The snow in the Capital had stopped. The stone-paved streets of Suzaku Avenue had been swept clean, and every household had pasted red "double happiness" characters on their doorframes—it was not a festival, yet the atmosphere was even more festive than one. News of Lu Jingyuan and Jiang Wan’s successful betrothal had sprouted wings; by the morning, it was still contained within the inner gates of the Lu Mansion, but by the hour of the monkey, it had spread throughout all seventy-two wards of the Capital. Even the beggars in the West City knew that the legitimate daughter of the Marquis's Mansion was to marry Heir Lu.
"Heir Lu! Miss Jiang!" Boss Wang, a rice merchant from the West City, blocked the gates of the Lu Mansion with his carrying pole. At one end of the pole was newly harvested glutinous rice, and at the other, his homemade cured meat. "I have nothing of great value, but please, you must accept this small token of my heart!"
Lu Jingyuan smiled and took the cured meat, glancing at a paper parcel tucked in the corner of the pole. "Are these the candied chestnuts Miss Jiang likes so much?"
Chapter 231