002 The Contest of Concubine
This day, the sun shines brightly and the wind blows gently.
In fact, Liuli didn't have much time to figure out the whole story, because she was soon taken to the gate of Anxi Hall, the main courtyard by a sedan chair. Another woman with particular clothes looked at her, and then immediately led her into the side room. The two maids kept looking at her with their lips pursed and washed their hands and faces for her.
The reason why she was able to enjoy this treatment was not what she thought was valued at first, but because she was a "family scandal" and it was not convenient to make it public at present. And because she had something to do with it this time, she seemed very cautious.
Liuli followed their arrangements silently. She knew that she would go to see Mr. He and others normally, and secretly planned how to deal with it.
Eight years ago, she was truly nine years old. Apart from He Rongsheng, the biggest official she had ever seen was the magistrate. Ministers like Shangshu who could pay homage to the emperor every day were only seen in operas.
Mr. He is a high-ranking official to her, and has never been a grandfather who can act coquettishly and invite favor. Even though he knew this, he was still panicked and showed a lot of timidity when he met. But now it is not like in the past, and she is very familiar with the people and things in this mansion. Moreover, even a mighty and noble person like the general of the State has been in contact with, so naturally he will no longer be afraid of facing a second-rank civil servant.
As he spoke, the coral bead curtain rang, and with the low singing voice, a maid with pink and green came in. Hearing the whisper of the mother who came to meet, he looked at Liuli. Liuli sat down on her knees with her hands covering her knees, and also looked at the maid. The maid looked slightly surprised, smiled at her softly, walked over, and pulled her up: "Please follow me, girl."
The mothers followed and laughed at each other and said a few words to the maid. The maid just smiled and did not speak back, and she had the temperament of a first-class maid in charge.
After a while, he arrived at the main hall. Before he could reach out, someone had already pressed a curtain by the door and bent down and smiled, "Miss Biyun is back." Biyun still held Liuli, entered the curtain, and walked around the screen. When he saw a group of brocade clothes and embroidered clothes sitting in the three groups, he let go of his hands and rushed to Yingying, an old man with green satin embroidered silver-knitted house-style robes above: "Go back to the old man, Miss Liuli is here."
Old Master He nodded, glanced at Liuli's body, and his frown brow seemed to tighten again.
Biyun retreated, and there were no outsiders in the hall.
He Xuanfeng covered his lips and coughed, "How come this child, why don't you please me quickly? I think I've never seen the world, so I was shocked."
Old Master He snorted.
Because they were preparing to chant the scriptures, everyone was unadorned. Even the women only had a jade ring and ribbon skirt on their bodies, so they had no sound when they were not talking. When they did not speak, the whole hall was quiet.
Liuli took two steps forward, knelt down on her legs, and bowed three times to the top. He Rongsheng said, "Please beg me." Old Master He scolded, "Middleman, who said that, "Woman, who said that?" He Rongsheng did not dare to say anything.
A smirk came from below.
Liuli knocked on another poem: "Minister Xu Liuli, pay homage to Lord Shangshu."
The little body meticulously bowed down and gave a big gift. The old man stopped talking, flicked his sleeves and looked elsewhere.
He Rongsheng frowned. A female voice on the right side said with a smile as if she was relieved: "Miss Xu is here now, it's better to see all these people here."
Old Master He was speechless. He Rongsheng squeezed out some lights on his face and raised his hand and said, "I'll bother with my second brother and sister, so I'll just lead you to see you."
The second wife Liang stood up, came to Liuli, looked at her, raised her lips and said, "It's just that girl Haihan, today is special, she doesn't have any items on her body, so I'm afraid she can't give a gift for the time being."
Regardless of the matter, Liuli came to the mansion to chant scriptures as the descendants of the He family, and the servants locked their mouths in front of them. A few of their own people could not avoid this hurdle. When they met again, they always had some gifts. They recognized him, but the old man had not spoken, so no one could reach out.
Liang took the Sutra of Prayer and Song of An as a guide, and gently put aside this power. No matter whether he recognizes it in the future or not, he will not leave any words.
Liuli said: "Men's girls dare not."
Liang started counting from the man in green clothes in He Rongsheng's head: "This is the second master, the third master, the fourth master..." Liuli paid a visit to him one by one. All the masters said no and hurried to sweep the old master's color. He was at a loss, and it seemed that Liuli was the master and the others were guests.
The old man stood up with his sleeves on his back: "Go to the Buddhist temple first."
Biyun immediately came in to handle the matter. The second, third and fourth masters followed each other. He Rongsheng glanced at Liuli and went out. Liang hesitated whether to follow him. The second master He Jianghong winked at her and then kept her down.
Seeing this, the rest of the women had to stay.
Liang looked at Liuli and smiled and said, "Of course I have to pay homage to the wife." He led her to the right head, which was empty on the main seat of the right head. The woman stopped and faced the third snail-bun lady, who was on the bottom head, and said, "This is the third lady. Now she is a third-rank imperial edict, and she must pay good tribute."
The third wife Qi sat upright and looked half-down at her fingertips. Liuli was about to bow down, but someone in Qi smiled and said, "Second sister-in-law's words are like something in the words. Could it be that if the third sister-in-law is not a third-class imperial edict, she shouldn't have done a good job?"
Although it was a joke, there was a choking smell floating in the air.
The second wife Liang held Liuli's shoulder and still smiled gently: "The fourth wife's father is the Minister of Dali Temple. She has also developed a clever mouth since she was a child. When it comes to adding fuel to the fire, no one can match you."
