Wang Yingxue was just thinking about how to ask this question when the Second Lady smiled and waved at Dou Zhao: "Come, come to my great-aunt!"

Dou Zhao hid behind Ji with a smile on his face.

Ji gently pushed Dou Zhao.

Dou Zhao remained unmoved.

Ji had no choice but to smile and say to the Second Lady: "Who does this child take after? When buying things, he has to think about this and that, but when giving things away, he becomes shy."

"That's good, that's good! That's really true." The Second Lady did not take it as an offense. She turned around and took out a paper box with a big red pattern of five bats coming to the door from under the kang and handed it to Dou Zhao. "This is the abalone with bones that your fifth uncle sent someone to bring back from Kyoto. Take it and eat it!"

Wang Yingxue was shocked.

Bone-in abalone is a famous delicacy in the south of the Yangtze River. It is said to be made with cheese. It is pearly, snow-white and creamy, without any fishy smell of cheese. It is known as the most delicious food in the world.

When she was in Kyoto, she had heard the children of wealthy families play it, but she had never seen it, let alone tasted it.

Ji was also a little surprised.

The workmanship of bone-in abalone is complicated, and there are not many people in Jiangnan who can make it. Perhaps it is true that scarcity makes things valuable, the old lady likes to eat this very much, and Dou Shishu will make some for the second old lady whenever he has the chance. This time during the New Year, Dou Shishu only brought back two boxes, but he didn't expect that the old lady would give one box to Dou Zhao.

She smiled at Dou Zhao and said, "Shougu, this is a gift from your fifth uncle to your great-aunt. There are only two boxes in total. Why don't you thank your great-aunt quickly?"

Dou Zhao was very surprised.

In her previous life, she had eaten bone-in abalone at a family dinner at the home of Wang Qinghuai, Marquis of Yan'an. At that time, the pride that was faintly revealed in the nonchalant manner of Mrs. Wang's description was even mocked by Wei Tingzhen in private.

She was just accompanying her sixth aunt to the Ji family shop to pick up some things. Seeing the streets full of people buying New Year goods, she felt that she should buy something for her sixth uncle's family as well. But she was afraid that favoring some over others would cause unnecessary trouble, so she bought a lot of small things for everyone and brought them back.

The gift for the Second Lady was the small enamel box with a passionflower pattern that she was holding in her hand.

Unexpectedly, the Second Lady gave her a box of conch bones as a reward.

Although she didn't like the Second Lady, she would not misinterpret her kindness.

Dou Zhao smiled and walked forward to thank the Second Madam, then took the box with a smile.

The second lady smiled and nodded.

A maid came in and reported, "Second Madam, Second Madam Yu has brought the young masters and young ladies of the Wu family to pay their respects to you. Sister Ming and Sister Yi are here with them as well."

"Please invite them in quickly. Please invite them in quickly." The Second Lady said in a loud voice.

The Wu family was in Xinle, and the Dou family was in Zhending. They served in the same dynasty, so they could be considered fellow townsmen. However, Wu Songnian was rather aloof, and since one of them was in the Hanlin Academy and the other in the Ministry of Personnel, they were not close friends despite being in-laws. Later, when Dou Shishu was unhappy, Wu Songnian often invited Dou Shishu to his home for drinks, and the two became closer. The second wife therefore paid special attention to Wu Songnian's two children, which is why Wu Shan and Wu Ya often came to visit.

In his previous life, Dou Zhao had only heard of Wu Shan's name.

He was good at calligraphy and painting, and was a close friend of Dou Dechang. After Dou Dechang abducted Ji's cousin, it was Wu Shan who accompanied him to run around between the Ji and Dou families, one playing the good cop and the other playing the bad cop. Not only did he persuade Ji and Dou to accept the marriage, he also turned the scandal into a good story for a while.

Dou Zhao was deeply impressed by this.

She always felt that people who were able to confuse right and wrong were not simple people.

So when a large group of people came in with several children, she took a good look at the only boy among them, Wu Shan.

Wu Shangan felt someone was looking at him and turned around.

Dou Zhao smiled at him politely.

Wu Shan smiled back at her, and like all well-educated seven-year-old boys, his smile was clean and sincere.

Dou Zhao couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

I wonder what these children will look like in ten years?

Dou Ming, who was already three years old, saw his mother standing beside him with her head down as soon as he entered the door.

She was surprised and happy. She struggled to get out of her wet nurse's arms, shouted "Mother" loudly, and rushed over to hug Wang Yingxue.

Wang Yingxue's face changed slightly, and she whispered hurriedly, "What did I tell you?"

Dou Ming stuck out his tongue and called out "Auntie" in a naive way.

The Second Lady, Ji and Second Madam Yu were all experienced people. As soon as they heard it, they knew that it was Wang Yingxue who taught Dou Ming to call her "aunt" in front of others, but asked Dou Ming to call her "mother" behind others' backs. They all frowned immediately.

If it were in the past, the Second Lady would have scolded him long ago, but now Dou Duo was annoyed that Dou Shishu forced him to give half of the property to Dou Zhao, so there were some things that the East Palace could not interfere with. But this did not mean that she could tolerate such things happening under her nose.

"Ming Jie'er," the Second Lady called Dou Ming seriously, "How did Aunt Liu teach you?"

