Chapter 110: 110. Discussing Marriage
Chapter 110: 110. Discussing Marriage
Lie Fan returned to his residence where Diao Chan and Ying Yue were waiting for him in the garden, Lie Fan took them to eat lunch together as it was time and he hoped that in the future everything would go as smoothly as today. Lie Fan doesn't know that shortly, dark clouds will enshroud his dream as something unexpected always happens.
Lie Fan spends lunchtime together with his family, he begins to think about marrying Ying Yue. He wanted to give Diao Chan a wife title also, but according to the culture and customs of this time he could only have one wife and the rest were concubines.
No matter if he called her the second wife, the outside world still se her as a concubine, and Diao Chan of course knew this. That's why Wang Yun and Cai Yong were reluctant in marrying their daughter to him, Cai Yong stay tried while Wang Yun keep pushing for it subtly until he blundered.
Lie Fan after lunch met with his mother and brought this up, Yu Yan agreed with Lie Fan's intention to marry Ying Yue and told him that Diao Chan would understand. She also told him that what matters to Diao Chan, in the end, is how Lie Fan and his family perceive her so he doesn't have to care about how the outside talks.
Yu Yan was happy that Lie Fan decided to marry Ying Yue this year, but seeing as Ying Yue had lost her family at a young age Yu Yan prepared her dowry for her so she would not be dishonored. For the betrothal gifts, Yu Yan and Lie Shang will prepare them together for Lie Fan as only parents were allowed to do this.
Yu Yan told Lie Fan to talk about this with Ying Yue and Diao Chan, telling him to leave while she handled everything perfectly and sent a letter to his father to inform him of his intention.
Lie Fan can only shake his head at Yu Yan's enthusiasm, he leaves Yu Yan's quarters and goes towards the Embroidery room where they know Ying Yue and Diao Chan always spend their time in there after lunch.
Ying Yue and Diao Chan are now doing some embroidering together happily while talking about some advice they had from Cai Wenji, about how to be more elegant and proper as a lady of the household should be. They were talking when Lie Fan entered the room, they were surprised and then happy as Lie Fan decided to spend time together.
Lie Fan takes a seat between them, he is sweating because he doesn't know how to say it without hurting Diao Chan's feelings. Diao Chan will probably understand and should have known as this was learned by her since young under Wang Yun's tutelage, but it doesn't mean she will not be hurt when she heard this.
Ying Yue: "Husband what's wrong? Why are you sweating so much? Today isn't that hot compared to yesterday."
Lie Fan: "Yue'er and Chan'er, I came here to talk about marriage with the two of you."
Ying Yue+Diao Chan:" Marriage?!"
Ying Yue and Diao Chan began to blush heavily, their faces were so red that if it was a movie there was smoke coming from the top of their heads.
Lie Fan seeing how they reacted thinking that they were too cute, stroked both of their heads feeling his nervousness go down. He takes a deep breath and takes each of Diao Chan and Ying Yue holding it tightly.
Lie Fan: "Chan'er you know about the tradition our people have, there can only be one legal wife which will be Yue'er, and the others even if they have the same festivity marriage ceremony can only be a concubine. I want you to become my second wife but we can't change it, maybe in the future when I'm more powerful I will change that tradition."
Diao Chan: "Husband I understand clearly about our tradition, My Ex-stepfather has put all of this since I was young. I'm happy that I can be with you, nothing else matters. Yes maybe I feel a bit hurt but I understand and I will wait for the time when I can be your 2nd wife."
Lie Fan: "Chan'er....."
Lie Fan is touched by what Diao Chan said, he takes her in his arms hugging her. Ying Yue on the side stayed silent, she knew that Diao Chan had sacrificed much more than she, so she let Lie Fan and Diao Chan share some personal intimacy.
After hugging Diao Chan for some time, Lie Fan released her from his arms. He then turned towards Ying Yue, She would be the main star of the wedding so he wanted to inform her that after her wedding it would be Diao Chan's turn.
Lie Fan: "Yue'er, after our marriage ceremony a few days later, will be the marriage ceremony of Me and Chan'er."
Ying Yue: "It's okay husband, Sister Diao Chan has sacrificed everything from her family and even purity for you, And she is also like a sister to me so I'm happy to share my day with her!"
Lie Fan: "I don't know what I have done in my past life to deserve the two of you, I promise that I will always love and protect you to repay what you two have sacrificed for me."
Diao Chan and Ying Yue smile with full warm love to Lie Fan, They spend time together talking about the guests they will invite and who will become Ying Yue's guardian to replace her parents who have long gone.
Lie Fan was thinking of asking Hua Tuo to take Ying Yue as her goddaughter or adopt her if he wanted. Hua Tuo has his own family but they are still in his hometown, Lie Fan is considering moving them here to Xiapi. To at least cure the old man's loneliness, Ying Yue can become his goddaughter which also benefits Lie Fan.
They spend time together until evening, enjoying dinner just the three of them. Yu Yan and Wannian eat in the dining room while they eat on the terrace in Lie Fan's quarter. After dinner, they separated with Lie Fan using this time to cultivate and Diao Chan Ying Yue went back to their quarters.
Lie Fan takes another cultivation pill and swallows it, he goes to the middle of his courtyard and begins to take a deep breath to concentrate. Slowly entering tranquility, and feeling how peaceful his mind is Lie Fan feels the world's energy begin to gather around him.
Dong taichi movements, the Yin and Yang in the center of his meridian began to spin and absorb the world energies around him. He can feel how much world energy he needs, and comparing it when he needs to reach level 1 is like feeling a bucket of water to now a big tub that we used to take a bath.