The fourth wife, Nie, looked dark: "Second sister-in-law is too rewarded. The second sister-in-law is rich and has a good reputation in business and business. She has made me feel ashamed of the Zhengqing Mansion!"
Liang's mother's family was an imperial merchant, and was specially used by the noble masters in the palace. If there was not a lady in the Liang family who became the prince's concubine, and as the daughter of a merchant, she would not be able to gain a family like the Shangshu Mansion. This has always been a pain point that Liang did not want others to touch.
The atmosphere was a bit awkward. Liuli didn't plan to speak out. At this time, they might want her to come out as a fireboat.
However, these things are really not something she can avoid just because she wants to. The third lady Qi, who had been silent, blinked her nails at this time and said, "Why don't the second sister-in-law take her to see her sister-in-law?"
The eldest wife is He Xuanfeng's original wife Yu. Since I found out that Liuli was going to enter the mansion, Yu has not shown up today. Whoever brought Liuli over here at this time? Isn't it all uncomfortable to be at ease?
Liuli sighed in her heart when she met the meaningful gaze of the third lady.
Fortunately, Liang was not stupid, so he smiled slowly and sat down on the chair, "I also worry about eating carrots and eating salty radish. My third brother and sister thought about it carefully, but my son was tired now and too lazy to walk around."
Nie snorted a long time, tilted his handkerchief, leaving the back of his head to rush here.
Today she was wearing a moon-white robe shirt, with a jade ring tied under the stone blue palace belt, which was used to press ten honeysuckle moon skirts. The shoes were the same color as the robe, which looked particularly dignified and solemn, but the collar of the robe shirt was shorter, and the collar inside was hidden from time to time.
I really don’t know if this fourth wife dares to wear bright colors on this kind of life.
Liuli withdrew her gaze and retreated to Liang's side without moving.
The third wife Qi said, "The girl is close to the second wife."
Liang turned his head and Qi said again: "It doesn't look like a countryside that is so ruthless."
Liang smiled and said, "It's rare to get a compliment from the third lady. Miss Xu still doesn't thank me?" Liuli thanked her. Liang took silk and printed her chin with her elbow onto the coffee table, and seemed to be careless: "I heard that she is also a scholarly family, so she knows a little bit of etiquette? Although we are a man like our master, they are very pronounced. No matter whether she is a famous lady or a minister, she will never ask for anything that is not very eye-catching."
This sounded like a mother who was raising Liuli's mother, but in fact, when the eldest son of the He family was not married, the young lady in Nie Mansion and the young lady in the hairpin had tactfully expressed her admiration. The elders of both sides also meant to marry the He family. However, when He Zhengfeng heard that although Miss Nie was beautiful and good at poetry and prose, she had big feet, she was unwilling to marry her even though she had been an official in the Nie Mansion for several generations, Mr. Nie was also a guard of the late emperor. Mr. He was not yet second-ranked at that time, and was afraid that he would offend this colleague. There was also a fourth-ranked son who was about to be the same age as the fifth lady who was born in the Nie Mansion, so he handed out media posts at all costs and hurriedly saved the situation.
The fourth lady's mother was Mrs. Nie's dowry maid, and she always followed the orders of Mrs. Nie. From the date of getting engaged, the fourth lady changed her words to call Mrs. Nie as her biological mother and Miss Nie as her biological sister. Later, she learned that Miss Nie's affairs had become a joke in everyone's back then, and she always felt like a thorn in her heart.
Although Liang did not name the name, no one here could hear it. Nie, who had originally lowered his head to drink tea, looked ashen, and then he was red again after finishing. He couldn't speak for half a day. Finally, he put the cup on the table and hummed heavily.
Liang could not hide his complacentness, but he was not too convenient, so he pulled Liuli and asked a few trivial words.
The three sisters-in-law were open and secretly arrowed here, and the maids heard it clearly. They came in early to serve tea and water. The ones standing in the distance, and a few words floated from time to time to make people hear it: "...so exquisite... no worse than a serious lady... I don't know the origin..."
Nie was just as angry and had nowhere to come out. He called the one who started to start, raised his hand and slapped his ears, extinguished his heart fire, and then he felt a little relieved.
Liuli sat on the little mat, sighing in her heart, while waiting for the moment when she summoned her to go to the Buddhist temple to recite scriptures, trying her best to suppress the sound of breathing.
The matter has developed to this point, except for the old man leaving the seat early, it can be said that it is very consistent with the meeting I remember. If it continues, she will inevitably sell it to the He family as a slave, and then maybe she will still have to go to the general's mansion again, or be beaten to death again. In this way, I really don't know what the significance of her rebirth is.
While meditating, a person turned in outside the screen, bowed his head and said to the female family, "The monks have arrived, the girls and young men are ready in the Buddhist temple. Please move the three ladies." Yu Guangsai saw Liuli standing up behind him, and added: "Please go there together."
The three sisters-in-law immediately stood up, Liang clasped her sleeves and said, "Have you ever been there?"
The visitor waited for Qi and Nie to step out of the threshold before turning back, "The second master had something to say. Because the northern border won another battle last month, the emperor issued an order to approve the Ministry of Personnel to go to the border. This time, I am afraid that the second master will be in the list, so I must ask the Secretariat for some convenience. The second master meant to let the wife follow the eldest lady in the past few days, so as not to get into trouble, and it is difficult to speak when she came to the Zuo Cheng."
Chapter completed!