Chapter 1125 Preparation
Manbao picked carefully in the mall and finally picked out a pretty good piece of long paper. After dinner, she gave it to Bai Shan.
There are chrysanthemums printed on the bottom of the paper, which is in line with the current season. Chrysanthemums also represent longevity, so it is appropriate to celebrate the Empress Dowager's birthday.
Bai Shan's handwriting is pretty good now, of course it's not as good as those calligraphers, but birthday greetings are all about the thought, right?
Especially since the target is someone like the Queen Mother who has no shortage of money, food and clothing.
So he opened the paper and figured out how to write the word "longevity".
Mr. Zhuang helped them with the layout and taught them how to arrange the characters for longevity into a big circle. From a distance, it looked like a chrysanthemum, but from a close distance, it looked like individual characters for longevity.
Mr. Zhuang smiled and said, "Time is a little tight, so let's keep it simple and just write a circle, a flower."
He looked at the length of the paper and sniffed the wafting fragrance, slightly puzzled, "Why have I never seen this kind of paper before?"
Bai Shan quickly covered up for Man Bao, "Sir, rich families have a lot of good things. We only got to know many of them after we went to the Yin family."
This is true. Although he has lived long enough, his knowledge is still limited. There are still many things in this world that he has not seen.
Mr. Zhuang didn't take the paper seriously. Instead, he looked at it, folded it up a bit, and said to Bai Shan, "Cut some off so it's easier to lay out."
It was getting dark and Zhou Lijun also came back from the restaurant. She ran in to join in the fun. Seeing that they were busy, she helped them light the lights, then went to wash up.
Now Zhou's restaurant is gradually getting on track, with more and more regular customers, and occasionally there are strangers passing by who come in to eat, so she is very busy.
Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang lived in the shop with their two nephews, but Zhou Lijun still lived here. However, there was an empty room, so she moved out of Manbao's room and got her own room.
She gets up earlier than Manbao and the others every day, eats breakfast and dinner outside, and usually only speaks a few words to Manbao a day.
But even so, Manbao could always know what was happening in the restaurant, and the Zhou brothers could also know what was happening on her side.
Knowing that Manbao was going to the palace to attend the Queen Mother's birthday banquet tomorrow, Zhou Lijun yawned and said goodbye to Manbao after washing up, and went into her room to find clothes for her to wear tomorrow.
Zhou Lijun rummaged through boxes and drawers and found a set of dresses that Old Lady Liu had made for Manbao after she came to Beijing, but after comparing them, he found that they might be a bit cold to wear in this weather.
She scratched her head and took out the dress that her aunt had made for her younger sister. The material used was also good. Although it was not as good as the one made by Old Lady Liu, it was thick.
Zhou Lijun hesitated for a moment between looking good and keeping warm, and finally folded the beautiful dress and tucked it back into her clothes.
She folded the clothes she had taken out and put them aside. She yawned and said to Manbao, "Auntie, I've put the clothes you're going to wear tomorrow on the stool."
Manbao lowered his head to thank him and continued to work hard with Bai Erlang.
The two of them are preparing to make borders for the words.
You can't just take the written words directly to the palace, right?
It still needs to be framed, rolled up, and put in a nice box.
They measured a piece of paper of the same size to use as a mold. After Mr. Zhuang and Bai Shan finished writing the words and the ink dried, Manbao and Bai Erlang also prepared the materials.
They often do this kind of work. After all, all the good calligraphy of the master was framed by the three of them. There were also three people who thought their calligraphy was good, and they secretly framed it and kept it, deciding to take it out and brag about it to their descendants when they were older.
So these things are readily available at home.
The four masters and apprentices took great pains to prepare the birthday gift. Manbao then ran back to his room and rummaged through the various gift boxes before picking out one of similar size to put the gift in.
Recently, the Yin family, the Su family, the Eastern Palace, and the Imperial Palace have all given her gifts, including many pieces of fine wood or beautiful boxes, which Manbao has kept.
A few people put the rolled-up scroll in, closed the box, and watched happily together.
Mr. Zhuang stroked his beard with satisfaction and said with a smile, "Alright, it's getting late. Go wash up and go to bed. You have to get up early tomorrow."
Manbao checked the time and saw that it was indeed very late. She was puzzled. "Does the palace banquet last from morning to night? Why do we have to go so early?"
Although Mr. Zhuang had never been to the palace for a banquet, he had heard of it. He smiled and said, "Tomorrow you should get up early and eat more. Take some snacks in your purse. If you want to eat something after entering the palace, there will be more waiting."
The three of them responded with confused expressions.
But because they went to bed late, they were reluctant to get up the next day. In addition, the weather was a bit cold, so after Daji called them, the three of them dawdled for nearly a quarter of an hour before getting up.
Among them, Bai Erlang had been there the longest, so Manbao and Baishan justifiably put the blame on him.
Mr. Zhuang urged them on and said, "We're running out of time. If you don't leave now, you might miss the Yin family's convoy. I've had someone bring you some food; you can eat it on the way."
Then he stuffed the three children into the car.
Daji took two guards with him to escort them to the palace.
There was a food box prepared by Mr. Zhuang in the car. When I opened it, it was full of small steamed buns, dumplings, naan and the like.
The three of them were rummaging through their lunch boxes while exclaiming, "Why isn't there any porridge? Or maybe noodles would be fine too. Are we just going to eat naan bread so early in the morning?"
Daji replied while driving the car: "Hurry up and eat, the Yin family will be here soon."
The three of them then reached out to take the food, but they didn't have such a big appetite to eat so much food so early in the morning, so they only ate the small steamed buns and dumplings, and they haven't finished them yet.
There were three large purses in the car. The three men took them up and found that they were full of snacks. They put them into their sleeves while marveling at them.
Especially Bai Shan and Bai Erlang, who had never been to the palace, looked at Man Bao together and asked, "Is there nothing to eat in the palace?"
Manbao shook his head in confusion, "No, I always have food to eat when I go to the palace. I'm never hungry."
Bai Shan and Bai Erlang looked down at the purses in their hands and sighed, "Sir, you have never been to the palace before. You are too nervous."
Manbao nodded in agreement.
Bai Erlang rolled his eyes and felt that it was too heavy to carry such a big purse in, so he opened it, picked out the snacks he didn't like very much and put them on the food box.
Bai Shan took a look and opened his own purse.
Manbao weighed his sleeves and felt they were a bit heavy, so he picked up the items and only left three of his favorite snacks in his purse.
The next update will be around 9pm
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
