Dowry maid's daily life [Red Mansion]

It wasn't until the second drum that the lantern market gradually dispersed.

This night, Du Yun'an wandered around the Lantern Market, saw the fireworks sheds, and personally set off two special fireworks of "Peony Piercing a Thread" and "Moon Falling on a Golden Plate", which can be described as satisfying.

As for the imposing eldest brother of Senior Brother Song that he met halfway, Du Yun'an just changed his mind about "Senior Brother Song's step-brother".Du Zhong actually asked his younger brother a few more questions, knowing that this "Xie Yujing" is now a guerrilla general in the Beijing camp, it is very remarkable.

Back home, everyone bustlingly ate a bowl of Yuanxiao filled with glutinous rice and sesame seeds before going back to their rooms.There was only Song Chen next door, so Du Zhong was very unwilling to ask him to go back, and still told him to live in the East Wing: "You are not an outsider, An An calls you the second brother, so why avoid suspicion?"

Song Chen quickly waved his hands, Jun's face flushed red, he was one of the ten thousand who didn't want to be the second brother.It's just that he left the yard reluctantly, and walked towards the east chamber with his back stiff. Du Zhong still said behind him: "We will kill two rounds later and then sleep."

"Kill two rounds?" Yun An wondered, amused that Senior Brother Song was also shy.

Du Zhong has become quite addicted to chess recently, but his sister is a real stinky chess player. Du Zhong didn't dare to provoke her, so she hurriedly said with a smile: "Your Brother Song Suxi has a hand-to-hand chat before going to bed, and I will accompany him."

Du Yun'an was only good at arranging backgammon with the black and white pieces of Go, so he always admired those people who walked around and looked at ten, so he laughed and said to the east chamber: "I have seen two good chess books, I will copy them for you next time." Brother Song." There are many chess records at Yingchun, and this time the three sisters even dug out some moldy ones from the Rongfu library.

Song Chen's ears were hot, and he pretended to thank him calmly, but he didn't pretend to say anything polite.

Good chess record?Du Zhong just took a look at his junior brother, and made up his mind to take it from his junior brother—anyway, his junior brother's chess style is always brave and unstoppable.

He was making plans for himself, and quietly made a "give it to me" gesture to his junior brother.Song Chen lowered his eyebrows, refused to answer his senior brother's criticism, turned his back and silently refused: Give it to me!

Du Zhong took a hard look, and then turned to tell his sister that as usual, the family would help her to digest food and gather strength.Yun Anyin told her brother about the eldest daughter of the Jia family going out to get married, Mrs. Wang as a matchmaker, and Mrs. Li's plan. : "So, the person that Miss Jia is going to marry is Junior Brother Song's elder brother?"

"Brother Song's elder brother?" Du Yun'an was puzzled.

"Didn't we meet tonight?"

Yun An opened his eyes wide: "That Xie Yujing?" Is it true that there are no coincidences in this world?

Du Zhong laughed: "You were only thinking about being stubborn just now. Didn't your Senior Brother Song say that his elder brother's name is Jing, and his name is Yujing?"

Du Yun'an tried his best to think back, and sure enough, there was only one stubborn heart left tonight, and he couldn't even remember what he looked like. He just remembered that he was a tall man - about the same height as Senior Brother Song?At that time, Senior Brother Song stood in front of her, and now Yun An only thought of Senior Brother Song's back.

"Don't think about An An, it has nothing to do with us." Du Zhong just casually said that Xie Jing is a foreigner, so it's no wonder that An An would remember it carefully.

Regretted that he didn't take a second look, Yun An felt sorry for him, that was a strange man who was about to be "married off by a noble concubine"!She slandered in her heart, and felt that the capital was really small for a moment.

Not long after, Du Zhong sent his younger sister back to the room to rest, and he walked to Song Chen's residence, the expression on his face changed from warm and cold to frost.

The door of the east wing was not closed, Song Chen rested one hand on the kang table, staring at the semi-disabled chess game in front of him in a daze.

"I won't play chess today." Du Zhong pretended to be troubled, and was rarely interested in playing chess.

