swear not to be concubine

Chapter 118

Zheng Guogong asked the steward to call a servant woman from the inner courtyard, and ordered her to lead Jian Yan and Xu Miaojin to his wife's yard to meet his wife.

The servant girl bowed her head and agreed.So Jian Yan and Xu Miaojin bowed their knees and bowed to Zheng Guogong, then followed the servant woman through the long corridor on one side, turned around a corner door, and entered the garden behind.

It turned out that Mrs. Zheng Guogong's health was not good, and she had been living in Ya'anju in the garden to recuperate, and she rarely went out of the garden on weekdays.

Different from the magnificence of the front yard, the back garden of Zheng Guogong's mansion is deep and beautiful.Every pavilion, every tree, every flower, and even every cobblestone inlaid on the ground are very particular.

Jian Yan followed behind the servant woman, while walking, she looked around without a trace.

The corridors are folded, and the lakes and mountains are really breathtaking.

After bypassing a quiet and comfortable study room, Jian Yan walked up a long corridor behind the servant woman.

Standing on the promenade, you can see that there are dozens of plum blossoms on the right hand side.

These dozens of plants are all beauty plums.The flowers are lavender, and the rare thing is that the leaves are also red, which is extremely precious.

Jian Yan smelled a faint fragrance from the tip of her nose.I also saw a pavilion with double eaves and octagonal pavilions among the plum blossoms, in which many girls or wives were sitting or standing.Outside the pavilion, another maid set up a stove under the plum tree, with a shiny tea hanger on it, and the cattail fan in her hand couldn't stop fanning it, presumably she was pumping water to make tea for the ladies and girls.

Jian Yan knew that these must be the female relatives of other adults.

But after taking a look, she didn't pay attention to it, and just quietly followed the maid in front and walked forward.

Just now, after hearing Zheng Guogong say that she looks very similar to Mrs. Zheng Guogong, in fact, she also wants to see Mrs. Zheng Guogong earlier in her heart.

But after walking a few steps forward on the long corridor, suddenly out of the corner of his eye, he saw a servant girl walking quickly from the pavilion, and said to the servant woman in front: "Madam Yi asked these two Which adult's family is the girl from?"

Mrs. Yi is the concubine of Li Nianlan's mother and compatriot, who took King Ning as his concubine.Because her boudoir name at home was Li Nianyi, everyone called her Mrs. Yi.

This servant girl must be the servant girl next to Li Nianyi, so the servant girl's attitude towards her is also extremely respectful, and she doesn't dare to trust her at all.

She lowered her hands, bent her body slightly, and said in a friendly manner on her face: "These two are the younger sister and cousin of Xu Shilang from the Ministry of Officials."

"Xu Shilang's younger sister and cousin?"

This maid is called Aquarius.After she heard the servant girl's answer, she kept looking at Jian Yan and Xu Miaojin with her almond eyes.

Jian Yan didn't like her looking at people from the corner of her eyes very much, so she turned her head slightly to look at a ginkgo tree planted outside the corridor.

Xu Miaojin didn't like to be looked at like this, so she lowered her eyes slightly, only looking at the green bricks on the ground.

Bao Ping withdrew her gaze from looking at Jian Yan and Xu Miaojin, and told the servant girl to stand here and not move, she wanted to report back to Mrs. Yi's words.

Jian Yan frowned quietly.But in the end, he didn't show anything, he just tightened the cloak around his body with both hands.

Glancing at Xu Miaojin who was standing next to her with a bad expression on her face, she quietly asked, "Jin'er, are you cold?"

Although it is already the beginning of spring, but the spring is cold, the wind is still like a knife on the face.

There are still some fried chestnuts in Jian Yan's purse.It was on the way to Zheng Guogong's mansion earlier, Xu Zhongxuan heard the voice of a peddler outside selling sugar-fried chestnuts, so he specially asked Qi Sang to buy a pack.

The boiling hot sugar-fried chestnuts, peeled one and put it in the mouth, it is soft, glutinous and sweet, full of fragrance in the mouth.

It's just that after she ate a few, she didn't see Xu Miaojin eating, so she asked.

Xu Zhongxuan said that Xu Miaojin had a bad spleen and stomach, and that chestnuts, which were not easy to digest, were never given to her.

Jian Yan remembered such a sentence, the so-called kindness means that when others are starving, I don't eat meat without spitting.But now Xu Miaojin can't eat this sugar-fried chestnut, but she eats it here with great joy.In such a small compartment, would Xu Miaojin not be able to smell the aroma of fried chestnuts?Will she not want to eat?

Jian Yan felt that she was too unkind, so she refused to eat the remaining candied chestnuts no matter what.There was no place to put them, so I put them all in my purse in the end.

