Chapter 100 Chapter 100 Two chapters merged into one
When the transfer order came down, everyone in the county government was very reluctant to let her go. Madam Wen and Madam He invited her to a farewell banquet and gave her twenty taels of silver as gifts. In addition, the wife of Qin Dutou, the wife of Yang Dutou, the wife of Huang Yasi and others each invited a table, and Jiang Liujie brought over some ready-made medicine.
Why are they like this? This is because Daming Prefecture is the capital prefecture, the heads of ordinary secondary prefectures or regular prefectures are called prefects, while the head of Daming Prefecture is called prefectural governor.
Considering Jiang Xian's youth and ability, he would probably have a different experience when he goes to Daming Prefecture. Will there be someone to carry his fancy sedan?
The village head Fan came with his son, and the shopkeeper Yao came with his son to kowtow, and they also prepared gifts. Village head Fan sent a jar of rice wine, a lamb, a box of abalone, four roast ducks, and four herrings. Shopkeeper Yao sent two packages of molasses crispy biscuits, sixty chestnut dumplings, and two pots of citrus wine.
Jiang Xian also asked them to send people to deliver money and grain at the end of each year. The farm was not allowed to withhold the tenants, and the inns had to pay attention to the safety of the guests, especially in two months as the autumn county school entrance examination would be held and a large number of students would be staying there. They had to be polite. He had eyes and ears everywhere, so if anyone acted recklessly, they could not blame him for handling the matter impartially.
Fan and Yao quickly said they didn't dare.
Jinniang began to have people pack their boxes and buy things in preparation for the trip. She first bought ten straw mats. The straw mats produced in Wu were green in color, soft, smooth and flat, and tightly woven, making people feel cool and comfortable when sleeping on them. I also bought twenty rolls of fashionable silk. If I want to buy Su style silk in Daming Prefecture in the future, the price will be several times higher. Not to mention the other gauze flowers, silk flowers, sweat towels, handkerchiefs, and purses.
In addition, Chen Xiaolang was asked to buy oranges, melons and some dried fruits, and let Juxiang pickle a few jars of duck eggs and goose eggs, and a few jars of pickled vegetables such as mustard melon, not to mention staple foods such as rice, flour, and wheat, salt, onion, ginger, garlic, plum seasonings and so on.
The entire journey from Pingjiang to Tongzhou in Daming Prefecture is by water along the Grand Canal. This time they didn't have to hire a boat, they could just take the Gu family's boat. The Gu family specially prepared a large ship to take them there.
When Jiang Xian was the county lieutenant, he usually took care of them and solved many of their problems. Pian Jinniang would not accept money except for some gifts given by Madam Quanfu. Even if the Gu family wanted to get close to her, they couldn't. Now is the right time.
At the same time, Jinniang and Jiang Xian both wrote letters to Bian Jing, telling their families that they were going to Daming Prefecture.
All this happened after Jinniang celebrated her 28th birthday, and then she set off from Wu County.
There was a small boat following behind the big ship. This was the guard hired by Jiang Xian. He had been a county lieutenant for three years and had investigated many cases. If someone is tempted by money or beauty on the boat, or there are bandits causing trouble, they will need a servant by their side.
Jinniang and her companions boarded the ship early in the morning. By the time they were packing up their boxes, it was almost noon, so she took out some snacks for everyone to fill their stomachs.
Ruyan had always thought that the ladies of wealthy families just waited to be served by others, but now it seems that is not the case at all. From the socializing between the ladies to the food and drink of the whole family, everything is taken care of by the mistress.
Especially the wives of officials, who have more things to do than ordinary mistresses.
For example, just after eating some snacks, I heard Mrs. Wei say: "Pick up a piece of bright red satin, a piece of official green lake silk, two pots of citrus wine, and three shad. When we get to Yangzhou, ask Chen Xiaolang to go to the Dou family and ask if the aunt has any letters for us to take to the cousin of the Dou family."
