Chapter 169: As Wife and Concubine, Qiao Rui Trains His Daughter It has to be said that the news of Mei Cheng’s death was very timely for Qin Zhen. Although he has an excellent memory, there is a limit to his ability to plagiarize. After all, during the Han and Wei dynasties, poetry and prose were quite complex, with mostly fixed styles, and very little could be copied. Over the years, Qin Zhen has copied almost everything he could, leaving only a few in the bottom of the box for emergency use. If he uses it now, what will he use it for in the future! Besides, the matter had not even been decided yet, so he was not prepared to go into it too deeply. So now is the right time to take the opportunity to retreat. But his attempt to escape made Qiao Rui very anxious. Qiao Rui's purpose this time was to have a blind date and let Qin Zhen finalize the matter.

Because taking a concubine is different from marrying a wife, in this era, as long as both parties agree, it can be settled. After the decision is made, Qin Zhen can take the child home directly if he is interested. What happened now? The atmosphere seemed good just now, but now this suddenly happened. If we don’t finalize it, our meeting tonight will be in vain! So when he saw Qin Zhen standing up, he immediately chased after him and said to Qin Zhen: "Military advisor, wait a minute! Military advisor, wait a minute!" Qin Zhen heard this, looked back, and couldn't help but wonder: "What's the matter, General?" He has modern ideas and believes that things can develop slowly. Qiao Rui, however, believed in the ancients' concept and said hurriedly: "The military advisor has seen it, I wonder what he thinks of my two nieces?" "You must know that Ying'er is already 29 years old. If you don't marry her soon, wouldn't it be a waste of your youth?" Qin Zhen stopped for a moment when he saw this. He thought that since Qiao Rui was so anxious, he might as well give him a definite answer first. So he pondered and said: "Although I have the intention, I don't know what the two ladies mean!" As soon as he said this, Qiao Rui felt relieved. He stroked his beard and smiled: "What are you talking about, military advisor? It is the will of the parents and the words of the matchmaker." "Now that my brother has passed away, your marriages are all decided by me, why should I consider your opinions?" Seeing him like this, Qin Zhen knew it was due to the limitations of the times, but he said firmly: "I have always done things without forcing others to do anything!" "General, go ask her yourself. If the young lady doesn't want to, I won't agree to it either!" "General, you must not force this matter!" "If you tell me, I will definitely not agree!" Seeing how serious he was, Qiao Rui could only nod and say:

"In that case, I will ask, but I wonder if the military advisor is referring to Ying'er or Ke'er?" Both of his nieces are of marriageable age. Since Qin Zhen is interested in them, the key is which one to choose. But Qin Zhen saw this and smiled: "I think both ladies are suitable, but the general has not asked yet, so how can we decide?" "I have something else to do, so I'll take my leave now and visit you again another day!" After saying that, he ordered someone to drive towards the county government. Seeing this, Qiao Rui had no choice but to walk into the mansion and then into the hall. At this time, the Xiaoqiao sisters were whispering to each other in the mansion. During the conversation, they were naturally talking about Qin Zhen. Although Qin Zhen left in a hurry, the first sight he had just shown him left a deep impression on the two girls. Xiaoqiao looked at Qiaoying with a strange expression and said: "Sister, did you hear that Mr. Qin went out because someone died?" "I see that Mr. Qin is a gentle and refined person, and I didn't expect that he could handle this matter!" Death is a very distant thing for these ladies who live in seclusion. They have heard of it but have never seen it. So when she heard that Qin Zhen was going to deal with the issue of the dead, she found it very strange. It seemed as if this matter of death was closer to me, and I felt scared but also strangely excited. But after listening to his sister's words, Daqiao shook his head and said: "Ke'er, you don't know that Mr. Qin is a man who can do great things!" "In the past, I studied under Lord Cai, and later assisted Lord Cao in the rebellion. Now, I am assisting Lord Liu in pacifying Lujiang." "Even our uncle is under Lord Qin's command!" "Because he saw that we were girls, he was so polite and gentle. If it were someone else, I don't know how scared he would be of this Qin Jun!" Xiaoqiao listened, blinked and said: "Is it really that scary? I've seen that Mr. Qin is a very nice person, and he doesn't put on airs towards us girls!" As she spoke, she thought of Qin Zhen's cheerful and talkative appearance, and said with longing: "I've often heard of Mr. Qin's talent, but I didn't expect him to be so handsome." "I just don't know how he compares to our Jiangdong Zhou Lang?" Seeing this, Daqiao covered his mouth and smiled: "Some girls have already fallen in love with Qin Jun before they even met Zhou Lang!" "Mr. Qin has already married a wife, and she is the daughter of Lord Cai. What a lady, and her reputation is no less than that of Mr. Qin!"