Lie Fan did the taichi movement for almost 5 hours, The time now reaching midnight as you can see the moon is almost at the top of his head. He was sweating due to mental fatigue, he wanted to push on but he decided to stop for now as he needed rest and he could feel that he managed to fill a quarter of the tub which meant he needed to do this 3 or 4 times before reaching level 2.
Lie Fan cleaned himself up, taking a hot bath that he ordered the servants to prepare, and after wearing new clean clothes he lay down on his bed and went to sleep.
The next morning, Lie Fan eats breakfast alone and goes to the Governor's Castle to do his duty for the day. Lie Fan wants to inform his advisors of his decision to marry Diao Chan and Ying Yue, The marriage ceremony at this time was considered to be sacred especially if it was high-status people who were going to marry.
At the Governor's Castle, Lie Fan goes towards his office has been prepared for him since he became the Inspector of Xu Province and now have been renovated to match his new status. There he called for Jia Xu, Xun You, Sun Qian, Chen Gui, My Zhu, and Cai Yong They can be said will be the backbone of his government.
While waiting for them to come, Lie Fan opened up the scrolls that were put on his table. There are reports of the city's production, the crime rate, and some policies that he needed to mark if it's allowed or not. While reading the piles of scrolls one by one, suddenly he read a very interesting concept that had been submitted by Mi Zhu.
He didn't expect that it hadn't been a day since Mi Zhu was in office and he had submitted a proposal. The ideas he proposed are also familiar to Lie Fan, Mi Zhu proposed the concept of the Night Market. He was actually surprised as in China, the concept of the Night Market was introduced during the Tang Dynasty which was hundreds of years in the future.
While it can't be denied that before the Tang Dynasty, there must have been people who also submitted or thought about this idea, the success was during the Tang Dynasty which even received strict sanctions by the Tang Dynasty. Leading towards the end of the Tang Dynasty, the restrictions were lifted because of Economic Expansions.
Lie Fan has an understanding of the concept of Night Market, at least he is assured that it will be a success because he has the power to have a high level of security and administration power to allow it. The only problem is the curfew that has become part of the culture and accepted by all people, he needs to discuss this with his advisors later.
He put this scroll down and saw Jia Xu and Xun You had already arrived, he greeted them and told them to wait for the others to arrive. 5 minutes later, everyone that Lie Fan called for is standing in front of him waiting for him to speak.
Lie Fan: "Everyone, today I called you here because I have something important I want to announce. I have decided that it's the right time this year to marry Ying Yue and Diao Chan, we will have two separate marriage ceremonies. I hope Master Cai Yong will help me make the announcement and preparation for the ceremony."
Everyone: "Congratulations My Lord/Governor!"
Cai Yong: "Governor, I will begin to prepare everything that is needed for the ceremony. Because we will have two marriages, I hope that the auspicious dates will be informed to me shortly."
Lie Fan: "Haha Thank You everyone, Okay Master Cai Yong I will inform you of the dates when My Mother has gone to see the monks."
Jia Xu: "My Lord, have you considered how many guests you will invite to your wedding banquet?"
Lie Fan: "Because we are far away from Luoyang, Your Majesty will not come but he definitely will send Imperial Envoys as his representative. The inner circle of Baohuzhe, some of the important Baohuzhe members, and close friends of the family are the people who I will invite"
Sun Qian: "My Lord, your marriage can be said to be an important event so we need to invite even some of your political enemies like He Jin."
Lie Fan: "They will not come, but I'm sure that they will send some emissary to congratulate me and some gifts. Sun Qian and Jia Xu can make the list first of Important members of Baohuzhe and send it to me."
Jia Xu and Sun Qian heed Lie Fan's order, and Mi Zhu steps forward and asks Lie Fan how big of a budget needs to be prepared for the ceremony and banquet. Lie Fan didn't know about the cost of the ceremony, he wanted it to be grand so he told Mi Zhu to coordinate with Cai Yong.
As for the Banquet, the wines will be ordered from his hometown Huai'An where the beer and fruity wine have become a household name in Xu Province. For food, He wanted Mi Zhu to invite the chefs from Serenity Inn to become the head chef and coordinate the Kitchen staff.
Mi Zhu while listening to Lie Fan, began to calculate the cost in his mind and suddenly he had a bright idea that would push the Mi Clan to become one of Lie Fan's closest and trusted supporters.
Mi Zhu: "My Lord, for the ceremony and banquet I have an idea. The Mi Clan is willing to pay for all the expenses of My Lord's marriage event and even make it grander."
Lie Fan: "Oh? Then what does the Mi Clan expect from me for doing this favor? I think It will not be a free meal."
Mi Zhu explains that he and the Mi Clan just wanted to support him, The Mi Clan has a very large amount of money anyway and he hopes that doing this can bring them closer. Lie Fan was skeptical of this, as he understood if he was in Liu Bei's situation who was endorsed as he had lost his land but Lie Fan had more power and money than Liu Bei in the early stage.
[AT: The chapter for today! I hope everyone enjoys it because your enjoyment is also a support! ??]
________________________
Name: Lie Fan
Title: Yellow Heaven Subjugator
Age: 18 Years Old (186 AD)
Level: 14
Next Level: 412.000
Renown: 185
Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 1)
SP: 711.700
ATTRIBUTE POINTS
STR: 557
VIT: 257
AGI: 263
INT: 284
CHR: 93
WIS: 239
WILL: 187
ATR Points: 0