Old things in the Red Chamber

The one who came with Second Lord Qi, and Qi Jing'an are really cousins, his mother is the third eldest princess, has no title, and has a weak personality, so his father Wei Ma is the one who plays a decision-making role in the princess mansion.

Among the royal princesses, the third eldest princess is quite strange. There are many princesses who are virtuous, and there are also many unruly and willful ones, but there are really few weak characters.

The one in front of me is the youngest son of the Third Princess and Concubine Wei, the second master of the Wei family, with a nice name called Wei Ruolan.

The three children came out to pay their respects, and Jia Xun asked her mother-in-law to lead Jia Nan and her two daughters back to the backyard.The three of them moved to Jia Huan's study, drinking tea and talking in the study.

The teapot was empty twice, and Second Master Qi kept winking at Second Master Wei, who then asked embarrassedly, "Earlier, my father and Shi Hou's elder brother were friends, but now my father is thinking about his deceased friend, and wants to take The eldest daughter of the Shi family hired her to be his younger brother's wife, and the younger brother just asked his cousin-in-law. I heard that Miss Smith was raised in Rongguo Mansion on weekdays, but I don't know..." Staggering, "Is it as simple and generous as the rumors?"

Jia Xun held the teacup and thought for a while, "I haven't seen their family members. Although I went to the backyard to greet the old lady, they all cleared up early. Let me say, I can't tell. No, in a few days, who's... that's right, Princess Beijing celebrates her birthday, and their county prince came back from the border town. My cousin works in his palace and gave me a post, Beiwangfu and Rongguo The relationship is good, they will definitely go, when the time comes, you will go with me and your cousin, now that both of you have this intention, the family will definitely give you a chance to make a couple."

This is also a way, but Wei Erye doesn't really need this post, and the Princess Mansion has also received it. When the time comes, he will send it to his mother. Still very proud.

He stood up and thanked Jia Xuan for his kindness, and decided to go to the Beiwang Mansion with the third princess for a banquet.Jia Xun didn't want to have anything to do with the Northern King at first, and if he didn't take Erye Wei with him, he wouldn't go either.

The weather was so hot that Jia Huan was drowsy at home when she didn’t go to the Yamen. She returned to the backyard and hugged her son, “When will you grow up, little thing? If you grow up, I’ll take you to study Wu, otherwise, I have nothing to do during the day, and I will make people lazy."

Sitting on his father's belly, Jia Nan spat a few bubbles of saliva at his father.

Within a few days, Jia Nan started to vomit and have diarrhea. The family doctor said that he had eaten his stomach badly, and now it was malaria. Take the medicine quickly, and if it was too late, it would turn into dysentery, which even gods can't save.

The whole family couldn't sleep at night in a hurry. Jia Nan is a child who doesn't understand the fart. Let him drink medicine, and he vomited it all up. After that, he couldn't stop crying. This matter spread to Princess Anyang, and she was also anxious. It's not in shape, I ran to the palace and hugged the queen mother and cried, the queen mother couldn't help it, so I had to go to the Hou's mansion to take pictures of the imperial doctor, send all the medicinal materials I wanted, and give what I needed, so I went to the Buddhist hall to study for a few days scriptures.

The Supreme Emperor secretly said to her, "I don't usually burn incense, but I hold Buddha's feet temporarily."

The empress dowager made too much noise. After the concubines in the harem heard about it, they took the initiative to dress more plainly these days, not daring to laugh in front of the empress dowager, for fear of annoying her and being kicked out of the palace, which would lead to the emperor's death. bored.

The first time Concubine He went outside to appreciate something alone was a pack of medicinal materials for Zhongwuhou's mansion.

After dragging on for two or three days, seeing that all the medicines had no effect, Jia Gu thought the worst was coming, and Jia Amnesty was also very sad, so he found a lot of earthen houses to try, what about the dust on the earthen walls? , gecko's tail, mouse bile... Jia Huan's face turned green when he saw these things, and he hugged his son but refused to let them try it, thinking that if it's okay, he can make trouble out of people.

