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墨書 Inktalez
Becoming in-laws with the Eighth Prince, Qin Yizhi had no objections.
Despite his serious demeanor and imposing presence, he genuinely cared for his daughter and always believed that she was worthy of marrying into noble families.
He promptly sent a letter to the royal residence, subtly indicating his consent to the marriage.
Zhao Zichang was naturally very pleased. The Eighth Prince acted decisively and quickly dispatched a matchmaker, finalizing the engagement between the two families.
Qin Xiu was still young, and Zhao Zichang was not old either; there was no need for the families to rush into a marriage alliance. It would be best to wait another two years before considering this matter. However, Qin Yizhi had some concerns, as the troubles facing the Qin Family had not yet been fully resolved. After much deliberation, he decided to let Xiu marry next year.
There were no issues on the royal side; the Eighth Prince was eager for his son to bring home a bride sooner rather than later.
However, this meant that the Qin Family would have little time to prepare the dowry.
Unlike families that had long been preparing dowries for their daughters, the Qin Family had to start from scratch—crafting furniture, making jewelry, embroidering wedding gowns, and creating various small items. There was a lot to do.
If they had two years of buffer time, it would be more manageable, but now there was less than a year left to get everything ready. Even two years would be tight under these circumstances.
Once the wedding date was set, Qin Yizhi began to worry.
Since Xiu would be marrying into the royal residence, her dowry could not be too meager; otherwise, it would reflect poorly on them. Qin Yizhi decided to include all the silks and fine fabrics, as well as porcelain ornaments gifted by officials, into his daughter's dowry.
In addition to these items, it would be necessary to provide a property as well.
In Kaifeng City, housing was the most expensive asset. If a young lady did not have property when she married, no matter how valuable her other gifts were, it would still lack prestige in her husband's family.
"If it were up to me, we can't afford a house in the inner city, but we could buy a decent residence in the outer city along with some farmland. This way, Xiu can save some money; otherwise, I'm afraid she won't even be able to command the Lady-in-Waiting or servants in the royal residence."
Qin Yizhi sat at the table with both hands holding a teacup, looking serious.
Although he didn't see any problem with his daughter marrying into the Eighth Prince's Mansion, it was still royal family; once she married over there, he felt somewhat insecure about her standing.
Qin Yaru nodded but found it amusing. Once Xiu married over there, she would become a noble consort and eventually a princess who would manage affairs. With only one heir in the Eighth Prince's Mansion, how unreasonable could those Ladies-in-Waiting and servants be to treat her poorly?
They were not eager to curry favor with the show; even if the rules of the royal residence were strict, who would dare offend the future lady of the house?
Qin Yizhi could not think of these things for a moment and was silently calculating how to prepare a decent and impressive dowry for the show, so that no one would look down on them.
In this day and age, marrying off a daughter is truly difficult. Sometimes, in order to prepare a dowry, a family's living standards can drop significantly. Many families with daughters raise their children and wish they could sell them off early. Poorer families rely on marrying off their daughters to exchange for brides for their sons, not only because they need wives for their sons but also because they simply cannot afford such a large dowry.
"The gifts from the officials are still somewhat practical, but I can't use all of them as dowry."
Qin Yizhi pressed his forehead. Looking at Qin Yaru made him even more troubled. He had one son and two daughters; he couldn't deplete the family fortune just for the show. The son was fine; as a man, he could save money to marry a wife, and he wouldn't be able to contribute much. However, he had to do his best for his daughters' dowries.
Having been away from home for so many years, Qin Yizhi felt guilty towards his children. Now that he had endured hardships, he naturally wanted to give his children the best of everything.
However, the Qin family had fallen into disrepair over the years. Although they were not completely destitute now, preparing a dowry suitable for an ordinary family was still more than enough. But when it came to marrying into the royal residence, an ordinary dowry simply wouldn't do. Even if it couldn't compare to other noble families, it at least had to be presentable.
