[Red Mansions] The Road to Empress Dowager

Shi Hui pouted and said, "It's my cousin again. I'm the youngest everywhere I go, so I can't be an older sister." Shi Hui is the youngest child of the same generation in the family, and there are two other girls in the other rooms of the Shi family. , although I have never seen them before, and there are letters and festivals. They are all older than her. Xian'er is also married, and the youngest daughter Shi Liang'er is half a year older than Shi Hui.

Daiyu thought for a while and smiled, "It's not possible. The eldest daughter of Ningguo Mansion, sister Xichun, is raised in Rong Mansion. She is a year younger than you."

Shi Hui's eyes lit up, and she asked, "Really? I'm an older sister too? Will this sister Xichun listen to her?"

Daiyu poked Shi Hui's head with her index finger and said, "You are the only one who still wants to show off your sister?"

Shi Hui said: "If you just play tricks on me, I won't be able to do it?"

Xing Xiuyan said: "When did I put on a show, you came and I made good tea and treats, but you said I was showing off, I really might as well raise a puppy."

Shi Hui smiled and rushed over and said, "Isn't it okay for me to be a puppy for you? Good master, please reward me with some food."

At noon, I arrived at a resting place on the canal. The boat owner can get off the boat and find a tea shed or noodle shop to rest, and the host also has a small restaurant.

The three of them put on their hats and went ashore accompanied by their mothers and maids. They saw a peach forest not far from the shore. It was the time when the peach blossoms were in full bloom. The pink and tender flowers seemed to be lively like a meeting. Xu Lai, the petals are falling, so beautiful.

Shi Hui was very fond of it, but suddenly heard Daiyu sigh: "Flowers are not perfect for a hundred days, and they will fall off as soon as the spring is over."

Shi Hui said, "Isn't the flying petals beautiful?"

Daiyu said: "You only look at the beauty, but it comes clean and innocent, but in the end it falls into filth. Isn't it sad? Our daughter is like a flower in her boudoir, but in the future I don't know what kind of filth it will fall off." Go inside." As he spoke, he couldn't help wiping away tears with a handkerchief.

Shi Hui couldn't help being a little crazy, Mrs. Zhang was also anxious to find her a husband's house, and she used to wait for her father to go further so that she could find a better one.Now my father has fulfilled his wish to be promoted several levels in a row, and there is no way to get promoted in the short term. She is almost 14 years old, and she will definitely have a kiss soon.If you don't have a lover, and you have those three obediences and four virtues, in the future...

Xing Xiuyan couldn't help sighing when she heard this. Sister Lin felt sad about things, and it seemed that she couldn't escape.She never thought that she would suddenly be sad and sing funeral flowers.Since Daiyu secretly took the medicine given by Lin Ruhai, her body is normal, and she is less sad, but she is still sensitive to the scene.

Xing Xiuyan said: "If there are no flowers, how can there be fruit? Flowers bloom in spring, bear fruit in summer, harvest in autumn, collect in winter, and the four seasons change for reproduction. You feel sad when you see it falling into mud, but you don't know it enjoys it. Enjoying the joy of successful reproduction in spring, how can it be full of sadness if it is seeking benevolence? This is like, when you become an old lady in the future, when you see the full house of children and grandchildren and the continuation of the family, you will die with a smile at the age of [-]. "

Shi Hui clapped her hands and smiled and said she was right, but suddenly realized, she twisted Xing Xiuyan and said, "Who is a hundred-year-old lady?"

When Xing Xiuyan said this, Daiyu put away the sadness in her heart, and also felt that according to Xing Xiuyan's words, it was indeed a joy, and she let her heart go.

Daiyu looked at Taoyuan, and couldn't help thinking that Xing Xiuyan said that the three of them were destined, that they were cousins ​​who turned the corner.

Since Daiyu was sensible, the year and a half when Xing Xiuyan lived in her house was the happiest.The girls in Jia's house are all good, but they are not as good as Xing and Shi are his confidantes.It also occurred to me that the three of them were all familiar with poetry and books, and they were true lovers. The three of them would share when they had something to do, and Xing Xiuyan opened a tailor-made clothing store and gave Shi Hui a stake.

Judging from the spirituality of Daiyu's poems, she is really a person of the world, but she is oppressed by the secrets of the inner house and has no one to rely on, so she has to pay attention to Baoyu, but now she is spoiled by her father very differently.

At this moment, under the impression of the scene, she took the opportunity to remind: "Sister Xing, you mentioned that day, but it's a pity that Sister Shi is not around, otherwise our three cousins ​​who are turning a corner can get married in Taoyuan. There is Taoyuan here, we The reunion of the three of us, isn't it the fate that God gave us?"

Xing Xiuyan almost forgot, at this moment she couldn't help but said happily: "Isn't it? I want to be the eldest sister, but I don't know if Xiaohui would like to be the youngest."

Shi Hui opened her eyes wide after hearing this, and said with a smile: "Then I'll go all out. The third sister is the third sister, it's better than no sister at all."