After the Queen Mother prayed to the gods and worshiped the Buddha, Princess Anyang took Mrs. Tong to pray to the gods and worshiped the Buddha. Mrs. Tong promised countless benefits and got a piece of talisman paper from the temple, saying that it was burned into ashes and put in clean water for the children to drink. Go on, to ensure that the medicine will cure the disease.

Jia Xun had asked for leave these days, instead of going to the yamen, seeing her mother come in with a bowl of dark things, she suddenly remembered the local recipes Jia She found.

"What are you carrying?"

"The talisman water from Huguo Temple, quickly feed it to my grandson, and make sure the medicine arrives..."

"Don't make any more trouble, can you? What are these things..." Madam Tong slapped him on the head before he finished speaking, "I can still harm my grandson, this is my begging with your mother-in-law." Come here, let Nan'er drink it, and you will be ready soon."

"Let me have a drink first."

"Asshole, this is your son's life-saving medicine."

Seeing that her mother-in-law and her husband were about to make a move, Qi Jing'an thought of a compromise, "Why don't you feed me a few spoonfuls first and see how it goes?"

Jia Huan had no choice but to agree, and just after feeding two spoons, the child stopped struggling and looked fainted.

Qi Jing'an cried out in fright, and Jia Huan quickly put his finger into his son's mouth, trying to induce vomiting out of what he just drank.

Mrs. Tong was in a state of desperation, tearing, and was helped outside by the mothers-in-law. When she saw Jia Gu, the fear of killing her grandson suddenly came to her heart. She hugged Jia Gu and cried, "I don't want to live anymore."

At this time, relatives from Beidi arrived, and Mrs. Tong's third brother brought his nephews to sell goods.

The house was in a mess, but it was Jia She who came forward to receive him.

He didn't pay attention to avoiding misfortunes or avoiding taboos. Jia Xuan and his third uncle stood in the yard and said to the couple in the house, "The bark of these trees can cure malaria. Don't believe it. Your sixth cousin also got malaria on the way. Well, this thing is amazing, there are also a few bricklayers in Wupu who have been cured by this, third uncle will not lie to you, good boy, pour it on your son, and it will be fine after two times."

Jia Xun and Qi Jingan guarded the child and looked at each other for a while, Jia Xun gritted his teeth, at least there was a case ahead, and the sixth cousin was cured by this bark.Now the child is useless... Jia Huan went out, brought a bowl over, put it in an ice basin to cool down, picked up a spoon and pried open his mouth, and fed a few spoonfuls. After a while, he felt his pulse again, and it really got better.

Jia Huan poured the rest of his brain into his son, and the two endured it in the middle of the night. At three o'clock, Jia Nan woke up, hugged Qi Jingan's arms and wanted to breastfeed, and fed him half a bowl of porridge. During the day, Jia Nan's face turned red, and his complexion improved.

Jia Huan hurried out and thanked uncle solemnly.

I brought back the bark from my uncle, boiled it thickly, and gave it to Jia Nan to drink, so that day I stopped vomiting and diarrhea.

After all this ordeal, Jia Nan, who had been raised in vain and fat, lost weight immediately, and his eyes widened, which made people feel distressed.

As soon as his side got better, Princess Anyang and Concubine Qi went to visit first, then various clan princes' residences, and then the married princesses and princesses. This huge group of relatives and friends were all relatives of Qi Jing'an's natal family.Jia Xun's relatives, apart from Jia Amnesty who was on the go every day and Jia Lian who appeared occasionally, were Gu Yun and Qian Cheng brothers and Jia Baoyu who showed up.

Because of Jia Nan's illness, Jia Huan did not go to Beijing Palace. When Qian Cheng came here to visit, he specially brought a gift from Beijing Palace to congratulate Jia Nan on turning the crisis into safety.

At the birthday banquet of the concubine of the Northern Palace, when talking about this matter, everyone looked at Shi Taijun's face, and Shi Taijun knew what everyone meant.She was uncomfortable at first, but who knew, the third princess pulled Shi Xiangyun to talk, and finally nodded to the two wives of Shi Hou, and put the bracelet on her arm on Shi Xiangyun's wrist.

Shi Xiangyun kept her head down, everyone thought she was shy.

Shi Taijun's heart was on fire, and she felt very uncomfortable. The sense of betrayal of being stabbed by someone almost made her eyes go dark.

