About a quarter of an hour later, Dabao came back with two girls. One was Xiaoqing, and the other girl was about six years old, wearing a small silk vest, and looked a bit like Luo Mingcheng.
Xiaoqing still had tears on her face. She stamped her feet and said to Luo Mingcheng, "You disappeared when I glanced at you. It was so scary."
Luo Mingcheng said in a very imposing manner, "You can't control me. I like to come and play with Dabao." He was embarrassed to say that he was greedy and wanted to come to Dabao's house to eat sweet dates.
Dabao introduced the little girl to Chen Afu, who was Luo Mingcheng's sister Luo Mei.
Luo Mei was much more sensible than Luo Mingcheng. She greeted Chen Afu with a smile and gave her brother a few words. She said that he was gone, which made her and her grandmother very worried.
I heard from Dabao before that this little girl Luo Mei is very smart and capable. When Chu Hanyan came to Tangyuan, she has been serving Yan Jieer. I also heard that this little girl will go to work for Yan Jieer when she turns seven next year.
At the age of seven, he was only in the first grade of primary school in his previous life, and now he had to work as a waiter. It was really not easy.
Chen Ahfu let the children play again while she went to the kitchen to busy herself. Later, Xiao Shitou and Si Xizi also came, and the children played in the new yard even more happily.
Chen Afu cooked all the red dates at home, but there were only two large bowls. He took one plate for the children to eat, left a small bowl for Dabao and Alu, and there was one bowl left, which he gave to the Luo family.
Chen Ahfu invited a few children to have lunch at home. There was ready-made meat at home, so she cooked the golden pork that was very popular with the children yesterday, and fried a few home-cooked dishes. Even Xiao Shitou and Si Xizi had their meal here.
Luo Mingcheng had always been spoiled by his family. He thought the golden pork was good-looking and delicious, so he ate it all in one go, and most of the dish went into his mouth.
After lunch, Xiaoqing brought a big bowl of glutinous rice and dates and led the two children back to Tangyuan.
In the afternoon, Old Mrs. Chen came and she looked very bad.
Chen Ming asked, "What's wrong with mother?"
The old lady gritted her teeth and cursed, "Today I found out that the spendthrift woman, Mrs. Hu, gave two feet of the satin you gave to my eldest son to Ah Ju to make clothes, and three feet to Hu Cuicui to make a long skirt. Oh, my eldest son has worked hard all his life, but now all the satin he got is gone." After cursing Mrs. Hu for a long time, she added, "My eldest son is good in every way, but he spoiled that troublemaker too much."
Wang sighed, "We didn't think too much about it at the time, otherwise I would have cut the satin for my uncle first, and it would have been difficult for Hu to give it away."
Chen Ming glanced at Chen Afu, who pretended not to notice. Chen Ming wanted to give it himself, so he couldn't blame his family. The old lady was right, Chen Ming was too pampered to Mrs. Hu and Chen Aju. He gave the satin to Mrs. Hu and Chen Aju whenever they asked for it.
Chen Ming brought moon cakes and apples to treat the old lady. With a red face, he explained why he didn't dare to send them to the first wife earlier.
Old Lady Chen said, "You did the right thing. You must be careful of Mrs. Hu in the future. That spendthrift woman is so abominable and shameless. She pretends to be good in front of your eldest brother, but she did so many shameful things behind my eldest son's back. Oh, my poor Third Son, I miss him so much..."
Whenever Chen Shi was mentioned, the old lady became so angry that her liver ached.
In the evening, Chen Ming invited the old lady to have dinner at home again. Since the lean meat was almost all used up, Chen Afu fried a large bowl of salt-fried meat with garlic sprouts. The thick slices of fat meat were so delicious that the old lady enjoyed it very much.
The old lady really wanted to say that her eldest son liked to eat these big, fatty pieces of meat, but when she thought that if she called her eldest son, Mrs. Hu would shamelessly follow her, she had to give up.
The next morning, Xiaoqing brought Luo Mei and Luo Mingcheng to the Chen family to play again. Xiaoqing said privately that except for Aunt Luo, all the adults in the Luo family went to the capital. Aunt Luo was sick again and had no energy to take care of them. Cheng Geer asked to come here, so they let them come. Of course, the Chen family treated them well and let the three of them have lunch before leaving.
After that, Luo Mingcheng and Luo Mei, accompanied by Xiaoqing, would come to Chen's house to play for half a day every two or three days. They would usually come in the morning at 9:00 p.m., have lunch, and leave. The Luo family was very happy that their two children had playmates, and the adults and children of the Chen family were sensible, not like country folk, and had no bad habits. They treated the two children very well, so they tacitly allowed the children to interact with each other. When they came, the Luo family would also send the Chen family some food such as fish, meat, candied fruit, or small things such as hair flowers and ribbons.
In the evening, Chen Ahfu drew a set of clothes on paper. She wanted to make one for Luo Mei and Yang Qian. But she didn't know how to cut, so she took out the satin and asked Wang to cut it according to the drawing, and she followed and learned.
In fact, Chen Afu wanted to make clothes for Chu Hanyan, that heart-breakingly beautiful child. But she also thought that the Chu family must have their own sewing room and might not like the clothes she made, so she gave up the idea.
On the fifteenth day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Chen Ming and Wang sent two kilograms of mooncakes, a few apples, a paper-wrapped bag of preserved crabapple, and four silk ribbons to the first wife in the afternoon.
When Mrs. Hu saw the mooncake, she was surprised and said, "Oh, this is the mooncake from Guiming Garden in the county town. It's very expensive. My second uncle's family has really become rich. They can even afford the mooncakes there."
Chen Ming said, "This was not bought by my family. It was given by the young master of the Xile Restaurant. The apples were also given by them. The candied fruit and ribbons were given by Steward Luo's family."
When Chen Ye heard that the second branch had connected with these families, he said happily, "Second brother, you are good. You can connect with these gentlemen after you get better. After all, you are a student." He also instructed, "You must connect with these two nobles. It will be good for your second branch, and even for our first and third branches."
Chen Ming said honestly, "I hardly even leave my house, how can I get close to them. It's Dabao, that child is smart, all the children who have played with him like to play with him."
Mrs. Hu added, "The children are having so much fun, so they must have given more than just these things, right?"
Chen Ye's eyes widened again and he cursed, "I have always told you this, why are you still looking for trouble, you bitch? My second brother's family has already given us so much satin, and this time they also gave us mooncakes and apples, why are you still not satisfied? Not only that, are you going to give us all the things that others have given us?"
Seeing that Chen Ye was angry again, Mrs. Hu didn't dare to say anything more.
She had already seen that Chen Ming was not as sympathetic as Chen Shi. If she asked Chen Shi for something behind Chen Ye's back, Chen Shi would give it to her. But if she asked Chen Ming for something behind Chen Ye's back, Chen Ming might not give it to her. Not only that, he was also keeping things to himself. This sickly guy was very shameless. If she wanted to squeeze something out of him, she had to do it in front of Chen Ye. But she had already displeased Chen Ye a few days ago, so she didn't dare to make him angry.
Thinking about what Hu Laowu said, she opened her mouth but still didn't dare to speak.
Yesterday, she specifically mentioned to Chen Ye that Da Hu liked the two birds from the second room and asked if he could bring them over for Da Hu to play with.
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