Chapter 4

The carriage only took half an hour to reach an alley and stopped in front of a black lacquered copper ring door.

The Xue family first handed over a reply: "Hello, we are from the Xue family." The door opened and they put their carriage in.

Cui coughed, as if he was a little nervous. He tidied up his clothes three times and pulled Yuan Jin's skirt twice, so as not to lose his manners when he saw the people from Dingguo Duke's mansion. No one dared to open the curtain and look out, for fear that he would look like a country bumpkin and look that people looked down upon.

"Follow your cousins ​​in a while, you can do whatever they do, do you know?" Cui still reminded him again with concern.

The carriage stopped, and there was a voice outside: "Please come down with the wives and wives of each family."

Cui took Yuan Jin down, and all the female relatives of the Xue family were a little nervous. Even Old Lady Xue looked solemn and asked the eldest Lady Zhou to support her, and took her daughter-in-law and granddaughter to enter the second gate of the magnificent corridor pillar of Duke Ding's Mansion.

When you enter the second gate, you will find a large garden with lush grass and trees and rockery. There are many girls standing on the walkways on both sides. An elderly nanny leads the way in front and enters a moon gate. Only then will you see the two girls lifting up bamboo curtains, and the smell of sandalwood that worships Buddha comes from it.

Everyone in the Xue family was cautious at this moment, afraid that they would make mistakes. Old Mrs. Xue was the most calm and took the female family in. They saw that there were ancient shelter partitions, a wide variety of jade ornaments, and five bats presented their lives and velvet blankets, and they stepped on them quietly. On the black painted red sandalwood bed, there was an old woman with gray hair, who was served by the girl to drink tea.

When the old woman saw that it was Mrs. Xue, her eyes turned red and seemed a little excited, and asked her to sit down beside her. The two of them said a lot.

Yuan Jin listened and found out that the old woman, Qin, originally lived in Bingzhou and moved to Taiyuan a few days ago. It seemed that before Qin and Mrs. Xue got married, they were the best cousins ​​in the family. Although they were both married to the family surnamed Xue, one was the Xue family of Dingguo Duke's Mansion, and the other was the nameless Xue family. I think they hadn't seen her for many years.

Old Mrs. Xue had a good relationship with Qin before introducing her daughter-in-law and granddaughters.

The first one she introduced was naturally the eldest son Zhou, who was also her favorite daughter-in-law. "This is my eldest daughter-in-law Zhou, and this is the daughter Yuanzhen she gave birth to."

Zhou and Xue Yuanzhen first stepped forward to pay tribute to Qin. Xue Yuanzhen is also a young girl, and said gently and tenderly: "Please pay tribute to grandmother of the church."

The Zhou family was born as the best among all the wives, and was the daughter of the prefect of Taiyuan Prefecture, so she also had the highest status in the Xue family. Xue Yuanzhen was her only daughter, so she was naturally the most delicate in the Xue family, and she had a good education as a lady from a family.

Qin just smiled and nodded.

When Mrs. Xue saw Qin's smile, she fainted and introduced the wife Shen and two wives of the second wife. Xue Yuanshan and Xue Yuanjue who had just joked about Yuan Jin, and they saluted Qin's manner.

The wife of the third wife, Jiang, is a versatile person. Before Mrs. Xue introduced her, she took her daughter forward and smiled and saluted Qin: "Stop talking to you, I will talk to you myself first. I am the wife of the third wife, this is the little girl Xue Yuanzhu."

Xue Yuanzhu is the youngest of several sisters.

Qin's eyes finally fell on Yuan Jin, and he smiled and said, "This is the lady in your polite house, right?"

She noticed that Yuan Jin was also because among the Xue Mansion who had just come in, whether it was Xue Yuanzhen, Zhou, or even the old lady Xue herself, it was difficult for her to hide her surprise at the luxury of the Duke Dingguo Mansion. Only this little girl looked around when she came in, her expression was calm, a common and calmness that was not surprised by the favor and disgrace.

