The Eldest Daughter of a Rural Family
Chapter 452 I Want to Marry Pei Qin (2)_1

Chapter 452: Chapter 452 I Want to Marry Pei Qin (2)_1

All three were picked up by their families and brought home.

The Zhang family had been exhausted by the turmoil. Zhang Shiqian was expelled from the county school and left with a stain of theft on his reputation, making it difficult for him to achieve any scholarly honors in the future. The villagers’ gazes towards the Zhang family members had changed as well. After all the struggle to get into the county school with silver, not only did he fail to learn well, but he apparently picked up bad habits. Now the family’s resources were drained, his future prospects ruined, and finding a marriage match would also be challenging.

Zhang Shiqian hid at home, refusing to go out. He fluctuated between regretting having listened to Zhao Junchao and others in scheming against Pei Qin, and being furiously resentful towards Pei Qin for being cruel and ruthless, framing and entrapping him, and destroying his entire life.

Seeing that his mental state was abnormal, his family was also heartbroken. They locked him at home to recuperate, taking good care to restore his spirit.

Old Pei’s House formally proposed to annul the engagement.

Zhao Junchao was unwilling to marry Pei Wenlee and was even more indignant after having his engagement annulled and suffering torture in jail. His hatred deepened, and he was determined to make Old Pei’s House pay a price, steadfastly refusing to annul the engagement. He wanted Pei Wenlee to marry honestly into the Zhao family so he could torment her. And as for Pei Wenli and the people from the second concubine of Pei, he had no intentions of letting them off easily!

Old Pei’s House, citing Zhao Junchao’s bad character, forcefully called off the engagement.

Zhao Junchao was unwilling, and the Zhao family also disapproved. With Zhao Junchao having served time in prison, the stain on his reputation would make it hard to find a bride from a prosperous family in the future.

The two families became deadlocked, causing a commotion.

The villagers discussed among themselves, "Neither family is good! Their comeuppance is slowly arriving!"

"Lucky for Pei Qin and her siblings that they have severed ties with Old Pei’s House, otherwise who knows what troubles they might encounter in the future!"

After severing ties with Pei Qin and her siblings, Lady Zhu and Lady Chen were filled with regret and also blamed Old Pei for his arbitrary and authoritarian decisions. However, Pei Qin would be turning eighteen by the end of the year, and at that age, it was difficult for an ’old maid’ to get married.

Although Shen Songming had visited during the Mid-Autumn Festival of August fifteenth, he hadn’t set the engagement or paid the dowry before leaving. Pei Qin’s dream of marrying into the Shen family as the young mistress was just wishful thinking, unlikely to come to fruition. Unless she became pregnant with Shen Songming’s child, and the Shen family acknowledged the child and accepted her into the family as well. Even then, she would only be a concubine without her natal family’s backing, and would meet an unknown fate in the large household of the Shen family.

Because, no matter how capable Pei Qin was, she still needed the support of a strong natal family, and Pei Wendong was not even ten years old. It would be an age of monkeys and horses before he could become prominent.

Old Pei’s hope was to outlive his grandchildren. And regarding the Fang family’s assistance, even with their help, they were just her maternal family. With their own plethora of issues, Pei Qin couldn’t count on the Fangs to go all out in helping her without shedding blood.

The hopes of Old Pei’s House rested on Pei Zongli and Pei Wenli. With such a significant age gap, Pei Wendong, no matter how intelligent, could not catch up.

Therefore, Pei Qin did not plan to pursue the official path. To gain power and influence, there were many other avenues. This time, she had Shen Songming taking a cartload of her home’s soy sauce to Capital Jingcheng.

Upon reaching Capital Jingcheng, Shen Songming brought great joy to Old Lady Shen and his own mother, Madam Shen. He had followed the imperial envoy to Yuanyang County after the new year and had not returned for almost half a year. He celebrated his birthday and the Mid-Autumn Festival away from home, without sending any letters back to his family.

Before the joy had settled, Shen Songming presented a box of crystals to the Department of Internal Affairs to contribute in delivering the soy sauce for Pei Qin.

Previously, during the completion of the Pai Building, the imperial eunuch had returned to the capital with his report and brought some soy sauce to the palace, although it wasn’t much.

Shen Songming had brought with him a bundle of cooking recipes.

With the rewards Pei Qin had previously received for growing sweet potatoes, and with plenty of sweet potatoes already shipped to Capital Jingcheng, her soy sauce was unique. Shen Songming’s craftsmanship in music boxes and seated clocks had won the emperor’s favor, so it didn’t take much effort to arrange for Pei Qin to supply soy sauce to the palace every year.