Pampered Consort of the Fragrant Orchard

“This bride looks so pretty today!” Du Xiaoli came forward with a smile.

“Yes, it seems bridal makeup makes her even more beautiful than usual!” Ji Liuxia agreed.

“You guys, just keep making fun of me.” Meng Jiangzhuo appeared somewhat fatigued, but seeing Du Xiaoli and the others, she still seemed in good spirits.

“You’re already done getting ready? Aren’t you supposed to take a long time to get ready on your wedding day?” Seeing Meng Jiangzhuo was nearly done packing her things, Ji Liuxia asked with confusion.

“If you had been up for four hours, you would have finished packing too,” Meng Jiangzhuo said aggrievedly.

“You’ve already been up for four hours? It took that long to finish? That’s too scary!” Hearing this, Ji Liuxia’s tone instantly changed.

“Miss Ji, this is how all marriages are, just wait until you get married– you will also take this long,” the nannies said as they applied Meng Jiangzhuo’s makeup.

“Ah, it takes so long, I definitely don’t want to.” Ji Liuxia shook her head when she heard the nannies’ words.

“People only get to marry once, and this is also a part of marriage. Miss Ji, if you don’t experience this, your life will be incomplete!” Another nanny advised her.

“I still don’t want to.” Ji Liuxia refused.

“Alright, when the time comes it won’t be up to you! Don’t block the nannies from applying Jiangzhuo-jiejie’s makeup,” Du Xiaoli said, pulling Ji Liuxia aside.

The two stood to the side, originally expecting the makeup to be finished quickly. But even after Fu Yalan arrived and nearly an hour had passed, it still wasn’t finished, rendering Du Xiaoli and the other two girls dumbfounded. Now, not only was Ji Liuxia daunted, even Du Xiaoli and Fu Yalan were shocked.

After Meng Jiangzhuo had finished packing, she waited in the room for the auspicious hour. The maids and nannies in the room were all called outside to do work, leaving the four of them inside to chat.

“There are probably no more sisters like us left in the entire capital,” Meng Jiangzhuo said, “For you all to come so early and send me off, I’m extremely happy. Thank you all.”

“It’s a pity the Princess couldn’t be here,” Ji Liuxia said with traces of regret.

“I had expected long ago that the Princess wouldn’t be able to come,” Meng Jiangzhuo said. “She is also getting married the day after tomorrow, I hope she’ll be able to lead a happy life.”

“Now we can only hope so,” Fu Yalan said.

“But your future husband is not bad, I heard he’s personally coming to escort the bride!”

“I also heard this, that Lord Shui asked for leave to escort the bride, this shows his good treatment of you,” Fu Yalan added on, coaxingly.

“I also heard my father say, it turns out that at the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet last time, when he was a foreign official there, he saw your performance and in a sort of love at first sight moment, especially asked his father to send a marriage proposal to your father,” Du Xiaoli said.

“I previously assumed it was my father that wanted to marry me to him, who knew he was the one who proposed marriage.” Meng Jiangzhuo said, slightly embarrassed.

“Seeing him so attentive to you, he will definitely treat you well once you marry over. When the time comes, the man and woman will be like the drum and zither, wow, just the thought of it brings joy,” Ji Liuxia said, clasping her hands in front of her chest.

“Woah, not bad, Liuxia can even say idioms,” Fu Yalan pretended to look at Ji Liuxia with surprise.

“Of course, no matter what I’m still a person who attended the Academy!” Ji Liuxia said proudly, before realizing that Fu Yalan was making fun of her. She pounced on Fu Yalan to tickle her.

“Her reflexes are so slow, it seems she really is the most pure out of us few.” Meng Jiangzhuo said with a smile, “But this is best!”

“Pure people have pure happiness, we used to have this saying.” Du Xiaoli said as she gazed at the two people playing.

“What saying?”

“Stupid people have more happiness!” Du Xiaoli responded lightly.

“Pfft–” Meng Jiangzhuo was amused by Du Xiaoli’s words, but this saying for Ji Liuxia seemed… ahem quite suitable.

When the auspicious hour was approaching, the nannies returned, and Meng Jiangzhuo’s wet nurse took the red veil and draped it over her. From now until entering the Jiangnan Shui Family’s bridal chamber, the red veil on her head could not be taken off in front of others.

“Miss, the auspicious hour has arrived, let’s go out.” Her wet nurse said.

Meng Jiangzhuo rose from the bed. Because she couldn’t see the way ahead of her, she could only walk with her head down and be guided by her wet nurse. Du Xiaoli and the other girls followed behind, together going to the drawing room in the front yard.

Only after Meng Jiangzhuo exited the courtyard did the guards come in to help carry the dowry from the courtyard to outside the Meng Manor.

Meng Bowen, Old Madam Weng, and Meng Weiren, Madam Meng, and several concubines as well as Meng Jiangxin were all waiting in the drawing room. In addition to the Meng Family, there was a man in his twenties with a fair complexion and steady demeanor, sitting there with a few servants standing behind him. That man happened to be today’s bridegroom.

Meng Jiangzhuo, with the help of her wet nurse, arrived in the drawing room and knelt down on a cloth cushion.

The matchmaker came in front of Meng Jiangzhuo and said a spiel about marriage before asking Meng Jiangzhuo to bow to those in the room to repay them for their kindness.

Then, starting with Meng Bowen, each elder gave her a few words of advice.

Meng Jiangzhuo began to cry from the moment the matchmaker started speaking. When she heard the elders’ advice to her, she thought of how she wouldn’t be able to come back for a long time, wouldn’t be able to serve her parents, and she couldn’t help but cry for a while.

Du Xiaoli knew, in these ancient times, crying was part of marriage customs. And so, seeing Meng Jiangzhuo crying so heartachingly, nobody was upset. Madam Meng’s gaze held a trace of reluctance but also relief, the bittersweet emotions of seeing her daughter get married.

After the elders finished giving their advice, the wet nurse helped Meng Jiangzhuo up. Originally, the next step was for the matchmaker to bring Meng Jiangzhuo to the palanquin, but after Meng Jiangzhuo stood, a man appeared in front of her, taking the place of the matchmaker.

“Father-in-law, Mother-in-law, allow Yeyang to carry Jiangzhuo out.” Shui Yeyang bowed towards Meng Weiren and the others.

The matchmaker looked at Shui Yeyang with some difficulty, when in the ancient times was there a bridegroom that carried the bride out?

Meng Weiren and Madam Meng found this somewhat strange, and were taken aback.

Shui Yeyang once again bowed, saying, “To have Jiangzhuo follow me to a place so far away from her home, Yeyang truly feels guilty. I hope that from this moment onwards, I can be her support.”

Shui Yeyang’s words were spoken very softly, yet they expressed his solemnity to everyone.

“Okay, then you can be the one to do it.” Meng Weiren didn’t speak, and Meng Bowen opened his mouth first.

With the words of his own old man, Meng Weiren had no choice but to nod in agreement.

Shui Yeyang extended his hand to Meng Jiangzhuo, saying, “Let’s go.”

References 1. — following superstition, it was traditional for weddings to take place at a pre-designated “auspicious time/hour,” at the beginning of which the groom would come to escort the bride :) 2. — sisters as in very close best friends 3. — escorting the bride traditionally involves the groom going to her home on horseback with a palanquin for her to sit in, and the bride’s family sometimes poses challenges and games that the groom must pass as a test of his capability and sincerity before he can escort his bride away! 4. — an idiom from a set of poems that describes the love and harmony between a couple MoonWhisperer, skyrise's Thoughts

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