Forty-Five Chapters of Persuasion

  "Jing Er, I took a close look at these nine sisters today, but really couldn't find anything special about them."

  The queen mother slowly stroked the warm and colorful tea bell in her hand, while carefully looking at her son opposite her.

  Ouyang Jing's sword-like eyebrows furrowed slightly as she spoke, "Mother, what do you want me to do? You were the one who wanted me to form an alliance with the Wen family, and now you're saying this again."

  "Jing Er... that... " Queen Xin was somewhat at a loss for words when asked by her son, and she hesitated for half a day without being able to say a complete sentence.

  It was also the case that she had taken care of her sister, and had always wanted her son to marry Liu Si'er. For this reason, she had a very unpleasant argument with the old princess, but in the end it was her son who feared that she would be wronged and went to tell the old princess that he had always gotten along well with Liu Si'er, and only then did the old princess reluctantly agree.

  It can be seen that the son is not very interested in this sixth sister, and as he grows older day by day, the son seems to be more and more indifferent to this marriage, which makes her feel very uneasy in her heart. She wrote a letter to her younger sister, and then the two of them came up with an idea, that is, to find another beautiful and clever girl from the Wen family to marry over and capture the son's heart.

  She is like this for two reasons: one is that she doesn't want her son to marry the old princess's niece, and the entire royal palace will fall into her mother-in-law's family; secondly, seeing the decline of the Wen family, she wants to pull her sister up.

  This time at the end of the year, she came to Wen's house with her son. In addition to sending off her third sister, she had another purpose, which was to let her son get closer to her sixth sister.

  But unexpectedly, when he saw Liu's daughter, he didn't mention his son, only talked about herself, and felt that this marriage was not suitable.

  With such a temperament, it's not just the princess of the royal palace who can't handle it, even the mistress of an ordinary family can't handle it.

  Her mind began to waver...

  "Sister, Jing Er and Liu Jie are no longer young, don't you think it's time for them to settle down..."

  On the night of San Jie's wedding, her younger sister, who was also a member of the Ningping Marquis' household, asked her.

  "Uh...". Facing her sister's expectant eyes, she really didn't know what to say and could only put it off, "Let me go back and discuss it with the prince first!"

  "Hmm..." Her sister's eyes couldn't help but fill with disappointment, and after a moment, she said, "Sister, I've thought about it, that Seventh Sister isn't suitable, this maid is also not letting people be at ease, how about we switch to Ninth Sister instead?"

  "What's with all these sisters? This matter hasn't even started yet, she didn't take it to heart and just faintly responded, 'This... let sister handle it.'"

  But she didn't expect that after sending her sister away, her son was actually sitting in the back hall drinking tea. She thought her son must have climbed in through the window again.

  Relying on his own martial arts skills, he didn't study properly and only learned how to be a thief. She immediately got angry and wanted to scold her son a few words.

  But towards her eldest son's thoughtful gaze, she didn't say anything, feeling guilty, he must have heard the conversation between her and her sister earlier...

  But unexpectedly, the other day they mother and son went to the palace, Empress Yang asked about her son's marriage and said she wanted to be his matchmaker.

  "There's no need for you to worry, Mother had already arranged for my cousin to be betrothed to me a long time ago!" She thought her son would remain silent as before and wait for her to speak, but unexpectedly he spoke up with a red face.

  Uh...

  This greatly surprised her. Later, after repeated consideration, she suddenly felt that the problem lay with these nine sisters.

  No one knows a son better than his mother!

  She couldn't help but think of the incident four years ago when she fell into the water, and it made her even more certain that the reason for her son's change in attitude was this Ninth Sister.

  This son of hers has always been lawless and unreasonable, how could he possibly jump into a river to save someone, there must be some inside story.

  This discovery delighted her, but also worried her.

  It's joyful that I can fulfill my promise to my younger sister, but it's worrisome that in the future, my son will not love his official wife, but instead love his concubine... what is this?

  So she wanted to get her son vaccinated!

  But seeing her son's attitude, she suddenly regretted agreeing to this marriage back then.

  These two days she carefully examined Wen's family of girls, to be honest, really didn't see anything good.

  Wu Jie's affair, the people in Wenfu and her sister deceived others, how could they deceive her.

  The sixth sister is not worth mentioning, but the seventh sister has some talent, however, her eyes are darting back and forth, and at a glance, she doesn't seem like someone who minds her own business.

  Finally, let's talk about the ninth sister. Her stepmother was a merchant, her biological mother was a rough servant girl, and she herself wasn't particularly outstanding. The only advantage she had was that she looked relatively stable.

  But you said such a person, how did he win the heart of his own unruly and arrogant son...

  "Mother, if there's nothing else, I'll take my leave first. I still have to attend the farewell dinner at the Crown Prince's place tonight, I need to get ready!" Seeing his mother not responding, Ouyang Jing also stood up and was about to leave.

  "Jing Er..." The princess wanted to say something else

  "Mother, we're leaving tomorrow, it's a long and tiring journey, you should rest more to recover your spirits!"

  Ouyang Jing however quickly said, and after finishing speaking turned around and left in large strides.

  Watching her son's figure quickly disappear at the door, Queen Xin felt both annoyed and helpless, and could only pick up the tea in her hand with a humiliated expression to drink.

  "Hmmph!"

  But just after taking a sip, I found out that the tea was actually cold and couldn't help but spit it out.

  She immediately flew into a rage, wanting to make a scene, but suddenly remembered that this was not in the palace, so she could only suppress her anger and sternly pointed at the teacup to the two maids who were rushing in, "Replace it with another one!"

  The maid hurried away, and she sat there feeling sulky.

  "The princess, someone has come from the Ningping Marquis's residence!"

  She was taken aback.

  Mrs. Zou had already led two maidservants into the house.

  The discontent on her own sister's face had naturally fallen into Zou Shi's eyes, and she couldn't help but secretly sigh in relief that she was prepared.

  "Sister," she said with a smile, "you're going back tomorrow, and I don't have anything good to give you, so I just brought a few new trinkets for you to take back and make the old lady happy!"

  As she spoke, she waved her hand at the two maids behind her. The two maids immediately opened the two intricately carved red lacquer boxes with peony flowers on them and arranged the contents one by one.

  "Ah..." Looking at those things, the princess couldn't help but show a face full of surprise.

  "Sister, you must know these, they are candles. But look at these candles, they come in various colors and shapes, isn't it interesting? ...Hmm, that's right, when lit, these candles also have a fragrance, with essential oils added..."

  “……”

  "Take another look at this, it's called soap. It's very clean for washing your face, hands and bathing. The white one is made from cow's milk, the yellow one is made from egg whites, and the green one is made from vanilla and green tea..."

  “……”

  "And there's this, it's called a crayon, draw on paper, very bright and beautiful, give to the little ones to play with, best."

  Looking at those dazzling things, the princess couldn't help but pick up this and look at that, her face's gloominess was completely replaced by interest.

  "Sister, do you know how much this small piece of soap costs?"

  "How much?"

  "One or two silver coins can be sold exclusively at Jiang's store in the city!"

  "Oh..."

  "Sister, do you know who came up with these ideas?"

  "Who?"

  "It's exactly the Ninth Sister!"

  ……

  Digression

  Friends,