On the surface it seemed to be delivering a letter, but in reality it was to get in touch with the girl from the Dou family and give her support. At the same time, the girl from the Dou family married into a local wealthy family, and could win over the local giants, which was simply killing two birds with one stone.
After taking note of it, Ah Ying went to the kitchen and asked Ju Xiang not to kill the shad but to keep it in running water.
I thought she still had some trivial matters to deal with, but I didn't expect her to go to rest. Ruyan also hurried to her room.
She and Jinniang did not live together before, so she did not really know what kind of person this Madam Wei was. She even had a very vague idea of her. She thought that she might be just a kind-hearted and knowledgeable wife of an official.
Now that she was in close contact, she also felt a lot.
Jinniang didn't think so much. She slept soundly for only two hours. The sun was already up and smoke from kitchen chimneys was rising. Juxiang and the two maids prepared soup and rice. A bowl of pork knuckle braised with plums, gourd soup made with mutton, cold water with mung beans and licorice, stir-fried cabbage, and scrambled eggs with loofah.
The servants were given two chestnut browns, a bowl of steamed buns, and two kinds of pickles.
Three days later, they arrived in Yangzhou. Chen Xiaolang took gifts and hired a car to go to the Dou family's door. Mrs. Dou said to Lan Mama beside her: "Amitabha, I was worried that my daughter was alone in Daming Prefecture, but I never thought that my nephew was going to Daming Prefecture to serve as a magistrate."
So he wrote a letter, prepared some supplements, and a gift for Chen Xiaolang to take back, and also rewarded him with a penny.
Jinniang first put away the letter that Mrs. Dou brought to Dou Yuan, and then placed the supplements on top to avoid moisture. She then unpacked the gift sent by Mrs. Dou Er, which turned out to be a lambskin hat and some Atractylodes macrocephala from Shuzhou.
Seeing the lambskin hat, Jinniang said to Jiang Xian, "Daming Prefecture is further north than Henan. We will have many things to do there. I'm afraid we won't have enough time to make clothes. Why don't I do some needlework on the boat?"
"There is still a lot of time, my lady, you should take a rest first." Jiang Xian said.
Jinniang said, "I know that. Why do I see you look unhappy today? What happened?"
Jiang Xian said, "My elder brother has returned to the capital to take up a post in the Censorate."
"Is it because of Prime Minister Jixian?" Jinniang asked.
Jiang Xian nodded. This meant that it was easy to be an official if you had someone in the court. However, he was afraid that Jinniang might think that his words had a hidden meaning, so he was about to change the subject. But Jinniang smiled and said, "Although we have been traveling from one place to another, there may be a new hope. My goal is to buy a big house with three entrances. If I can save that much money by then, it will be a pleasant surprise. If I can't save that much, we have saved so much money. It is only a matter of time before I can buy a big house in the future."
If I didn't comfort him like this, he would definitely be unhappy, because Jiang Xian sometimes just waited for me to coax him.
Sure enough, after hearing this, Jiang Xian smiled.
Jinniang walked into the room with him arm in arm, and told him some jokes, and the two of them were talking and laughing.
Ruyan naturally saw all of this. As someone who had been in the world of romance, she could see that men seemed to be more attached to women. From the outside, Wei looked like a timid woman, and Jiang Xian was handsome, talented, smart and capable, so it must be a woman leaning on a man. Unexpectedly, when they actually got along, it was not like that at all.
Ruyan hasn’t discovered the root cause yet, but she finds it quite interesting.
During the journey from Yangzhou to Huai'an, Jinniang bought some new books for entertainment, so she read them with great interest. In her spare time, she did needlework with the maids and Yunjie.
The first thing, of course, was to make herself a fur coat. Now she had clothes for spring and autumn, especially since Gu Qingru had also given her two sets of pearl clothes, which was enough to show off her appearance. So, she took out a sable skin that she had saved for a long time, and thought about what color of cloth and what kind of embroidery pattern to match it with.
