Fei Zhonggui's biggest regret during his lifetime was the same as Fei Minglan's hatred in life, which was why Fei Minglan, who was so kind-hearted, was not a man.

The girls in the flower hall talked about Fei Minghui's marriage and the marriage of their daughters. They were a little shy, but they could not hide their excitement. After all, most of them had reached the age of cardamom when love blossoms.

Pingping Niang is more than thirteen years old, and the cardamom leaves are in early February.

Jiang Shuhe said: "Minglan, Ruyun has always liked you, why don't you just marry into the Zhang family and let my mother be the matchmaker for you."

Jiang Shumei clapped her hands and said with a smile: "Exactly! Exactly! Brother Zhang has peeked at Minglan many times."

Although Tong Ruyun was very happy to have a sister-in-law like Fei Minglan, it was not solemn enough for these boudoir daughters to discuss their marriages in person.She smiled and said, "It's true that I like Sister Huan Minglan, but other things are not ours to say, so let's stop there."

While they were laughing and joking, Li Chun, Fei Minglan's personal maid, walked in with an eager look on her face. She hurriedly saluted the ladies, then approached Fei Minglan and whispered in her ear: "Something happened to the young master. My wife is panicked. Please hurry up."

Chapter 2(1)

Fei Minglan's heart sank instantly. In this troubled year, she was really worried that her brother, who seemed dull but actually had many evil intentions, would cause some uncontrollable trouble.

Fei Minglan had thought over and over again about Fei Minghui's marriage robbery, and felt that the whole thing had too many coincidences and was always a little strange.If it is purely God's will, even a fool would find it difficult to believe it.If it's man-made, then Fei Minghui is a girl in a boudoir and doesn't have much experience. What can she do?How could she have a "accidental encounter" with Zhou Xiaoguang if no outsider arranged the meeting?

Thinking about it this way, Fei Mingde was the only one who put so much effort into arranging for Fei Minghui's wedding.

To Fei Minghui, Fei Mingde may be regarded as a conscientious "good brother"; but to his aunt Fei Zheng and sister Fei Minglan, Fei Mingde's behavior is very disgusting. Grandma Wang called him an "ungrateful guy", which is not an exaggeration at all.

No matter who is allowed to comment on snatching away the prospective husband-in-law of one's legitimate sister and giving it to one's concubine, it cannot be regarded as a kind act.

Fei Zhonggui was a man who valued affection and righteousness. He loved his wife Fei Zheng very much. He originally had no intention of taking a concubine and wanted to grow old together with Fei Zheng. However, Fei Zheng had not given birth to a child for seven years after entering the family. Fei Zhonggui's widowed mother was still alive at that time. Seeing that his son had no successor, what was the use of earning such a huge family property?If you want to make trouble, you must give Fei Zhonggui a concubine, otherwise he will divorce his wife for the crime of "childlessness".

Fei Zheng herself couldn't bear the serious crimes of "jealousy" and "childlessness", which were extremely unvirtuous. She took the initiative to take Hua'er, the most beautiful maid in the dowry, as a concubine for her husband.

Hua'er also lived up to expectations. After Fei Zhonggui took her in, she became pregnant within half a year, and gave birth to Fei Zhonggui's eldest son the following year.

Fei Zhonggui named his son "Mingde", which comes from "the way of learning lies in Mingmingde".Not only did they hope that he would pursue an official career and get rid of his humble status as a merchant of the Fei family, but more importantly, he hoped that he would be "moral", have moral integrity, and be kind to his aunt.

However, it was not easy to raise children at that time. Just because a family had only one son did not mean it was safe. Therefore, Fei's mother repeatedly asked Fei Zhonggui to have more children before she died.

When Fei Mingde was two years old, Fei Zheng, whose belly had been silent, became pregnant. Fei Zhonggui was overjoyed and was about to send Hua'er out of the house, but found that Hua'er was pregnant again.

Soon after, Fei Zheng gave birth to a legitimate daughter, Fei Minglan, and Hua'er gave birth to a concubine, Fei Minghui.

Fei's mother was dead, and Fei Mingde seemed to be in good health. Fei Zhonggui finally sent Hua'er out of the house, asked his acquaintance Yapo to introduce her, and married her off to a middle-aged widowed cloth shop shopkeeper in Jingzhou as his stepmother. He arranged a good future for her, did not treat her badly, and was able to repay her for her contribution to the pregnancy.