Song Chen picked up a sunspot and said in a low voice, "Brother, are you thinking about that 'Jia Rui'?"

Du Zhong raised his eyebrows slightly, and looked back at the distance between here and the main room, "Did you hear that?"

Song Chen nodded and looked at him.

As Du Zhong said when he left Song Chen, Song Chen is already a member of the Du family, so it's okay to listen.

Song Chen was magnanimous, and Du Zhong was not pretentious, and said in a low voice: "It's about An'an, I have to make sure that 'Uncle Rui' won't pester or talk nonsense." Son, don't get yourself ashamed for no reason.

The two brothers and sisters are highly skilled and bold, and they found the street where Jia's family lived that night. It was not very late at this time, and there was no curfew these days, so it was easy for the two who had just come for a walk first. Knowing the residence of Jia Dairu's family - Eucommia and Song Chenfang went near Dairu's house, and heard the sound of firecrackers and fireworks, high and low voices, an old man shouting and cursing loudly, and a man stuttering and reciting a book , There was also an old woman who kept saying "Rui'er" and "Rui'er" distressingly.

"Is it okay for this person's family?" The two asked the passers-by returning home.

"Oh, it's the Confucian old man teaching his grandson to recite books again!" A few drunks who had just wandered back waved their hands and snorted coldly: "Don't worry, it's fine! Then the old man at home disciplined his grandson again—there was a quarrel on the first day of the new year. The big Lantern Festival is making trouble again, showing off that he can teach his grandson to read! How sooner or later he won’t call the neighbor’s An Sheng..."

Hearing this, the two senior brothers breathed a sigh of relief. The old man of this family disciplined him so strictly, even though Jia Rui didn't dare to make any trouble.

The older brother felt relieved and consciously let go of his worries.But the one who didn't want to be an older brother still refused to let go, always wanting to see for himself what kind of person that 'Uncle Rui' is.

...Finally, Eucommia killed a game of chess and went to sleep. Song Chen couldn't sleep, so he went out quietly to relax.After a while, he arrived at Jia Dairu's small courtyard.

After Jia Ruifang finished reciting a book, he shivered into the quilt to keep warm. It was late at night, and as soon as he got into the bed curtain, he couldn't help but flip through the erotic book again, muttering something like "" Sister and sister-in-law are good people..." The obscene words.

Song Chen hid behind the house, half of his face exposed under the moonlight was livid, his fists clenched tighter and tighter with the obscene words inside.

The moon had already slanted to the west, and Jia Rui, who fell asleep as soon as the fire fell, was in great trouble. In his sleep, he was hit by fists like raindrops, woke up and passed out—or Jia Dairu was hit the next day because he saw that his grandson hadn’t woken up to work hard. The door jolted him awake.

Song Chen beat Jia Rui severely, and when he went back, he still didn't feel relieved, and when he was thinking about it, he heard a cool voice say, "Where did you go?"

When he looked up, he saw Xie Jing leaning against the gate of his small courtyard with a jar of wine.

Xie Jing lazily stood leaning against the wall, without the upright and majestic look in front of anyone: "'If you know lust, then Mu Shaoai.' Brother Chen has grown up."

Song Chen narrowed his eyes and stared at him.

"Don't look, I've come already." Xie Jing rubbed his chin and laughed jokingly: "I wanted to drink with you, but I saw you and your senior brother go out, and when you finally came back, your kid sneaked out again—— —Coincidentally, I just checked the details of the family, and the girl you have in mind is living in his house."

Wang Ziteng intends to recruit him to be his niece and son-in-law. According to Xie Jing's city, where would he wait for his parents' orders? Only then did he get a hint from Wang Ziteng, and then he sent someone to investigate Jia's family.Rongning and Ningfu were able to find out that Xie Jing thought at first that his subordinates had been tricked by others and got false news. He personally led people to investigate, and the investigation became deeper and deeper. Even Jia Dairu's old wife replaced his grandson I know all the little things like begging for a kiss.

