The grass in the factory should be plucked

Chapter 88 Asking for Marriage

After Jiang Li finished inspecting the shops, she stayed peacefully in her own house, waiting for Xie Changan to return from the palace.

Only then did the clerks in the shops of Longmen Trading Company realize that their boss was actually a petite and slim girl!

Although she always wore a veil and we didn't know what she looked like, we could vaguely tell that she was a pretty little beauty.

The shops under the name of Jiang Mansion were constantly under pressure from Longmen Trading Company and were on the verge of bankruptcy. Upon hearing the news, they went to report to Yu.

A gleam of light flashed in Yu's eyes, and he immediately had an idea.

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, a matchmaker actually came to the Jiang residence!

"Congratulations, master! Congratulations, master!" The matchmaker laughed so hard that her body shook with laughter.

Manager Liu stopped her at the gate and asked cautiously, "Did you go to the wrong door?"

The matchmaker smiled and said, "I have been a matchmaker for many years and have helped many people find good marriages. How could I make a mistake? I was asked to come and propose marriage to Mr. Jiang of Longmen Trading Company."

Manager Liu frowned and asked, "Which family are you talking about?"

Matchmaker Liu smiled happily, "This is a good family that is hard to find even with a lantern. Master Jiang is so lucky! He is the nephew of the wife of the current Minister of Industry, Mr. Yu."

Manager Liu's face darkened. The wife of the Minister of Works, Yu's nephew? The impoverished Yu family?

Is Yu trying to use the same old trick again? What a vicious heart!

Matchmaker Liu was still talking eloquently: "Although the third son of the Yu family is a concubine's son, the Yu family is a famous family, and it is more than enough for him to marry the great master Jiang! The Yu family is also hiring the first wife, which shows that they value the great master Jiang!"

What this means is that for a merchant's daughter like you, it's a real blessing to be able to marry into the Yu family and become a lady!

Manager Liu sneered, "Madam Yu's nephew? I am from Hangzhou Prefecture. I wonder if Aunt Liu has ever heard of the wealthy Fang family in Hangzhou Prefecture?"

Matchmaker Liu was stunned: "I have lived in the capital for many years, so I naturally don't know what's going on in Hangzhou."

What does this have to do with the Yu family’s marriage?

Manager Liu snorted coldly, "I heard that more than ten years ago, the only daughter of the Fang family married into the residence of Minister Jiang as a co-wife. At that time, she was dressed in red and attracted the attention of the whole city. Unexpectedly, she was tortured to death by Madam Yu just over a year after her marriage. In the end, the huge fortune of the Fang family was all taken by the Jiang family!"

"We, the boss, dare not marry Madam Yu's nephew, for fear of ending up like Miss Fang."

As soon as Manager Liu said this, the crowd watching the excitement was suddenly in an uproar. Isn't this murder for money?

Matchmaker Liu was stunned. How could this be true?

She laughed and said, "This is an old story from more than ten years ago. I'm afraid it has been spread by someone else..."

Manager Liu sneered, "We outsiders don't know what's going on. The fact is that Miss Fang died, the two elders of the Fang family died of depression, and the Fang family's assets all went to the Jiang family in the end!"

The crowd watching was talking about it.

"Isn't this just eating up the entire family?"

"Minister Jiang is a high-ranking official of the third rank. How could he do such a thing?"

"How could this Madam Yu be so vicious? No wonder they say women have the most vicious hearts!"

"I was wondering, even though the Yu family has fallen on hard times, they are still descendants of a famous family. How could they fall for a merchant's daughter? So this is what they were thinking!"

"These wealthy families are really...tsk tsk, they are worse than pigs and dogs!"

Matchmaker Liu's face turned red and white, and she fled in panic.

Aunt Lian was so angry that her eyes turned red, and she wanted to pick up a kitchen knife and fight Yu to the death!

Jiang Li quickly comforted her: "It's New Year's Day, aunt, please don't get angry and get yourself sick! I have plenty of ways to treat them."

She told Manager Liu: "Spread my words. Longmen Trading Company will no longer do business with Jiang Mansion and Yu Mansion."

