After the Imperial Noble Consort led the ladies of the inner court to congratulate the Empress on the New Year, the princesses came next, and finally the ladies of the outer court.

When the attendant came out of Kunning Palace, it was already noon.

Since they were all acquaintances, they had to congratulate each other warmly and make plans to pay New Year's greetings to each other.

Once the lady agreed to a deal with one family, she would not care about the other. Once she agreed to a deal with that family, she would not care about this family. She simply said that she was in a bad mood and turned down all the offers.

When everyone thought about what happened in the Xu family in the past few days, they all showed an "understanding" look, and comforted the lady either tactfully or directly. A few of the princess's tents came out of the palace, and everyone came forward to greet them.

Amidst the laughter and chatter, Eleventh Lady saw Tenth Lady's mother-in-law, Old Lady Wang from Duke Mao's Mansion, walking towards the east gate alone.

Feeling someone was watching her, she turned around.

Seeing that it was Eleventh Lady, he smiled and nodded, but his expression seemed a little forced.

I haven't seen him before, but now that I've met him, I should go over and say hello.

"Mother, I'll go over and pay my respects to Old Madam Wang." Eleventh Lady whispered to the Dowager who was talking to the eldest princess.

The lady nodded and continued to talk to the princess: "...I can't refuse to admit my age. Yesterday, Xiaowu was setting off fireworks, but he fell asleep halfway through..."

The eldest princess nodded: "That's right. So you should come too. Let's get together as old sisters. Drink some golden stem dew and listen to some songs..."

Eleventh Lady and the other two were enjoying themselves and did not notice me, so they tiptoed towards Old Madam Wang.

Who knew that after just two steps, Madam Zhou, who was following behind the eldest princess, pulled her sleeve and said, "My mother-in-law invited your mother-in-law to come over for a drink on the sixth day of the first lunar month. You should come too! It's your third sister-in-law who is in charge. I'll introduce you to a few people."

Those who can associate with the eldest princess's family are either rich or noble, and women in this era are all honored by their husbands. Seemingly ordinary interactions often reveal unusual messages. Although Lord Zhou and Xu Lingyi are childhood friends, Mrs. Zhou's familiarity with everyone she sees makes Eleventh Lady feel uneasy.

She laughed and said, "How can I make the decision? It depends on what mother and the marquis think."

Mrs. Zhou smiled slyly: "As long as you agree, I'll figure out the rest!"

Madam Zhou was born in a noble family and married to the princess. Although she was warm and considerate to others, she was a bit unscrupulous in her nature. She was afraid that Madam Zhou would say something that would cause misunderstanding and make Madam Tai think that she wanted to get into Madam Zhou's circle.

"See what Sister Zhou said." Eleventh Lady smiled, "My mother-in-law is not an unreasonable person - I just want to ask if there are any other arrangements at that time. You know, our Marquis's foot paralysis has not been completely cured yet!"

"Yes, yes, yes." Mrs. Zhou smiled with her hands covering her mouth, revealing a smile of "everyone knows it all". "Then remember to give me a definite answer in advance. I can make arrangements accordingly."

Eleventh Lady nodded, but when she looked up again, she could no longer see Old Madam Wang.

"Who are you looking for?" Seeing her looking around, Madam Zhou followed her gaze and saw the two sisters-in-law, Marquis Jianning and Marquis Shouchang, following the eunuchs to the direction of the Cining Palace. She smiled and said, "The two ladies of the Yang family are really filial. It is said that they go to the palace to visit the Empress Dowager on the day of the month. "She teased Eleventh Lady, "Speaking of which, you are far behind. You are not as good as your second sister-in-law. She used to go to the palace every now and then to chat with the Empress Dowager. You, on the other hand, have disappeared."

Eleventh Lady had no choice but to remain unchanged in the face of all changes: "Don't I still have to take care of the Marquis?"

However, he felt a little uneasy in his heart - after all, the Maoguo Mansion is also a family of nobles, so why do they seem to not interact with others?

"Strange," she murmured, "Just now Madam Wang from Duke Mao's Mansion was still here, how come she disappeared in the blink of an eye!"

"What's so strange about that?" Madam Zhou whispered, "Ever since Wang Lang got into that situation, Madam Wang has no nerve to be intimate with everyone. Naturally, we have to leave early..." Before she finished speaking, thinking that Wang Lang was Shiyi Niang's brother-in-law, she smiled awkwardly and said hurriedly, "It's New Year's Day, why are we talking about this? Remember to go back and ask, and give me a definite answer as soon as possible."

Everyone said that Wang Lang was not good, and when asked why, they were vague. It was rare to meet someone as straightforward as Madam Zhou. Eleventh Lady pulled her sleeve and asked curiously, "Sister Zhou, what's wrong with my brother-in-law?"

Mrs. Zhou chuckled: "Nothing? Nothing? I just don't like him!"

Yanjing was a small place, and Madam Zhou was a Yanjing noble who was born and raised here. Among the people he knew, no one was more familiar with the gossips of the nobles than her. What happened in the Wang family could not be hidden from her before, and now it was probably impossible to hide it from him.

Eleventh Lady figured it out, so she simply pulled her a few steps toward the palace wall and said, "Sister Zhou is not an outsider, I'll tell you the truth! One of my sister's personal maids got pregnant, and she angered my brother-in-law with a word, so he beat her up and the child is gone..."

