The Hexagram Gathering (萃卦) - Upper Middle Hexagram

Chapter 45 Hexagram Cui (Gathering) - Upper-Middle Hexagram - Auspicious Day for Taoist Temple

Upon hearing this, Xie Chengzhi raised his eyes and calmly looked at her. Thanks to his recuperation over the past few days, his face had regained much of its former sickly appearance. Now, his jade-like face had regained some color and no longer looked so pale.

Even the hair color, the newly grown roots, has a dark hue.

"You can speak your mind directly." Xie Chengzhi seemed to be in a good mood and was not affected by the matter of the mimosa flower.

"My husband and I still sleep in separate beds, and we both agree on that. I hope that in this cooperative marriage, we can each get what we want."

Xie Chengzhi slowly raised his hand and stroked the jade thumb ring on his thumb. "You can tell me now, what do you want?"

"What I want is to live peacefully in the Marquis's mansion." She will leave sooner or later, and she will not compete for the management of the household, nor will she even try to take Xie Chengzhi away.

Xie Chengzhi smiled faintly, and Rong Yan could not deny that he was indeed very good-looking.

He said, "Then your request is rather meager. Judging from your tone, you seem to know what I ask for. Why don't you tell me?"

Rong Yan paused for a moment, then slowly said, "You married me to stop Princess Yongqing. Everyone says you and Princess Yongqing are deeply in love, but since our marriage, you have always upheld the proper conduct of a gentleman, proving that you have your own principles. When your mother-in-law was framed, you were able to argue with your father-in-law, which shows that if it were someone you truly loved, you would not have let go so easily. Therefore, your marriage to me is not only not because you and the princess are in love, but even an intentional attempt to use me to block her."

"Could it be because of the Emperor that I have no choice but to marry him?"

“My lord is joking. I heard from Ningling that you once endured the agony of being skinned alive without uttering a word, which shows that your patience is beyond that of ordinary people. Even your coma before marriage must have been part of your plan. How could someone who can even scheme against his own body back down and ruin half his life because of someone else’s opposition? Even if that person is an official, you would never do it.” Rong Yan’s gaze was firm and calm as he spoke.

Xie Chengzhi's eyelashes trembled slightly, and he smiled faintly, "Outsiders might think you know me very well. You should rest early."

"Then, my husband, do you no longer need me to taste the medicine? I'm getting a little tired of it."

Xie Chengzhi not only ignored her, but also increased her daily medication dosage.

Rong Yan sighed, wondering what kind of karma he had created.

Since Lady Hou stopped managing the household affairs, Fu Lou has also stopped taking charge.

She didn't know who the Marquis had chosen to manage things, but he hadn't asked her to get involved. She wasn't hurt by the Marquis's actions; on the contrary, she felt relieved.

She no longer needed to concern herself with the affairs of the household, and the matter of Concubine Zhou was also put to rest.

She was free again, and she was truly happy and content!

The Taoist temple is nearing completion, and the day it reopens is fast approaching. She should spend more time with the temple these days.

Early in the morning, she changed into a light green jacket and a light pink ruqun, and styled her hair in a bun. Her makeup and appearance were very refreshing and pretty, which amazed Wang's mother, who exclaimed, "She is indeed very beautiful."

As she spoke, she picked up the veil and put it on Rong Yan's head.

Rong Yan left the mansion with only Wang Mama. Hua Li was busy at the mansion all day and could not be seen.

The mountain is still the same familiar mountain, but wooden sheds have been erected in the open space at its foot, and it looks like it's about to open for business selling drinks.

Upon reaching the mountain, the area in front of the Taoist temple remained spotless. As soon as they entered, they saw Li Fuquan wiping the stone statues in the hall. Upon seeing Rong Yan, his face lit up with joy, "Young Madam, you've finally arrived! I've been waiting for you for so long!"

"Mr. Li, I'm so sorry, so many things at the temple have been left to you. You've been extremely busy lately."

"You're too kind. I've taken their money, so I'll do my duty. Madam, have you seen the shed at the foot of the mountain? They sell wine there. Would that be alright?"

“Very good, but the Huanmen gate can be modified. We can use green vines to entwine it and pair it with pale pink dried peony flowers. We don’t need fresh flowers, which are too flashy and impractical, and it would cost money to maintain them every day. We can also use some pure dew to scent the dried flowers, which is no worse than fresh flowers. In addition, we need to leave space for a wine flag on the gate.”

"You've thought of everything very carefully. I'll take note."

The interior decoration of the temple was not much different from when I first saw it, but the location of the dining hall had changed drastically.

When they went in, Xie Qisheng and Du Chunhong were already inside.

"Changyu, aren't you going to read? What brings you here?"

"Third Uncle and Third Aunt, come and see the temple."

