Annual Ceremony

On the day of Frost's Descent, early in the morning, the small duck soup restaurant was bustling with diners. Orange, who was walking among the customers like an imperial envoy inspecting a granary, was nearly stepped on by the chaotic footsteps in the hall several times, so he fled to higher places - jumping onto the customer's dining table was an impolite behavior that was certainly not what a mature cat should do. Orange only jumped onto the counter, and when he sat upright, he looked like a lucky cat decorated with a fake one.

Wang Yuan's wife's surname was Zhu and her given name was Shuangjing, which was taken from the phrase "Frost descends and the sky is quiet". Zhu Shuangjing's father was a minor civil servant during his lifetime. It is not difficult to see that he chose to start with elegance when naming his daughter.

However, although this name is in line with today's solar term, it fails to match the owner's temperament. Zhu Shuangjing, who has lived with her widowed mother in her maternal grandparents' home since childhood, has not developed a cold personality. Instead, her face and temperament are bright and rounded.

The mellow proprietress was extremely busy in the kitchen. The soup restaurant's business only started to pick up after the weather turned cooler this year. No help had been hired before. Wang Yuan and his servant were busy in the front hall, while Zhu Shuangjing and her wet nurse who came with her as a dowry were in charge of the kitchen.

It was the busiest time. Zhu Shuangjing came out from behind the straw-yellow bamboo curtain, holding a pile of steaming steamers. Her hair was neatly wrapped in blue cloth. Her round cheeks were slightly red from the moisture. She spoke in a bright voice with a smile, "I was wondering why there were so many customers today and the business was so unusually good. It turns out that my second sister has come to visit!"

Recently, Wang Yuan and his wife have not been able to return home to rest, and before that they had not seen Zhenyi who had returned home from Tianchang.

Zhenyi also smiled: "Sister-in-law is already so busy, but she still remembers to joke with me."

"I'm not kidding! My second sister is very pretty, full of talent and spirit. She just came back from Tianchang to mourn for the old man, and she has a very good character! Such a rare and precious person, naturally, will be followed by blessings wherever she goes!"

Zhu Shuangjing spoke clearly and without interrupting the work at hand, she had already distributed the buns to the guests who had arrived earlier. The guests listened to her words and chatted with smiles or cast their eyes on Zhenyi. One man said, "I have also heard of the talent of the second daughter of the Wang family!"

"It's just 'heard something', but you are still blind and uninformed!" Wang Yuan patted the man's shoulder and sighed as he passed by.

The man was obviously familiar with Wang Yuan. The two of them joked with each other and the hall was filled with noisy laughter.

Wang Yuan walked to the counter, talked to his second sister, then leaned over to Juzi, who was sitting on the counter, and greeted her seriously, "Juzi, are you healthy now?"

Juzi shook his beard majestically, turned his face away and ignored Wang Yuan.

Wang Yuan laughed and ruffled Orange's head, said, "Just stay here and I'll pay you later", then went to greet the guests.

Zhenyi took the initiative to take on the task of accounting, Wang Jie also helped with chores, and Jingyi sat in the big chair behind the counter like a hands-off shopkeeper.

Breakfast is the busiest time. After finishing this period, Wang Jie and Zhenyi took Jingyi to the backyard. Juzi followed behind. Wang Jie said to his second sister with some self-mockery: "In the past, my family always said that my eldest brother was useless, but now he is the one who actually works for the family. On the other hand, I have been making no progress year after year..."

Before Zhenyi could reply, Wang Yuan, who had followed quickly, grabbed Wang Jie's shoulder from behind and said, "Brother, don't be so self-deprecating. Studying and taking the imperial examinations are the right way to bring honor to our family! The behavior of a street vendor like me is definitely not worthy of public display. Father is too ashamed to mention this to anyone when he goes out now!"

Wang Yuan then sighed: "Besides, how old are you? Why are you in such a hurry? When you become an official in the future, if my soup restaurant is still open, I will have to count on you to take care of it out of personal preference!"

Zhu Shuangjing outside the kitchen said angrily: "What nonsense are you saying again? Are you scaring my brother Jie away from being an official again?"

Wang Yuan: "What nonsense! I am speaking from the heart!"

"Then you really deserve a beating!" Zhu Shuangjing stretched out her hand and grabbed Wang Yuan's ear: "It would be best if you rip your ear off, so that it can be added to a cold pig ear dish!"

When Jingyi heard the words "cold-mixed pig ears", she immediately said, "Sister-in-law, you should add more sesame oil!"

Zhenyi and Wang Jie both laughed.

Wang Yuan screamed in pain and struggled to escape: "...If I had known you were such a shrew, I would never have dared to marry you home no matter how much you talked about the 108 kinds of food!"

"You're still picking on me!" Zhu Shuangjiang looked a little annoyed. She pointed at Wang Yuan and complained to the maid who came out of the kitchen: "Nurse, listen to what he said. Come with me and pack up your things and go home. I won't tolerate his bullying!"

The wet nurse was probably used to the two men's quarreling and pretended not to hear anything. However, Zhenyi quickly pushed her eldest brother out and urged her older brother and sister-in-law to apologize.

Wang Yuan has always been able to put aside his pride and bowed to his wife repeatedly. Juzi felt that Wang Yuan was still as ignorant and cowardly as he was when he was a teenager.

Zhenyi followed the Zhu family's wet nurse to the kitchen to serve soup, beat noodles, and set the tableware. Not long after, Zhu Shuangjing came in from outside. She was obviously no longer angry, but she still said, "Zhen'er, pour out his bowl! Let him starve for a while!"

