Chapter 49 Chapter 49 Clothes...
The next day, Sheng Puzhu woke up in a daze.
She slowly turned over and felt her body was heavy.
"Hmm." With his brows slightly furrowed, Sheng Puzhu moved his hands and feet with force. Only then did he realize that he had wrapped Xie Zhiyan's brocade quilt around himself, like a thick silkworm cocoon.
There was no one beside him anymore, only the soft pillow was slightly sunken, showing the traces of his sleep.
"Was it so cold yesterday? His quilt was stolen again." Sheng Puzhu muttered, sitting on the bed in a daze.
"My lady, get up early today."
"If you are still tired, you might as well sleep for another quarter of an hour. I will call you later." Nanny Du smiled and twisted her handkerchief, and then told Li Shuang to go to the small kitchen to watch over breakfast.
Sheng Puzhu shook his still dizzy head and said softly, "No, get up early."
"When my husband mentioned Laba yesterday, it suddenly occurred to me that the batch of winter clothes we ordered earlier should be finished. I'll have the tailor shop deliver them to the meeting room."
Madam Du smiled and responded, handing over a hot towel. "Would you like the kitchen to prepare lunch for you today?"
Sheng Puzhu frowned and thought for a moment, then took the handkerchief and placed it on her face. The steam from the handkerchief masked the thoughts in her eyes. "I won't be seeing you off for now. I'm afraid my husband won't be staying in the palace for long these days."
Madam Du nodded and took note. She smoothed out the wrinkles on her clothes and said with a smile, "After Laba Festival, the Princess will return home to celebrate the New Year. In a few days, I will have people start preparing and clear out the courtyard where the Princess will live."
"Well, winter is cold, so put some colorful flowers around the yard."
"But we still have half a month to prepare, so there's still enough time."
Sheng Puzhu stood up, her long hair draping down her back, making her face look even whiter and smoother.
After breakfast, it was still early, so the group walked slowly through the corridor and arrived at the meeting hall at just the right time.
Nanny Wang was waiting in the corridor, her eyes showing unconcealed fatigue: "Madam, the Crown Prince."
"Madam, there's no need to be so polite." Sheng Puzhu nodded lightly.
Nanny Wang's smile was a little forced, and she couldn't help but think of the marriage that was mentioned a few days ago. The eldest son and the second wife of the Sheng family had just shown some signs of being together, but it was dropped because of a word from the prince.
Whenever her wife touched upon her children's marriage prospects, she would always be competitive, but she was unable to win and became angry again, and she also said some unpleasant things in front of the old lady.
Nanny Wang was afraid that the Crown Prince's wife, who seemed to be very low-key, would secretly remember it.
Although the chief steward still has the cards and account books, he can't do anything about it. It's the end of the year, and when the eldest princess returns home for the New Year, if something goes wrong, she will probably be blamed together.
Nanny Wang was feeling anxious and worried, and the expression on her face was a little uncontrollable.
Sheng Puzhu's tone was as gentle as ever. She asked someone to bring a stool for Nanny Wang, then pointed to the embroidery workshop lady waiting in the front hall and said softly, "Auntie is seriously ill. Although Qinghui has just finished her confinement, she is still weak and should not be overworked. So, I'd like to trouble Nanny Wang to take some time to check and see if there are any mistakes in the winter clothing pattern."
"If there are no mistakes, I will send someone to deliver it."
Nanny Wang didn't dare to delay and quickly stood up and went forward to check.
Wu, the lady in charge of the embroidery workshop, held a booklet in her hand and smiled as she asked someone to spread out the clothes one by one. Nanny Wang then carefully compared the colors, patterns and styles recorded in the booklet.
It happened that at this time, the third wife, Dou, also arrived. She stood in front of the flower hall feeling a little awkward.
"Aunt." Sheng Puzhu stood up with a smile and bowed to Dou with confidence.
"You don't have to be so polite. The nanny said that the clothes have been delivered. I happened to be free so I came to see them in person." Dou became even more nervous when she saw Sheng Puzhu's beautiful face.
"Sister-in-law." Xie Lingyi and Xie Lingxi followed behind Dou, looking very well-behaved.
Sheng Puzhu nodded gently: "If you see anything that needs to be changed, you can tell the lady in the embroidery workshop directly."
Nanny Wang quickly checked the patterns on the booklet and breathed a sigh of relief. "I've compared them one by one, and the details are exactly the same as what I remembered in the booklet. There's not a single mistake."
"Then please trouble Madam to deliver the winter clothes first." Sheng Puzhu picked up the pen, made a few marks on the book in front of her, and gave instructions slowly.
"yes."
As soon as Nanny Wang left, Xie Lingyi turned around, slowly moved to Sheng Puzhu, and whispered, "Sister-in-law."
"Is there anything you don't like about the clothes?" Sheng Puzhu asked casually while keeping account, the tip of his pen filled with ink.
Xie Lingyi shook her head: "No, I like it very much."
"I...I just have something else to do and I want to ask my sister-in-law for help."
