Chapter 13: One is a picture of mandarin ducks playing in the water, the other is a picture of a magpie climbing a plum tree...
Pei Huaijin returned to Beijing in late July, more than ten days before his wedding to the eldest lady of the Shen family.
His grandmother prepared a welcoming banquet for him. Everyone was in a happy mood at the banquet, chatting and laughing about the double happiness. Pei Huaijin then learned that his cousin Huai'an, who was five years younger than him, was also going to get married, and the wedding date was the same day as his. His wife was to be married to his fiancée's younger sister, Shen Youran, the third lady of the Shen family.
The family members couldn't help but tease them. In the Pei family, they were brother and cousin, but in the Shen family, they were brother-in-law and sister-in-law, which could be described as "close relatives".
After the banquet, Pei Huaijin sent his grandmother back to Chunxuan Hall. After visiting his grandfather, he went to his mother's Begonia Garden and talked with her for a while.
With the joy of this event, Zhu's spirits were much better than before. She had been taking better care of her health recently, so that she could be energetic and ready to receive the greetings from her son and his new bride on his wedding day.
Normally, she never drinks alcohol to take care of her health. Today, her son came back, and she was so happy that she dared to drink two glasses of medicinal wine. She felt warm all over and a little tipsy.
Zhu looked at her young and promising eldest son with satisfaction, and mentioned that the eldest daughter of the Shen family also came to celebrate the old lady's birthday party a few days ago. The girl was good in every way, with appropriate words and dignified manner. The more she looked at her, the more she liked her.
Then they talked about Meng Wanxin. Zhu had always treated her like a half-daughter and couldn't help mentioning her. "Not long after your marriage to the eldest daughter of the Shen family was finalized, she also got engaged. It's Lin Wulang from the Changxing Marquisate. His family background and talent are impeccable, but I heard there's a lot of trouble going on in his family. I advised Wanxin to think carefully, but she refused to listen. I hope she can live a good life after marrying him..."
Pei Huaijin had not seen his cousin from the Meng family very often, so he naturally had little interest in her marriage. He just listened quietly to his mother's chatter and did not take it to heart.
After talking about Meng Wanxin, Zhu mentioned the third lady of the Shen family whom Xiaoqi was going to marry.
Because Xiao Qi rejected Meng Wanxin before and then turned around and insisted on marrying Mrs. Shen San, Zhu had some mischievous thoughts hidden in her heart.
"Everyone knows that the third daughter of the Shen family is beautiful but talentless, far inferior to Wanxin. The old lady doted on Xiaoqi too much, and in her desperation, she actually agreed to his will. Your third uncle was the same. Not only did he not stop her, he even went with the matchmaker to propose marriage in person, and the wedding date was set on the same day as yours, as if it was just a joke..."
"Mother," Pei Huaijin intervened, "Don't gossip about others."
Zhu belatedly realized that she had actually discussed her elders and her brother-in-law in front of her son. She felt embarrassed and felt that her dignity as an elder was hurt. She couldn't help but glance at him and said, "I see. After all, sons are not as caring as daughters..."
When Wanxin was serving her in the past, the girl would agree with whatever she said. She was nothing like this old-fashioned son, who would start lecturing her as a mother after just a few words.
"Okay, I'm tired today too. You should go back and rest early." Zhu was in no mood and waved her hand to let him go.
*
At dusk, Pei Huaian came to his Yunzhi Courtyard carrying his bedding and pillow.
"My Ciyouyuan is being renovated in preparation for welcoming a new bride. Big brother, I'll come and squeeze in with you tonight..."
Pei Huaijin stayed in the study tonight. The main room had been decorated almost completely, and everything was brand new. He couldn't go to sleep before his new bride came home, so he asked someone to bring a Luohan bed into the study.
"Why don't you go to sleep in Third Uncle's yard?" Pei Huaijin took the quilt from his arms and spread it on the Luohan bed.
