Chapter 1 The Unpopular Wife (1) The original family in Beijing held a unique wedding. The so-called uniqueness does not mean that it is extraordinarily lively or as extravagant as Shili Hongzhuang. On the contrary, there is no joy in the wedding, only a small string of firecrackers are set off symbolically, and the dowry is even more shabby that makes people laugh. Even when the sedan chair is carried into the huge mansion, there is not even a plaque on the door of the mansion. It was supposed to be a festive wedding. The guests were so few that they could be counted on two hands, and there were only a few servants to serve. The wedding hall only had a symbolic red cloth hanging, and the window grilles with the word "Happy" on the windowsills and walls that ordinary people should have when they get married were missing. This is an auspicious day for the marriage of Ai Li'er, the granddaughter of Honglu Temple Minister, and Yuan Moqiu, who was deprived of the title of Prince of Zhenhai. Three months ago, Zhenhai Hou Yuan Hanshan went to sea to exterminate the pirates. He, who had always been invincible, actually suffered a huge defeat and died at the hands of the pirates. It is a pity that a hero who was praised by everyone died in the sand, but someone in the capital informed the emperor that Yuan Hanshan had actually been colluding with the pirates for a long time, and shared the interests of the pirates in plundering merchants at sea or people's homes along the coast. This defeat was due to the uneven distribution of the spoils between the two sides, which resulted in the sacrifice of many heroic souls in the navy, and he himself was silenced by the pirates. As soon as this news came out, the emperor was furious and revoked Yuan Hanshan's title, which seemed to confirm his guilt. However, this case was inherently fishy. Not to mention Yuan Hanshan's great reputation, almost no one believed that he would collude with pirates, not to mention that the evidence submitted to the temple was very weak, and there were even forged letters. Therefore, since Yuan Hanshan's death, the matter has been hotly debated, and officials and censors unanimously requested the emperor to restart the investigation. The emperor had always been wary of Yuan Hanshan's prestige and military power along the coast, so he would seize this opportunity to take back the title of the original family. However, the court's wave of vindication for Yuan Hanshan made the emperor lose face. He could only be extremely careful in dealing with Yuan Hanshan's descendants. If you suppress him too much, you will be blamed. The king of a country is so aggrieved, which makes him feel even more unfair. Yuan Hanshan lost his title, and Yuan Moqiu's position as the eldest son would naturally be deprived of him. Although Yuan Moqiu had been training with his father in the Laizhou Navy Camp since he was a child, he returned to the capital with his mother after narrowly escaping death in a shipwreck when he was sixteen years old. He gave up martial arts and followed literature, and was quite famous in the literary world. The most important thing is that Yuan Moqiu is a man of merit, and he is the prostitute appointed by Emperor Jinko. His father has already paid the price for an uncertain crime. Public opinion attributes this matter to the emperor's wrongful conviction, putting the king of a country at the forefront. If he wants to use this as an excuse to remove Yuan Moqiu from his official position, it will be difficult to convince the public. Therefore, the emperor could only be gentle and generous, showing that although he had no choice but to seize Yuan Hanshan's title, he still cared about Yuan Moqiu's talents. Therefore, he not only appointed him as the official governor of Qinzhou, but also promoted him from the seventh rank to the fifth rank. Now that the plaque of the Zhenhai Marquis Mansion has been taken down, the new plaque of the original mansion cannot be installed before the height of the over-standard lintel in the mansion is lowered. Many of the servants have been disbanded. In addition, they have to get married within a hundred days of Yuan Hanshan's death, so it is not possible to make a big fanfare and be too lively and festive. No one dared to attend this wedding. During Yuan Hanshan's mourning period, Yuan Mansion could only simply put a red cloth to decorate it, making the whole wedding look even more simple and shabby. After worshiping heaven and earth in the lobby, the newlyweds are sent into the bridal chamber. Because there are few guests, there is only one bride left in the bridal chamber, and no one even comes to make trouble in the bridal chamber. Yuan Moqiu had an expressionless face from beginning to end and was not happy about the marriage. Xi Niang asked him to move and sit down, with a feeling that nothing could be more sad than a heartbroken one. Speaking of this, Ai Li'er is also one of the most famous protagonists in the capital. She was originally a country girl, but she was recognized by the second son of the Minister of Honglu Temple, who said she was the youngest daughter lost many years ago. Therefore, after she was welcomed back to the palace of