Chapter 29 Sister (Part 2)
Suddenly there was a faint sobbing sound.
Mother Tao, who was walking in front, paused.
Wu Niang had come back to her senses and stood in front of the curtain with a smile: "Mom, this mutton-fat jade Buddha's hand is so beautiful, but is it carved from a whole piece of mutton-fat jade?"
Mother Tao turned around and looked at Wu Niang with undisguised surprise and admiration in her eyes: "This Buddha's hand is indeed carved from a whole piece of mutton-fat jade! It turns out that Miss Wu is interested in these things." Then she led the two to the treasure cabinet in the west room, "There are some jade artifacts on display here, Miss Wu can appreciate them."
Intentionally let them avoid it.
Wu Niang smiled and said, "Thank you, Mom. It just happened to broaden my horizons."
Eleventh Lady smiled slightly.
The more active Wu Niang is, the safer she will be!
She and Wu Niang stood in front of the treasure chest admiring the various jade ornaments and porcelain wares displayed inside, while Mother Tao pricked up her ears to listen to what was happening in the east room.
All three of them were a little absent-minded.
Fortunately, this situation did not last long. A little girl dressed like a maid in a red silk jacket and a blue-green vest came out from the west room and said, "Mother Tao, the mistress asked the two young ladies to come in and sit down."
They were about to meet Luo Yuanniang, the woman who could control their future... Although Wu Niang and Shiyi Niang did not show any strange expression on their faces, their hearts skipped a beat at the same time.
Mother Tao immediately responded "yes" and smiled as she invited them both into the west room.
With her eyelids lowered, Eleventh Lady followed Mother Tao around the screen and into Yuanniang's bedroom. Then, according to the layout of a normal bedroom, she quickly glanced to the right.
The red curtains of the black lacquered bed were covered by a silver spoon. A woman of about 25 or 26 leaned tiredly on the large pillow embroidered with ginger and green scallion flowers at the head of the bed. She wore a stone blue satin jacket embroidered with white magnolia flowers. Her lavender hair was neatly combed into a bun. A red gold hairpin inlaid with honey wax water drops was inserted in her temples. Her pale face was frighteningly thin. Her dark eyes were sparkling as she looked at the eldest wife who was sitting on the bed with red eyes. Her face was filled with the joy of mother-daughter reunion.
This kind of Luo Yuanniang...
Eleventh Lady was a little surprised.
She had guessed countless times...she thought she would see a cold and arrogant girl, or a serious and reserved woman, or a woman with a gentle expression but sharp eyes...unexpectedly, she would meet such a gentle, even childish Luo Yuanniang!
"So many years have passed in the blink of an eye." A strange but smiling voice rang in her ears, "It turns out that the little girl who always followed me has grown into a graceful young lady!"
"Big sister!" Wu Niang, who was walking in front of Shiyi Niang, suddenly choked up and knelt down, "I, I miss you so much... I still remember the silk candy you brought back for me from Hangzhou!" At the end of her words, she was already sobbing.
Upon seeing this, Eleventh Lady immediately knelt down, lowered her head and hung her hands, looking very docile.
"Get up quickly, the ground is cold!" The gentle voice was then filled with a hint of coquettishness, "You are already so old, why are you still the same as before, crying and kneeling at the slightest provocation..."
Immediately a maid came to help them.
Eleventh Lady didn't move, but glanced at Fifth Lady from the corner of her eye. When she saw her stand up, she stood up too.
"Come, sit with us for a while so we can talk to each other."
As soon as the words fell, a maid brought a brocade stool and placed it beside the bed.
Wu Niang and Shiyi Niang stood up to express their gratitude, and then stepped forward to kowtow to Yuan Niang to formally perform the sisterly ceremony. Immediately, a smart maid beside them took a brocade cushion and placed it on their knees before they knelt down. After they finished kowtowing, another maid stepped forward and picked them up.
The maid's movements were silent and her reactions were quick.
While Eleventh Lady was secretly amazed at how well-trained the maids in Yuanniang's room were, she and Fifth Lady sat on the brocade stool in front of the bed, one in front of the other.
