In the main hall of the Cheng family, the Qinghui Hall.
Nanny Yu was helping the Princess of Ning change her clothes.
"The Yunying gauze is a bit yellowish and dull. If you don't look closely, you'll only think it's ordinary coarse cloth. Your Highness, you'd better change into it first. It's soft in texture and comfortable to wear. The Princess of the Heir Apparent won't notice."
The Princess of Ning said, "You'd better call me Cousin-in-law and the Prince Cousin from now on. Otherwise, if Wanming sees it, it might cause trouble for Jingnan."
Nanny Yu replied, "Yes."
Her identity was a distant cousin-in-law of Cheng Liqing and was the wife of Uncle Zhong.
Lu Ping, Wu Yao, Zifu... were all their children.
"Lu Ping has already taken the Heir Apparent..."
Nanny Yu hesitated for a while before saying, "Jingnan... he has already taken Jingnan and Wanming to the backyard. After they've sorted themselves out, they'll come to pay their respects to Your Highness... Cousin-in-law."
"What respects? We're just a small family. We don't need so many formalities. But they should really come and pay their respects to you, their cousin-in-law."
The Princess of Ning joked a bit and then asked, "Has my husband gone to bed?"
She had never called the Prince "husband" before. As she said it, she couldn't help laughing.
Nanny Yu also laughed and replied following the Princess's tone, "Cousin is drunk. My old man served him some sobering soup, and he's already gone to bed."
Hearing her words, the Princess of Ning laughed again.
Nanny Yu said, "But just now I saw Zifu going to the Heir Apparent's courtyard. I'm afraid she'll run into the Princess of the Heir Apparent..."
"What is she going there for?"
The Princess of Ning frowned slightly. "This Zifu is really being unreasonable. How can a maid get close to the master right after he's just married a new wife?"
She thought for a while and then sighed, "But Zifu has served Jingnan for many years. There must be some affection between them. You tell her that as long as Jingnan can get married and have children smoothly, I'll make the decision to promote her to a concubine."
In the Princess of Ning's heart, the most important thing was for Xiao Jingnan to get married smoothly and survive his twentieth birthday.
Even though she liked Li Wanming very much, her son was still more important.
As for taking concubines... Well, which man didn't take concubines?
Just like her and the Prince of Ning, although they had a very good relationship, there were still two concubines and several maidservants with special status in the Prince's Mansion.
The problem with Zifu wasn't that she shouldn't hope to be a concubine, but that she shouldn't get close to Xiao Jingnan at this critical moment.
Although Li Wanming and Xiao Jingnan had already had their wedding ceremony, no one could be sure yet whether just having the ceremony would save Xiao Jingnan's life.
Now, there were only a few months left until Xiao Jingnan's twentieth birthday. The Princess of Ning would never allow anyone to make a mistake at this crucial moment.
Nanny Yu said, "Your Highness is so kind. This old servant will definitely pass on the message."
In the backyard, Li Wanming looked at this square courtyard and was quite satisfied.
It was regular and spacious, even a bit bigger than the Tingxue Studio in the Cheng family where she used to live.
Under the east wall of the courtyard, there was an old pear tree. Its strong branches were already showing a hint of new green, with one flower bud after another emerging.
"What's the name of this courtyard?" Li Wanming asked happily.
"It should be that it doesn't have a name yet. How about you give it one, my lady?" Xiao Jingnan replied with a smile.
"Me?" Li Wanming hesitated. "Is that appropriate?"
After all, this was someone else's house, and she was just a guest. How could she just give it a name casually?
"Appropriate."
Xiao Jingnan looked at the old pear tree in the courtyard that was about to bloom and said, "The courtyard you used to live in was called Tingxue Studio. How about naming this one Luoxue Studio? 'The silent falling snow watches the new pears.' How about it?"
"Okay... okay." Li Wanming didn't understand these things. She just thought the name "Luoxue Studio" was quite nice, so she agreed.
She put away her luggage and left Chuntao to organize it slowly in Luoxue Studio. Then she walked out of the courtyard with Xiao Jingnan to pay their respects to Cousin-in-law Cheng.
She had only met his cousin-uncle when they were having drinks at the Li family before.
But now that they were going to stay in this house, they had to pay their respects to the mistress in person.
The inner courtyard had always been the territory of the mistress.
——————
Hearing the maid report that Li Wanming and Xiao Jingnan were coming, the Princess of Ning quickly stood up and swapped places with Nanny Yu.
Now Nanny Yu was the mistress of this family, and she was just a poor relative staying here. Of course, she couldn't sit in the seat of honor anymore.
