Family one, two, three, four, five
The banquet was held in Qinghui Hall. The spacious setting, with its four-sided, transparent window panes, allowed for panoramic views of the surrounding landscape. The layout of the Shen residence centered around Qinghui Hall, surrounded by nine groups of buildings and courtyards, each separated by walls and connected by corridors.
To the east of Qinghui Hall, there are quiet and shady bamboos. If you walk south, you will reach Mrs. Shen’s “Rong’an Hall”.
Yanxiju, where Xu Lingwan and Shen Cong lived, was located on the north side of Qinghui Hall. It could be reached through two courtyards, a winding corridor, and a narrow door. It was an extremely secluded and quiet residence.
After seeing off Duke Dingguo and Duke Fuguo, Chen Cong called Fifth Master Shen Jing to talk alone.
"Who did you go out with again?" Chen Cong looked at him calmly and said slowly.
"No, second brother." Chen Jing's handsome face was filled with smiles. Seeing Chen Cong glaring at him, he hurriedly explained, "I've been studying at home all this time. I only went out last night because the Prince of Ruyang came to drink with me."
"Second brother, you know that Prince Ruyang has been good friends with me since childhood. Now that he is about to leave the capital, I must practice for him." Shen Jing added, fearing that Shen Cong would scold him.
"Your Majesty has long been suspicious of Prince Ruyang, don't you know?" Chen Cong's face showed no emotion, but his voice was a little cold.
Every time this happened, Chen Jing knew that his second brother, who never liked to show his emotions, was really angry.
He lowered his eyes. He knew that since ancient times, "great achievements that shock the ruler" and "association with powerful ministers" were taboos for emperors.
Prince Ruyang is the only prince of a different surname in the court who commands 100,000 cavalrymen. The safety of the northern border depends entirely on the Ruyang army. Over the years, the emperor's attitude towards Prince Ruyang has been ambiguous, with both respect and fear.
The Shen family is currently highly influential within the court. Eldest brother, Shen Duo, serves under Duke Yue as commander of the Changping Army, and second brother, Shen Cong, has concurrently served as the Crown Prince's tutor for three years. While the emperor might consider the safety of the northern border a factor in his combined kindness and severity towards Prince Ruyang, were it to become known that the Xu and Chen families share a close relationship, the emperor would deem it tantamount to conspiracy.
But no matter how suspicious the emperor is, aren't the Ruyang Palace and the Shen family full of loyal and brave people?
Shen Jing quietly defended himself, "I know the emperor is wary of him, and I also know that the Shen family, though seemingly prosperous, is actually treading on thin ice. But I'm not the eldest brother, nor the second brother. I'm just a leisurely young man in the Shen family who only cares about poetry, wine and romance. If I alienate Bolan because of the emperor's preferences, I would be truly ungrateful to Bolan for his sincerity towards me."
After saying this, he knew that if his actions last night were known by someone with ulterior motives, it might cause big trouble for his second brother, so he didn't dare to look at Chen Cong directly, but could only turn his face away slightly, with a stubborn and determined expression.
Shen Jing originally thought he would be scolded by his second brother, but he heard Shen Cong sighing leisurely: "Xiaowu, it's easy to fall hard when you climb high, it's good that you know this. Although sending Bolan last night was a risky move, you did not do anything wrong and did not dishonor the Shen family's integrity."
Are you praising him?
Shen Jing turned his head, his eyes lighting up.
"Next time something like this happens, please tell me. There are so many eyes watching the Shen Mansion now. You can't act secretly anymore." Chen Cong looked at his brother's clear and bright face, and his voice softened a little.
He concealed the fact that Shen Jing was followed as soon as he left the house last night. If Shen Qing had not secretly dealt with the people following him last night, who knows how much his conversation with Xu Shenzhi would have been used to make a lot of stories.
"Let's go, call Xiaoliu, and go with me to see your second sister-in-law." Chen Cong patted his shoulder.
"Yeah, okay." Shen Jing responded happily.
After Ling Wan had recognized some of the main elders, she saw Chen Cong's tall and majestic figure from afar.