I didn't wait until the banquet was over, I just said that I was worried and wanted to go home early, and the old servants who shared the table with her thought she was worried about her great-grandson who hadn't met yet, so they didn't want to keep her. She delivered it to the door.

Shi Taijun returned home in a sedan chair, and lay there for a long time uncomfortable, thinking that Shi Xiangyun's side was irreversible, and he couldn't let Baoyu really marry a merchant girl, so he picked up a circle of noble girls in Beijing, regardless of his concubine, and Baoyu There are still many good matches, and after a while of peace of mind, I asked Yuanyang, and when I heard that Jia She was at home, she asked Yuanyang to pack up her writing things and come out, then called Jia She, sat in the upper room, and couldn't stop thinking.

Among the third generation of the Jia family, Baoyu's wealth will come later, but now it is Jia Xuan who is leading the charge.The more I thought about Shi Taijun, the more I regretted it, and I complained in my heart that Jia Gu was out of the world. Now that I have put down my figure here, why don't you continue on your side.

"Please greet the old lady." Jia Amnesty came in from the outside, looked at the old lady in a daze, and whispered hello.

"Ann, sit down, boss, the old woman will ask you, how is Nan'er?"

"It's ready, just take good care of it. A child who was originally white and fat is now yellow and thin. Not to mention my old brother and Xun'er, even my son feels very distressed."

"Yes, it's not easy to raise a little thing, not to mention that he is Chou'er's eldest grandson and Xi'er's eldest son. Even I feel uncomfortable. I can't eat well or sleep well these days."

"He's from a small family, a working old lady."

"Hey," Shi Taijun sighed, "how much I can work, I can't see or hear, you guys told me if I knew the letter, hum, Jia Gu doesn't want to recognize me as a mother, so don't stop the two of you. Get close to me, now it's all right, I can't even see my great-grandson."

Jia Amnesty pretended to be dead and did not speak.

Seeing his appearance, Shi Taijun realized that he was not the kind of person who could lead Jia Gu to decide, so he changed the subject, "I saw that girl from Xiangyun greet the third princess today, it seems that a good thing for the Shi family is coming soon."

Jia She thought to himself, didn't you just ration the Shi family's girl to Baoyu?But he didn't dare to ask, and just said vaguely, "I'm not sure about this matter. The Shi family's cousin came to announce the good news, so it's a sure thing."

"You're right." Shi Taijun licked his hair with his fingers, "Look, Yu'er and Xiangyun are both younger than Baoyu, Yu'er is about to become a mother, and Yun'er has someone else, so on Baoyu's side, you can't Don't think about his marriage."

Jia Gu lowered his head, "What you're saying is, I don't know what the second couple think. Baoyu is already grown up, and she doesn't talk about marriage, but makes the old lady worry about it."

"I can only worry about Baoyu, as I get older, I can't worry about the younger brothers and sisters under him even if I want to."

Hearing this, Jia Amnesty was a bit ominous, so he quickly cut off the conversation, "The old lady will live a long life. I still hope that when Cong'er gets married, I will depend on you to pick a good girl."

What he said made Shi Taijun happy in his heart, thinking that the elder son was good except for being a bit of a mess, he was obedient and filial, and he shouldn't have let the second son inherit the title in the first place, adding another layer of regret in his heart.

"Let's get down to business, I see that Miss Lin married well. Although my uncle is a bit older, he knows how to hurt people when he gets older. I called you here today, just to ask you to find Chou'er and ask him if he knows who has A good girl, make peace with Baoyu, after all, Baoyu is also your nephew, and you can't ignore him."

Jia She thought this was a good thing, but when he thought that his younger brother's temper was easy to guess, he didn't say anything dead, "My son will go tomorrow morning and discuss it with my old brother. See what my old brother thinks. Come back and talk to me." You report."

Shi Taijun nodded, and asked Yuanyang to bring out a bunch of playthings, "These white jade rings, suet jade hydrangea balls and this agate lamp are all for Brother Nan, you take them tomorrow."

Jia Amnesty thought for a while, then nodded in agreement.

