The atmosphere in the Youyang Sheng family is harmonious and happy. All the family members have similar temperaments, love to talk and laugh, and are generous and warm to others. Minglan feels like a prisoner who has served many years of hard labor and is suddenly granted parole, and she feels completely relaxed.
Perhaps she and Pinlan really were like-minded, almost hitting it off instantly. A wild, action-oriented girl, an accomplice in bad ideas, plus Taisheng, a good-natured man used to being bossed around by his cousin. The Sheng household had been quite lively these days: Minglan fishing, Pinlan helping catch mud worms, Taisheng holding the fish basket nearby, nagging things like "Watch out for slipping" or "Don't go any further." Pinlan catching sparrows, Minglan helping to set up the dustpan and spread the grain, Taisheng squatting behind the wall, pulling the string on the stick...
Li had to take care of the household and prepare for the wedding, so she had to ask her daughter-in-law Wen to bring them back. However, Wen was no match for her sister-in-law Pinlan, and Minglan couldn't intervene, so she could only turn a blind eye.
"Let them be. They're just little kids. If they want to play, let them play for a while. It's better to be lively. They're not like wooden figures anymore." The eldest old lady smiled to help. Old Lady Sheng saw that Li was in trouble and wanted to reprimand Minglan. But then she saw that Minglan's face had become rosy from playing these days and she was in better spirits than when she was at home. She couldn't bear it and sighed, "Of course my niece-in-law doesn't love the children, but these girls... If I don't restrain them now, I'm afraid they will suffer in the future. Well, my niece-in-law, you have to bear with it. After Wu Ge'er's wedding, I'll deal with these two little monkeys."
Pinlan and Minglan, who were standing aside, were brought by Li to be reprimanded. They were originally standing there dejectedly, but their faces lit up with joy when they heard the words. Li glared at her daughters again.
Old Madam Sheng and Madam Fang were both elderly. Back in Dengzhou, they had asked Minglan to help Madam Fang with some chores. Tired from their long journey, they tasked Minglan with packing and copying gifts for their relatives. Minglan and Pinlan had only played for two days before they were called away to work. Pinlan was deeply depressed, pouting and complaining beside them. However, seeing the servants and old women respectfully reporting to them, and seeing Minglan's unwavering adherence to her orders, and the fact that the maids were so accommodating, Pinlan was deeply impressed.
"I have also helped my sister-in-law with things. Those servants always like to cheat and make trouble for me. My mother doesn't stand up for me and even scolds me. Is there any trick to this?" Pinlan was very humble.
Minglan had suffered her share of hardship, and after playing with Pinlan these past few days, she had a good idea of her temper. So, she asked, "Let me guess for you, sister. Before you start a task, do you ask the housekeeper what the situation is like?"
"No." Pinlan denied it flatly. "I've already asked my mother and sister-in-law about the whole story. Why would I ask the servants?"
Minglan asked again, "Did you just ask someone close to you to do the job, bypassing the mammies?"
Pinlan nodded. "Those mothers rely on their respectability in front of the old lady and the mistress, and they always look down on me. Besides, if something can be fixed once, why go through the trouble of second or third hand?"
Minglan's face had a profound expression of "as expected." Pinlan's heart itched even more, and she kept asking. Minglan smiled and said, "Those servants are all indentured to their masters. How dare they challenge the young lady of the master's family? As long as you 'follow the rules', you'll be fine. Before you do anything in the future, call the housekeeper and ask her in detail how it was done before. If you really don't like the way it's done, then follow it. If you really don't like it and want to change it, don't act on your own, and don't show your intentions in front of the mother-in-law. First ask the mistress or sister-in-law if it's appropriate. It's not too late to act then."
Pinlan frowned and complained, "My mother always finds fault with me, but I'm too lazy to ask her!"
Minglan grabbed Pinlan's face, smoothing out her wrinkles. She said sternly, "Everything in the mansion has its own rules. How do you know your way is the best? Auntie is old and experienced. She'll know whether your way is good or not the moment she hears it. It's better than you making a mistake. That's one thing. Secondly, when a job passes through one person's hands, there's a stake in it. How can they be happy if you start by taking advantage of them? They'll naturally try to trip you up, overtly or covertly. If you had informed the old lady and the mistress in advance, even the most respectable mother and nanny would have reported you, a proper young lady!"