Didn’t you say you were in the front hall greeting the dukes and marquises? Why are you here again?
Chen Yuanyuan originally thought that what he said just now, "I'll be there in a while", was just a polite remark, but now that she saw that figure, she was surprised. However, now was the time to recognize his child, and with him, the real father, here, she might feel less embarrassed.
"Huai Jin is studying at Songshan Academy and can't come back without leave." After getting to know the children of the eldest house, Old Lady Shen took Ling Wan's hand and pointed at the young girl and boy who had just been brought in by the maids, and laughed, "This is Tang Jie'er, and this is Huai'an."
Then, amid the laughter of everyone, the two children each called her "Mom".
Chen Yuanyuan was stunned the moment she saw the beautiful girl with charming eyebrows and beautiful eyes. Although she already knew that she and Shen Cong were an old man and young wife couple, she had never expected that his daughter would be the same age as her.
But she reacted quickly and took the two prepared purses, a gold-thread butterfly and red-bead hairpin, and a piece of fine Hui ink from Hongyue and handed them to them respectively.
Ling Wan wasn't the only one who felt embarrassed.
When Chen Tang saw that her stepmother was almost the same age as herself, she called her "mother" in a low and awkward voice. Fortunately, her fifth uncle's youngest son Huaimin came to her rescue and asked her second aunt to give him a bag of small gold beads to play with.
After Chen Cong came, Chen Yuanyuan felt as if she had someone to rely on, and her mind, which had been confused by the messy network of relatives, became clearer.
Putting aside the collateral relatives, Madam Shen had four masters and one aunt. The aunt had married and moved to Qingzhou, so she wouldn't mention her here. Currently, the four masters in the Shen family were the first, second, fifth, and sixth. The second was naturally her husband, Second Master Shen.
As the eldest son of the eldest family, the eldest master married the daughter of the first branch of the Fanyang Lu family. They had three sons and one daughter. The eldest son followed his father in the army, the second daughter was married, and the third and fourth sons were Huailin and Huaijie who had just come to see her.
The fifth master married Yao, and they had two sons, Huaimin, Yao's legitimate son, and Huaiyin, her illegitimate son; the sixth master had been married for less than three years, and had only one son, Huaisheng, with Tao.
Chen Yuanyuan was a little puzzled. Madam Shen's biological children were the eldest, second, and fifth sons. But Master Shen Liu, who had married the youngest daughter of the Marquis of Cheng'en, was born out of wedlock.
I read so many novels about house fighting when I was in school, but I have never met a mistress who would allow her own son to marry a concubine's daughter and her concubine's son to marry a legitimate daughter.
But if you think about it carefully, it is understandable.
Just now, when Mrs. Tao saw Mr. Shen Liu coming over, she immediately greeted him warmly. Now the two of them were still standing side by side, chatting from time to time, looking intimate and loving. Although Mrs. Tao married Mr. Shen Liu, it was because she liked him.
When Yao saw Master Shen Wu, although she still had a smile on her face, her face turned a little paler and her hands began to fiddle with the ice silk handkerchief.
"What are you thinking about?" Chen Cong saw that Xu Lingwan's eyes began to daze again, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but rise slightly.
Lord Xu's little granddaughter is good in every way except that she is prone to daydreaming.
She seemed to think that she had concealed it well, and there was still a gentle and warm smile on her face, but she forgot that her husband was the tutor who taught the prince, so how could she escape his eyes.
Chen Cong could almost infer from her current expression what it was like for her when she was a child studying and learning calligraphy.
"Husband, your second uncle seems a little unpleasant." Ling Wan was caught distracted by him again. She sneered in her heart, but her expression remained unchanged. She retorted in a low voice as usual.
Just now, when Chen Cong arrived, Huai Min and Huai Yin from Master Shen Wu's family, and Huai Cheng from Master Shen Liu's family, all behaved well.
Especially the little boy who had asked her for the little golden bead just now, when he saw Chen Cong, he immediately shrank his neck and retreated back to Yao's side, and bowed to her properly with his brothers and sisters and called her "Second Aunt".