The purse is always on, and although the fried chestnuts in sugar are not as hot as they were when they first came out of the pan, they are still warm after all.

So Jian Yan untied the purse containing fried chestnuts from her waist, and quietly stuffed it into Xu Miaojin's hand, winked at her, and said with a smile: "Warm your hands."

The warm heat spread from the sugar-fried chestnuts in the purse to his cold fingertips, Xu Miaojin turned her head and smiled at Jian Yan.

And now that maid Aquarius went back and forth, bowed her knees and bowed to Jian Yan and Xu Miaojin, and then said: "Madam Yi, invite the two girls to come over."

Jian Yan frowned indistinctly.

In fact, she didn't want to see Mrs. Yi at all.Now she just wants to see Mrs. Zheng Guogong earlier, and find out what her life experience is like in this body.But now that Mrs. Yi is asking her and Xu Miaojin to go over, she can't refuse.

Speaking of which, Mrs. Yi belongs to King Ning after all.

So she nodded to Aquarius, and said politely: "Then please ask sister to lead the way."

Then she and Xu Miaojin followed the treasure bottle down the corridor and walked towards the pavilion not far away.And the maid who had been guiding them along the way hurriedly followed.

These beauty plum plants in the yard are not tall, and they have strong branches. When Jian Yan walked over, she would accidentally rub against those branches.As a result, red petals floated down and landed on her hair and shoulders one after another.

When she and Xu Miaojin came to the octagonal pavilion with double eaves, they saw that the fans on all sides of the pavilion were opened, and there were all kinds of female relatives sitting in the pavilion.

And now the eyes of the family members of this pavilion are also on Jian Yan and Xu Miaojin.

Seeing Bao Ping enter the pavilion, Jian Yan stood behind a person, so she took a look at that person without any trace.Seeing that she is less than 20 years old, she is wearing a begonia-red double-breasted jacket covered with gold makeup flowers, a tooth-colored fish-scale pleated skirt, a golden-red big phoenix on her hair, and a golden-red flower. The velvet flowers look extremely gorgeous.

Jian Yan knew that this was Mrs. Yi.

So she bowed her knees to salute Li Nianyi, and said in a soft voice: "Little girl Jianyan, I have met Mrs. Yi."

Xu Miaojin followed suit, saluted Li Nianyi and announced her name.

And when Li Nianyi saw Jian Yan's appearance clearly, she was also extremely surprised.

The girl in front of her is as gentle and transparent as a magnolia flower that just bloomed on the branches in early spring, extremely clean and beautiful.

But this is not the most important thing, the key point is that the girl's appearance is [-]% or [-]% similar to her aunt's.

"You," Li Nianyi asked hesitantly, "What did you say is your name?"

Jian Yan focused her eyes and answered: "My little girl's surname is Jian, and her name is Yan."

Li Nianyi turned his head to look at a middle-aged woman who was wearing a pea green stand-up collar jacket and a honey pink cape with ten patterns of brocade makeup and flowers, with a questioning look in his eyes.

The woman shook her head and said, "I have never seen this girl before."

But at this moment, a high-pitched voice was heard.

"It's her. Auntie, you forgot, what I told you after I came back from Taolin last time, she is that, that..."

Having said that, she didn't continue talking.

Jian Yan looked up when she heard the sound.The person who spoke was a girl of fifteen or sixteen years old, with a bright appearance, and a pair of willow-leaf hanging eyebrows are now raised high.

Jian Yan raised her eyebrows slightly.

It turned out to be an acquaintance.

This girl is the Li Nianlan who had to compete with her in painting that day in the Taolin.Presumably what she didn't say next was that she forced herself to compete with her, but in the end she was very angry.

So there was a smile on the corner of Jian Yan's lips, she nodded slightly at Li Nianlan, and greeted her softly: "So it's Miss Li. Long time no see, how is Miss Li?"

Compared to her decent and polite expression and words, Li Nianlan snorted softly from her nose, and then asked her contemptuously: "Why did you come to my house? How can someone with your status come to my house?" ?”

Everyone's ladies are naturally gentle and honest. If Li Nianlan looks down on people like this, she will naturally be discussed by others.So although the surrounding female relatives didn't say anything, their expressions changed slightly.There are even those people who are still thinking in their hearts, those born by concubine are born by concubine, and they were raised by their aunt since childhood, how good education can they have?So for a moment they looked at Aunt Wan with a little bit of disdain in their eyes.

——Aunt Wan is the middle-aged woman that Li Nianyi was looking at earlier, and she is also the biological mother of Li Nianyi and Li Nianlan.

Naturally, she felt the strange gazes of the ladies, so she hurriedly opened her mouth and said softly: "Lan'er."

