swear not to be concubine

Chapter 124

When Li Nianlan saw Jian Yan sitting on the stone stool, the teacup and box she asked the maid to bring were placed on the stone table, while the maid beside her was standing aside with the tea cup and box Like a quail, he didn't dare to take a step forward.For a moment, she just felt so angry, she stepped forward and slapped Ling Xue and Ao Shuang, and then cursed: "You two are dead people? I don't know how to use this girl's teacup and saving money. Put the box on the table, what are you doing standing here? Why, do you want me to stand here to enjoy the cherry blossoms like you two?"

Bisheng Ling Xue's hands slapped by her slap trembled, and one of them lost her grip, and the small gold-painted and lacquered tray in her hand overturned, and there was only a clanging sound, and the two sweet white porcelain inside The teacup fell to the ground and shattered.

Ling Xue was so frightened that she didn't care about the broken porcelain pieces all over the floor, she knelt down as soon as her knees gave up, and only said in her mouth: "Miss, spare your life."

Aoxue on the side knelt down along with a few little maids.The scene was extremely chaotic for a while.

April is a little bit hard to see.

Although this Li Nianlan said that she was beating and scolding her maid on the surface, but in fact, she was looking for her girl, wasn't she?So she wanted to go forward and speak a few words.

But Jian Yan quickly stuffed a sugar candied date into her mouth, then shook her head at her, signaling her to leave it alone.Seeing this, Si Yue retreated behind Jian Yan and stood up.

Li Nianlan was still beating and scolding her maid continuously.Seeing her at the side, Guo Danqin felt that her behavior was a bit too much, so she tugged on her sleeve and only persuaded her in a low voice: "Forget it."

Li Nianlan flicked her sleeves, shook Guo Danqin's hand away, and said angrily: "I beat and scolded my maid, what's your business?"

When Guo Danqin was blocked by her words, her face immediately turned purple, and half of her body went numb.

Li Nianlan used to have such a fiery temper, when his temper came up, no one would give him face.When you can persuade Li Nianlan to her, at least she will restrain herself a bit, and will not spread her anger to her.But now, she is acting like this in front of Jian Yan...

Guo Danqin couldn't help stealing a glance at Jian Yan.

But I saw her wearing an apricot yellow satin magnolia twig round neck cape and a peach red pleated skirt.A phoenix hairpin with red gold dots and emeralds inlaid with gemstones is slanted on one side of the temple, and three long pearl tassels hang down. On the other side of the temple is a peony butterfly hairpin with red gold dots and emeralds inlaid with gemstones. is noble.

Jian Yan was eating a piece of dragon beard crisp with one hand, and at the same time propped her chin with the other hand, with a casual look on her face, but then she suddenly saw Guo Danqin looking at her, so she tilted her head She smiled at Guo Danqin and said hello, "Miss Guo, would you like to come and sit with me?"

He raised the dragon beard cake in his hand again, and said with a smile: "This dragon beard cake tastes good, Miss Guo, come and taste a piece?"

But he never said anything about inviting Li Nianlan to come and sit with him.

She was clearly trying to provoke Li Nianlan.

And Li Nianlan was really fooled.

While pulling Guo Danqin's arm fiercely, she said: "Don't go there." She took two steps forward, pointed at the tip of Jian Yan's nose, and said in a vicious voice: "Jian Yan, let me tell you..."

Before she could say a word, Jian Yan interrupted her with a smile: "Second Sister, I see that you are not very old, but why do you have such a bad memory? My name is not Jian Yan, but Li Nianyan. "

She is already Zheng Guogong's daughter, so she naturally has to follow Li's surname, and she also has a pronunciation, so now she is called Li Nianyan in front of outsiders, and she is no longer Jianyan.

