Daiyu's wife in the Red Chamber

The name of this eunuch is Tao Xiaofei, and he is very useful in front of the empress. Last time the empress rewarded Daiyu with leather and clothes. There is a lantern riddle hanging.He dismounted outside the door on a tall horse, and did not enter the main hall of Rongguo Mansion, nor did he enter the main room of Jia Mu, but only entered the east wing where Daiyu lived.

In the Rongguo Mansion, the curtains are filled with colorful phoenixes, jewels compete for brilliance, the inside and outside are as bright as day, like brocades and flowers, and there is no one idle around. It is really indescribable wealth and romance. Tao Xiaofei can see everything in her eyes. The red flowers and green leaves are all made of silk, vivid and vivid, surpassing real flowers, and couldn't help but smack her lips, Fang Xiang Daiyu smiled and said: "Today, on the Lantern Festival, there is a banquet in the Daming Palace to appreciate the lanterns. Take a lantern riddle for the girl to guess, and if you can guess it well, you can go back and win the lottery."

Daiyu went over to have a look, but it was a five-character quatrain. She guessed the answer as soon as she saw it. It was easy to say with a smile.

Since there was no outsider in the room, Tao Xiaofei took the opportunity to take out a stack of lacquered paper from her sleeve, handed it to the desk, and said: "The empress said, these lantern riddles were all entered by the mansions of the princes and princes, and they were hung in the corridors. The empress cannot guess them." Instruct the female history around me to quietly copy it down, and it's all here, so that the girl can quickly guess and let the younger one take it back, and when the lady wins the lottery, she will get half of the girl's share."

Daiyu pursed her lips and smiled, while ordering someone to pour tea and fruit to Tao Xiaofei to eat, she read it carefully. There were five words, seven words, and three words from the Four Books and Five Classics. The answer to the riddle is written on a note.

Tao Xiaofei first hid these papers in her sleeves, then happily left with the lantern, not looking at the Jia family members.

With such an attitude, the members of the Jia family who sent him out respectfully did not dare to be rude.

Mother Jia sent mandarin ducks to ask what happened. Daiyu went to Mother Jia's room and replied with a smile: "There was a banquet in the palace on the Shangyuan Festival, and lanterns were hung up to guess riddles. The empress asked Eunuch Tao to send one over for me to guess. The meaning of Yile." As for the fact that the queen was the leader and cheated with her, except for her personal servants, Daiyu naturally would not tell anyone else.

Jia Mu said with a smile: "Your Majesty has not left the palace yet, so I want to have fun at the banquet."

Mrs. Wang hurriedly said: "It's a matter of course. Didn't the eunuch who sent the message earlier say that the empress also has to receive the banquet in the palace."

At that time, Mrs. Xing, Mrs. Wang, Sister Feng, Aunt Xue, Li Wan, Baochai, Baoyu, Sanchun, Youshi and others were all in Jiamu's room, all dressed up in jewels and emeralds, resplendent and resplendent, even Li Wan wore them. A colorful dress with a beaming face.

If you talk about the most outstanding person, it is still Baochai.

She combed her hair in a high bun, with a beaded gourd hairpin on the front, and a double-breasted beige with red peony flowers.

Seeing Daiyu come in, Baoyu hastily gave up his seat, and said with concern: "I got up early today, sister, don't be tired."

Daiyu thanked her, but sat under Jiamu's hand, listening to Baochai ask what the lantern riddle was, and read the five-character quatrains with a smile, but before she could tell the answer, she heard Baochai say, "A good poem is really hard to guess. I don't know my sister." Can you guess it?" In fact, this lantern riddle is not difficult to guess at all, he is as clever as Baochai, and he has already got the answer before he has finished listening to it, but his mouth is deliberately humble.

When Daiyu spoke, all the sisters came to listen carefully.

Baoyu had it first, and Tanchun checked their answers with each other. After asking Baochai and Daiyu, and then Yingchun and Xichun, the first four people had the same answer. Only Yingchun and Xichun guessed wrong. Don't take it to heart, but Xichun looks displeased.

Daiyu smiled and said: "It's just a guess, it's a trivial matter, sister Xichun, don't be annoyed, any more annoyance will be my fault."

"It's all about the second brother and the third sister, right? If you guess it, you can guess it. If you have to answer a pair of answers, you are brothers and sisters. You are as smart as Sister Lin and Sister Bao. Doesn't it just make me and the second sister ugly? Ming Let me stop guessing riddles for you to know." Xichun got up and sat down next to Daiyu, insisting on asking Daiyu to come up with a riddle that she could guess.

Daiyu has been in touch with Xichun recently because of her painting studies, and she is much closer than before, far better than other sisters. Seeing her like this, she quickly recited a poem for her to guess, and her face brightened.

