Chapter 52: Joyful Eyebrows, Not for the Awakening of Zhe
When Uncle Li brought Wang Jingzhe into the main hall, Li Lanrong and Mao Qingshui looked through him with scrutiny.
Wang Jingzhe was still dressed the same way, with cloth shoes with thousand-layer soles under a long robe and an old canvas bag slung across his body that made a "jingling" sound when he walked. Apart from this, he had no other possessions. His face was expressionless and his appearance was ordinary, looking like an old pedant who was not in proportion to his age.
Li Lanrong and Mao Qingshui looked at each other at the same time, and naturally a hint of disappointment flashed across their eyes. It was just as expected, words like outstanding and the best among men could not be used to describe him.
Wang Jingzhe stood in front of the two men, then bowed and saluted: "Chaoge, Wang Jingzhe of the Wang family greets the head of the Longxi Li family."
Li Lanrong gestured with his hand, then told Uncle Li to serve the tea. A moment later, a blue and white porcelain cup filled with steaming hot tea was brought to Wang Jingzhe. He picked up the cup and took a sip. A refreshing fragrance instantly spread from his throat to his stomach, leaving him with an endless aftertaste.
Mao Qingshui smiled and said, "From your posture, you seem to be a frequent tea drinker. How about this tea?"
Wang Jingzhe smacked his lips and said honestly, "Good tea!"
"The tea is the best Dongting Biluochun before the Ming Dynasty. It is picked around the time of Grain Rain every year during the Spring Equinox. A young girl picks the tea with her red lips. They are all the tenderest. From killing the green leaves, rolling and kneading the tea into balls to drying, they are all handled by old masters with decades of experience. This Biluochun produces about 180 kilograms every year. After the new tea was fried this year, several big bosses in Jiangnan asked someone to tell them that they wanted three or five kilograms, but they had no way to get it, because that tea garden has been planted by our Li family for hundreds of years. We only drink it and don't sell it. We specialize in entertaining guests for the Li family. The tea for making tea is taken from the Hupao Spring in Hangzhou and sent back home by a special person. We don't use ordinary water." Mao Qingshui paused, stretched out his finger and pointed at the cup in Wang Jingzhe's hand and said, "A set of blue and white porcelain from the Tang and Song dynasties was auctioned at Sotheby's a few years ago. It is said that several members of the European royal family were also present at the time and wanted this set of tea sets, but in the end the Li family was lucky enough to get it."
Wang Jingzhe sighed in his heart, I really don’t want to give you a thumbs up for your pretense. In my Wang family’s cabinet, I have several kilograms of Dahongpao picked from the mother tree in Wuyi Mountain. Who am I bragging to?
Wang Jingzhe's lips twitched a few times before he managed to utter a word: "I'm flattered."
Mao Qingshui gathered her hair and said calmly, "What I'm telling you is, if you marry our Li family's daughter, do you think you can give her the quality of life that seems ordinary to us but is unattainable to others? The Li family's daughter is used to this quality of life. If she changes to a different lifestyle, she might not be used to it. So I'll be frank with you. I don't think the marriage arranged by my old man and your elders is a good idea."
Wang Jingzhe didn't expect to hear such words on the first day they met, and he was at a loss for words for a moment.
Mao Qingshui looked at the bewildered Wang Jingzhe and planted another evaluation of him in his mind: "He has never seen the world and is dull."
"It seems like a good story to be arranged by birth? Well, this is just an outdated rule from the old society decades ago. There is no such plot in the real world." Mao Qingshui suddenly raised his voice and said, "Isn't the marriage arranged by our old man and your elders many years ago a bit ridiculous? What do you think?"
Wang Jingzhe said "oh" and uttered two words: "Breaking the engagement?"
"Hehe..." Mao Qingshui laughed, shook his head and said, "Although I don't think highly of this marriage, after all, it was decided by the old man back then. We, a big family, will never go back on our word "
Wang Jingzhe was stunned and was a little slow to react. He was confused by the meaning of the other party's words.
"Oh, by the way, what kind of marriage ? Which one of our family are you going to marry?"
"The granddaughter of the Li family, the eldest lady of the Li family..."
"Ah, yes, yes, yes, it's the eldest granddaughter of the Li family, Miss Li." Mao Qingshui nodded and said to Uncle Li, "Uncle Li, go and bring Miss Li over."
Wang Jingzhe: “???”
Hug me over?
The use of this word made Wang Jingzhe look confused.
A moment later, Uncle Li came into the main hall holding a little girl about six or seven years old, who was licking a lollipop .
Mao Qingshui pointed at the child in Uncle Li's arms and said, "This is the eldest granddaughter of the Li family, Miss Li Xianghe."
Wang Jingzhe's expression changed from surprise to shock and finally to contempt and ridicule. He looked at Li Lanrong and Mao Qingshui and said, "You also said that the Li family is a big and powerful family, but the way you broke off the engagement really shocked me. When my father and your elder decided on the marriage more than 20 years ago, it should be the one who was about to give birth. If you calculate the time, she should be in her twenties now, right? Other people's pregnancy lasts for ten months, but you can't tell you that it takes more than ten or twenty years? Nezha's mother is not that outrageous..."
Mao Qingshui's expression suddenly turned cold, and he said calmly: "The one chosen at that time was the eldest granddaughter of the Li family, so her surname should be Li, right? But I'm sorry, the daughter I gave birth to didn't have the surname Li. She took my surname, so she can't be considered the eldest granddaughter of the Li family. This one is!"
When Mao Qingshui said the surname Li, he emphasized these two words very much.
Wang Jingzhe opened his mouth in astonishment, and after a long while he laughed a few times and said, "I understand, I understand, this is the Li family's version of the cat-for-prince drama."
"Or you can wait for about ten years, until the eldest daughter of the Li family comes of age, and then marry her?" Mao Qingshui said lightly.
Wang Jingzhe stood up suddenly, looked at the two men and said, "Have you made up your mind?"
Mao Qingshui frowned and said: "You are not worthy of the girl from the Li family"
"There is something you may not know. The promises made by our Chaoge Wang family are only for us not to take, and no one dares to refuse to give..."
"Young man, you are too confident." Li Lanrong spoke for the first time and scolded Wang Jingzhe.
"Hehe..." Wang Jingzhe smiled, flicked his robe and turned away.
When he reached the door, Wang Jingzhe suddenly turned around and said, "I will come in person to cancel this marriage in a month. I hope you can accept it then."
Mao Qingshui waved his hand and said, "It's up to you."
“You will bear the consequences at your own risk!” Wang Jingzhe sneered and looked at the brows of the two. Li Lanrong and Mao Qingshui both had slightly reddened eyebrows, which indicated that there would be happiness in the family. “Before I cancel the engagement, your daughter will not be able to get married.”
If the right eyebrow of the parents is rosy, it means the son is getting married, and the left eyebrow is getting married for the daughter, which is commonly known as "joyful eyebrows".
When Wang Jingzhe first met Li Lanrong and Mao Qingshui, he thought they were so happy because of his proposal, but now it seems that Miss Li is already taken?