Then she took two steps forward, smiled kindly at Jian Yan: "Lan'er is used to being arrogant, Miss Jian, don't be as knowledgeable as her."

Seeing her scolding Li Nianlan like this, and hearing Li Nianlan call her aunt earlier, Jian Yan knew that this should be Li Nianlan's biological mother.It's just that in the end she is just Zheng Guogong's concubine, and it is not appropriate to call her wife. If she calls her aunt, Jian Yan thinks that this person may not like an outsider to call her aunt, so after thinking about it, she just He nodded to her with a smile, and then said: "You are polite."

At this time, Aunt Wan also quietly looked at Jian Yan.

The more she looked at it, the more surprised she felt.

This girl Jian was born so similar to his wife. When Li Nianlan came back from Taoyuan at the beginning of the year, she said that she met a girl there who made her very uncomfortable. When she was born very similar to her aunt, she still couldn't believe it. of.But seeing Jian Yan now, she couldn't help but not believe it.

What is even more surprising is that Jian Yan and his wife have the same gentle and quiet temperament, as if they are two mothers and daughters.

Thinking of the words "two mothers and daughters", she felt as if there was a thunderbolt on the top of her head, rolling over her scalp, and her whole body was a little numb.

When the wife gave birth prematurely, she was by her side...

But even though Aunt Wan was shocked in her heart, she didn't show it on her face, she just asked kindly: "Miss Jian is Xu Shilang's cousin?"

Earlier, Aquarius came to report that the two girls were the younger sister and cousin of Xu Shilang, the Ministry of Officials.But now she heard that Xu Miaojin's surname was Xu, and Jian Yan's surname was Jian, so she naturally knew that Jian Yan was Xu Zhongxuan's cousin.

Jian Yan nodded, with a light and decent smile on her face all the time: "Yes."

"How old is Miss Jian now? Where is her family name? Who are her parents? Are there any brothers and sisters in the family?"

Aunt Wan followed the bamboo tube like pouring beans, and immediately asked the few questions she was most concerned about.

No matter how kind the smile on her face was before, and no matter how mellow she looked, it was inevitable that she was a little anxious when she said these words.

Jian Yan suddenly became suspicious, so she didn't answer Aunt Wan's words carefully, but said vaguely: "My daughter is 14 years old, and her mother is still alive. She is originally from the Northwest, and there is an elder brother at home."

14 years old?Northwesterner?

Aunt Wan suddenly clenched the light green Lu silk handkerchief in her hand.

The child of the wife back then should be 14 years old now.And they did come to the capital from the Longxing Mansion in the northwest...

Thinking of this, Aunt Wan could not help but break out in a cold sweat.

This Jian Yan was born so similar to his wife, and his age and place of birth also match. Is this just a coincidence, or is this Jian Yan actually the daughter that my wife gave birth to back then?
After all, after what happened that year, the Duke of the State also sent people to investigate around the Longxing Mansion, but there was no clue.Later, after waiting for a while, the nanny and the girl were never seen and found in the capital, so the Duke of the country only thought that the nanny and the girl were in trouble.But the wife has always refused to believe it.What she said was that if you live, you need to see people, and when you die, you need to see corpses. If she hasn't seen the bodies of the nanny and her daughter for a day, she will never believe that her daughter is dead.So for the past 14 years, the wife has sent people to the Jade Emperor Temple every year during the Dragon Boat Festival to give her daughter a safety dip and light the longevity lamp.Those who don't know only think that the madam is the daughter who mourned the death, but she knows that the madam just refuses to believe that her daughter is dead, so she makes a safety dip every Dragon Boat Festival, just to save her daughter. The daughter prayed, and hoped that God will see you, and the mother and daughter can meet again.

The girl named Jian Yan in front of her...

Aunt Wan looked at Jian Yan with a sense of scrutiny and guard, and the handkerchief in her hand was wrung so tightly that it was about to leak out.

And Jian Yan also felt the change in Aunt Wan's eyes looking at her.

She didn't know why Aunt Wan was acting like this all of a sudden, but she still knew that the most important thing for her today was to see Mrs. Zheng Guogong, not to meet other irrelevant people here.

Thinking of this, she raised her eyes to Aunt Wan and said with a smile: "When the little girl came over, the Duke said to let the little girl go to see the Duke's wife. Now the little girl has met all the wives and girls here. It's time to visit the Duke's wife. So let's take my leave first."

After finishing speaking, Lian Ju bowed to Aunt Wan.Then he said to the servant who followed: "Please continue to lead the way."

On the one hand, she turned her head to Xu Miaojin and said, "Jin'er, let's go."

It's just that she just turned around, and before she could take a step, she suddenly heard a very loud voice behind her.

"You can't see the lady."

(End of this chapter)