In the eighth year of Chengping, Dou Zhao was nine years old. His sixth uncle Dou Shiheng passed the imperial examination and ranked thirty-sixth in the second class. Last September, his eldest uncle's ninth cousin Dou Huanchang passed the imperial examination and became a male prostitute. This could be considered a double happiness. The whole family was overjoyed, especially the Second Lady. Two of her three sons were Jinshi. As the saying goes, one feels joyful when good things happen to one, so the Second Lady decided to celebrate with great fanfare during the Dragon Boat Festival.

Dou Zhao has lived in the East Palace for the past few years. In the midsummer, he would go to the farm to live with his grandmother for a few days under the pretext of escaping the heat.

The fifth cousin's daughter-in-law came to Dou Zhao and asked, "Do you think we should make some purses?"

During the Dragon Boat Festival, there is a custom of making purses and filling them with mugwort leaves as gifts.

"Just discuss it with Shujie." Dou Zhao said with a smile, "I will always follow your lead."

She was neither from Dongdou nor willing to go back to Xidou. She regarded herself as a guest living in the Dou family, so she was polite and courteous to everyone. She had money to entertain relatives and manage maids. Everyone in the Dou family gave her a thumbs up when they talked about her.

Shu Jie'er is the eldest daughter of my third cousin's family, and is Dou Qijun's younger sister. She is two months older than Yi Jie'er and two months younger than Dou Zhao.

Sister Yi sighed and said, "If only Fifth Aunt were still here!"

The fifth aunt is Dou Ming.

After Wang Yingxue entered the family, the Second Lady still kept Dou Ming by her side. Dou Ming gradually became estranged from Wang Yingxue. In the seventh year of Chengping, Wang Xingyi was still on tour in Shaanxi, but the Wang family moved to Kyoto. Wang Yingxue had no choice but to write a letter to her mother, Madam Xu. Madam Xu used the excuse of missing her granddaughter to send someone to take Dou Ming to Kyoto for a short stay. Grandfather agreed, because the Second Lady could not keep him any longer. Counting it up, Dou Ming has been in Kyoto for more than half a year.

Yi Jie'er always got along well with Dou Ming, but she thought Dou Zhao was too smart and didn't want to be close to him.

Dou Zhao's experience in his previous life told him that it is impossible to please everyone. If that is the case, he should not try to please those who don't like him.

She smiled faintly and said, "Why don't you write a letter to Dou Ming and see when she will return to Zhending?"

Yijie was the only one in the family who noticed that Dou Zhao always called Dou Ming by her full name. She once mentioned this in front of the Second Lady, half jokingly and half questioning her. Dou Zhao explained, "If you call her Mingjie, people will think she is from the same generation as you."

But why can't I call her sister?

She wanted to ask, but her nurse pulled her clothes. After returning home, the nurse whispered to her: "The Seventh Madam was promoted from a concubine, and the Fourth Miss is the legitimate daughter."

Sister Yi disagrees.

How are the children born to concubines?

Could it be that she is not the daughter of the Dou family?

The Dou family would only take concubines if the man served as an official outside the family and his wife could not follow him.

So she was very curious: "Why is it that only the concubine of my seventh great-uncle gave birth to a child in our family?"

The nurse stammered, "That's because only the seventh great-grandfather has no son."

She always felt that her wet nurse had not told her something, but when Wu Ya came over, she happily ran to see Wu Ya and forgot about the matter.

However, Wu Ya didn't like playing with Dou Ming. She always said that Dou Ming was dull and silly, as if he had lost a brain. But she didn't like playing with Dou Zhao either. She thought Dou Zhao was arrogant and difficult to get along with: "...whenever I had something good, Sixth Aunt would buy it for her immediately, and she acted as if it didn't matter, and she also brought Shu Jie'er into trouble."

