Yanmenchun

Chapter 18

Qingfeng Teahouse is the best teahouse on Pingyang Street. This teahouse is an old shop of more than ten years. Sitting upstairs, you can see people coming and going on the street outside with the bamboo curtain lightly.

It was the first time for Shen Tuchan to come to this kind of place. She had the novelty of a child who had just seen the world. She saw that the tea in the bowl was rich and fragrant, the aroma was lingering, and the desserts were also exquisite and delicious. Take a sip.

As soon as the bowl was put down, there was a waiter outside who knocked lightly on the door, then opened the door and said to the person: "Please come inside!"

Mrs. Zhao, the Duke of the Ming Dynasty, has a melon-seeded face and slightly raised phoenix eyes. She is not tall, with a high bun on her head. She is wearing a purple dress with pearls and emeralds and jade hairpins. Surrounded by luxury.

She looked serious, with indescribable sternness, and took a critical look at Shen Tuchan when she entered the room.

Shen Tuchan didn't seem to feel her unhappiness, so she stood up and saluted with a smile: "I've seen Madam, how is Madam?"

Mrs. Ming Guogong took her seat under the service of the maid beside her, and Shen Tuchan also sat down with a smile.

"You said that you want to discuss with me about Cui'er?" Mrs. Ming Guogong seemed to be impatient, and directly cut to the point.

Shen Tuchan supported her sleeve with one hand, and picked up the tea spoon with the other to fiddle with the tea leaves in the bowl next to her. Mrs. Ming Guogong frowned when she saw that she shouldn't, and wanted to speak.

"Ma'am, if you want to succeed in many things in this world, you have to be calm." Shen Tuchan raised her eyes and interrupted what she was about to say, and said again: "Look, I am obviously begging for help, and I am not in a hurry."

"Ask for help?" Mrs. Ming Guogong frowned even deeper, with a look of displeasure.

Shen Tuchan put down the tea spoon to add tea to Mrs. Ming Guogong's wife: "Yes, please help my uncle find that painting."

Mrs. Ming Guogong almost laughed angrily, and looked at Shen Tuchan mockingly: "Did you make a mistake?"

After putting down the bowl, Shen Tuchan straightened her appearance and sat down. She smiled and looked at her: "Why? Don't you want Miss Zheng Cuicui to die with my uncle?"

Mrs. Ming's eyes froze, and her tone was cold: "What do you have?"

Shen Tuchan glanced sideways at Xiao Man: "Madam is in a hurry, Xiao Man, show Madam."

Xiaoman nodded, and took out an earring from her bosom. The earrings looked very expensive, and the workmanship was exquisite. Two agates fell under the butterfly made of gold pieces, and the agates were only slightly smaller than peanuts.

Mrs. Ming Guogong only felt her eyelids twitch, and she looked at Shen Tuchan with a gloomy expression: "Where did you get it?"

Shen Tuchan couldn't help but really wanted to laugh: "Is this important? I'm asking you to help my uncle find that painting, otherwise Miss Zheng Cuicui's earrings will fall into the hands of some apprentice tomorrow."

The earrings were dropped after Zheng Cuicui threw her to the ground at the Langyuan Court banquet that day. Before the banquet, she had reminded Xiaoman to pay attention to her surroundings. The earrings fell on the lawn behind her. Glancing at Xiaoman, Xiaoman picked it up while no one was looking.

Shen Tuchan spoke slowly, she only felt it was very disgusting to Mrs. Ming's ears, she calmly wanted to take a look at the maid beside her.

"Ma'am, don't think about it." Shen Tuchan interrupted her, "My maidservant was born in Mobei, and even killed bandits." She kindly explained.

The faces of Mrs. Ming Guogong and the maidservants behind her froze.

Shen Tuchan was as steady as a mountain, looked at Mrs. Ming Guogong with a restrained smile, and waited for her reply.

Mrs. Ming Guogong is not only arrogant now, but even has a bit of sternness between her brows, she sneered and said: "Do you want to blackmail me with such a trivial matter?"

Shen Tuchan looked at her without blinking: "The crime of losing the picture scroll is just exile for a lowly official. My Zhenbeihou Mansion is also a well-known family in Kyoto. It is just a punishment of dismissal or relegation. Zheng Cui Miss Cui Cui is fifteen this year. She should have worn these earrings before. There are many gossips in the capital city. Miss Cui Cui’s whole life, madam, do you want to bet?
Mrs. Ming Guogong only felt that the veins on her forehead were throbbing. She really underestimated this little girl from Zhenbeihou's Mansion. At such a young age, she has deep thoughts and acts viciously.

At this moment, she only felt that others were vicious.

Shen Tuchan didn't realize it, and took a sip of tea: "Madam, you must not hurt the jade bottle when you hit a mouse, right?"

Mrs. Ming Guogong quickly made a decision, gritted her teeth and said: "You are right, but how can I trust you?"

This is a topic that must be won, and Shen Tuchan didn't beat around the bush: "My uncle found the scroll, and I sent someone to hand over the earrings to you. Don't worry, we didn't get to the point of tearing our faces apart, right?"

Mrs. Ming Guogong snorted, slapped the table and got up, and said with a sneer: "Then please wait for my good news!"

"Wait." Shen Tuchan looked up at her with a smile on her face, but there was an indescribable indifference between her brows and eyes: "Madam, I haven't drunk the tea yet."

Mrs. Ming Guogong suddenly felt that her anger went straight to the sky. This little girl from the Shentu family is really capable. For many years, no little girl has dared to be so presumptuous in front of her.

She picked up the bowl of tea and drank it down in one gulp, put the bowl down heavily, took another look at Shen Tuchan, then turned and went out.

Xiaoman sat down in the seat where Mrs. Ming Guogong sat just now with some worry: "Miss, why did you offend her like this?"

Shen Tuchan raised the bamboo curtain on the window, and the figure of Mrs. Ming Guogong getting on the sedan chair and leaving here, she looked at the figure and said: "During the hunting, I just gave Princess Baoqing a hand, and the eighth princess went with her." I pestered her endlessly, and I let Princess Baoqing do the trick and poked her in the eye. I have no grievances with Zheng Cuicui, but she is willing to risk herself and use such vicious methods to help the eighth princess harm me. Do you know why they do this?"

After a pause, he continued, "Why did the eighth princess speak so casually in the bamboo forest to humiliate my parents and my tutor?"

Xiaoman was a little at a loss, and said cautiously: "Because they are arrogant?"

Shen Tuchan glanced at her, then turned her gaze out of the window: "Because I have no parents anymore, and because I am an orphan, they all think that no one will help me, and they all think that my Zhenbeihou Mansion is about to collapse. .”

Xiaoman fell silent.

The sound of hawking outside the window, the sound of cars and horses drifting into the room through the flimsy bamboo curtain, and the smell of fireworks in the world is strong. Shen Tuchan looked at the sedan chair of Mrs. Ming's wife and said: "I have seen the battlefield when I was young, and I am not yet ten years old. Then I can follow my servants all the way back to the capital from Hanzhong alone, and lose my parents at the age of thirteen, what am I afraid of?"

She seemed to be asking Xiaoman, and she seemed to be asking herself in return.

(End of this chapter)