Maids served tea and fruit.
Yuanniang looked at her two sisters with a smile on her face. "Fifth sister has been pretty since she was a child. She looks just like what I imagined her to be. This is the first time I've seen eleventh sister. Look at her pointed chin. She looks a bit like Fifth Aunt. But her hair is like mine, dark and thick."
When Eleventh Lady heard someone mention her, her face turned slightly red, she lowered her head and muttered for a long time, no one knew what she said, and she seemed very shy and uneasy.
"What do you mean by that?" The first wife laughed, "I inherited it from your grandmother."
Yuanniang's lips curled up slightly, and everyone started laughing, and the room became a little more lively.
Yuanniang ordered the maid beside her: "Come, take out the two carved red lacquer boxes under my pillow."
The maid squatted down in response, and took out two palm-sized round boxes from under Yuanniang's pillow.
"I don't know what you like, but I have two jade pendants that I can show off, so I asked someone to find them." She said, motioning the little maid to hand the carved red lacquer box to Wu Niang and Shiyi Niang, "Take one each, and wear them for fun!"
Yuanniang was being polite, but the two of them didn't really think that the two jade pendants were just "presentable", so they stood up, thanked her and took the box solemnly.
"Open it and take a look," Yuanniang said with a smile, "see if you like it or not?"
Wu Niang and Shiyi Niang were both stunned.
There is no reason to open a gift in front of the person who gave it...
The eldest wife also said, "Open it and take a look. This is a little gift from your eldest sister." The two of them no longer hesitated and opened the box in their hands.
It is warm, smooth, translucent, pure and flawless, just like solidified fat. You can tell at first glance that it is top-quality mutton-fat jade.
Both pieces of jade are one inch square, but one is carved with a picture of plum blossoms blooming on a branch, symbolizing "joy", while the other is carved with a picture of a bat with a pomegranate in its mouth, symbolizing "many children and good fortune".
What does this mean?
Can't we just draw lots?
Is it "joyful and happy"? Or "many children, many blessings"?
Eleventh Lady looked at the jade pendant in her hand that read "Many Children and Good Fortunes" and felt somewhat amused, while Fifth Lady, like the jade pendant in her hand, was delighted.
"Thank you, big sister!" Her smile reached all the way to her eyes, "I like it very much."
Eleventh Lady nodded, agreeing with Fifth Lady: "It's really beautiful."
Yuanniang smiled and nodded: "As long as you like it!"
As soon as she finished speaking, a maid said respectfully through the screen: "Madam, the master is here!"
Yuanniang's face immediately lit up: "Come in quickly!"
Immediately, a tall and plump woman came in holding a little boy in a scarlet silk cloak, followed by two maids with bright eyes and white teeth. But everyone's eyes fell on the child.
He had fair skin, delicate features, and looked like a doll. He looked only two or three years old, and had a timid look in his eyes, which showed that he was deficient.
"Brother!" The eldest wife ran up to him with tears in her eyes and reached out to hug him.
But he turned his head and hid in the arms of the woman who was holding him, the small gold bracelets on his hands jingling with bells.
The eldest wife's expression froze slightly.
Yuanniang explained apologetically: "He is a little shy!"
The eldest wife pulled at the brother's clothes awkwardly and said, "It's my fault that I don't come to see him often enough."
The woman holding Brother Che laughed and said, "It's all because our brother is young." Then, she held Brother Che and knelt down to salute him, "Brother Che pays respects to grandma!"
The maids all called Zhege "Master Zhe", but this woman was called "Zhege". It seems that she must be Zhege's wet nurse.
As Eleventh Lady was thinking, she saw the eldest wife smiled without any grudge, then took a red lacquer and gold-painted box from Mother Xu and handed it to Brother Zhuan: "This is a meeting gift from your grandmother. A Duan inkstone. You can use it when you grow up."
The maid who came in with Zhege stepped forward, knelt down, bowed and thanked the eldest lady, and then accepted the phone for Zhege.
Yuanniang pointed at Wuniang and Shiyiniang and said, "Brother Zhen, this is your Fifth Aunt, and this is your Eleventh Aunt!"