Xie Jing spent the whole New Year's holidays with Jia's family. He wanted to visit his brother in two days, but unexpectedly, he ran into him in the Lantern City today.Xie Jing was on an errand at the time, so I can't say more about it, as soon as I got off my errand, I would bring a jar of good wine to get drunk with his elder brother, and when I came here, I met Song Chen and Du Zhong. Go out quietly.If it wasn't for Xie Jing at the Lantern Festival, he would have seen the stupid brother glance at the other girl's eyes, subconsciously blocking her with a protective look, I'm afraid Xie Jing would really guess that the two of them sneaked out to have a night out The whore has gone.

Originally, a young boy with a young blood, and a sneaky look.It would not be surprising if Xie Jing was wrong.It's just that when Song Chen and the others came back, they only focused on talking at home, and they still didn't see him.Xie Jing listened to it for a while, and made some guesses.

"Why, don't you invite your eldest brother in?" Xie Jing was dissatisfied.

Song Chen looked at the door next door, and was really reluctant to part with the warm and comfortable kang burning in the east chamber of his senior brother's house, but seeing Xie Jing's rascal appearance, he had no choice but to raise his hand to signal him to please.

The corners of Xie Jing's mouth twitched, it's useless to just ask, but to open the door and let them in.

The key is still at the senior brother's house, Song Chen jumped into his courtyard wall in twos and went straight to the study. After he lit the lamp with a torch, the cold courtyard became warmer.

Xie Jing waited outside for a long while, but his brother came to open the door, couldn't help laughing and cursing "brat", stepped back a few steps to use his strength, and climbed over the courtyard wall fairly neatly.

"Why is there nothing? What do you usually eat and drink?" Xie Jing turned around by himself, but he didn't find any snacks and fruits to accompany the wine.

Song Chen pointed to the next door: "I live over there."

"You refused to ask you to stay at home, but you took that brother as your own brother!" Xie Jing muttered angrily, "Now you still have a crush on his girl, why don't you go directly to his house!"

Song Chen's hand, which was looking for dried fruit from the drawer, paused, as if he really thought about it seriously: "It's okay."

Xie Jing was furious, and was about to pinch his neck when he came up: "Damn boy, how dare you!" Back then, he refused to be my own brother, but now he asks someone else to pick up a ready-made one for a woman, don't even think about it!

Throwing a pack of peanuts on the small table, Song Chen took a step sideways to block his elder brother's hand: "Do you still want to eat?"

Eat, why not eat?Xie Jing is such a big prince and grandson, he was wronged and peeled peanuts by himself, so he had a drink with his 'unfilial' brother.

After most of the wine went down, the two brothers were a little drunk, Xie Jing pulled the skin of the promising young master even more, and even talked endlessly, "...the men of the Jia family, don't talk about establishing a family, there is a good one. No? Their West Mansion is better, and the inner house is strictly managed. There is only one kid who likes to mess around in the inner curtains. How dirty is the East Mansion? If your sister from your brother’s family lives in the East Mansion, I will definitely To dispel your thoughts..."

"...That Jia Rui, who is well-known in their family, is the most greedy person who seeks to gain advantage... Will this kind of person be willing to let go of the fat he can see? Once his intentions are rejected, who will Know how to...spread some nasty gossip, and the person in your heart will die!" Xie Jing said coldly: "Although he has never done this before, Jia Zhen from the East Mansion has such behaviors a few times. ——This is how his daughter-in-law got her by threatening..."

"I don't like his Jia's daughter anyway!"

Song Chen spent a lot of time pouring wine and slamming glasses for his elder brother, but he seldom talked, but the expression on his face was more and more like that of Xie Jing, and gradually became vicious and vicious.

----

On this day, Du Yun'an was drying books with Yingchun, Daiyu and a large group of girls when Baochai and Tanchun walked in, looking at the books covering the entire courtyard, they couldn't help but be dumbfounded: "Where did you copy these things? "

Baochai is older than Tanchun, and she never covered her mouth and nose with a handkerchief, but she really wondered: "Have you read all the books on the shelf, so you can learn from those pedants to 'save books' and 'make up books'." stand up?"

"This smell of musty dust!" Baochai frowned: "Tell your girls to stop. Especially sister Lin, who is careful and coughing!"

