Yu Jiao smiled and glanced at her, "Brother Tao is different from us, Madam should pity him."
Liu Yaoyu complained, "But mother treats Tao'er much better than big brother. Big brother is so outstanding, but mother has never praised him. She rarely cares about big brother on weekdays. Every year, mother will only remember big brother's birthday if I mention it."
Yu Jiao thought that this might be the reason why the more sensible a child is, the more likely he or she will be ignored by his or her parents.
Liu Yaoyu stuffed an orange slice into her mouth. "Forget it, let's not talk about this. I heard from my mother that your birthday is coming soon, and you will have a coming-of-age ceremony. What do you like? I can prepare a gift for you."
Yu Jiao put down her pen, blew away the ink on the paper, and said, "Don't spend money, Second Sister. Just give me something casually."
Seeing that she didn't say anything, Liu Yaoyu thought about thinking about it carefully when she got home. After all, it was her coming-of-age ceremony, so the gift needed to be more thoughtful.
"When my elder sister and I were coming of age, grandma took us to the Lianxi Temple to burn incense and pray for blessings. In two days, when the weather is good, grandma should take you to the temple as well." Liu Yaoyu said, "There is a courtyard on the back hill of the Lianxi Temple. Last time, I followed the sound of a zither and walked over there. I saw a lot of rabbits being raised in the courtyard. They were very cute. It's so cold today, and I don't know how the rabbits are doing.
"Third sister, if grandma takes you to Lianxi Temple, please help me look after those rabbits."
Yu Jiao agreed with a smile, and asked Jianjia to call Li Jing in. She handed him the paper with the names of spices, and asked him to go outside the house to buy all the spices.
It was cold and there was nothing else to do. As soon as Yu Jiao bought the spices, she stayed in the room all day to mix the spices. After the spices were dried, they had to be pounded into fine powder. Every day, Liu Yaoyu patiently said she would help Yu Jiao grind the spices, but she couldn't sit still for a while, so Yu Jiao stopped her from helping and Liu Yaoyu just lay aside and watched.
That day, Yu Jiao sifted the powder into fine powder, went to the East Courtyard to find Liu Yaoyu, and went to the back garden together to pick a few white plum branches, refined honey and mixed them evenly, and made them into several fragrant pills the size of water chestnuts.
Liu Yaoyu took one and put it into the incense burner. After burning it, she sniffed it gently. A light plum fragrance wafted into her nose. She could smell the fragrance floating in the room, a blend of sour and sweet.
She was intoxicated by the smell and couldn't help asking, "Is this the scent of plum blossoms? It smells very fresh, like walking in a plum forest in the snow."
Yu Jiao nodded and sniffed gently. She hadn't made incense for a long time. She was originally worried that the smell of the incense pills in this box might be off. But now, when she smelled the familiar light fragrance in the air and realized it was the same as what she had made before, she felt relieved.
"This fragrance is the fragrance of Princess Shouyang's plum blossoms. There is an allusion to it..." Before Yu Jiao finished her words, Shen Wan's voice came from outside the house, "What allusion? Let me hear it too."
Jianjia lifted the curtain and said, "Miss, Miss Shen is here."
Chen Guan walked in and smelled the light and refreshing plum fragrance in the room. She smiled and said, "This plum fragrance of Princess Shouyang is really nice, the fragrance is light and elegant. Yu Jiao, where did you get such a good thing?"
Liu Yaoyu said proudly, "This was made by my third sister!"
Chen Guan walked closer, picked up a scented ball on the table, and looked at it carefully. "The third lady can actually make incense? The incense-making skills are not much different from the incense balls sold in the market, and the incense is much better than ordinary incense balls."
It is difficult for the incense balls sold in street shops to have such a pure and clear plum scent. Most of them are a bit strong, but lack the elegant and solitary scent of the real plum blossom.
Yu Jiao smiled and said, "Making incense is related to pharmacology. I have read many incense recipes before, so I tried to make some incense pills."
"Tell me the story you just told." Chen Guan likes reading, and he especially loves to listen to stories about such noble things.
Yu Jiao used an iron comb to fiddle with the incense burner and said slowly, "It's not really an allusion. I read about it in a book of incense recipes. Princess Shouyang, the daughter of Emperor Wu of the Southern Song Dynasty, was playing in the palace with the palace maids. When they were tired, they lay down under the eaves of the Hanzhang Palace to take a nap. A breeze blew by, and a plum blossom fell on the princess's forehead, forming five petals that could not be brushed away. After three days, it fell off after washing. The palace maids were surprised by the strangeness and imitated her, and later they made plum blossom makeup. People called Princess Shouyang the goddess of plum blossoms, and Princess Shouyang really loved plum blossoms. She developed more than ten kinds of famous incense, including Plum Blossom Fragrance, Spring Message in the Snow, and Spring News. They are praised as the three best plum fragrances in the incense recipes I have read."
After hearing this, Liu Yaoyu plucked a red plum blossom and placed it on her forehead, "Let me try, can this red plum blossom really dye my forehead?"
Yu Jiao couldn't help laughing after reading it, "Miscellaneous notes can't be true."
Chen Wan also smiled and said, "Putting a plum blossom on the forehead is indeed very beautiful." She looked at the incense pills on the table and said to Yu Jiao, "Is the plum blossom fragrance from the three unique plum fragrances of Princess Shouyang the one you made? Can you give me a few of these incense pills? Drinking tea and burning this plum fragrance in the mansion should be a leisurely and unique mood."
Yu Jiao asked Jianjia to get a wooden box and put seven pills in it for Chen Wan. "I didn't make many this time. I'll make some other incense pills in a few days. Let's make an appointment to taste tea and smell the fragrance together."
Chen Guan took the box and asked her maid to put it away. She smiled and said, "I came here to send invitations to you and Yaoyu. Jingrong said that in a few days, the New Year will come and the mansion will be busy. Before the New Year, let's go to the Plum Garden to get together on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month."
Yu Jiao's birthday was on the 20th of the twelfth lunar month, and it would be on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, which was just after her coming-of-age ceremony. They also had time to go out, so Liu Yaoyu agreed immediately.
Chen Wan sat for a while and said to Yu Jiao, "My cousin Xueyan caught a cold yesterday, so I'd like to ask you to come over again."
When Yu Jiao heard her put the emphasis on "again", she thought about it and understood what Shen Wan meant. It should be that the Wu family wanted to see her for a consultation.
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