Corrupt official in the Red Chamber

Chapter 305 Dowry
Jia Rui returned home holding the imperial edict.

After entering Xue Baochai's room, he saw Xue Baochai holding his son and coaxing him to play with a cloth tiger.

Jia Rui coughed.

Xue Baochai then noticed that Jia Rui was back, and quickly handed the son in his arms to Ying'er next to him.

Then Xue Baochai walked to Jia Rui's side with a smile, "Why did you come back so early today?"

Jia Rui put the imperial edict in his arms into Xue Baochai's arms, "I'm here to bring you good news. Your son has a wife."

Xue Baochai was very surprised. He took the imperial edict and opened it, then his face changed a little, "Uncle, King Zhongshun is the emperor's younger brother. We won't have any problems marrying him."

Naturally, Jia Rui would not tell Xue Baochai what he was thinking, "What's the problem? This is a marriage granted by the Supreme Emperor, and others can't even ask for it."

Xue Baochai did not feel relieved because of Jia Rui's comfort. Instead, he said sadly: "Our family and the emperor have such a quarrel. Although it has eased now, who knows whether it will get worse again in the future. If we marry his niece , isn’t this harming our son?”

"Don't worry, it's too early for your son to get married! Who knows what will happen in the future?"

After Jia Rui finished speaking, he ignored Xue Baochai, came to his son's side, stretched out his hand and pinched his son's fat face.

Little Jia Xuan was very dissatisfied with her father's bullying. She stretched out her fat hand and kept pulling her father's hand.

The father and son were arguing for a while. When Xue Baochai saw it, he quickly asked someone to carry little Jia Xuan to the nanny's room next to him, and then directed Brother Ying to change Jia Rui's clothes.

Jia Rui was very sorry for his son's departure. He stood there with an unhappy face and let Brother Ying take off his coat.

After changing into the parents' clothes, the couple sat on opposite sides of the table.

"The Supreme Emperor has issued an edict. We cannot disobey it. We might as well go to Prince Zhongshun's Mansion with the betrothal gift tomorrow and settle the matter quickly." Jia Rui said while drinking tea.

Xue Baochai was unable to change the fait accompli and could only nod, "Then I will go tomorrow, but what kind of betrothal gift should I give?"

Jia Rui thought for a moment, and then said: "You can consider other things yourself. The most important thing is to bring the twelve golden pearls with you."

As soon as I heard about the twelve pearls.Xue Baochai didn't want to.

"We only have these twelve in our house, so I'll send them all at once. It's a bit too much. I'll just give you seven or eight to express your feelings."

In fact, it is no wonder that Xue Baochai is stingy. You must know that these twelve pearls came as tribute from Nanyang.

At that time, a total of 36 golden pearls were presented as tribute, each pearl was the size of a pigeon egg, and each pearl was said to be priceless.

One time, Jia Rui was eating at the Emperor's place. Occasionally, he saw a stone on the Emperor's table. Jia Rui curiously picked it up and played with it.

When the Emperor saw that Jia Rui liked it, he directly gave twelve of them to Jia Rui.

After the pearl returned to Jia Rui's house, Xue Baochai couldn't put it down and often hid the pearl in his bedroom and would not leave it for a moment.

This time Jia Rui wanted to send these twelve pearls to Prince Zhongshun's Mansion as betrothal gifts, which made Xue Baochai very reluctant to part with them.

"Haha, you are so stingy. You don't even think that twelve pearls can be exchanged for a daughter-in-law. Moreover, if things go wrong, the twelve pearls will be brought back by the daughter-in-law. This is a huge deal. "What do you have to worry about?" Jia Rui smiled and tapped Xue Baochai's nose with his hand.

Xue Baochai thought for a moment and realized that this was indeed true, and then she also had a smile on her face.

The next day, Jia Rui took a day off, and then took Xue Baochai and his precious son Jia Xuan to Prince Zhongshun's Mansion.

When King Zhongshun heard that Jia Rui was coming, he opened the main door of the palace to welcome him personally.

After the two people met, they exchanged pleasantries for a while, and then King Zhongshun saw Jia Xuan lying in Xue Baochai's arms.

If we say that our little Jia Xuan looks really cute, it would follow his mother Xue Baochai. If it follows Jia Rui, it would only mean that he can go out to meet people.

King Zhongshun looked at the cute Jia Xuan blinking her big black eyes and looking at him curiously, feeling a burst of love in his heart.

This little guy is good-looking and very lovable, and he is a perfect match for his daughter.

After that, everyone entered the Yin'an Hall. King Zhongshun sat in the middle, accompanied by Jia Rui.

Xue Baochai sat next to Jia Rui.

After sitting down, Jia Rui raised his hands and said, "Thanks to the great love of the Emperor, he has given us the royal granddaughter Jia Xuan in marriage. Jia Rui is sensitive and has come today to present the betrothal gift. Please accept it without hesitation."

After finishing speaking, Jia Rui waved his hand, and seven or eight boys came up immediately, each carrying a box.

You must know that the man's betrothal gift is a measure of how much he values ​​the woman.

It is an insult to a woman if a man gives her something worthless.

King Zhongshun stood up, walked to the box, and opened the first box.

