Chapter 130: Imprisonment (5)
Gifts were naturally accepted for a birthday like this. Yi Peilan and the others would likely be present at the mid-birthday banquet next month. After all, at this time of year, all the better officials in Mingqi were invited by the Shen family.
"Yes," Bai Wei seemed to have just remembered, "I almost forgot about this. Thanks to Pei Lan for reminding me. Yue'er, what gift did you prepare for Old Madam Shen?"
As a talented woman in the capital, Shen Yue naturally brought honor to Old Madam Shen at her annual birthday banquet. If Shen Qing presented something valuable, Shen Yue presented something unique and exquisite. Only Shen Miao, whose gifts always made people laugh out loud, would be so beautiful.
"It's just an embroidered portrait." Shen Yue said modestly.
"Now that you mention it, I'm starting to get curious," Jiang Xiaoxuan said venomously, "What will your fifth sister give you? Could she be so busy embroidering her wedding dress that she completely forgot about the old lady's birthday gift?"
Feng Anning, who was lying on the table, snorted coldly when he heard this, then stood up and left the table.
Yi Peilan and the others' words also fell into the ears of Pei Lang, who was packing up his schoolwork on the stage. These days, he had naturally heard the news that Shen Miao was getting engaged, but he had a strange feeling. The girl's eyes were like a beast. Would she be allowed to lurk in the backyard so early?
At the same time, Shen Miao, the person everyone was talking about, was arranging the chess pieces in front of him in a row in the ancestral hall.
The wind in the ancestral hall carried a chilly chill, and the ground was made of blue-gray stone slabs, so cold that kneeling down would chill the bones of the knees. Jingzhe and Guyu had brought some soft cushions, but they were of little use. So Shen Miao instructed them to boil some herbs and place them in a corner of the room. Fumigating them would dispel the cold and prevent the onset of illness.
Jingzhe and Guyu were initially skeptical, but after seeing the herbal soup truly work, they asked Shen Miao where she knew the secret recipe. Shen Miao simply said she had heard it from others, but she knew for sure that it was all learned during her years as a hostage in the Qin State. The weather was too cold, and money was scarce, so she had to resort to the cheapest folk remedies to warm herself and remove the dampness from her body. The little things in the ancestral hall weren't much to offer these days.
"The girl is still busy playing chess." Jingzhe stamped his feet.
Shen Miao arranged the chess pieces in front of her in a row. The chess pieces on the chessboard, which were originally arranged in an orderly manner, were now arranged by her in a black and white manner, with no apparent pattern.
“Chun Tao has asked Mo Qing to bring a message.” Seeing that Shen Miao remained silent, Jing Zhe continued, “The Second Madam wants to change your marriage with the eldest lady. But the young master of the Huang family is a homosexual. What should we do? Young lady, how can you still be in the mood to play chess here?”
She had thought it was a good match, but when Shen Miao rejected Old Madam Shen's proposal in Rongjing Hall that day, she was imprisoned in the ancestral hall. Even so, Chuntao still managed to find out that the Shen family had already agreed to the match without Shen Miao's knowledge, but the people in the West Courtyard were unaware. In other words, everyone knew that Shen Miao was getting married except for Shen Miao.
If she married Wei Qian, it would be fine, at least she could be considered virtuous and upright, but Huang Dexing was a homosexual, so wouldn't Shen Miao be a widow if she married him? The maids almost went crazy when they heard this. Mo Qing also said that if Shen Miao was willing, he could take Shen Miao away.
Mo Qing was a man of the Jianghu before, so naturally he didn't know how easy it was to escape. Once he escaped, it meant that what happened after him could be fabricated at will, and no one would know the truth. Moreover, Shen Miao had never intended to escape from the beginning, so she flatly rejected this idea.
"If that doesn't work, at least have Mo Qing tell the master on the young lady's behalf that this matter has been kept secret from the master. They want to get the young lady married while the master hasn't returned to the capital. This way, the matter is done and nothing can be changed." Gu Yu also advised. She knew that Shen Miao had her own ideas now, but if she said nothing, the maids could only worry about Shen Miao.
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