"Every time my father gets drunk, he likes to come into my room and sigh at me. I don't know if he thinks I'm useless or if he's missing his late wife. He drank quite a bit at the banquet tonight, and I don't want to be scared to death by him when I open my eyes in the middle of the night..."
Before Pei Huaijin came back, Pei Huaian had lived in his father's courtyard. Seeing his father drunk tonight, he hurriedly grabbed his bedding and went to find a place to hide.
The two brothers squeezed onto a not-so-spacious couch. Pei Huaijin listened to him chatter about some interesting things. He talked about how he had accompanied his grandparents to a farm outside the city to escape the summer heat a few days ago. Shen Yunshu had also gone with them and stayed there for nearly a month. She had even played Gobang with him, defeating him seven times on the board...
Pei Huaijin reminded him: "Seven in and seven out is not used like this."
Pei Huaian said with a smile: "I am not good at reading, and I used allusions incorrectly. I hope you can understand what I mean."
Speaking of Shen Yunshu, Pei Huaijin asked one more question: "Was your marriage with Miss Shen San arranged by Yunshu?"
"No." Grandmother had suspected this before, but Pei Huaian saw that Grandmother was not satisfied with Mrs. Shen San, and was worried that Grandmother would be dissatisfied with his sister-in-law because of this, so he did not dare to say that his sister-in-law was indeed behind this.
When his eldest brother asked him this today, he flatly denied it, bringing up the same story he had explained to his grandmother before: "I fell in love with Miss Shen San at first sight. That day at the temple fair, she didn't have money to buy a Mohelo, and I don't know who I was. She grabbed my clothes and asked me to buy it for her. I bought it, but she didn't want it and ran away..."
"Later, I met my sister-in-law at my grandmother's birthday party. Seeing her facial features were similar to mine, I roughly guessed her identity. Afterwards, I tested her with the Mohelo and asked her to pass it on to her for me. Only then did I confirm that she was my sister-in-law's third sister..."
"I've been dreaming about her a lot lately. I guess she's lovesick, so I begged my grandmother to go to the Shen family and ask for her hand in marriage..."
These words were not false. Ever since his sister-in-law proposed to him that he marry her third sister, he had dreamed of Miss Shen for several days in a row, and did such things to her in his dreams, so much so that he had secretly gotten up in the middle of the night to change his pants for several nights in a row.
Pei Huaijin heard his words sincerely and naturally had no doubts. However, he had just heard from his mother that Third Lady Shen was much worse than his cousin from the Meng family, so he couldn't help but ask, "In your eyes, what kind of person is Third Lady Shen?"
"I've only met her once. She's very pretty and cute."
"No more?"
"That's all." As for what his sister-in-law said, about him being careless and lazy, he was too embarrassed to tell his eldest brother about it.
"I see……"
"What do you mean?"
Pei Huaijin looked at the beams above him and said slowly, "That's not called love at first sight, it's called lust at first sight."
"..." That seems to be true. Pei Huaian touched his face and murmured, "I hope that on the day of our wedding, she will also be attracted to me."
After all, up to now, that Miss Shen San has not seen his face yet.
The wedding date was approaching, and according to the rules, the man and woman who were about to get married should not see each other again. He had no chance to show her what he looked like, and he didn't know if she would like his face after the veil was lifted...
*
Three days before the wedding, all the osmanthus trees were in full bloom, and the fragrance filled the whole yard.
After much embroidery, Shen Youran's wedding gown was finally finished, its pattern identical to her elder sister's. The Pei family sent a wedding gift: scented powder, a round fan, a phoenix coronet, and a bridal robe. The two sisters wore the same gown, except for the gilded veil. Shen Yunshu's featured mandarin ducks playing in the water, while Shen Youran's featured magpies perched on plum blossoms.
The next day, the Shen family sent people to the Pei family to prepare the room, hang curtains, and lay out new mattresses. Tinglan, as Shen Yunshu's dowry maid, stayed in Yunzhiyuan as the roommate, while Shen Youran's dowry maid Danruo stayed in Ciyouyuan.
