Shen Ning discovered that her chance encounters with Xue Baochai seemed to have become commonplace.
Although the little girl was very emotionally intelligent and would never feel uncomfortable at any time, she was already happily wandering around in the backyard of the Ningguo Mansion. She could go wherever she wanted, and when she felt like it, she could stop anywhere to have a cup of tea or play with the ants for a while! But what about now? She has to behave like a lady of the house.
Oh ~ it’s too tiring to carry it.
Chen Ning didn't want to act pretentiously, so for many days, she just practiced boxing with Wen Peilan in her own yard.
"Madam, someone from Luzhou is here."
The little maid's urgent report made Shen Ning stop instantly.
His original hometown was Luzhou.
Two months ago, the emperor re-employed some of the old ministers who had been demoted by the retired emperor.
The Shen family was also among them, but Grand Secretary Shen was old and had applied for leave to retire, wanting to spend his old age in his hometown. Only the eldest brother returned to Beijing.
He was a doctor of the Imperial College, a fifth-rank official. If he had not been implicated back then, he would have been a fourth-rank official by now.
Because he returned to Beijing, Shen Ning had already ordered people to renovate the Shen family's old house that was returned by the emperor.
Now people from Luzhou...
"Who is coming?"
Shen Ning asked as she walked out.
She suspected that it was the manager first or something.
Although the Shen family was implicated at that time, they were simply returned to their hometowns, and their three generations were not allowed to enter officialdom. The loss of other family properties was not too great.
At least because of her, the whole family can go back and live as landlords in peace.
"It's my uncle who's here."
What? Shen Ning's pace couldn't help but quicken.
Since she came here, according to her original body's memory, she would reply to every letter from Luzhou.
Both sides only report good news and not bad news.
When we were escorting the coffin back home, we had originally agreed that if we went by land, we would first go to Luzhou and then return to Nanjing.
Unfortunately, we didn’t make the land journey.
When it was decided to travel by water, both parties expressed in their letters that they could stay in Luzhou for a few months before returning to Beijing.
In the end, this beautiful wish had to be abandoned because of the Japanese assassins and the 100 elite soldiers who escorted them.
Officials who have been returned to their hometowns are not allowed to move around at will.
Therefore, even though Luzhou and Jinling are very close, the Shen family cannot come to see her.
Shen Ning later learned from Shen Lu's letter that the old man fell seriously ill because of this.
Although it was not her original body, she still couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable.
In ancient times, it was extremely difficult for a woman to return to her parents’ home after getting married.
"Brother~"
At the back door of the flower hall, Chen Ju was looking around.
When he saw her from a distance, he almost ran out to meet her.
However, he restrained himself.
Shen Ning quickened her pace, "Brother, you are here."
“…”
Chen Tu looked at his sister, and after a long while he finally revealed a genuine smile, "I'm late, from now on... leave it to me."
That year, we received a letter from my brother-in-law apologizing for his crime. Our whole family was terrified to death that our sister was pregnant at the age of 46.
The old father sat in the study for three days, but in the end he did not do as his brother-in-law said and write a letter asking her to have an abortion.
They all knew how much their sister was looking forward to having a second child.
She finally got pregnant. If she was willing to have an abortion, her brother-in-law would not come to her family for help.
But at the age of 46, wouldn't having an abortion be harmful to your health?
If what everyone said was true, she would be heartbroken if she had an abortion.
By then, you will be heartbroken and physically hurt.
So after weighing the pros and cons, the family didn't say anything else, just asked her to take good care of her health and not to worry her father.
In fact, when it comes down to it, my sister was also implicated by her family.
Both her husband's family and her own family collapsed overnight.
To the extent that she couldn't even stay in the capital, she had to go to a Taoist temple with her brother-in-law.
That year, the Shen family had a hard time.
Rumors about the Jia family were flying everywhere.
What about the Jia family paying back the silver owed to the national treasury, what about the sister stripping her brother-in-law of everything and becoming the most fierce woman in Dazhao...
Over the past year, my sister has been doing more and more.
The dangers encountered are the same.
"……OK!"
Shen Ning saw the pain in Shen Tu's eyes, and her heart softened suddenly, "I will leave any difficult things to my brother in the future."
When the brother and sister smiled at each other, it seemed as if the strangeness of the years of separation between them was quickly fading away.
"Why are you here alone? Where are your sister-in-law and two nephews?"
There was no one else in the flower hall.
When Shen Ning saw this, she became anxious.
“They are still on their way.”
Chen Tu smiled, "Your sister-in-law and nephew have been on the boat for a long time. Their legs are weak when they walk on the ground. I was in a hurry to come here, so I left them behind."
"Didn't you land at Tianjin Pier?"
Shen Ning said: "I'll have someone pick you up there..."