Li Nianlan blushed only because of her words, her neck was thick.It took a while for her to react, and she said sarcastically: "Do you really think that you can become a phoenix by flying on a branch? Let me tell you, a crow is a crow, even if you get the name of a daughter from the Duke's Mansion, It is also impossible to become a phoenix. Besides, where is such a coincidence in the world, you delivered yourself to the door that day, and then Madam discovered that you were the child she lost back then. Who knew that you were in it? Didn't do anything wrong? According to me, you are just pretending."

Jian Yan was not annoyed when she heard the words, she still had a smile on her face, she just stretched out her hand, leisurely fiddled with the pastel teacup in front of her, looked at Li Nianlan and smiled, "But what should I do? No matter how angry I am, I am now the only daughter born in Zheng Guogong's mansion, and I have also won the title of Le'an Township Lord."

On the one hand, he raised his eyebrows again, and said with a smile: "But of course, if the second sister still thinks that I am a fake, then you can go and tell your father and the emperor. , let them check it out again.”

Who dares to question what the Duke, especially the Emperor, has said?Could it be that he was impatient with his head on his neck?
At this time, Guo Danqin, who was standing aside, finally understood something as if belatedly.

The Jian Yan in front of her is no longer the merchant girl who let them laugh at her smell of copper in the peach blossom forest.She is now Li Nianyan, the only daughter from the Duke's mansion, and also the Le'an Township Lord conferred by the emperor himself.

Li Nianlan looked at Jian Yan with complicated emotions.

There is the same unwillingness and jealousy as Li Nianlan, but there is also panic and anxiety.

She was afraid that Jian Yan Jian Yan would attack her badly now, after all, according to Jian Yan's current status, she has the ability...

There were fine beads of sweat on the tip of Guo Danqin's nose, and the palms of his hands were also damp, and he was only tightly clutching the handkerchief in his hand.

Her complexion that turned blue and white fell into Jian Yan's eyes, and Jian Yan naturally knew what Guo Danqin was thinking.

So she smiled slightly, and called out slowly: "Miss Guo."

Guo Danqin looked up like a frightened little rabbit, with panic and uneasiness that hadn't been concealed in her eyes.

But Jian Yan just smiled and said to her: "Such a good dragon beard crisp, don't you want a piece?"

On the one hand, he signaled to Ting Feng, who was standing aside, to take the storage box on the table, and handed it to Guo Danqin.

Guo Danqin originally didn't want to take it.

She knew that if she took the dragon beard crisps in this box, then Li Nianlan would definitely hold her grudges.But if she doesn't take it, maybe Jian Yan will hold her grudge...

On one side is Li Nianlan, on the other side is Jian Yan, Guo Danqin's nervous hands feel like water is dripping from their palms.

Jian Yan didn't urge her, she just took the teacup and drank the tea in it leisurely, while turning her head to look at the cherry blossoms below.

Although it's a bit shameful to say it, it seems to be a good feeling to bully others like this.

Li Nianlan was on the sidelines looking annoyed.

While calling out to Guo Danqin, not allowing her to take Jian Yan's things, she reached out to inquire about the box in Feng's hand.

But Ting Feng took two steps back, and said with a solemn face: "Second Miss, don't be rude in front of the Xiangjun."

After she finished speaking, she raised her voice slightly, and only asked Guo Danqin: "Miss Guo, you have to think about it. This is the kindness of our township, and I reward you with a piece of dragon beard cake. Do you accept it or not?" catch?"

Ting Feng was specially called by Nie Qingniang to be ordered by Jian Yan.Before coming here, she, Tingtong, Tinghe, Tingmei, and the dozen or so little maids were specially called by Nie Qingniang and Wei Momo to train them. They only said that Jianyan would be their only master in the future. , everything should be listened to by Jian Yan, if you dare to turn your elbows outward and eat food, first ask yourself if you are tired of having your head on your neck.So how dare Ting Feng be unfaithful to Jian Yan?

Guo Danqin now feels that she is a lamb being roasted on the fire. Whether it is turned over or not, it will be roasted by the fire anyway.That being the case, it is naturally the lesser of two evils.

