Xue Baochai, the belly of the Red Chamber

The days passed by day by day, and soon came the cold winter again.

This year is Xue Baochai's last year at home, and in the past three months, she is no longer Xue's daughter but Meng's wife.

The shop's year-end settlement, Zhuangzi's future, and the annual gifts to be given to each family he has made friends with are all things Xue Baochai is used to.Therefore, these things are not a big deal to Xue Baochai.The biggest thing for her now is to quickly separate the property belonging to the Xue family from the private house of Emperor Zhengde.After all, she wants to keep the Xue family's family business, and she will hand it over to Xue Pan's first wife to take care of it in the future.

By the way, let's talk about Xue Pan.

His marriage has also been settled, and it was the matchmaker made by his second aunt, Shi Shi.

Speaking of it, it has a little relationship with Shi Shi, she is Fang Shi, the niece of her natal sister-in-law.

The family also started with martial arts. Although the feats are not as good as the four kings and eight princes, they are also the family of earls. After a few generations, the title has long since disappeared.Now he has switched to the literary path, but the results of two or three generations are not very great. The most promising one is Fang's grandfather, who was born as a second-class Jinshi. He has worked hard all his life to achieve the position of minister of the Ministry of Industry.

But now Fang's grandfather has passed away, and although her father was also a second-class Jinshi, his ranking is at the bottom.It has been more than [-] years since he entered the court, but he is still only a fifth-rank Yuanwailang, if he is in the Ministry of Officials or the Ministry of War, it will be fine.Piansheng is in the Ministry of Rites, which can be said to be the most leisurely and least powerful of the six departments.

Fang's person, Aunt Xue also met with her in person under the arrangement of her second aunt.Xue Baochai has also seen it here.She is a good girl, with a dignified and beautiful appearance, and a sharp and unpretentious temper, but it can be seen that although she has a bright personality, she is not a scheming person. According to the second aunt, she is a good housekeeper.

Aunt Xue inspected it for a while and was very satisfied with it.

Because Xue Pan is not young anymore. , Fang is also seventeen.In addition, the Empress Dowager is seriously ill and may die at any time, so the wedding date of the two families has been delayed a bit, and it will be in the twelfth lunar month.

So now the busy family is all about Xue Pan's marriage.

In order to show Fang's importance, when sending the betrothal gift, 66 sets were given. Although it is very common in Beijing, the things inside were carefully selected by Xue Baochai and Aunt Xue.Many of the things are private things that Aunt Xue has treasured for so many years.Since getting engaged, Xue Pan has also been instructed by Xue Baochai to send some things to Fang's family from time to time, all of which are exquisite and meticulous.

It can also be seen that the Fang family is still very satisfied with Xue Pan.

In the blink of an eye, it was the twelfth day of the twelfth lunar month, and today was the day when Xue Pan got married.

For this marriage, it can be said that Aunt Xue spared no money. She not only went to the temple to reshape the golden body of the Buddha, donated a lot of sesame oil, but also gave alms outside the city. good deeds.Because it happened to be in winter and the weather was cold, this move of the Xue family naturally attracted the favor of many people, which was a surprise.

It was a busy day, and the day passed quickly.

"Why hasn't your brother and sister-in-law come over yet?" Aunt Xue was already dressed in formal clothes this early in the morning, waiting for Xue Pan and Fang Shi to come over in the yard.I just waited for a moment, but no one came over, so I couldn't help but speak.

Xue Baochai pursed her lips and said with a smile: "Mother, you are too impatient. What time is it? Mother, you have been waiting for such a long time in the past. Even if you are impatient to drink your daughter-in-law's tea, it is not too late. Carve it."

When Aunt Xue heard Xue Baochai's words, she also sighed for a moment: "Oh, that's not true. Your father left early. If he can see your brother get married with his own eyes, he must be very happy."