Xiao Jingnan and Li Wanming came in and paid their respects. Nanny Yu naturally asked some polite questions about whether they were used to living here or not, playing the role of a kind and amiable elder to perfection.
The Princess of Ning and Nanny Yu exchanged a look. Both of them thought there were no flaws.
But unexpectedly, after chatting for a few words, Li Wanming suddenly asked, "Is Cousin-uncle Cheng a vegetable farmer? But why can't I see any place for growing vegetables in this courtyard..."
The faces of the Princess of Ning and Nanny Yu turned pale.
What did she mean?
Vegetable farmers... still needed to grow vegetables?
They had just casually made up an identity back then. Who would have thought they would really have to grow vegetables!
Xiao Jingnan was the first to react and explained, "It's not that there's no place for growing vegetables. It's just that Cousin-uncle's family hasn't started planting yet..."
Li Wanming said in surprise, "Haven't started planting yet? The Spring Equinox has already passed a long time ago!"
Tomorrow was the first day of the third lunar month, and the Grain Rain was just around the corner!
Xiao Jingnan didn't expect Li Wanming to be so familiar with the seasons. "Um... Do we have to start sowing seeds at the Spring Equinox?"
Li Wanming almost jumped up. "Otherwise? When I was in Fujian, my eldest sister would plant some fruits and vegetables in the courtyard. After the first lunar month, we had to start preparing to sow seeds!"
The more diligent farmers would have already picked a round of Chinese toon shoots by this time, but the Cheng family... hadn't even started planting yet!
"I see..."
Xiao Jingnan thought for a moment and then unhesitatingly stood on Li Wanming's side.
"How could you, Cousin-uncle and Cousin-in-law? This is just too lazy!"
"Listen to me. Tomorrow! Tomorrow we'll sow the seeds, or we'll miss the sowing season!"
He then turned to Li Wanming. "However, the seasons in the capital are different from those in Fujian. The weather in the capital is cold, and the ground thaws late. The farming time is also a bit later than in Fujian. There's nothing strange about it."
Li Wanming was half-believing. "Really?"
Xiao Jingnan was extremely sincere. "Really."
Nanny Yu had no choice but to call Lu Ping and Wu Yao over and said through gritted teeth, "Go and tell your father to sow the seeds tomorrow!"
...
After leaving the Qinghui Hall, Li Wanming and Xiao Jingnan walked towards Luoxue Studio. On the way, they happened to meet Uncle Zhong leading a few people walking out of the door.
Li Wanming asked, "Cousin-uncle, where are you going?"
Uncle Zhong glanced at Xiao Jingnan and replied with a bitter face, "We're going to buy vegetable seeds for sowing tomorrow..."
"Buy vegetable seeds?"
Li Wanming was surprised. "Didn't you save any vegetable seeds last year?"
Uncle Zhong was stunned. "We have to save our own vegetable seeds?"
Xiao Jingnan coughed heavily twice. "Get, they meant get! You heard wrong... Cousin-uncle, hurry up and lead them to get the vegetable seeds saved last year..."
Uncle Zhong reacted. "Yes... yes! We'll go and get them right away!"
After saying that, he led a few people and ran away in a hurry.
The more Li Wanming thought about it, the more something seemed wrong.
From the moment she met Xiao Jingnan's parents, there had been something strange everywhere.
The in-laws who waited for others to peel shrimps for them, the spacious and grand mansion, the cousin in gorgeous clothes, the vegetable farmer who didn't farm... and there were two girls standing beside Cousin-uncle, besides Lu Ping and Wu Yao. They looked fair and delicate, not at all like people who were used to doing hard work!
Regarding this, Xiao Jingnan explained like this:
"My cousin-uncle's ancestors used to be high-ranking officials, so they have this big mansion... As for what kind of official, you don't need to know."
"Why did they fall into decline later? Because they're... lazy! Just think about it. If they weren't lazy, would they still not have sown the seeds almost in March?"
"Sell this big mansion to make ends meet? They're... too lazy to sell it!"
"Who are those two girls? Naturally, they're my cousin-uncle's daughters... Yes, just like Zifu, they're all my cousins!"
He had thought that his parents would only bring one personal maid and one bodyguard, but he didn't expect they would bring so many people!
Besides Zifu, they had also brought Caiwei and Qingchuan!
He had no choice but to make up a bunch of nonsense in front of Li Wanming.
After hearing this, Li Wanming was stunned for a while and then sighed, "Your cousin-uncle and cousin-in-law are really good at having children."