Red Mansions Become Baochai

A pair of phoenix hairpins, a pair of gold bracelets with double dragon patterns inlaid with gemstones, a pair of pearl knots, and a jadeite matching chest. (I brought it casually for the eldest lady in the house)

There is a sapphire Avalokitesvara in the Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou, which is one foot and two inches high.

It is also written on the back (I wish the family a happy and auspicious Chinese New Year)

Baochai saw that there was a box of jewelry that was given to her alone, and she was rewarded for nothing. What happened to the Luo family?Mrs. Xue was also full of doubts. Although the two families have been in frequent contact over the years, they are not related to each other. Some of the things in this box for their daughter are treasures from the previous court, which makes people startled when they look at them.

There were still several waves of people waiting to present gifts outside, and Madam Xue couldn't ask the two women in front of everyone, so she had to let go of her doubts and continue to look at the gifts from other families.

The gifts from the other families were unscrupulous, and among them was Mr. Cheng, an old friend of Mr. Xue Gong, who brought two carts of flowers and trees.They are all small bonsai.Single wintersweet is divided into green calyx, cinnabar, and palace powder, as well as narcissus, Huizhou mast, podocarpus, and red maple.

Mrs. Xue hurriedly asked everyone to choose what they liked, and asked the maid to put it on.Everyone laughed and said that Mr. Cheng was not an ordinary person, and the gifts he gave were both elegant and considerate.

The most embarrassing thing about Baochai is that Xue Pan's Yue's family in the original book, Jinling Osmanthus Xia's family also sent gifts.Nothing more than rose flower oil, sandalwood oil, osmanthus oil and the like.

The third thing is to worship the ancestors, because it is a family sacrifice, so neither Baochai nor Mrs. Xue need to go.The male at home went there early in the morning, but when Xue Pan came back at night, his eyes were dull and he was exhausted into a puddle of mud.It turned out that he was the eldest grandson of the Xue family, no matter who went to worship, he would kowtow in return.Seeing him like this, Baochai regretted not getting a mat for her brother to take with her.

The fourth is to watch the New Year's Eve.In the early morning of the 31st of the Lunar New Year, Baochai was forcibly changed into new clothes by Madam Cao.Red woven gold embroidered squirrel jacket, paired with parrot green trousers.A resplendent gown made of Western bird feather satin was worn outside.

Baochai came to the big glass mirror in a daze, and was startled awake by her contrasting color scheme.Busily protested to Madam Cao that the color scheme was too ugly.

Grandma Cao laughed and said, "What did the girl say, the bright red gown with parrot green is so bright, it makes the girl's complexion even more beautiful."

Cao Mama said that she thought she had too little jewelry and was too clean.He insisted on wearing a shining Seven Treasures collar around her neck.A pair of gold bracelets with shrimp whiskers on her wrist, and four gold rings of different styles were chosen for her to wear.Baochai conservatively estimated that her nouveau riche outfit weighed two or three kilograms.

Mammy Cao looked at it for a while, then Fang nodded with satisfaction and said with a satisfied smile: "During the new year, children just need to dress brightly to look good."

Baochai thought she was the most vulgarly dressed one, but she didn't expect that when she went out, the whole family waited, even the maids and servants were all dressed in red.

Entered the main entrance to have a look.His mother, Mrs. Xue, is full of pearls and emeralds, and her whole body is red and full of gold makeup and flower skirts and jackets.Mrs. Liu is also a set of gold-studded ruby ​​head and face, bright red and multicolored double-breasted blouse, and emerald makeup and flower horse-face skirt.Only Aunt He was still wearing a long-sleeved blouse of Qinglu silk after rain, and simply wore white pearl flowers and white jade bracelets.

Xue Pan was decorated exactly the same as his cousin, with a double dragon necklace inlaid with gold and jewels hanging around his neck, a red hibiscus wind wool brocade robe, and pine green trousers underneath.

The two brothers and sisters, Baoqin and Xueji, were also dressed in bright red and two-color gold clothes, and they wore gold jewelry from head to toe, and they were dressed in golden light.

Even Xue Ke and Xue Shen changed into a red standing water gown with carved silk and cloud patterns, and a leather jacket with eight groups of Japanese satin carved in stone and blue silk.Baochai saw that his father was also wearing a jade finger ring, and a gold-sprinkled crouching dragon bag on his waist.His uncle also carried a purse with red satin embroidered with five blessings and longevity around his waist.

In short, the whole family is dressed in ancient nouveau riche clothes.Just by looking at the clothes, you can tell that this family is rich, very rich.Baochai couldn't help asking his mother: "Mother, what's the matter, our family is all dressed up brightly, what are you doing brightly?"

Mrs. Xue said with a smile: "We stay at home on New Year's Eve, and we don't go out to meet guests. We just want to dress up as festively as possible. The God of Wealth will see our family like this next time, and will surely bless our family with prosperous business and abundant wealth next year."

Mrs. Liu said with a smile: "Our family dresses up like this to welcome the God of Wealth, and those who are officials also do the same to welcome the star officials. Even the child who has just reached the full moon must wear a few gold ornaments on his hands to celebrate auspiciousness." .”

Only then did Baochai realize that she was making a fuss, and remembering that Jia Baoyu also likes people wearing red clothes, or why he has a nickname of Mr. Yihong. People's aesthetics these days are really post-modern.

Sure enough, Mrs. Xue picked her up and took a closer look.Seeing that Baochai's appearance has grown a bit, she has a small round face, a pair of big watery apricot eyes, and they are very vivid.When he smiled, a dimple was looming at the corner of his mouth, and his eyebrows were picturesque.The more she looked at it, the more she liked it. She smiled and said to everyone: "It really is my daughter. She is so beautiful. She looks like a little fairy."

