The road to wealth of a peasant widow

Chapter 220 Life-saving grace

It turned out that what Zhang Ruomei wanted to tell Chang'an was the daughter of Mr. Gu, the Minister of Guanglu Temple. She was sixteen years old this year, with excellent character and appearance, but her family was not rich and could not afford a decent dowry. She wanted to marry into a wealthy family that would not care about the amount of the woman's dowry.

"Look, doesn't this just fit your family? As long as the girl has good character, I believe you and Changping won't care whether she has a dowry or not. Master Gu's family is upright, but he is not good at scheming, so his official position is not high, but the children he taught will not be bad."

The Guanglu Temple is in charge of the court's sacrifices and banquets. It is a poor government office with not much benefits. The Temple Secretary is a sixth-rank official, which is not high in rank. Considering Mr. Gu's age, he is indeed not good at scheming.

However, now she is not trying to curry favor with the powerful, she just wants to find a suitable marriage for her son. As long as the girl in his family has good character and can get along well with Chang'an, it doesn't matter what the official position is or how much the dowry is.

Anyway, she had saved up enough wealth. In addition to leaving enough dowry for her daughter, she divided the rest among her three sons. Each of them got a lot, which was enough to prevent them from being greedy for money and making mistakes in officialdom that they should not have made.

Now, in order to reassure her sons, she would reveal a little about the annual dividends to them after receiving them, so that they would know their family's financial resources and would not lose control in official circles and take money that they should not take.

Although their ranks are not high now, they are all low-level officials, and every year they only get some ice and carbon tributes from external officials, which is not much money, but Chen Cui wants to make it clear in advance, so that they will not be affected by this impoverished official career.

When Chang'an came back in the evening, Chen Cui told him about the girl from the Gu family. This time Chang'an didn't say anything, but just asked Chen Cui to take charge of the arrangements. So she quickly asked someone to pass the message to Zhang Ruomei so that they could arrange a meeting.

The meeting was finally scheduled for a holiday five days later, at a popular temple in Beijing called Jing'an Temple.

That day Miss Gu will accompany her mother to burn incense, and Chen Cui will ask Chang'an to accompany her, so that she can take the opportunity to see what the other person looks like.

Chen Cui felt a little regretful. She had attended too few parties in the past, which resulted in her never meeting Miss Gu.

"It's useless even if you go there more often. Miss Gu's family is very strict and she rarely goes out. I have never seen her in person before. I only saw her recently. Otherwise, why would I mention her to Chang'an just now?"

Zhang Ruomei smiled.

On the day of rest, Zhang Ruomei will also go to Jing'an Temple together. She knows Mrs. Gu and Miss Gu, and can help the two families meet.

It was a clear and crisp autumn day. The Double Ninth Festival had just passed and the weather was neither too cold nor too hot. It was a good time to go out and relax.

Afterwards, when Chen Cui recalled her experience of that day, it seemed like a dream. She didn’t know how things had developed in such a strange direction, to the point that the original blind date did not work out, but instead led to another marriage.

Miss Gu really looked good, gentle, generous, modest and polite. Madam Gu was also a very dignified official's wife. Although they had lived a simple life for many years, probably because of Mr. Gu, there was no pettiness in the expressions of this mother and daughter.

Chen Cui's family knows their own affairs. Their family is not a well-off family and cannot be compared with those families with roots. Such a partner is already very good.

As for her son's opinion, she couldn't tell for a moment. Chang'an had always been very polite, and his emotions didn't fluctuate much after meeting the mother and daughter.

When they were going back, the Gu family went first and they followed. When Chen Cui asked her son in the carriage about his impression and opinion of Miss Gu, something unexpected happened suddenly.

For some reason, the horse pulling their carriage suddenly became wild, pulling the carriage forward at a very high speed, and the driver could not control the horse's speed.

The car suddenly accelerated and the road was bumpy. Chen Cui and Chang'an could not sit still and could only hold on to the handrails of the car with nervous expressions.

Chang'an was a man after all. While loudly asking the driver what was going on, he tried his best to move forward and try to find out what was going on.

The panicked voice of the driver came from outside the carriage: "Second Master, this horse seems to have gone crazy all of a sudden, I can't control it!"

There was a hint of tears in his voice, showing that he was really at a loss.

Chen Cui was also panicking. Chang'an leaned out of the door but couldn't reach the reins and couldn't help the driver control the horses. She knew that the bustling city would be right beside this section of road. If the car kept going at this speed, it would definitely hit pedestrians, which would be a serious crime.

Chang'an was also anxious. There were many officials and dignitaries in the capital, and the censors' eyes and ears were all perked up, waiting to see which official or family member made a mistake so that they could report it to the emperor!

To take a step back, even if the carriage didn't hit anyone else, he and his mother were now unable to get off the carriage. If they couldn't control the horse, both of them would be in danger!

At this moment, a girl in red riding a horse nearby suddenly jumped up, jumped onto their horse, tightened the reins hard, and pulled the horse's head.

The horse's stomach was clamped and the reins were pulled. It kept neighing and trying to resist, but it could not withstand the strong grip of the person on it, and its running speed gradually slowed down.

When the speed of the carriage had completely slowed down and the horse seemed to have returned to normal, the girl in red jumped from the horse to the shaft and smiled sweetly at Chang'an.

"This horse must have eaten something unclean, which is why it went mad. Let's go find a livestock doctor to check it out."

Chang'an felt that he had never seen such a bright smile. The girl's clothes were dazzling red. He tried hard to calm his mind before he opened his mouth to ask.

"Thank you for your timely rescue, which prevented a disaster. May I ask your name and where you live so that I can come to your house to thank you!"

Chang'an only felt his throat tighten and his mind tense, fearing that the other party would not tell him. Even when he was facing the emperor during the palace examination, he felt the same way.

The girl smiled and said, "I just happened to pass by and helped you a little. There's no need to thank you. I think there should be a female family member in your car. Maybe she was frightened just now. You should go home early to calm down!"

Chen Cui immediately lifted the curtain of the carriage and said to the girl, "Young lady, you are too modest. It was just a small favor for you, but it saved the lives of my mother and me. Please tell me where your house is so that I can thank you someday!"

She didn't show up earlier because the hairpin on her head fell off during the bumpy ride. Now her hair was askew and her clothes were messy, making it difficult for her to appear in public. But now that her son refused to give her the contact information of her savior, she had to show up.