The Xuan Emperor nodded, pleased. “Ning Chen, does the robe fit?”

“The sleeves are a little long.”

Ning Chen said it honestly.

The Xuan Emperor laughed lightly. “Ning Chen, do you know why this emperor called you here?”

Ning Chen shook his head. “Your subject does not know.”

The Xuan Emperor said, “Before spring opens, this emperor wants you and Huai’an married.”

Ning Chen was taken aback. Was there any need to rush it like this?

The Xuan Emperor went on. “This emperor knows that the girl Yudie has been at your side all along… Once you and Huai’an are married, this emperor will strike her from the slave register, and the woman called Zisu will be released along with her.”

Just as he had guessed. The Xuan Emperor would not allow another woman into the Ning residence ahead of the Ninth Princess.

Ning Chen bowed at once. “Your subject obeys. Your subject leaves it all to Your Majesty.”

The Xuan Emperor inclined his head slightly.

Ning Chen hesitated, then asked sheepishly, “Your Majesty, may your subject ask a question?”

“Speak.”

Ning Chen asked with great care, “That is… how much of a bride-price and how many betrothal gifts does it take to marry a princess? Your subject’s household is poor, and he is afraid he can’t lay hands on that much silver.”

Eunuch Quan’s expression froze. He truly had not expected Ning Chen to ask a question like that.

The corner of the Xuan Emperor’s mouth twitched. The boy actually dared to plead poverty to him?

What he had given Ning Chen alone was enough for a lifetime of rank and riches.

The Xuan Emperor said, “This emperor has already set the Ministry of Rites to preparing it. If there is anything you don’t understand, you may go and ask Shen Min.”

Ning Chen gave a flat oh. “Your subject obeys!”

Out of the palace, Ning Chen rode to the Ministry of Rites.

The guards at the gate of the Ministry of Rites saw the silver python on black that Ning Chen was wearing, took fright, and dropped hurriedly to their knees.

They were consumed with curiosity. When had the Great Xuan produced a marquis as young as this?

Ning Chen had been made a marquis only that morning, and there had been no time to proclaim it through the empire, so only the officials of the court knew.

“We greet the marquis!”

Ning Chen raised a hand. “Get up. Is Vice Minister Shen in?”

“Reporting to the marquis, Lord Shen is in. This small man will go and announce you.”

“No need. I’ll go in and find him myself.”

All the way in, everyone who saw Ning Chen went down on his knees.

Ning Chen tugged at the python robe. The thing drew far too much attention. He could not walk around in it all the time.

He found Shen Min.

“I greet Marquis Ning!”

Shen Min said it and started to kneel.

Ning Chen caught him quickly. “Old Shen, you and I are old acquaintances. There’s no need for all this ceremony.”

Old Shen?

Shen Min gave a helpless smile.

Then he said, with a perfectly serious face, “The forms cannot be set aside. I am Vice Minister of Rites, and I of all men must set the example myself.”

Ning Chen waved a hand. “You know I hate every last piece of ceremony.”

Shen Min laughed in spite of himself. Of course he knew that.

“Marquis Ning has come about the marriage with the princess, I take it?”

Ning Chen nodded. “It’s my first time marrying a princess and I don’t understand any of it, so I came to ask what I need to get ready.”

The corner of Shen Min’s mouth twitched… What was that supposed to mean? Was he planning on marrying a princess twice?

Ning Chen asked, “What do I need to get ready?”

Shen Min said, “First let me take Marquis Ning through the order of the wedding. There are six steps in all: the sending of the first gifts, the asking of the name, the taking of the omens, the sending of the betrothal gifts, the setting of the date, and the fetching of the bride in person.”

“Let me begin with the sending of the first gifts…”

Ning Chen felt his head start to swim.

“Stop, stop, stop… Old Shen, you know I can’t stand every last piece of ceremony. Don’t put me through it. This is all your Ministry of Rites’ business, isn’t it?”

