Evening Shaohua in the Red House

When it was sent to Jiamu's room, Jiamu liked it very much when she saw it, and said with a smile, "what a beautiful plum blossom, I said yesterday that I would fold one to put in a bottle, but it so happened that your master sent someone to send it today." gone."

It was Mei Xiang who came to send the plum blossoms. At this time, she hurriedly smiled and said, "This is a flower that only blooms in our yard. Our grandma didn't dare to play with it first, so she ordered us to break off two of the best ones, and fill them with water and put them in bottles. The bottle was put into the old lady, and another bottle was given to the wife. Theoretically, our grandma should have sent it in person, but the wind and cold have not recovered, and the doctor said that it must be rested, and the wind should not be blown, so I had to send the slaves to bring it."

Mother Jia was even more joyful when she heard the words, and said: "It's still Zhu'er's daughter-in-law's filial piety, and even a single flower misses me. Go back and tell your master to let her take care of her body and stop being tired."

He also asked Amber to fill two plates with the newly steamed taro and red oranges, yellows, oranges, olives, etc., and ordered Meixiang to take it to Li Wan.

Mei Xiang agreed.

Mother Jia liked her when she saw how well she advanced and retreated, and her clever words. She smiled and said, "It's so cold and snowy, it's hard for you to make this trip, Yuanyang, take a few hundred dollars to buy her some fruit to eat."

Yuanyang agreed, and sure enough, she took [-] yuan and gave it to Meixiang.

Mei Xiang was overjoyed, five hundred dollars was nothing to her, what was rare was this face, she immediately kowtowed to thank her, and then she took her things back.

It is the twelfth lunar month now, after the new year, and the new year is approaching, Mrs. Wang and Sister Feng are very busy with their annual affairs, and even Li Wan has no time to relax. Gold and silver utensils.

Ningguo Mansion Jiazhen also opened an ancestral hall, and people cleaned it, packed up the offering utensils and invited the gods;

At this time, the Rong and Ning prefectures are busy inside and outside.

On the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, all the colors were ready, the door gods were changed in the two mansions, couplets were made, signs were put up, peach talismans were newly oiled, corner lights were hung on the main gate, and the two sides were illuminated, and colorful lights were hung everywhere. Embroidered screen, a new look.

In the early morning of the next day, all those who received the imperial edict from Jia's mother wore court clothes according to their grades. First, they sat in a sedan chair for eight people and led them into the palace to congratulate them. First.

After returning to Rongfu after the worship, Jia Jing, Jia Amnesty and others led all the children in to salute Jiamu.

The men and women of the two mansions, the daughter-in-law, the servant, and the servant girl in charge, also go up, middle, and down to salute according to their duties.

, and then scattered the year-end money and purses of gold, silver and other things.

The first-class ones each have a purse containing more than auspicious gold zippers; The maids and women are each a string of clear money and some melons, fruits, snacks and other things.

Because it is the New Year, apart from the official duties, like Yuanyang Ping'er and other big girls who serve the master personally, the master has something extra to reward.

In Jiamu's room, there are two purses and two hairpin rings per person, while Mrs. Wang's has two purses and two rulers.

Li Wan and Jia Lan also received purses from Jia Mu and Mrs. Wang. The purses given by Jia Mu each contained six silver and six gold purses. , are all built very small and exquisite.

Mrs. Wang's is reduced by one class, and the two purses are four gold and silver scorpions each.

After the rewards were finished, a carnival feast was set up again, and men and women sat back and forth.After offering Tusu wine, acacia soup, auspicious fruit and Ruyi cake, Jia Mu got up and went into the inner room to change clothes, and everyone dispersed.

This night, the upper and lower people were all dressed up in beautiful flowers, and there was a lot of people's voices, talking and laughing, and the sound of firecrackers was endless.

After returning to the room after the New Year's Eve, Li Wan felt exhausted, and rewarded the people in the courtyard with the purse he had prepared. Seeing that Jia Lan had fallen asleep, he also washed up and went back to bed to rest, thinking about these things All kinds of life, I can't help but sigh secretly, it's really not easy for this big family to celebrate the festival.

This year, Jia’s mansion just bought hundreds of gold and silver coins for the year, and counting the exchange of favors and other rewards and expenses, it would cost at least five or six thousand taels of silver a year.

Li Wan roughly estimated that the gifts of relatives and friends didn't cost much, and they all came and went, sending out here and receiving in there.

The most expensive ones are all kinds of rewards during the holidays in the mansion, gold and silver coins.

There are so many people in the house, the wives and girls in each house, the daughters-in-law and maids in the inner courtyard, the clothes and jewelry are a big fortune, and there are rewards for the servants in charge of the outer courtyard, because It was Chinese New Year, and each person was rewarded with a month's money and a new set of clothes. This sum of money alone was no less than three or four thousand taels of silver.

Calculated in this way, there are three festivals a year, Duanyang, Mid-Autumn Festival, and New Year, and it will cost at least tens of thousands of taels of silver.

