Chapter 321: Rumble (Part 1)
After getting Binju's confirmation, Shiyi Niang went to the old lady and told her that she wanted to ask Binju to teach Zhenjie needlework.
"How is Binju's needlework? How has Zhenjie learned? No one knows better than you." The lady smiled and said, "You just make the decision." In this way, it was decided that Binju would enter the mansion.
Back in the house, Mother Song came over and said, "Mrs. Zhou said she wants to go to Ciyuan to burn incense tomorrow."
Eleventh Lady stood up again and went to the Lady Dowager's place. The Lady Dowager heard this and said, "Then bring a few more people with you tomorrow."
Shiyi Niang agreed and asked Song Mama to arrange the trip for tomorrow. When Zhuge got out of school, he still had a green bamboo flute in his hand.
"Grandmother! Mother!" He bowed, then waved the bamboo flute in his hand to show the old lady and Shiyi Niang, "Mr. Zhao made it for me."
The lady took a casual look and laughed, "It's beautifully done!" She didn't want to pour cold water on the happy brother.
The elder brother was very proud of what he heard, and then he blew a few notes while looking at Youzi: "Grandma, does it sound good?"
The lady nodded quickly: "It sounds good, it sounds good!"
After hearing this, Brother Zhe was even more delighted and said, "Mr. Zhao said that if you learn a little bit every day and persist in it, you will be able to play beautiful music."
"That makes sense, that makes sense." The lady agreed, "We'll just have to wait for our brother Zhe to play a nice tune for us then!"
Brother Zhe nodded repeatedly: "Mr. Zhao said that I learn very quickly. In two days, I will be able to play music for my grandmother and mother."
He calls Mr. Zhao all the time, and it's obvious that he likes Mr. Zhao very much.
The lady-in-waiting saw this and nodded slightly. After Zhuge went downstairs to change his clothes, she pulled Shiyi Niang's hand and sighed, "Fortunately, we have our uncle. Otherwise, how could we have invited such a gentleman to stay at home?"
As they were talking, a maid came in and said, "My aunt from Gongxian Hutong is here."
The lady heard this and said hurriedly, "Please come in, please come in!"
Eleventh Lady went to welcome Grandmother Luo in. "…I'm here to bring a flat bread and a bamboo mat to our Eleventh Lady."
When a girl gets married, the southern custom is to give her a pair of bamboo mats and a flat cloth. The Xu family had everything, so the Luo family symbolically gave her five pair of bamboo mats and five flat cloths.
After hearing this, the lady told Madam Du to pick up the things, invited Grandma Luo to have dinner, and asked Wei Zi to invite Yu Ge to come out and greet her aunt. The party was very lively.
Grandma Luo took the opportunity to tell Shiyi Niang the good news: "Your fourth sister-in-law has diagnosed a pregnancy."
The lady was overjoyed when she heard this: "That's good. That's good! She is also a very smart person." The old lady had a very good impression of the fourth grandmother.
Eleventh Lady thought of Dijin...but quickly suppressed the thought and asked about the situation of Fourth Grandma Luo.
"Everything is fine." Grandma Luo responded with a smile, and the group of people went to the east room.
After lunch, the lady took a rest and Grandma Luo went to see Shiyi Niang.
Sister Zhen has already returned to the Second Lady's place, while Madam Wen and Amber are still settling accounts.
Grandma Luo was stunned when she saw it.
Eleventh Lady looked at her and smiled, "You can't get fat by eating one bite. Madam Wen should have lunch and take a nap. It won't be too late to count again this afternoon." She then formally introduced Madam Wen to Grandmother Luo.
Madam Wen originally wanted to finish the unfinished business on hand first, but when she saw that Eleventh Lady had a guest, she smiled, bent her knees, bowed to Madam Luo, and withdrew.
Grandma Luo asked her in a low voice: "What's going on?"
"Nothing." Eleventh Lady smiled, "Let Madam Wen help with the calculations."
"Don't be confused." Grandma Luo disagreed, "How can I let her know the household accounts?"
"No problem!" said Eleventh Lady, "This is her forte. It's easy for her to do something and she'll like it." Not wanting to talk more with Grandma Luo, she smiled and changed the subject: "How is Fifth Aunt these days? Last time when I went to send holiday gifts, I asked Mother Song to greet Aunt, and I heard that she's pregnant. There are two pregnant women in the family, so the eldest sister-in-law is having a hard time!"
"It's not that hard!" Grandma Luo said with a smile, "Auntie is taken care of by Sixth Aunt, and your Fourth Sister-in-law has her own mother and maids." Then she said, "I came here this time because I have something to tell you."
Seeing her serious expression, Eleventh Lady invited Grandma Luo to sit in the inner room.
"Dad said that we should go back home after the summer," she said. "By then, everyone except me and Brother Xiu will go back home."
Although she had been prepared, she was still surprised when she heard the news: "My mother is still bedridden, my aunt and fourth sister-in-law are both pregnant, how can my father ..."
Grandma Luo thought for a moment and said frankly, "When Dad was in office, we didn't care about the monks' face but the Buddha's face, and the business was booming. But in recent years, the income has been less than the expenditure. It's too expensive for a big family to live like this in Yanjing. Moreover, Dad has figured it out now. When Elder Liu was in the inner cabinet, he suppressed Elder Chen and Elder Liang. If he wants to enter the government, he must wait until Elder Chen and Elder Liang are both officials. Elder Chen is not even fifty years old this year, and Elder Liang is only a few years older than Elder Chen. I don't know how long he will have to wait. So he decided to return home."
Eleventh Lady didn't quite understand these things. She pondered and said, "Should we discuss this with Lord Hou?"
