"Mm-hmm!" Liu Tinglan nodded repeatedly, her mood imdiately lifting.
...
As a bridesmaid, Mo Yan was to accompany the bride for the entire night before the wedding. Thus, on the nineteenth day of March, she arrived early at the Liu Family with two gifts in hand. One was a congratulatory present for the Cui family on the following day, and the other was to contribute to Liu Tinglan’s dowry.
The congratulatory gift for the Cui family was a wooden box containing a pair of jade pendants. The jade used was previously awarded to her by Emperor Huian, and being an imperial gift, it was naturally of considerable value. She selected a whole piece of high-quality green jade and commissioned a master from Silver Tower to craft a pair of double-fish jade pendants, which were very suitable for a newly married couple.
The dowry for Liu Tinglan was much more substantial, nearly filling up the horse carriage. In addition to several sets of gold and silver jewelry, there were so rare fabrics not commonly seen in the market, but most of it was dicinal herbs produced from the Space.
Ordinary families usually prepare furniture and fabrics for their daughters’ marriages, and if well-off, they add jewelry and silver. The dowry from a wealthy family contained many more items, including the aforentioned, as well as fields, shops, houses and so on. dicinal herbs could also be part of the dowry, but mostly precious tonics like ginseng.
It was normal for Mo Yan to add dicinal herbs to the dowry. Among the pile of herbs she prepared, besides a pair of aged ginseng, there were also lingzhi mushrooms, donkey-hide gelatin, cordyceps, dendrobium and others. Just the wooden boxes carrying the herbs filled half the carriage, each box tied with a red cloth strip for festivity.
At that mont, the Liu Family was filled with music and brightly lit with colorful decorations. Red satin ribbons were tied over the entrance, and joyous character signs in red adorned the doors, as Mr. and Mrs. Liu stood by the entrance, greeting the guests with beaming smiles. The courtyard was bustling with activity, flowing with guests and resonating with liveliness.
Mo Yan did not intend to steal the spotlight at her friend’s wedding, so her attire was understated and appropriate for the occasion. Her arrival went unnoticed, but when the large amount of dowry was unloaded from the carriage, it drew considerable attention. Fortunately, by that ti, she was already in Liu Tinglan’s boudoir, and no one knew who had given so generously.
"Yanyan, you’re finally here." Liu Tinglan was chatting with so female cousins when she saw Mo Yan enter, hurriedly rising to greet her.
"You ungrateful girl, I got up before dawn, left before the sun even rose, and you still think I’m late!" Mo Yan glared at her friend, feigning dissatisfaction.
"No, no, no, how could I dare criticize Princess Hejia?" Liu Tinglan giggled, hooking her arm around Mo Yan’s and dragged her to stand before a group of young ladies, introducing her solemnly, "Her na is Yanyan, she’s my best friend and also my bridesmaid."
The girls had long known about their cousin’s close friend, a county lord personally appointed by The Emperor. However, they had not t her personally, and upon learning of Mo Yan’s identity, they hurriedly ca forward to pay their respects.
Mo Yan still wasn’t quite used to others paying respect to her, and since these were her friend’s sisters, she stopped them from bowing and urged them to stand up.
The girls all seed lively, and after Mo Yan asked them to rise, they surrounded her and started chatting. However, soon the conversation began to shift:
"Seeing is indeed better than hearing. I am so fortunate to create a bond with the county lord; it must be the good karma from my past life."
"The county lord is so refined and extraordinary. It’s rare to et such a remarkable person like the county lord."
"You’re right, after seeing her, I feel ashad of my own inadequacy."
"..."
Whether or not these comnts suited Mo Yan, they were all heaped upon her emphatically. Listening to them made her own teeth ache; she could hardly stand it and wished she could drag her friend away to a secluded place imdiately.
All were girls of the Liu Family, raised in a learned household, yet why was there such a disparity?
Liu Tinglan’s face flushed with embarrassnt, wishing she could disappear into a crack. Seeing her friend’s eyebrows already revealing signs of annoyance, she quickly stepped in to defuse the situation, making up an excuse to send her female cousins out of the room.
When the guests had left, the room fell silent, and Mo Yan let out a long sigh of relief, gulping down the now cold tea, finally soothing her parched throat.
Liu Tinglan’s face was still red from embarrassnt as she said apologetically, "Yanyan, if they’ve made you uncomfortable in any way, I apologize on their behalf. Please don’t take it to heart."
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