Sheng Puzhu raised an eyebrow, looked at Xie Lingyi gently, and calmly put down the pen: "You go first, but I may not agree."
Xie Lingyi clenched her hands in confusion. With a bitter face, she whispered, "Sister-in-law, can you let me not go to the Laba Winter Hunt this year?"
After hearing this, Sheng Puzhu leaned back in the armchair silently, her almond-shaped eyes darkening slightly. "Each mansion has a fixed number of spots for the winter hunt each year. You are not the only unmarried girl in this mansion."
"Why are you so sure it's you?"
Xie Lingyi didn't dare to look up, feeling guilty. "That day, I was outside the study and accidentally overheard the conversation between my father and uncle."
"So what?" Sheng Puzhu waited for Xie Lingyi's next words.
"Sister-in-law, my uncle told my father that the palace will be selecting a concubine for the prince this year on Laba Festival."
"My third and fourth sisters are still young, so my uncle wanted me to go with the winter hunt."
Sheng Puzhu sat still, but leaned towards Xie Lingyi: "You don't want to?"
"Yeah." Xie Lingyi nodded and analyzed calmly, "What good can a Crown Princess do? If there's a principal wife, there will definitely be concubines, not to mention concubines."
"If it's really a good thing, Fourth Sister is already of age. Given the temperaments of Uncle and Auntie, how could they not fight for Fourth Sister and instead give it to me?"
Xie Lingyi bit her lip lightly: "So I want to ask my sister-in-law to help me."
Sheng Puzhu's eyes were still gentle, but there was no smile in them. She asked with a hint of meaning, "So, how do you want me to help you, sister?"
Xie Lingyi took a deep breath, as if she had made up her mind. "If I feign illness and don't go on the winter hunt, I still have my sister Lingxi. I can't let the consequences of something I don't want to happen fall on my sister."
"So what I want to ask sister-in-law for help with is not that I don't want to go on the winter hunt, but that I want to go on the hunt with you. When we get to the palace, you can announce to the public that I'm sick."
Sheng Puzhu hooked her finger at Xie Lingyi, and seeing that she bent down obediently, she raised her hand and poked her soft cheek, a faint smile finally appearing in her eyes: "Okay, I'll help you."
Xie Lingyi's eyes were slightly red and she almost cried.
No matter how calm she appeared, she had been well protected at home since she was a child. After just a few words, she was so nervous that her palms were sweating.
"Lingyi, thank you, sister-in-law." It was as if a heavy burden had been lifted from her shoulders, and her voice was shaking as she spoke.
"No need to thank me."
"You convinced me with your sincerity." Sheng Puzhu gestured for her to wipe her eyes. "Don't lose your composure or else people will notice something."
After Dou had checked the winter clothes for her young daughter, she was pondering over how to start the conversation when she saw Nanny Wang running down the corridor, sweating profusely.
"What happened?" Dou asked nervously.
Nanny Wang took a deep breath and said with a sad face, "Madam Qinghui and our eldest wife's second wife's clothes are mixed up. What should we do?"
Sheng Puzhu glanced at the lady in charge of the embroidery workshop and frowned slightly.
"That's impossible. We did everything according to the booklet given by the government. How could we do it the wrong way?"
Nanny Wang didn't even have time to wipe the sweat off her face. She pulled out a stack of precise measurements from her sleeve and said in a dry voice, "I'm afraid one of my men was careless and wrote the two ladies' names the wrong way."
"Madam Qinghui's measurements were used to make the clothes for our second wife, Qingshu."
"The second lady is making a fuss in the house, saying that she wants to go out wearing it on Laba Day."
Sheng Puzhu picked up the two winter clothes and looked at them carefully. Xue Qinghui had gained weight during her pregnancy before, and she thought she would not lose weight quickly during the confinement period, so the clothes were cut very loose.
"What did my sister-in-law say?"
Nanny Wang gave a wry smile, "Madam Qinghui has lost a lot more weight than expected due to her premature birth. Although the dress is made to Madam Second Madam's size, it fits her perfectly."
Sheng Puzhu understood, no wonder Xie Qingshu was making a fuss.
This is like everyone in the mansion making new clothes, but she is the only one who can't wear them. With Xie Qingshu's personality, she would probably go crazy just thinking about it.
"I wonder if it's too late to redo it now?" Sheng Puzhu thought for a while and asked the lady in the embroidery workshop.
The embroidery lady hurriedly bowed and apologized: "Madam, it's not that I don't want to, but it's almost the New Year, and the clothes that need to be made every day are already packed. If we rush to finish them before Laba, it will definitely be too late."
Sheng Puzhu pondered, "If I only do tailoring and sewing, I can hire another embroiderer for the fine embroidery. Will that be enough time?"
The lady in the embroidery workshop counted on her fingers for a while and nodded: "Okay, I will go back and prepare the materials for the clothes."
Sheng Puzhu wrote a piece of paper and asked Naidong to pass it to her: "Give this to the shopkeeper of Nishang Pavilion and tell her that it is my request. She will definitely agree."