In the past, Shu Jie'er always held Wu Ya's dolls, target glasses, and toothbrush, and begged Wu Ya with wide eyes: "Let me play with them for a while." Ever since she took Dou Zhao's things and did not return them, and Dou Zhao did not ask her to return them, Shu Jie'er only had Dou Zhao in her eyes. She only told Dou Zhao any private words. If they said something was wrong about Dou Zhao, she would be the first to jump out to defend Dou Zhao.

Wu Ya said: "Their family is quite strange. One lives with the Sixth Madam, and the other lives with the Grand Madam. Their mother is alone in the huge Xidou. She doesn't take care of the children, and she doesn't go to the capital with her father... Anyway, I don't like these two sisters."

Dou Zhao could see at a glance that the relationship between these children was complicated yet not complicated, but she didn't take it to heart - when they grew up, they would have different ideas.

She went to her third cousin.

My eldest cousin Zhao Biru is already eighteen years old. My aunt wrote to her and said that she would get married on August 12.

She wanted to give her eldest cousin a gift.

The third cousin asked her with a smile: "What are you going to give?"

Dou Zhao owned half of Xidou's property, but every expense over ten taels of silver needed the approval of her third cousin who helped her manage the business. She was not used to this and was very distressed, so she gave Zhao Liangbi to her third cousin. Seeing that his last name was "Zhao", the third cousin thought that he was a relative of Dou Zhao's maternal family, so he took extra care of Zhao Liangbi. Zhao Liangbi was a person who cherished his blessings, so he worked hard to learn from the accountant, and in just one year he could do abacus well.

I wonder how Zhao Liangbi could be capable of taking the position of chief accountant?

She thought about it, then smiled and asked her third cousin to help her make a decision.

The third cousin pondered and said, "How about we give some gold and silver jewelry or something like that? The rest of the things will probably have been prepared by my uncle's wife."

After all, Dou Xiuchang was born in the Dou family and had a broad vision. As long as it was reasonable, one or two thousand taels of silver was not a big expense in his eyes.

Dou Zhao nodded repeatedly and asked his third cousin to handle the matter.

When I came out, I met Shu Jie'er.

She pulled Dou Zhao over and said, "Second sister said to make a five-poison purse. I have a new design. Does Fourth Aunt want it?"

In her previous life, her relationships with her cousins ​​and nieces were very cold, but in this life, Shu Jie'er always liked to follow her around like a little tail.

"Okay!" Dou Zhao said with a smile, "I'll ask Haitang to ask your maid to get it."

Tuoniang married Cui Si two years ago and gave birth to a son a few days ago, who is not even one month old yet. Her household affairs were handed over to Haitang.

Shu Jieer nodded and whispered to her, "Ah Qi is here again."

Ah Qi is Wu Ya's nickname.

Dou Zhao didn't take it seriously and said with a smile: "The Dragon Boat Festival is almost over!"

Shujie sighed and asked, "Will Fifth Aunt come back?"

She is a sweet girl and gets along well with everyone around her.

"You miss her a lot?"

"Yes!" she muttered, "We want to do the double jump, but we don't have enough people. And Ah Qi doesn't want to play with the maids."

Dou Zhao never plays these games with them.

She laughed and said, "That's because there are many sisters of the same age in their family."

Shu Jieer giggled.

Dou Zhao returned to his sixth aunt's place.

Now that she was older, she naturally could not continue to live in the green gauze closet in her sixth aunt's inner room. Four years ago, after her father brought her back from her grandmother's farm, she lived in the west wing of the main courtyard, while Dou Zhengchang and Dou Dechang lived in the east wing.

As soon as she stepped into the main courtyard, she heard a burst of laughter coming from the west wing.

Dou Zhaowan.

Now that Wu Ya is here, how can we miss Wu Shan?

Just like in his previous life, Wu Shan got along very well with Dou Dechang, who was the same age as him. Every time he came, he stayed at Dou Dechang's place, and thus he also had very good relations with Dou Zhengchang and Dou Qijun.

There must be a few people bragging together!

Just as she was about to enter the house, the door of the closet opposite suddenly opened, and Wu Shan, Dou Dechang and others walked out together.

