Chapter 138 Chapter 138 Chapter 138
A few days after the Jiang family moved in, Madam Song sent someone to bring a gift of water, and Madam Jin also went over with a gift of warmth.
When she saw Song Niang again, she hadn't changed much, she was still graceful and elegant. However, Jin Niang didn't feel as awkward as before, probably because the imperial edict gave her the confidence.
When Madam Song saw Jinniang, she remembered a sentence. Although it was not exactly appropriate, it was almost the same meaning.
In the past we were your neighbors, and now we are your subjects.
She was extremely grateful that after Jiang Xian passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi in Kaifeng Prefecture, she sent a lot of gifts to him.
"Please visit us more often in the future." Jinniang said dryly. In fact, she has never been good at socializing and was even afraid of embarrassing others.
Madam Song smiled and said, "That's for sure. I don't know how you have been doing these years. I remember you were sent to Jiangnan."
Jinniang nodded: "That's right, I went to Wu County to serve as an official, and later I was appointed to Daming Prefecture before returning to Beijing. Now it has been five or six years since I came back to Beijing."
Jiang Xian has been an official for nearly twelve years, and his promotion has been quite fast.
Madam Song said, "I have long known that your husband is not an ordinary person."
"It's also God's blessing." Jinniang said with a smile.
However, after sitting for a cup of tea, Jinniang was about to leave. The gift she brought this time was quite generous, including four pieces of brocade, a piece of fresh lamb, two boxes of snacks, and two bags of bird's nests.
Mrs. Song was originally the daughter of a high-ranking official, and her husband was the top scholar in the imperial examination, a person at the top of the pyramid. But once her father stepped down, he became a nobody, and her husband was reported for helping to take over a matter for the Song family, which led to his career setbacks.
Later, she finally found help from her father's disciples, but she didn't expect that the disciples would order her husband around and show no respect at all. So she spent several years in foreign posts. If it weren't for the recommendation of her husband's former teacher, she would not have been appointed as the editor of Jixian.
Such training made her husband lose a lot of his sharpness. Mrs. Song's children were of similar age to Mrs. Jin's children, especially her daughter, who was as bright and noble as a peony.
"Song'er, why are you here?" Mrs. Song revealed her true colors when she saw her daughter.
Jiang Song sat down slowly: "Mom, why are you so polite to Mrs. Jiang next door?"
"The Jiang family is not ordinary. This Jiang Daizhi was originally a disciple of your father, but now their positions are reversed. He is a fourth-rank official, while your father is a sixth-rank official." Madam Song was born into an official family and knew this difference best.
In official circles, seniority is important, but official position is more important.
Jiang Song shook his head: "If I had known, I wouldn't have bought it here. Our house in Yiqiumen is also very good."
"Although the house in Yi Qiumen is big, it has been uninhabited for a long time. Besides, it is too far away. The area near Jinliang Bridge is more lively and is also close to the Wei family." Madam Song said with a smile.
Jiang Song blushed when he heard this.
When they were going upstream, they encountered bandits and were rescued by the young master of the Wei family. Seeing that he was still young, his father asked him a few questions and felt that he had solid knowledge. However, Wei Qilang had to hurry on his journey, so the two families separated.
I only heard my mother say, "Scholars usually get engaged later. Getting married too early will only distract them."
Jiang Song had never seen such a handsome man in his life, but he was not a pretty boy. He could even deal with the pirates. This was extraordinary.
Even though she was usually very proud, she was somewhat moved by the spring of love.
Madam Song has a generous dowry and is good at business. She can give her daughter a dowry of tens of thousands of strings of cash in the future, which is top-notch in Bianliang. Her husband is now a respectable civil servant, so it will be easy for her to marry him.
As the mother and daughter were talking, someone outside said that Mrs. Meng from the opposite door was coming, and Mrs. Song stood up again to greet her.
But after Jinniang came back from the Song family, she smiled for some reason. Seeing his wife smiling, Jiang Xian asked hurriedly, "Madam, why are you laughing?"
"I recall the days when we were living in Tianshui Lane. At that time, I was always thinking about making money and making book bags. More than ten years have passed in the blink of an eye. Do you think the days passed quickly?" Although Jinniang still does needlework now, it is completely non-utilitarian.
But those days of making money like crazy and doing needlework like crazy were quite fulfilling.
Jiang Xian held Jinniang's hand and said, "My dear, now is the good day."
"I also feel that I have such emotion because I meet old friends today." Jinniang often interacted with Madam Wei and Madam Meng, whom she met after she became successful. When she suddenly saw old friends, she wanted to go back to the past.
The next day, Ning Ge'er went home for a day off and brought two classmates from the provincial school with him. One of them was surnamed Fang and the other surnamed Kuang. Jiang Xian and Jinniang took care of them like their own nephews. Although the young man from the Fang family was not from a wealthy family, he had a calm air and was very steady at a young age. The young man from the Kuang family looked very dignified.
After meeting the adults, Ning Ge'er took them to his room to talk. Kuang Xiaolang scratched the back of his head honestly and said, "Jiang Ning, your home is like a palace."
Ning Ge'er shrugged, "Brother Kuang, you are exaggerating. My family is nothing. My parents bought this house with great difficulty. Our family is far inferior to those rich families. However, my parents like to collect books. Let's go read after dinner."
