In April, a group of little girls wearing the same summer clothes appeared together at the Shangdan Bamboo's coming-of-age ceremony. They all wore soft yellow six-panel skirts with similar dark patterns and embroidery designs, differing only in the embroidery on their sleeves.

  Shang Danlan's cuffs were embroidered with orchids, Shang Danchun's were embroidered with chrysanthemums, and even Shang Danzhu had a set of clothes embroidered with bamboo, but today she was wearing formal attire.

  Lin Yuhong's cuff is embroidered with auspicious cloud patterns, and in her words, "In recent years, I've seen clouds a lot, and I think they're more beautiful than all the things in the world."

  She still firmly believes that her father is watching over her from above.

  There are also people who have painted rabbits, simply outlining them, but they look lively...

  Everyone's embroidery patterns are different, but if you don't look carefully, you won't notice the difference. The guests who came were amazed and asked: "Which embroidery workshop did this, it looks good."

  The knowing wife just smiled and said: "The children drew it themselves to play a joke."

  "The clothes are well-designed, but the tailors are also good," someone joked: "Next time we have a design, we can ask them to make it. I wonder which embroidery workshop your child was ordered from."

  Someone pointed at Lin Qingwan sitting in the front and said, "It's not just an ordinary embroidery workshop. It's because she dotes on her own niece that the embroiderers in the house are willing to take action."

  Several people nodded in agreement, but unfortunately said: "Lin's embroidery is indeed famous. In the past when Rongxiang Pavilion was still around, we could occasionally go to their door to order one or two sets of exquisite clothes. Now they only accept orders for embroidered products from large fabric merchants."

  "After all, there is no ready-made garment store, it's not good to grab the business of a ready-made garment store. But look now, she is willing to take orders from kids, will she not accept ours?"

  Several fashion-conscious ladies were moved.

  Lin Qingwan lowered her head and took a sip of tea, ignoring the gazes coming from all directions. She looked up at Old Lady Shang beside her, "Old lady, I just saw Second Miss, how did she disappear in the blink of an eye? I heard Yubin say that she hasn't gone to school for several days now."

  The old lady smiled and said: "She's going to be engaged soon, it's not good for her to keep running around outside, so I didn't let her go to school anymore."

  Lin Qingwan nodded, "At her age, it's just right, I wonder whose young master is so lucky?"

  The elderly lady looked at Mrs. Zhou in the crowd and smiled: "You also know this person, and you should thank me for that. I heard from Mingyuan's daughter-in-law that this marriage was still your doing."

  Lin Qingwan slightly raised an eyebrow and smiled: "I just mentioned it casually, but I didn't expect it to actually come true. This is indeed the fate of your two families."

  "Yes, but it's not fate. Wait for Zhou's child to come back and have him and Lan sister give you a cup of tea."

  "I'll wait then."

  The old lady laughed and agreed, feeling very pleased.

  The marriage between the two families progressed faster than she had imagined, and Old Lady Shang thought that it would be good if they could settle it this year. But who knew that just after the Lantern Festival, Old Lady Zhou personally brought Zhou Tong and the matchmaker to their doorstep.

  Mrs. Shang didn't think of asking Shang Danlan's opinion at all, but she wanted to ask Mrs. Shang, but Mrs. Shang doesn't care about such things.

  It was said that the host family was the residence of Prefect Zhou, and she agreed without hesitation. However, Xiaofang intervened and immediately sent someone to inform Shang Mingyuan ahead of time.

  Shang Mingyuan personally ran to the school and asked Shang Danlan about this marriage, which was finally settled.

  It's naturally good for a younger sister to marry someone with high status and power, but as for Shang Mingyuan, Qizhen is not his match, the conditions of the Zhou family are just right, neither too high nor too low.

  But he remembered that his sister and Zhou Tong's relationship seemed to be somewhat bad, so he couldn't let her marry him and enter a fire pit, so he went to ask her.

  I thought Shang Danlan would refuse, but she just thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.

  Shang Mingyuan was still a bit dazed and couldn't help but persuade: "Sister, don't be humble yourself, if you don't like it, just refuse, we can find another one. Last time, Lin Auntie told me and your sister-in-law that the Lu family also has several good sons."

  Shang Danlan smiled and said, "Big brother misunderstood, I don't have any deep grudges against Zhou Gongzi, and he doesn't dislike me as much as I thought. If that's the case, marrying who isn't a big deal? Marrying him is still better than others, at least we can understand each other. Although he has some flaws like being arrogant and narrow-minded, he is still a straightforward person and doesn't have any bad habits like drinking or gambling, so it's not too bad."

  Shang Danlan grew up under the shadow of her father's "glorious deeds" and personally experienced her uncle's hypocritical appearance. She also witnessed her brother, a true prodigal son, indulging in food, drink, prostitution, and gambling. In her eyes, men were not that great.

  Her younger cousin is actually quite good, previously had some naive and weak habits, but has changed a lot in the past two years.

  But she would never lay a hand on her own cousin, so Zhou Tong was considered one of the better men she had met.

  At least better than her brother.

  When she received the lanterns sent by Zhou Tong during the Lantern Festival, she had already been somewhat moved. Now it was just a matter of making up her mind.

  Shang Mingyuan didn't know what his sister was thinking, but he felt that the occasional glances she gave him were filled with disdain. He scratched his head and said, "In that case, I'll go back and accept the challenge."

  Shang Danlan nodded, "Alright."

