The Legend of the Long Room in the Red Mansion

Princess Yinghua doesn't have much literary talent, but she can read characters well, and she can read calligraphy well.One day, seeing Xichun was writing a reply, he suddenly remembered Xue Baochai's letter, and he couldn't help mentioning: "It's time for you to practice your calligraphy, not to mention your sister and Miss Lin, the girl from Xue's family also wrote the characters last time." Much better than you."

Xichun didn't follow her, and acted coquettishly: "I'm the youngest in the first place, so what's the point if my handwriting is worse? Is the princess's sister-in-law looking down on me?"

Princess Yinghua said: "My own writing is not very good, why do I look down on you? It's just that I'm not a talented girl, so I don't mind what others say, but you all have peerless talents, don't you all like to be criticized? Is it praised by others? So I advise you to practice calligraphy in addition to painting."

Xichun wrote back the letter and said: "The talented girl Yunyun is talking about Sister Lin, which has nothing to do with me."

Princess Yinghua said: "Now she is so annoyed that people say she is a talented woman. It's Jia Baoyu from your family who made a fuss. She doesn't like to write poems anymore. Your elder brother also said that she should give her the baby in my belly. Reading poetry and reading, but she is becoming more and more lazy."

Daiyu is very talented, and Ning Shan also recognized it. One day, he happened to think of his previous life. There was a married sister who was pregnant at home. His mother taught her to read for an hour a day or play the piano. She said it was good for the child, so she told Ying Princess Hua said, let her see if there are any maids in the dowry who are proficient in this way, she might as well call to show it.

Princess Yinghua was straightforward, and said: "How can those people be as amazing and talented as the younger sisters at home? I think it's better to let Miss Lin compose poems, welcome her younger sister to play the piano, and cherish her younger sister to read to the children. Just right, I am stupid. I don’t know what to say when people come to see me with good intentions, why don’t I just learn together.”

Ning Shan smiled and said: "It's up to you, as long as they are willing, I don't have to worry about it, otherwise I have to call those maids over, and I have to send someone to prevent them from making trouble." Confined in the princess mansion, the master is not allowed to go, and they are not allowed to come out. After holding back for so many months, who knows how much bad water has been accumulated by each of them.

Princess Yinghua said this, and Yingchun and the others felt that it was new, and they all geared up, waiting to show their skills.Over the past year or so, Yingchun has improved a lot in her qin art because she studied with Yuemao, and even Daiyu picked up the qin that she had learned and discarded when she was young, and practiced again.The two were worrying that no one would criticize them, but they happened to have this job, and they were both very serious, taking turns to play the piano for the baby every day.Xichun is also willing to learn some qin music seriously because she only knows how to draw, but the baby was not born and she can't see it now.

Several girls mentioned this matter in their letters, and when Baochai saw it, he asked Daiyu why she didn't like poetry anymore.Daiyu thought that Baochai was also implicated by Baoyu and lost her reputation. She was very pitiful.Unexpectedly, Baochai cried more than she did, almost fainting.

Only then did Daiyu vaguely remember that Princess Yinghua had persuaded her that as long as her mother's family is powerful and her brothers and sisters-in-law are tough, it doesn't matter whether she is famous or not.Thinking of Baochai's background as an imperial merchant, he is already a bit shorter than everyone else, but he has no father who is the head of the family, an older brother is still a tyrannical king, and his mother is also weak, so she needs her support to do it.Thinking about it this way, she was as miserable as she was, so I couldn't help but persuade Baochai.

It's just that Baochai's difficulties are more serious than hers. She wants to enter the palace wholeheartedly, or at least wants to enter the royal family's palace.She hurt herself because she came from a low background, so she has been strictly adhering to the precepts of female virtue since she was a child, and she was afraid of what others would say.Now Baoyu has made a name for himself, what good is there?What's more, Baoyu's social circle is rumored to be among the sons and daughters of second- and third-rate families in Beijing, and it can't be spread to the palace at all. In this way, apart from lowering her value, what is the use?

If it weren't for his strong heart and mind, Baochai might want to seek death and life now.At the moment, I only hated Baoyu to death, and asked Yinger to send a message to Aunt Xue, telling her to stay away from the Grand View Garden, and it would be better not to go to Mrs. Wang's place, and I would never go to live in the brocade building again.

For a moment, I remembered the matter of asking Jia Huan to stare at Baoyu and complain, and regretted that I didn't do it earlier.Originally, this was only done to sell it to Daiyu, but now that I think about it, it has become my own life-saving straw.It's better not to have any more contact with this precious jade.

