Do you know: I, a commoner prime minister

Chapter 33 The Ugly Daughter-in-Law Meets Her In-Laws

Zhou An lifted the bed curtain, got out of bed, picked up his undergarments scattered on the floor, put them on, and called Shen Mama and the others to come in.

With permission granted, Madam Shen led several maids carrying washing utensils in.

After bowing, she wrapped Shulan in a large robe and took her into the washroom.

Shulan's dowry members also went along, while Chunhua, along with two maids, helped Zhou An with his washing up.

Today is the second day of their marriage. To celebrate, Chunhua found him a new red robe with a pair of mandarin duck jade pendants hanging from his waist.

Most importantly, Zhou An can now tie his hair up and no longer needs to wear a headscarf.

According to the Book of Rites, girls reached adulthood at fifteen and boys reached adulthood at twenty, signifying that they were ready to marry.

However, this was not strictly enforced, and it was very common for girls to marry at the age of twelve or thirteen.

It is also common for men to obtain characters in advance due to their needs.

Generally speaking, a coming-of-age ceremony is only held for a man who is still unmarried at the age of twenty.

If it is a marriage ceremony, the coming-of-age ceremony is omitted and there is no need to hold it.

After all, whether it's a woman's coming-of-age ceremony or a man's coming-of-age ceremony, the core purpose is to tell outsiders that their children have reached adulthood and are ready to marry.

Since they are already married, there is no need to hold a ceremony.

In ancient times, it was actually quite simple to distinguish whether a man or woman was married: women would put their hair up after marriage, while men would tie their hair up.

The men with their hair tied up were either already married or over twenty years old.

In ancient times, men over twenty years old who were unmarried were extremely rare.

After Zhou An finished getting ready, Shulan also came out of the washroom.

At this moment, she changed into a red embroidered jacket and, surrounded by her maids, sat down in front of the dressing table, where her maids did her hair and makeup.

The maidservant styled Shulan's hair into a double-bun hairstyle and adorned her with various hair ornaments, all made of gold.

Another maid was still tidying up various things, and Zhou An estimated that the mess would weigh several pounds if all of it were put together.

Zhou An stepped forward and reminded her, "My wife, my parents and relatives are all commoners, so it's better for you to dress simply."

On the second day of the wedding, dressing up in finery is not to show off, but to tell the husband's family how much the new bride is valued in her own family.

Because everything, from clothes to jewelry, was brought by the new bride from her parents' home.

This was common in wealthy families; the more jewelry a woman wore, the more it reflected the importance her family placed on her.

But this kind of thing doesn't work in the Zhou family. He gave his mother a silver hairpin, and she scolded him for it.

The other relatives couldn't even produce a decent piece of jewelry.

As a result, Shulan, adorned with gold jewelry, went to pay her respects, so much so that it was dazzling.

In the eyes of the Zhou family elders, this was not a sign of respect from the bride's family, but rather a display of arrogance.

"My lord, I didn't think of these things at the time!" Shulan hurriedly explained upon hearing this.

"I know, I didn't mean to blame you."

Seeing her anxious, Zhou An gently comforted her, "My family was originally just an ordinary family. Although I have now achieved academic success, many of the elders' ideas have not changed. You need to adapt slowly."

"Um!"

Shulan felt much relieved upon hearing this and quickly instructed her maid to remove all the headdresses, leaving only a gold hairpin.

"My lord, is this alright?"

"That's good. It's getting late, let's go!"

…………

"Isn't it said that wealthy families value rules the most? What time is it? Why aren't you up yet?" said Madam Huang, the eldest maternal aunt.

"Yeah, even if you've just gotten married, you shouldn't get up this late."

Second Aunt Zheng said, "Little sister-in-law, you'd better set some rules for her in the future, otherwise she'll suffer a lot!"

Zhou Li frowned slightly upon hearing this. His two aunts-in-law had never been this annoying before, so why did their words sound so off now?

He only had one son, Zhou An, and now that they were married, the most important thing was naturally to have more children. He couldn't wait for the two of them to sleep a little longer.

Although he found it uncomfortable to hear, he didn't dare to speak up.

Madam Hao didn't think too much about it and said with a smile, "It's not that they got up late, it's that we got up too early. It's okay to sleep a little longer."

The two sisters-in-law exchanged a glance, and the eldest aunt said, "That's not how it's said. The Sheng family is so wealthy; the dowry they gave was incredibly generous."

You and your brother-in-law only have a hundred acres of land. That's enough to support your family, but you live in such a big house and have so many servants. How can you possibly support them all?

"Won't we still have to rely on my nephew's wife? How will you, as the mother-in-law, handle that then?"

"Sister-in-law, what you said is wrong!"

The second aunt retorted, "The Sheng family was willing to marry their daughter to us because they valued An'er's success in the imperial examinations."

She was just a merchant's daughter; how could she be worthy of An'ge'er? The dowry wasn't entirely part of the dowry; a portion was also for the Zhou family.

These things should all be left to my sister-in-law; there's no need to worry about her attitude.

"What you said makes a good point!"

The eldest aunt looked at Hao and reminded her, "Sister-in-law, if she doesn't bring it up, you have to take the initiative to bring it up later. Otherwise, you can't keep asking your daughter-in-law for money for everything."

"No need. His father and I aren't used to living here. If it doesn't work out, we'll just go back to Youyang," Hao said nonchalantly.

"This…"

Upon hearing this, the eldest aunt became anxious and was about to say something when footsteps sounded outside.

"Father, Mother, your son has brought my wife to offer tea!"

Zhou An entered with a smile and Shulan, bowing respectfully.

"Wow, Ange'er looks much more handsome with this new hairstyle."

"That's right."

The eldest and second aunts praised her with beaming smiles.

"Eldest Uncle, Second Uncle..."

Zhou An bowed to the elders in turn and said, "After my wife and I have served tea, I will talk to you."

"Yes, business comes first." Uncle Hao Daniu nodded.

The Hao family was relatively poor. They originally had four sons and three daughters, but unfortunately, four of them died young, leaving only two sons and one daughter.

Because he died young, he couldn't even calculate the order of his siblings.

Zhou An's maternal grandfather was a simple man who really wanted a cow, so his two sons were named Da Niu (Big Cow) and Er Niu (Second Cow).

A maidservant brought tea, and Shulan picked up a cup, curtsied, and said, "Father-in-law, please have some tea."

"Okay, okay!"

A bright smile appeared on Zhou Li's rough face. He took the tea offered by his daughter-in-law, took a sip, and, not knowing what to say, picked up the purse prepared on the table and handed it over.

Shulan thanked her and accepted the tea, then turned and placed it on the tray before picking up another cup of tea.

"Mother-in-law, please have some tea."

"Um."

Madam Hao took the teacup, took a sip, smiled at her daughter-in-law, and said, "Our family doesn't have that many rules. You just need to hurry up and produce offspring for the Zhou family."

"Yes."

Shulan blushed slightly and responded softly.

Hao picked up the purse and handed it over.

"Thank you, Grandma!"

Shulan thanked her and accepted the tea, thus completing the tea ceremony.

"Wife, this is your eldest brother-in-law."

"Greetings, Uncle."

"This is my second uncle."

……

Zhou An led Shulan and introduced her to all her relatives one by one.

Zhou An didn't have much affection for these relatives.

Speaking of which, Zhou An's family was the best among all these relatives.

Therefore, they were quite polite to Zhou An's family, since they needed the Zhou family's help when they encountered natural disasters or something.