Zhenyi smiled and replied, "Yes, yes, yes."

The hot duck soup, accompanied by sesame cakes and laughter, warmed people's internal organs. In the next ten days, Zhenyi often took Jingyi to help her brother and sister-in-law in the soup restaurant.

During the entire Frost Descent solar term, the soup restaurant business was very busy and gradually showed signs of stabilizing. Zhu Shuangjing said every day that this was the fortune brought by the second sister. The second sister had returned from heaven and brought good fortune with her - without saying anything else, just look at the second sister's cat and you will know. If the person was not full of good character and blessings, how could he raise such a long-lived cat?

That evening, in the front hall of the Wang family, Wang Yuan was leaning back in a chair, drinking tea and crossing his legs, and he proposed hiring two waiters and a kitchen helper.

Wang Xirui immediately criticized this remark: "But you are so proud of yourself just when you see some improvement... You should wait and see until after the new year, when the business has a real chance of long-term development, and then make plans."

Orange, who was dozing off in a chair nearby, listened to Wang Xirui instructing his son on his business, from hiring assistants to expenses, and then to Wang Yuan's friendships: "If you want to keep your business going for a long time, you should avoid inviting those bad friends to your store to eat and drink on weekdays! First, it's not a good idea to have noisy and noisy people around, and second, these people are not decent at all, and it's common for them to take things on credit and default on payments. No business can stand such a ruin..."

Wang Yuan said in a low voice, "Father, you don't understand this! When the shop first opened, no one was interested in it. It was all thanks to them that we were able to attract customers. And father, you can't just look at them when they don't pay their bills. These people hate to settle accounts openly. When the mood is right, they will praise and praise us and say 'good luck to you, sir, you are generous'. It's common for them to throw silver coins and gold beans at random! Not to mention the one or two meals they don't pay for, even if they pay for ten meals, they can earn back the money! Some people have to settle such muddled accounts with them!"

Wang Xirui snorted, "He's full of flattery and money, and he thinks he's smart..."

"Father doesn't understand. These are all business matters!" As Wang Yuan spoke, he sat up straighter and waved to the child held by the eldest wife: "Son, come here. Father will teach you how to do business!"

"You are destined to be a failure. Stop leading my grandson astray!" Wang Xirui pulled his grandson over, his eyes full of love and hope: "It's time to open your eyes..."

Wang Xirui is busy teaching in a private school, Wang Jie is preparing for the imperial examination next year, and Wang Xipu and Wang Xichen are now making friends with the literati of the Jiangnan Poetry Society, trying to find a way out for their family. They are all very busy... While Wang Xirui was thinking, his mind moved and he looked at his niece beside him: "Is Zhen'er taking Jing'er to study these days?"

Zhenyi smiled and nodded, looking at her nephew: "If you feel at ease, you can let Luoge follow Jingyi. I will help him learn some words first."

Wang Xirui was still considering how to start the discussion with his niece, but when he heard Zhenyi take the initiative to speak, he couldn't help but feel that his niece was smart, insightful and thoughtful, and he became more relieved to hand over his grandson to her.

Wang Yuan asked sternly, "So, do I have to prepare a gift for Luo'er?"

Zhenyi nodded seriously, "No matter how carefully Big Brother calculates his business plan, this expense is unavoidable."

The Third Madam smiled and said to her niece-in-law, "Remember to cut an extra ounce of lean meat when preparing the meat. Your second sister has never liked fatty food since she was a child!"

Wang Xichen and Wang Xipu, who came home late, heard laughter as soon as they stepped into the hall. It had been a long time since they had heard such lively laughter in the house.

Juzi stretched lazily in the chair and looked at the harmonious scene in the hall. He couldn't help thinking, it would be nice if Shuyi was here too.

It has been nearly half a month since Zhenyi returned to Jinling, but Shuyi has not been able to come and reunite with her second sister. Zhenyi misses her elder sister so much that she once tried to ask her third aunt: "If it is inconvenient for elder sister to go out, I wonder if I can go to visit her?"

The Third Wife smiled and said, "How can a girl like you, who has not yet married, move around like this?"

Half of this was an excuse. It was inconvenient for Zhenyi to visit alone, but it would be reasonable and polite for her aunt to accompany her. It was just that Shuyi had not been able to continue the family line for her husband's family, and the Third Madam felt ashamed to raise her head, let alone bring her family to visit and disturb them.

Zhenyi sensed something and could not beg anymore. She could only secretly hope for the chance to meet her elder sister as soon as possible.

Unexpectedly, this "opportunity" came as soon as it was mentioned -

One day, news suddenly reached the Wang family that Jiang Mao was injured and seriously injured.

The third wife was terrified and hurriedly asked someone to prepare a car to go to the Jiang family.

Zhenyi helped her aunt out, and Juzi followed, thinking randomly - Jiang Mao seemed useless on weekdays, but this time he was injured and was very considerate. God provided timely rain above, and Jiang Mao was injured at the right time below. The banner reads - You can go see Shuyi now!

Mao'er's thoughts were inevitably naive and presumptuous, but Zhenyi, who was well-read in poetry and books, would definitely not gloat over other people's misfortunes. Faced with Jiang Mao's misfortune, she could not help but think long-term - if Jiang Mao died unfortunately, would her elder sister be lucky enough to return home?

Fortunately, the Third Lady was unaware of her niece's "long-term thinking" about "misfortune" and "fortune", otherwise she would have fainted on the spot.

In this period when autumn is ending and winter is approaching, Zhenyi and her panic-stricken aunt visit the Jiang family for the first time. (End of this chapter)