In late spring, during the third lunar month, warblers flew and grass grew lush — it was once again the perfect season for spring plowing.
The whole year's harvest depended on the spring. As the ice melted and the earth revived, spring plowing was a crucial matter for everyone from nobles to commoners, as it determined their year's yields and could not be taken lightly.
In past years, both Wei Wei and Felix would personally oversee the spring plowing. But this year, they had left their territory during this critical time.
Because this year, the eldest daughter of the Williams family, Dolores Williams, was to marry Adonis Aldridge of the Aldridge family.
Dolores's birthday was at the end of February, and this year marked her sixteenth birthday — the age at which she would marry.
In February, Adonis had come to Sardinson while the snow still covered the ground. On one hand, he came to celebrate his fiancée's birthday; on the other, he came to escort his bride home.
The Aldridge family adored Dolores. To show their esteem for their new daughter-in-law, Adonis brought with him a dowry so lavish it left all the women green with envy.
Yet even his generous gifts couldn't compare to Dolores's dowry.
In European weddings, there were also betrothal gifts and dowries, but usually, a woman's dowry mainly consisted of personal belongings and money. That's why, as in Pride and Prejudice, people often directly stated how much a lady's dowry was, for example, "The Bennet sisters each had a dowry of a thousand pounds."
The size of a dowry depended on a woman's family situation. If Dolores's father had still been alive, when she came of age to marry, her dowry might have been respectable enough to match her status, but it would not have been considered lavish.
But now, Dolores's dowry had been prepared by Wei Wei. Naturally, she wouldn't allow her beloved girl to be slighted in this regard.
When Dolores was first preparing to get engaged, Wei Wei had already started preparing.
There was no tradition of publicly displaying dowries in Europe, but Wei Wei wanted to make it clear to everyone how much importance their family placed on Dolores. So before they left Sardinson, all her dowries were laid out for everyone to see.
The dowries were left together with the Duke's escort convoy. There were so many items that they filled more than ten carriages — and if it weren't for the local custom of not including furniture, Wei Wei could have doubled the number of carriages. The scale would have truly rivaled the "ten-mile-long wedding procession" seen in some Eastern traditions. The convoy stretched so far that its head nearly reached Dingle Town while the tail hadn't even left the castle gates.
Sardinson Castle was still under renovation at the time, with only servants residing there. Despite the disorder inside, this didn't stop the remaining servants and workers from gathering at the gates to watch the convoy's departure. And how could the local villagers miss such a grand scene?
As they watched, their eyes were nearly dazzled by the riches piled onto those carriages.
The matter of Wei Wei preparing Dolores's dowry wasn't a secret within the estate; even many outsiders had heard rumors. But while everyone knew the Duchess was generous, no one knew the exact figures. Now, seeing the convoy, they nearly had collective heart attacks.
Not just the onlookers — even the convoy staff, and the two soon-to-be newlyweds, were overwhelmed.
Riding at the front with his future brother-in-law, Adonis couldn't help glancing back at the convoy behind them. The villagers' gasps rose higher and higher around him. It wasn't just them — even he struggled to stay calm.
As in the East, here in the West, a woman's dowry was also considered her personal property, wealth she could freely control. While it wasn't common to display it publicly, the dowry list was typically published, and the size of a dowry greatly affected people's perception of the bride. So when Wei Wei proposed showcasing the dowry before departure, Adonis didn't object to his wife's sister-in-law's wishes.
But truth be told, when he first received the dowry list, Adonis already started to regret it.
He had thought their family had been very generous when marrying off Elina. Back then, they had prepared a dowry on par with that of a Pradi princess, making the list something that would make all women jealous and all men envious.
Yet the amount prepared by the Williams family for Dolores made Adonis feel a kind of heart-thumping panic.
For example, the first few carriages were loaded with gold coins — reportedly 888,888 of them. This number was nearly equal to the total annual land tax revenue of the entire Pradi Empire! When they prepared Elina's dowry, it had only been about 100,000 gold coins. Even the wealthiest noblewoman to date had only around 200,000 to 300,000 coins, and that was because she was her family's sole heir and inherited all the family titles and properties along with her dowry. Dolores, on the other hand, had this massive amount in pure gold coins alone — and that was not the only part of her dowry.
Priceless jewelry was neatly arranged in ornate jewelry boxes, along with a separate box containing more than a dozen land deeds, all loaded onto a dedicated carriage. The lands included estates, vineyards, and shops scattered across different regions. The combined estate area alone was equivalent to a barony in size.
Although there was no furniture included, various gold and silver wares were carefully packed into chests, along with three full sets of the most famous and luxurious porcelain. Just these three sets of exquisite porcelain could be exchanged for ten thousand gold coins!
Additionally, there were numerous bolts of fabric and clothes in the dowry, including many rolls of expensive silk. Plus, there were various other valuable goods, such as specialties from Sardinson. When Adonis calculated their total value, he nearly fainted on the spot.