The day before the wedding, Shen's father specially sent someone to Lu's house to pick up Ning, asking her, the biological mother, to come and accompany her daughters who were about to get married, and teach them some things that a wife should do, so that they could get married the next day.
When a girl becomes a wife, she can no longer be as free as she was in the boudoir. Mrs. Ning is at ease with her eldest daughter, and most of her concerns, such as how to be considerate to her husband, how to be filial to elders, and how to manage the backyard, are told to her third daughter.
Shen Youran yawned repeatedly as she listened, until her mother took out two picture albums and gave one to each of them. Shen Youran flipped through them casually, and her half-closed eyes suddenly widened, and all the sleepiness disappeared.
"Is this the etiquette of respecting family relationships?" In the past, she had only seen a few brief descriptions in storybooks. She only knew the facts but not the mysteries behind them. When she suddenly saw it today, she couldn't help but be deeply shocked.
Those overlapping images entered the sisters' eyes, and their faces turned redder than the other. Ning smiled and said, "The so-called filial piety is that men bow down and women look up, in accordance with the principle that heaven covers and earth supports..."
As Shen Youran listened to her mother, she flipped through the album from beginning to end, her face flushed and her eyes yellow.
Unlike her sister's reserved and reserved demeanor, Shen Youran boldly asked, "Mother, I read in a storybook that they were so infatuated that they lost track of heaven and earth. Is this truly pleasurable?"
"That's a very good question." Ning patted her head, looked at her two daughters lovingly, and warned: "It will be a little uncomfortable the first time. If it hurts, ask the other person to be gentler. Don't let them do it..."
The two sisters nodded in unison.
Ning returned her gaze to Shen Youran's face. "You're young, so it's not advisable for you to get pregnant too early. I have a contraceptive prescription here. It's mild and harmless to your body. Take it afterward and wait two years before trying to have a child. The Pei family is a reasonable family, and Pei Qilang isn't that old either, so he probably won't be in a hurry to have a child..."
If a woman gets pregnant too early, it will not only harm her own body, but also the child may have deficiencies. Therefore, those wealthy families who love their daughters will not let them get pregnant too early. This is also a tacit rule.
The night was dark and all around was silent, only the light in Shen Youran's room was still on.
Shen Yunshu didn't plan to go back to her own yard tonight. She and Shen Youran squeezed on their mother's left and right, and just like when they were children, begged their mother to tell them another bedtime story.
"What story should I tell?" Ning hugged her grown-up daughter. Those childish stories were naturally not suitable to tell them. After thinking about it, she thought of a story that was suitable for the occasion.
"Nowadays, the ceremony of marrying a wife emphasizes the morning greeting and evening ceremony. Do you know why the ceremony is held at dusk?"
Shen Yunshu, a well-read woman, quickly replied, "The Book of Changes discusses the principles of yin and yang, stating that men are yang and women are yin. Dusk is the time when yin and yang alternate. So, using dusk as a time to prepare and gather firewood, bringing the two families together, is auspicious and auspicious for marriage..."
Shen Youran had little education, so she nestled in her mother's arms, chewing on her fingertips. "Didn't Mother want to tell you a story? Why are you talking about moral principles again?"
Ning was pleased with her eldest daughter's kindness and good heart, and she didn't want to dampen her younger daughter's spirit. She continued, "Shu'er, what you said is very good, but I heard that a long time ago, there was a barbaric marriage custom called 'bride kidnapping'. As the name suggests, it means kidnapping women to be married. This behavior should not be done openly, so they would take advantage of the dusk to kidnap women and take them back to marry. Over time..."
Shen Youran listened to the stories told by her mother, smelled the unique fragrance on her mother's body, and gradually fell asleep.
Perhaps she listened to the bedtime story too seriously, and in her dream, she also experienced a chaotic bride-kidnapping.
The dream was over without a trace. At dawn, she was awakened by her mother. At this time, her elder sister had returned to her own yard, and the hairdresser was waiting outside.
Her mother called her gently: "You Ran, it's time to get up and put on your makeup..."
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