Mother Jia let them play tricks, and said with a smile: "What's the matter, why are the four girls so annoyed? After picking up our mother's car, tomorrow is free. Let's play lantern riddles seriously. It's a good luck." Yours." After busy visiting relatives, the first month was not over, and when Jia's mother wanted to do so, Yuan Chun suddenly gave lantern riddles to guess, and then made fun of them, which coincided with today's words, and will not be mentioned later.

Suddenly, she heard the words "Come, come" and other words from outside, so Jia's mother hurriedly adjusted her makeup and led the female family members of the family to wait outside the gate.

Daiyu went back to her room.

Liu Momo presented a bowl of ganoderma lucidum and red date soup that was boiled alone for Daiyu in their room, and said: "I have never had a good meal in the old lady's room at night. The girl drinks some soup, boiled with the ganoderma lucidum rewarded by the empress, it will strengthen the stomach. Moisturizing the lungs is better than bird's nest."

Daiyu listened to the faint sound of Xile, she was still outside the mansion, guessing that Yuanchun hadn't entered the garden at this time, and it would be early when she was summoned, so she lowered her head and drank the soup slowly, brushed her teeth and washed her face again, and changed into another clothes.After waiting for another quarter of an hour, I heard that Yuan Chun and others came out of the garden and entered Jia Mu's main room. After a long time, the servants of the East and West families had all saluted outside the hall, and then a eunuch came to summon him. When I left the room, I saw Aunt Xue and Baochai waiting outside the room for a long time, so I entered the room with her.

Daiyu and Aunt Xue Baochai's mother and daughter wanted to perform the state ceremony, but Yuanchun hurried to avoid it.

When Aunt Xue and Baochai came forward to say goodbye to the cold and warm, Daiyu quietly looked at Yuanchun. This was the first time she saw Yuanchun in the years of living in Rongguo Mansion. It is said that he was eleven or twelve years older than Baoyu, and now he is two years old. Fifty out of ten, the face is like the full moon, the eyes are like water apricots, the eyebrows and body shape are somewhat similar to Baoyu and Baochai, but the phoenix crown and yellow robe are far more graceful and luxurious than Baochai.

Yuan Chun is also looking at Daiyu and Baochai. Under the light, they are like beautiful nephrite jade, which is incomparable to others.

After the maid who brought into the palace held the qin and waited to say hello, everyone retreated, leaving only a few eunuchs inside. The mother and daughter gossiped about family affairs. The words said that Jia's mother wanted to marry the two jades, but she valued the golden and jade marriage bestowed by God, and loved Baochai as a human being. Although there was no dispute on the surface, it was difficult to get along in private.

When Yuan Chun looked closely, comparing Dai Chai's pros and cons, it was difficult to make a decision.

In terms of background and status, Daiyu is the best. She was born in a scholarly family. She is the daughter of an official and has the title of county magistrate. In order to bring it back to the palace, present and write down the lantern riddles today's Yulan.If you marry Daiyu, it means that Baoyu refuses to study and make progress, and also has the post of second-rank military officer, belonging to the upper class.However, she has no family resources, and she is delicate and weak. She often competes with Baoyu for leisure, and she has no qualifications to persuade her husband to make progress, so her mother is very dissatisfied.

In terms of dignity and prudence, it was Baochai who was superior, with a generous disposition, calm and peaceful at all times, often admonishing Baoyu to study and improve, and won the heart of her mother. Even the servants respected her very much and did not say anything bad about her.Compared with Daiyu's illness, Baochai's pearls are round and jade-like, and there are few illnesses, which are also beneficial to offspring.What's more, the family-speaking villa seen today is very luxurious and cost a lot of money. I'm afraid the mansion will be hard-pressed in the future, and Xue's family will contribute money and do their best.

Until Jia Zheng knelt outside the curtain to serve as a counselor, Yuan Chunfang stopped thinking and still hadn't made a decision.

Daiyu and her sisters stood below, feeling bored, listening to Jia Zheng's high-sounding words, and listening to Yuan Chun's words of feeling involuntary.

Daiyu felt that Yuanchun was not as open to the Queen as she was. The Queen was also locked in the deep palace. She had neither family happiness nor children to entertain her. , I feel that wealth is a shackle. When I despise it, I don’t know how many people envy it. I can only say that life has gains and losses.Yuan Chun lamented that the rich and the rich are not interesting, so why go to the palace to gain wealth instead of staying at home to enjoy family happiness?

Looking at Jia Zheng outside the curtain, Daiyu suddenly felt that maybe entering the palace was not what Yuan Chun wanted, but who knows?