"Now that my brother has married, mother, you can rest assured here. Although I have only met my sister-in-law once, I can tell that she is dignified and generous. Mother, you just wait to hold your grandson." See Xue At the end of the aunt's words, there was a little sadness, Xue Baochai immediately changed the subject, and talked about the things Aunt Xue was most interested in.

Aunt Xue was a little sad when she talked about Father Xue, but when she heard Xue Baochai's words and thought of having a white and fat grandson to hug in the future, her eyes immediately rolled up, and she said with a smile: "Chai'er's words are not bad at all. I hope your sister-in-law can be more confident and add a grandson to our Xue family as soon as possible, so that I can rest assured that the Xue family has a queen."

"Mother will definitely get what she wants." Xue Baochai said with a smile.

As soon as she finished speaking, she heard an auspicious voice from outside: "Madam, the uncle and grandma are here."

As soon as Aunt Xue heard it, her spirit was shaken, and she hurriedly said, "Please come in quickly."

Seeing Aunt Xue's anxious look, Xue Baochai couldn't help shaking her head slightly here, but thinking of the past two years, Aunt Xue has been worrying about Xue Pan's marriage, and she has two parts of understanding in her heart.

Xue Pan and Fang Shi, who walked over hand in hand, just looked at it like this, the handsome man and the beautiful woman are really like a pair of lovers.Seeing Aunt Xue nodded again and again, obviously very satisfied.

There are not many Xue family members, and there are only three of them, mother and son.

I saluted Aunt Xue and served tea.

Xue Baochai also greeted Fang's sister-in-law here. After receiving the meeting gift, the family sat down and had breakfast together.Then they went to the ancestral hall in the backyard together, where Father Xue's spirit tablet was enshrined, and he greeted Father Xue, and Xue Pan personally wrote Fang's name and origin on the genealogy with a cinnabar pen.

This confession is over.

After Xue Pan's wedding, Xue Baochai became even busier here.Although she has tried her best, she really has too many things on hand. She still hasn't fully figured out the books and books at home, the things in the warehouse, the corresponding shops at home, Zhuangzi, etc. clear.

Things like these cannot be handed over to Aunt Xue, her ears are soft and she is very easily bewitched.If you don't pay attention, you may be coaxed by someone like Mrs. Wang.

And after these days of her observation of Fang Shi, she is a person with means.What's more, she has no blood relationship with Mrs. Wang, and she is not afraid of being soft-hearted towards Mrs. Wang in the future.Moreover, although Fang's family is known as Qingliu scholarly family, it is quite wealthy.Fang's mother is even better at financial management. When she got married, she had a dowry of a hundred sets. On the day when she put on her make-up, people saw it, and they were really envious and jealous.

Earlier, she was in charge of the family's response, Aunt Xue's body was a little weak, and she couldn't bear the fatigue, and Xue Baochai was capable, so she was naturally at ease.But in the past two years, Aunt Xue's health has improved a lot.If she hastily passed the power of Zhongfu to her sister-in-law Fang, it would inevitably make Aunt Xue feel dissatisfied with Fang.

However, Xue Baochai was still collecting the feedback from the family, and brought Yunjuan and Yunshu to Fang's yard.

As soon as Fang saw Xue Baochai coming, she smiled and told her maid: "Chun Yu, hurry up and bring some tea."

Chun Yu replied, but did not mention it.

"Sister, come here at this hour, but what can't be done?" In fact, looking at the things held in the hands of the two maids standing behind Xue Baochai, Fang already knew Xue Baochai's intention.It's just that she is still a bride now, so naturally she can't ask directly.

Xue Baochai nodded to Yun Shu and Yun Juan who were behind him: "Just like my sister-in-law saw, I am here to take care of the middle feeder in the mansion. You are the grandma of the mansion, and you are in charge of the middle feeder in this family." It’s more than normal.”

Yun Shu Yunjuan got Xue Baochai's order, so he was blessed. He took a step forward, and put the account book and other things in his hand in front of Fang.