Seeing Pinlan still hesitant, Minglan gave her one last word: "Being a housekeeper isn't easy. Haven't you heard the saying, 'After three years in charge, even cats and dogs get tired of it'? If you're afraid of things, then don't get involved. If you want to manage things, then don't be afraid of trouble or difficulty. You still have your parents and grandmother to support you. Those daughters-in-law have it really hard dealing with their mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, and younger sisters-in-law!"
There are some things Minglan didn't say. As a concubine's daughter, her life is more difficult than Pinlan's. Rulan and Molan are not pushovers, and Wang may not necessarily support her.
In Minglan's view, the more you do, the more mistakes you make, and the less you do, the fewer mistakes you make. The only way to do nothing is to do nothing.
Employees' wish is to work less and get paid more, while employers' goal is to make employees work more and get paid less. This contradiction is the same in ancient and modern times. No matter how good a housewife is at managing others, as long as she harms the vested interests of others, she will inevitably be embarrassed.
Treating a hundred thousand taels of silver as if it were a home worth ten thousand taels of silver, making servants' work easier, doubling their monthly wages, giving them double pay on holidays, year-end bonuses, plus three overseas trips a year, as long as the mistress is not too incompetent or cheated, she will basically be praised as "compassionate and kind"; but treating ten thousand taels of silver as if it were a home worth a hundred taels of silver, today the brother-in-law buys a concubine worth eight hundred taels, tomorrow the sisters-in-law open a poetry club worth five hundred taels, the day after tomorrow the ancestors donate one thousand taels of incense money, the family supports thousands of servants and maids, and the husband cannot earn money, then it is estimated that only the Seven Fairies can run a good household - they are fairies who can turn stones into silver bills.
The normal practice is to use reasonable money to maintain a household of a reasonable size, not to be extravagant or wasteful, not to be ostentatious, and not to be too harsh or calculate the servants too meticulously. When it is time to be lenient, be lenient, and it doesn't matter if a little slips through your fingers. On this basis, it is the best to strictly enforce household rules, regulate the behavior of servants, teach and regulate servants to observe etiquette, and keep the family tradition in order.
Pinlan was actually quite clever, but her previous teaching had been ineffective, and not as effective as Minglan's. Furthermore, her sister-in-law, Wen, was a barrier, making it difficult to elaborate. After careful consideration, Pinlan felt it made sense. After returning home, she followed her mother to see how she handled matters. She watched as her mother directed the collection of dowries, rewarded the maids, and prepared the beds and mats. Every day, a dozen maids would surround her, asking questions and working like a wheel. Suddenly, Pinlan felt her mother's hard work, and so she obediently joined Minglan in her daily homework: copying calligraphy and embroidery. She remained quiet for several days.
Seeing her daughter calm down, Li was relieved. The day before, she had seen Minglan directing the servants to count boxes and boxes or organize things with great efficiency. Then she saw her counting without even using an abacus, just a few strokes on the paper. What a young girl! Li was shocked. She turned around and looked at her daughter who was following Minglan and kept shouting, "It's not ready yet, let's go play!" She couldn't help but feel worried.
Seeing that Pinlan had become somewhat sensible, Li was greatly relieved. However, seeing her dejected look, she felt distressed. She stroked her daughter's hair and said, "Your sister Ming is very well-behaved at home. Now that she's here, as long as you don't act out of line, it would be nice to take her for a walk in the garden."
On the day of the bride's reception, the Sheng residence was decorated from top to bottom, and even the maids changed into newly made long coats and bodices. Pinlan dragged Minglan around to watch the fun. Amid the loud gongs and drums, they saw Brother Changwu wearing a bright red wedding gown and riding a tall white horse to welcome the wedding sedan.
"Second brother is such a loser. Look at how he laughs. The corners of his mouth are stretched behind his ears!" Pinlan whispered while holding Minglan in her arms. Minglan nodded. It was true that Changwu laughed like a fool today, but he deserved forgiveness.
Because the eldest old lady did not allow concubines, in order to prevent adolescent boys from making mistakes, boys were required to marry early. Changwu started looking for a wife when he was fifteen years old. He encountered many difficulties along the way. All kinds of grooms, cooks and coachmen came to join in the fun. However, the eldest old lady and Mrs. Li had high standards and were unwilling to settle for a daughter-in-law of a lower social status. So Changwu did not get a wife until he was twenty-one years old. How could he not be happy!