In this way, at the end of the twelfth lunar month, Yingchun Xichun must also go home to prepare for ancestor worship. Although they don't need to follow the arrangements, people should be there.As soon as the two of them went back, the Duke Huguo's mansion was emptied all of a sudden, and Ning Shan also closed the door to thank the guests. She only said that her family needs to be quiet for worshiping the ancestors. It is to let Princess Yinghua not have to worry about those interpersonal relationships.

However, although Princess Yinghua didn't understand these things, Yingchun had already helped her prepare the list of gifts for relatives, and she also sent a message when she left, asking the butler to send them out one by one according to the time.Princess Yinghua only needs to remind her from time to time to make sure that the day is not missed.

Compared with the Ning family, where there are only husband and wife, the Jia family is much more lively during the Chinese New Year.And at this time, no matter how unwilling to go to the door on weekdays, everyone can only go to the Grand View Garden to kowtow to Shi Taijun.Jia Amnesty took the lead, entered the garden step by step, and confessed all the gifts and belongings that should be given. He didn't even wait for Jia Zheng's son to come up to kowtow in return, and used the excuse of his colleagues to buy wine, without looking back. ran away.

Now that Jia Zheng has learned to be thick-skinned, he sees that he can't return to the Ministry of Industry for a long time, and the eldest daughter in the palace can't help him, so he hires him an assistant who is a poor student, but he also meets Jia Yucun, and he can't help it for a while. Discouraged, he no longer counts on nepotism, but instead focuses on Jia Amnesty.He knows that Jia She is now supported by Ning Shan's face, and the people who usually come and go are first- and second-rank officials. People say that brothers are of one mind.

Jia Amnesty annoyed Jia Zheng to death, but it was not good to drive him back in front of outsiders.After all, what he knew was that he was aware of the messy affairs of their Jia family, but there will be important officials from other provinces coming to Beijing to report their duties next year, so they can't be ashamed and thrown to other provinces.So he had no choice but to take Jia Amnesty with humiliation, but in the end he was still upset, so he called all three sons of Jia Zhen's family, and those who came out and went in just talked to Jia Zhen, leaving Jia Zheng behind, and let Jia Rong Jiaqiang went to perfunctory.

No matter how unpopular Jia Zheng was, at least there was someone who was willing to deal with him. Jia Baoyu in the Grand View Garden couldn't even find anyone who was willing to talk to him.Now Xiangyun has been taken back by Bao Linghou, the second son of the historian. After all, she can no longer be left in Jia's house for worshiping the ancestors during the Chinese New Year.Li Wan's widowed sister-in-law was also taken away by her younger brother, and she went back to live with her two daughters.Xing Xiuyan was taken to Ronghou's mansion on the first day she came back from Yingchun. A few of them just came, and the ones who had just gotten acquainted with Baoyu left, and the rest of the girls didn't love her except Tanchun, her own sister. Take care of him.

Baochai was the one who hated Baoyu the most, followed by Daiyu. Now when these two cousin girls entered the Grand View Garden, they would go directly to Shi Taijun's room, and they would leave as soon as they had paid their respects, without staying for a moment.Even if Shi Taijun said to keep them, he also went to the inner room to chat and laugh with Baochai's cousin Xue Baoqin for a while.Although Baoyu is favored by Shi Taijun, he can follow in with the cheek, but if people don't talk to him, he can't be happy alone.

Xue Baoqin is even more clever. Seeing that her cousin and Shi Taijun's granddaughter refused to talk to Baoyu, she guessed that there must be something wrong with him, so she restrained herself immediately, and refused to play casually with Baoyu.Baoyu was tightly bound, so Baoqin took Daiyu's hand and said that he would take her to play with her godmother.

Baoqin's godmother is Mrs. Wang, and Mrs. Wang is the most eager of the whole family to separate Daiyu from Baoyu.As long as Daiyu enters Mrs. Wang's room, Baoyu will never see her again. Mrs. Wang will always have endless reasons to send him away.The only thing that makes Mrs. Wang feel regretful is that every time Baoqin comes with Daiyu, Baochai must also come here under the banner of taking care of her younger sister, and she loses a lot of good opportunities to cultivate a relationship with Baoyu.But in this way, Baochai seemed dignified and stable, and Mrs. Wang had nothing to complain about.

At the end of the new year, as soon as Yingchun came back with Xichun, Baochai took the initiative to move back to Lixiangyuan.Daiyu was also happy to hand over the housekeeping rights to Yingchun, Yingchun smiled and refused to take over, she just said: "My good sister, I have worked hard for a year, and you have worked hard for the past month, so let's just echo from beginning to end."

