At that mont, Zheng Pengfei looked at Guan He with his unsophisticated deanor and couldn’t help but laugh, "Is it really necessary? It’s just food. People who don’t know any better might think you’re a country bumpkin who’s never seen the world or tasted anything good."
Guan He waved his hand and said, "That’s where you’re wrong. It’s not just about the food; it’s about the feeling that the Qi family and Qi Ye give you. Being in their presence makes you feel settled, like you don’t want to wander around anymore."
Zheng Pengfei raised an eyebrow, noncommittal. He had only been here a few days, and although he had a good impression of the Qi family and Ye Xinyan, people like him generally didn’t like to deal with families with too much power.
Working for such families ant that once you knew too much, once you had too many ties, it beca difficult to leave. Moreover, the higher the status of the family, the greater the danger they faced. Not just the dangers faced by the family themselves but also the risks to martial artists like him, who might be drawn into secret affairs and ultimately be silenced.
Guan He glanced at Zheng Pengfei and continued, "Right now, Prince Yu’s Mansion is buying land in remote and desolate outskirts, and soon, Qi Ye will lead people to raise cattle in batches. By then, don’t even ntion cheese, beef will be plentiful as well."
Cheese was naturally a luxury food, but beef was also a rare commodity. Especially beef from cattle raised for slaughter, which was selected from animals that had not been raised for long, providing excellent at quality, incomparable to the common beef from old or sick cattle slaughtered out of necessity.
As Guan He spoke, he even nudged Zheng Pengfei with his elbow, "Common folks say that in life, food and clothing are two essentials. In our case, we have just one more requirent than the common folks, and that’s freedom. Working for the Qi family, not only can you eat and dress at will, but most importantly, you experience freedom and an extraordinary sense of stability."
During Guan He’s relentless persuasion, Zheng Pengfei nodded, "I’ll give it a try first, who knows what the future holds."
Guan He patted Zheng Pengfei on the shoulder with satisfaction, "Good, let’s just try it for now. Ah, now I finally have soone to talk to."
He was very hopeful that Zheng Pengfei would stay, partly because it would ensure the security of Ye Xinyan’s projects and he and Zi Ning would be able to live a peaceful life. Additionally, having a like-minded individual close by made him feel more confident, as it proved that it wasn’t just him falling for this place, but that it truly had the charm to make people want to stay.
Zheng Pengfei agreed to the trial not because of Guan He’s persuasion, but because during the few days he spent in the capital, he felt a breath of fresh air.
Looking at Guan He, he knew that working for Ye Xinyan definitely carried the prestige of following nobles and royals, but without the sa restrictions. Although Guan He and Ye Xinyan always bickered upon eting, their way of getting along had a strange harmony to it.
He could see that Jiang Yifan, as a daughter-in-law, did not act conventionally. With her, when there was work to be done, of course full effort was required to et her expectations.
However, during normal tis when there was nothing pressing, she did not demand much, and did not require her hired help to grovel or curry favor. This point, along with what Guan He ntioned, really suited his taste.
Because the next day was the wedding day for Guan He and Zi Ning, Qi Younian had already rushed back from the Jiangbei Prefecture construction site.
When Guan He and Zheng Pengfei wandered back from the streets and just entered the door, they ran into Ye Xinyan as she was being bossed around by Nanny Liu.
As soon as she saw the two of them, especially Guan He with his guilty, indecisive appearance, a fire ignited in Ye Xinyan’s heart.
"You finally rember to co back? I thought you were so afraid of getting married that you cowardly did sothing only a woman would do—elope!"
Nanny Jin was also busy inside and out, and hearing the harsh tone in Ye Xinyan’s voice, quickly stepped forward to smooth things over, "Second Miss Zhou is arranging items in the bridal room and wanted the young miss to take a look, to see how best to arrange the vases. Please hurry over, don’t keep Second Miss Zhou waiting."
Qi Younian, having heard the commotion in the courtyard, had already co out from his room to greet Guan He and Zheng Pengfei, saying, "Co in, co in, don’t listen to Ye Zi’s nonsense. That girl is in a bad mood today and is picking fights with everyone. You staying here won’t be of any help, going out for a stroll to clear your minds is just perfect."
Ye Xinyan glared fiercely at Guan He. It wasn’t that she was in a bad mood without reason; Guan He, that guy, had been suffering a severe case of pre-wedding jitters lately, and she was genuinely worried that he might bolt. What would beco of Zi Ning if that happened? Seeing that Guan He was stringing Zi Ning along, she had strongly advocated for their marriage, but if Guan He fled, wouldn’t her advocacy have hard Zi Ning?
Ye Xinyan rolled her eyes and secretly breathed a sigh of relief before turning around and walking away. It was best she saw less of him; otherwise, she might be enraged to death by his terror-stricken, as-if-facing-an-enemy deanor.
While Guan He was bamboozling Zheng Pengfei outside, he appeared quite normal, but as he stepped into this area and crossed into the courtyard, that sense of trepidation in him flared up again.
Upon hearing Ye Xinyan’s decidedly unfriendly provocation, the inwardly shaken Guan He, unusually for him, did not snap back but was preoccupied with the dread of getting married.
As he was absentmindedly pondering this, he suddenly noticed the scroll in his hand and, seeing Ye Xinyan turn around, he hastily called out, "After we’re done with tomorrow’s busyness, I’ll go find a property diator to buy land. I’m telling you, we are all family here. I can give you the silver for building the garden, but you have to give a fifty percent discount, you know. Though you turn ruthless at the sight of silver, you can’t just profit from your own family."
Ye Xinyan was initially puzzled to hear him talking about finding a diator to buy land, wondering to herself why he was talking about land purchases when he was getting married the next day?
It wasn’t until she heard the latter part of his statent that she stumbled and nearly tripped.
This oddball! With his severe fear of marriage, shouldn’t he be worried about the imminent wedding at this very mont? And even if he was ntioning building a garden at such a ti, to think of demanding a discount... Such a thought process and such insensitivity could co from no one but Guan He.
Whatever, she thought, it’s not worth losing my sense of reason over him and shortening my life by ten years.
Then, Guan He saw Ye Xinyan wave her hand unconsciously, like she was shooing away a fly, and with a frown, she walked towards the back of the courtyard.
When Guan He looked back at the other people in the courtyard, he realized that the an woman’s behavior was actually quite normal; the abnormal ones were everyone else, who were in a stunned state, looking at him with a strange gaze that suggested a profound skepticism about the aning of life.
...
As a man of Jianghu with a short tenure in the capital, Guan He didn’t have many acquaintances. The wedding preparations handled by Ye Xinyan and Madam Yin mostly involved their own family mbers and familiar faces from Guangsha Construction.
The principal guests were Duke An and the folks from Marquis Zhongyong’s Mansion.
Unexpectedly, the wedding day turned out to be extraordinarily lively, with many unanticipated guests in attendance.
Zi Ning’s attire and the venue for her marriage procession were managed by Jiang Yifan, settled in the courtyard of the Jiang Family, which was the residence of Jiang Yifan and the eldest Miss of the Ye Family after their marriage.
With a nervous heart, Guan He had just brought his bride into the house and had not yet started the wedding ceremony, when the voice of Yuan Shang, the man overseeing the reception of guests, rang out, his pitch several notches higher: "General Huwei has arrived, General Huwei, please co inside."
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