Chapter 50: Lu Cheng Yu is Getting Married

"What? Lu Cheng Yu is getting married soon?" Lu Lin was utterly astonished.

Chen Xiao Cai nodded, "That's what I heard."

'Tut tut tut, even I have heard about it, and now you need Cai to tell you.' Chen Xiao Mi cast a glimpse at Lu Lin and shook his head.

Lu Cheng Yu and the host Lu Lin were basically the same age, Lu Cheng Yu was twenty days older than the host Lu Lin, but Grandmother Lu and Grandfather Lu treated them with vast difference. Lu Lin had never got any love from them.

"Ha, he did pay tax last year, right?" Lu Lin gloated.

Chen Xiao Mi nodded, "I think so, yeah."

The more Lu Lin thought about it, the more he gloated.

Lu Cheng Yu was even more arrogant than his mother Tang, the scholars at school had high hopes for him, and he was confident that he would become a Xiucai in no time. He had never landed eyes on a village girl or an average town girl, he counted on networking with the officials in town and marrying a lady in a wealthy family after he became a Xiucai.

Tang had the same plan for her son, she hadn't really thought about Lu Cheng Yu's marriage because she knew they'd have more chance to betroth with a wealthy family after Lu Cheng Yu became a Xiucai.

Last year, when Lu Cheng Yu about to turn 18 and was about to be taxed, Tang had thought about marring a girl for the sole purpose of avoiding tax, so she had talked with a lot of matchmakers.

Lu Cheng Yu showed great interest in the beginning, but soon his high spirits were dampened because the matchmakers had only introduced average village girls to him.

The fact was the matchmakers knew Lu Cheng Yu and his family were in a rush to get married to avoid tax, so they thought Lu Cheng Yu wouldn't be picky, so they only introduced the not so pretty girls to him. As a result, Lu Cheng Yu had rejected them firmly.

So Tang had to pay tax for Lu Cheng Yu last year.

Lu Cheng Yu failed to pass the Spring Imperial Examination this year again, Tang didn't want to pay other 3 tales of silver this year, and she was convinced that luck played an important role in the exams, none from their village had passed the exam this year, there were quite a few people in their fifties or even sixties who still didn't get the title of Xiucai.

Tang figured she could betroth with an all right family as a makeshift plan, thus Lu Cheng Yu could continue the exams with no pressure of paying tax.

"That Spring Imperial Examination seems like impossible to pass." Chen Xiao Mi sighed.

Lu Lin smiled and nodded.

Xiucai was revered by people because the title so hard to get. Compared to the kids from villages whose entire families had to work hard to pay the tuition fee, the young masters from the wealthy families were so lucky, all they needed to do was to study without worrying about anything in life.

Lu Lin rubbed his chin and asked Chen Xiao Cai, "Have you heard who Lu Cheng Yu is going to marry, Cai?"

Chen Xiao Cai frowned and he said, "I'm not sure, but I heard it's a girl from an official's family in town."

Tang was ridiculed by the villagers due to her arrogant attitude, but recently she started to throw her weight about because her son was about to marry a girl from an official's family.

"A girl from an official's family in town? Really?" Lu Lin doubted it, he thought that was an exaggeration, but he decided to find out in case it was true.

Lu Lin had met Lu Cheng Yu twice after he got married, but Lu Cheng Yu was very indifferent, and he would just warn Lu Lin that he needed to be filial towards the family elders.

Chen Xiao Mi and Lu Lin exchanged a look, "I don't think that's true, Lin."

Lu Cheng Yu might be able to betroth with an official's family if he were a Xiucai, but now he was just a Tongsheng, there was nothing special about that title, even Chen Jing was a Tongsheng. Plus all the good girls were married off last year when the 'single tax' came into effect.

Lu Lin rested his chin in his cupped hands and said, "We are going to send the last batch of sweet potato wine to Manager Wang in a couple of days anyway, we might as well ask Manager Wang about this, Manager Wang is very well-informed, I'm sure he knows the inside information or he has heard about the truth from the customers."

Chen Xiao Mi nodded, "That sounds like a good plan."

The couple brought up the question on seeing Manager Wang.

"The girl's name is Li Fang Yue." Manager Wang was stunned for a second when the couple asked him the question.

"I heard this Li Fang Yue is Secretary General of the County's daughter, is that so?" asked Lu Lin.