Of course, she also gave instructions to everyone. It was not that she wanted to exploit you, but Jinniang found that everyone used to live separately, but now everyone was gathered on a boat and could not move around, which made it very easy for quarrels to arise.
Minzhi's task was to make a coat for Ning'er and a swirl coat for Yun'er, while Qingrong made stockings and sewed soles for Jinniang, and Ziteng, Chunxiang and Juxiang assisted. Everyone else had their own duties, even Ruyan, whom Jinniang asked to take her brothers and sisters' pulses every day.
After thinking for three days, she finally drew out the pattern and color scheme. She chose a bright red material with peony patterns all over the place, and planned to embroider peony and hibiscus lace on the collar, and then use the technique of printing gold to fill in the colors.
It was already dusk, and the ship would rest in Huai'an for one night before setting off again tomorrow morning.
Jinniang sent Liu Dou'er and others to replenish food and water. She wrote a list and asked A Ying to pay the money before saying, "You don't have to buy too much, otherwise you won't be able to get it back. We will stop in Xuzhou again when the time comes."
After the guests left, Jinniang asked Ma Yangniang and Xi Qiu to take the children to wash and go to bed first. Unexpectedly, she met Sun Shichen and Zhou Si's wife, whom she had met three years ago. Coincidentally, they were also transferred to Hebei Road. Sun Shichen was transferred from the chief clerk of Fuyang County to the county magistrate of Guantao County under Daming Prefecture.
When they met again, Jinniang and Zhou Siniang both felt that the other had changed a lot.
After three years of immersion, when Zhou Si Niang saw Jin Niang again, she felt that she had become even more adorned with jewels. She wore jadeite bracelets on her hands and a gold-plated lotus hairpin on her head, which was inlaid with jadeite. Wu County is very wealthy, with a lot of merchants, and they can probably make money quickly. It's true what the magistrate said about making 100,000 silver coins in three years.
Yes, even if they were in office, during the three years because Sun Shichen was in charge of the tax revenue of the entire county, they had saved up nearly three hundred strings of cash just from the holiday gifts received from the public.
Jinniang felt that Mrs. Zhou seemed much more capable and generous than before, as she was reserved. Perhaps it was because she was an official's wife and had to socialize frequently.
The two of them were not very familiar with each other, so they just exchanged a few words before parting.
When Jiang Xian came back in the evening, he told Jinniang, "Mr. Zhou is now unemployed at home, and Zhou Er has gone to Jiangling. Although his father is also in the officialdom, he has always been an official in the local area, so he can only be considered reluctant. If the second term does not make any achievements, I am afraid that he will be transferred to a lateral position at that time."
"It's the same principle for being an official and doing business. Although it's good to have someone to promote you, it won't work if you don't have your own talents. You need the right time, the right place, and the right people. Sir, don't be afraid of making more mistakes by doing more. Solving a problem is always better than not solving it." Jinniang said.
It is said that people's happiness is determined by comparison. Compared with his brother, Jiang Xian felt a little distressed when he saw that Sun Shichen had been transferred to Bian Jing. But now that he saw Sun Shichen being appointed as a county magistrate in a place that is not even a county, he felt that he was doing well.
In this way, the boat sailed for another month before arriving at Jiyang County, and Jinniang specially asked people to stop here. She asked the Gu family which place along the way Pingjiang Prefecture liked the silk the most. After listening to the old lady Gu's calculations, she learned that Jiyang and some northern places favored Suzhou silk.
So she spent one hundred strings of cash to buy two hundred rolls of silk, and after selling them in Jiyang County, she made a profit of one hundred and forty strings of cash. Jinniang rewarded Liu Dou'er with one tael of silver, Chen Xiaolang with one tael of silver, and each servant who helped with the transportation with two cents of silver.
"Madam, I didn't expect that they were all sold. I should have bought more if I had known." Jiang Xian said with a smile.