"Help them in quickly." Yun'an said with three smiles, "Let us wash our hands." He didn't dare to come over as he said that, he just waved to Baochai Tanchun and hid in the clean room.

"Don't mention it!" Snow Heron, with a feather duster in her waist, came to help her and the two of them pass the side corridor, shaking her head: "Compared to the time when I was flipping through the book, this time is much better. At that time, it was full of hair." They are covered in ashes, and the girls' veiled caps are useless."

All the Baochai said laughed: "Where did they find these piles of old papers?"

Siqi came up from behind and said with a snort, "It's in the bookstore on the southeast corner. Second Mistress Lian called Ping'er to thank the girls for cleaning up that small building yesterday."

"Is that a bookstore?" Tanchun looked southeast from here.

"It's not a library! I don't know how many lifetimes I've ignored it, and even my wife doesn't remember what it was for, but the girls in our family heard about it from some old lady, so they went in excitedly!" Ping'er came out from inside, with a veil still wrapped around his face.

Baochai Tanchun couldn't help covering her mouth with her handkerchief and laughing at this attire: "What kind of attire are you wearing!"

Ping'er was still angrily saying: "Miss Lin was startled by bookworms, and she came back to take a bath immediately, and she almost caught a cold.! The second girl was choked by the dust and coughed for a whole day to recover! And Miss An, it was just a matter of time. The bookshelf that was rotted by the moth fell on me, almost scaring our grandma for half her life! But these three ancestors are good, they don’t know what good things are there, they still want to go in, and they are not allowed to go in. The wives cleaned it up first, and said, 'The paper is so brittle, once you ask them to clean it, there will be nothing left in it'!"

After hearing this, Xue Baochai was in a daze, and asked as if thinking of something: "Who built the library? Has it not been cleaned all these years?"

Siqi curled his lips: "Who has ever cleaned it? It's very dilapidated. Even the bookshelves made of good wood are rotten. Fortunately, there are many piles of rotten boxes made of camphor wood. That's why girls Get these books out."

Ping'er said with a smile: "The building was originally in the outer study courtyard of Lord Taiguo. Later, the mansion was expanded, and the study building was taken into the inner courtyard. Thanks to the good materials used in the past, this building has been used for years. It didn’t leak rain or snow, otherwise, not to mention these papers left, the building would have collapsed.”

Baochai turned her beautiful eyes, paused on her feet, and called Yinger: "Just pick up a book and show it to me, and I'll see what good articles it is that bothers them so much."

Ying'er leaned out of the corridor, picked up a book, and showed it to Baochai with a handkerchief.

Baochai looked at it, but it turned out to be a travelogue of an unknown person, with pages and pages missing.

Tanchun also became interested, and asked Shishu to take a copy for her to read. Shishu stretched out his fingers to look back and forth, and then tiptoed to fetch a new one that seemed to be preserved from four or five steps away. book is coming.

"It's Li Yishan's collection of poems. This calligraphy is really good." Tanchun smiled, looked at the shape of the characters carefully, and followed up with two gestures.

"It's all such idle books?" Baochai said with a smile.

"Sister Bao wants to look for the Four Books and Five Classics, why bother looking there, just look at my bookshelf." Daiyu finished changing clothes and cleaning her hands at this time, she picked it up and said with a smile.

Behind her, Yingchun and Yun'an also followed.

"I just heard them say that it was the old man's library, so I thought there might be some rare ancient books in it. If I can find them, even one or two, it's not in vain for you to waste so much effort. It's gone." Xue Baochai was very frank.

"If there really is an isolated ancient book, it won't be that no one cares about it for a long time." Ping'er finally understood, and hurriedly said with a smile: "Our grandma also asked the old people, and said that this book was originally used by the Duke when he was fighting. The spoils of war had to be sorted out first when they were stored in the warehouse. Those lonely antiques had already been separated and properly stored in the study in the front yard, and these were randomly piled into this building—if there were indeed rare and ancient books , who would be willing to let it rot there.”

Sure enough, this is the reason, Baochai said with a smile: "I was thinking about it, what kind of person is the old man, can't he think of what we are thinking about?"