Only those real powerful families can educate such ladies.

But how could it be the little lady from a common house of the Xue family?

"That's right!" Cui quickly raised his smile, quickly pushed Yuan Jin behind her back, and signaled her to come forward to pay her respects.

Yuan Jin also stepped forward, bowed and greeted her, neither humble nor flattering. After all, everyone she had seen before was a man of all kinds, so she naturally had no timidity towards the old lady of Dingguo Duke. Qin looked at her again and smiled, "This lady is so generous, like your own granddaughter."

As soon as these words were said, the faces of the eldest wife Zhou and the second wife Shen changed slightly, but the third wife Jiang still kept smiling.

Then Qin seemed to have something to say to Mrs. Xue alone, so she asked the nanny to take them to enjoy the water lilies first, leaving Mrs. Xue in the house.

People who come out are inevitably curious.

Shen was born into a scholarly family, so he was better than his eldest wife Zhou. He asked Zhou in a low voice: "What should mother and the old lady of Dingguo Duke discuss? It's mysterious."

Zhou said lightly: "The two have not seen each other for many years, so Zuo is just talking about something." She walked in front, not wanting to say more. Cui fell behind and whispered to Yuan Jin: "The elder sister of the legitimate sister has not praised you, I have praised you alone. Today I really give my mother a face!"

Yuan Jin did not take Qin's praise seriously. Is there any benefit to her even if Qin praised her? It would be fine if Qin didn't praise her, but she would have praised her as a concubine. The few legitimate families have always been arrogant, but now they feel that the legitimate families have suppressed the limelight of their legitimate daughter, so they will naturally be unhappy.

But she said nothing, just followed everyone forward.

The nanny led them to a lotus pond. The winding corridor fell on the lotus pond. Several pavilions were connected to each other. Several ladies were already sitting in the pavilion. The rippling lake surface was full of purple and yellow water lilies. The lotus buds had just emerged in this season, but the water lilies had already bloomed colorfully, covering most of the lake surface. There were thousands of thin willows hanging down by the pavilion, which was really beautiful.

The people in the Xue Mansion sighed again. Although they saw many lotus ponds on weekdays, they had never seen such a big one. It would be really beautiful if the flowers bloomed like this.

"Today we will invite the wives and wives from all families to hold a garden party here, and you will also invite all wives to sit first," the nanny of the Duke of Dingguo's mansion smiled politely. "If the wives can't sit still, you can go to the flower hall to play the leaf card for a while, and then go to the main hall to hold a seat after our old lady finishes talking to Mrs. Xue."

The little girls were interested in enjoying flowers, and most of the people sitting in the pavilion were girls. As a result, the wives separated from the girls, and Yuan Jin followed the nanny into the pavilion and sat down.

At this time, the cool breeze blew on my face, and the weather in early summer was very comfortable.

Xue Yuanzhen sat on the other end, and the two second-bedrooms immediately sat down and asked the girl to make tea.

Xue Yuanshan smiled and said, "It was the fourth sister who showed her face in front of the old lady of Dingguo Duke."

"What's the use of showing up? The ones who come from the common house are from the common house." Xue Yuanjue said softly, "Dad is just a horse-raising person."

Xue Yuanzhen just smiled and listened without saying a word.

For her, Xue Yuanjin's father's position was too low and his mother's family was not allowed to be a prestigious person. She didn't want to compare herself with Xue Yuanjin at all.

They did not avoid Yuan Jin's words, so Yuan Jin could hear it clearly. The reason why Xue Yuanjue said that her father raised horses was because her father was indeed the Minister of the local Yuanma Temple, and he was in charge of military horses from Bingzhou. Yuan Jin was not interested in such a little girl-like bickering, so he didn't talk.

Xue Yuanzhu, on the side, snorted: "What the fifth sister said: If it weren't for the fourth uncle who raised horses, the second uncle would have to come to his official position now, could you still sit here and have tea?"

Xue Yuanjue glared and turned around with nothing to say.