Minglan also met Tai Sheng's father, Uncle Hu, whose full name is Erniu. Minglan thought that since there was Erniu, there must be a Da Niu above him. In fact, it is not the case. It is said that the old lady of the Hu family dreamed that someone gave her family two cows for free on the eve of giving birth to her son, so she named her son Erniu. Uncle Niu is a very nice person and always follows his brother-in-law Sheng Wei around.
However, Minglan did not like Shulan's cousin's husband, Sun Zhigao. He was handsome, but his eyes seemed to be growing on his forehead, with a sense of arrogance. Later she found out that this brother-in-law Sun was a famous child prodigy in Youyang. He passed the imperial examination at the age of twelve, well... but he is still a scholar now. When he learned that Old Madam Sheng was from a marquis's mansion and her children and grandchildren were all officials from professional schools, he immediately became arrogant at first but respectful later.
It is not easy for a girl to show up in public, so she could neither go to the wedding hall to watch the ceremony nor walk among the guests. Pinlan tried several times to break through the encirclement and go to the front to watch the fun, but was nipped in the bud by Minglan. Instead, she was dragged to the back garden to see the newly planted flower trees. Li knew Pinlan's temperament well, so she sent someone to ask her daughter to go to the back hall to talk to the old lady and the other female relatives.
"Have all the cousins from the third house come?" Pinlan asked. The maid smiled and said, "They are all here, even Aunt Xiulan and Aunt Yuelan from the neighboring county are here." Pinlan's face immediately darkened and she refused outright, "Then I won't go!"
The maid said in embarrassment: "Miss, this can't be done. Madam has ordered..." Minglan saw that the little maid was sweating with anxiety, so she said: "You go first, your young lady and I will go right away."
The little maid knew that although Miss Minglan had only been there for a short time, she and her young lady got along very well and could often give Pinlan some advice, so she thanked her repeatedly and left with peace of mind.
Pinlan glared at Minglan, "What kind of promise do you make? I'm not going." Minglan said coldly, "I don't mind, but Auntie is worried about you and will definitely send someone to arrest you. She's been asking you three times, and in the end, it's just a matter of toasts and penalties."
Pinlan thought of her own mother's arrogance and said in frustration, "I really don't want to meet those from the third house! Sister Xiulan is the better one, but you've met Huilan, and there's also the illegitimate sister Yuelan, who's even more needless to say."
Minglan pulled Pinlan and slowly walked towards the main hall. As they walked, she asked, distracting Pinlan's attention: "What kind of deep hatred is it that you remember it like this?"
Pinlan followed Minglan forward unconsciously, and said angrily: "You have been living away from home, and you don't know those annoying girls in the third house! When I was a child, the third aunt said that the family was in financial difficulty and that girls had to be raised expensively, so she sent the three daughters to my house. My eldest sister and I suffered a lot from them! Sister Xiulan only knows how to protect herself, that's okay, but Yuelan, huh, she always makes a fuss every time things are divided during the holidays. She either steals my clothes or steals my sister's hairpins and rings. When I go to complain, she cries everywhere, saying that we bully her!" "She also steals things?" Minglan really didn't expect it.
Pinlan thought back to the past, her anger boiling over. "How could that be stealing? That's outright robbery! Whenever my eldest sister's room was empty, she'd go in and rummage through everything, picking up the nice things and wearing them herself, never giving them back! My eldest sister was honest and never said anything to her, so she became even more outrageous. She even dared to go into my mother's room and rummage through them several times. My mother tolerated it at first, saying it was just some jewelry, and that it was okay for a girl to dress up as she grew up. But then she realized a few deeds were missing, including the deed to the ancestral home, and that's when she became anxious."
"What happened next? Was the contract going to be returned?" Minglan asked with a malicious look.
This question excited Pinlan very much. She said proudly, "At that time, she was about to get married in two months. She relied on the fact that she was already engaged, so her family didn't dare to deal with her. But my mother first went to the third house and politely brought her over. Then she sent someone to tell the in-laws that Sister Yuelan had caught a cold and the wedding date would be postponed for half a year. Then she locked Sister Yuelan up. No matter how the people from the third house made a fuss, they refused to let her go. But they didn't dare to make a fuss either, for fear that if the situation got out of hand, the engagement would be broken off. Haha, Sister Yuelan was locked up for dozens of days. She was only released after she handed over the deed. It turned out that she didn't even tell her third uncle, and secretly hid the baby in her bellyband, intending to take it to her husband's house!"