Since Fei Zheng was able to give birth to Fei Minglan, it proved that she was not infertile. Fei Zhonggui always thought that it would be great if she gave birth to a legitimate son again, so he kept delaying and did not raise Fei Mingde as a legitimate son in Fei Zheng's name.

Coupled with the fact that he died suddenly of illness, Fei Zhongliang had the excuse that "a bastard cannot be an heir" and wanted to adopt his youngest son to Fei Zheng, hoping to plunder the eldest son's property.

Fei Zhonggui wanted his son to pursue an official career and hired famous teachers to teach Fei Mingde since he was a child. Therefore, in Fei Mingde's mind, he formed the concept that "doing business is a lowly job, only studying is good", and he had no interest in inheriting Fei Zhonggui's career, and even looked down upon him.

The emperors of Jingguo were all promising emperors. They tried to weaken the conservative and stubborn forces of the powerful gentry, worked hard to promote civilian students, and vigorously promoted and improved the imperial examination system that appeared in the previous dynasty. Therefore, there were some upstarts in the imperial examination who were born in the common people. These upstarts were Fei Mingde's role models and goals.

The scope of the imperial examination system in Jingguo was quite wide. Except for those born in the lower classes and criminals, who were not qualified, anyone who was a good citizen of the third generation from scholars, farmers, workers, or businessmen could take part in the examination.

It can be said that the imperial examination system was a genius initiative that changed the fate of ordinary people and enabled them to rise to the top. It broke the limitation that "talented people do not come from the gentry".

There is always such a word hanging in Fei Mingde's study -

The emperor values heroes and his articles teach you.

Everything is inferior, only reading is superior.

Fei Minglan asked his other personal maid, Li Xia, to serve tea and snacks to entertain the wealthy ladies in the flower hall, and then he found an excuse and hurried out.

When walking to the front yard, Li Chun told the story in detail: "I don't know much about this. I just heard that the young master's servant Xiyan said that the young master didn't like the noise in Lanyuan, so he took Xiyan out for a stroll early this morning. At noon, he ate in a restaurant, and somehow he fell in love with someone..."

At this point, Li Chun paused and carefully looked at his young lady's face. Seeing that Fei Minglan was still calm, he boldly continued: "I fell in love with a beautiful young man. He may have said something inappropriate and offended others, and was knocked unconscious by the young man's companions. Xi Yan was so frightened that he could only cry, but the young master was sent home by that young man."

Fei Minglan sighed. It didn't matter that her brother studied until he became obsessed with it. He unexpectedly contracted the problem of being a lecher at some point. When his father was alive, he still knew how to hide it and only messed around with the boys. Not long after his father passed away, he went out to cause trouble.

The Fei family has their main house in Yuyao County. Fei's Orchid Garden is a villa in the suburbs. It was originally built by Fei Zhonggui for his wife to watch and play. However, during the orchid flowering period in late February and early March every year, the Fei family usually moves to Orchid Garden to live.

Fei Mingde's house in Lanyuan is located in the eastern courtyard of the front yard. He has never liked orchids, so his yard is the only one in Lanyuan that does not have orchids planted. In addition to some evergreen trees, it is dotted with some ornamental bamboos such as Luohan bamboo, purple bamboo, and spotted bamboo.

Fei Mingde has always used bamboo as a metaphor for himself, what is "discipline" and what is "modest", according to Grandma Wang's evaluation, it is "only putting gold on one's own face."

Fei Minglan hurried in with Li Chun, and saw her worried mother in the main room.Mrs. Fei Zheng paid great tribute to her late husband, wearing a plain white linen dress, with only a silver hairpin without any pattern on her dark hair, and simple silver earrings on her ears. Other than that, she did not have any jewelry around her body, but these did not detract from her pure face and beauty.

The woman who was in her late 40s looked like she was only in her thirties. She was loved by her parents when she was young, loved by her husband after marriage, and later by her daughter who was caring and filial. She lived an extremely happy life in the first half of her life. Unfortunately, the huge blow of losing her husband in middle age almost completely destroyed her. If it weren't for her unmarried daughter, she would have already made the determination to follow her late husband Jiuquan.

Fei Minglan actually inherited her mother's natural beauty, but she was like her father in personality. Her strong and independent temperament made her look like a frosty plum, which was completely different from her mother's charming temperament of cold valley orchids. In the eyes of outsiders, Fei Minglan was not as gentle and charming as her mother.

Fei Minghui's temperament is more like that of her aunt, Fei Zheng. Perhaps this is the key to why she can easily impress Mr. Tuesday.