Biography of Concubine Shujia

Chapter 3

Just after Zhengmao, Shi Niang was called by Shi Shu, who took Baoqin to serve Shi Niang to change clothes.It has been a while since Shi Niang got rid of her clothes, but because of the three-year filial piety period and her stature, she was not able to wear clothes three years ago, and now there are very few gorgeous clothes.

Shi Niang didn't say much, she mostly picked out some plain clothes to wear, and only worked on jewelry.This time, Bao Qin held three new dresses that she had never seen before for Shi Niang to choose from. Shi Niang frowned in confusion, but Bao Qin did not panic, and calmly explained the origin of the three clothes.

"The purple noble standing water satin dress was sent by the eldest lady. She said that it was specially made by the embroiderer of Lingxian Pavilion for the young lady to wear. The one with the golden white butterfly wearing the flowery cloud and smoke satin skirt is the second lady's." I sent someone to send it, saying it was a little thought, I hope Miss likes it. The pink brocade silk satin dress was sent by Miss Jiu, and she said that the pink rosy on the dress was embroidered by herself. I want to ask Miss for advice. It’s red. Sister Fuqi arranges the young lady’s clothes, most of them are plain, fearing that the old lady will not like the young lady’s plain color, so she asked the maid to pick out the clothes sent by each room for the young lady to wear.”

After Baoqin returned to the mansion, she accompanied the servant girl around with the servant, and dealt with the maids and women in each room. She was not in a hurry, and she was very popular.She has a lively and measured personality, and when she goes to pay her respects in the old lady's courtyard, she can also talk to the maids in the courtyard.He even made friends with Xia Yi, the second-class maid who was in charge of the old lady's accessories and clothes.From time to time, I can inadvertently get the old lady's liking from the conversation with Xia Yi, so I understand Fuqi's concerns.

"Give me the satin dress worn by the golden white butterfly wearing flowers and clouds, and put away the remaining two. The new year is approaching, and my grandmother will order someone to make new clothes for the sisters, so bear with it. No way. To make a fuss about a piece of clothing, let outsiders say that our fourth room is not well-bred. Of course, we don’t have to cover up her mistakes for the eldest room. Once my mother’s filial piety is over, I will get rid of the clothes, and I haven’t kept the clothes for three years. There is a regular supply in the mansion. Now that I am back home, she still wants me to suffer from being dumb, but she has a good plan, and it depends on whether I can take a fancy to her clothes. "

Shi Niang is the Du Mansion on the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month. Lu's death day is the first day of the twelfth lunar month, and now it is the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month.There was not even a single sign of the eight sets of winter clothes for this season. It took almost a month before and after, and the eldest lady didn't add clothes and maids for Ten Niang according to the rules.Shi Niang secretly said: Dafang is really good at calculating, and I don't know how much money from the public house was used by them to subsidize their own household.

Shi Niang let Shishu and Baoqin take care of changing and washing.The second servant girl was not talking, and only concentrated on dressing up for Shi Niang.While sitting in front of the dressing table, Shi Niang was still thinking about the various rooms in the mansion.

The room was quiet for a while, and the waiter quickly and carefully divided ten Niang's hair into strands, tied it on the top, dipped a little rose oil, and let the hair hang down naturally without using a support, and tied the tail, hanging on the shoulders superior.A maidservant in a bun was done, Baoqin was busy handing the jade pendants and silver tines to her hairpin, and the second maid put a gold inlaid ruby ​​earring on her earlobe, and a gold inlaid earring on her wrist. Jade bracelets, this is considered proper dressing.

The servant book helped Shiniang get up, and asked softly, "Ruhua is stewing purple rice yam porridge and mutton angelica soup on the stove in the small kitchen, and also made a few new seasonal dishes, and also prepared the plum blossom chestnut cake that Miss loves, do you want it?" Use it first."

Shi Niang thought for a while and still refused, "Grandmother will definitely give you food, so I don't need it. Instead, you call into the painting and bring a gu of purple rice and yam porridge, pick up a few pieces of plum blossom and chestnut cake, and wrap them carefully. The weather is cold." , don’t get cold. I will honor my grandmother.”

After hearing this, Baoqin went to find the painting to explain.The waiter put on a satin fox pleated cloak for Shi Niang again, and then stepped back a few steps and followed Shi Niang out of the inner room. Baoqin was already waiting outside the door with a food box.Seeing that everything was ready, Shi Niang took the servant girl and her party to Yunranju, Shangfang, where the old lady lived.

When I arrived at Yunranju, just after I got up, the old lady just got up and saw Shi Niang in a golden white butterfly wearing a flowery cloud and smoke satin skirt. She couldn't help boasting, "Sure enough, people rely on clothes. How beautiful they are dressed like this. On weekdays Shi Niang is dressed so plainly, she looks childish; she suddenly dressed up like this today. But it seems that our Shi Niang is more and more graceful, and she looks like a lady in a painting."

"Grandmother cancels granddaughter, granddaughter refuses." Shi Niang said embarrassedly, and said with a chuckle, "Besides, my grandmother said it was so good, five sisters, six sisters, seventh sisters, eighth sisters and ninth sisters are really good looking, just like in the painting Where's the lady?"

"You child, you even arranged for your sisters." The old lady pointed at her and scolded with a smile.

The maids around the old lady listened, and laughed and complimented the old lady, "My ancestor, the little lady you brought up, no one in Manyujing praises it. Last time, Mrs. Huang from Fuguogong's mansion praised our eighth lady ninety-nine The miss is well-bred. Our tenth miss is even more top-notch, and you will enjoy the blessings when you are old, and I will wait for Young Master Sun and Miss Sun to honor you well." The words made the old lady smile.