Jinniang shook her head: "This is our first time, and I asked the Gu family first, otherwise I wouldn't dare to buy it casually."
Jiang Xian couldn't help but admire his wife. Although his wife always said that she had no business acumen, she made money very steadily.
"Why don't you teach your son to read? You said before that you were busy with official duties, but now you don't have to be busy anymore." Jinniang looked at him.
Even a man like Jiang Xian scratched his head and said, "Why is it that when you teach him to read, he behaves well, but when I teach him, he wants to drink water, go to the toilet, and eat."
Jinniang said sternly, "You like to be a good person on weekdays, so you deserve him not to be afraid of you. Don't always be so playful with him, just teach him how you should teach him."
It is difficult for men to truly love children if they have not given birth to them. They can only develop feelings for their children if they raise them themselves. As the saying goes, if there is a stepmother, there will be a stepfather. That’s what it means.
After hearing what Jinniang said, Jiang Xian still gritted his teeth and called his son to the front hall to study. As for Jinniang herself, she ate two pieces of snacks and took a comfortable nap.
After waking up from a nap, Ruyan came over to talk to her. Seeing that Ruyan was well-versed in poetry and literature and could write poetry, Jinniang asked her to set aside an hour every day to teach her how to write poetry. Ruyan agreed without hesitation, and Jinniang asked Aying to give her a cool mat, a bag of spices, a set of Hu gauze clothes, and two bags of tea as a gift to become her apprentice.
She didn't have this condition before, but now she has it, so why can't she improve herself?
I think she was a very good essay writer when she was a child in her previous life, and later she became a screenwriter because she wanted to express her aspirations. Now here, only by writing poetry can one express one's feelings, so she studied very hard.
But Jiang Xian was surprised when he heard this: "If you want to learn poetry, why don't you just tell me? Why do you need someone else to teach you?"
"She told me to come and teach every day, but you have other things to do."
She has always believed that relatives should not share money, and couples should not occupy each other's space, and everyone should have their own things to do.
The closer you get, the easier it is to reach the end.
Seeing that Jinniang had a solid foundation, Ruyan first taught her five-character regulated verse and five-character quatrain.
"You see, each regulated verse usually consists of eight lines, each with five words, for a total of eighty words. The structure is strict, divided into the first couplet, the second couplet, the third couplet and the last couplet, and mostly follows the rules of introduction, development, turn and conclusion. Each quatrain consists of four lines, each with five words, for a total of forty words, and the rhythm is relatively loose. Generally speaking, regulated verse is more formal." Ruyan said.
Jinniang had actually learned these things when she was studying in her previous life, but now she has forgotten a lot of them. After Ruyan sorted them out, Jinniang took notes.
Ruyan continued, "You can read Du Fu's "Spring Thoughts", which is a five-character poem. You can appreciate it. The country is broken but the mountains and rivers remain. The grass and trees are thick in the city in spring. The flowers shed tears when they feel sad, and the birds are frightened when they feel sad. The war has been going on for three months, and a letter from home is worth ten thousand gold. My white hair is getting shorter and shorter, and I can hardly hold a hairpin."
Then she found a five-character quatrain, "Snow on the River" by Liu Zongyuan.
Jinniang studied for an hour, took notes, and then went to read some Tang poetry. Jiang Xian, who was already lying on the bed, said, "My wife, you have to remember the rules of poetry. You have to read and memorize it more, but you still have to write it down in the end."
"What you said makes sense." Jinniang thought about her previous life. Didn't she also start by making sentences, drawing pictures, making excerpts, keeping a diary, and eventually writing an 800-word essay?
Jiang Xian saw that Jinniang was really serious. She copied ten regulated verses and quatrains respectively, and recited them as if they were memorizing them, and even recited them to him.
"You've memorized it all so quickly?" Jiang Xian still didn't believe it.
Jinniang slammed the table and said, "I'm educated, too, okay? I teach children to read on weekdays."
