Within Grand Vista Courtyard's Grand Vista Courtyard at Xie Manor.
Outside the carved nanmu corridor doors, the young descendants of the Nine Great Surnames stood in groups of two and three.
The faint laughter and conversation of the elders drifted from the inner hall, mingling with sandalwood incense as it flowed through the chambers.
"Xie Yuan, why has Young Master Guan not arrived yet?" Zhang Yunzhi had already refilled her cup of Jiangnan Longjing tea three times. "The auspicious hour is almost here."
After Zhang Yunzhi had gone with her father to meet Xie Guan last time, she had returned with him to the Zhang Family.
She was not a frail woman, and she frankly revealed her feelings to her father.
Not only had her father not stopped her, he had said, "If you truly marry him, Yun Zhi, do not rely on the Zhang Family's status to bully him."
"This Xie Guan is no creature of the shallow pond. Do not despise him merely because he now dwells in lowly circumstances. A caged bird may yet await its flight to the heavens; when would a sick dragon lack the day it stirs rain?"
Yet Zhang Yunzhi said, "Your daughter does not admire his prospects. Even if Xie Guan remains an utterly ordinary scholar for his entire life, I would still be willing to treat him with mutual respect across the table."
She could be the young lady of the Zhang Family, but she could also wear a thorn hairpin and a cloth skirt, becoming a wife who supported her husband and taught her children.
Her father and mother both laughed after hearing this, and unexpectedly, both supported her.
Today, Zhang Yunzhi had made up her mind to confess the feelings she had buried deep in her heart all these