Hearing that, Manager Wang chuckled, "That's ridiculous, this Li Fang Yue indeed has something to do with the Secretary General of the County, but she is not his daughter. The thing is Li Fang Yue's elder sister Li Ru is the Secretary General's concubine, but the Lis tend to lie to people that Li Ru is the madam, that's all."

The couple nodded.

Manager Wang continued, "The Secretary General likes Li Ru for her beauty, but I heard this Li Fang Yue is an average looking girl with nothing special."

The couple thanks Manager Wang and left the restaurant.

"So Lu Cheng Yu's fiancé is not the Secretary General's daughter, she is just her sister-in-law, but that's better than nothing, Lu Cheng Yu will become the Secretary General's brother-in-law soon." Chen Xiao Mi rested his head on the window of the carriage and said that to Lu Lin.

Lu Lin squinted his eyes and said, "There's a huge difference between a wife and a concubine, a concubine's kids don't even have the right of inheritance."

Chen Xiao Mi tilted his head and said, "All matchmakers tend to sugarcoat the situation, tell you what, I don't think the Lus know Li Ru is just a concubine."

Lu Lin nodded. The two later found out even the folks live in town didn't know that Li Ru was just a concubine, domestic affairs like this were hard to pry, Manager Wang knew the truth because he was great at networking. Plus that Li Ru always show up with many attendants crowding round, so people just assumed she was the madam.

"Mi, Cai also told me Grandmother Lu keeps complaining that the young masters in town got good grades because they have bribed the examiner, and her genius grandson Lu Cheng Yu failed at the exam because he refused to associate with those evil elements." Said Lu Lin, he thought Grandmother Lu said might be true, but it also might just be an excuse that Grandmother Lu had come up with to save her grandson's face.

Lu Lin searched the host Lu Lin's memory, he found that Lu Cheng Yu indeed was 'a straight-A student'.

"I'm not sure about that." Replied Chen Xiao Mi, "But hey, Manager Wang said that Li Fang Yue is an average-looking girl, I'm sure Tang won't be happy about that."

"But I think Lu Cheng Yu isn't marrying her because of her looks, I think Lu Cheng Yu is marrying her because she is the Secretary General's sister-in-law."

"That's very likely. I say Lu Tong is going to get married soon. No way would the Lus keep her for one more year, it's 3 tales of silver on the line after all, hahaha."

Lu Lin also laughed, it looked like the Lus are going to have two weddings soon, but it had nothing to do with him.

In Chen Jing's house.

"That stupid Grandmother Lu! She has been showing off for quite a few days about her grandson's engagement!" Grandmother Chen looked furious.

Grandmother Chen and Grandmother Lu had a fight about two months ago, they had been hating on each other ever since.

Grandmother Chen gloated over Lu Cheng Yu's failure at the exam for so long, but now the table had turned, Grandmother Lu had been showing off that Lu Cheng Yu was betrothed with the Secretary General's family.

Chen Jing rolled his eyes and said, "Grandma, I used to respect Lu Cheng Yu for he works so hard at school, but now it looks like I had the wrong idea of him, it turns out he is thinking about resorting to nepotism!"

Chen Jing looked like he was afire with noble indignation, but deep down he was mad jealous of Lu Cheng Yu, he knew Lu Cheng Yu would have more chance at passing the exam after he married the Secretary General's sister-in-law.

"Jing, do you know much of this Li Fang Yue?"

Chen Jing scratched his head and said, "Not really, but I have heard she is very average-looking."

Grandmother Chen didn't care about how a girl looked like, she valued the girl's family influence more than anything. She was mad jealous that Lu Cheng Yu and the Secretary General would become relatives by marriage soon.

Grandmother Chen didn't like Chen Jing's wife Zhang Yue Hong that much, Zhang Yue Hong was pretty, but she was a regular village girl and she would make a scene whenever Grandmother Chen scolded her.

"That Lu Cheng Yu is so lucky, his brother-in-law is an official, maybe he will help Lu Cheng Yu to become a Xiucai." Grandmother Chen murmured.

Chen Jing defended himself on hearing that, "Grandma, imperial examination is a national examination, there's only limited things that the Secretary General can do to help."

Grandmother Chen sighed, "Limited things is better than nothing."

Chen Jing lowered his head, he couldn't think of one good talk back.

Grandmother Chen then changed the subject, "Now I wonder which family is willing to marry Lu Tong, that girl is just as arrogant as her grandmother."