Jiang Xian had no choice but to beg for mercy. After she finished reciting, he clapped his hands. Seeing his wife so proud, he patted the bed and said, "Jinniang, come and have a rest. You said you had a headache because of the wind. I saw you pressing the Taiyang acupoints just now. Come here and let me help you."
"Okay." Jinniang put away her notes, blew out the light and went to the boat immediately.
They studied like this for more than half a month. Due to strong winds and rapid water in the canal, their boat was stranded in Liaocheng for several days. Jinniang happened to buy some ice here. It was hot and there were many insects and ants on the boat. She also bought some paper-wrapped incense to distribute to everyone.
This paper-wrapped incense is the mosquito coil from the Song Dynasty. Lighting it and putting down the mosquito net will bring great benefits to people.
When Ruyan came over the next day, she saw ice in the room and felt much more comfortable. She was feeling a bit miserable in the summer, so it was helpful to hide here with Jinniang for a while. However, Jinniang could only study for an hour and needed to rest, so she had to leave.
Ah Ying was talking to Fang's mother, "Why don't you stay with Ruyan for a while? She told me it's very hot."
Because Ruyan showed Ah Ying her irregular menstruation, Ah Ying took a liking to her.
Mother Fang smiled and said, "Don't you think about it? Ruyan is neither the master nor the servant on our ship, and she is also very pretty. Madam, you are asking her for advice to help her raise her status and prevent others from looking down on her. But if you ask her too often, people outside will inevitably speculate on some things."
"Speculate? Speculate about what?" Ah Ying listened to Jinniang's words and asked her to learn more from Mother Fang, so she often asked this question recently.
Fang's mother said, "It's nothing more than speculation about some things between men and women. If you talk about this kind of thing too much, what if it becomes true?"
Ah Ying quickly shook her head: "How could it be possible for a fake to become true? My husband is truly good to our wife."
"I believe this too, but how can one test a person's human heart?" Mother Fang didn't disbelieve Ruyan, nor did she doubt Jiang Xian's character, but love lasts a lifetime, and people tend to get tired of the old and love the new. Ruyan has no contact with men outside, so it is hard for her not to be tempted by a man like Jiang Xian. Similarly, Jiang Xian is usually very quiet, so it is possible that he is hiding something from her.
Ah Ying frowned: "Does my wife really think so?"
Mother Fang smiled and said, "I just took it for granted."
Having said that, Mother Fang judged this by the fact that she served Jinniang on a daily basis and saw that she almost never mentioned Ruyan, and at most she would occasionally mention something like becoming Jinniang's disciple, but she didn't mention it any more.
In fact, Jinniang didn't do that for these reasons. She simply felt that she needed time to be alone. Reading, handling affairs, and doing needlework were her plans for herself, but she also needed her own space to be alone outside of the plan.
When she was working in the past, she seldom had any time for herself. It was a blessing to have a break to eat something and take a nap. So although she had times when she was tired from socializing in the county government during the past three years, she also had more free time. Sometimes it was nice to just sit there and stare blankly without having to think about anything.
She also told Jiang Xian her own views: "We are all the heads of the family. We are always thinking about things every day, which easily gives us a headache. It's not easy to have some free time. It's good to just close our eyes and think about nothing."
Jiang Xian also felt that this was good. He didn't have to think about anything and could just lie there quietly.
Sometimes he wondered why his wife had so many thoughts in her mind that were so close to what people thought, but Jinniang would never tell him the reason.
By the time the boat reached Cangzhou, Jinniang was already able to imitate a regulated verse, a quatrain, and even a ci poem. Although it was not very good, she was still able to do it.
Jiang Xian also gave her an idea: "Just write about whatever you see every day. For example, a few days ago you asked Yun Jieer to recite "Spring River Moon Night", so you can also use the moon as the theme, you can describe the scenery, or you can write about people."
Jinniang nodded after hearing this and said hurriedly, "As expected of a successful Jinshi, he is quite capable."
