When Yang Fan rushed to Luoyang on horseback, Li Guo'er was a guest at the noble princess's residence.
Today, she was accompanied by many women from the noble families who were waiting to be married. All the women were gathered in one hall, and the white-haired noble princess was in the middle. It was like a pear tree accompanied by begonia.
Li Guo'er was clever and clever. She was good at socializing with others. Even though she did not know much about the etiquette of the noblewomen, she was good at hiding it so no one noticed her shortcomings. Li Guo'er hid her shortcomings and secretly learned other people's ways. She also had to divert her attention to chat and joke with them, but she did it with ease.
All the women sat in the reception hall, chatting and laughing. There were twelve screens in the corner of the reception hall. All the women in the reception hall were eating porridge. No one noticed that the peacock on the screen had a pair of moving eyes. The noble princess did not change her old habits. Today, she became a matchmaker again. This time, she wanted to arrange a marriage between the Wu and Li families.
"Sisters, today's spring is just nice. I see hundreds of flowers in the garden competing for beauty. Why don't we go to the garden and swim among the flowers? Isn't that better than sitting in this hall?"
Li Guo 'er did not know that today she was invited to the Princess's house for a blind date. She was used to the wilderness and couldn't bear to sit in the reception hall for a long time. After a while, she made a suggestion to everyone and then said to the Princess, "Gu Gu, what do you think?"
The poor princess was one generation older than her grandmother, yet she insisted on taking Wu Zetian as her godmother. In front of this little girl from the Li family, she was two generations younger. However, the princess did not feel uncomfortable at all. She nodded with a smile and said, "Good, good, good. As long as you guys have fun, let's go for a stroll in the garden!"
As she said this, the noble princess subconsciously glanced at the screen in the corner of the hall and said, "You go first. I'm old and will go after a short rest."
The entire hall was filled with women flying out. The noble princess chuckled towards the screen in the corner of the hall and said, "Junwang, does this niece of mine suit your liking?"
There was no response from behind the screen, causing the noble princess to be extremely puzzled. She quickly walked over and circled behind the screen to take a look. She saw the man lying on the screen with his buttocks stuck up in the air. He had a dazed look on his face. The women in the hall had already left, but he was still not moving.
The noble princess couldn't help but laugh. She gently patted the man's shoulder and asked, "Royal Prince, are you satisfied?"
It turned out that this young man was the son of the Prince of Liang, Wu Sansi. His name was Wu Chongxun and he was conferred the title of Royal Prince Gaoyang. The noble princess was entrusted by the Prince of Luling to act as a bridge between him and Li Guo 'er.
"Ah! Satisfied! Satisfied! I'm so satisfied! This … this princess is really … really going to be betrothed to me? "
Wu Chongxun felt as if he had just awoken from a dream, and his face was flushed with joy. For a moment, he was a little nervous, afraid that this was just a dream that he could easily wake up from.
The noble princess replied, "Of course. This old one is already so old, how could I possibly joke around with you juniors?"
"Wonderful! I … I'm very satisfied! "
The royal prince was so happy that his heart was about to explode. His mind was filled with that extremely beautiful and astonishing young lady. Her every frown, her every smile, her every movement, filled his heart to the brim. Right now, he was already a little infatuated with her. If it weren't for the fact that he still barely remembered his identity, he would have knelt down and kowtowed to the noble princess a few times to express his gratitude.
"I'll go back and tell my father! I … I'll immediately propose. I'll marry no one but her, I … "
Wu Chongxun spoke incoherently as he ran out of the hall like he was possessed. When he reached the door, he suddenly remembered something and hurriedly ran back to the noble princess. He solemnly bowed to the noble princess again before running away as fast as he could.
… …
In ancient times, it was said that blind and mute marriages were decided by the parents. In reality, it was not as exaggerated as it was in later generations. Although it was impossible for a man and a woman to interact freely like in modern times, their temperament, character, and family background were all things that the parents and the couple themselves had to understand in detail.
Most of the friends who were asked by the host would tell the truth. Otherwise, if the couple did not get along in the future, they would be in trouble. No one would be stupid enough to only say good things.
Even if she was a matchmaker, her scope of 'business' was limited and she had a limited number of clients. If the families did not match, or if the personalities of the two parties were too incompatible, she would not be the matchmaker. Otherwise, if a few couples were born with resentment and others knew that she was the matchmaker, her reputation would be tarnished. No one would look for her when they wanted to marry a daughter or a daughter-in-law.
As for male and female colleagues, under most circumstances, their families would arrange for them to meet each other in a secret way. When the families were well-matched, both sides would arrange for their children to meet each other. If both sides had no objections, then the next step of contact would be possible. Unless the parents had other intentions, they would not completely ignore their children's opinions.
However, if the families did not match, then they would first let the family with the higher status make the choice. If this family agreed, but the other family was in a hurry to claim kinship, then it was fine to arrange for their children to meet each other. For example, when the Prince of Luling married his daughter, it was like this.
Although the Prince of Luling was now a prince and was destined to be the crown prince, with an eighty percent chance of becoming the emperor in the future, compared to the Wu clan, which was like the sun in the sky, he was still a level lower. He was in a hurry to claim kinship with the Wu clan, so he entrusted the noble princess with this gathering to arrange for Wu Sansi's son to meet Li Guo 'er first.