……

Xing Xiuyan asked Su Qing and the nuns to prepare the altar. They just didn't have incense candles, but they found wine and white chopped chicken in the store, and moved the things to the peach grove.

The fact that the three girls wanted to be sworn brothers in Taoyuan also shocked the adults, but they did not stop them.Xing Zhong and his wife felt that the Lin and Shi families were noble families, and that the Xing family was originally a high-ranking family, while the Lin and Shi families knew that Xing Xiuyan would be prosperous in the future.Although they didn't want to get involved in the harem, the Lin family was personally sent by the emperor to live there, but the Shi family knew some legends about Xing Xiuyan's first embroidered lady in Suzhou, and felt that she was really a very lucky person.They also knew that the three girls had a good relationship in the past two years, so they couldn't bear to stop them, but watched from the sidelines.

In front of the incense table, Xing Xiuyan was the eldest in the middle, Daiyu was the next on the left, and Shi Hui was the youngest on the right. The three of them knelt down while lighting the incense, and recited according to the agreed oath: "When you read Xing Xiuyan, Lin Daiyu, and Shi Hui, although they have different surnames, The mind is connected, and once we become Jinlan, we will share blessings and difficulties in the future. We don’t want to be born on the same day in the same year, but we hope to die in the same year. !"

Saying that, the three of them happily bowed eight times, and got up again, Daiyu and Shi Huifu bowed to Xiuyan as the eldest sister, Daiyu was next, and Shi Hui was the youngest.Xing Xiuyan had already ordered a nanny to find a token from the boat, which were three warm jade pendants of the same quality, which were sent to her by Tu Yuanyi.

The three of them bowed to the elders of the three parents again, and received some gifts, and then they realized that they were hungry, so they went to eat at a restaurant together.When the women's relatives are at the same table, the appellation also changes, and they are called by ranking, and they are very affectionate.

Arrived in Kyoto soon.

The Lin family had a mansion in Jingben, and they had already sent people to clean it up, but the scholar's mansion was before Lin Ruhai officially took office, and they dared not move in in advance.And Shi Rui was a Jinshi the year before last, and now he is in the Hanlin Academy. The Shi family is not short of money, and has built a five-in-one mansion in the inner city. Shi Rui asked for leave today to pick up his parents; the people who came to pick up the Xing family were It's a little strange, it's the housekeeper of the Xing family, and Tu Yuanyi asked people to arrange a mansion not far from the future scholar's mansion, and the people were also arranged by his confidants.

The three families separated, boarded the carriage and left.

Shi Rui sat in the carriage with his father, only to hear Shi Bai say that he went to Beijing with the Lin and Xing families.

Shi Rui wondered, "The Xing family? The Xing family?"

Shi Bai said: "It's Miss Xing's family. Xing Zhong was entrusted by the Holy Grace to weave from the Guangchu Department of the Wupin Internal Affairs Office. Now he is going to Beijing to work."

Shi Rui asked in surprise: "What?" Although the officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are not as good as those of the previous dynasty, and most of them are not from Jinshi background, but not everyone can be the one. There are two factions, but they are also compatible with each other, and the water of the well does not violate the water of the river.

Before that, the original House of Internal Affairs of the Great Zhou Dynasty did not have three thousand officials like the Qing Dynasty in the official history, which is not small.Since Tu Yuanyi ascended the throne, he has spent a lot of effort in rectifying the House of Internal Affairs and changed many people.Many of his factories were run by people selected by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Due to the expansion of industries, the Ministry of Internal Affairs also has a tendency to expand.The Ministry of Internal Affairs does not transfer money from the Ministry of Household Affairs, and no one in the front court dares to control how the emperor asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to start a business. If he wants to seal more officials, the front court can't say much.

Shi Bai had a lot of conversations with Lin Ruhai on the boat in the past two days, and he was not blind, so he guessed it, so he couldn't help reminding Shi Rui: "The Xing family is probably valued by the higher-ups, and Miss Xing has two servants with martial arts by her side. You It’s enough to know what’s in your mind.”

Shi Rui couldn't help but catch his breath, he couldn't understand what kind of person he was.He hasn't married yet, but it's just for the scientific research, and the two-year delay is no one in Beijing.He was a 23-year-old leftover man, but Zhang Shi sent two maids over by his side. Shi Bai himself was only 23 years old when he got engaged in high school, so he was not in a hurry earlier.The Zhang family's promotion to Beijing this time must be to take care of his marriage.But in his heart he had long cared about the girl back then, and when he heard the news that she was blind in Beijing, he wanted to go and see her in person, but when he met again, he couldn't help but feel sad when he heard the news.

As an ancient man, he didn't think like Xing Xiuyan. A woman with a foreign surname who was not from the clan had to be taken care of by her superiors and served by her servants. He wouldn't think that she was going to be the "princess, county lord, and county lord."

It is natural for the father to be an official to arrange a family background, which is naturally for the convenience of the draft. The common people can only enter the palace as maids, and only the daughters of officials enter the palace. of.