Hearing that Jia Zheng said that all the plaques in the garden were inscribed by Baoyu, Daiyu secretly felt dissatisfied, and seemed to erase all the credits of her sister and others.Yuanchun was very happy. He hurriedly asked Baoyu, and ordered him to be brought in. He was very affectionate in his arms.

Afterwards, there was a banquet in the garden, and poetry was restricted after the banquet. Daiyu suddenly felt bored and prevaricated a poem, but she was evenly divided with Baochai and both came out on top.Looking back, I suddenly saw Baochai mentioning Baoyu, Baoyu was so anxious that he was sweating, and touched Xichun's arm lightly. The two sisters looked at each other and smiled. It's the same, my sister is born with great talents, and she should go to help her second brother because of her sister's friendship for many years, and the old lady also remembers her sister's benefits in her heart."

The relationship has been very deep for many years, Daiyu has never been involved in charming feelings at this time, she only thinks about the old relationship, fearing that Baoyu will fall ill suddenly, which will disturb the rest of the whole family, so I went to ask, while he was copying the first three poems He had already made a song called Apricot Curtain, twisted it into a ball of paper and threw it to him. As expected, he was highly praised by Yuan Chun, and he was secretly proud of it.

When Jia Zheng was young, he wrote "Ode to the Province", and everyone praised him. In Yuanchun, he gave Baoyu and Jialan a golden cake, which no one else had. Daiyu didn't know how many people were unhappy, but she knew that someone was unhappy about it. .

After finishing the poem, she went to the theater, and she couldn't bear the wealth, but Tao Xiaofei came to look for her according to the queen's decree, so she accused her and went back to her room.

As Tao Xiaofei said in the foreword, this time I gave away a lot of prizes and other things such as crispy crisps and golden batters.

Tao Xiaofei laughed and said, "Your Majesty has solved dozens of lantern riddles one after another, and I can guess the riddles based on how sophisticated the lantern riddles are. On the contrary, more than half of the lantern riddles that My Majesty wrote on the lanterns before have not been guessed by anyone, watching everyone rack their brains." After countless guesses, the emperor and the emperor praised the empress for her great talent, and both the empress dowager and the empress dowager rewarded many things, including half of the lottery.

When Daiyu heard this, she immediately smiled, she was very unhappy, she was naturally not doing it for a few prizes, but she was proud of the undiscovered pleasure of cooperating with the empress to cheat.

Nanny Liu and the others pursed their lips and smiled.

Daiyu didn't want to go to the front to watch the lively drama, so she flipped through the lottery to pass the time. She picked up one, and Tao Xiaofei explained its origin beside her, saying: "This Qianya poetry tube is obtained by guessing the empress dowager's lantern riddle, and this Zhantan The Buddha is from the Palace of Prince Beijing, and this Chengni inkstone is from the Palace of Prince Zhongshun... Miss, don't underestimate this brand new bright yellow ribbon, it is actually the prize she got from guessing the emperor's lantern riddle earlier." Tao Xiaofei would not It is said that the emperor ordered Dai Quan to prepare a box of purse ribbons made by the eunuch Gong'e as a lottery.

Daiyu was startled and put it down, and asked, "Was the lantern riddle I guessed earlier made by a sage?"

Tao Xiaofei smiled and nodded, Daiyu even said that she was extremely disrespectful, but she did not dislike the simplicity of the five-character poem.

After thinking about it, remembering what the queen said about her current temperament, she asked Tao Xiaofei, "Is the lantern viewing over now?"

Tao Xiaofei shook her head and said: "Women who are going home to visit their relatives retreat first. The emperor and empress dowager went to rest when they were tired. The emperor, empress and empress brought all the princes, princesses and concubines to watch the lanterns and firecrackers in the palace. It's time to pass. It's just parted, all the brides who are visiting relatives don't get up from their mother's house until three minutes later, I'm afraid you won't be able to rest in the palace that night."

Daiyu took a look at the sky, and just after Haishi, she ordered Zijuan to take out a small white gauze lantern, and picked something random from the colorful head to make a riddle. Brought out a pair of heavy red-gold plum blossom cakes, handed them to Tao Xiaofei, and said with a smile: "I have won so many prizes from saints and empresses, and I can't repay them, so I pick up people's teeth and wisdom, and I would like to make a lantern riddle. The empress will be happy under the moon."

Tao Xiaofei was stunned at first, then laughed out loud, and said: "If the Holy Majesty can guess it, Longyan will be delighted."

The queen was standing in the porch at this time, but she was not with Emperor Changtai, probably because Emperor Changtai was guessing lantern riddles, and the eunuch next to him was holding a lot of winning prizes, so she first asked Tao Xiaofei, "Will you be there when Yu girl is doing lantern riddles?" Not here?"

