Traveling to Daliang Kingdom starts from falling into the water

Chapter 985 After the Ceremony
As Liu understood her youngest son's implication, she couldn't help but chuckle and nod. It wasn't that she was laughing at her son; he was simply incapable of being a strict father.

This silly boy, why aren't you keeping company with the guests? Why are you lingering here? With so many people around, how could we not keep an eye on your son? Hurry up, the guests are about to head home.

At that time, it wasn't time for her to rush her grandson back to the west courtyard. As the maternal grandmother who had given birth, Aunt Chen still needed to finish one more thing.

After the offerings to the gods, along with the incense sticks, are taken down and burned in the courtyard, the midwife will also take down the kang (heated brick bed) deities and burn them.

After burning, the ashes need to be wrapped in red paper and placed under the kang (heated brick bed) in the south room of the east wing of the west courtyard, so that the kang gods and goddesses can bless the adults and children with peace and safety.

Chen the midwife was very capable. She didn't keep Liu and the others who were holding their grandson waiting for long. She quickly finished her work, took the red paper wrapped in ashes, and left first.

When Liu carried her grandson to the east wing of the west courtyard, Chen, the midwife, had finished her preparations at just the right time, leaving only the final step of the ceremony—placing the baby on the kang (a heated brick bed).

With that, all the ceremonies for the day were completed. Before Zhou Banxia could hand over the red envelope after Chen the midwife congratulated her, Liu Shi quickly slipped in her own red envelope first.

The part-time maternal grandmother earned quite a bit of extra income.

Besides the copper coins, gold and silver ingots, offerings, auspicious fruits, eggs, and so on that everyone "added to the basin" and took them all in, this red envelope was indispensable.

Her in-laws suffered a huge loss when she gave birth this time.

Although the red envelope Xiao Suocheng received for her maternal grandmother's previous birth was also given by her in-laws, times have changed, and the red envelope for her maternal grandmother this time must have been more than doubled.

She told Liu the truth, which was why she didn't want to hold a big baby shower ceremony, "...I'm just afraid that you and Father will favor me."

Even though my sister-in-law is very kind-hearted, there's still Aunt Ma. I always feel bad for her. Mom, you and Dad should secretly give her some more food after dark, okay?

Do I need you to teach me?

Liu burst out laughing.

This kid actually pulled out a silver note!
“How have your father and I ever favored you? On the contrary, you’re the one who keeps suffering losses.” Liu glared at her old daughter-in-law and reached out to pull her forehead ribbon back up.

"Hehe, I'm not stupid. Do you think I don't know whether you and Dad are biased towards me? To be honest, do you and Dad still have any money?"

"Yes, yes," Liu replied hastily. If she spoke too slowly, the child would eagerly stuff silver notes into her hand again. "There are still several thousand taels of silver."

Your father and I will let you know if we're short on money. Just focus on your postpartum recovery, take good care of yourself, and remember that getting better is the most important thing.

"Ok."

Despite hearing her daughter-in-law's obedient "okay" so often, with her words and actions completely contradicting each other, Liu couldn't help but smile through her serious expression.

"You, I won't say anymore. Lie down quickly. I'll go outside to entertain the guests. Your Aunt Zhao and the others are still at our house. They want to go back before dark."

This was of utmost importance, so Zhou Banxia didn't linger any longer and took the opportunity to sit down and rest. To put her mother-in-law at ease, she didn't sit down either and immediately lay down.

Liu chuckled and patted her, then glanced at her grandson lying on the kang (heated brick bed). Sure enough, her grandson was fast asleep again, like a little pig. This grandson was just as easy to take care of as his father; her youngest son was the same way when he was born, and even at 100 days old, he rarely cried—he was very well-behaved.

Of course, the eldest and second grandsons are also very well-behaved. From birth, they are just like their father, so their mother doesn't have to worry about them much.

Even my impatient second grandson, who occasionally cries at night, stops crying as soon as someone picks him up. This little kid is incredibly clever.

They are all good children, good children who have come to repay our kindness. We do not ask that they bring glory to our ancestors or stand out from the crowd. We only hope that they grow up safely and peacefully.

After leaving the west courtyard and seeing off the guests, the remaining guests went back to their rooms to rest. Liu thought to herself that she could finally go back to her room and catch her breath, but then she saw that her mother-in-law was still there.

I don’t know when her mother-in-law came. The two of them were sitting in the main hall of the courtyard. Even if they didn’t want to go back to the old courtyard, wouldn’t it be more comfortable to lie down in the warm room?
"You're back! Come sit down and rest for a while."

No, I still have to host a banquet before dark to have dinner with Aunt Sanya, Auntie and other female relatives. Right now, I wish I could go back to my room and lie down for a while.

"What about when the remaining guests left? I heard that the old scholar's wife invited the Zhou family to her house for dinner tomorrow?"

"Is that so?" Upon hearing this, Liu sat down to the seat below Old Madam Gu. "I'm not entirely sure. I only know that they've been away for a while and won't be staying for long."

Like Sanya's second uncle and his wife. Her second uncle is the clan chief there, and he's been busy. This time, Sanya's aunt couldn't come, so the two of them took the time to come.

Yesterday I asked Sanya's second aunt to stay a few more days to keep Sanya company, but her second aunt said she could only stay for three to five days at most, as she had to rush back to pay respects to her ancestors for the Qingming Festival.

Grandma Gu almost forgot that the Qingming Festival was coming up, and the Qingming Festival to pay respects to ancestors was an important event. Not to mention that Aunt Sanya's second aunt was the head of the clan and had to go back a few days earlier.

"What about the second wife of the Xu family?" I wonder where Yangzhou is. Since it's in Jiangnan, it must be very far away. She probably won't be able to get home before Qingming Festival.

In that case, there's no rush to get going. Besides, "I heard that Sanya's brother, Dajiang, is going to Yangzhou Prefecture with Madam Xu?"

Upon hearing this question, which concerned Dajiang's upcoming study trip to the south of the Yangtze River, Liu, not wanting to cause any further trouble, shook her head in surprise, "Is that so? How come I didn't know?"

What else do you know?
Not to mention that Sanya's mother is your in-law's mother, how could your in-law's mother not know whether her son would travel with the Xu family? The Xu family is still at your house, and you still don't know? You're so stupid!
Grandma Gu glared at her daughter-in-law with annoyance. "Give it a rest. Don't you see that the Zhou family and their patriarchs have come? Do you think they're just here because they have nothing better to do?"

You know quite a lot, old lady. In just one night, how did you find out about Zhou Changwu's background, who lives with the male guests in the outer courtyard?

Madam Liu wasn't worried about the servants' loose tongues; she could guess that Old Madam Gu must have overheard something in the outer courtyard hall.

"I first heard from the old scholar of the Zhou family and the second son of the Zhao family that the person was the eldest son and second son of the Zhou family's main branch."

To be honest, her child's father definitely didn't inherit his genes from his father; he inherited more from his mother, who was also very bright.

Sure enough, I can tell!
"I heard he's a scholar who passed the imperial examination. You should really think about what he's doing coming all this way for. Don't let him end up hurting your son while you're still clueless."

what!
No mother can be as bad at ruining her son as you, old lady. Look at your second son, he's terrified of you now and hasn't come back yet.