So she reached out and took a piece of dragon beard cake from the box, then bowed her knees to salute Jian Yan, lowered her eyebrows, and said in a low voice: "Thank you for the reward, Mr. Xiang."

Jian Yan turned her head, smiled at her, and said kindly: "Miss Guo, don't be too polite, please get up."

Guo Danqin stepped aside with a low eyebrow.

Li Nianlan was naturally furious at this time.

Jian Yan actually used her identity as the township lord to come out and suppress people like this?But Guo Danqin gave in to Jian Yan in this way.

Li Nianlan wanted to scold, but she didn't dare.

No matter how stupid she is, she still knows in her heart that Jian Yan is also a country lord after all, as my aunt said, she is a noble of the clan, and if she scolds Jian Yan, it is equivalent to scolding the royal family.But if he didn't scold him, the resentment in his heart was about to explode.

So she could only point at Guo Danqin and said angrily, "You, you, don't come to play with me again from now on."

Guo Danqin's heart sank.

Just now when she reached out to take the Dragon Beard Crisp, she knew that she must have made a decision with Li Nianlan in the future.But what can be done?She must not offend Jian Yan because of Li Nianlan.Jian Yan's current status is incomparable to that of Li Nianlan.

At this time, Jian Yan's voice with a smile rang out unhurriedly: "Miss Guo, if you are free in the future, you can come and play with me."

Guo Danqin is not stupid either.She knew that the reason why Jian Yan said this was not because she really wanted to make her a friend, but because she wanted to anger Li Nianlan.After all, when she was in Taolin last year, she had humiliated Jian Yan like that with Li Nianlan, so she didn't believe that Jian Yan would have no lumps in her heart.

Jian Yan naturally has lumps in her heart.She thinks that she is not a bad person, she can disregard other people's life and death for the benefit of her own future, and trample others on her feet coldly, but she also thinks she is not a good person.People like Li Nianlan and Guo Danqin who have humiliated her in the past, she can't do anything to smile away their grievances.

Guo Danqin is okay, left and right rarely meet each other.But Li Nianlan was different.

Living together in the same mansion, in the future we will often see each other without looking up.She must suppress Li Nianlan's arrogance, and she cannot let Li Nianlan look so superior every time she sees her.

She wanted Li Nianlan to know that her status as Jian Yan was higher than Li Nianlan's.

But now Li Nianlan's complexion has changed.

Ever since she arrived in the pavilion, she has been standing here distraught.But from the beginning to the end, Jian Yan sat idly on the stone bench covered with autumn-colored python satin cushions, looking at her with a smile on her face.

Li Nianlan really wished she could rush forward and tear off the painted smile on Jian Yan's face.

But she dared not.

Behind Jianyan stood Tingfeng, Tingmei, Siyue, and several other little maids.And if she hit Jian Yan, such words would soon reach the ears of Nie Qingniang and her father.

After all, she was the one who did it first, and she insulted Jian Yan like this, even if her father doted on her, but with Nie Qingniang talking at the side, she must have been punished unavoidably.

The unpredictable expression on Li Nianlan's face fell into Jian Yan's eyes, and she knew that Li Nianlan was just a stern paper tiger, and she would never dare to make a big fuss about the current matter.

So Jian Yan stood up and walked towards Li Nianlan.

On the pink pleated skirt, a circle of delicate magnolia branches was carefully embroidered with gold and silver thread on the narrow billows at the bottom.When walking, it shines brilliantly.

Jian Yan stood still in front of Li Nianlan, although there was a smile on her face, but if she looked closely, there was a bit of coldness in that smile.