Xue Pan smiled and clapped his hands and said, "My sister is naturally the prettiest, not even a fairy, is she my cousin?" Gu Yunzhen was asked, although he was a little shy, he still nodded with a smile, and then ran to Aunt He hid behind her.

Everyone laughed when they saw Xue Pan's mother and son boasting about themselves.Only Xue Ke loves his daughter very much, deeply agrees, strokes his beard, and nods with a smile.

The New Year's Eve dinner was naturally very sumptuous, because the family of Officer Ai hadn't come to Jinling yet, so Xue Shen invited him to celebrate the New Year with the Xue family.Naturally, men and women sat separately.

Silver candlesticks were placed on all four sides of the banquet room, with four bright red candles wrapped in gold as thick as arms, illuminating the faces of everyone in the room with red light.There are more than [-] kinds of dishes on the table.Apart from the must-eat New Year's dishes that every family eats during Chinese New Year, the most rare one is the sturgeon.

Xue Shen is a connoisseur of gourmets. He travels all year round and has researched delicacies from all over the world.Although he can only speak, the chef of Xue's family also has a good skill passed down from family.It is not difficult for him to clean up a sturgeon.

Steam the fat and soft slices of sturgeon in broth until half-cooked, cut into slices and mix with balsamic mustard as a cold dish to taste the original flavor of the fish.Use the fish intestines, fish liver, etc. in the belly of the big fish as the four treasures of the Dragon Palace, and eat one fresh and tender; use the method of Buddha jumping over the wall to cook the fish skin, fish tendons, fish cartilage, scallops, abalone and other seafood together, and the soup has a strong fragrance. It was named "Nezha Naohai" because of the cramping and bone stripping.The most delicious dish is the "Grilled Dragon King's Face", which is the cheek meat on both sides of the sturgeon and the cartilage on the head, commonly known as the bird's nest in the fish.

Because it is Chinese New Year, there is also good wine at the banquet.The men at this table drank Shanxi Fenjiu, while the women at the table drank Zhuyeqing.Everyone ate to their heart's content.

After eating, the whole family didn't go to bed, Madam Xue asked the servant girl to remove the wine and bring tea instead.Xue Ke's table is full of Lu'an melon slices.Fearing that the children would be sleepy late, they made some black tea with Korean ginseng slices for Baochai to drink.

It was more than two hours before midnight.Mrs. Xue, Mrs. Liu and Aunt He formed a circle and wiped cards to relieve boredom.Everyone played a few games, and Mrs. Xue won a pile of copper coins in front of her, beaming with joy.Baochai was wondering why his mother's luck was so smooth, and peeped to see that Aunt He was really gesturing with Yulan behind Madam Xue. It turned out that Auntie deliberately let her in order to make his mother happy.

Thinking of her mother playing cards for her in the original work of Dream of the Red Chamber, she felt a little sour with the old matriarch of Jia's mansion playing cards for her, and said with a smile: "Mother is really lucky today, and I should let my aunt and aunt, the family Everyone wins money to have a good fortune."

Mrs. Xue hurriedly pushed the copper coins in front of her to the middle, and said with a smile: "It was your aunt and aunt who let me go. I don't know. I thought I could win money and just muddle along, but I, an honest girl, saw it." Having said that, no matter how thick-skinned your mother is, she won't be able to covet these strings of money. I think the maids are still serving during the big festival, so I'm sorry, let's share it with them."

Mrs. Liu and Aunt He also laughed. Yulan and other first- and second-class big girls would care about this little money, so they called a few little girls to come up, and each of them grabbed a handful and thanked them with a smile.

When it was almost midnight, Xue Shen led the servants to set up a roll shed by the lake in the garden, lined up tables, chairs and refreshments, and let women and children come out to sit.

The fireworks and firecrackers were also taken out, and large water tanks with fireproof candles were placed everywhere in the yard, and the preparations were completed.Xue's fireworks are all purchased from Liu's family in Jinling Paozheng.His family has been making fireworks for generations.Not only is the style exquisite, but there are many stories in it.

Even for the Lantern Festival, a total of seven-foot cigarette boxes, one box of Baiguo Chengxiang, ten boxes of four-foot money cannons, ten boxes of small firecrackers, four boxes of ** Tongchun, two boxes of Daji gourds, and bangs playing toads were sold. Ten boxes, ten boxes for birthday celebrations of immortals, ten boxes for safe and auspicious celebrations, and twenty boxes of other fireworks boxes of various colors.

There are [-] firecrackers for the Three Annunciations, [-] golden pots for fishing the moon, [-] firecrackers for the first fire, [-] firecrackers for the medium fire, [-] large and small flower tubes, and [-] large and small firecrackers.

When the Atlantic Bell struck midnight, the entire Jinling City became lively in an instant.In the streets and alleys, people scrambled to light the firecrackers, the sound of firecrackers came and went, and every family was beaming with joy.

Xue Shen and Xue Ke also led people to set off firecrackers, and with the sound of "cracking" firecrackers, the old was ushered in the new.Mrs. Xue was afraid that the children would be frightened, so she hugged Baoqin, and Mrs. Liu hugged Xue Biao.

Baochai, Xue Pan and their cousin clapped their hands and laughed.Seeing Xue Shen put three pieces, he clapped his hands and called "Lianzhong Sanyuan", put four pieces and called "Fulu Shouxi", put six pieces and called "Liuliu Dashun", and put a string of them called "Baizibo".After the sound of firecrackers, the ground is full of broken red, which is called "full house red" and "full ground money". These are auspicious words that businessmen love to say.

The other boys went outside the gate of Xue's mansion to put some stars all over the sky, nine dragons into the clouds, and a thunderstorm.