After hearing the report from Liu the Matchmaker, Yu couldn't help but secretly resent Longmen Trading Company for being ungrateful. They were just a merchant, yet they were so arrogant!

After the New Year, she will have time to deal with them and let them know what it means that the people should not fight against the officials!

Unexpectedly, the Jiang Mansion caught fire that night, before the New Year was over.

Although the fire was not big, the government was not on duty during the New Year, and most officials went to the palace for a banquet on the third day of the New Year. The Jiang Mansion was short-staffed and could not invite the government's fire brigade, so the losses were still considerable.

When Jiang Xiuyuan heard that his house was on fire, he hurried back from the palace banquet, only to see the house in a mess. He was so angry that he wanted to vomit blood. How on earth did Yu manage the family!

This was naturally Jiang Li's work. After she set the fire, she patted her butt and left, going home to take a flower petal bath.

The next day, Xie Changan returned to the mansion, and the old steward Zhou Bo hurriedly reported to him: "Sir, someone is targeting our future wife!"

Xie Changan sneered: "This is what it means that there is a road to heaven but he doesn't take it, and there is no door to hell but you come anyway!"

He changed out of his official uniform, quietly passed over the wall, and asked Xiaoying to go and find Jiang Li.

Soon, Jiang Li flew into his arms like a bird.

"Brother Changan, you're back!"

Xie Changan hugged her tightly and smiled softly, "Did you miss me, little raccoon?"

"Yes, I think about it every day!" Jiang Li's face flushed.

Her undisguised expression of love made his heart feel like it was soaked in a pot of honey, so sweet that it was about to melt.

Xie Changan sat down on a stone bench, held her on his knees, and said with a smile: "I heard that when I was not at home, someone came to propose to you?"

Jiang Li sneered: "My good mother wants to introduce me to her nephew from her mother's side."

Then he would kill her with the same trick he used on her mother, so that he could legitimately take over Longmen Trading Company!

Xie Changan looked ruthless: "How do you want her to die?"

Jiang Li smiled and said, "Don't be in a hurry. It would be too easy for her to kill her like this. I want her to watch how the things she snatched from my mother are lost little by little."

Xie Changan said softly, "I'll take care of everything for you. You don't have to shoulder it all by yourself. In the future, you and I will be husband and wife..." His face flushed slightly, "Isn't your business my business?"

Jiang Li lowered her head shyly and whispered, "I know."

Xie Changan laughed again and said, "I heard that Minister Jiang's house caught fire last night?"

Jiang Li giggled: "It's just a minor punishment and a serious warning."

After her vacation, she would let the fat rat out and let it lead its rat friends to visit the Jiang Mansion every few days. That would be enough to make her cheap father suffer.

Seeing her smirk, Xie Changan couldn't help but scratch her nose: "You mischievous ghost!"

He was also not idle. He asked the informants under the East Factory who were mingling in the market to spread the news, telling how Jiang Xiuyuan had deliberately sought to marry the daughter of a wealthy family in Jiangnan, and how he had conspired with his wife Yu to commit murder and robbery, and how he had taken over the Fang family's property and wiped out the whole family.

Jiang Xiuyuan had no idea that he had become a ruthless "giant rice man" and that Yu had gained a reputation as a "poisonous woman".

"Have you heard? The other day the Yu family wanted to marry the young boss of Longmen Trading Company."

"Perhaps seeing that Longmen Trading Company is making money, that vicious woman Yu wants to repeat her old tricks and use marriage as an excuse to rob people of their money and kill them, right?"

"A wealthy family actually has such a dirty thing going on!"

"That Minister Jiang is not a good person either!"

There was a buzz of discussion in the teahouses and taverns in the capital.

Jiang Xiuyuan was so angry when he heard these rumors that he felt dizzy. He rushed back home and slapped Yu hard in the face: "Look at what you have done!"

Yu was filled with hatred and rushed forward to fight with him: "If you were not useless, I wouldn't be called a vicious woman!"

Jiang Xiuyuan's face was scratched several times, and he was so angry that he was like a Buddha born and two Buddhas ascended to heaven, and he kept shouting that he wanted to divorce this vicious woman.

Old Madam Jiang had to come out to smooth things over, and Jiang Xiuyuan then went to his concubine's yard in a huff.