Pinlan was talking with great joy, but Minglan opened her mouth wide and gave a thumbs up in her heart - it was true that the real person never showed his true face, and she never thought that the round-faced and kind aunt could be so cruel!
Pinlan was in the mood to talk and continued, "And Huilan. I don't know how many fights we had when we were kids. Look, this scar! She pushed me onto a rock five years ago and got it. Luckily I used my arm to support myself, otherwise who knows what would have happened to my face!" As she spoke, she rolled up her sleeves and moved in front of Minglan. Minglan stretched her head to take a look, and sure enough, there was a huge scar on it, a twisted peach-pink color like a centipede.
"Then, she was sent back home." Pinlan said bitterly, "Humph! They are all ungrateful!"
Huilan and Pinlan were three years apart in age, yet she was capable of such cruelty? Minglan looked at the five- or six-inch scar and could imagine how painful it must have been for the eight- or nine-year-old Pinlan. She helped Pinlan lower her sleeves and comforted her, "I often hear the eldest old lady talk about Sister Xiulan. She says she's a good woman, a good wife and mother, and they have a harmonious relationship. It seems that my aunt didn't raise her in vain!"
Pinlan finally smiled: "That was all thanks to my mother! That year, Sister Xiulan came to my house crying at night, kowtowing until she bled, begging my parents not to let my third uncle marry her off to a black-hearted rich man as a concubine. My mother managed to save her and even arranged for her to marry off to my current brother-in-law. After passing the imperial examination, my brother-in-law never passed the imperial examination. It was my father who smoothed the way and got him a job as a teacher in the neighboring county."
Minglan nodded repeatedly. "My uncle and aunt are such kind people, willing to stand up for their niece. Oh, and why doesn't my uncle also give my brother-in-law a teaching position?"
Pinlan snorted coldly, "When my brother-in-law was a child, a fortune teller told him he was destined to become a prime minister. He was determined to become a Jinshi (imperial scholar) on the imperial examinations. How could he be willing to settle for a lowly clerk of the eighth or ninth rank? He's rejected my father's kindness several times. Humph, don't let your talent not be matched by your ambition!"
Listening to Pinlan's complaints, Minglan couldn't help but smile. She thought that if Pinlan was born in modern times, she could open a post on Tianya titled "Talking about my amazing cousins, brother-in-law, uncles, and aunts". It would be so melodramatic and exciting, it would definitely go viral!
By the time Pinlan had finished her speech, the two sisters had reached the main door. A maidservant was waiting with her neck stretched out. Seeing them coming from afar, she was overjoyed and hurried forward to greet them: "Good girls, you are finally here. The old lady inside has asked several times. If you don't come, she will send people to look for you again."
"What are you talking about? Here I come!" After pouring out their old grudges, Pinlan felt much happier. She pulled Minglan and walked inside. As the maidservant at the door opened the curtain, an unfamiliar elderly woman's voice came from inside: "...Just give your Miss Ming to my nephew!"
Pinlan was startled and instinctively turned to look at Minglan. To her surprise, she actually looked relieved. She smiled and said, "What did you say when your aunt punished you by asking you to copy books? Oh, if you stick your head out, you'll get a knife. If you keep your head down, you'll get a knife too. All right, let's go in!"
【Author has something to say】
Generally speaking, only high-ranking officials above the fourth or fifth rank could be promoted through Jinshi (Jinshi). There were many exceptions, such as those with strong family backgrounds or exceptional talents, but they were rare. The most famous example was Hai Rui.
After watching the episode about Hai Rui in "Those Things About the Ming Dynasty," I couldn't help but sigh: the Hai family's ancestral tombs must be filled with smoke. A scholar like Hai Rui, constantly offending colleagues and superiors, constantly breaking unspoken rules, offending countless people from the provincial capital to the capital, even earning the emperor's wrath. Yet, he managed to escape unscathed after a stint in prison, rising through the ranks to become county magistrate, prefecture judge, and finally Minister of Revenue, Minister of War, Deputy Minister of the Secretariat, and Right Censor-in-Chief. It seems he was a second-rank official at the time of his death, or even a lower-second-rank official.
I sincerely admire him. The people of Haida University must have had good luck. But doesn't this also indirectly indicate that the administration of the Ming Dynasty at that time was not as bad as described in the "History of Ming Dynasty" written by Qing Dynasty literati?
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