"Next, they are together in the back."
Shen Ning: “…”
The smile on her face couldn't help but deepen, "Are you anxious to see your niece?"
She was too embarrassed to tell the middle-aged brother and sister that her brother wanted to see her.
Directly push Jia Yue out, "Let's go, that monkey..."
She was just about to say that the naughty boy was in school when she saw her little girl running towards her from the distant corridor.
"Look, here comes the monkey."
Not only did the monkey come, but Youshi also came.
The maids reported more than just her side.
These past few days, Jia Yue kept hearing her mother talking about her uncle. When she saw him from afar, she was not shy at all and called him uncle very early on.
When Chen Lu met Chen Ning, he was polite and did not step out of the hall to greet her. However, when he saw his niece walking over with short legs and calling her uncle in a crisp voice, he could no longer hold back and hurriedly walked more than ten steps to greet this niece who had made the whole family nervous for many days.
"Shout again."
He hugged the little girl and smiled so hard that his teeth were showing.
Well, my niece is pretty and not delicate at all.
"Uncle~"
Jia Yue liked his beautiful beard and couldn't help but touch it.
“Hahaha~~~”
Chen Tu laughed, "He really is a bit of a naughty monkey."
They were originally worried that the little sister would grow older and the baby would have congenital deficiencies.
Now, my niece is really as my sister wrote in the letter, playful, cute, bold and a naughty girl.
"Uncle, don't listen to my mother."
Jia Yue didn’t understand much about the other things, but the nickname "Naughty Monkey" was obviously not a good thing. Every time the adults called her a naughty monkey, they would laugh.
"I'm not a monkey."
"Hahaha, no no, uncle was wrong."
Chen Tu turned around and looked at his sister, "It's almost the same as when you were a child."
No matter what bad things he did, blame him.
It was clearly him who climbed the mulberry tree and ate the food until his nose was covered in blood, but he blamed it on him and his second brother, saying that they taught him.
They taught her to be careful when eating, but she didn't listen and ended up in such a mess, causing him and his second brother to be beaten.
"no way."
Shen Ning spread her hands and said with a smile: "Who told me to wait for her to have a daughter all these years."
It's okay to be naughty. Children need to be naughty so that they can grow up well.
On this side, Youshi came over to pay her respects, and on the other side, Yingchun and others received the news and also rushed over.
On this day, the Ningguo Mansion was unusually lively. Baochai saw from afar a young man from the Shen family who was about her age, and her heart couldn't help but be moved.
The Shen family has a good family tradition. From the Grand Secretary Shen to Lord Shen and his two sons, none of them have concubines.
The young man was said to be the eldest son of Madam Shen’s second nephew.
It looks like bookish air.
The Shen family did not allow examiners in previous years, but things are different now.
Lord Shen is a doctor of the Imperial Academy. It shouldn't be difficult for his grandson to pass the imperial examinations and become a Jinshi, right?
Baochai felt that it would be better to marry into an official family than to work as a maid in the royal family and then be in charge of the Charity Bureau.
The Shen family is a noble family, and with relatives like the Ningguo Mansion, they will be fine in the future.
With the help of these two companies, her family's status as an imperial merchant would not decline, if not go any further.
The more she understood how close Mrs. Shen was to the royal family, the more Baochai wished she could help.
Although the Xue family still bears the title of imperial merchants, in fact they only manage some small items of the palace.
The profitable businesses of copper, iron, tea, salt and silk that her grandfather and father had once been involved in are now gone.
If Mrs. Shen could help...
When Baochai returned home, she told Aunt Xue about the Shen family in a veiled manner.
There are no girls in the Shen family. The Chen Lu branch doesn't even have a granddaughter, let alone a daughter.
If you marry into their family, you won’t have to worry about giving birth to a daughter who won’t be happy.
"Don't talk about the Shen family, help me look at the accounts."
Aunt Xue's main focus was still on her accounts. "These shops in Suzhou are doing very well this year. They can earn more money than in previous years."
Baochai: “…”
What can she do? She could only go over to check the accounts.
In fact, these accounts were given to them by the shopkeepers.
Now that it has been delivered to us, there must be no flaws found in it.
"My brother and I are studying at Jia's house. My uncle conquered Annan and is now going to conquer Japan. Anyone with a bit of brains will behave themselves."
Yeah?
It seems to be true.
Aunt Xue sighed in her heart.
"Mom, Jiangnan is a wealthy place, and business is pretty good this year. Why not donate some of it to the Salesian Bureau in the disaster-stricken areas?"
Baochai advised her mother, "The Empress has sent many female officials to various charity bureaus. Those who donated a lot will definitely be recorded by her. This will leave a lot of impressions. If there is a chance in the future..."
“Not this year!”