"Say marriage to Jia Baoyu?" Jia Gu fiddled with the sheep fat jade hydrangea ball. The hydrangea ball was hollowed out, and there were a few jade beads inside. When it was shaken, the beads collided randomly, and the sound was clear and clear. It was Brother Nan's favorite. Other things, He divided it equally between his two older sisters, leaving only the mutton fat jade hydrangea in his arms to play with.

Jia Nan sat in Jia Gu's arms, staring at the jade hydrangea ball with his eyes, and Jia Gu kept playing with it, teasing his little grandson.

"Yes, I see, it's the old lady who doesn't like the Xue family."

"The old lady has been the old lord for so many years, and she still has some vision. Apart from other things, if Xue Pan beat someone to death back then, if she married a girl from their family, Baoyu would definitely be dismissed if this matter was found out later. Implications. The good future is because their family is ruined, do you think the old lady agrees or disagrees?"

"Ms. Wang is short-sighted, but it's good for the old lady to explain this truth clearly to her, but I don't know why the old lady didn't explain it clearly."

"It's not that the old lady didn't make it clear, but that Mrs. Wang is too courageous. She can encourage her daughter to get involved in royal secrets, what do you think? She thinks that the yamen is opened by her family, and she can order court officials to do things for her at will. Running errands, do you think she still cares about this?"

"That?"

"Go back and tell the old lady that Wang Ziteng doesn't have many girls. It just so happens that cousins ​​get closer."

"That's not very good. Lian's daughter-in-law and that girl are cousins. It's too... unseemly to marry their cousins."

Jia Gu laughed, "What's not decent, who would say, if you want to talk about decent..." He handed Jia Nan to Jia Gui, "Send the young master back, just say this, he should eat .”

Seeing Jia Gui carrying Jia Nan out, Jia Gu lowered his voice, "In terms of decency, the imperial concubine and concubine He are cousins, why did the emperor accept it?"

Shi Taijun and his family's female relatives were chatting and joking in the room, and they were still talking about Shi Xiangyun's affairs. Mrs. Wang asked Xiren to pay attention to Jia Baoyu's movements yesterday. The good news is that Baoyu just felt that there was another good girl missing in the world, and did not Not so much reluctance.

That's why today there are so many people in the hall saying some words of congratulations.

The Wei family and the Shi family have already negotiated, even found a matchmaker, and are just waiting for a good day to get engaged. During this time, Shi Xiangyun will not live in Jia's house, she was taken back.

Xue Baochai was sitting on pins and needles, even if others didn't tell her, she knew that some people would secretly laugh at her as an old girl who couldn't get married, but the road had already gone so far, and she wanted to get out but felt unwilling, so she gritted her teeth and persisted.

Then, an old woman came over and told, "The boy who went out with the old man, took the box and greeted him outside."

Mrs. Wang took Mrs. Xue, mother and daughter, Wang Xifeng's sister-in-law and two girls from the Jia family to hide behind the screen. Shi Taijun was old and didn't shy away from it. He called the servant in and asked him, "Where is your elder?"

"Returning to the old lady, when the young master in Jiahou's mansion was sick a few days ago, the old master went to the Taoist temple to make a wish. Now that the young master is well, he will naturally go to fulfill the wish. Jiahou will take a rest today and go with him. Yes. This is a 300-year-old ginseng. Jia Hou said thank you for thinking of their young master. Mr. Nan loves the suet jade hydrangea very much. He will not let go of it. This old ginseng is hard to come by, please You keep it for your own use, and you must not reward anyone."

An old woman took the ginseng box and showed it to Shi Taijun. Shi Taijun took a look and praised, "It is indeed a good ginseng. I am old and wasted this good thing. You go back and tell Jiahou that there will be no more such ginseng in the future." Good thing, let him keep it for Brother Nan, and don't have to think about my wife."

The tone is intimate and the attitude is kind. If you don't know it, you really think it's a kind mother and a filial son.

Seeing that the boy didn't leave, Shi Taijun knew that he hadn't finished speaking, so he asked him, "What else is there?"

"There is another thing that the elder master sent the younger one to ask the old lady to show her, saying that Jia Hou knew that the second master of Jiabao had not yet appointed a lady, and that his colleague, the admiral of the nine gates, Mr. Wang, had a girl waiting for her in her boudoir. , if our family thinks it is suitable, Jia Hou is willing to make peace with Mr. Wang as a middleman."