The originally enclosed kitchen of the vegetarian hall was transformed into an open-plan layout, which is very similar to the bright and spacious open-plan design, so Rong Yan was very satisfied.

Fortunately, Xie Qisheng and Du Chunhong were there; otherwise, it would have been difficult for the workers to complete the work simply by describing it.

"By the way, Mr. Li, if our kitchen and diners are to be in the same room in the future, we will need to install a pump to remove the smoke."

Fortunately, by this time in the Northern Song Dynasty, pumps had already appeared, similar to the air pumps used to inflate balloons in the previous life.

"A fire pump? But isn't that the fire-fighting tool used by the fire lookouts? How can you smoke in that?" Li Fuquan was clearly puzzled.

"That's right. If we replace the water in the pump with smoke, and make some improvements, like drawing smoke from the first floor and then pumping it out, wouldn't that make sense?"

The pump also needs to be fitted with cotton pads to filter the fumes, otherwise, over time, the outside of the eaves will definitely be covered in grease.

Li Fuquan was greatly shocked. Open kitchens were already unheard of, but who would have thought that Rong Yan would come up with another unprecedented design, and he actually found it to be quite reasonable.

Why had I never thought of something so simple before?

"If the young mistress were a man, she would surely do something earth-shattering."

Rong Yan smiled, but remained silent.

"Then I will do as you instruct and find a carpenter in the east of the city to order it."

Xie Qisheng waved his hand dismissively, "No need, leave such a small matter to me."

Li Fuquan: "Uncle Xie, do you understand such complicated work?"

"It's just a trivial skill, nothing to worry about."

Although Xie Qisheng's tone was somewhat arrogant, Li Fuquan had witnessed his carving skills firsthand, which put his mind at ease.

He was also worried that he wouldn't be able to find a place in the east of the city that could do it!

"If you don't understand anything, you can ask your third uncle and aunt. They are very knowledgeable about this."

Li Fuquan smiled mysteriously, "Please rest assured, I will not squander this good hand of ours, and I will be careful every day. I really didn't expect you to come up with this idea. I look forward to the day when the wine is opened. I dare say that this brewing method is unique in the entire Song Dynasty."

Rong Yan smiled knowingly. She wouldn't play this trump card on the opening day, since this wine would affect the interests of many people, and the way it was launched still needed to be carefully considered.

Furthermore, brewing takes some time, so for now we'll continue with the fruit wines we ordered a while ago.

"Chef Gan said last time that he had thoroughly studied the menu you gave him and was thinking of suggesting that you add some more dishes, but unfortunately today, he and Yu Ling went to the flower market to buy potted plants."

"Why didn't you hire a few servants to help? Is the money I gave you not enough?"

Li Fuquan was truly at a loss for words. He shook his head and said, "No, no, no, I still have five hundred taels of silver left. You don't know, but we originally recruited as many as ten people. Later, I don't know why, they gradually stopped coming. When I inquired, I found out that the Chamber of Commerce did not allow us to recruit servants privately, saying that we had broken the rules. Even Daoist Jikong was sent back that time. They said that we are a proper Daoist temple, so we should ask the Daoist for help and do not need the Chamber of Commerce's help."

It turns out that the Chamber of Commerce had created a recruitment monopoly. They acted as intermediaries, and anyone who wanted to hire someone had to pay them a fee, and then the Chamber would provide the person to them.

“They issued an ultimatum, saying that we were not following the rules of the trade and threatening that our business would be difficult to continue in the future. I thought that if I could think of a solution, I would solve it myself, but I couldn’t think of one at the moment.”

"Why did you keep this from Mr. Li until now?"

"I... I didn't want to cause my wife any more trouble, and I always thought I could handle it..."

“Sir, there’s no need to blame yourself. You’ve done a very good job. I’ll have to make a trip to the Chamber of Commerce for this. Mama Wang, please prepare a gift for me. We’ll change our route to the Chamber of Commerce.”

"Young Madam, please wait."

"Um?"

Li Fuquan's expression suddenly became somewhat shy, and Rong Yan thought he had misread it. "Mr. Li, please speak frankly."

"It is like this, I heard from Daoist Jikong that the young mistress is very good at divination, so why don't we ask the young mistress to choose an auspicious time for the reopening of the Taoist temple? That would be more in line with tradition."

Rong Yan had thought it was something serious, but upon hearing it, he realized it was a trivial matter. Perhaps he felt embarrassed that he was asking her to do something.

“It’s a small matter; I can cast a divination right now.”

"What?! Right here?!"

"Yes, I can cast a divination at any time. I don't have any rules for divination, so I can't compare to everyone else. However, I never cast more than three divinations a day."

Taking on too much not only wastes energy but also makes it easy to make mistakes.

Therefore, Rong Yan never occupied more than a day.

Li Fuquan was seeing her perform divination for the first time and was very curious.