Chapter 333 Atai and Xiaomei

Chapter 333 Atai and Xiaomei

After staying in Guangchangwei for about twenty days, Wang Xiaozhi took her child home.

When she left, Xie Wanniang not only prepared many gifts for her to take back and distribute to her family, as well as the families of Chen Lizheng and Doctor Chen, but also sent Xiaomei and Yang Xiaowei, along with about two-thirds of the guards she brought, to escort Wang Xiaozhi and her four children back.

Xiao Mei and A Tai also came to Guangchangwei with Jiang Yuan. The two siblings are now engaged and will be getting married one after the other at the end of the year.

Atai's fiancée is the niece of a fourth-rank guard commander under Chang Yao. Her parents died early, and she and her younger siblings were adopted by her uncle and aunt.

Although her uncle and aunt treated the three siblings very well, firstly, nephews and nieces are a step below biological children; secondly, their family background was not prominent, and her uncle was the only successful member of the family; and thirdly, their biological parents did not leave them much wealth or any special privileges for her brother. All these disadvantages combined made it difficult for the three siblings to find suitable husbands or wives from families of equal social standing.

After all, compared to orphans like them who lost their parents early, were likely neglected in their upbringing, and couldn't afford much dowry or betrothal gifts, and whose only support was their uncle who was just an ordinary military household with little wealth and no background, and who also had several children of his own and couldn't help them much in the future, people still preferred to choose those who could bring assistance to their families, or at least wouldn't be a burden to their children, to become their daughters-in-law or sons-in-law.

They and their uncle and aunt were well aware of this, so when they were looking for marriage partners for the three children, their uncle and aunt did not pay too much attention to the other party's family background.

Their first consideration is a child's ability, personality, and character, and only then do they consider the child's family background and wealth.

Of course, the "family background" they are weighing is not the power and connections of the other party's family, but whether the other party's family members are reasonable and upright.

Families with extremely biased or difficult-to-get-along-with parents, brothers who are fond of gambling and prostitution, male elders with many concubines who favor concubines over wives, or families that like to use their daughters to seek wealth for the family and sons, were all screened out.

As for family assets, as long as they weren't the kind of impoverished families who were living off the dowry of a new bride or the bride price of a new son-in-law, they were all included in the scope of consideration.

That's why Atai, with his outstanding talent, personality, and character, was chosen by the girl's uncle.

In their private conversations, when weighing the pros and cons, they said, "Although that boy doesn't have much of a family background, he's capable and has a powerful senior brother to support him, so his future is definitely bright. Plus, he only has a younger sister who's single-mindedly focused on studying medicine, so his family is small. If you marry into the family, you can take charge of your own household, and you'll definitely live a comfortable and carefree life."

As for Xiaomei, her fiancé is a man surnamed Zhou, whom she pulled back from the brink of death. He is 21 years old this year and has worked his way up from a lowly soldier through his own abilities.

But he was also from a military family; his father was even a battalion commander under the Marquis of Dingbei.

As the second son in the family, he didn't have to go to the battlefield, but he chose the dangerous path of promotion through military merit.

Previously, the Tatars launched a full-scale invasion of the Great Wei border. This Zhou centurion was accidentally struck in the femoral artery by a stray arrow. It was Xiao Mei who, disregarding his awkwardness about the "distinction between men and women," stopped the bleeding in time when no male doctor was available, thus saving his life.

After that, the two went through the lines "I have to take responsibility for you," "No need, you're just one of the injured to me," and "Atai, help me, I really like your sister."

Yes, Atai and this person are acquaintances. They have been on several missions together and get along well. Although they can't be said to have a life-or-death friendship, they are good brothers with a good relationship.

In front of Xiaomei, he was afraid that she would think he was a philanderer, so he was too embarrassed to say "I like you". After holding it in for a long time, he finally blurted out "I have to take responsibility for you", which led to his rejection. But in front of Atai, he was completely uninhibited.

Although his recklessness resulted in him getting a beating from Atai, after the beating, Atai did indeed do as he wished, including him in the consideration range for his sister's wife.

After careful consideration and weighing of the options, and after personally consulting with his sister, Atai finally agreed to let Zhou Baihu send someone to propose marriage.

What he didn't tell Zhou Baihu was that he actually didn't want to marry his sister to his comrade-in-arms at all. It was precisely because he himself was risking his life to make a living that he knew all too well how dangerous the border army was.

If it weren't for the fact that most people in the world are bothered by his sister's status as a doctor, he would definitely prioritize having his sister marry into a family with a lower probability of widowhood.

But there's no way around it. Marriage is something that's always a matter of mutual selection. Not to mention those weak scholars who've read a few books, even young men from merchant families wouldn't want to marry someone like her sister who can heal wounded soldiers on the frontier.

They fail to see her enormous contributions to guarding the border and saving lives, and instead only criticize her for "disregarding the rules of gender separation and touching the bodies of strange men."

If these people simply remained strangers to his sister, as they are now, that would be one thing, since his sister had already prepared herself for criticism and slander when she chose this path.

However, if someone holding this view becomes her husband, then her later life will definitely be a tragedy.

Rather than letting her be tormented by those incompetent men who only seek validation from the elderly, weak, women, and children at home, Atai felt it was better for her to bear the greater risk of widowhood.

Of course, this is also because, apart from the fact that his job is relatively dangerous, Zhou Baihu is impeccable in other aspects, such as appearance, personality, character, and family background.

Not only did he not mind Xiaomei becoming a military doctor, but even his parents didn't criticize her for it.

According to him, this was because his family had produced two outstanding female soldiers. Although both of them died in the turmoil in the Central Plains, when the border troops were in extremely difficult circumstances and could only pay with their lives, it was precisely because of their outstanding military achievements disguised as men that his relatively mediocre father was able to rise from an ordinary military household to become a centurion and then a captain.

Therefore, their family has always been extremely tolerant of the "restlessness" of women.