"..." Mu Shaoling looked at him and felt a sudden throbbing pain in his head. This mother and son pair truly had no equal.
Upon hearing this, Commandery Princess Dongyang chuckled heartily.
"We havenât decided when to return yet."
"Is that so?" Yang Chuxia said with a tinge of disappointment, "I was thinking, if you were planning to return to the Capital City, we could travel together. Brother An and I agreed that after Qingrui gets married, we are going to Shandong, so if we could accompany each other on the road, it would be nice to have someone to rely on."
"Why donât you go after the New Year? The child is still so young," Commandery Princess Dongyang remarked.
"Tsk, you think she wants to go? It must be Ye Ziâanâs doingâthat guy is good for nothing, acting like he canât live without his wife."
Yang Chuxia really wanted to ask him, can you leave your wife? Itâs been so long since Dongyang gave birth, why havenât you scurried back to the Capital City?
But before she could ask, her familyâs little helper spoke up, "Uncle, you and Aunt Dongyang are also inseparable, right?"
"Oh, you know about being inseparable, do you?"
"Of course, my mother just told me that," the little guy said, extremely proud of himself for knowing how to use the idiom.
"Haha, this child is really clever." Commandery Princess Dongyang happily pulled him into a hug, holding him for a while before letting go. "Since you are going to Shandong, we will return to the Capital City as well. We need to go back to celebrate the new year anyway; whether we return earlier or later, itâs all the same. When weâre back in the county, Iâll start packing. Just send me a message about the departure date."
"Then itâs settled," they agreed.
The next day, on the tenth day of the ninth month, Yang Chuxia got up early.
By the time she arrived at the Yang Family, Yang Qingtong, Yang Qingbao, and their brothers, along with Yang Qingruiâs classmates, had already set off to the town to move the dowry.
By 9:00 a.m., the team carrying the dowry had returned.
Yang Chuxia estimated that the dowry wasnât largeâonly twelve loads, which certainly couldnât compare to her own wedding, but this was within her expectations, so she didnât mind.
However, Ms. Wang, upon seeing the dowry, pursed her lips in discontent. She felt that their family had given a substantial bride price, and yet, this was all the dowry amounted to? The dowries of the more affluent families in town were at least sixteen loads, mostly around twenty; those who doted on their daughters had nearly twenty-three loads, and here they only had twelve.
The Zhang Familyâs father was indeed stingy; as the saying goes, an egg would lose a piece in his hands.
But Yang Chuxia hadnât anticipated that someone could be stingy to such an extent, especially when it came to marrying off a daughter.
She had initially seen that Ms. Wang was unhappy and thought to offer some comfort, but the moment she entered the harem, she immediately lost any desire to persuade.
Because at this moment, Qingbao, who had been moving the dowry, came to call for her.
"Sister Xiaxia!"
"Whatâs wrong?" Yang Chuxia asked, seeing the troubled expression on Yang Qingbaoâs face.
"Sister, you should come and look at the dowry. There are two loads that are completely empty."
"How can they be empty?" Yang Chuxia was also startled, as she had never encountered such a situation before, "Is there nothing inside at all?"
"You should come and see for yourself, sister." Yang Qingbao felt uncomfortable even mentioning those chests.
Hearing this, Yang Chuxia went with Yang Qingbao to Yang Qingruiâs courtyard. The others had already left, leaving only four people who didnât know what to do with the chests. Yang Qingbao explained that these four were the ones who had been carrying the chests.
As they saw Yang Chuxia approaching, they quickly said, "We felt that these chests were a bit light while we were carrying them."
"Thatâs right, we didnât take anything out. With so many people around, even if we wanted to, we couldnât have done it," they defended themselves.