One after another, Lin Zheng and Lin Xiao also had their betrothals arranged. These matters didn’t require the Old Madam to worry about herself—their own parents would handle the arrangements.

It’s just that inevitably, compared to before, their choices had expanded somewhat while also becoming more limited, because their Lin family was now already bound to the same front as the Fourth Prince, so they had to keep their distance from the First Prince’s group of people.

Similarly, under the Old Madam’s direction, people from the Crown Prince’s faction also had to be avoided.

The Old Madam was firmly resolved not to let their people become entangled with the Crown Prince, unless absolutely unavoidable. But given their Lin family advisors’ status, they weren’t yet enough to catch the eye of those important figures.

As for the eldest granddaughter’s marriage, she didn’t know what her son was thinking. Many people came to inquire, but the Old Madam used the excuse that her father had his own plans and she couldn’t make the decision to deflect them.

Among these were families she thought quite good, including prominent Manchu surnames and households with harmonious couples.

Did her son truly have a family in mind?

Or was it just an excuse?

With proper order between elder and younger, the eldest granddaughter’s marriage couldn’t be delayed.

Watching the young ladies who studied and kept company with her daughter at the Lin residence one after another have their marriages settled, Concubine Mei was anxious.

Not only were outsiders urging, she was also urging.

Even Ce Fujin couldn’t compare to Fujin.

There would forever be Fujin above her head, whereas her daughter’s marriage would definitely be as principal wife and first spouse.

This period was the critical moment for her daughter. Her daughter’s lifelong matter would determine whether she could straighten her back before her sister in the future, even hold her head high proudly.

How could Concubine Mei not care?

Her anxiety infected even Ying Yu.

What she feared wasn’t anything else, but that if it was truly settled, she would also have to leave home.

Ying Yu panicked at thinking of this possibility, anxious in her heart.

She didn’t want to leave home yet. But this couldn’t be said to Mother—Mother would only call her foolish.

So she went to speak with Second Sister.

The two of them were in similar situations.

Although Father had set Second Sister’s wedding date on the last auspicious day at year’s end, which wasn’t so soon, ultimately speaking, it also wasn’t far away.

Watching Second Sister follow behind Concubine Yun all day showed she was also apprehensive. Ying Yu felt somewhat dejected. Why must daughters definitely marry?

Couldn’t one not marry?

She didn’t need others to answer this—Ying Yu could provide the answer herself.

Not marrying was possible, but it would affect her sisters and also the daughters of the next generation in the family. It would provide after-dinner gossip for others, invite pointing fingers, and bring contempt.

A daughter who didn’t marry was an aberration.

To say one shouldn’t fear public opinion—how many could truly achieve that?

Ying Yu admitted she couldn’t.

Moreover, reaching age without marrying, being assigned to a man by law—that would be even worse.

Ying Yu actually didn’t think as Mother said she must, that the person she married must have such high family status. She felt that if the other party’s character could be like Father’s, that would be very good. She didn’t care so much about other things.

Luo Yu didn’t have such worries in this regard, because it was already settled—it was the Fourth Prince. What she worried about was whether she could live well at the Fourth Prince’s residence in the future, and that seeing her natal family would become very inconvenient.

The first problem could rely on her own management. The second problem, however, had to follow the rules.

Though the two sisters were apprehensive, they hadn’t forgotten what needed to be done.

The household management, they sisters still had to lead Third Sister to manage well. Grandmother now had no time to spare to manage these things.

Luo Yu still had to inventory her own dowry.

She felt this experience of hers was also rare. Which family’s daughter would personally handle her own dowry? It wasn’t as if there were no other people in the family.

The dowry she had to inventory wasn’t anything else, but rather the portion of dowry Mother had prepared for her.

Starting from when she turned ten, Mother had given her and her brother some properties and had them manage them themselves.

Mother no longer managed them. Unless they consulted her, Mother wouldn’t inquire—complete autonomy.

Under their hands, some lost money, some profited. Stumbling along for so long, they had become very skilled. If any shop was losing money, basically by looking at the account books they could deduce which aspect was the cause.

Only now she had to inventory—tally what had been given to her before, plus what Mother was giving her now. This inventory gave her a shock. The dowry Mother gave her… was much more than she had imagined.

Although she knew Mother was wealthy, she hadn’t expected such tremendous wealth!