Shen Min said with a smile, “It is, but the marquis has to be clear on the order of it… This is your wedding to a princess. Not one thing can go wrong.”

Ning Chen thought about it. “Let’s do this. When the time comes, put somebody at my elbow who understands all this. He tells me, I do it. Wouldn’t that do?”

“The marquis can rest easy. All of it will be arranged.”

Ning Chen let out a breath. He knew marrying a princess was a great deal of trouble — the preparations alone ran to two months, and that was exactly the part that gave him a headache.

Luckily there was the Ministry of Rites. He could hand the whole thing over to them.

“Old Shen, just tell me. Does marrying a princess take betrothal gifts and a bride-price?”

Shen Min nodded. “Of course it does. It is a mark of respect for the dignity of the imperial house.”

“How much?”

Shen Min said, “A bride-price of a hundred thousand taels of silver and ten thousand of gold should be about right. As for the betrothal gifts…”

“Wait! That much?”

Ning Chen was stunned.

In an ordinary household, taking a wife ran to ten or twenty taels, and sometimes a few taels were enough.

He had not imagined marrying a princess would cost this much. And that was without counting the betrothal gifts.

Shen Min was at a loss for words. “The marquis is marrying a princess, not a girl from an ordinary household… This official thinks another ten thousand taels of gold should be added.”

Ning Chen’s face went black. “Old Shen, you take me for one of those great grafters with mountains of gold and silver piled up at home, is that it? I’m poor. I can’t come up with anything like that much.”

Who do you think you’re fooling? His Majesty has given you no small amount, you don’t pay your own servants’ wages, and when you came to my house at the New Year you laid out several thousand taels without blinking. And now you stand here playing poor at me… Shen Min groused inwardly.

He said with a smile, “Marquis Ning, the Ninth Princess is His Majesty’s best-loved daughter, and her dowry will be no small thing… His Majesty will make gifts on top of that. This is a princess’s wedding. The consorts in the palace and the ministers of the court will none of them be stingy.”

Ning Chen’s eyes lit up.

Shen Min added, “By the rites of our dynasty, when a princess marries, the gold in her dowry alone comes to a hundred thousand taels, and the silver to two hundred thousand.”

Ning Chen’s mouth fell open.

When he had come back to himself, Ning Chen coughed and said with a perfectly serious face, “Money is neither here nor there. What matters is that marrying a princess can’t be done carelessly… Old Shen, rest easy. I’ll put together the betrothal gifts and the bride-price if I have to borrow to do it.”

“Draw me up a list of the betrothal gifts in a while, and I’ll go home and get everything on it ready.”

Shen Min smiled. He saw through it and said nothing.

“A moment, marquis. I’ll go and make the list now.”

Ning Chen nodded.

Before long Shen Min came back and handed Ning Chen the finished list.

Ning Chen put it away. “Old Shen, I won’t take up any more of your time.”

“Let me see the marquis out.”

Shen Min saw Ning Chen to the door.

As he left, Ning Chen looked at Shen Min and said, smiling, “Old Shen, the post of Minister of Rites has stood empty a good while now… Carry off my wedding to the princess and that’s a great service done. It’s time Lord Shen moved up.”

There was some excitement in Shen Min’s face.

It was not that he had never thought about the Minister of Rites’ post. But the post had been Ning Ziming’s, and it was Ning Ziming who had raised him up.

So Shen Min had worried about what Ning Chen might think if he sat down in the Minister’s chair.

Now that Ning Chen had said this, his mind was at rest.

Ning Chen swung up onto his horse. “Old Shen, once the wedding is over I’ll go and see His Majesty alone… I’m off!”

“Go carefully, marquis!”

He watched Ning Chen ride away, and there was an excitement in his eyes he could not hold down.

Ning Chen was a marquis now, and the consort of a princess, and most important of all he was the emperor’s favored minister… If he would put in a few good words, the Minister’s post was as good as settled.

(End of Chapter 325)