Chapter 283 Blind Date Incident

Chapter 283 Blind Date Incident

Chapter 283 Blind Date Incident
Chang'an, Xiao Cui's mansion.

The Cui family of Boling is known as one of the five surnames and seven noble families in the world. Naturally, the family is large, with branches and leaves spread all over the place and many descendants.

In Chang'an, the Cui Shuo branch was the main one, and they were doing quite well. They produced two princesses, one was the princess of Qin Yang Jun, and the other was the princess of Henan Yang Zhao.

Cui Shuo has passed away. He had six sons in his lifetime. Among them, the youngest son, Cui Hongzhou, is currently serving as the Minister of the Imperial Household.

Cui Hongzhou also had three sons and two daughters. The eldest daughter was Cui Yu and the youngest daughter was Cui Mei.

Cui Hongzhou's official residence was located in Lanlingfang, covering an area of ​​about five acres. Everyone called it Xiao Cui Mansion.

At this moment, on the grass in a corner of the inner courtyard of the mansion, Cui Mei was lying on the ground like a cat, searching around. She took out three spare rubies to play with, but one was missing. After thinking about it, she realized that it had fallen in this area.

Cui Yu came over and advised: "Those conspicuous rubies can be seen at a glance. There is no point in looking for them like this!"

Cui Mei cried, "It's possible that the ants thought it was a pomegranate seed and moved it into their nest!"

"Forget it! I'll give you one."

"No! I must find it."

Cui Yu was about to ask if the baby had been picked up by someone, but she saw the housekeeper, Granny Li, waving at her.

She walked up and asked with a smile, "Granny Li, is there anything wrong?"

"Your father asked you to go to the VIP Hall."

Cui Yu frowned. What was he going to do in the VIP hall?
"Any important guests?"

"I don't know, but your father told you to hurry up."

Seeing that his sister was still searching pitifully, Cui Yu could only shake his head and quickly walked towards the courtyard.

When he arrived at the VIP Hall, he saw his father and a young man sitting there. Cui Yu was a little hesitant, but still walked into the hall out of politeness.

"Daddy, what do you want from me?"

Cui Hongzhou smiled and introduced his daughter, "This is Xincheng County Duke Yuwen Shiji, the second son of General Yuwen. He is currently serving as a Thousand Cattle Officer in the Imperial Palace. He is only twenty years old."

Cui Yu's face changed, she suddenly understood, and immediately said coldly: "Father, my daughter has something important to do, I will leave first."

She turned and left, and Cui Hongzhou shouted anxiously: "Yu'er, Yu'er!"

Cui Yu ignored his father and walked away.

Cui Hongzhou was helpless and smiled bitterly at Yuwen Shiji: "The girl is a little shy, I hope Master Yuwen will forgive me!"

Yuwen Shiji smiled and said, "In fact, I have seen your daughter a long time ago, and I have always thought about her. I hope your uncle can speak well of me in front of your daughter."

"Okay! Okay! Today's blind date is approved."

Yuwen Shiji was overjoyed and asked immediately, "Excuse me, uncle, when can I get married?"

Nacai includes Nacai and Wenming, which are the prelude to the wedding, followed by Naji, which is the engagement with a gift, and then Nazheng, the announcement of the date and the welcoming of the bride.

However, due to the social unrest during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, it was unrealistic to continue following the six rituals, so the six rituals were no longer used. People would just bow to each other before entering the bridal chamber, and even famous families kept their weddings simple.

It was not until the establishment of the Sui Dynasty that weddings began to be restored. The Crown Prince performed the six rituals, while the nobles and ministers adopted the four rituals, merging the "Nacai" and "Wenming" (meaning to accept the marriage proposal), and the "Nazheng" and "Gaoqi" (meaning to announce the date of marriage).

Ordinary people were even more simple, with only three ceremonies: Nacai, Nazheng and Qinying, which meant matchmaking, giving dowry and welcoming the bride.

Cui Hongzhou stroked his beard and smiled, "The day after tomorrow is a good date, so let's set it for the day after tomorrow!"

Yu Wenshi was afraid that the other party would go back on his word, so he quickly stood up and saluted, "Junior, take your leave!"

Cui Hongzhou ordered the housekeeper to send Yuwen Shiji out of the house, and he went to the inner house to settle accounts with his daughter.

In fact, as early as ten days ago, Yuwen Shu asked Liu Du, the Minister of Rites, to propose to Cui Hongzhou on behalf of his second son. Cui Hongzhou agreed immediately, but this agreement only allowed the other party to formally propose.

Proposing marriage and proposing marriage are two different things. Proposing marriage is also called discussing marriage, which allows the matchmaker to test whether the other party is willing to marry his daughter to his son, so as to avoid the embarrassment of being rejected by the other party when proposing formally.

Once the marriage proposal is accepted, the next step is to enter the six-ritual process. The first step is to offer the bride price, which is the formal proposal.

But the Sui Dynasty respected women more, so there was another step before the formal proposal, which was a blind date. Young men and women had to meet each other. In fact, parents also wanted to meet the young people, mainly to prevent the other party from having disabilities.

Cui Hongzhou's daughter is both talented and beautiful, and her beauty is quite famous. Even Emperor Yang Jian is a little tempted. He planned to recruit her into the palace last year, but her age did not meet the standard. Although Cui Yu is old enough this year, Yang Jian has no intention of doing so because of his excessive indulgence in sex and his poor health.

The Cui family has a grown-up daughter who is extremely beautiful, so naturally there are many admirers of her. However, Cui Hongzhou is the first hurdle she cannot pass, so he politely refuses them one by one.

