Delivered

"Love is hard to predict." Mrs. Wang said: "They're both good kids. We should let them decide for themselves."

The next day, Madame Qian gave the village girls a special day off. Early morning found her sitting in Kui Wu's carriage, heading to town. Mrs. Zhang came along too.

Qibao did not get up early in the morning. Fuqiu brought her water for washing as usual, but was sent away by her because she said she wanted to make a set of jewelry with diamonds as a betrothal gift to Sister Die'er while she was in good spirits.

Qibao slipped into her space and took out a sheet of paper to sketch. She planned to create a three-piece set: a diamond hairpin, earrings, and a bracelet.

This was also her first time using diamonds for jewelry. The ones in her space were too fancy for the village. The craftsmanship was intricate, beyond what anyone here could do. Taking them out might even raise suspicions.

Qibao quickly drew rough designs for the shapes she wanted. Diamonds are dense and hard, but fortunately, she had that knife that could cut through metal like butter. That made it easy to work with them.

Qibao marked a diamond with a pen, then carefully picked up a knife to start working. Crafting jewelry wasn't her strong suit, but by combining modern designs with her own ideas, she managed to create something quite impressive.

The more facets a diamond has, the better it looks and the more it sparkles. However, it's impossible to achieve that with hand tools, so Qibao could only make four sides at most.

She made all the pieces in a butterfly shape, which matched Wen Die's name perfectly.

Xiong'Da and Xiong'Er each carried a pile of fruits, sitting next to Qibao and munching loudly.

Since Qibao had frightened Xiong'Er last time, he now eagerly followed her around whenever she entered the space, grinning adorably with his teeth showing.

Suddenly, an apple appeared in front of Qibao. She looked up and saw it was Xiong Er, gesturing for her to eat the apple.

Qibao's hands were busy with tools, so she couldn't easily grab food. She took a bite directly from the apple held in Xiong Er's bear paw.

Seeing this, Xiong Er happily slapped the ground, then threw the half-eaten apple into his mouth. He ate it even more enjoyably than before, as if Qibao's bite had made it taste better.

Qibao couldn't help but shake her head with a smile, then continued focusing on cutting carefully.

"Flatterer!" Xiaoling pouted, lying on his back with his legs crossed and occasionally twitching. He enjoyed eating grapes, his eyes half-closed in contentment.

After an unknown amount of time, Qibao finally finished crafting the diamond jewelry set. She was quite satisfied with her work.

The hairpin was particularly special. It had a silver thread tassel design with a large butterfly on one end. From this main part hung three tassels, each with a small butterfly at the bottom, ready to take flight. Each of the four wings on these small butterflies had four facets that sparkled brilliantly. Creating something like this was truly a remarkable achievement.

Qibao let out a satisfied breath, placed the finished diamond jewelry into a box, and wondered what time it was outside. Saying goodbye to Xiaoling, she stepped out of her space.

Upon seeing Qibao emerge from her room, Mrs. Wang said with concern: "Qibao, I've kept your breakfast warm. Hurry up and eat! We just finished our meal too, but we can't skip breakfast first thing in the morning."

Seeing this, Qibao realized not much time had passed. Having a cheat ability sure feels amazing! she thought.

As noon approached, Madam Qian and Mrs. Zhang rushed back from town.

"Qibao, I bought plenty of embroidery cloth during my trip. I was thinking... would it be a good idea to convert two rooms at the academy into an embroidery workshop?" Madam Qian asked.

Qibao agreed: "Good idea. We don't have any other suitable place for the embroidery workshop. The village school has a few empty rooms. We can open walls between them to make more space when needed."

Mrs. Zhang thought for a moment: "Actually, we don't need to open any walls. There's enough space as it is. I'll bring over the embroidery fabric I bought today. Tomorrow I'll send my girls to start working."

Qibao nodded, not adding anything else.

So Mrs. Zhang unloaded her purchases from her cart. Kui Wu sent the remains from the bales of embroidered cloth, thread, and other goods to the village school by cart.

Smiling, Mrs. Zhang said: "Qibao, look at these wedding candies and pastries. We'll give them to the villagers later so everyone can share in the happiness."

Qibao chuckled: "Aunt, my eldest brother hasn't even married yet! Aren't you buying these a bit early?"

Mrs. Zhang waved her hand: "With the betrothal settled, Die'er is practically already part of our family. Plus, when your eldest brother passed the exams, all our relatives came to congratulate us. We still haven't been able to throw a proper banquet for everyone. These sweets will let us all share in the joy."

"Everything you plan is always so thoughtful, Aunt." Qibao said with a grin.

......

These days, Madame Qian leaves for school early each morning and doesn't return until after the children have finished their afternoon classes. She's busy all day, but it's clear she's enjoying it.

Zhi'er has been staying with the Xu family for some time now and no longer needs Madame Qian around the clock. He gets along well with Yaya, who is watched by Mei Niang.

Soon, the day for the Xu family to take betrothal gifts to the Wen family arrives, leaving everyone in the Xu household feeling anxious. After all, they haven't received any gifts yet, and they're afraid missing the auspicious date will cause problems.

Finally, the gifts arrive the day before the big day.

Everything is ready now!

The Xu family members can finally relax.

As they move the gifts inside, it's clear there are plenty of them! Each box is decorated with a red silk tassel, showing that they've been carefully prepared.

Grandpa Xu says: "Jing Chen, thank you so much!"

Mrs. Zhang adds gratefully: "Yes, these are truly lavish gifts!"

Jing Chen replies: "Grandpa Xu, Auntie, please don't worry. The gifts are based on what wealthy families in the capital typically offer. I'm not an expert, so please excuse any mistakes or oversights."

Mrs. Zhang smiled: "Oh, it's not too much. Everything is perfect. You've gone to so much trouble, thank to you and Chenyu."

The old man said: "We're leaving tomorrow. I'll arrange for everyone to go to Qingyun City together. First, my wife and I are definitely going. Also, the eldest son's family, along with the second and third sons' wives as aunties, must be there. We need to show the Wen family how seriously we take this marriage."

Mrs. Wang nodded: "We also need to prepare a red envelope with ten thousand and one taels of silver. It means we've chosen the best out of ten thousand. It's not much money, but the meaning is important."

Mrs. Li smiled: "Mother, I can tell you're very happy with Die'er as your granddaughter-in-law. You usually can't stand spending money on others. Now you're not even worried about ten thousand taels of silver?"

Mrs. Wang laughed: "This is a big happy event of getting married. The family will have more people. How can I not be happy? Don't worry, Honglian, I will do the same for the boys in the family when they get married and hold wedding ceremonies in the future. I will not be biased."

Mrs. Li said: "Mother, what are you saying? Wenwu is the eldest grandson, so he should have more responsibilities than his brothers. Plus, as the eldest brother, Wenwu takes extra care of the younger ones. Him having priority in these matters is completely natural."