Chapter 12 Chapter 12 These words sound as if they are really...
Fang Ying actually has two uncles. The eldest uncle stayed in Fengxiang, his hometown, to take care of Fang Ying's grandparents. The second uncle, Pan Lun, felt that life in Yangzhou was better than in Fengxiang after her stepmother married into the Fang family, so he brought his family to live in the Fang family. Fang Ying's father, Fang Chengxun, found him a job as a minor official.
Later, Shuzhong was returned to Chen, the Wuding Jiedushi was replaced, and most of the local officials in Yangzhou were also replaced and moved to Tokyo. Pan Lun was obsessed with becoming an official and making a fortune. He thought he would get an official position as soon as he arrived, so he followed Fang Chengxun's family to Beijing.
However, after arriving in Beijing, even Fang Chengxun was unemployed. The salary he received according to his official rank was only enough to support his own family, and was not enough to take care of Pan Lun's family. Pan Lun was quite resentful about this and had a bad quarrel with the Fang family for a while.
When he changed his attitude and came to the house again, he had somehow gotten in touch with Concubine Zhang's nephew, who said he had a way to send Fang Ying to the Prince of Yan's Mansion. As long as she could give birth to the emperor's grandson, the whole family would be prosperous from then on.
Seeing the familiar and disgusting face of her second uncle at this moment, Fang Ying wanted to chase him out without saying anything. Unfortunately, she couldn't show her face, so she had to endure it and called out, "Second uncle and second aunt are here too."
"Oh, look at what Ying'er said. How can your aunt and I not come to such a happy event as Liu Lang's return?" Pan Lun replied immediately.
Fang Chengxun, who had just received a salute from Ji Yanlang, was not surprised by his uncle's behavior. He held his son-in-law's arm and introduced his wife first: "This is your mother-in-law."
Ji Yanlang bowed deeply and said, "Greetings, mother-in-law."
Pan was holding Fang Ying's hand, so she quickly moved aside and said, "Please stand up quickly. No need to be so polite."
Fang Chengxun then introduced his uncle and his wife, "This is Ying'er's uncle and aunt."
When meeting the father-in-law and mother-in-law for the first time, it is appropriate to show great respect, but the same cannot be said for uncle and aunt. Ji Yanlang just clasped his fists and called out.
Unexpectedly, the uncle came over quickly, grabbed his arm and said, "No, no, I hate these conventional rituals. We are family members, and it is better to visit each other frequently in the future. Come, Liulang, go in and sit down." He acted as if he was the owner of the house.
Ji Yanlang stood still and turned to look at Fang Chengxun, but the other party seemed accustomed to it and smiled and said, "Yes, go in and sit down and talk."
He had no choice but to walk towards the main house in the courtyard. At the same time, he exchanged glances with Fang Ying. Seeing that she frowned slightly and her eyes were full of patience, he felt a little strange.
Fang Ying didn't know what he was thinking. She just thought that he looked down on his uncle's behavior of taking the initiative. Although she felt embarrassed, he was just her uncle after all. Ji Yanlang's own uncle was not that good either. They were even, so she was not angry.
"Look at Ying'er's whole body of elegance."
Suddenly, her aunt came forward with a tut-tut sound. Fang Ying saw that she wanted to hold her hand, so she pretended not to see her. She took her stepmother Pan and turned around and walked away, asking as she walked, "Why don't you see your sisters and brothers?"
"In the east wing, I'm afraid they will make trouble." Pan replied.
The Fang family lived in a small courtyard. In addition to three main rooms and two side rooms on the left and right, there were three wing rooms on the east and west sides. Half of the west wing was used as a kitchen and the other half was for servants. The east wing used to be the residence of Fang Ying and his sister Fang Quan.
"Since Liu Lang is here for the first time, let's ask them to come out and meet him." Fang Ying said, pointing to Li Chun who was following behind her. "I also brought sweet cakes for my sisters and brothers."
Pan turned around and asked the maid to bring the children over, and at the same time asked her sister-in-law to go with her to give her a way out.
But her sister-in-law didn't need any steps at all. When Fang Ying ignored her, she stopped and looked at the people moving the things Fang Ying and others brought back into the yard. When Pan called her, she was a little embarrassed.
Fortunately, Ji Liulang had already entered the hall and didn't see what was happening. The children also came over quickly. Pan suppressed her frustration and smiled at Fang Ying, saying, "Ever since Second Mother heard you were coming back today, she's been talking about you several times a day."
The second mother she was referring to was Fang Ying's younger sister, Fang Quan, eight years old. She was the first child Pan had given birth to since she married into the family. Fang Chengxun, already approaching thirty and still childless, was inevitably disappointed to see a daughter.
As for Pan, she had originally thought that marrying her brother-in-law as his second wife would be much easier. After all, when the marriage was arranged, her parents, brothers, and Fang Chengxun all said that they had wronged her in order to take care of Fang Ying, and they believed that her husband would be more tolerant of her after marriage. As for Fang Ying, as her aunt, there was no reason for Fang Ying not to be close to her.
However, Fang Chengxun was unexpectedly busy with official duties and needed a mistress who could take charge of the house independently. When she first got married, she knew nothing and was in a mess. She even needed the guidance and help of the nine-year-old Fang Ying. As time went on, she was inevitably bullied by the servants, who would either bypass her and go directly to Fang Ying, or be lazy and make a mess of the housework.