Dou Ming quickly let go of his mother, ran to the Second Madam, and respectfully bowed to her and Ji.

The Second Lady said "hmm" and said to Wang Yingxue, "Is Sister Ming much more well-behaved?"

This makes sense.

Wang Yingxue's heart skipped a beat, knowing that there was something wrong with calling her daughter just now. However, in front of the Second Lady, even a proper grandson's wife had no right to speak, let alone her, a concubine of unknown status?

She didn't dare to say more, and hurriedly smiled respectfully: "Ming Jie'er can learn to behave in front of you, that's her good fortune!"

"It's best if you think so." The Second Lady accepted Wang Yingxue's compliment without hesitation and said, "Ming Jie'er, just stay with me!"

Wang Yingxue was surprised.

The Second Lady turned to Dou Mingdao and said, "And your sister!" She never looked at Wang Yingxue again.

It wasn't that Dou Ming didn't intend to greet Dou Zhao. She had lived with Wang Yingxue for many years, and apart from Wang Yingxue, she had no one else to manage. It was only when she came to the Second Lady's place that she began to learn to greet elders. However, she was still young and couldn't tell the difference between superiors and subordinates. She only greeted older people and only called younger people "sister" or "brother".

She obediently called Dou Zhao "sister" and saluted her as if she were the second lady.

Dou Zhao returned the gift and told Tuo Niang to put the conch with bones that the Second Lady had just given her as a gift on a crystal plate: "...I didn't know that Brother Wu and Sister Wu would come, so I borrowed flowers to offer to the Buddha, so that we can all taste the good things of my great-aunt."

The whole room was filled with joy as the maids started looking for plates or chopsticks, and the atmosphere immediately became lively.

The second cousin's wife laughed and said, "Our sixth aunt is really knowledgeable. After following you for a few days, Shougu can even say something like 'borrowing flowers to offer to Buddha'."

Ji was very surprised, but she did not find it particularly surprising that her nephew Ji Yong, who was only two years older than Dou Zhao, had already finished learning the Three Character Classic.

"Look at our Zhi'er. I've taught him for seven years, but I've never seen him have such a heart," she said modestly. "You can see that he is a good child."

"You don't have to be polite in front of me." After all, the food belonged to the Second Madam. Dou Zhao was able to take it out and give it to the Wu brothers and sisters. The Second Madam not only thought that Dou Zhao was generous, but also felt very proud. She said with a smile, "Our Shougu doesn't eat alone, she is a good child; our Zhige'er, at a young age, knows how to study hard, she is also a good child." As she said, she hugged Wu Ya, "Our Yajie'er, she is well-behaved and obedient, she is also a good child."

Everyone laughed.

Sister Yi was very dissatisfied and pouted, "What about me? What about me?"

"Oh, I forgot about our sister Yi," the second lady laughed, "our sister Yi is also a good child." As she said that, as if she remembered something, she turned to Dou Ming and said, "Our sister Ming is also a good child!"

Sister Yi covered her mouth and smiled, looking very satisfied.

Dou Mingze laughed along with Sister Yi.

Wang Yingxue, who was left out, felt sad and upset.

The Second Madam has so many children around her, some are from good families, some are smart, and some are powerful. Her sister Ming is only three years old, and Dong Dou has never taken Xi Dou seriously. What good can Ming gain by staying with the Second Madam?

She was thinking about how to bring the child to her side.

The Second Lady was determined to teach Wang Yingxue a lesson, so she arranged for capable maids and servants to take care of Dou Ming. She also specially found a few children of similar age to Dou Ming from among the servants to play with her.

A child is a child. After a few days, he stopped clamoring for his wet nurse.

On New Year's Eve, the Dou family returned to the north building to worship their ancestors. Wang Yingxue, who was following the third wife, finally found an opportunity to find Dou Ming.

Dou Mingzheng and Yi Jie'er stood in front of the stove waiting for the freshly brewed maltose.

When they heard someone calling "Ming Jie'er", several children turned around, and Yi Jie'er even asked, "Who is this?"

Dou Ming hesitated for a moment, then said hesitantly: "She is my aunt..."

Yijie immediately pulled Dou Ming's hand and said, "She's just a concubine. Why bother with her? If we leave, we won't be able to get the maltose."

Dou Ming was still a little hesitant, and Yi Jie'er was unhappy: "Well, go away! If you leave, don't play with me anymore." Hearing this, Dou Ming hurriedly said: "Okay, okay, I'll grab the maltose with you."

Sister Yi smiled happily: "I will go with you to play with Shou Gu later. Sixth Aunt has a lot of silk candies."

Dou Ming drooled as he heard this. He turned his head and said to Wang Yingxue, "Auntie, I'll play with you later."

Wang Yingxue couldn't help but shed tears.

When Mrs. Pang came to pay her New Year's greetings, she couldn't help but complain to him.

Mrs. Pang disagreed and said, "What qualifications do you have to challenge the Dou family now? If they want to raise Ming Jie'er, just let them do it. It's a good opportunity to take good care of yourself and try to give birth to a son." She added, "Seventh Master should be back by now, right?"

Wang Yingxue blushed and said shyly, "It's still early!"

But he listened to what Pang said, secretly hired a doctor, and started to recuperate.

In April, news came from Kyoto that Dou Shiying had ranked 16th in the second class and was selected as a Shujishi.