Chapter 47: Two Children of Fortune

Begonia stamped her feet in frustration.

Tingzheng was equally shocked. Gu Xingwan had sent her to deliver a message to Lu Lan, but upon arriving at the Lu estate and witnessing this astonishing scene, she was left completely dumbfounded.

She hurriedly rushed over to ask a bystander about the situation: "Good mother, what is the Lu family doing?"

"You don't know?"

"I'm clueless. Could you please enlighten me?"

The older woman eagerly explained, "Oh, my! The heir of the Marquis of Yu's estate is preparing to marry the second young lady of the Gu family, and they are busy readying the betrothal gifts! Just look at these carts and carts of goods—large items like gold, silver, and treasures, down to everyday food and clothing. My goodness, that Miss Gu must be a fairy descended from the heavens, having accumulated ten lifetimes of virtue! How else could she possibly deserve such boundless grace?"

When the woman finished speaking, she placed one hand on her hip and puffed out her chest, while forming an orchid gesture with the other, wearing a comical expression. "If I were thirty years younger, I might have caught the eye of that precious young lord. Back in the day, I was known as the belle of the east city, rivaling Diaochan in the capital..."

Had she not witnessed it with her own eyes, Tingzheng would never have believed it.

With such a grand display, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a house move, yet this was actually a betrothal being sent to their Gu family?

All her previous prejudices against Lu Lan completely vanished.

She even... felt that the Lu family was being excessively lavish and wasteful with this marriage.

It was not as if she had never witnessed the weddings of concubine-born daughters.

Just last year, their Gu family had married off a concubine-born daughter—a half-sister of Gu Xingwan. The groom was a dock supervisor in the south city. Although the family was quite well-off, they hadn't taken the wedding seriously at all, simply because the bride was merely a concubine's daughter.

The shabby scene during the betrothal delivery and the wedding procession was little better than that of an ordinary household. Not to mention the quantity and specifications of the betrothal gifts, which had prompted Gu Zhijing to secretly curse that concubine-born daughter as a money-losing asset whom he had fed in vain for over a dozen years.

As for the betrothals of prominent noble families in the capital that Tingzheng had witnessed in the past, none of them came close to today's overbearing spectacle.

Perhaps this was the true foundation of a high-ranking aristocratic family.

The Lu family truly lived up to their status as imperial relatives; they were indeed a top-tier great family whom outsiders could never truly look down upon.

"Bah! What fairy? She's nothing more than a shameless, rotten wretch."

Fuming with anger, Tingzheng turned toward the source of the curse.

A few paces away stood the obnoxious Begonia, and naturally, the cloaked figure beside her was Jian Aozhu.

"Bounce back! Hehe, all your filth and stench bounce right back onto you! Why are you cursing yourselves? Who the rotten wretch is, you know best in your hearts."

Tingzheng was not one to let them walk all over her, and she snapped right back.

"The whole city of Shengjing is buzzing with it! A certain someone was already promised in marriage, yet went out to flirt with someone else. Oh, how utterly shameless! Frankly, I'm now too embarrassed to admit I even know you lot!"

"You..." Seeing Tingzheng's attitude, Begonia flew into a rage. "Stinking girl, with your sharp tongue, you're asking for a beating!"

*Slap!*

Tingzheng didn't know martial arts and took a solid slap from Begonia in vain. Knowing that a wise person bows to circumstances, she glared at Begonia and plunged straight back into the crowd.

"Bah! Little slut! My lady, look, that cheap girl actually dared to roll her eyes at me!"

Begonia rolled up her sleeves, still feeling unsatisfied.

Inside, however, she was brimming with glee. Lu Lan was notoriously violent and furious, treating the beating and killing of servants as an everyday occurrence. Once Tingzheng was married off to him as a bride and managed to displease Lu Lan, she would be tormented to death in a matter of minutes.

She, on the other hand, was different. Once she entered the Mei family, she would be the personal maid of the young mistress. That union had been personally bestowed by the Empress Dowager, placing her a cut above others from the start—not something cheap trash from the Gu family could ever compare to.

Jian Aozhu didn't reply; she had been thoroughly triggered today.

She vowed that her own betrothal gifts must surpass Gu Xingwan's in number, and the spectacle must be grander. She would never allow that cheap woman to overshadow her.

Just as Jian Aozhu was turning to leave, heading toward her carriage, the system's alarm suddenly sounded.

[Two Fortunate Ones with exceptionally high prestige values have been detected.]

"Where? Where is it?"

Disregarding all propriety in her excitement, Jian Aozhu directly lifted her hood and looked left and right.

Terrified, Begonia hurriedly blocked her front and persuaded, "My lady, you cannot let outsiders see your face."

"Get lost!"

With eyes split wide with fury, Jian Aozhu shoved Begonia aside.

Since entering the capital, the system had only actively alarmed her about a Fortunate One once, and that was Xianghan Mei.

As for the prestige values of everyone else, she had checked them herself only after acquiring the query skill.

Fortunate Ones were one in a million, and it was exceedingly difficult to find even one in a vast sea of people.

Now, two were appearing simultaneously?

The roughly pushed-aside Begonia felt wronged in her heart. Why was her young lady becoming so fickle? Especially lately, she felt she was no longer as gentle as she had been back in the borderlands.

[Pang Shiyuan, prestige value: 7,400 points.]

[Prince Yan, Mo Yuan, prestige value: 5,500 points.]

[To prevent the targets from being lost, the system will make an exception and mark red arrows above the targets' heads. Please seize the opportunity, Host.]

Jian Aozhu anxiously searched through the crowd, and sure enough, she spotted a middle-aged man dressed like a traveling merchant—it was Pang Shiyuan.