"Oh, maybe I'm more of a vicious person." Master Shen's voice was almost inaudible with a chuckle. "It's hard to believe you're willing to marry someone as vicious as me."
In the past, Chen Yuanyuan would have teased him back, but now she knew she couldn't be like him, who looked so dignified in public and could actually tease her quietly, so she lowered her head slightly.
From Chen Cong's perspective, he could only see that Ling Wan's neck, which was exposed when she lowered her head, was long and beautiful, her jade-like face was shining brightly, and her nose was small and straight.
Perhaps because of his words, her long and thick eyelashes trembled slightly, like the wings of a nightingale flapping against the flowers and trees.
He thought this little girl was really interesting. She had been so bold and straightforward when she flirted with him from time to time in the past six months, but now that he was using the same method against her, she actually became shy.
Chen Cong couldn't help but smile even more deeply.
Old Madam Shen saw this scene, and her eyes softened as she looked at Ling Wan. She knew her second son's temperament well, and if she didn't love him so much, she wouldn't have such a bright smile on her face.
The next step was to open the ancestral hall and enter the family tree. Old Madam Shen led a group of people and walked towards the Shen family ancestral hall.
As a "newcomer" who had only been here for more than half a year, Chen Yuanyuan naturally had never seen such a scene. Faced with the ancient custom of being included in the family tree, which she had never experienced before, she sighed in her heart that it was really troublesome.
In modern weddings, whether it is a Chinese wedding, a Western wedding, or a combination of Chinese and Western weddings, there is no longer a wedding ceremony in which the bride is recorded in the groom's family tree.
This is certainly related to changes in national policies (for example, under the family planning policy, in a wealthy family with only one daughter, the man must marry into the family, and it is impossible for the woman to be recorded in the man's family tree), changes in social customs, and the accelerated pace of life, but more importantly, no one wants to make such a fuss.
Taking young people as an example, most of the contemporary young people do not want to make their weddings too complicated. They basically just find a hotel, set up the scenery, and wear the wedding dresses.
The host tried his best to stir up emotions on the stage, and the guests clinked glasses with each other below. After a wedding, the bride and groom had to smile and drink with the guests. At night, even though it was time for the wedding night, they were still too tired to move and collapsed on the bed.
At that time, Chen Yuanyuan thought that if she ever got married, she would definitely not have a wedding. Wouldn't it be wonderful to use the wedding money to go directly to an island for a honeymoon with her husband?
However, when Chen Yuanyuan actually stood in the Shen family ancestral hall, she felt that the troubled mood suddenly disappeared, and was replaced by a natural sense of solemnity and dignity.
In the vast, deep and solemn hall, rectangular tablets were stacked in a terraced pattern, reaching a height of more than twenty levels. Beneath the densely packed tablets, Old Madam Shen burned incense and whispered to her ancestors about Shen Cong's marriage. Her voice, deep and solemn, echoed lingeringly in the ancestral hall, lit by incense and candles.
Chen Yuanyuan couldn't help but straighten her back and followed Mr. Shen closely. She kowtowed, burned incense, prayed, and placed the incense sticks in the cauldron before the ceremony was over.
After all this, perhaps because of the solemn atmosphere around her or the guilty conscience inside, Wan broke out in a thin layer of sweat on her back.
After everyone left the ancestral hall, Chen Cong called Old Madam Shen aside and said something to her, but it seemed like something important. After that, he took his leave.
After Shen Cong left, Ling Wan stepped forward and continued to support Old Madam Shen, her expression unchanged.
From what Chen Yuanyuan had known about her husband over the previous six months, Chen Cong was an absolute workaholic. He held the dual positions of Minister of Personnel and Junior Tutor to the Crown Prince, and his days were filled with either reviewing official documents or preparing the young Crown Prince's schoolwork, often leaving him busy until midnight. The only thing that could have forced him to take time off today was probably matters at court.
Old Madam Shen had been looking at her beautiful second daughter-in-law calmly. Seeing that her face was still gentle, she couldn't help but smile with satisfaction.
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