Chapter 6 Meeting Uncle
Although the name of Jiyunzhai is beautiful, it does not look like the residence of an ordinary girl at all.
Xu Shuyao asked Qiaowei and Yuzhu, but they couldn't explain it clearly. They just said that no one had lived here for a long time and they didn't know what it was used for before.
Xu Shuyao stopped asking, as asking wouldn't change anything.
They are guests, can they choose their own accommodation?
But since this place is close to the outer courtyard, she will have to be more careful in the future. Don't go out unless necessary and just stay in the house.
Regardless of whether her aunt did it intentionally or not, her arrangement has put her in a less glorious position, which can be seen from Xiao Jinrong's attitude just now.
Nanny Zheng had asked Huixiang to go to the main kitchen in the mansion to get breakfast, which consisted of a plate of vegetarian buns, two spring rolls, and two bowls of millet porridge.
Xu Shuyao was full after eating half a bowl of rice porridge and a bun.
Shu Heng ate less rice porridge, but he finished the spring roll. He then took the bun that his sister handed to him and started eating it.
Although it is a simple food, the chefs in the Duke's Mansion are generally different from those in other places. Even the most basic rice porridge is cooked to be thick and soft, and melts in the mouth.
After putting down the bowl and chopsticks and rinsing her mouth, Xu Shuyao remembered the gift from her second cousin and hurriedly asked Qiao Wei to bring the box.
A small carved rosewood box. This box alone would probably cost two taels of silver.
After opening it, I saw a piece of yellowish transparent Qingtian stone lying inside, which was warm, cool and smooth to the touch.
Xu Shuyao's eyes lit up. Could this be the best quality Qingtian stone, Dengguangdong?
Dengguangdong gets its name from its brilliance like a lamp under light, and is a top-grade material for seal carving.
No wonder Xiao Jinshan wanted it, it really is a good thing!
Anyone who loves calligraphy and painting also likes to collect seals, not to mention the rare seals made of light frost.
Xu Shuyao was no exception, but she had not been well off for many years. Her father Xu was an honest official, and her meager salary had to support the large family in the Xu family.
After he left, the aunt started to set her sights on her niece again, thinking that a lean camel is bigger than a horse, and at least she could scrape off a layer of her wealth.
But in her eyes, Luotuo was probably inferior to the steward of the Duke's Mansion. She just heard Qiao Wei say that the steward of the Duke's wife had bought a three-story house in the capital.
Xu Shuyao thought about the one thousand taels of silver her mother left her, which was almost all her family property. As for her father, he did leave behind a few inkstones, calligraphy and paintings, but they were all intangible objects that could not be converted into cash.
To live in the deep courtyard of the Duke's Mansion, she and her brother will need money in the future, and even the servants have to be taken care of.
Xu Shuyao was very glad that she sold several picture albums before leaving Huzhou. This way of making money was so shocking that she didn't dare let anyone know. Even the manager who helped her sell them only said that they were the work of a free-spirited painter.
Just a few copies caused quite a stir in Huzhou City. After several moves, the price of each copy was raised to fifty taels of silver.
Xu Shuyao thought about how she only sold a picture album for ten taels of silver, and she couldn't help but be shocked. She thought she should have painted a few more albums earlier.
Now that I'm in the capital, it's not appropriate to start writing in front of the maid.
So she had to sigh again.
Not far away, Huixiang saw her new master holding the stone with a look of surprise and sighing, and she didn't know why she was in trouble.
A piece of stone, not only placed in such a precious box, but also caused such rich emotional changes in my cousin, it is obviously not an ordinary stone, but jade, right?
After all, Huixiang had been in the Duke's Mansion for nearly half a month, so she was not completely ignorant.
Just like that, in the evening, someone from Jinhua Hall came to ask the two siblings to come over. Xu Shuyao had just finished her dinner, tidied up a little, and followed the maid out the door.
Qiao Wei knew the maid who ran errands, so she leaned close to her and whispered, "Has the Second Master returned home?"
The maid didn't reply immediately, but turned her head to look. Seeing that the new cousin was indeed very beautiful, she thought of the rumors spread by the servants in Jinhua Hall and dared not hide it. She even raised her voice deliberately, as if to flatter Xu Shuyao. "That's right. The second master just finished his meal and heard that the cousin and her brother had arrived, so he asked this maid to come and see them."
Master Xiao Er?
Master Xiao Er was the second son of the late old Duke. His mother was the descendant of a subordinate who died in battle. With nowhere else to go, she was fostered in the Duke's Mansion. Later, as she was too old to get married, she became a concubine in the mansion. I heard that she passed away a few years ago.
As a small deputy commander of the Nancheng Bingmasi, a seventh-rank soldier, Mr. Xiao Er's daily duties are to maintain the market order in Nancheng and carry out firefighting and disaster relief.
Most of the sons and nephews of noble families in the capital are like this. They have noble status but do insignificant jobs.
Unless he has the ability to lead troops and fight like the eldest master of the Xiao family.
Or like Xiao Mo, the eldest son of the Xiao family, although he is in the capital, he is in charge of the twelve guards of the imperial guards, and his official rank is close to the second rank.
Even Wang Shaowei, the second son of the Qingyuan Marquisate who is highly valued by the emperor, although he is currently only a fifth-rank Left General of the Jinwu Guard, has the ability to mobilize soldiers, and others dare not underestimate him.
Not only Xu Shuyao was listening to the maid, Xu Shuheng was also listening with his ears perked up!
Their father was also a juren who passed the imperial examination. Although he was busy with many things, he never forgot the studies of his only son.
Shu Heng is only seven years old now. He has already finished learning enlightenment books such as "Three Character Classic" and "Thousand Character Classic", and is currently starting to read "The Analects of Confucius".
However, after Mr. Xu Er passed away, the old teacher who had taught him returned to his hometown, and his elder sister Xu Shuyao temporarily took over the teacher's job.
But this is not a long-term solution after all. Xu Shuheng wants to take the imperial examination in the future, so he must enter a real clan school.
Thinking about this, the two siblings secretly became extremely cautious about their upcoming meeting with Master Xiao Er.
Mr. Xiao Er had already taken off his official uniform and was chatting with his stepmother Chen while drinking tea.
After Xu Shuyao and her brother entered, they bowed respectfully. Shuyao was a girl, so Master Xiao asked her a few questions about Huzhou and the situation along the way.
However, he showed much concern for his nephew Xu Shuheng. He asked him how old he was, what books he had read, and whether he had invited the teacher to be his tutor before.
I heard him say that he was currently reading the Analects of Confucius, and he even took a test on the meaning of a passage from the beginning of the Analects.
Xu Shuheng had just started learning, and his answers were not very good, but Master Xiao Er was very satisfied.
In his opinion, it was not easy for a seven-year-old boy who had just lost his father to have such a strong desire to study.
Then he waved his hand and said, "Alright, I'll go talk to the Shen family tomorrow and ask them to let you go to the Shen family school with the third child!"
Xu Shuheng hurriedly stood up and thanked his uncle, and Shu Yao beside him also breathed a sigh of relief.
When Master Xiao Er left, he instructed his wife to go to his place to get some pens, ink, paper, and inkstone for the children to use for their studies, and asked if he had a servant to help carry the book bags.
Chen agreed repeatedly, saying that it was always a good thing that her nephew was valued by her husband.
But she didn't think so. She was only seven years old, how could she really tell what was good or bad? She had no idea whether she could become a successful person.
But when she was taking care of all this, she couldn't help but feel moved again. Isn't this nephew also helpless?
If he becomes successful in the future, won't he repay this aunt who has given him shelter and help?
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