Chapter 1372: Chapter 1350 Decision Made

The second day of the year is the day Daya returns home. Originally, according to tradition, she should return on the first day, but the first day is not suitable for going out, and since it’s just after New Year’s, she definitely needs to follow Guan Yong to meet the relatives of his family.

So it was postponed to the second day, coinciding with her return to her mother’s family.

This day, Zhou Xi also brought her husband and children back.

The Guan Clan from Dali Village is much larger than the Zhou Clan from Qili Village, with more clansmen, but in terms of the number of family members alone, the Guan Family doesn’t compare to the Old Zhou Family.

So when Guan Yong entered and saw so many family members, he was momentarily bewildered.

Especially the children, if it weren’t for his good memory, he would surely be confused by everyone.

Guan Yong is thin-skinned, and today he is one of the main figures involved, even with Zhou Silang and Zhou Wulang, two uncles of similar age, accompanying him, he still felt a bit shy.

Daya was quickly pulled into a room to chat by Manbao and the others. Junior Ms.Qian had some private questions to ask her, so she shooed Manbao and the others out.

Sanya turned her head, puzzled, and asked Manbao, “Little aunt, why does aunt-in-law avoid us to talk?”

Manbao just coughed lightly and said solemnly, “Because they are talking about things only adults can discuss, they think we’re too young, so they don’t tell us. But actually, I have a book I want to give to Daya.”

“What book?”

Manbao looked down at Sanya’s eyes, thought for a moment, and then swallowed back his words, saying, “You’ll understand when you learn it.”

Guan Yong and Daya had met before their engagement, and both were very satisfied with each other. They’ve had interactions since the engagement, so they’ve been getting along harmoniously these days.

Knowing that Daya is doing well, Junior Ms.Qian felt at ease.

After the seventh day, the shop in town will reopen. At that time, she and her daughter will go work at the shop together, and they can be together daily again.

The Old Zhou Family’s brothers soon got familiar with the two sons-in-law over some drinks, upon knowing the Guan Family bought a house for the young couple in town, Guan Xin smiled and said, “We live in town too, just nearby, we can visit each other in the future.”

Guan Yong naturally had no objections.

Daya is living better at the Guan Family than she expected, not just because of the shop that accompanied her dowry, but just yesterday she realized how important the books Bai Shan and Bai Erlang gave her were.

Bai Shan attended the Confucian Academy and is now studying at the National University, so his annotations and notes are naturally very valuable. Yesterday, Daya took out the books while organizing her dowry to show Guan Yong.

Guan Yong was astonished, as books are incredibly precious in this era.

Even large families rarely include books in a dowry, let alone small families like theirs.

In his eyes, those books are more valuable than the shop.

Chief Guan was naturally aware of this, which is why he treated Daya kindly, and seeing this, the others in the Guan Family naturally showed Daya more respect.

Both sides placed importance on it, and Guan Yong was tactful, so they stayed for dinner, bidding farewell only when it was nearly dark.

Zhou Xi and Guan Xin also said their goodbyes. She told her mother, “Let me know when Manbao and the others are leaving, and I’ll come to see her off.”

Ms.Qian nodded and agreed.

On the second day, the maternal grandmothers’ visit was concluded, and on the third day, it was time for the wives of the Old Zhou Family to return to their parental homes.

Each family naturally took their own children along. This year, Manbao didn’t go with Junior Ms.Qian back to the Qian Family, but instead went with Bai Shan to the town to pay New Year’s visits to the teacher.

This time, Old Madam Liu also went along.

In the afternoon, when Mr. Zhuang was seeing them out, he looked at Bai Shan and Manbao with a smile.

The two had already guessed what the matter was, and though they maintained serious expressions, they couldn’t help but blush.

Bai Erlang was sitting in the carriage, looking at them both with puzzlement.

He mainly couldn’t understand why they suddenly became bashful, when everything was fine before.

Until the next day, when Bai Shan didn’t come over to play with him as expected, he went to find him, and Mrs. Bai stopped him and said, “Don’t go, the Bai Family is going to propose at the Zhou Family today, no one is home.”

Bai Erlang’s eyes widened, “How can they keep such a big event from me?”

Mrs. Bai laughed, “How is it keeping it from you? Haven’t you known about this for days?”

“I only knew they were considering a marriage alliance, I didn’t know they were deciding on the engagement today.” Bai Erlang turned and ran outside.

Mrs. Bai was anxious, “Where are you going now?”

“To see the commotion.” Bai Erlang ran off, calling back loudly, “I’m their brother, how can I not be there?”

Mrs. Bai stopped her steps, speechless, and turned to Mrs. Bai, saying, “He scared me, I thought he fell for Manbao too.”

Mrs. Bai: …

Mrs. Bai sighed, then said, “Erlang is even older than those two, they’ve gotten engaged, Erlang’s matter can’t be delayed, nor can Dalang’s…”

Thinking of this, Mrs. Bai became anxious and exclaimed sharply, “What have you two been busy with all day? How can you not be concerned about your children’s lifelong matters?”

Mrs. Bai said, “Don’t worry, Mother, today the master took Dalang out. I heard the Chancellor Cheng’s Second Miss from Mianzhou is quite suitable. The other day when we returned from my mother’s family’s place, we stayed in Mianzhou for a night, and the Chancellor Cheng invited the master for drinks, which led to some ideas.”

Mrs. Bai’s eyes lit up, she couldn’t help but sit up straight, saying, “Does this mean Dalang can really marry a daughter from an official family?”

Mrs. Bai smiled, “It’s likely not bad.”

She too found it thrilling, thinking the wait was worthwhile, if it were two years ago, Dalang was just a student at Mianzhou Prefectural Academy, at most they could consider a daughter of a county magistrate.

If they married a concubine, it might as well be a legitimate daughter from a gentry family.

Mrs. Bai was finally pleased, and then said, “We need to hurry with Erlang’s marriage too.”

Mrs. Bai nodded in agreement.

Bai Erlang swiftly ran to the Old Zhou Family, surprisingly finding Mr. Zhuang there.

Standing behind their parents, Bai Shan and Manbao turned to see Bai Erlang arriving, and both signaled him with a wink.

Bai Erlang slowed his pace, looked at Bai Shan, then at Manbao, finally considering they both bore the surname Bai, and stood by Bai Shan.

It was the first time Mr. Zhuang acted as a matchmaker, he glanced at Bai Erlang and continued smiling, proposing Bai Shan’s marriage to Manbao on behalf of the elder Zhou.

Initially, elderly Zhou intended to hesitate once or twice, but seeing Mr. Zhuang in the role of matchmaker, he put away that thought and nodded in agreement with Mr. Zhuang’s proposal.

Then he immediately agreed to Mr. Zhuang’s marriage proposal.

Mr. Zhuang smiled and said, “Today is a good day, since Mr. Zhou has no objections, why not decide it today?”

Old Zhou took a glance at his wife, nodded in agreement.

Old Madam Liu had anticipated this, and was prepared with the engagement gifts.

She reached out to take a box from Nanny Liu and opened it to show them, smiling, “This is a jade Ruyi, it was given to me by my husband when he proposed, handed down from my mother-in-law who brought it from her mother’s family, later passed on to Shanbao’s mother, and now Shanbao is about to be engaged, I’ve retrieved it again.”

The Zhou Family members looked together at the jade Ruyi in the box, dumbstruck, they had never seen such an item, the glossy jade looked very expensive.