"Miss Fang, please." The attendant standing in front of the boat door bowed respectfully. Fang Zitong glanced at his personal maid and said, "Wait for me here. I'll go and come back."
After saying that, she walked in without looking back. However, when she saw the person in the boat clearly, her expression changed imperceptibly.
The person waiting in the painting boat was not Pei Xiaoze, but the head of the Pei family - Pei Guoqing, Duke of Guoguo.
"Second Miss Fang is well." Pei Juqing smiled slightly, and Fang Zitong bowed and said, "Please be well, Mr. Guo Guo. I didn't know that Mr. Guo Guo was here. I hope you will forgive me if I am rude."
"Second Miss Fang doesn't know I'm here?" Pei Juqing's smile grew brighter, but there was no smile in her eyes. "This is my Pei family's boat. If I'm not here, where should I be?"
Fang Zitong looked wary, pursed her lips and said, "Since I made the wrong move, I won't bother Mr. Guo Guo too much..."
"Miss Fang, wait a minute." Pei Juqing interrupted her quietly, "If Miss Fang is looking for my cousin, you might as well give up. He won't come."
"It's you..." Fang Zitong blurted out, but suddenly fell silent.
"It's me." Pei Juqing nodded slightly and said, "I asked Miss Fang to come here in the name of my cousin. I have a business deal that I want to discuss with Miss Fang."
Fang Zitong's expression turned cold, "I'm just a weak girl in a deep harem. I have nothing to discuss with Duke Jun."
"Why should Second Miss Fang refuse in a hurry? Why don't you listen to the business I want to discuss first, and then make a decision before it's too late." Pei Juqing poured the tea and said, "Even if the business cannot be negotiated, we can't waste this good tea."
He pushed the tea cup in the direction of Fang Zitong, as if he was sure that she would sit down and discuss the business with him.
Fang Zitong hesitated for a moment, and finally sat across from Pei Juanqing, "What kind of business does Lord Juan want to discuss with me?"
Compared with Fang Zitong's uneasiness, Pei Juqing seemed particularly calm and calm. He didn't say anything, but just motioned for her to taste the tea first.
Seeing this, Fang Zitong picked up the tea cup, took a brief sip, and then calmly put the tea cup back to its place.
"What do Second Miss Fang think of this tea?" Pei Juqing asked casually, and Fang Zitong said unceremoniously: "This is the Spring Festival tea from Xiguan City. It is a good product in the border areas. But if it were brought to the capital, it would not be worth mentioning. "
"As expected of Second Miss Fang, you can tell at first glance." Pei Juqing smiled and said: "Beyond the Western Border, in the land of Persia, the only daughter of the Sasanian family, Warners, gave up her life in order to marry Second Miss Fang's cousin. The name of Sassanid..."
He paused for a moment as he spoke, "I wonder if Miss Fang Er is willing to give up the name of the Fang family?"
Fang Zitong's face was as dark as water, "What do you really want to say, Mr. Guo Guo?"
"Miss Fang Er answered my question, and I will tell you my purpose." Pei Xuanqing picked up the teapot unhurriedly and was about to add more tea, but saw Fang Zitong move the tea cup, "I don't want to."
"Sure enough." Pei Juqing chuckled lightly, and Fang Zitong said coldly: "I have answered the question of Duke Jun, and it is your turn to answer my doubts."
"What I want to tell Miss Fang is that if you want to join the Pei family, it is impossible to marry my cousin." Pei Juqing smiled and said seriously: "But you can consider changing to someone else, such as me."
Fang Zitong's face was full of astonishment. She had thought about many situations, but never thought of this one.
For a moment, she even thought she had heard wrongly. What did Pei Juqing say? Want her to marry him and be his stepmother?
She laughed angrily and said, "Although the Pei family is good, it is not the first in the capital where there are many aristocratic families. Why does Mr. Guo Guo think that even if I am a step-brother, I must marry into the Pei family?"
"Since Miss Fang is not a must of the Pei family, why are you still entangled with my cousin?" Pei Juqing pretended to be curious: "Forgive me for my blindness, but I really can't see that my cousin is worthy of Miss Fang giving up everything, including Fang. The name of the family."
Hearing this, Fang Zitong calmed down a little. What did Pei Juanqing mean? What does it mean to give up everything, including the Fang family name? Even if she had to marry Pei Xiaoze, it would not be enough for the Fang family to remove her from the family tree.
Thinking of this, she thought about it, looked at Pei Juanqing intently, and said, "His Majesty Duke Junguo just said that he wanted to discuss business with me. What did he mean?"
"I got some news related to the Fang family a few days ago, and I want to use it as a bargaining chip to negotiate a business with Second Miss Fang." As soon as Pei Juqing finished speaking, Fang Zitong said: "Based on just some gossipy news, Duke Jui Your Excellency wants to exchange a marriage contract with me, why should you treat me like a three-year-old child?"
"I will tell Miss Fang all this information without any cost." Pei Xuanqing said in a leisurely manner: "After Miss Fang hears this, it won't be too late to discuss business with me."
Fang Zitong had a bad feeling in her heart. If Pei Juqing was allowed to finish speaking, she might not be able to leave.
However, before she could react, Pei Juqing already spoke: "When the Dajing Dynasty came to power, your father purchased a jade mine from the Persians at a price several times higher than that of ordinary jade mines. However, this jade mine had long been destroyed. There was very little left after being mined, but it was abandoned within a few years. Interestingly, a few months ago this jade mine was transferred to the name of Mr. Fang Lihui of the Fang family, and was sold back to the Persians at a high price."
He paused for a moment and continued: "When I heard about this, I thought about the fact that the Fang family has been doing business with the Persians for many years, and it would make sense to have some false accounts that cannot be exposed. Who knows that my subordinates have nothing to do, so they investigate further. After investigation, we discovered that the Persian who bought back the jade mine was not only the original owner of the jade mine, but also did not spend a single cent. All the money came from your father-in-law."
Fang Zitong's expression was stern, and a smile escaped from Pei Juqing's lips, "I just don't know what's the secret behind why your father spent so much money on a jade mine?"
Fang Zitong bit her red lips tightly, and her voice seemed to be squeezed out from between her teeth, "What's the secret? Cousin Lihui was afraid that he wouldn't be able to raise the money and would be punished by His Majesty, so he just turned to my father for help. It's not convenient for my father to come forward directly. , so I took a roundabout way, what's wrong with that?"
Pei Juqing stared at the person in front of her for a long time, and then said: "Miss Fang is smart and astute, but unfortunately I got more information than that. All the jade from the jade mine that cost your father so much trouble has been made into jade pendants. In the previous dynasty, Princess Pingnan, Miss Qin Xuan and other officials and noble ladies all wore them. Later, the Fang family members of Miss Fang’s generation also had one, and the pattern of the jade pendant..."
He didn't say anything further. Fang Zitong's breath was unstable. He subconsciously picked up the tea cup at hand and brought it to his lips. Before he took a sip, he heard him say again: "It is said that the Fang family is strict in naming and has fixed rules. For example, Fang In the Second Miss’s generation, all the girls in the family are named after the Five Elements characters, such as the Second Miss Fang’s Tong character and the Empress’s Qin character…”
"Shut up!" Fang Zitong placed the tea cup in his hand heavily on the table and said with a sharp expression: "How can I allow people to call the Queen by her name?"