The things Mother gave her—estates and shops weren’t many. When they followed Father on reassignments, most would be disposed of, leaving only the truly good portion.

Coming to the capital, large estates here were hard to buy, so what she was given were residences and shops.

Adding the jewelry accumulated over these years, plus the bottom-of-the-chest silver Mother gave her, a simple estimate showed that what Mother gave her was worth approximately three hundred thousand taels.

The Lin family’s prepared list wasn’t confirmed yet and couldn’t be estimated.

When Luo Yu calculated this, she was shocked. Had Mother given her all her family wealth?

She asked Mother.

Yun Shuyao: “Are you foolish? You two both have shares. Mother has it figured out. Take what’s given to you and live your life well.”

It wasn’t that Yun Shuyao didn’t want to prepare estates in the capital for her daughter. It’s just that this wasn’t something she could buy whenever she wanted. At most there were scattered small estates. If one wanted to buy those large connected estates, unless some family committed crimes and had their family property confiscated—only then would those land holdings have the opportunity to flow back into the market, and others would have the chance to buy good estates.

Now… no family had committed crimes, so naturally there was no opportunity.

After the imperial edict came down, Yun Shuyao began preparing dowry accompaniment for her daughter. For estates, her requirements weren’t many—one suitable one, smaller was also fine.

But searching high and low, those were too small, and the larger ones were too far away.

As for her daughter’s foolish question, she had long prepared the marriage silver for both children.

What was prepared for the siblings was the same. Actually, what was given to her daughter was somewhat more.

As for estates, it was still the Old Madam who gave one of the Lin family’s estates to Luo Yu. Even for the Lin family, such estates weren’t many.

Many external matters were being handled by Chen Yu, keeping him so busy he’d lost weight. Although he ate quite a lot, it consumed too much mental energy.

He had to engage in social exchanges with those old acquaintances and also deal with the Imperial Household Department.

Marrying a Ce Fujin compared to marrying a Fujin—the specifications were one grade lower. The matters involved here were too numerous.

After wrangling with people from the Imperial Household Department, he had to say, he felt he’d grown again. He also dealt with the Fourth Prince.

The other party wasn’t as unapproachable as rumored. Chen Yu didn’t know if he was a special case, but to speak of it, those who had good relations with their family, after testing him with a few questions, basically had no dissatisfaction with him. Many people even wanted to matchmake for him.

He himself wasn’t anxious yet. He just didn’t know which family Father would betroth Eldest Sister to?

Lin Ruhai truly had a son-in-law in mind. Starting from when the children were eleven or twelve, he had begun observing suitable candidates—one must always plan ahead.

Initially, his examination list had many people. One after another, those people’s names were crossed off by him, leaving only a scattered few households remaining.

After receiving the imperial edict, he was bound together with the Fourth Prince. Fortunately, what reassured him was that the Fourth Prince seemed to have no intention of participating in the struggle for the throne.

He was still a loyalist to the Emperor.

Not long after, Ying Yu’s marriage was settled. She was betrothed to Da Chun, the third son of the Fengtian Prefectural Governor, who was also his legitimate son.

The place Lin Ruhai had previously gone on his imperial commission was Fengtian Prefecture.

Having exchanged betrothal documents, the Old Madam quickly made this news public to prevent more people from inquiring.

Speaking of birth, the other party was from the Manchu Plain Blue Banner, Silin Gioro clan—a prominent Manchu surname.

He was a descendant of Silin Gioro Tuntai, elder brother of Baturu Prince Lidun’s legitimate Fujin. Nothing to fault.

When the Old Madam obtained the betrothal document, she had people inquire again. The information about the male party in her son’s letter existed but wasn’t detailed enough.

Upon this inquiry, she learned that the Prefectural Governor and his wife, Lady Guarjia, had deep affection. They had four sons and two daughters under their knees, with three sons all born to Lady Guarjia.

The third son, Da Chun, was the second legitimate son.

The other son and two daughters were respectively born to two concubines.

His rear court only had these few women.

Although their family served as officials away from home, there were those who had previously dealt with Da Chun.

The Old Madam had people inquire—he was a clever, good child.

Moreover, her son had personally examined and tested him before.

Only then did the Old Madam feel at ease.

Concubine Mei naturally also knew.