When Zhege heard his mother's voice, he immediately raised his head, glanced at Wu Niang and Shiyi Niang, and then buried his head in the woman's arms again. Wu Niang and Shiyi Niang did not dare to neglect and stood up quickly.
The woman held Zhege in her arms and said, "Zhege pays her respects to the Fifth Aunt," and "Zhege pays her respects to the Eleventh Aunt," and she squatted to greet the Fifth Aunt and the Eleventh Aunt respectively.
They both said "I don't deserve it" and took it with their bodies turned sideways.
Wu Niang took out a peach wood amulet from her sleeve and said, "This was blessed by Master Huizhen of Ci'an Temple when I copied the blood sutra and offered it there. I'll give it to Brother Zhe as a gift for meeting him!"
The Eleventh Lady gave a red dress and socks with gold emerald green bamboo embroidery all over the place: "I sewed them myself, as a token of my love."
The maid who came with Zhege came forward with a smile to thank Zhege on his behalf and took it.
Everyone sat down again and the maids changed the tea.
The woman carried Zhege to Yuanniang's bed, bent her knees and leaned forward to greet her. Zhege suddenly raised his head, looked at Yuanniang eagerly and called out "Mom".
Yuanniang's face softened immediately: "Put him next to me!"
The woman hesitated for a moment and placed Zhege next to Yuanniang.
After rolling a few times, Zhuo Ge crawled into his mother's arms.
"Brother Zhe, please be gentle!" The woman holding Brother Zhe looked at the child tremblingly, but Yuanniang smiled and touched her son's soft hair: "It's okay."
The woman was about to say something, but Yuanniang turned around and started talking to the eldest wife: "Why don't you invite your younger sister-in-law and Brother Xiu as well? Brother Xiu just likes playing with Brother Xiu!"
The first wife smiled and said, "I sent gifts to your second and third uncles' homes early in the morning. I was afraid they would send someone to return the gifts, so I asked her to help take care of the family at home."
Yuanniang said angrily, "Mother, you are such a fool. If that's the case, why don't you come back another day? Dad has to go out to visit friends, and my brother has to go to the Imperial College to study. If you take your sisters out, it won't be good for them to stay home with me alone."
"I know you want to be a lovable lady, but you can't exclude me." The eldest wife laughed, "I asked her, she said you are weak, and brother Zhe caught a cold two days ago and just recovered, she was afraid that if we all come, it will disturb you and your son, so she said she will wait until brother Zhe is better before bringing brother Xiu to see you."
Yuanniang smiled and said, "Don't blame me, mother. I am the only one who can speak so frankly about you."
When the eldest wife heard this, her eyes turned red.
Yuanniang saw him and said, "It's a rare trip for you to Yanjing. I'll let Daddy accompany you to see the scenery of Yanjing tomorrow. Please bring me some strings of candied haws."
The eldest wife blushed when she heard this, then she made a "tsk" sound as if she was trying to hide something, and said with a smile: "Look, how can she be a mother? She is still thinking about the candied haws on the street. I'll talk to your mother-in-law later and ask her to make you ten or eight skewers of them, so that you will be sick of them when you see them."
Yuanniang covered her mouth and smiled: "The candied haws made by my mother-in-law are delicious, and the ones you bought for me are also delicious."
The veins on the back of her hand, which was covering her mouth, were bulging like those of an eighty-year-old woman.
The eldest wife felt a pang of sadness when she saw this.
After waiting so long for this wealth and splendor, she never expected her daughter to... She also thought of the luxurious living conditions in the Xu family, and her daughter's food was always lacking. She said this just to act coquettishly in front of her. Her daughter, who was more precious than the apple of her eye at home, once became the daughter-in-law of another family, she wanted to praise her mother, but she had to include her mother-in-law... She was filled with grief, and her tears could no longer stop falling!
Yuanniang's eyes also turned slightly red when she saw this.
No matter how I try to make my mother happy, my illness is like a thorn stuck in her throat. It hurts if I don't move, let alone provoking that thorn...