Qin Yizhi tossed and turned in bed, sighing repeatedly for several nights without sleeping well. This made Qin Xiu feel shy yet helpless; she couldn't care about being reserved anymore and directly approached her father: "Daddy, given our family's situation, it's only natural that we can't come up with such a large dowry. The Eighth Prince is a reasonable person and won't hold it against us."
In her view, if the royal residence were to fuss over such trivial matters, why would she bother marrying into it? She might as well call off the engagement and let them marry those wealthy young ladies with substantial dowries.
Just as Qin Yizhi was troubled about where to find good wood at a low price to make furniture for his daughter, Gao Feng brought him a large amount of quality timber.
There was rosewood, pear wood, and all sorts of other materials available at half the market price. It was said to have been obtained from the inner court. Qin Yaru did not stand on ceremony; she accepted the items into storage and paid him before informing her father.
In addition to that, Gao Feng had also cleverly retrieved most of the dowry left by Qin Yaru's mother from when the Qin family was confiscated years ago.
When the Qin family was raided, most of their mother Mei family's dowry was taken away. Later on, much of what remained in Qin Yaru's hands was lost as well; all that was left was a small portion. Whenever Qin Yizhi thought of this matter, his heart would ache greatly. At this moment, however, he saw those combs, mirrors, various hair ornaments used daily by his wife, and even some jade pieces that were often admired—all laid out before him—he could no longer hold back his tears.
Gao Feng's efforts were truly remarkable; although it must have taken considerable effort and at such a critical time he had to allocate manpower for this task, it was commendable. The results were absolutely good. Previously, Qin Yizhi treated him politely as if he were an outsider; now his gaze towards him was almost akin to calling him a worthy son-in-law.
Qin Yizhi was not being opportunistic; he wasn't selling his daughter for some material goods. He was a wise man—if a man is willing to go through such trouble for his daughter, his intentions are clear. With Qin Yaru marrying into the Gao family, she likely wouldn't suffer any grievances.
Qin Yizhi wasn't foolish either; how could he push away such an excellent son-in-law?
Qin Yaru didn't think there was anything wrong with troubling Gao Feng either; if she were overly polite, it might make him uncomfortable instead.
Qin Wenyuan was also busy. He took out his savings and bought a house for each of his two younger sisters, both located in the outer city, though not far from the inner city. Recently, there had been a fire that destroyed a large number of homes. While many common people were rebuilding their houses on the same site, some families with sufficient funds decided to sell their severely damaged properties instead of restoring them.
The land prices in those areas were not too high. Qin Wenyuan spent all his accumulated savings and was able to purchase a large adjacent plot of land.
Although only remnants of walls remained, Kaifeng had expensive land, and building houses was not particularly difficult. Moreover, having burned down was not necessarily a bad thing; it allowed for the construction of new houses according to his sisters' preferences.
"Since we're building a new house, we shouldn't use wooden structures. After a big fire, our assets would be halved," Qin Yaru said as she wandered around, not particularly fond of the buildings in Kaifeng City. There were too many wooden structures, and even those made of bricks and stones contained a lot of wooden elements.
Many wealthier families had houses that looked quite exquisite at first glance, elegant even, but their practicality was lacking.
Unfortunately, Qin Young Lady herself did not understand architecture, and neither did Gao Feng. In the end, it was Qin Yizhi who took charge and hired a scholar skilled in this area to draw up the design plans.
As Qin Yaru imagined, constructing a completely brick-and-stone structure was unlikely here. It wasn't that it couldn't be done; rather, people simply didn't like it and found it unattractive. Ultimately, they could only build a half-brick-and-half-wood structure, putting some effort into fire prevention.
Qin Yaru thought about it; she herself wasn't fond of those dull brick houses either. As long as fire prevention measures were well implemented, the houses designed by professionals would still be beautiful and practical.
However, many of Qin Young Lady's scattered suggestions were mostly adopted, such as installing heated floors. Although expensive, without some heating measures during winter in Kaifeng, people could truly freeze to death.
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