I only saw a box filled with jewelry, jade and the like.Prince Zhongshun had a lot of these things, so he didn't pay much attention to them. He was about to look at the second box, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw a string of shining pearls on the top of the box.

King Zhongshun couldn't help but reach out and take the string of pearls in front of his eyes to look at it carefully. Then he looked back at Jia Rui in surprise.

"Could this be the golden pearl paid tribute by the Kingdom of Java?"

Jia Rui stood next to King Zhongshun and nodded, "These are exactly twelve of the 36 pearls paid tribute by the Kingdom of Java."

King Zhongshun touched the pearl in his hand, and the more he looked at it, the more he liked it.

You must know that there are only 36 of these beads in the entire empire. Jia Rui must have received a gift from the Supreme Emperor, so he got twelve.

This time Jia Rui sent all twelve pearls over at once, which shows how much Jia Rui attaches importance to this marriage.

"What a good thing! Are you willing to use such a precious thing as a betrothal gift?" King Zhongshun said so, but he held the twelve pearls tightly in his hand and refused to let go.

"No matter how precious the thing is, it is nothing compared to Princess Huicheng." Jia Rui said modestly.

King Zhongshun nodded with satisfaction, then turned to the eunuch beside him and said, "Let the princess bring Huicheng over to meet her in-laws."

The eunuch bowed respectfully and then withdrew.

Jia Rui knew that there would be nothing wrong with proposing marriage this time.

At first, Jia Rui thought that even if the Supreme Emperor granted the marriage, the loyal and obedient Wang Xingzhong might not be satisfied and might cause some obstacles in his proposal of marriage. Now he is finally relieved.

After a while, there was a jingle of rings outside, and then a noble lady wearing a phoenix robe, holding a little girl carved in pink and jade in her arms, walked in surrounded by more than a dozen palace maids.

Jia Rui followed King Zhongshun's gaze and looked at the little girl in the noble lady's arms. Jia Rui immediately fell in love with her when he saw her.

This little girl is so cute, much prettier than the New Year dolls in the New Year paintings.

At this time, Xue Baochai also carried Jia Xuan and walked to Jia Rui's side. Looking at the little girl in the arms of the lady opposite, she also smiled with satisfaction.

Surrounded by the palace maids, the lady came to King Zhongshun's side and said a gentle blessing.

King Zhongshun quickly stepped forward to help the lady up, and then eagerly took the little girl from her arms.

"Does Huicheng miss daddy?" King Zhongshun hugged the little girl, smiling so hard that his forehead lines opened.

"I've been thinking about it, I can't sleep anymore." A crisp and soft voice came.

Little Jia Xuan, who was in Xue Baochai's arms, suddenly spoke at this time, "Isn't it just morning? Of course you couldn't fall asleep just after you woke up."

After listening to Jia Xuan's words, the little girl knew that the lie had been exposed, so she pouted unhappily, and then she leaned her face into King Zhongshun's arms, embarrassed to show her face.

King Zhongshun hugged the girl and laughed loudly, "You little monkey have met your nemesis."

Then King Zhongshun handed the girl in his arms to the princess and said with a smile: "This is Jia Rui, the chief minister of the dynasty, Mr. Jia, and next to him is his wife. This little skin monkey is the future husband-in-law of our family Huicheng." .”

The princess held Princess Huicheng in her arms and looked carefully at Jia Xuan in Xue Baochai's arms. Seeing his two dark eyes moving around, showing a sense of intelligence, she nodded with satisfaction.

Yesterday she was worried that her girl would marry a crooked man, but today she saw little Jia Xuan and she was finally relieved.

At this time, Princess Huicheng, who was in the arms of the princess, saw the twelve golden pearls in King Zhongshun's hand. Her eyes lit up and she stretched out her little hand to grab the pearls.

King Zhongshun ducked to the side and moved the pearl in his hand behind his back.

Seeing this scene, Princess Huicheng grinned, as if she was about to cry.

Now King Zhongshun lost his temper and could only endure his heartache and delivered the golden pearl to Princess Huicheng.

Princess Huicheng grabbed the golden pearl with her small hand, and her face immediately changed. The original look of crying disappeared, and now it became sunny.

Jia Rui, who was standing next to him, nodded with satisfaction when he saw this scene. As expected, his future daughter-in-law was facing his home. She knew how to pull things into her arms even before she got married. Looking at this, when she got married, she would The twelve golden pearls will return to their homes.

On the side, King Zhongshun was twitching in pain.

He knew that he was a tricky girl. She looked smart and cute, but she was actually a little money-obsessed. If something fell into her hands, even if she didn't like it and threw it aside, no one else was allowed to touch it.

Then King Zhongshun saw Jia Rui snickering on the side again, and his teeth itched with anger.

After that, King Zhongshun and Jia Rui sat in the main hall talking, and the two mothers took their children in the side hall to exchange their experiences in raising children.

The two little dolls also quickly started playing together.

I don’t know if they were destined for each other, but Jia Xuan and Princess Huicheng quickly became good friends. The two held hands and rolled over on the bed, and from time to time they heard crisp and innocent laughter.

(End of this chapter)