Wang Xifeng is still taking care of her body, but she doesn't want to calm down, because she thinks she is strong, and although she doesn't go out, she makes plans and plans, and whenever she thinks of something, she orders Ping'er to go find Daiyu, and she is worried that Daiyu is young and will deal with it. It's not easy to communicate with people in the next year, and I'm always on tenterhooks, thinking about giving her a little more advice, and letting others advise, but just don't listen.As a result, the disease didn't get better after a month, but it got worse, making Jia Lian feel uncomfortable for years.

When Yingchun came back, she naturally went to see Sister Feng first. Seeing that she was weaker than the conceived Princess Yinghua, she was shocked, and she couldn't help but advise her to rest more and rest her mind.Although Sister Feng agreed with her mouth, she was still calculating in her heart.Now seeing Yingchun and Daiyu joking, evading each other and refusing to take care of things, they became anxious again.

"Hey, you little aunts and grandmas want to kill me! I only hate my body for not being able to live up to it, but if I can move a little, I won't bother you. Now at this juncture, you are still pushing back and forth, what is this? A scene that makes me happy?"

Seeing that Sister Feng was seriously anxious, Yingchun hurriedly persuaded: "We are joking, second sister-in-law, don't take it seriously."

Daiyu also said: "How can I throw my hands away at this time and make things difficult for my second sister-in-law? If that's the case, it will be in vain for my second sister-in-law to treat me." Then she ordered her maid to call Baochai, and said Still let her help, the three of them together can be worth a female Zhuge for Sister Feng, so let her just rest and recuperate.

As soon as Baochai returned home, she heard that Yingchun invited her to come over. She was so happy that she hurriedly cleaned up.Because Daiyu wrote a letter back earlier, saying that Baochai cried pitifully when she found out that Baoyu had ruined their daughter's reputation, and even Xichun couldn't bear it, and forgot about the past quarrels with her, and greeted her warmly.Baochai saw that although Baoyu had ruined her reputation, she was not very old after all, so she might calm down in a few years, and it would not be too much of a hindrance. Very happy.

Sister Feng didn't care about their eyebrows and lawsuits, she only cared about being the master of the house, and there was nothing wrong with presiding over a major event for the first time.Coincidentally, the past few years have not been going well. Last year, when Ning Shan was fighting outside, the concubine Jia in the palace bestowed a gift, causing the entire big house to be trampled down by the second house; It's called Rongguo Mansion. Shi Taijun helped Mrs. Wang to take over the power. Wang Xifeng can only be an errand girl, and the glory belongs to others, so she can only contribute her strength.

Finally, Ning Shan came back this year, her official position has been enriched, her title has been promoted, and the princess is married, so she can go over and boast about being a relative of the emperor, a relative of the Duke, and a brother of the Duke, and her status has risen with the tide. The grandma who was supposed to be the head of the house got down on the ground.I hate Sister Feng so much that she scolds bad luck, but there is nothing she can do. She just made up her mind to enslave a few sister-in-laws to complete the New Year ceremony, so as to avoid being said that she, Wang Xifengkong, has a famous reputation, but it is the same. Can't get it out either.

With Sister Feng's guidance, the little girls are improving rapidly. Even Baochai, who usually helps Aunt Xue's housekeeping, has learned a lot of tricks and taboos between officials and households. Can be used in the future.Xing Xiuyan was also taken by Yingchun to sit in Sister Feng's children's room every day. No one knew if she learned or not, but she always sat on the side in silence, not showing off at all, but she caught Sister Feng's eyes instead. , often invite the sisters to chat and laugh with Xing Xiuyan, so as not to let her be left out in the cold.

The Jia family held the New Year's ceremony, and they didn't forget to send a gift to Ning Shan.Shi Taijun wanted to ease the relationship between the two families, so he ordered Mrs. Wang to also prepare a generous gift, and sent it to Sister Feng.Sister Feng didn't dare to refuse, she complained a lot, and finally asked someone to send it away, but she told Ping'er who accompanied her to make it very clear that she didn't want it, but she was too young to refuse.

Princess Yinghua had no choice but to check the list of New Year's gifts by herself because she didn't have the help of Yinghua. Even with the help of Aunt Hua, it would take a lot of effort, so she wasn't in a good mood.Coincidentally, this day I saw Sister Feng sending it over, and I just glanced at it lazily, and was about to ask my mother to accept it, when suddenly I glanced at the following line of small characters, saying that the Jia family in the Grand View Garden also sent something, Immediately raised her voice and called people: "Where did you come from? Throw it back to the palace." Princess Yinghua has heard a lot about the old lady of the Jia family helping the second-bedroom family bully her father, and knows that Ning Shan cares about Jia She, the father. , Of course you have to help him vent his anger.