Jiang Xian didn't know whether to laugh or cry after hearing this.
But having something to do during the journey is always better than doing nothing.
Fortunately, after passing Cangzhou, Damingfu is not far away. Jinniang was originally discussing with Jiang Xian: "Do you think it will be bigger if we stay in the government office this time?"
"Of course, the government office is usually bigger than the county office." Jiang Xian also had some aspirations.
Yan and Zhao were known in ancient times for being home to many people who lamented and sang tragic songs!
However, she didn't expect that after getting off the boat, Jinniang thought she could hire a car to go to the government office, but she didn't know that the situation in Daming Prefecture and Wu County was completely different. As the secondary capital, Daming Prefecture imitated Bianliang in every way. Officials here all rented or bought houses to live in.
So Jiang Xian arranged for his wife and children to stay in the inn and then reported to the government office first.
Ah Ying and the others were very anxious: "It's better to stay in Wu County, at least there is a place to live. Didn't they say that officials live in the government office? Why do we have to live outside?"
Jinniang smiled and said, "So it is said that man proposes, God disposes. Instead of nagging, we might as well find a house to live in." After that, she said, "I asked you to give twenty taels to the housekeepers and boatmen who sent us here. Did you give it?"
"They refused to accept it, saying that the Gu family had already given the money. Finally, I told them that it was a reward from you, and they were willing to accept it." Because there was no place to live in Daming Prefecture, Aying missed Wu County more and more.
Jinniang said, "Well, stop complaining. Complaining won't solve the problem. Let's wait for my husband to come back."
Jiang Xian came back at noon. After coming back, he hired a carriage and asked a broker to look at houses. The houses in Damingfu were much cheaper than those in Bianjing and Luoyang.
They first went to see a house with five courtyards and seven rooms, which also had an octagonal pavilion and cost only over 1,200 taels.
But Jinniang didn't want such a big house. She discussed with Jiang Xian in private, "The houses here are not very expensive. If we rent a house with three entrances, it will cost five or six strings of cash a month, which is more than two hundred strings of cash. Besides, if we rent someone else's house, if they don't want to rent it anymore, we will have to move out. Why don't we buy it and sell it when we leave? Even if we lose money, we won't lose more than two hundred strings of cash."
Jiang Xian also agreed. The two of them looked around for two days before they chose a standard three-courtyard house with five rooms in the front, a thirty-square-meter main room in the middle, one east and west ear room, three rooms each in the east and west wing rooms, and another row of side rooms in the back. The price was discounted to five hundred strings of silver.
Just as she was about to pay, Dou Yuan came over with her people, saying that they were selling the house opposite their house. Originally, the three-courtyard house was bought for 520 strings of cash, and her family added another 200 strings of cash to build a pavilion and set up a garden. Now, because his youngest son was involved in a lawsuit in Xijing, he was in a hurry to sell the house. With her help to mediate, the price would be 560 strings of cash.
Jinniang and Jiang Xian went to see, and indeed, pavilions, corridors, and verandas were built in the third courtyard, not far from the government office. After checking the title deed, they decided on the house immediately. Jinniang took three hundred strings of Jiaozi, two hundred strings of copper coins, and two sets of Luoyang brocade silk clothes that she had made that year in exchange for sixty strings of Jiaozi.
The house that you may not be able to afford in Bian Jing, you never thought that you could live in Daming Prefecture.
While no one was paying attention to them, Jinniang scratched Jiang Xian's palm under her sleeve. Jiang Xian, who was still thinking about something, froze immediately and looked at his wife in disbelief. However, Jinniang took her hand back as if nothing had happened and said to him, "Why are you looking at me? The owner of the house asked you to come over to look at the deed."
Jiang Xian saw that everyone was looking at him with ambiguous expressions, and his eyes showed, "Aren't you too impatient?" This is in broad daylight. He wanted to roar, he felt even more wronged than the filial wife Zhou Qing.
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