"Second Sister," her voice was unhurried, with a hint of a smile on it, "Although I have the title of Le'an Township Lord, I always think that you and I are sisters after all, how can there be any regrets?" Why do you, the older sister, come to salute me as the younger sister? So, my sister, I have never thought about putting on the status of a village lord in front of the second sister. It’s just the same, I hope my sister will remember that no matter what happened before, I Now it is Li Nianyan, the daughter of father and mother, and the Lord of Le'an Township conferred by the emperor's decree. If the second sister still bosses me like this in the future, she will call me a crow and call me a crow. If I pretend to be like this, my younger sister will not be happy. At that time, I will use the status of the township lord to suppress the second sister, and the second sister doesn't want to do this, right?"

"You, you..." Li Nianlan stretched out her finger and pointed at Jian Yan, staring angrily.

Jian Yan tilted her head slightly, smiled at her slowly, and asked slowly: "What about me?"

In my heart, I was thinking very frankly, I just used my status as the township lord to suppress you, and if you don't accept it, come and bite me.

Naturally, Li Nianlan didn't dare to bite her.

She was just so angry that she wanted to die, but she didn't dare to really do anything to Jian Yan.

If she still thought that Jian Yan was the businesswoman in the peach blossom forest at the beginning of last year, she could let her ridicule and just hold back her words, but now, Jian Yan's aura is so open, she uses her identity unscrupulously Come and crush her.But every word Jian Yan said seemed to be for her own good, and for her sake, there was no way to refute it.

She was so angry that her head hurt, but Jian Yan was still smiling.

"Second Sister, Miss Guo," she said to them with a gentle smile, "I've already seen the cherry blossoms, now I'm going to have lunch with my mother, so let's go first gone."

After saying that, he took Si Yue and the others, turned around and walked away.

Aunt Wan was standing at the round table, serving Zheng Guogong and Li Yi for breakfast.

The red sandalwood round table is paved with red pins and seawater cloud pattern, and in the middle is a black lacquer and gold-painted box, which contains nine sticks of goose gizzards, steamed chicken wings, ten fragrant melons and eggplants, etc. fruits and vegetables.Next to it is a large plate of eight-treasure steamed buns and a large plate of white sugar longevity cakes.There is another bowl of eight-treasure lotus seed porridge.

Li Yi put down the bowl of eight-treasure lotus seed porridge after only one mouthful. He frowned and said displeasedly, "It's sweet and greasy, who eats this? Get another bowl."

Aunt Wan hurriedly asked the maid to bring over a bowl of Yutian red rice porridge.Li Yi just ate two bowls of those pickles and four more eight-treasure steamed buns.The white sugar longevity cake only ate half of it and put it down.

Thinking about it, it is also too sweet and greasy, so I don't like to eat it.

After the meal, the little maid brought water to clean Li Yi's hands.Aunt Wan personally took a snow-white towel from the ebony tray held by the maidservant and handed it over.

Li Yi took it, wiped the water off his hands casually, and handed it to Aunt Wan again.Aunt Wan took it and put it on the tray, and because she signaled for all the little maids to retreat, she asked Aunt Liu to bring over the account books of the entry and exit of the Duke's mansion last month.

Li Yi was already sitting in the chair at this time, holding a snow-white cloth towel in his hand and was wiping a sword.

After all, he is a person who has been on the battlefield. Even though he has been idle at home for so many years, he will never forget the time when he was on a golden horse and a sword against the rebels.So when he had nothing to do, he would take a cloth towel and carefully wipe the saber that accompanied him on the battlefield back then.

It was originally a shiny sword, but Li Yi still wiped it repeatedly with a cloth towel very preciously.

Aunt Wan was a little scared.

Such a long sword that has been soaked in countless bloods, even though the blade is now as white as it has been wiped, there is still an invisible sword energy and a threatening chill radiating from the sword.

Every time Aunt Wan saw the sword, she seemed to see scarlet blood dripping from the sword tip bit by bit.

Her complexion was a little pale, but she still tried her best to gather herself together, and then a gentle smile appeared on her face, and she walked to Li Yi's side with the account book in her hand.