"They are a couple who treat each other as equals, are you going to become a concubine?" Xiaoqiao listened and puffed up her lips and said: "Sister, you're not good at talking to me. Who was it that made Qin Jun blush just now?" "How shameless! You still want Mr. Qin's masterpiece!" "My little sister doesn't want to say more!" She said she couldn't cross the bridge, and started to expose other people's shortcomings. But the bridge said calmly: "You are not familiar with poetry and literature, and you don't know the talent of Qin Jun. But you know how many young men from aristocratic families were fascinated by his words 'Picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence, leisurely seeing the southern mountains'." "I like poetry, so why not take this opportunity to ask for a poem?" When Xiaoqiao saw this, he laughed and said: "Sister, you love your talent. It's just right for you to be my concubine. You can ask me to write poems every day. Isn't it your wish?" When Qiao Ying saw him making fun of her, she felt embarrassed and angry, and started playing with Xiao Qiao. "You have such an annoying little mouth! I'll tear it to pieces!" The two of them were joking and laughing non-stop. Suddenly, they heard a light cough and saw Qiao Ruixing walking into the yard. Upon seeing this, the two girls hurriedly stopped and greeted. They were all somewhat in awe of Qiao Rui, so naturally they did not dare to act presumptuously. Qiao Rui walked forward and said in a deep voice: "You are the daughters of a rich family, playing around all day long, how can you be so disrespectful!" The two girls were so scared that their faces turned pale. Xiaoqiao hurriedly said: "Uncle, please don't blame me. It was my fault. I know I was wrong!" She quickly admitted her mistake, but Daqiao said nothing. Qiao Rui looked at the two girls and frowned: "Don't act like this, it's not that I want to be harsh on you, it's just that your parents died young and I'm away from home all year round, so it's hard for me to take care of you!" "If you were still young, you could play around, but now you have reached the age of marriage and have not yet married." "If this continues, who can you ask for my permission?" In fact, the reason why he was in a hurry to marry Erqiao was because Erqiao was not young anymore. Especially Ohashi, who is almost nineteen years old and still unmarried. She is already an older left-over woman, so he has to be anxious! Thinking of this, he looked at the two girls and said in a deep voice: "It is now that Lord Qin has come. I see that Lord Qin has only one wife at home, and I want to allow you to be his concubines. What do you think?" He was just following the rules and asking in a formality, but Erqiao's face changed when he heard this. The reason why they just joked with each other in the name of concubines was because concubines had a very low status in that era.

