"What's wrong? You seem hesitant to speak. Did you do something to upset your wife?"
Without the younger generation around, Jiang Yue asked directly.
"Mother, I didn't do it. I'm innocent too."
With a bitter face, Qingshan recounted all the unpleasant things that had happened recently under his mother's watchful gaze.
After his sister-in-law got married, his brother-in-law became an official in Nanjing.
The couple, worried that the mother-in-law would be bored at home with no one to take care of her, bought a mute old woman who did manual labor.
They also chose a lively and cheerful young maid who could bring some comfort to her mother-in-law while she did chores.
The problem lies with this young maid. She has grown up to be sixteen years old, and her heart is filled with spring fever. She has developed feelings for him that she shouldn't have!
He has absolutely no interest in it!
A few months ago, he ground the autumn harvest wheat into flour and sent two bags to his mother-in-law to try.
His mother-in-law told him to bring his wife and children to visit her home during the holidays.
After he returned, he told his wife, and they felt they had plenty of time, so they decided to bring the children to his mother-in-law's house to eat mooncakes and celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.
During this time, his wife went into the kitchen with her mother to make fillings, leaving the children with him in the yard.
He was playing happily with the children when suddenly the maid brought out tea and offered it to him.
Without thinking much, he took the tea and drank it.
Then, I felt dizzy.
The maidservant helped him up, and this scene was witnessed by his mother-in-law, who then asked her daughter-in-law to help him back to his room for a short nap.
Then he went to the little house where his wife used to live and fell fast asleep.
He woke up after dark, still feeling a little dizzy.
However, his mother-in-law and wife remained calm and called him out to eat mooncakes.
And so, he happily went to eat mooncakes.
It wasn't until he finished eating the mooncakes that he belatedly realized someone was missing from the courtyard.
He hadn't even realized something was wrong with this.
It was his wife who, after returning home and washing up, told him quietly as she rested that the maid had drugged him with a sleeping potion, intending to seduce him, but when she failed, she confessed and was tied up in the woodshed...
Later, he instructed his two trusted men, Yi Tiao and Er Tong, to sell the young maid and find a clean-handed old woman to work at his mother-in-law's house.
He couldn't figure it out at all.
My wife told me that her mother had spoken to the maid beforehand, saying she wanted to let her go and find a good family for her to marry into, so that she could repay the kindness and care she had shown over the years.
Who would have thought that the maid would repay her master in this way!
"That's all?"
Jiang Yue was relieved; thankfully, no major mistake had been made.
But is the son really that foolish?
I almost got tricked!
"Mother, I was careless. I will be more careful in the future."
Qingshan sighed. Back when he was doing business, people did it openly.
He had never encountered anything like this before, done in secret.
Given that his own maids and servants were all good, he thought...
Learn from your mistakes!
Seeing her son's sincerity and frustration, Jiang Yue said nothing more.
It mainly depends on the attitude of the daughter-in-law and her in-laws. This is a matter of...
She had quite a few maids at home. Besides the sisters He'er and Hua'er, who were released from their contracts and married off in style, the second batch of maids—Chunhua, Xiahua, Qiuhua, and Donghua—had also reached the prime of their lives. She would ask them what they wanted when she had the chance; if they wished to marry, she would certainly provide them with a generous dowry…
As for the third batch of maids, they seem to be too young and not ready yet, so we'll leave that aside for now.
Kitchen
The aroma is wonderful.
The old hen soup is already simmering, and a ginseng root has been added, which is very good for replenishing qi.
Stir-fried sliced pork, eggplant with minced pork, celery and dried tofu, stir-fried water chestnuts, stir-fried beef with yellow peppers, winter melon and pork rib soup, glutinous rice and lotus root slices, and lamb hot pot.
There are four adults and two children in the family; this amount of food should be enough.
Tomorrow I'll tell Donghua and the others to go to the market and buy more fresh vegetables. We'll just have to make do with this meal today.
"Madam, the food is almost ready. Please go to the main room and wait a while. We will serve the dishes shortly."
"Hey, remember to bring over the warmed glutinous rice wine."
"Yes, ma'am!"
......
Glutinous rice wine is a type of sweet wine.
It has a very mild aftertaste and a sweet taste.
The woman drank it, and it didn't cause her any problems.
Da Xue thought that her mother-in-law and sister-in-law would come home, and the whole family could have a good time and drink a few cups.
After all the dishes were served, Chunhua poured the fragrant and rich glutinous rice wine into the wine cups in front of the women...
Jiang Yue picked up the wine cup, sniffed it, looked at her daughter-in-law, and asked:
"Hmm? This is glutinous rice wine? It smells so good."
As Da Xue raised his glass in return for his mother-in-law's toast, he urged her to drink more:
"Mother is truly knowledgeable. This wine is indeed glutinous rice wine. It is mellow and sweet on the palate, with a mild aftereffect. You should try it; it's delicious."
"good."
Jiang Yue had drunk glutinous rice wine before; a lot of the wine from the rice wine village was sent to the princess's mansion.
However, the environment can influence the people of a particular region.
The aroma of the rice wine in my hand is quite different from that of Yunshui County.
After one cup, it was indeed fragrant, delicious, and quite good.
"Delicious!"
It was Qingyao who spoke, and she drank the cup down as if it were water.
Yes, just like drinking boiled water.
I didn't feel anything at all. If I had to say anything, it was that it was sweet and delicious.
"Looks like our girl is quite the drinker!"
Aoyama was delighted, dodging his daughter's attempt to sneak a sip from his wine glass, and praised his sister for being so clever.
"Daddy, I want some too!"
Wenwan was unhappy and insisted on drinking too.
Qingshan couldn't refuse his daughter, so he found a chopstick, dipped it in some white wine, and gestured for his daughter to try it.
"Hiss~"
"So spicy~"
"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey~"
"It's so bitter!"
"Daddy's bad!"
Wenwan tasted the wine, but it wasn't anything she liked!
Even such a small amount made her feel unwell; it didn't taste good!
She immediately frowned, jumped out of her father's arms, and ran to her grandmother's arms to whine and accuse her father of bullying her.
"Grandma, please help me! Daddy's playing a trick on me!"
"Oh, daughter, why are you trying to frame your father? Wasn't it you who wanted to drink it?"
Aoyama's lips twitched. Sure enough, his little darling was letting in the cold.
"It doesn't taste good, Daddy's lying! It always tastes good to Daddy!"
Wenwan stuck out her tongue, and tears welled up in her eyes from the spiciness; she looked utterly pitiful.
Jiang Yue smiled but remained silent, watching her son and granddaughter bicker.
Da Xue held her son, watching him with a smile, and occasionally fed him egg custard.
Rarely, when she saw her husband and daughter "falling out," she didn't rush to mediate.
"Silly girl, alcohol is spicy, only adults like your father can drink it. You little brat, when your father doesn't let you drink, you make a fuss. If I let you drink, you still complain about your father. Being a father is really hard~"
Seeing that neither his mother nor his wife had said anything, Qingshan felt more at ease and continued to deceive his daughter.
This wine is definitely not something a young girl should touch!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com