"Master Guo," she raised both hands, handed over the account book in her hand, and said softly, "This is the silver item that came in and out of our house last month, can you take a look?"

Li Yi did not take the account book, but frowned impatiently and said, "Why do you come over and tell me about these small things in the inner house? These are all the affairs of your inner house women. Since you are the housekeeper, Then you can figure it out for yourself.”

Li Yi never asked about the affairs of the inner house.Even if he went out to see something, he never asked the price, let the long follower around him take it, and then ordered the shopkeeper to come to the Duke's mansion to pay the money.And because of her background, Nie Qingniang has always disdain to argue with Aunt Wan, and because of her poor health, she has no patience to take care of these tedious matters in the inner house, so Aunt Wan has been left alone all these years. housekeeper.

Aunt Wan was naturally so happy.She has a bad background and is a concubine, so where is the dowry?But her three sons and daughters, Li Nianlan is King Ning's concubine, and the people in the mansion have to reward people every day, so they can't be too shabby, how can she do it if she doesn't subsidize some?Li Jing recently found a position in Wucheng Bingma Division. Which one of the daily social activities does not cost money?Li Nianlan is also a person who likes to buy fashionable jewelry to make new clothes, how can it be enough just to point at their monthly rate of two taels of silver?Perhaps she could only take advantage of the housekeeper's convenience to quietly deposit some money and set up a farm and two shops outside to subsidize the daily expenses of her children.

Now that Li Yi said that, although Aunt Wan was overjoyed in her heart, she didn't show it on her face, she just said softly: "I know I shouldn't take these trivial things in the inner house. I came here to disturb the Duke’s listening. But after all, the Duke is the pillar and the only master in the Duke’s mansion, so even if I know that the Duke doesn’t like to hear these things, I must come here to deal with it You said the last one."

Her well-timed compliment only made Li Yi feel comfortable all over his body.So he put down the long sword in his hand, sat on the chair with a big horse and a golden knife, and said with a smile on his face: "In that case, then tell me, I will listen."

So Aunt Wan euphemistically said that the farm's harvest in the past two years was not as good as in previous years, and the income in the shop also dropped slightly, but the 300-[-] people in the mansion needed food every day.

"...Recently, I have repeatedly calculated a few times. Our mansion has less inflows and more outflows. If things go on like this, it will definitely not work. So I thought about saving some expenses. Like the dresses that should be made as usual this spring Jewelry, I checked the suitcase and closet that day, and saw that last year’s dress was still wearable, and there were also jewelry, so I didn’t make dresses and jewelry. Sister Lan, I checked her clothes Dress jewelry, although there are all last year, but thinking that she often has to go out to meet guests, so I made her two new dresses and two pieces of fashionable jewelry. As for the lady, I think After all, she is the main wife, no matter how frugal she is, she can't be frugal to the madam's head, so the madam still made her a new dress and jewelry according to the rules of previous years, and the madam also took it. Three days ago The girl has recently entered the mansion, and I thought that the third girl has had a hard time these years, not to mention that now she has the title of Township Lord, so I made six sets of spring dresses for her, and bought another box for her. The good Shixin jewelry was given to her."

Li Yi looked at Aunt Wan, and saw that she was wearing a half-new bluish-blue cloak with intertwined lotus patterns and a tooth-colored pleated skirt.There is nothing more than a hairpin on the head, a jasper hairpin that is not of good color.So he nodded and said, "I also know that it's not easy to be in charge, it's been hard for you these years."

Aunt Wan smiled gently, her eye circles turned red.Then she annoyed gently: "What are you talking about, Mr. Guo? Of course, I want to share my worries for Mr. Guo. But Mr. Guo also knows about the housekeeper. As the saying goes, he has been in charge for three years. Dogs don't like it either, and there will always be people who will say something bad about me behind my back. I also hope that when the Duke of the State hears such words, he will not blame me in his heart."