"Shi Niang is not as good as the sisters say. The sisters in the family are really top-notch. Shi Niang also looks forward to getting closer to her grandmother so that she can enjoy her blessing. In the future, bless me to be an old seal like my grandmother." Jun, that is my great fortune." Ten Niang's look of taking advantage made the old lady laugh again.

He joked while laughing, "I just said that Shi Yatou looks stable and looks like a lady. Look, is there such a naughty lady?"

"Grandmother who can make me laugh, and if she eats a few more bowls of rice, Shi Niang is willing to turn into a monkey."

The old lady was very helpful to please An, who came to me early in the morning and joked about Ten Niang.Twist Shi Niang's face lightly, "Go to the little flower hall to play, and let your sister Agate Liuli serve me to freshen up." Shi Niang smiled and said, "Let the sisters rest today, and I will be filial to my grandmother once." I'm going to help the old lady change her clothes.

"My Miss Ten, don't steal the work of the servants. You are so capable, the old lady will not want us. Please do me a favor and spare us." Gently push aside.

Shi Niang took advantage of the situation and retreated to the side, but did not leave.I saw the old lady's maid came forward to serve her with a clear division of labor.The old lady who served Agate and Pomegranate cleaned her face and rinsed her mouth. Ten Niang wanted to go forward and change her grandmother's clothes herself, but the old lady gave her a feigned annoyed look, so she had to give up with a smile.

Lu Song helped the old lady change her clothes, and Fei Cui assisted her.Liuli Shanshan combed the old lady's hair and put on makeup, and Shi Niang took the opportunity to pick up the mirror and stand aside to do the mirror for the old lady.After dressing up, Ten Niang put down the rhombus-shaped mirror with four birds and flower branches, and went up to find some free time to put on the old lady's forehead with emerald dragons, phoenixes, jade flowers, corals and emeralds embroidered by herself.Then she held the mirror and showed the old lady the newly wiped forehead, "Grandma still likes it, this flowery look is the most fashionable in the south."

The old lady looked at the forehead on her head in the mirror, and patted Shi Niang's hand happily, "Good boy, you don't need to worry about it."

Speaking of getting up, she stretched out her right hand to Shi Niang, Shi Niang hurriedly stepped forward to help the old lady up, and the group walked towards the small flower hall.

In the small flower hall, Ziyu Ziyao has already prepared breakfast.Ten Niang took a look at the meals on the table, and found that the breakfast was served with a combination of meat and vegetables, and she really put her heart into it.Just listen to Ziyu crisply said, "Morning, old lady, morning, miss ten. Today's breakfast includes hot pepper soup, angelica mutton soup, pasta with yellow noodles and Bazhen cake, a small dish of pickled cucumbers for seasonal side dishes, and a A small dish of freshly fried peas. Which do you think should be used first?"

After listening to Ziyu's words, Shi Niang looked at the breakfast and found that it was all oily soup. The old man must like hot and sour food, so the small kitchen made it specially.This intention is good, but if it goes on for a long time, it will be detrimental to health preservation.Then he smiled and said to the old lady, "The meal in grandma's small kitchen smells delicious. Every time I come, I don't want to leave."

The old lady was really happy when she heard this, and immediately ordered her servant girl to serve Shi Niang a small bowl of hot and spicy soup, "Then I'll eat it at my grandmother's place today. Look at her thin face, my grandmother will definitely make my Shi Niang's pearls round and smooth." Ten Niang hurriedly thanked the old lady for the soup, then smiled and said, "I often feel that the food in my grandmother's small kitchen is delicious, but my grandmother has never tasted the food in my small kitchen. Today, grandma will also try my meal. Bar."

The old lady readily agreed.Baoqin waiter nimbly took out the purple rice yam porridge and plum chestnut cake from the food box and put them on the table.Seeing the tender color of the purple rice and yam porridge, the old lady felt her appetite whetted, and asked Ziyu to fill a small bowl.The boiled purple rice is sticky and soft, and the yam tastes smooth and melts in the mouth. It is fragrant and sweet, with an indescribable taste.

Shi Niang added another small piece of chestnut cake to the plate in front of the old lady, and persuaded her, "Grandmother, try this again. This is the newly bloomed plum blossom this year. It was collected when the first snow cleared, dried and then finely ground. , steamed and fried with chestnuts together to make plum blossom chestnut powder, put it in a jar, and take it as you like. Every time you put some on the cake, the taste of the cake will have a fragrance of plum blossom, sweet but not greasy. Paired with our small plum-shaped mold, the plum-blossom and chestnut cake is very beautiful."

Shi Niang looked at the old lady holding it up to taste, and explained in detail.The old lady felt good after eating. She ate a small bowl of purple rice and yam porridge, three pieces of chestnut cake, and drank a small bowl of Hu spicy soup and a small steamed bun.Seeing that, Shi Niang didn't dare to persuade him any more. It's not good for the elderly to accumulate food after eating too much.

After Shi Niang served the old lady to finish her meal, she also drank a small bowl of Hu spicy soup and a piece of Bazhen cake, which was considered as good use.After finishing breakfast and sitting in the flower hall with the old lady for tea, it will be less than Chenshi.People from each room came to pay their respects one after another.

All of a sudden, the small flower hall became lively, the big house, the second room, the third room and the fourth room, and Ulala's big family greeted each other.

It took a long time to sit down, drink tea and talk.The second lady looked at Shi Niang wearing the golden white butterfly and flowery cloud and smoke satin dress she gave her, she was taken aback for a moment, and then looked provocatively at the eldest lady Song, who pretended not to notice Feng's provocation and didn't care .

On the contrary, the old lady who saw the two of them fighting each other asked a few more words, "What's wrong with you winking with your sister-in-law?"

(End of this chapter)