"No need!" Grandma Luo said, "Dad asked me to tell you this because I want you to ask the Marquis to come forward." As she spoke, her face blushed slightly, "Dad meant that instead of worrying about him, it would be better to let the Marquis find a good job for your eldest brother. In the future, you and your brother will have someone to rely on."
It is estimated that Master Luo wanted to sacrifice his soldiers to save his commander. And if Master Luo continued to serve as an official, it might affect Luo Zhenxing's promotion.
Eleventh Lady hurriedly said, "Don't worry, sister-in-law, I will tell Lord Hou about this."
Grandma Luo said what she needed to say, then she brought the tea with a smile, chatted with Eleventh Lady for a few minutes, and then left.
In the afternoon, Madam Wen came over on time. Shiyi Niang asked her, "Can you and Amber handle it? Do you want to ask a maid to come over and help?"
Madam Wen thought for a moment and said with a smile, "It would be best if we could ask a maid to come and help. If there is no suitable one at the moment, it may take two more days. I just don't know if Madam is in a hurry. If you are in a hurry, please ask Miss Amber to take the trouble to look over the account books with me in the evening, and we can catch up with the progress of the past two days!"
Eleventh Lady really liked Madam Wen's attitude. Half jokingly and half seriously, she said, "Pick any maid from my yard. Don't come complaining to me about not having enough manpower!"
Madam Wen looked surprised.
Eleventh Lady smiled and called Zhu Xiang in: "Accompany Madam Wen to pick a maid!" She got up and went to the inner room to sleep.
Madam Wen looked at her back thoughtfully.
When Shiyi Niang woke up, it was already the early afternoon. Knowing that Binju was accompanying Zhenjie to embroider flowers in the waterside pavilion, Madam Wen chose Xiulan to help. She nodded slightly and picked clothes with Zhuxiang for tomorrow's visit to Ciyuan Temple to burn incense.
Early the next morning, she combed her hair into a high bun, wore a pearl headband, a green plain silk shirt, a foot-wide white silk skirt with gold grass insect pattern, and the pearl bracelet that the old lady had given her earlier. She went to greet the old lady first, and then took Amber, Luyun, and seven or eight maids and old women to Ciyuen Temple.
The Zhou family had sealed the door behind the main hall long ago. Although the Xu family's carriage was inconspicuous, the driver and the accompanying maids held their heads high and chests puffed out, which was unusual. They hurried forward to ask. Knowing that it was the Xu family's carriage, a steward led them to a small courtyard in the back mountain and stopped.
The yard was full of jasmine flowers. Since it was not blooming yet, the lush green was very attractive.
Mrs. Zhou prepared some golden stem dew and asked her to sit on the black lacquered Luohan bed which came with a bright red training mattress.
"They may not be here until the afternoon. It's rare to have such free time, so let's take some time off." On the small table, a red lacquered and gold-painted box contained pickled goose feet, fried silver fish, smoked duck jerky, braised pork elbow, white chopped meat and other side dishes. There were also two pairs of ebony chopsticks and two small bell-shaped cups with golden lotus leaves.
She personally poured a glass for Shiyi Niang.
Eleventh Lady thanked him and said with a smile, "I can't drink much. I have to meet people later, so I dare not drink too much."
Mrs. Zhou laughed and said, "This wine is not very strong. It's not as good as Jinhua wine. Otherwise, I wouldn't dare to serve it to you." She raised the glass and drank it all.
Eleventh Lady smiled and took a sip.
Mrs. Zhou didn't force it and told her about the Wang family.
Eleventh Lady then realized that the Wang family now had six houses, with more than 200 people living together. Madam Zhou's mother had passed away, and her eldest sister-in-law was in poor health and had been bedridden for years. All the family affairs were handled by Madam Zhou's brother, the son of Zhennan Marquis.
No wonder I have never seen the women of Zhennan Marquis's family.
The two chatted for a long time. Madam Zhou drank seven or eight cups of wine, and Eleventh Lady still had seven or eight points left in her cup. Madam Zhou was just laughing at her for being too cautious when a little maid came in and said, "Young Master Sixteen and Young Master Nineteen came to Ciyuan Temple to burn incense. I heard that Madam was here, so I wanted to come and pay my respects to Madam."
"Let them in!" Madam Zhou asked her maid to put the food on the table while complaining to Shiyi Niang, "Why are they here so early?"
The maidservant beside Madam Zhou was very clever. She smiled and said, "I guess you are anxious, right?"
Mrs. Zhou laughed when she heard this.
Eleventh Lady hid behind the screen behind Luohan's bed.
After a while, two young men's voices came from outside: "Nephew Wang Yuan and nephew Wang Ze want to see aunt."
"Come in!" Mrs. Zhou's voice was very gentle.
Eleventh Lady looked out through the gap in the screen.
The two men who saluted Madam Zhou were about 17 or 18 years old, one wearing a honey-colored silk gown, and about 15 or 16 years old, the other wearing a royal blue silk gown, both of them were of medium build, handsome and tall, with facial features vaguely similar to Madam Zhou. However, the former seemed very calm in their gestures, while the latter seemed gentle and reserved.
Even though we had an appointment, we still had to go through the motions.
Mrs. Zhou asked about the family situation. The younger one spoke briefly and sparingly, while the older one
The other one was gentle and polite, and responded eloquently. Not only that, when the younger one was speechless, he could still smile and talk to Madam Zhou, livening up the atmosphere. This impressed Eleventh Lady.
After the two said goodbye, Lady Eleven asked, "Which one is Wang Yuan? Which one is Wang Ze?"