"Fourth sister!" He greeted Dou Zhao, his ears slightly red.

Dou Zhao nodded politely at him: "Fourth Brother Wu is here."

She followed Dou Dechang and his brothers in calling Wu Shan, and also greeted Dou Zhengchang and others.

Wu Shan asked Dou Zhao, "We are going out to buy a gift for Uncle Six. Do you want us to bring you something?"

He followed the descendants of the Dou family and was called Dou Shiheng.

"Thank you very much," Dou Zhao said with a smile, "I have already prepared a gift for my sixth uncle."

It was a piece of Qingtian stone that she had looted from her father.

There was a carving of a monkey riding a horse on it, which meant that he would be granted a title of nobility soon. It was just the right gift to carve a seal for my sixth uncle.

Wu Shan smiled and said, "My sister is here too, and she's talking to my cousin. Did you run into her?"

Isn't this nonsense?

If she was also with my second cousin's wife, why would she let her go?

Dou Zhao still smiled and replied: "A Qi is here too, I haven't met her yet!"

Wu Shan asked again, "Twelve said that you are going to invite someone to perform opera during the Dragon Boat Festival. Is that true?"

Dou Dechang is the twelfth child in the family, and everyone likes to call him Twelve.

Dou Zhao smiled and said, "Since it was said by the twelfth brother, it must be true."

Wu Shan said: "Unfortunately, I had already returned to Xindong by then."

“There’s always a chance to see it.”

"I don't know when it will be?" Wu Shan said longingly, "I heard that Zhou Qingfen was invited to perform this time..."

It's like the lotus root, which has been cut, but it can be connected again, creating a situation where the lotus root is broken but the thread is still connected.

Dou Zhao patiently listened to him finish his words, smiled at him apologetically, and said, "Brother Wu, go and do what you need to do! I have to go to the Madam's place right away."

Wu Shan's face flushed immediately, and he began to stutter: "Fourth sister, please go back to your room. We are about to go out."

Dou Zhao entered the house.

Dou Zhengchang's puzzled voice came from behind: "Why do you have so much to say every time you meet Fourth Sister?"

Wu Shan shouted, "Didn't you say I didn't talk enough?"

"I mean, every time you meet a girl, she's always like, 'Hmmmm, haha'..."

"I'm the elder, so I have to act like one, right?"

"Okay, we'll let you pay the seniority fee this time," said Dou Qijun, "You'll pay for our purchases this time..."

"You are blackmailing us..." Wu Shan laughed with them, and the voice gradually faded away.

Dou Zhao smiled and shook his head.

Young people are always full of vigor and vitality, which makes people feel inspired when they see them.

On the Dragon Boat Festival, the Second Lady indeed invited Zhou Qingfen to perform a big show.

The stage was set up in front of the ancestral hall in the north building of the Dou family, and villagers from ten miles around came with their families to listen to the opera.

Dou Zhao followed his sixth aunt and accompanied the second lady to drink tea in the chamber next to the ancestral hall.

Wang Yingxue came in and greeted the Second Lady. She waved to Dou Zhao and said, "Shougu, are the chrysanthemum cakes that I asked Qiongfen to send you last time delicious? They were a gift from the palace to my father. Mingjie specially asked someone to send a box back, saying that she wanted you to try them."

"So it was a gift from the palace. No wonder it looked so different from the ones on the market." Dou Zhao smiled and said, "I presented it to the Madam out of filial piety." As he spoke, he looked at the Second Madam.

The Second Lady smiled and pulled Dou Zhao's hand: "Our Shougu is really thoughtful."

Wang Yingxue's face turned red and then white, and then white and then red.

In the past few years, Dou Zhao handed Wang Yingxue over to the Second Lady to take care of - that's why she was too lazy to argue with Wang Yingxue.

A little maid ran in in a panic, saying incoherently, "Madam, Madam, something bad has happened. The Third Old Master is not well..."