Aunt Xue didn't let her finish, "Your uncle is still in great need of money."
Although he was the general who was sent to Japan, the soldiers who went to Japan were transferred from various places.
If you don't give them some sweet benefits, will those soldiers be obedient? "Let's wait until your uncle is done with the Japanese affairs before we talk!"
Baochai: “…”
She had reached the point where she couldn't bear it anymore.
“Mom, did you know that Mrs. Shen has always donated to the Salesian Bureau?”
Aunt Xue: “…”
"Is our family's business more important, or is my uncle's business more important?"
Baochai looked at her mother and said, "If you don't leave an impression on the Empress this year, even if you want to keep her in the future..., what's the difference between you and those people who are now bankrupt and have to pay off the debts owed to the treasury?"
Will they be remembered? They will not be remembered.
“You always say that Mrs. Shen got lucky, but you don’t think about what she has been planning all along.”
Of the Ning and Rong mansions, the situation of Rongguo Mansion was originally better than that of Ningguo Mansion.
But what about now? Many times, things in this world are controlled by human beings.
"Dad used to say, if you rely on the mountain, the mountain will fall; if you rely on the water, the water will flow..."
"But that's your uncle!"
No matter how close they are, she is still a daughter of the Wang family in public.
Aunt Xue didn't know what was wrong with her daughter.
I actually have so much dissatisfaction with my uncle's family.
"You can only get better if your uncle gets better. Didn't I tell you before..."
"Mother, I don't want to enter the palace."
Baochai's eyes were red, and she didn't call her mother, whom she had been calling in Jinling, "The Wang family has a daughter. Even if the cousins around my eldest uncle and second uncle are all married, there are still many girls of the right age in the Wang family."
She didn't even know why her mother was so obsessed with the palace.
"When cousin Yuanchun was in the palace, do you think I could be better than her? During the years she was in the palace, what good did she do for the family?"
Not only is there no benefit, but it also costs a lot of money.
This was no secret; they heard about it as soon as they arrived at the Jia family.
But her mother still didn't learn her lesson.
“Why did Mrs. Shen bring my cousin home? Have you ever thought about it?”
Baochai was about to go crazy with her mother, "The Emperor and the Empress are a couple who go through thick and thin together. Didn't you see that so many people were released? Didn't any courtier submit a memorial to the court saying anything about filling up the harem?"
Most children will not follow the wrong path taken by their ancestors.
Similarly, all the civil and military officials in the court were frightened by the retired emperor and the many princes at that time.
"Mom, can we just not say whatever uncle says?"
The lesson from the past is still there, why can't her mother see through it?
“…”
Aunt Xue's eyes slowly turned red when she saw her daughter like this. "Your father passed away early, and we are an orphan and a widow. If we didn't rely on your uncle, we would have been bullied by the clan."
Some things were given to the Wang family, but without the Wang family, the clan would have taken even more.
"Your uncle is busy, but it's not like he doesn't have plans for us."
Why can’t I enter the palace?
"Your brother is useless and can only live on his family inheritance. If you can't marry into a wealthy family and help your brother, our Xue family will be reduced to an ordinary merchant in a few years."
In that case, how could she be worthy of her deceased master?
"In terms of talent and appearance, how can my son not compare to the girls in this mansion?"
In this world, marrying anyone is marrying.
Among the wealthy and powerful families, how many do not have three wives and four concubines? The master didn't have it at the beginning because their Wang family was very powerful.
"You are no longer the same as your cousin was back then."
Baochai often brings back the court reports, and the Jia family now also likes to read them.
In order to prevent any disagreements with others, Aunt Xue also watched it.
"Back then, there was the Emperor Retired and Concubine Zhen. The Emperor and Empress had no say in anything, so Yuanchun could only waste her time in the palace."
Aunt Xue said, "You can wait until you reach the age of marriage, when the Emperor will be in his prime."
As for men, the older they get, the more they love younger women.
It was because she kept a close eye on her that she didn't have any illegitimate children.
The Jia family has become like this because Madam Shen's family is the only one in power, and Jia Jing is indeed a gentleman, so much so that she doesn't even know what the men outside are like.
Since the clan rules have not been set, have the men in the back streets come up with other ideas?
What is the good reputation of Longyang?
It would be better to have a concubine or a maid.
"If your uncle defeats Japan again, he will definitely be granted the title of Duke. You are his niece. If you enter the palace, the emperor will definitely give you the title of Beauty or Talented Lady, not to mention Zhaoyi or Jieyu."
Aunt Xue thought her daughter was good in every way. "When the emperor knows how good you are, our family won't have to worry anymore."
If they have another child, who knows what the future will be like... Their Xue family is the best among the four major families.
"I have asked someone to tell me that the golden lock you wear every day must be matched with a jade one." (End of this chapter)
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