184: Chapter 184 The City Shakes

Looking back over the centuries of history in Jinhuai Prefecture, a joint trade caravan involving over a dozen Great Families was absolutely unprecedented.

Of course, among these Great Families that invested, aside from heads of households like Xu Jianye of the Jinhuai Xu Clan who could represent their respective Families, the others could not fully represent their own Great Families.

However, for the vast majority of people in the Jinhuai Prefecture city, they did not understand the inside story, nor did they care about these details.

They only knew that the Yuanhang Trade Caravan was a behemoth.

The reason the news was able to spread in such a short time was also due to the efforts of the various Great Families.

As shareholders of the Jinhuai Branch, they naturally wanted to expand their own interests.

If this were in a past life, it would absolutely have been a significant advertising expense.

Invisibly, another sum was saved.

However, this was not saving money for the Wuyang Pei Clan.

The capital invested this time was not the private property of the Wuyang Pei Clan.

The accounts of the expenses incurred needed to be disclosed to the shareholders of the various Great Families.

Of course, it was not as if Pei Qingyun could not engage in some trickery.

Fudging the books was something the various Great Families were quite familiar with.

Although the imperial court provided a certain degree of tax reduction for the various Great Families, every year, the tax silver collected by the imperial court from the various Great Families could never be collected in full.

This was also one of the unspoken rules of the Great Jing Dynasty.

Only those commoners and merchants without status had to pay taxes honestly.

By the side of Mirror Water Lake, a young man and a young woman were snuggled up to each other.

Both were around fifteen or sixteen years old.

The young man wore a hair crown, a plain white robe, a mutton-fat jade-colored silk belt around his waist, and a pair of black-grey boots.

Judging by his attire, the young man was not dressed extravagantly, unlike the usual style of the Great Families.

But if one looked into his eyes, one could detect an intangible air of nobility between his brows.

The young woman wore a long purple dress, her face fair and rosy, and especially those beautiful eyes of hers were like the brilliant galaxy above the starry sky, giving people an inexplicable sense of attraction.

"Sili, do you think we will be together for a long time?" The young woman's eyes sparkled with anticipation.

"We will." The young man said without hesitation.

"Then will you listen to me in the future?" The young woman asked.

"I will."

"Then will you take concubines in the future?" The young woman asked.

"I will."

"Pei Sili, you actually dare to have thoughts of taking concubines. Is this lady not enough to satisfy you? Go back with me now, this lady is going to let you know how formidable I am." The young woman was furious, stood up, and her dainty little hand grabbed the young man's ear.

"Yanran, I dare not, I really didn't think about taking concubines. With you here, Yanran, I am already satisfied." The young man said with a mournful face, looking aggrieved.

"Is that so? Why don't I believe it?" The young woman gave a skeptical look.

"Really, Yanran, you have to believe me, I absolutely have no thoughts of taking concubines." The young man explained.

"Come back with me, let me see your sincerity." Hearing this, a cunning smile appeared on the young woman's face.

"Yanran, it has already been seven days in a row. In another two months, it will be the year-end assessment again; I don't want to be at the bottom this time. Can you give me a day off to save some energy?" The young man said pitifully.

"No, just now you said you would listen to me. Are you thinking about some other little vixen again?" The young woman snorted coldly.

"I really wasn't..." The young man explained weakly.

However, the young man had a different thought.

Heavens! If I had to marry another tigress, even a dog wouldn't do it.

"Hmph, we'll talk about it when we get back." The young woman said.

The two people in conversation were none other than Pei Sili and Qi Yanran.

Just half a month ago, Qi Yanran had completed her coming-of-age ceremony at the Qi Clan.

According to the marriage contract, Qi Yanran would marry Pei Sili after she came of age.

Thus, seven days ago, Qi Yanran rushed back to Wuyang City and completed the marriage contract with Pei Sili.

This wedding was unprecedentedly grand.

The various in-law Families of the Pei Clan came to offer congratulations, and the grand occasion was second only to Pei Qingyun's Grandmaster banquet.

Qi Zhongyin even prepared a dowry of 100,000 taels for Qi Yanran.

Among the legitimate daughters marrying out of ordinary third-rate families, this was absolutely unique.

One must know that when a legitimate daughter of an ordinary third-rate family marries, the dowry is usually twenty to thirty thousand taels, and rarely exceeds fifty thousand taels.

Thinking back, when a legitimate daughter of the Pei Clan married into another Great Family, the dowry was only twenty thousand taels.

This time, Qi Zhongyin prepared a dowry of 100,000 taels, certainly out of love for his daughter.

But the bigger reason was that the Pei Clan was not what it used to be.

When the marriage contract was set, Pei Qingyun was not yet a Grandmaster.

The Pei Clan was also just a veteran third-rate family.

But in the blink of an eye, nearly a year had passed; not only had Pei Qingyun advanced to become a Grandmaster, but the development of the Pei Clan had been changing with each passing day.

Even though the Qi Clan was located in the Huai River region, they could occasionally hear rumors about the Wuyang Pei Clan.

Among the third-rate families of various prefectures, unless they were in-law families, there was usually little contact.

Only those second-rate families had widespread reputations.

Just like Pei Qingyun, he did not know which third-rate families were in Longxi, unless he had specifically inquired about them.

With the current strength and prestige of the Pei Clan, if they were to marry into a lineage of an equal Great Family, the dowry would likely be no less than this.

Not to mention, Qi Yanran was now considered to have married up.

Besides this, there was also commercial cooperation between the Pei Clan and the Xu Clan.

For example, in the first phase of the Yuanhong Trading Market development, many raw Materials were sourced from the Huai River and transported to Wuyang County via the Qi Clan's Nanfeng Port.

Under the rapid development of the Wuyang Pei Clan, all the various in-law Families had benefited to varying degrees.

It is said that the wedding night...

Having tasted the sweetness for the first time, Pei Sili had originally thought that he would finally be able to turn the tables and become the master, out of control.

However, this was merely his fantasy.

For seven days in a row, Pei Sili only felt that his body had thinned out quite a bit, as if he had been hollowed out.

Even now, his legs were still a bit numb; he was afraid he would never have a chance to turn the tables in this lifetime...

Returning to the Kaiyuan Academy, Pei Sili bumped into Xu Xuanan, whom he had not seen for a long time.

Pei Sili was just thinking about saying hello, but when Xu Xuanan caught a glimpse of Qi Yanran on the side, he felt his scalp tingle.

After more than half a year of getting along, Xu Xuanan no longer envied Pei Sili for being able to marry Qi Yanran, this proud daughter of heaven.

In his eyes, Qi Yanran had changed from being cute and moving, to a great witch.

More than once, he had silently mourned for Pei Sili in his heart.

It even affected his thoughts of pursuing Yun Ying.

It made him doubt for a time whether Yun Ying was also such a witch.

"Xuanan, long time no see. Didn't you say you were going to your Family's place to catch spirit fish today?" As he spoke, Pei Sili gave Xu Xuanan a signaling look.

Xu Xuanan immediately understood, but just as he wanted to speak, he inexplicably felt a chill on the back of his neck.

Looking in the direction of the chill, he saw Qi Yanran's pair of beautiful eyes staring fixedly at him.

Xu Xuanan subconsciously swallowed his saliva, the words he originally wanted to say were forcefully stifled back, and he could only give Pei Sili a helpless look.