Therefore, three days later, the Xun, Ding, and Zhuo Sanshang Families all sent people to contact Dou Xi, indirectly agreeing to Meng Zhao's proposal.
However, they were only willing to act quietly and did not want to make a great fanfare of it.
Meng Zhao was quite understanding about this. After all, the three great families were all people of standing, and they had been influential in Lingwu City for many years. Sending a woman over all at once might be easy enough to say, but not so pleasant to hear. Keeping things low-key was better.
Thus, after obtaining Meng Zhao's approval, Dou Xi prepared three generous gifts and visited each household in turn, bringing the daughters of the three families back to Meng Family Village. As for red bridal sedans, firecrackers ringing in unison, and citywide celebrations, none of that was to be seen.
A concubine was still a concubine. Her status depended entirely on the male master's wishes, as well as the future principal wife's opinion.
Meng Zhao had asked for the three women not because he truly harbored any designs on them, but merely for power and profit. Naturally, he would not seek trouble for himself by elevating the three women and adding fuel to the fire in his inner courtyard.
The entire process went smoothly, and no special news spread out. Even if there had been any, the three families had jointly suppressed it, preventing it from circulating.
The only ripples probably came from the three women in Meng Zhao's inner courtyard—Liang Muqiu, Han Lu, and Zhu'er—who needed some sweet words from him to soothe them.
Han Lu and Zhu'er both had lowly statuses. The former was Meng Zhao's maidservant, while the latter was Tan Cai'er's maid. Neither displayed any particular resentment toward Meng Zhao taking