The Jia family has always been good-looking and extravagant, and they have to pay attention to ostentation when they are exhausted. They are afraid of losing face, and they don't add any money to property.

Li Wan thought about it over and over again.

For half a day, it was not until four o'clock that he fell asleep in a daze.

For the next few days, Mother Jia only watched operas at home, talked to a few old wives to relieve boredom, or played Go and played cards with Baoyu, Daiyu and other sisters.

Li Wan is a widow, so he doesn't have to socialize. He just takes care of Jia Lan every day, or goes to Jia's mother's room to chat and laugh to relieve boredom.

Mrs. Wang and Sister Feng are busy inviting people to have New Year's wine every day. There are theater wines in the hall and courtyard, and there are endless streams of relatives and friends.

On the third day of junior high school, Mrs. Shi Nai, the Marquis of Bowling, brought Shi Xiangyun to have New Year's wine. After Mrs. Shi Nai said hello to Mrs. Wang, she waited with Mrs. Wang to watch a play and eat wine, while Xiangyun stayed in Jia's room with Tan. Chun Baoyu and the others were joking.

The young sisters have not seen each other for a long time, and they are naturally very affectionate.

Xiangyun hadn't come for a long time, but when he came now, he saw that Baoyu, who had always been close to him, was only walking around Daiyu, and was very affectionate. The little girl lost her temper and pouted displeasedly: "Brother love, you have forgotten me, It's so easy for me to come here, why do you only talk around Sister Lin and ignore me."

Baoyu laughed and said, "When did I forget you? My son said I would pick you up to be stubborn, but I was preparing for the New Year a while ago, and the house was not free, and the master wanted to ask me about my book again. I was only busy preparing for my homework, so I took it Forget about it."

Xiang Yun sneered and said, "Since you have to work hard, why do you have time to spend time with Sister Lin? We grew up together, and the friendship we have had for so many years is not as good as when he just came here. Hmph!"

Because of Jia's mother's love, Xiangyun grew up in Rongguo's mansion since he was a child. He lived in Jia's mansion for more than half of the year, and he and Baoyu grew up eating and sleeping at the same table. The treatment is not even as good as Sanchun.I don't want to think that Daiyu is here now, not to mention her extraordinary life, Jiamu loves her very much, Baoyu only circles around her, and she retreats to the point of shooting. Her childish temper makes her feel a little annoyed. .

Daiyu didn't hear it, she just talked and laughed with Li Wan.

Li Wan glanced at the three of them, and then he understood a little, he pursed his lips and smiled, but didn't say anything.

The face of Baoyu in this room was flushed, and he argued: "Sister Lin just came here, so I took care of you a little bit more, and I didn't alienate you because of this."

After all, make up for it.

Xiangyun was just a little jealous at first, but now seeing Baoyu's explanation, he became angrier, turned around and ignored him, and said to himself: Since you love to play with her, just go, why don't you pay for her?

Li Wan glanced at Jia's mother above him, and saw that she just smiled and looked at her, and Daiyu just ate melon seeds and didn't say a word.

Tanchun is sitting by the side eating with Yingchun Tanchun

Seeing that Baoyu's face was flushed, Chaguo held back a smile and greeted, "Sister Yun, come and sit down for a while. This is the good tea that the second sister-in-law used to honor the old lady. Come and taste it too."

Xiangyun glanced at Baoyu and said with a smile, "Third sister should treat me better." Then he walked to Tanchun and sat down to have tea.

Baoyu breathed a sigh of relief, secretly wiped the sweat from his forehead, and sat down hurriedly.

Daiyu just pursed her lips and smiled when she saw it.

It so happened that Mammy Lai came to greet Mother Jia on this day, and invited everyone to have New Year's wine on the fifth day of the lunar new year.

After talking about housework and human relations, Mother Jia glanced at the clothes on Nanny Lai, and said with a smile, "Who made your clothes today? It's so bright. The flowers on it are so vivid, just like the clothes you just wore." It's like it's been folded."

Nanny Lai hurriedly smiled and said, "This is done by girl Qingwen. Although this girl is not very old, she is very clever and good at sewing."

After finishing speaking, he beckoned to a little girl next to her, who was wearing a water-red satin jacket and a blue satin waistcoat, to come forward.

Li Wan knew that this was Qingwen, so he looked intently, and saw that she was only in her early ten years, with willow eyebrows and almond eyes, and snow-skinned lips, she was actually a very beautiful girl.

Mammy Lai would often bring Qingwen in before, and everyone had seen it before. Mother Jia took a closer look and said with a smile: "Qingwen didn't show up at first, but now she has become more and more well-rounded in the past two years." .”

Jiamu has always liked bright and beautiful girls. Seeing Qingwen's neat appearance and ingenuity, she liked her a lot, so she invited her to come forward and ask a few words. So he ordered someone to grab two handfuls of fruit and eat them with her.