Silin Gioro clan?

Indeed, the status wasn’t low, and the other party was also a legitimate son.

It’s just that of the two sisters, one was marrying into a third-rank official’s family, one was being matched to the Fourth Prince’s household. This inevitably made Concubine Mei feel somewhat aggrieved, yet there was nothing she could do.

Just like when participating in the selection, the Old Madam wanted her daughter to be dignified and cover up her own advantages. If not for seeing Luo Yu was the same, she would have protested.

Otherwise, with her daughter’s appearance, the imperial palace was also reachable.

Now she didn’t dare make a fuss either, fearing it would ruin this marriage match. Although it couldn’t compare to her sister’s prominence, she also knew Ying Yu couldn’t possibly marry a prince anymore.

These latter thoughts were reminded by the old matron: “Concubine, the eldest young miss’s marriage is settled. Won’t you help look at her wedding dress?”

Concubine Mei’s spirits lifted: “And also the dowry!”

When women married, three things secured their livelihood.

One was natal family.

One was offspring.

The third was dowry.

As the eldest daughter, she knew her dowry couldn’t compare to Daiyu’s. After all, that was legitimate-born, and moreover had Jia Min’s entire dowry set as accompaniment. But compared to Luo Yu, it should be one line higher.

Even if because she was entering a princely residence and the specifications were higher, it couldn’t be too much higher!

——

After Lin Ruhai arrived in Yangzhou, he spent a period of time figuring out the intricate and complex relationships here. This place had been extremely prosperous since ancient times. The common people lived and worked in peace, and many families had been born here.

These families intermarried with each other, connecting into a massive force. When they united, even officials could easily be deceived by them.

No wonder the previous holder of the position was severely demoted by the Emperor. When he first arrived here, he probably also wanted to accomplish some real work, but later was defeated by sugar-coated bullets, defeated in the bellies of Yangzhou courtesans they sent up to him.

Still, divide and rule was needed. Thinking of this, Lin Ruhai slowly formed a plan.

He controlled the salt licenses. As long as he didn’t loosen his grip, no matter how anxious they were, they had no solution.

Could there really be no other salt merchants wanting to rise in position? Were there no families that had incurred enmities?

Even if the master behind them was one person, they wouldn’t be completely of one mind…

Kangxi sent Lin Ruhai to Yangzhou for two reasons.

One was that Lin Ruhai came from wealth and nobility, wouldn’t covet that silver, and was utterly loyal to him. Going to his post, he basically wouldn’t be corrupt.

The other was his network of connections behind him.

He was born in Gusu, his maternal Xie family was also from Gusu, his wife’s family was the Jia family—one of Jinling’s Four Great Families—and the Jia family was on good terms with the Zhen family. When he went to Yangzhou, it would be easy to integrate, and he wouldn’t immediately be guarded against and excluded by local officials and merchants.

Moreover, Kangxi had people investigate carefully. The experiences of the Lin father and son made him involuntarily suspect—were his sons below… beginning to lose control? Otherwise, who had this capability to actually prevent him from investigating any traces?

——

Yun Shuyao had an idea but couldn’t free herself to go to Yangzhou. She also had to follow the Old Madam in the capital to arrange her daughter’s wedding. This side was also where she didn’t want to leave.

So at home she used ready-made coarse salt, dissolved it into salt water, to reproduce the refinement process.

She couldn’t manage it alone, and there were so many maids—working together to pool ideas.

She didn’t need to sun-dry it either. She directly used firewood to boil it. As long as results could be obtained, she could later slowly conduct field tests on which method saved more manpower and resources.

Luo Yu stayed by Mother’s side. At first she couldn’t understand, until watching that coarse salt become whiter and whiter, the bitter taste becoming less and less, finally transforming into snow-white refined salt.

Moreover, Mother also applied the principle by analogy, using ordinary alcohol to refine it into high-concentration strong liquor, saying this could be used in treating external injuries, very suitable for battlefields, reducing soldier casualties.

Luo Yu: ?

She couldn’t understand. Mother, how did you think of this?! Either of these two, whichever one, could bring them enormous wealth!

But Yun Shuyao’s purpose wasn’t to seek wealth.

Thus, Yun Chang and people from the Lin residence rode horses at full speed all the way, carrying a thick letter heading toward Yangzhou.