If Wu Chongxun took a liking to Li Guo 'er, then everything else could be discussed, but if he didn't, then there was no need to mention it. Fortunately, Li Guo 'er's beautiful appearance was truly impeccable, and it would not be an exaggeration to call her the number one beauty in the world. When Wu Chongxun saw this enchantress, even his soul was hooked away, so there was no reason for him to refuse.
On the other hand, if Wang Tongjiao of the Wang clan of Taiyuan was to marry the Prince of Luling's daughter, then the Prince of Luling's daughter would have to meet him first. In recent years, the Wang clan of Taiyuan's influence had declined greatly. Even when that scoundrel Lai Junchen forcefully demanded a daughter of the Wang clan as his wife, the Wang clan did not dare to resist. In fact, they even had to shamelessly borrow the strength of this scoundrel son-in-law. Now that they heard that Lai Junchen was going to marry the future emperor, there was no reason for the Wang clan to refuse.
In truth, the marriage of the Prince of Luling's daughter could not be considered to have gone very smoothly.
Wu Zetian attached great importance to one's family background, and the Prince of Luling and his wife, out of the need to consolidate their own position, could not possibly choose a commoner's son. Instead, the prime minister and the son of a noble clan were their first choices. However, when Li Xian sent someone to sound them out, he was tactfully rejected by some of them. They were not willing to claim kinship with this future emperor.
The future was complicated and confusing, and it was still hard to say what would happen in the future. Based on their family background and influence, no matter how the political situation changed in the future, as long as they did not get too involved, whoever became emperor would have to put them in an important position to ensure the interests of their clans.
If they married the Prince of Luling, it would only be the icing on the cake for noble and scholarly clans like them. A commandant of the emperor's son-in-law would not be of much use in raising the status of their clans. On the other hand, if something happened to this emperor, they would be implicated, so this sort of transaction naturally could not be done.
Thus, after some initial contact, there were more than twenty clans that had sons and nephews serving as officials in the capital, were of marriageable age but were unmarried, and came from relatively noble backgrounds. Among them, there were no more than seven or eight clans that were willing to marry the imperial family and were favored by the Prince of Luling and his wife. The sons and nephews of these seven or eight clans simultaneously received all kinds of orders and rushed to the Political Affairs Hall.
The Prime Ministers of the Political Affairs Hall summoned them, but with the excuse that they were very, very busy and had no time to meet them. After having them sit on the cold bench for a while, they sent out a young eunuch to suggest that they first go to the palace's cuju field to play for a while to relieve their boredom, and that the Prime Ministers would summon them when they were free.
The oldest of these sons and daughters was no more than twenty years old and had seen many grand occasions, so they were not very restrained in the palace. Since the Prime Ministers had spoken, they were happy to go and play for a while. Thus, they arrived at the palace cuju field, took off their robes, and divided into two teams, where they excitedly began to play ball.
Of course, they did not know that of the Prince of Luling's daughters, other than Consort Wei's two most beautiful princesses, Li Xianhui and Li Guo 'er, who had been taken out for the sons of the Prince of Liang and the Prince of Wei to look over, the other princesses had already disguised themselves as palace maids and mixed in with the crowd of palace maids and eunuchs to quietly observe them.
It was very easy for a man who was good at sports, fit, and handsome to attract the attention of women. The princesses only watched for a moment before one of them attracted their attention. Li Shuxiu's beautiful eyes were firmly fixed on that young man. The more she looked, the more she liked him. She could not help but quietly ask the accompanying palace maids, "Who is he?"
The accompanying palace maids had already received the information on the sons and daughters of the various families. Following her signal, they whispered, "Princess, his surname is Yang, called Yang Shenjiao. He is a descendant of the Yang family of Hongnong, and is currently the commander of the Left Thousand-Ox Guard."
Li Shuxiu heard that the handsome young man was from the Yang family of Hongnong, and that he was related to her grandmother, Wu Zetian, and that he was an old friend, so she felt even more satisfied. She cast another glance at the handsome young man called Yang Shenjiao, nodded lightly, and then turned to leave. She did not continue watching. Naturally, she had already chosen her husband.
Consort Wei had three daughters, Li Shuxiu, Li Xianhui, and Li Guo 'er. Consort Wei was naturally biased towards her own daughters. The other daughters were all born of secondary consorts, so they did not dare to compete with her. So even though they were looking left and right, they were actually waiting for her to choose first. Once Li Shuxiu had made her choice, they could continue.
As soon as Li Shuxiu left, Li Xinyu gave a heavy snort, her expression very dissatisfied.
After the Prince of Luling's family returned to Luoyang, these princesses had all received their titles. Li Guo 'er was conferred Anle Princess, Li Xianhui was conferred Yongtai Princess, Li Shuxiu was conferred Changning Princess, and Li Xinyu, who was born of this secondary consort, was conferred Yi' an Princess. Regarding the other arrangements made by Li Xianhui and Li Guo 'er, as well as Li Shuxiu's right of first choice, this Yi' an Princess was both jealous and resentful, and was very dissatisfied.
But the other was born of the di wife, and she was born of a concubine, so her status was innately one level lower. Even though she was dissatisfied, she did not dare to express it. Yi 'an Princess was afraid that the other sisters would snatch the first one, so as soon as Li Shuxiu left, she hurriedly chose among the remaining Langjuns. Pointing at one person, she asked the accompanying palace maid, "Who is that?"
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