the Minister of Honglu Temple, there were many rumors that this girl must be rude and unattractive because she was born in a rural area. Such a woman's marriage to Yuan Moqiu was ostensibly a favor, but in fact it was an insult to Yuan Moqiu, who had outstanding talent, beauty, and a good reputation in both civil and military circles in the capital. So when Yuan Moqiu picked up the scale and tried to lift Ai Li'er's hijab, he was extremely disgusted but had to do it. When the hijab fell and the bride's face appeared, Yuan Moqiu's eyes widened and he gasped, not believing what he saw. The legendary woman who was vulgar and unsalted turned out to be extremely beautiful, with a beautiful nose and cherry lips, a pair of big black eyes, clear and transparent, and a fresh and refined temperament. Even the red wedding dress on her body looked vulgar. In particular, she exuded an inexplicable aura of nobility, which made Yuan Moqiu puzzled. How could this be the magnanimity of a village girl? Compared to Yuan Moqiu's reluctance, Ai Li'er was obviously much happier. She looked at his handsome and elegant face almost obsessively, only barely reaching out to touch his paw. "Ms. sir!" Perhaps out of joy, Ai Li'er gave a clear cry, the sound was so loud that it woke up the stunned Yuan Moqiu. At this moment, his heart was still beating rapidly, and he didn't know whether it was because he was frightened by her, or because of some reason that he couldn't explain. "You don't have to be so loud. You don't have to be startled. Just speak softly." After a few blinks, Yuan Moqiu had returned to his usual calmness and raised his hand slightly to signal her to keep her voice down. "Ms. sir!" Ai Li'er called out again, this time the volume was obviously much lower, but her beautiful eyes were still shining with joy. "We are finally getting married. I have been looking forward to it for a long time!" What to expect? Yuan Moqiu found it ridiculous, "You should know why we got married." Although her beauty was beyond his expectation and shocked him, Yuan Moqiu still couldn't feel too happy when he thought about the true meaning behind the marriage. "I know, it was the Holy One who granted marriage!" Speaking of which, the emperor forced both the Yuan family and the Ai family to marry into this marriage. The Yuan family obviously did not want to marry a rude and uncivilized village girl, and the Ai family did not want to get involved with the guilty minister in the future. Ai Li'er didn't seem to mind at all. To be honest, she recognized the ancestors of the Ai family in the lineage of Honglu Temple Qing in order to marry him. But it is impossible for Yuan Moqiu to know such an inside story, but he knew very well that even if the Hou Mansion fell and he no longer had the status of the heir apparent, his personal charm was still considerable. At least there were many noble ladies from aristocratic families who secretly admired him, so it seemed understandable that Ai Li'er was ecstatic about marrying him. Sure enough, he was born in the countryside and had never seen much of the world. He only had a beautiful face. Yuan Moqiu confirmed this again, feeling increasingly helpless about this marriage. His long years of upbringing made him not want to be frivolous with her, so he said sternly: "Since you know that this marriage is an imperial edict and cannot be violated due to the situation, we are not allowed to separate. In the future, you and I will keep an appropriate distance from each other, treat each other as guests, and stay well." The implication is that from now on you take your Yangguan Road, and I will cross my single-plank bridge. Don't block my way, and I will not demolish your bridge. "You dislike me?" Although Ai Li'er was naive, she was not stupid either. Her beautiful eyes were widened, but there was no resentment towards him in her eyes, which were still clear. "It doesn't matter, you tell me how to be a good wife, I learn things quickly!" "This..." Her positivity made Yuan Moqiu incomprehensible, but he really didn't want to get too involved with her, so he said with deep meaning: "You don't have to do anything special. It's enough to think about the virtuous and think inwardly when you see the virtuous." "I've seen your words about seeing the wise and thinking about them in books!" Ai Li'er was happy at first, and then fell into confusion. "…But what does that mean?" Yuan Moqiu paused. Although he was a little surprised that she seemed to be literate, it did not affect his deep-rooted belief that she was an idiot. "The so-called 'think about the good when you see them, and introspect when you see the unworthy' refers to when you see talented people... To put it simply, when you see good people, you learn from others; when you see bad people, you need to reflect on yourself to see if you have the same problem." "My husband is so knowledgeable!" I learned another sentence, but I learned it from him, and Ai Li'er was very happy. "Is this from the Analects of Confucius? But I don't understand anything Confucius said. I will definitely look more carefully next time. If I learn more from Confucius, I should be able to learn more about how to be a good wife?"