Until the Yuwen family sent someone to propose marriage, Cui Hongzhou did not set his sights on Yuwen Shu, but on his son Yuwen Shiji.

Yuwen Shiji was a famous handsome man in Chang'an, as handsome as Pan An, and he was also the son of Yuwen Shu, so he had a promising future. Cui Hongzhou finally agreed to the Yuwen family's proposal. He thought his daughter would be very happy, after all, only Li Min could compare to such a handsome man, and which girl would not like him? Unexpectedly, his daughter turned a displeased face and walked away, which made Cui Hongzhou lose face.

He hurried into the backyard, but saw his little daughter Cui Mei lying on the ground looking for something?
"Xiaomei, what are you looking for?"

"My things fell, don't worry about it, Daddy."

Cui Hongzhou suddenly felt as if he had stepped on something, which hurt his foot a little, so he bent down to pick it up, and it turned out to be a ruby.

"Xiaomei, are you looking for this?"

Cui Mei saw the ruby ​​in her father's hand and cheered, "So you are here, Daddy, give it to me now!"

Cui Hongzhou was about to give it to his daughter when he suddenly felt something was wrong. He leaned in to take a closer look and gasped. He thought it was a low-grade ruby ​​that the little girl played with, but when he looked closely, it turned out to be a top-grade ruby, the color of pigeon blood, as pure as water, without a trace of impurities. This ruby ​​would cost at least five or six hundred strings of cash, and it might not even be available.

Cui Hongzhou took a quick glance and found that his daughter also had a ruby ​​bracelet on her wrist. It seemed that his eldest daughter also had one on her wrist. He originally thought it was worthless, but now he was a little shocked. Could it be the same?
When his daughter reached out her hand, he grabbed her wrist and looked carefully at the ruby ​​bracelet on her wrist. He was stunned. They were exactly the same. Fifteen or sixteen exactly the same top-quality rubies. The price was not simply the quantity multiplied by the unit price. The price was more than several times higher.

This string of coins would cost at least 20,000 or 30,000 strings of cash, and it cannot be bought even if you have money. It seems that the eldest daughter also has one in her hand.

"Xiao Mei, where did this ruby ​​come from?" Cui Hongzhou asked anxiously.

Cui Mei pouted and said nothing. Cui Hongzhou became anxious and said quickly: "This bracelet is worth tens of thousands of coins. You have to tell Dad that he will repay the favor."

When Cui Mei heard that it was worth tens of thousands of taels, she was also frightened. After a while, she said, "Brother Xiao gave it to me!"

"Which Brother Xiao?"

"That's it. That's Brother Xiao, the General of the Right Wuhou Guard!"

Xiao Xia! It turned out to be him.

Cui Hongzhou asked again: "Did he also give the necklace on your sister's hand?"

Cui Mei nodded, snatched the ruby ​​from her father's hand while he was not paying attention, turned around and ran away.

Cui Hongzhou was completely stunned. He already understood why his daughter had that attitude towards Yuwen Shiji. It turned out that she had someone in her heart, and it must be Xiao Xia.

They have reached the point where they would give such expensive jewelry to each other, and even their younger sister gets a share, which shows that their relationship is very close.

Cui Hongzhou was suddenly extremely anxious. The emperor's health was failing and the deadline was within the next two years. Once the emperor passed away and the prince ascended the throne, with the prince's mind, he would definitely kill Prince Jin. None of Prince Jin's family would be able to escape, including Xiao Xia. Wouldn't his daughter become a widow?

He was originally worried that his niece would become a widow if she married Yang Zhao, but he didn't expect that his own daughter would follow in his footsteps. How could this be possible? Absolutely not!

Cui Hongzhou quickened his pace and ran towards his eldest daughter's embroidery building.

Cui Hongzhou found his eldest daughter, tried to control his emotions, and said softly: "Isn't this Yuwen Shiji good? He is a famous handsome man in Chang'an. Many girls want to marry him. He has chosen you. You should be very happy. Why are you so rude to others?"

"I don't understand what my father means by asking me to see him?" Cui Yu said with a cold face.

"Yuwen Shu sent someone to propose marriage, and I agreed to discuss the marriage. Today is your blind date. Yuwen Shiji likes you very much."

"But I don't like him!"

Cui Yu said firmly: "Since it is a blind date, then I will tell my father clearly that I don't like him. If the blind date is unsuccessful, don't mention this marriage anymore."

Cui Hongzhou couldn't hold it in any longer and said angrily, "Blind dates are not just for you, but more importantly for my parents. If I like you, then we can discuss the marriage. Your attitude is not important."

"I'm the one getting married, why doesn't my attitude matter? Father, please respect your daughter's choice!"

"Have you ever respected me?"

Cui Hongzhou finally roared, "You and Xiao Xia were together, did you ask me for my consent? You were a single man and a single woman, did you ask me how I felt about it?"

"We are not alone together. I am with my sister. Young Master Xiao and I are innocent. We are just normal friends. He will ask the elders to propose to my father soon."

"I won't agree to that!"

Cui Hongzhou was furious, and pointed at his daughter with a trembling finger and said, "I have already promised Yuwen Shu. The Yuwen family will come to propose marriage the day after tomorrow. Don't dream about Xiao Xia and Xiao Dong. Your husband is Yuwen Shiji, no one else!"

"Father, I don't agree!"

"You have to agree even if you don't want to. It's not your turn to decide!"

Cui Hongzhou slammed the door and went downstairs, shouting at the housekeeper, "Lock the door and don't let her go out again!"

Cui Yu rushed downstairs and shouted, "I would rather die than marry that man!"

Cui Hongzhou snorted heavily and walked away quickly.

(End of this chapter)