Chapter 169:
Wearing a moon-white wide-sleeved long robe, Xie Yanyu, who was one year older, stood on the courtyard steps, as elegant and poised as ever, with the bright moon seeming to embrace him.
The brother and sister had not seen each other for a long time, and Xie Wanning had already forgotten her annoyance with this elder brother from that day. Seeing him arrive, her face lit up with joy, and she happily went forward to greet him.
Walking up close, she sniffed and said, “Elder Brother, have you been drinking wine?”
Xie Yanyu lightly hummed in response: “I drank a few cups with the Duan family.”
As the Xie Clan’s eldest legitimate son and the next heir to the title, he naturally had to host guests on the day the young lady of the family was engaged.
Since it was hosting guests, how could he not join in drinking a few cups of wine.
Hearing this, Xie Ruyu nearby called a maidservant to add a soft chair and said, “Elder Brother, sit down quickly.”
The two sisters had originally been sitting under the tree in the courtyard, brewing tea around a brazier, with several delicate tea snacks placed on the small round table. Xie Yanyu glanced at it and sat down.
Xie Wanning followed closely behind and took a seat, tilting her head and staring at him without blinking.
Xie Yanyu poured tea for her and said, “What are you looking at me for.”
“I suddenly remembered something after seeing Elder Brother.” Xie Wanning did not beat around the bush with him and said directly, “Elder Brother, do you know that after today, you will be the only one in our generation in the family who has not yet settled a marriage engagement.”
The Xie Family had only three branches in total. Third Uncle was transferred to a local post and was not in the capital city, but all his several offspring had already settled marriage engagements. Xie Ruyu’s two legitimate elder brothers also had engagements early on, though they had not yet completed the marriage ceremony.
Now, counting carefully, it was truly only the eldest legitimate son Xie Yanyu who remained single.
One could imagine how anxious Madam Zheng must be.
Yet the person concerned felt nothing about it. Hearing his younger sister’s words, he said indifferently, “You’ve become even more fond of meddling.”
Meddling all the way to her elder brother’s lifelong event.
Xie Wanning felt a bit indignant at his retort. “I’m not doing it out of heartache for Mother. She’s the one who’s truly worried.”
In the capital city, noblewomen of Madam Zheng’s age all had grandchildren surrounding their knees long ago. Every time she went out to banquets, seeing other families’ children, her gaze was full of envy.
Her pair of son and daughter were both outstanding, no less than anyone else’s, yet her son, just over twenty, was still unwilling to marry.
Her daughter had married, but her son-in-law…
Earlier in the year, after Madam Zheng, with motherly concern, reminded her son-in-law not to avoid medical treatment for an illness, she learned that her daughter had already consummated the marriage, and she was truly overjoyed.
Afterward, every meeting, she would stare at Xie Wanning’s belly.
She was obsessed with hoping for a grandson…
Similarly obsessed with hoping for a grandson was Princess Duanyang. Probably the grannies from the imperial palace were all very shrewd. That day, as soon as Xie Wanning stood in the upper hall, the news that she had consummated could not be hidden.
Xie Wanning also wanted a child of her own, but perhaps her blessings had not yet arrived, or perhaps she truly had no fate with children. Before Pei Yuqing left, they had been intimately close solidly for so many days, yet still no joy came.
Now, not only was Madam Zheng envious staring at other families’ children, even Xie Wanning herself felt some envy.
She thought, if she could not give birth, then her elder brother giving birth would be the same. She looked at her own elder brother eagerly. “Elder Brother, what kind of young lady do you like exactly? Get married quickly and give me a little niece or nephew to play with.”
What an abrupt statement.
Xie Yanyu’s hand holding the teacup trembled, nearly spilling the hot tea on his hand.
Xie Ruyu burst into laughter, wanting to join in the fun with a few words, but upon receiving her cousin’s indifferent gaze, she quickly pursed her lips and dared not laugh anymore.