"...When my father passed away, my mother was not in good health, and my brother was a man, so he was not clear in this aspect. I came to take care of the house temporarily. Now that my sister-in-law has come in, I will naturally hand over You are in charge. This is the account book of the welfare, the land deed shop, the house deed, the Zhuangzi’s contract, and the keys in the welfare warehouse. Please ask your sister-in-law to receive it.” Xue Baochai said, and put the large bunch of warehouses Pushing the key to Fang's side, he said with a smile.

Fang lowered her brows, and immediately said with some embarrassment: "Sister, you are too polite. I just got married and I am young, so I can take on this important task. Sister, don't embarrass me." Said tone It also became a little lighter, and it seemed extremely embarrassing.

Xue Baochai said with a smile: "It should be so, sister-in-law just don't refuse." Of course, although she is optimistic about Fang's family and thinks she is a good person, she will not just hand over all the family's property to her.For important things like the land deeds of Zhuangzi's property, she packed them up and gave them to Xue Pan, and told him about the matter in detail.

If Fang Shi did a good job in the future or if Xue Pan wanted to give it to Fang Shi, she would naturally have no complaints.As for Aunt Xue's side, she is naturally fully prepared, so she won't suffer any disadvantages.

Although Fang was a bit moved by Xue Baochai's words, she still had some concerns after all, but she still declined and said, "Sister, don't make fun of me here. Mother is young now, and it's no problem to take care of housework." Next, I am still young and I don’t know the way to go, how can I take on such a heavy responsibility. Please don’t mention this again, sister.”

"Since my sister-in-law said so, I won't force it here. Yunjuan, Yunshu, clean up. Let's leave now." Xue Baochai is not a very patient person. Hearing Fang's repeated refusals, his patience was also worn out It's almost there.Then he turned his head to Yunjuan and Yunshu and said.

Turning to Fang Shi again, she said, "Sister-in-law, I won't bother you here. I still have things to do, so I'll leave first."

Fang didn't expect Xue Baochai's words to change so quickly, but she was stunned for a moment, thinking of what her mother told her on the eve of her wedding, she couldn't help feeling a little panic in her heart, but she was more stable than ordinary women : "Well, I'll take my sister out."

"I'm bothering my sister-in-law." Xue Baochai said with the corners of her mouth bent.

Before Xue Baochai led the people away, Fang beckoned her two confidants, Chun Yu and Xia Ye, to come over.He opened his mouth and said, "Chunyu, what do you mean by my sister? Only a few days later, Baba came here and said that she would hand over the housekeeping power to me, but now she can't say a few words and left. What do you think she is?" Meaning? To test me?"

"My servant feels that the eldest girl's intention is quite sincere. But grandma thinks too much." Chun Yu grew up with Fang Shi since she was a child. Not only is she smart, but also Fang Shi is loyal. Feeling embarrassed, he immediately replied with a smile.

Fang asked, "Chun Yu, why do you think so?"

"Grandma, why don't you think about it. Although we have only been home for two days, we can see it clearly. Only the eldest girl in this house obeys orders. And the eldest girl is also an extremely powerful person, and she has put the house in order. It's like an iron bucket. To put it inappropriately, it is more orderly than in our house. However, the eldest girl is a girl who is ready to marry after all, so she can't stay in the house for a few days. Grandma also saw it The wife's temper is soft, she is the most charitable, I'm afraid it won't make a bad face. As for the old man's straightforward temper, I'm afraid he is not good at it. Therefore, the eldest girl thought of handing over the middle gifts in the house to grandma Let's take care of it." I have to say that Chun Yu is really a smart person, and he guessed Xue Baochai's mind at all.

Fang is not stupid either, but she was a little puzzled: "It's really that simple?" She couldn't believe it.

"My servant's humble opinion, that's about it." Chun Yu said with a smile.

"So, I'm a little worried." Fang said.