Fortunately, she soon became pregnant. Pan was eager to give birth to a son, to help her gain a firm foothold, so that no one in the family would dare to look down on her and Fang Ying would truly respect her as a mother. However, she gave birth to a daughter. Her disappointment was no less than her husband's, and she had no love for her daughter. When she gave birth to a son two years later, she completely ignored him, leaving him to be raised by a servant.
Although Fang Ying also disliked children, she disdained her stepmother's behavior even more, so she asked the maid to take her sister to live in her room. With her watching over her, at least the maid would not dare to beat or scold Fang Quan in private.
Because of this, Fang Quan was naturally closer to Fang Ying, so Pan's words were not just politeness.
For Fang Ying, if there was anything she still cared about in this family, it would be her younger sister. Looking at the little girl coming out of the east wing, she said knowingly, "I miss her every day, too."
When Fang Quan saw her sister, she immediately smiled brightly and trotted over. Before she could even stop, Mrs. Pan scolded her, "Just walk properly. Why are you running? Don't you know we have guests?"
"Mother, why are you doing this?" Fang Ying saw Fang Quan showing fear and immediately stepped forward, holding her sister's hand. "What's the point of being a guest? We are all family. How old is she? There's no need to restrict her like this."
Pan had never stood up straight in front of her. Upon hearing this, she said awkwardly, "I'm also afraid that she will embarrass you in front of her son-in-law."
"I don't think there's anything shameful about it." Fang Ying replied, then ignored her stepmother. She lowered her head to touch her sister's face and said with a smile, "Second Mother has grown taller. Let's go in and meet your brother-in-law."
Seeing that she was only talking to Fang Quan and didn't even look at the two younger brothers following behind her, Pan was very unhappy, but she didn't dare to get angry. She accompanied her to the hall. Instead, her sister-in-law held the two boys' hands and said she would take them to meet her brother-in-law.
Ji Yanlang had already sat down in the hall, but when he saw his mother-in-law and others coming in, he stood up again.
Fang Ying didn't wait for anyone else to speak before she smiled and said, "This is my sister, Er Niang." She turned around and glanced at her two younger brothers who were being held by their aunt. "Those are my two younger brothers. The eldest is Fang Sheng, six years old this year, and the second is Fang Yi, three years old this year."
Ji Yanlang already knew that she had three younger siblings before she came, and he had someone prepare a gift for them. He smiled and nodded, and asked the two Fang Sheng brothers to come over and talk.
The women went into the inner room and sat down to chat.
The aunt had been holding it in for a long time, and finally found a chance. She grabbed Fang Ying's arm, rolled up her sleeves, and took a closer look at the jade bracelet on her wrist.
"Is this Hetian jade? Look at the luster..."
Fang Ying glanced at Lichun. Lichun took a few steps forward, put down the boxes of cakes in his arms, and reached back to support Fang Ying's aunt. He half-pushed and half-pulled her to the table and asked her to try the newly bought cakes. "There are osmanthus cakes, red date cakes, and one with lard. I'm sure you like them. Try them while they're hot. They'll get hard when they cool down."
Pan also hurriedly asked someone to serve tea to shut her sister-in-law up.
Fang Ying asked her sister to come over and eat. She took the initiative to talk to Pan for a while, asking about the family's recent situation. She also said, "I see that my father has become thinner than before. Is he too busy in the government office and is he tired?"
"Isn't it..."
Pan had barely finished her sentence when her aunt, who was still eating a candy cake, interrupted her incoherently, "Without capable family members under her command, how could it not be tiring? Your uncle has long said he'd go help your father..."
"Uncle, please stop saying these ridiculous things. That's Kaifeng Prefecture, and my father is just a magistrate. Can he just invite anyone in to help him?" Fang Ying retorted, then added, "Besides, isn't uncle a close friend of the young master of the Zhang family? Now that the Zhang family is doing well, why don't you ask them to find a good job for uncle?"
When this matter was mentioned, Pan felt guilty and dared not say anything. But her aunt was thick-skinned and said as if nothing had happened: "Well, the young master of the Zhang family is idle himself..."
Fang Ying understood why her uncle was so eager to get close to Ji Yanlang.
She controlled her temper and stayed at Fang's house until she finished her meal and returned to Ji's house. After getting off the car, she wanted to go see Li first. Fang Ying took advantage of the little time on the way to make it clear to Ji Yanlang: "Although you may not care, I must say this first. My uncle is not a good person. No matter what he asks you, don't agree to it."
Ji Yanlang looked at her in surprise: "Is that how you say your uncle?"
"What's wrong with saying that? He doesn't do good things himself, and you don't allow him to say anything?" Fang Ying said righteously.
"That's not something you, a junior, should say, right?"
Fang Ying looked at him and muttered softly, "He's really lenient with himself and strict with others."
"What are you mumbling about? If you have something to say, say it out loud." Ji Yanlang rarely had the upper hand to criticize her, so he was unwilling to let her go easily.
Fang Ying looked ahead at the Li family's courtyard gate, and without fear, she said, "I was wondering if you still call your uncle by his full name?"
Ji Yanlang choked.
Fang Ying laughed. Seeing her smile, Ji Yanlang refused to admit defeat and said stubbornly, "Can you compete with me? You're a woman, and you keep saying that your uncle is not a good person. Is it okay if it gets out?"
"Spread it out? How could it spread out? I only told you, and I didn't tell anyone else."
He said this as if they were a real couple. Ji Yanlang couldn't help but pause. When he looked at Fang Ying, she was also looking at him, her eyes full of as if it was natural, as if she didn't realize there was anything wrong.
Ji Yanlang felt something strange in his heart, and quickly turned his head away and ignored her, and walked quickly into his mother's yard.
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