The lady in charge of the embroidery workshop quickly took it with both hands and said respectfully: "Yes, I will make the clothes again before Laba Festival."
After the matter was settled, everyone in the meeting room breathed a sigh of relief.
Sheng Puzhu was relatively calm, being in charge of the household, although it would never be good if something went wrong.
However, the day when the clothes were cut and measured happened to be around the time when Qin fell ill. It was hard to say who was responsible for the trouble.
The big house is where I live, listening to the waves.
Qin was wearing a headband and leaning on the big pillow, while her second daughter Xie Qingshu was sitting beside her with her eyes red from crying.
"My mother and brothers are ill, and my sister-in-law is too weak to take care of me. Perhaps my eldest sister-in-law is angry with our eldest family, so she deliberately had my clothes cut incorrectly."
Qin Shi was so upset by the noise that her head hurt: "Why do you think that?"
Xie Qingshu's cheeks puffed up with anger, and she said unreasonably, "Isn't it?"
"Why is it that out of all the people in the house, only my clothes have gone wrong? If not just me, who else could they be targeting?"
Qin glared at her daughter and said, "Just vent your anger in front of me, but don't say anything nonsense to others."
"Although your eldest sister-in-law may seem a bit cold and arrogant, she has always been a dignified and upright woman."
Xie Qingshu was furious and didn't bother to hide her feelings. She blurted out everything: "Eldest sister-in-law must be angry about the last time my second brother asked me to send pomegranates. Even though those pomegranates were carefully selected by my second brother, he said it was an apology for what happened to mother and eldest brother."
"My attitude was bad that day, so my eldest sister-in-law didn't accept the pomegranate."
"So I bear grudge against you."
Qin was stunned at first, and a chill ran through her body for no reason: "What pomegranate?"
"that is……"
Xie Qingshu's eyes dodged, and she said vaguely, "It's the fruit from the pomegranate tree in Second Brother's yard."
Qin's expression froze. She didn't dare to think too deeply and tried to maintain her composure. "What else has your second brother asked you to deliver?"
Xie Qingshu shook her head. "No, after my second brother got injured, he would just stare at the pomegranate tree in the yard every day, sometimes sitting there for the whole day. He didn't even want to talk to me."
Qin took a deep breath and sighed. A mother knows her son like a mother does. Even if they had become distant in the past two years, she could still guess what kind of personality her second son had.
If this is true, it would be a good thing that he cannot marry the second wife of the Sheng family.
Because of the terrible thought in his heart, his palms were clenched into fists, and his nails almost dug into the tender flesh of his palms. Qin stared at his second daughter as if he didn't feel anything.
"Don't mention the pomegranate matter again."
"It's just a dress that's the wrong size, and you don't need that one."
"If your sister-in-law comes to ask, just tell her that I made you two new sets of clothes that you haven't worn yet, and they're perfect for Laba."
Xie Qingshu's lips trembled, and before she could even begin to speak, tears rolled down her cheeks: "Mother, how could you do this?"
"You don't dislike your eldest sister-in-law, so why do you have to defend her over such a small matter?"
"Why not take advantage of this winter clothes incident to say that my eldest sister-in-law's housekeeping is immoral and has ruined her reputation, so that my mother can regain her housekeeping power."
"My daughter has never suffered such injustice in her life."
Qin really didn't like the second wife's family. She wanted to fight for her son's future. Even if she prayed to the Buddha and the ancestors, and her daughter-in-law's life was hanging by a thread during childbirth, she was still thinking about her future eldest grandson.
Normally, she couldn't help but be sarcastic, but when it came to the facts, she would argue about the big issues. Even if she knew it was wrong, she had to do it, because if she didn't argue, she would have nothing.
However, regarding the reputation of the entire Jingguo Duke, the bloodlines of the three branches of the Xie family are always tied together. No matter who loses face outside, it will affect the reputation of the entire Duke's Mansion.
Getting the clothing size wrong is a small matter and it won’t have any impact whether you make a fuss or not.
However, Qin was really disappointed by her second daughter's foolish behavior that did not distinguish between the important and the unimportant.
"Qingshu!"
Qin's face darkened as she stared coldly at her second daughter and said, "I can tolerate your arrogance and allow you to have the best of everything, but when you get married, your every move will represent the reputation of the Xie family."
"Although I don't like your eldest sister-in-law, when it comes to small matters like food, clothing, and other expenses, when have I ever been inferior to anyone else in the mansion? If you don't even have this kind of broad mind, how can you behave properly in the future?"
"As long as your elder brother is the heir of the Duke's Mansion, then he and his wife will represent the reputation of the Xie family."
"What good will it do you to have a ruined reputation?"
Xie Qingshu was suddenly speechless. She was dissatisfied in her heart, but did not dare to refute.
That bit of anger forced her to speak without thinking, and she said even more unwillingly: "What has my mother been fighting for all these years?"
"Don't think I don't know. I've known it for a long time."
"Although my eldest brother was born to the eldest princess, he is not my second uncle's child at all!"
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