  So the marriage between the two families was roughly settled, and over the past two months, they first exchanged eight characters, asked a master to calculate their birthdays, but because Zhou Tongyou went on a tour of study, the two families have only exchanged engagement letters and gifts so far, and have not yet formally finalized the arrangement.

  The Zhou family has already chosen a date, which is April 28th.

  Mrs. Shang let her drop out of school and stay at home to prepare for her dowry, firstly because Mrs. Shang didn't care about it and many things hadn't been prepared for Shang Danlan, so she had a lot of things to prepare.

  Secondly, Xiao Fang is still young and inexperienced, let alone managing the wedding, she can't even manage the household, so Old Lady Shang kept her at home, not only to prepare for the wedding but also to help Second Madam Shang with the household chores.

  Thirdly, she is getting older and if nothing unexpected happens, she will be married by the end of this year, so it's not suitable for her to show off in public anymore.

  Shang Danlan was the first classmate to return home and prepare for marriage. Although everyone knew that getting married was inevitable, the young girls still felt a little sad.

  Lin Yuheng has been feeling a bit down lately, so Lin Qingwen asked her a few more questions, just to reassure her.

  Shang Danlan is only a few months younger than her, and she has been widowed for three years. She just got engaged, if it drags on any longer, the young girls would be delighted, but the person involved doesn't know how anxious they are.

  The marriage was settled, and Shang Danlan let out a big sigh of relief.

  And so she envied Shang Danzhu's grand hair-pinning ceremony, but didn't feel jealous, because the thing she worried about most had also found a home.

  But Shang Danju was different, her birthday was more than 20 days earlier than Shang Danzhu's.

  She is a concubine's daughter, her mother would never hold such a grand hair-pinning ceremony for her, and maybe not even have one at all.

  She lowered her head and glanced at the chrysanthemum on her sleeve, pursing her lips without speaking.

  "Fourth sister," Shang Danlan came over to pull her hand, "Hurry up and help me take a look at how the dishes in the kitchen are prepared. Mother is greeting guests in front, I still need to go see about the tea snacks, there's not enough time for me to take care of everything in the kitchen, you help me take a look."

  Shang Danju immediately composed herself and nodded: "Second sister, rest assured, I will take good care of it."

  Shang Danlan watched her leave, then lowered her eyes and thought for a moment before turning to leave. One's origin cannot be changed, but what can be changed is what happens after birth.

  Like her, because of such a father, she and her elder brother will always be the laughing stock of others. Because of such a mother, no one will remember her birthday and coming-of-age ceremony.

  As the eldest daughter of the Shang family, her hairpin ceremony was simple: her brother and sister-in-law gave her a set of clothes and hairpins; Grandma ordered the kitchen to make her a bowl of longevity noodles; Second Aunt had the family add another set of clothes for her, and her three younger siblings each gave her various gifts.

  Before this year's Spring Festival, she still thought that she would become an old maid with no direction in life.

  But who would have thought that Brother and Sister-in-law had secretly asked Aunt Lin to help, and with just one sentence from her, the matter of her marriage was put on the agenda.

  Her situation is almost the same as Shang Danju's. Since she can turn things around, Shang Danju will definitely be able to too, as long as she has enough patience to wait like her.

  This time, the person who gave Shang Danzhu a hairpin was Mrs. Shang Lao, and like Lin Yuhong, she was also three pins. Originally, Mrs. Shang Er only prepared hairpins and hair clips, but after seeing Lin Yuhong's plus pin ceremony, she also prepared a pin crown and decided on three pins.

  She was the second of the four Shang sisters to hold a hair-pinning ceremony, with many years in between. Mrs. Shang naturally made it a grand affair, and although the number of guests did not match that of the Lin family's, it still brought immense joy to Mrs. Shang.

  But she was too happy and accidentally let it slip, "The last time we had a capping ceremony at home was when Mei's sister had hers, and in the blink of an eye so many years have passed, the children have all grown up."

  Watching the emotional Mrs. Shang wiping away tears, some ladies were moved in their hearts and looked at Shang Danlan who was smiling and greeting guests. Ah, wasn't the last time the Shang family held a hairpinning ceremony for Shang Danmei? But the second one in line is indeed Shang Danlan.

  She is older than Shang Danzhu, if she was born out of wedlock it would be fine, but she is the eldest daughter of the main house and her mother is also from the main house.

  Everyone's gaze at Mrs. Shang Er turned out to be meaningful, it seems that this Mrs. Shang Er didn't treat her nephew and niece as well as the rumors outside said.

  Not to mention auntie is like mother.

  Mrs. Er still did not know what they were thinking, she was still moved, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief, looking at her second daughter who was kneeling on the mat and adding incense.

  Not far away, Shang Danju's face smiled, but a hint of mockery flashed in his downcast eyes.

  The hairpinning ceremony ended, and Shang Danzhu was surrounded by her sisters with a happy face. She looked at the clothes on their bodies and said: "These clothes look good, next time whoever gets married we'll wear them again."

  "Not only can it be worn on the coming-of-age ceremony, but also on other important occasions. When the time comes, we'll make an appointment and that's all," Zhou Shuya smiled: "Otherwise, this has to wait until the coming-of-age ceremony is over, who knows when that will be? This is a summer garment, it may not be suitable for other times."

  "I don't know about others' birthdays, but next month on the ninth day is my fourth sister's birthday. She just happens to be coming of age and it's just right for her to wear a summer dress."