could talk to the eldest lady and the lady of the East Mansion alone.

Madam Zhaoyu guessed that the "lady from the East Mansion" mentioned here was Sang Ling, without even asking. This was not Xu's first time entering the Marquis' Mansion. The two families had had several interactions in the past few years. Sang Ling was the only one who appeared on the scene for the first time, so Xu was afraid that she had mistaken her for one of the girls from the East Mansion.

He was secretly kept in the mansion, and was specifically told to talk to the lady of the East Mansion - Madam Zhaoyu didn't even need to think about the meaning behind this to understand it.

He led his wife into the house and first put on his usual mask of flattery, "Madam, wait a long time, why are you talking here?" Then he glanced at Sang Ling and said with a smile, "Wife, call Madam quickly."

In fact, there was no need for Madam Zhaoyu to mention this. Of course, Sang Ling had to follow in to pay her respects. Her mother-in-law had never reminded her of this during her several visits to the palace. So this sentence seemed a bit excessive.

Sang Ling was only surprised for a moment, but then he cooperated quickly, nodding and greeting the mother and son of the Luo family in the room one by one.

It turned out to be Nie Ce's daughter-in-law. Xu was slightly stunned. She couldn't help but glance at her son behind her and saw that he could not hide his disappointment either.

How could one know that the one kneeling down was actually Nie Ce's wife? She didn't look very old, but she was really pretty. Not to mention that a young man like A Yu was attracted to her, and he urged her to stay and ask her questions afterwards. She was present at the time, and even her eyes lingered on her several times.

Mrs. Xu could only smile stiffly, "She is so beautiful. I was just wondering, who is the young lady from?"

The Luo family settled in Luzhou, and it was reasonable that they were not able to know about Nie Ce's wedding last year. Madam Zhaoyu simply took Sang Ling's hand and knelt down on the main seat, smiling and continuing, "She is from the Sang Wu family, and the daughter-in-law is the eldest daughter."

After he finished speaking, he saw Xu's embarrassed smile, so he waited for a moment and continued, "She has a little daughter, and I heard she will be coming of age next year."

"Really?" Xu looked at her son again hastily, her brows visibly beaming with joy.

My son is old enough, and it is the right time for him to go to Beijing. He also wants to meet the daughter of a wealthy family in Beijing. Wouldn't it be better if he could get a visible connection with her?

It was a long-standing custom for noble families to marry each other. It was natural for Madam Zhaoyu to handle the matter. She smiled and said, "When the weather is better tomorrow, you can come to the capital again. I will gather a few families together. Can we have fun together?"

However, she solved the deep meaning left by Xu in just a few words. If the truth was that the girl from the Sang family looked like someone from the Sang family, then she could just go to the Sang family. In this way, she could act as a middleman and would not lose face to the Luo family.

This was exactly what Xu meant. No wonder Wu Xiulian, a well-known mistress of the Chang'an city, could handle everything perfectly without any greetings.

He is really good at dealing with people.