Both Fang and Kuang agreed.
When it was time for dinner, the Jiang family did not have a lavish feast, but simply six dishes, one soup, a cold dish, two green vegetables, two meat dishes, and one fried meatball.
Jinniang was having dinner with Jiang Xian, and she said, "I think these two friends of Ning'er are both good. I heard that Kaifeng Prefecture will select one student from the upper and two students from the inner houses to enter the Imperial College next year. I really hope they can all be selected."
"What if our son fails the exam?" Jiang Xian's first thought was whether he should say hello.
Jinniang said, "If you can't pass the exam, just continue studying. What's the point of not studying at your age? Even if you get in through connections, it's not legitimate."
Jiang Xian laughed: "My lady, that's right, I think so too."
"I'm glad you think so." Jinniang was still worried that Jiang Xian would help her son get through the back door, so she was very relieved to hear him say this.
After eating, Ning Ge'er and his friends went to the library in the garden. Every time Uncle Luo saw Ning Ge'er, he would shout, "The scholar is back."
Originally it was fine for him to just call out to his family, but today he called out to them in front of his classmates, and Ning'er's face turned red with embarrassment.
Fang Silang and Kuang Xiaolang covered their mouths and laughed. The three of them went upstairs and were overjoyed to see the room full of books. Ning Ge'er said, "These new books should be bought by my mother. Over there are the scrolls of Cheng Wen and calligraphy from previous years and our Jiang family's precious collection of books. But they can only be read in the library and cannot be taken out."
What does it mean to pass down poetry and books from generation to generation? Fang Silang and Kuang Xiaolang thought, this must be what it means.
While they were studying, Jinniang sent someone to bring hot tea and snacks, asking Uncle Luo not to disturb them.
My son's classmates came over once, and the adults didn't do anything, but Ding wanted to play with the older brothers. Sister Yun smiled and brought Brother Ding over to Jin Niang: "Look, my little brother is also very busy."
"Children like to play with children older than him. But his brothers have to study and don't have time to take care of him. When your father is on vacation in a few days, our family will go to the garden for a barbecue." Jinniang thought that it was indeed not a good idea to have children at such an old age. She didn't care about Ding'er as much as she did her eldest daughter and son.
It's not that I'm intentionally careless, I just don't have enough energy.
Of course, barbecuing is Jiang Xian's specialty. He had already changed into a gray-black robe, and after asking his servants to light a fire in the corridor, he started barbecuing. Normally, Jinniang is afraid of getting angry and rarely eats barbecue. But today, during the parent-child activity, Jinniang also treated it as an indulgent meal.
Jinniang ate more than a dozen skewers of barbecued meat and drank hot almond drink. Dingge also became much more playful and kept standing beside Jiang Xian like a curious baby. Jiang Xian felt so much pain when he saw the baby who looked like a snow child. The father and son were whispering to each other.
Sister Yun teased her brother: "Erlang, dance for us, and I'll give you this skewer too."
Ding Ge'er was not shy at all. He really ran around in circles with his arms open and shook his body. I don't know who taught him to do that.
After they finally finished dancing, his sister gave her a piece of meat as a reward.
Today was a very joyful day, but there were also some aftereffects from the barbecue. Jinniang had two lumps on her head, Yunjie had blood blisters in her mouth, Jiang Xian had a toothache, and even Dingge was a little constipated.
Then my family ate water chestnuts and drank mung bean soup for three days before we recovered.
Jinniang has already started designing wedding dresses at home. With all her experience as a married woman and attending weddings over the years, she has seen many wedding dresses.
My daughter is tall and has a dignified appearance. Next year I will make her a shoulder-length crown made of gold, silver, pearls and jade. As for the long-sleeved bridal gown, she planned to have peony flowers embroidered on it, pomegranates on the bodice, and pearls inlaid on the front of the middle collar.
Of course, Zhenzhu would definitely not use northern pearls, but would just buy beads that looked round. Jinniang directly took fifty taels of silver and bought two thousand beads.
The current price of silver is two strings, which is about fifty coins per coin. I bought these for my daughter with my own pocket money.
Don't underestimate a dowry. The reason why, when she married into the Jiang family, most people, except people like Xu, didn't think she was marrying above her station was because her dowry seemed quite large.
Now it’s the daughters’ turn, and girls from official families are even more indispensable.
Jinniang said she would start embroidering next year, but she liked to do it in advance, so after designing the picture, she started looking for material.
Mrs. Zhou Si was in a panic. She went to a gold and silver shop to buy fashionable jewelry for her daughter, but she didn't know the price of gold was too high. She could get one for less than 30 strings of coins before, but now it costs 60 or 70 strings of coins.
As for furniture, don’t even think about red sandalwood, huanghuali is expensive, and even red rosewood is expensive, so you can only choose cheaper wenge.
"Mom, why are you so anxious?" Miss Sun saw that Zhou Si's wife was sweating profusely.
Mrs. Zhou Si shook her head and said, "My hometown just sent me 200 strings of cash. I'm afraid it's not enough to buy jewelry and furniture. This huge dowry is really killing me."
Miss Sun was stunned: "Mother, it seems that there are still some porcelains that have not been prepared."
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