As soon as you enter the house, you have to be servile and subservient to the mistress, and flatter her with a fawning smile. If the children of common people were not helpless, who would be willing to be a concubine? But they didn't expect that their joke would come true. Now Qiao Rui actually wanted to allow them to be Qin Zhen's concubines. Therefore, Xiaoqiao's face turned pale and his eyes turned red for a moment. Daqiao's face turned red, but he was not shy, but embarrassed. His face turned red all the way to his ears. He glared at Qiao Rui and said: "I am a good girl, how can I allow myself to be someone else's concubine?" "If my uncle does this, isn't he harming my child?" She naturally thought that Qiao Rui did this in order to curry favor with the powerful and wealthy, and was filled with anger. Qiao Rui saw this and knew that Daqiao had a strong temper, so he said in a deep voice: "Don't be like this. Do you really think your father is such a greedy person?" "I am doing this because of your concerns." "You have been living in the boudoir for so long that you only know the disadvantages of being a concubine, but don't you know the pain of being a wife?" "Marrying into such a poor family, being a wife will be full of suffering!" "I just want to take care of my husband and children, serve my parents-in-law, and hope that my husband's family will prosper!" "If your husband's family is kind, you should respect them. But if you meet a vicious family, where they scold you once a day and scold you once every two days, what is your status compared to mine?" "Once your husband's family is in decline, he will have trouble protecting himself, and you will also have trouble having enough food and clothing." "I see that the King of Qin is young and promising. He has already been awarded the title of nobility before he reaches the age of thirty. He will be extremely powerful in the future." "There are no parents to blame above them, and no children to crowd around below them." "Besides, his wife Cai Zhaoji is virtuous, so I won't blame you. She is the best choice, so how can I say that she harmed you?" Speaking of personal experience, Qiao Rui has eaten more salt than Erqiao has eaten rice. Do you really think he would push his niece into the fire without thinking? In fact, he also analyzed it carefully! The biggest disadvantage of marrying Qin Zhen as a concubine is that you will have a bad reputation. But compared to this, there are so many benefits. The biggest advantage is that Qin Zhen is the head of the family. His parents died early, and he doesn’t even have a father-in-law and mother-in-law! You know, being a concubine only serves the mistress and master, but being a wife has to serve the parents-in-law. No matter how evil a housewife is, she still has to consider the views of her husband's family. If she gives birth to a son, the status of a concubine will not be low. Once the parents-in-law become evil, the wife will definitely have a hard time. If you are angry with your wife, you can go and complain to your husband, but if you are angry in front of your parents-in-law, you can only swallow your anger. Apart from anything else, just based on this point, he felt that there was nothing wrong with his niece marrying Qin Zhen. These trivial matters in the daily life may not sound like anything to you, but when you experience them yourself, you will know how painful they are! In his eyes, his two nieces were just too young and inexperienced. If it were a woman with more experience, seeing a rich bachelor like Qin Zhen, she would rush to his door!

Seeing the bridge in this state, he continued: "You have been living in your boudoirs, unaware of the chaos that has occurred over the years, and how many people are living in fear from day to day!" "Don't you know that for families like ours, if the ruler is not kind to us, we can just kill the whole family at will!" "If you don't find someone to protect you, how much trouble will you get into just based on your looks?" "I know Ke'er is young, but Ying'er, you are well-read. Don't you know your uncle's painstaking efforts?" As he said this, he treated Daqiao as an adult. When Daqiao heard this, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly, feeling sorry for himself as a girl who had no freedom in such a chaotic world. But she also knew that what Qiao Rui said was true. Although they had not gone out much in recent years, they had seen situations like selling their children. Compared with those people, how lucky are they? As for the matter of parents-in-law, they had never thought about it before. But now that Qiao Rui mentioned it, they felt quite uncomfortable thinking about it. While she was thinking, her heart suddenly moved, and she remembered Qin Zhen's appearance just now, and couldn't help but whispered: "Uncle, I wonder if it was you who brought this up, or Mr. Qin?" She thought that she would marry Qin Zhen, but she was afraid that Qin Zhen was a hypocritical person. On the surface, she was gentle and polite, but secretly she forced her uncle to take them as concubines. If that were the case, then she would despise Qin Zhen's character. But as soon as she finished speaking, Qiao Rui frowned and said: "My father took the initiative to bring up this matter. Since the military advisor had no children, Cai Zhaoji was looking for a concubine for him." "I'm worried that you're all of marriageable age, so I'm taking the initiative to bring it up!" "Don't think that the military advisor is greedy for beauty. In fact, the military advisor has no intention of taking a concubine. He just left the house and was afraid of wronging you, so he asked your father to ask your intentions!" "If this gentleman had not been sought for by my father, where would you have found him?" He said this to express his concern for the two of them. But when Daqiao heard this, he nodded and thought that she was right about Qin Zhen, and that he was indeed a gentleman. Regardless of how Qiao Rui behaved, at least Qin Zhen had no bad intentions. In this case, she is willing to marry, but she doesn't know if Cai Yan is really as virtuous as the legend says! Daqiao was thinking here, but Xiaoqiao said: "Then according to uncle's words, I am willing to do so. But I don't know whether Mr. Qin wants to marry me or my sister?" She asked this question without thinking much about it, but Daqiao was surprised when he heard it. That’s true. She kept thinking about it. What if Qin Zhen didn’t like her but liked her sister instead? Thinking of this, she hurriedly looked at Qiao Rui again. When Qiao Rui saw the appearance of his two nieces, he was stunned for a moment.

Yes, come to think of it, Qin Zhen hasn’t said who he wants! He did try hard to convince both nieces, but who did Qin Zhen want? You can't have both! (End of this chapter)