This was half true and half false, but Madam Zhou had no doubts. She raised her eyebrows and showed some anger on her face: "This guy..." After hesitating for a moment, she said, "You just came to Yanjing, there are some things you don't know. If you stay for a long time, you will know sooner or later. I will be the one to deal with this evil guy." Madam Zhou looked around and whispered to Eleventh Lady, "He started playing husbands when he was twelve or thirteen years old..."

Abnormal sexual orientation?

Eleventh Lady was stunned.

Is this the reason why he has a bad temper and likes to hit people?

"Everyone knows this. There are also things that everyone doesn't know." Madam Zhou lowered her voice even more, "... I don't know what means were used to force the only son of a former official in the Ministry of Rites into his hands. The young man couldn't bear the humiliation and hanged himself on the old locust tree at the back door of their house. The official was so angry that he fell ill and passed away a few days later, following his son... The Wang family only told the outside world that Wang Lang owed the young man a debt, and the young man was angry when he failed to collect the debt, so he did this desperate thing..."

"How dare you force a girl from a good family to..."

Eleventh Lady was horrified when she heard this and thought of Xu Lingkuan...

"He is very courageous. He once beat a maid to death." Madam Zhou sighed, "If he hadn't killed someone for a trivial matter and dragged your fifth child into it, he would not be so honest now. He just likes to play husband and beat women..." She looked at Eleventh Lady with some sympathy, "When I heard that the Luo family was actually getting married to their family, your two families had already exchanged name cards. As the saying goes, it is better to destroy a temple than to break up a marriage. I can't say anything, I can only feel sorry for your sister secretly..."

Eleventh Lady remained silent.

She knew that Wang Lang was not a good person, but she didn't expect him to be so unbearable.

Mrs. Zhou saw that she looked gloomy and knew that she was not feeling well. She smiled and comforted her insincerely, "You don't have to worry. This man is outside and at home. Your sister is the first wife, and no matter what Wang Lang does, he still has to take care of those respects. It's just a pity that they can't live in harmony. But then again, there are more couples in this world who respect each other, and fewer who live in harmony..." As she spoke, she suddenly remembered that Xu Lingyi had just brought a child home a few days ago, so she quickly changed the subject, "You will be exempted from mourning in May next year, right? You should discuss the matter with the Jiang family, right?"

Eleventh Lady felt heavy in her heart after listening to this.

Now that she's married, Shi Niang is unwilling to ask for help from others. "You are not a fish," she said. It's useless for those around her to get anxious and angry!

Even though she thought so, she felt heavy in her heart. Hearing that Mrs. Zhou was trying to change the subject, she didn't want to say more, so she continued: "The Jiang family's New Year's gift this year was sent by Manager Zhao from the Hui Office. In addition to mourning, we should start discussing marriage."

Madam Zhou nodded: "Then you should also pay attention to the marriage of your brother Yu and sister Zhen. Zhun's situation was special at the time, and it can be said that it was your sister's last wish. Now let Zhun get ahead of Yu, you should be careful of gossip."

Eleventh Lady nodded: "We always have to listen to the opinions of the Marquis and the Madam. I am just in a hurry, and there is no suitable candidate!"

“That’s also…”

As they were talking, a princess came over and invited the eldest princess to pay her respects to the Queen Mother.

Madam Zhou was busy serving, and after the princess and the dowager lady said hello, she accompanied the princess to the Cining Palace. The dowager lady also took her wife to bid farewell to the ladies of state, and met up with Xu Lingyi and his brothers at the Meridian Gate, and returned to the Lotus Garden together.

It was already two quarters before the end of the evening and everyone was starving. They went back to their rooms to remove their makeup and change clothes, and then went to the lady's place to eat dumplings.

Eleventh Lady was sitting in front of the dressing table and dressing herself up when she heard a series of footsteps approaching, mixed with a woman's low exclamation.

She turned around somewhat strangely.

Then I saw a small figure running in - and almost bumped into Shuangyu, a little maid who was holding a copper basin with steaming boiling water.

"What's going on!" There was some seriousness in Eleventh Lady's voice.

Binju's figure appeared in the inner room.

She said anxiously: "Madam, it's all my fault. I didn't stop the Fifth Young Master..."

Before Bin Ju finished her words, Xu Sijie, who had rushed in, stopped in front of Shiyi Niang.

His face was flushed, and his eyes and eyebrows were filled with joy as he reached out to Eleventh Lady.

There was a rose-colored silk candy in the palm of my hand. Perhaps it had been held in my hand for too long and had melted a little. The rose-colored candy juice was sticky and stuck to the palm of my hand, making it look very dirty.

"This is..." Eleventh Lady looked at Xu Sijie in astonishment.

"For you." He smiled and raised his hand to stuff the candy into Shiyi Niang's mouth.

Eleventh Lady turned her head away subconsciously.

Bin Ju, who had rushed in right behind him, had already run over. She grabbed Xu Sijie and brought him to a distance where Shiyi Niang couldn't reach him, and asked nervously, "Fifth Young Master, what are you doing?"

Xu Sijie stared at Shiyi Niang in a daze, his eyelids slowly drooping, and a kind of sadness that was extremely inconsistent with his age emerged on his face.

Eleventh Lady felt as if something hit her heart.

A little painful, and a little stuffy...

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Thank you all for your continued support... I highly recommend "Strategies for a Noblewoman"...O(∩_∩)O~