Chapter 630 - 314 Holding Your Hand_3
Manjiang Qian returned the afternoon of the second day, accompanied by Sigui Qian and his family. In the latter half of the afternoon, the third wife’s family went to Lady Wu’s parents’ graves to burn paper offerings and pay homage, and Lady Wu cried yet another time.
Early the next morning, the members of the two houses set off together, pushing off from the bank in a boat and heading west.
Yixiu Qian was chatting with her mother in the cabin when Manting Qian arrived. By the end of the year, Manting would turn fifteen and had grown into a beautiful and graceful young lady, the tallest among the Miss Qians, standing at an estimated one meter sixty-seven, which was considered tall for a woman in ancient times.
She was already betrothed, her fiancé being a illegitimate son of General Huo, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Jizhou. The marriage proposal was initiated by the Huo family, who were clearly interested in the relationship between the Qian’s third wife and Prince Ning.
A few months ago, when the Huo family sent someone to propose marriage, the entire family of Sigui Qian was ecstatic. Being merely a family in business, and not a hugely successful one at that, they had managed to secure such an excellent match.
Sigui Qian was more sober-minded, knowing that it wasn’t his family that the Huo’s were interested in; they surely wanted to use his family’s connection to his third brother’s family for the marriage alliance. He dared not agree immediately and sent a message to Sangui Qian in the capital. If Sangui agreed, he would pursue the connection with the Huo family. If Sangui did not agree, no matter how advantageous the marriage, he would not consent, fearing that he might bring trouble to his brother and concerned that his daughter might suffer in the wrong family.
Manjiang Qian immediately wrote back to Sigui, saying that General Huo was a forthright and upright man, very familiar to him, and that the marriage was a good one to make.
Only after receiving the reply did Sigui agree to the match.
The young Huo Lixing, General Huo’s fourth son, was eighteen that year and already held the military rank of an eighth-grade commanding officer. Though he was somewhat dark-complexioned, he was also tall and handsome. His second brother, Huo Liren, had even visited the Qian’s third wife along with Liang Jinzhao a few years earlier. The unruly child had spoken the plain truth, telling of the cruelties of the Song River campaign, and upon hearing it, the entire third household had wept inconsolably.
Manting Qian was a devoted fan of Pan Yue, memorizing her every move and diligently practicing them upon returning home. She even remembered Pan Yue’s clothes and headwear, making copies of them when she got back. Hence, though she never received formal instruction from a nanny, her demeanor was quite that of an aristocratic young lady.
Initially, Huo Lixing and his mother, the concubine Madam Ma, were unhappy about being matched with such an unreliable family and, though they didn’t dare to dissent, their hearts were not at ease. However, after Huo Lixing met Manting Qian, he was smitten at first sight. He felt that, even though his three sisters-in-law were daughters of officials, none of them matched Manting’s beauty and grace.