Li Yi said: "I have seen how well you have managed the Duke's Mansion these years. You are so virtuous, if anyone dares to speak badly about you behind your back, please call Come out and whip thirty horsewhip first, then talk."

"With the words of Lord Guo, no matter how much criticism I receive from others behind my back, it is worth it." Aunt Wan sighed softly.After a pause, she showed a hesitant look again, and said hesitantly, "There is a sentence, I don't know whether I should say it to the Duke."

"Say." Li Yi waved his hand boldly, took the long sword resting on the table again, and wiped it back and forth carefully with a cloth towel.

So Aunt Wan said gently: "The third girl just returned to the mansion these few days, Madam loves the sufferings that the third girl has suffered in these years, let the third girl live in Xinyiwu, let alone, and decorate it magnificently. Then I made so many dresses and jewelry for the third girl, it was too extravagant. But I can't stop it, after all, the third girl has indeed suffered so much over the years Bitter, it should be compensated now. However, the third girl is young after all, such a luxury is too much..."

What she said was originally vague.She didn't take the initiative to mention that what Nie Qingniang bought for Jian Yan was her own. Instead, she vaguely misled Li Yi to rely on Nie Qingniang's use of public money. After all, she said that she was not good at opening her mouth These words are blocked.But now she and Li Nianlan are frugal, but she Nie Qingniang and Jian Yan's mother and daughter are so extravagant.

But when Li Yi heard the words, he interrupted her indifferently, and said: "I know about this, Qingniang has already sent Mother Wei to tell me. Those dresses and jewelry bought for Yan'er, As well as the objects arranged in the Xinyiwu where she lived, they were originally Qingniang's body—the dowry she brought from her natal family. Those dowry would belong to Yan'er and Xin'er in the future, so it's okay to give them early now. You don't need to interfere with this. Qingniang's own dowry, let alone you, I can't interfere."

Aunt Wan's face was pale.

In the end, she didn't know how she got out of Li Yi's study.

Aunt Liu supported her arm, seeing that there was no one else around, she said softly just now: "Auntie, what's going on? Madame is usually the most upright person, and she doesn't mind doing anything by herself." It's so rare to explain to the Duke of the country, but now why did you specially ask Madam Wei to come over and say such a thing?"

"How would I know that she suddenly changed her temper?" Aunt Wan stretched out her hand and pressed her forehead - she has always suffered from migraines.Right now, she was thinking lazily, how come so many things have changed since Jian Yan came to the Duke's mansion.

First, Li Nianlan's temperament became more and more irritable, and now even Nie Qingniang, a delicate lady who never cared about worldly affairs, asked Madam Wei to come and tell the Duke of the country such a thing.

She originally thought that after she said something like that, the Duke would go to question and condemn Nie Qingniang.According to Nie Qingniang's haughty temperament, even though those are all her own feelings, she probably won't open her mouth to explain half a sentence to the Duke of the country, but will stubbornly quarrel with the Duke of the country, saying that he is actually like this I don't care about the hardships Jian Yan suffered in those years, so what if the decoration of Yan'er's dress, jewelry and residence is more luxurious now?That was what she deserved.In this way, due to the misunderstanding between the two of them, the quarrel will only become more and more serious. In the end, the result is that Nie Qingniang will become more and more frustrated with the Duke, and will no longer want to care about anything in the Duke's mansion, and close the door Just live the life of their mother and son.On the other hand, Grandpa Guo will get more and more angry at Nie Qingniang who always contradicts and annoys him, and he might even vent his anger on Jian Yan.Such a thing that kills three birds with one stone can't be better.

But who would have expected that Nie Qingniang had informed the Duke of this matter early in the morning.

Aunt Wan gritted her teeth and thought, this must be Jian Yan's hindrance.Otherwise, according to Nie Qingniang's temperament, she would not have done such a thing.

(End of this chapter)