The amount was almost equivalent to the entire wealth of an old, established great noble family.
Although he wasn't marrying Dolores for her dowry, wasn't this dowry a bit too jaw-dropping?
At that moment, he thought that if this convoy hadn't been his bride's dowry, he might have been tempted to dispatch a team to rob it himself upon learning how rich it was.
Of course, any robbery attempt would have failed miserably. For the sake of safety, Felix had mobilized most of Sardinson's military force. Half of the expanded knight corps had come along, and there were 5,000 well-trained soldiers. Forget being robbed — this convoy could probably conquer a noble's territory without much effort.
"Is this okay?"
It wasn't just Adonis who was shocked by the dowry — Dolores, sitting in the carriage, was completely terrified.
She knew her brother and sister-in-law would never mistreat her, but this amount… it wasn't a matter of generosity anymore.
Just seeing that mountain of gold coins made Dolores worry they had emptied the castle's treasury for her.
Wei Wei had indeed emptied a treasury, but only one small vault. Their family was so good at making money that the funds they earned long ago couldn't even fit in a single vault anymore. Those 880,000 or so gold coins were only a fraction of what they had saved over the years. Last year alone, Wei Wei's sweet potato business had already earned more than that. Forget 800,000 — even 8 million, she could easily pull together. In Wei Wei's eyes, the amount of gold coins given to Dolores was not that much. If it wouldn't have drawn too much attention, she would have given even more. Since she couldn't add more coins, she supplemented it with land deeds and other valuable items instead.
That's how this lavish dowry, so grand it even stunned Adonis — a great lord from the City of Commerce — came to be.
"There's nothing wrong with it at all. The number 888,888 is lucky. Your brother and I both like it very much," Wei Wei said.
She had decided on this number. Six eights in a row — what a pleasing sound. And when it came to the dowry, she had the final say. Felix would never be stingy with his sister either.
Wei Wei glanced at Caroline, who was standing at the carriage window, looking out. "I think it's fine. If nothing unexpected happens, when Caroline grows up, her dowry should be even more generous. The young ladies of the Williams family must never be looked down upon."
"But it's too much!" Dolores said anxiously, overwhelmed by the scale of her dowry. "Maybe you could take back those land deeds? I don't know how to manage them, so they're useless to me anyway."
"That won't do. What's given to you is yours," Wei Wei firmly refused. "If you don't know how to manage them, learn. I won't have you living off your inheritance until it's all gone."
Seeing that Dolores still wanted to protest, Wei Wei waved her hand. "Alright, enough. The dowry list has already been given to Adonis. If we start taking things back now, it would embarrass the entire Williams family."
That finally shut Dolores up.
Once the bride's dowry left Sardinson, it was sealed and safely transported to Aldridge County. Upon entering the Aldridge domain, Wei Wei ordered the convoy to open the chests again, flaunting them proudly through town, making sure every person knew just how wealthy their family's girl was — that Adonis marrying her was truly the blessing of Lady Luck herself.
This move was rather vulgar in the eyes of old-money nobles, but for the people of Aldridge City, it was thrilling. As a City of Commerce, it was full of merchants who loved the scent of gold and judged people by their wealth. Wei Wei's display made everyone instantly realize that their future lady lord was a VIP who deserved to be flattered and served diligently. At the same time, it reminded them just how rich and doting the Williams family was, with so many riches, even a small leak could sustain countless people.
When the last carriage finally entered the castle, the stunned crowd gradually came back to their senses, clutching their chests and trembling.
"My God, I've never seen such an astonishing dowry. As expected of a duke's daughter."
"No, even a princess's dowry wouldn't compare to Miss Williams's. Probably no woman in all of Pradi has more — except the Duchess herself, of course."
"I agree. I heard that half of the Williams Duke's business ventures belong to the Duchess. My God, after seeing this young lady's dowry, I can't even imagine how much gold they have stashed in their castle vaults."
"That's why the Duke must be the richest noble in all of Pradi. Count Aldridge is truly blessed to marry into that family."
"Speaking of which, doesn't their family also have a younger daughter? I wonder if her dowry will be this lavish, too."
"If the Duke had a biological daughter, it would surely be even more generous, right?"
"What are you thinking? Even if he had a daughter, what would it have to do with us? Instead of dreaming about that, think about this — look at the nobles and merchants who have partnered with the Duke. Aren't they all thriving now? I know someone who provided raw materials to the Duke, and now his family fortune has multiplied several times. I heard his daughter is engaged to a baron now."
"Speaking of that, isn't Sardinson County building a new city? There must be plenty of business opportunities there. Why don't we go take a look?"
"That new city? Isn't it still unfinished? No one is living there yet, right?"
"Does it matter? All the houses there have been sold to nobles. We, who make money from nobles, should go check it out early. If we go too late, all the good opportunities will be snatched up."
"True enough. But let's wait until after the Count's wedding. I don't want to miss this excitement."