Visiting Far and Wide
The old lady relaxed, having been dozing off, but Zhao Ruxi's words immediately roused her: "What?" "Fourth Sister is almost seventeen this year, but her marriage is still undecided. Originally, Eldest Brother arranged a marriage for her, but she wasn't satisfied, so he stopped caring about her. Did you notice today? She looks so resentful, as if everyone owes her a thousand taels of silver."
When the old lady saw them off today, her heart and eyes were filled with her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. How could she possibly pay attention to Zhao Rurui, that illegitimate granddaughter with such an unpleasant personality?
However, upon hearing Zhao Ruxi's words, she frowned. "That won't do. A daughter is like a tree that grows up and leaves home. What if she causes some scandal? Wouldn't that implicate you? I'm free anyway, so I might as well help her arrange a marriage so she can get married as soon as possible."
These days, the reputations of cousins are most easily implicated. If Zhao Rurui does anything out of line, not only will the unmarried Zhao Ruxi and Zhao Ruyu be affected, but also her married sisters will be impacted.
Originally, the old lady didn't want to get involved, and Lady Zhu was also annoyed by Zhao Rurui's unrealistic idea of marrying into a high-ranking family despite being nothing. In addition, Zhao Rurui was not very old, and Zhao Ruyu was as cunning as a sieve. In order to ensure that she could marry into the Marquis of Pingnan's Residence smoothly, they would keep a close eye on Zhao Rurui and prevent her from doing anything foolish. Therefore, the two of them ignored the matter.
Hearing Zhao Ruxi's description of Zhao Rurui, the old lady felt that things couldn't continue like this.
Zhao Ruxi originally intended to talk about Zhao Rurui first, and then bring up Zhao Ruyu's matter. Unexpectedly, her grandmother suddenly found something for her to do.
The worst thing for a person is boredom and emptiness, because that makes it easy for them to overthink. Having something to do would probably be good for Grandma too.
Therefore, she did not stop her.
"And Zhao Ruyu, I don't know how things are going with the Marquis of Pingnan. I'm worried something might happen to her. So if you and Mother have any informants in the second branch of the family, could you ask her (or him) to keep an eye on things over there and report to us immediately if anything happens?" she said.
"Yes, your mother has them, and so do I." The old lady patted Zhao Ruxi's hand. "When you were younger, your mother and I didn't want you to be exposed to these things. Now that you're older and will be married, you should know a little about these private matters of the inner quarters. Let's not talk about harming others, but at least don't let others harm you."
Then, she not only told Zhao Ruxi about the second wife's affairs, but also about the spies she had planted in the third wife's affairs.
Zhao Ruxi was somewhat taken aback upon hearing this.
It should be noted that the second and third branches of the family now have very few servants. Many of them are trusted confidants of Lady Wei and Lady Su.
But the old lady and Lady Zhu were shrewd; they had managed to plant at least four or five spies in each household. There were spies from the master's side, spies from the mistress's side, maids who did the cleaning and sweeping, maids who served the household, and even the housekeeper's wife.
The old lady spent her entire life in the inner quarters of the house, inheriting many of the family's power struggles from her mother, and having fought her own battles for decades, she was extremely experienced.
Now that his granddaughter had piqued his interest, he began to impart all his knowledge to her, eager to make her an expert in palace intrigue as soon as possible.
It was Matron Jin ruthlessly interrupted the enthusiastic conversation between Grandma and Fifth Miss: "Madam, Fifth Miss, it's getting late. If we delay any longer, Madam will get sleepy and won't be able to sleep. We can't finish talking about this in a short time. There's plenty of time later. Let Madam tell the young lady slowly. There's no need to rush."
"Yes, yes, not just me, your Matron Jin is also full of experience. If you want to hear it, we'll tell you slowly later." The old lady seemed to have found a purpose in life and said to Zhao Ruxi with great enthusiasm.
Zhao Ruxi nodded vigorously. "Okay, I will study hard."
The principles are all the same; power struggles within a family or in the palace are all essentially struggles. After listening for a while, it all boils down to one sentence: how to use underhanded tactics when others aren't paying attention.
After the imperial examinations, she will enter officialdom. Learning these skills will surely come in handy. Just as her grandmother said, she should not harm others, nor should she let others scheme against her.
Next, Zhao Ruxi read books while listening to the old lady, Matron Jin, and others impart their experience in domestic power struggles, all while keeping an eye on the movements of the second branch of the family.
The old lady no longer stayed at home, but went around visiting friends and old acquaintances to see if there was a suitable marriage prospect for Zhao Rurui.
Of course, she wasn't doing good deeds anonymously. When she went out, she took Zhao Rurui with her so that people could see Zhao Rurui's character and appearance.
Zhao Rurui was quite pretty, but lacked poise. In addition, she was not only born into a concubine's family with no social standing or background, but she was also raised by that woman, Lady Wei. Not to mention wealthy and powerful families, even ordinary families would be reluctant to marry her.
Therefore, after running around for more than a month, until Fu Yunkai and Mu Qingqiang got engaged, Zhao Rurui still couldn't sell her a job.
The old lady was very tired. When she returned, she said to Zhao Ruxi, "We've been to seven or eight families, and they were all families I had chosen that were of average background and had many descendants. Even if these families don't have any promising descendants, surely some of their less successful sons from concubines' branches could be a good match for Miss Rui?"
"Ha." She sneered. "Most people look down on her. And when someone does, she finds fault with them the moment she asks about them or meets them. To put it bluntly, she should take a good look at herself. It's better for someone to marry a daughter from a respectable, humble family than to marry someone raised by a murderer like her."
"Anyway, I'm not going to get involved in her affairs anymore," she waved her hand and said. "Because of her, I've been shamelessly going around visiting people everywhere lately; I've really lost all face."
If it weren't for Zhao Ruxi's current success and Zhao Yuanxun's appointment as the Vice Prefect of Gusu, where everyone treats her politely and praises her son and granddaughter for their achievements, she wouldn't have taken Zhao Rurui to so many homes.
She's not the kind of warm-hearted, busybody old woman. Wouldn't it be better to just sit at home, drink tea, eat snacks, and admire the flowers?
Zhao Ruxi smiled, pursing her lips.
She knew that the old lady only went out for a walk because she felt the house was empty. It wasn't entirely for Zhao Rurui's sake.
"Let's just leave it at that. I think she's come to terms with reality. The imperial examinations are coming up soon, and there will be new successful candidates. We can ask my elder brother to arrange another one for her, and I don't think she'll object then," Zhao Ruxi said.
The old lady nodded and asked, "How's your reading going? Haven't you been going to those teachers to read their articles lately?"
"Yes, I did go. But I didn't visit in person; instead, I had a servant deliver the completed essay to the teacher," Zhao Ruxi said. "I've read the book several times already."
The old lady was then relieved.
After dinner, Zhao Ruxi returned to her courtyard. A short while later, Qingfeng brought Zhao Ruxi a letter. It was sent by Xiao Lingyan and contained information about the Fu Family's recent situation.