Tao Xiaofei understood, and hurriedly said: "Here, when Miss Lin picks up things and writes poems, the little one is right next to her."

The queen said with a smile: "Since that's the case, go to Dai Quan and bring the lamp and the colorful head to His Majesty, and say that if His Majesty can guess the answer, the colorful ribbon will be a rare commodity that can be lived in." Emperor Changtai also guessed many lantern riddles today and won many prizes. No matter whether he guessed correctly or not, the owner of the lantern riddles said he was right.

Tao Xiaofei went with a smile.

Dai Quan listened to him and casually said: "Miss Lin randomly picked up a glass lamp to make a lantern riddle, and the younger one is on the side."

After scolding Tao Xiaofei with a smile, Dai Quan personally presented it to Emperor Changtai.

Unexpectedly, Daiyu's lantern riddles are very simple, without Dai Quan's reminder, Emperor Changtai has already guessed it, and accepted the pair of heavy red and gold plum blossom cakes with a smile, and showed them to the queen.

The queen turned her head and smiled secretly for a while, then turned around and said seriously: "Your Majesty, these two gold cakes are worth five or six hundred taels!" When she heard Daiyu tell the past, she mentioned that the pair of red gold plum blossom cakes were originally hers. When I was young in Yangzhou, a salt merchant gave me a birthday gift of every inch of gold, and a small inch of gold weighed about one catty, not to mention that the plum blossom cake was bigger?At least five or six hundred taels of silver.

Emperor Changtai sighed: "It would be great if everyone was as understanding as Jingxiao."

Vulgar and elegant.

When the queen heard this, she immediately knew that although these lottery prizes were valuable, they were not as practical as real money, so she couldn't help laughing.She winked at Dai Quan, Dai Quan remembered it in her heart, and quietly let everyone know that the next day was still a lantern feast, and the lottery prizes were replaced with gold, silver and ingots, ranging from three to fifty taels to two Two or three, few toys and utensils.

Emperor Changtai made a fortune and ordered people to melt and cast gold and silver official ingots, which were temporarily collected in private treasuries for use when the treasury ran out of silver.

On the tenth day of the first lunar month, Wei Ruolan entered the palace as an errand. After he became a successor, he was the only one in the second room. He felt out of place in Wei Bo's mansion. favor.

The longer she worked in front of Emperor Changtai, the more Wei Ruolan understood Emperor Changtai's stinginess, and the more she felt the emptiness of the treasury. Now she only hoped that the few methods she gave to her uncle would be enough to accumulate wealth and present it to the elder Emperor Tai, make up for the emptiness of the treasury, and save the soldiers in northern Xinjiang and the people in the famine from having no money to buy food and clothing.

Wei Ruolan couldn't help but think of the large sum of money in her hand, because it belonged to Daiyu, the money could not be deposited in the bank, nor could it be used to buy a house, because she was afraid that Daiyu would need it later. At that moment, she couldn't find any way to raise money, and second, Wei Ruolan's own money was also afraid of arousing suspicion from others, so she didn't dare to reveal it easily.However, it's a pity that these coins are left in their hands like this. Wei Ruolan couldn't think of a good plan. After seven days on duty, she left the palace and found Lin Tao.

Lin Tao didn't dare to make decisions without authorization, so he asked his wife to go to Rongguo Mansion to ask Daiyu quietly.

When Yuanchun was visiting relatives, Choushi left at three o'clock. Daiyu missed the trouble, and it took two or three days to recover. She was watching Liu Mama tidying up the things Yuanchun gave. The usable things were left outside, and the unusable things were put away in the box.Hers is a few more than Mrs. Xing's and Mrs. Wang's. On the basis of four pieces of palace silk, four pieces of palace satin, ten ingots of purple gold and ten ingots of silver, there are new books of precious inkstones obtained by Baochai and other sisters.

Yuan Chun knew very well that Daiyu's status was extraordinary now, so he didn't dare to belittle her.

However, when it came to Baoyu's choice of a mate, Yuanchun was still vacillating left and right, undecided, thinking that it would be great if Baochai had Daiyu's birth status and grace, or if Daiyu had Baochai's prudence, virtuousness and wealth, so that he would be happy. No more difficult choices.

Daiyu didn't know Yuan Chun's thoughts, if she knew, she would definitely scoff at her.Before her father died, she didn't force her to marry another woman, for fear that she would be wronged because she didn't have the support of her mother's family. Yuanchun was lucky, and at the same time, he wanted to combine the advantages of himself and Baochai. How could there be such a good thing in the world? thing?

After hearing what Lin Tao's family said, she thought about it and suddenly had an idea.