Behind the screen, the daughters of the Wang family were all very angry. Wang Xifeng thought, this matter cannot be allowed to happen. If it happens, uncle will definitely favor Baoyu even more in the future. Is there any place for us to stand?Mrs. Wang thought to herself, sister-in-law has always been upright, and the girls she teaches don't know how to please people. How can she compare to Baochai's popularity.Mrs. Xue was terrified in her heart. How can Baochai compare with your niece?

Shi Taijun said in his heart, as expected of crawling out of my stomach, he squeezed the seven inches of the second and second couple tightly, with a bit of anger on his face, "Our family and Wang's family are old relatives for many years. Don't mention this matter again. You go down."

It just didn't mention it, didn't say that it disagreed, that is to say, there was still room for maneuver.

Mrs. Wang and Mrs. Xue looked at each other, Wang Xifeng glanced at Baochai who was standing beside her, Xue Baochai lowered her head, and each sneered.

When everyone went back to their homes that night, Wang Xifeng said to Jia Lian, "Then Master Jia is really an expert in the army. Once he makes a move, he disturbs my wife's mind."

Jia Lian lay on the couch and rolled his eyelids, "I was also disturbed by this incident. Tell me, if your uncle thinks our family is powerless and marry your sister to Baoyu, what will you do?" ?”

"Second Master, don't worry, with my aunt here, I guarantee that this will not happen."

Jia Lian sat up, worried, "I just hope that Auntie can really stop me."

Mrs. Wang sat in the Pear Fragrance Courtyard and said to Mrs. Xue, "Don't worry, my sister. My brother will definitely not agree. He already knew that I liked Baochai as a wife, so he would not make a fuss about it. Besides, This is just what Jia Gu said, he didn't actually go to his brother's house to propose marriage, you just put your heart in your stomach and it will be fine."

Jia Zheng was quite moved. He asked someone to inquire about it. Wang Ziteng's prostitute was one year younger than Jia Baoyu, and her reputation was not obvious. Just look at his wife and Lian's daughter-in-law.Whether it is a wife or Lian's daughter-in-law, they were not virtuous when they were young, and they used to bully concubines and concubine sons. This is not a big problem, after all, sons-in-law are more noble.

Soon the Jia family couldn't take care of Jia Baoyu. The lady in the palace was sick. At first it was just a rumor, and no one checked it. disease.

When the news spread to the backyard, Shi Taijun was anxious at that time, "It must be that my concubine is ill, go and call Lian'er, and go to the Tai Hospital to inquire about it."

Jia Lian paid two or three thousand silver to the account, and went out to inquire about the matter. This time, he didn't dare to steal or play tricks. As soon as he left, Jia Amnesty came to see Shi Taijun crying, "My old brother sent me a letter, Said that our mother is not good."

Mrs. Wang cursed in her heart, "It's not good for the concubine, so stop talking about the concubine."

Shi Taijun was taken aback, "What's the matter? Is it the root cause of my mother's postpartum disorder and sitting down?"

Jia She was crying, "No, no, it was a few days ago, there was a cold and high fever, and at the beginning, people were still awake. The empress dowager said that she was afraid that the disease would be passed on to the two princes, and the nine princes and the eleventh princes would be sober." The prince moved out, and afterward, the whole person became unconscious, and the coma got longer and longer every day."

Shi Taijun covered his heart, collected himself and asked Jia Amnesty, "What did Jia Gu say? How is your mother doing now?"

"Do your best to obey the destiny."

When Shi Taijun's eyes darkened, he was about to faint. Yuanyang hurriedly helped him up, and he wanted to invite the imperial physician. A whole house of children and relatives rushed out, and several women took Jia She outside, serving him with good tea and water, afraid that he would take him down. People vent their anger.

In the upper room, Yuanyang rubbed Shi Taijun's heart for a while, Shi Taijun finally breathed a sigh of relief, Mrs. Wang pinched the handkerchief, "Old lady, you have to take care, there are two princes in the palace, and the concubine is for them two You have to hold on to this breath."

If you can't hold on, Shi Taijun gritted his teeth, "Take my big clothes, and I will go to the palace to greet the Queen Mother."