On the contrary, Daiyu sneered: "A book is a book, so why say it is good or bad just because of a single copy! Is it possible that of all the books in the world, the only one left is a good book, and it is precious. Don't read what is written in the book. What, just commenting on high and low is putting the cart before the horse!"

Tan Chun hurriedly smiled and said, "You're being greedy again, that's not what we mean. Good sister, this collection of poems in my hand is very good, just give it to me, I want to copy the words on it!"

Daiyu stretched her neck to take a look, and said with a smile: "It is indeed a good handwriting, but there are a few books with better writing that we sorted out, do you want to read it? Let me remind you first, it is not a famous handwriting , we don’t recognize the names mentioned on the title page, and one of the books of poetry even claimed that it was copied by an old servant of an official, if you are afraid of spoiling your daughter’s..."

"Sister Lin's mouth!" Tan Chun came up to hold her mouth angrily: "I only read good characters, I don't care if he is a servant or a high official!"

Everyone laughed.

In Pingming Tower, the maids served tea slower than usual. In fact, everyone had to change their clothes and clean their hands before reboiling the water.

"There are quite a few good books." Yun An said with a smile: "There is also a set of classics compiled by the previous dynasty, fortunately it is well preserved in a camphor wood box, it is difficult to find this set of books outside now It’s not just this set of grand ceremonies, there are many treasures in the library, you must know that this is the trophy of Rong Guogong back then, what can be called the trophy must be the things obtained by searching the rich and powerful families of the previous dynasty.The books that can be collected by such a family are extraordinary in themselves, at least she did not find out the vulgar and rough erotic scripts from it - but there are two boxes of scripts, which were also written by famous people back then, which is not unusual The obscene works of those talented scholars and beauties.

Those celebrity calligraphy and paintings, rare books and ancient books are indeed rare, but not without them.The envoys of Rong Guo selected all the masterpieces of the ancients at that time, but the people of Rong Guo Gong's era also became "ancients" at this time, and a large number of celebrities emerged in the last years of the previous dynasty. It is not rare, but after the war, it is really worth a thousand gold today.

From the pile of old papers left on the half floor, the three of Du Yun'an found a dozen or so copies (pieces) of famous masterpieces that were still in good condition. Only counting these, the three of them have already made a fortune!

It's just that these can be used as "family heirlooms" to be passed down to future generations. After a quiet discussion, the little sisters decided to hide them: although these can be exchanged for a large amount of money, money can't be exchanged for these.What's more, the three boudoir daughters don't need such a large sum of money, and it's hard to hide it... They simply choose what they like and treasure it according to their own preferences.

Baochai and Tanchun also liked it when they heard it, so they agreed with them to mend and order these books together, and they would compile a list together.

Just as you were happy with what I said, Amber hurried in with tears on her face: "Girls, go and persuade the old lady! The old lady is so angry that she wants to kneel down... ..."

"Why?" The girl stood up in shock.

This is Xifeng's girl, Shun'er, who also ran in: "Second Grandma told the girls not to go up, she said some things that are not good for the girls to listen to."

Everyone was even more surprised, and hurriedly pulled the two of them to question.

At this time, in Rongqing Hall, Jia Mu was trembling with anger.Mrs. Wang paused on the ground and murmured: "Impossible, impossible!"

"Idiot!" Mother Jia knocked the gloomy wooden crutch loudly: "I'm old, I won't go out for a walk, why don't you know anything about it during the New Year's Eve!"

"My Yuan'er!" Jia's mother burst into tears: "How could the queen mother suddenly give her marriage and give Yuan'er to King Beijing as a second concubine?!" The old lady really couldn't say the word "concubine" , but in fact, apart from the emperor, the concubine's concubines in the prince's family sound nice, but in fact they have no rank at all, they are just concubines!

If it is the concubine of the prince and grandson, it would be a good thing. After giving birth to a boy and a half girl, you can ask the imperial court for an imperial order, and your name can also be given a jade certificate, but the king of Beijing is a king with a different surname, so his concubine is just a concubine. They are all concubines!Even if Concubine Beijing died today, the prince would not have the possibility to restore his concubine's house like his noble relatives. The prince could only marry another stepmother!