Yuan Jin also knew what Xue Yuanzhu said.

I heard that it was the second uncle who secretly took his father's article and was appreciated by Lord Xu, who was the governor of Shanxi at the time. Therefore, he rose to prominence and is now a magistrate. Later, everyone knew about this, but there was nothing to say. People's fate is difficult to predict, and this is just their own fate. But the second wife is indeed sorry for the fourth wife because of this.

"Thank you, Liu Mei." Yuan Jin whispered to Xue Yuanzhu next to him.

Xue Yuanzhu turned her head aside and said, "I just don't deal with her, it has nothing to do with you!"

Yuan Jin smiled and said, "Then I want to thank you too!" As he said that, he rubbed Yuanzhu's bag head. Yuanzhu was still combed in a bun.

Yuanzhu blushed and stuttered a little: "What are you doing to touch my hair!" She said, but she was still not satisfied, "You are really!"

Yuan Jin smiled and said nothing.

Yuanzhu sat next to her and said after a long time, "I will be reluctant to do it this time, I won't blame you."

"Okay." Yuan Jin agreed to her. Yuan Zhu has a pretty cute personality.

Shortly after the few people finished speaking, there was a noise from the other side of the stone road, and the vague sound of the boy speaking.

The ladies in the pavilion naturally whispered, not knowing who was in the yard of the Duke of Dingguo Mansion, nor whether they should avoid it. But looking at their slightly red cheeks, they knew that they didn't want to avoid it at all, just looked around and waited to see who was coming.

The nanny also smiled: "You don't need to avoid it, the ladies come to the Duke's Mansion and are relatives, and they are relatives with the ladies here. Let's continue to have tea."

Of course, it was a few laughs from the ladies. Then the people got closer and closer, and everyone looked around and looked towards the direction of the gravel road.

Several teenagers came together, and the leader was a handsome young man with a handsome face, wearing a blue robe. Seeing this person, a wife exclaimed, "Isn't this Wei San Gongzi Wei Heng?"

The Wei family heard that it was related to the Duke Dingguo Mansion and was closer to the Xue family. This young master Wei San is the best young man in the family and has a very noble status. Seeing that it was her, the young ladies were even more curious, with bright eyes and slightly red cheeks. After all, this young master Wei San is also a rare beauty.

"So it is Mr. Wei San, the fourth sister we like!" Xue Yuanshan looked at Yuan Jin with a smile, "Fourth sister, do you want to say hello?"

Yuan Jin was confused. Xue Yuanshan...what did she say?

"The last time I met at the family dinner, the fourth sister fell in love with her at first sight. When I was practicing calligraphy, the name of Wei Heng was written on the paper." Xue Yuanshan said, "I also secretly wanted to see her several times, but I was infatuated. It's a pity that she ignored the fourth sister."

Yuan Jin's lips were slightly pursed, and he was quite speechless.

Why are all four families doing some stupid things?

On the other side of Wei Heng, the boy next to him happened to poke his elbow: "Wei San, look, isn't that the woman who likes you before?"

Wei Heng didn't pay attention at first, and when he looked here, he saw Xue Yuanjin eating tea.

He almost didn't recognize it because when he saw her before, she always dressed very brightly. Today, she only wore a pink robe, and there was no hair accessories at all, leaving only black hair hanging on her shoulders. She showed the girl's beautiful and clear face, with a hint of childishness in snow-whiteness. Her temperament seemed...it was a bit different.

"Didn't you say last time that you are an ordinary girl?" The boy next to you said again, "This is also called ordinary. Wei San, are you asking too high?"

"Is it because I heard you come, so I'm here to attend the garden party?" Someone joked, "It's a pity that there is no such beautiful girl like me. Wei San, you're so lucky."

Wei Heng frowned and said softly: "Stop talking nonsense!"

He took a step and walked towards the pavilion. They were originally going to recite poems in the pavilion.

But the pavilion they were going to pass by the pavilion where Yuan Jin was.
Chapter completed!