Madam Hou

Chapter 12

As soon as April goes, May comes, and in a blink of an eye it will be the Dragon Boat Festival.

Every family eats zongzi, hangs calamus, wormwood, mugwort leaves, smoked atractylodes, angelica, mulan soup, drinks realgar wine, and sprinkles realgar wine on the walls, doors and windows, which means to drive away evil spirits and avoid poison, and keep healthy.

Mrs. Chen also tied five colored silks together to form a rope, which is a long-lived thread. She wore it on the wrists of Yinniang and Pingniang.

After the Dragon Boat Festival, the stewards and servants sent by the Yongning Hou Mansion to pick up Yinniang and Mrs. Chen to Beijing arrived. Mrs. Chen made arrangements for them and asked them to treat them well, so she asked the maidservants to pack up their things every day, and brought the previous wives All the gifts sent were pawned and exchanged for bank notes.Anyway, she wanted to bring Pingniang to Beijing this time, and keeping these things at home would only make the two vixens at home cheaper, so she wouldn't do such a disadvantageous thing.

Two days later, Mrs. Chen discussed with the steward of the Marquis Mansion, Steward Lin, and then asked some of the servants to bring back the betrothal gifts from Marquis Yongning to Beijing first. These betrothal gifts will be used as Yinniang's dowry , I might as well transport it back to the capital now.

Mrs. Chen also felt a little depressed. If she had known that these things would still be moved back to the capital, it would be better not to send them to Linping County in the Hou Mansion. Wouldn't it be better to wait for Yinniang to arrive in the capital to make a decision, so as not to move around like now? Very troublesome.

Mrs. Chen naturally didn't know that Mrs. Linhou was afraid that others would take her first step in hiring Yinniang, so she hurriedly wanted to make a decision first and finalize the marriage.According to the customs of the Great Yan Dynasty, as long as the Geng Tie made an agreement, the woman is considered to belong to the man. It is not so easy to divorce the engagement, but if it is just a verbal agreement, the variables are too big.It's like she wanted the prince to hire the eldest daughter of the Fuyang Hou family. It turned out that she and Mrs. Fuyang Hou had already talked well and even changed the Geng Tie, so she was going to take it to Qin Tianjian to combine the horoscope. As a result, Mrs. Fuyang Hou Later, she rejected her on the grounds that her characters were not compatible, and when she turned around, she was engaged to Kang Guogong's second wife.At that time, Mrs. Lin Hou was so angry that she wanted to vomit blood. What was wrong with her horoscope was just because she heard the news that the Duke of Kang's mansion wanted to send the second wife's daughter into the palace to help the queen give birth to a baby, so she wanted to be the mother of the possible future prince. just home.

After the dowry was sent away, Mrs. Chen ordered the family's affairs again, and then beat the two aunts in the family carefully, and asked her another woman who served by her side, Mrs. Ma, to manage the internal affairs at home.Then I chose a sunny and pleasant day to travel, and brought Yinniang and Pingniang, as well as Yinniang's maid Qinghua, Pingniang's maid Qingmiao, her maid Qingteng, her mother-in-law Hong Pozi and several other maids. The mother-in-law set off for the capital together with the family of Yongning Hou.

It takes 25 days to travel from Linping County to the capital, which is neither short nor long.The first stop Mrs. Chen and Yinniang and their party passed was Ningcang County, a neighboring county of Linping County. They stayed in Ningcang County for one night, fed their horses and horses, and continued on their way the next day.

It was the first time for Yinniang and Pingniang to travel far, and Yinniang felt a little uneasy. She was going to Beijing to get married. Maybe this time, it would be very difficult for her to return to Linping County in the future. This place is her The place where I lived since I was a child, I didn't think it was a good place before, but now I think of leaving, but I suddenly feel a little sad.In addition, there is also the fear of going to the strange place of the capital, where she will live in the future, but she is not familiar with it at all.

On the contrary, Ping Niang, because she was still young, and it was her first time to travel far, she knew that she was going to that bustling place in the capital, she looked excited, she opened the curtain on the carriage and looked out, she kept talking, pointing at her for a while. He pointed to the mountains outside and said it was so beautiful, and then pointed to a tree he hadn't seen before, and asked Madam Chen what kind of tree it was, or raised her head and asked Yin Niang if the capital city was more interesting than Linping County.

Yinniang patted Pingniang on the head with her hand, and said angrily: "How do I know, I haven't been there before."

Pingniang covered the place where she was photographed, and glared at Yinniang with her eyes wide open: "Second sister, don't hit me again, what if you beat me stupid."

"Anyway, you are already so stupid, it doesn't matter if you are stupid."

"Second sister, why are you like this? I won't be with you."

The carriage traveled all the way. In the past few days, it was a relatively bustling place. The group of people traveled during the day and found a hotel or a family to spend the night at night.After five days, the sixth day began, passing through sparsely populated places.

Steward Lin is very experienced in escorting, and is also familiar with the situation on the road. Along the way, he told his servants how fast to walk, where to stay, arranged for a vigil at night, and brought some more delicious meals for Mrs. Chen and Yin Niang. A group of people eat and so on, and everything is done properly.

On the evening of the ninth day, the group checked into the post station. After dinner, the female relatives went back to their rooms to wash and prepare for rest.Steward Lin went out as usual and told the guards on duty to be more vigilant, and then came back and knocked on the door of Mrs. Chen's room.

Because the inn is simple and old, there are not many rooms that can accommodate people. Mrs. Chen, Yinniang, and Pingniang are crowded in the best room of the inn, and Mrs. Hong, Qinghua, Qingteng, and Qingmiao are crowded in another room. The servant girl was squeezed into another room, and people like Lin Guanshi could only squeeze into some rooms without beds and spend the night on the floor because they didn't have any good rooms.

When Mrs. Chen heard that it was Steward Lin, she opened the door and invited him in, poured him tea, and expressed his thanks for taking care of them along the way.Manager Lin didn't even dare to say anything, and then he stated the purpose of coming here tonight.

"The place we will pass by tomorrow is Changping County. Because the previous magistrate was dismissed in Changping County, the next county magistrate has not yet taken office. Recently, bandits have been rampant. Ladies and gentlemen, it is better to wear some old clothes when we walk tomorrow. , Money and the like should also be placed in an unobtrusive place."

After Mrs. Chen thanked Steward Lin for his reminder and sent Steward Lin away, she immediately made preparations as Steward Lin reminded her, and found a few pairs of thick-soled shoes in case she encountered bandits running away. be quick.

He also took out a silver bracelet he was wearing in his hand, broke it apart from the middle, took out the silver notes hidden inside, calculated to make sure there were not enough, and then hid them back in the silver bracelet.

Yin Niang was checking some jewels and cash that she carried with her. Seeing Mrs. Chen's movements, she touched the jewels in her hand and turned her eyes for a few times, then she said to Mrs. Chen: "Mother, don't put the bank notes in your pocket." In a bracelet, it's not safe."

"How can it be unsafe, there is no place to hide things except here."

Yin Niang waved her hand to signal Qing Teng, who was serving beside her, to come forward, and then whispered a few words in her ear.

There is nothing more tragic than going out and encountering bandits.

It turned out that no matter how much work was done, it was just prevention, but I didn't expect that the unlucky reminder really happened.

Walking carefully all the way to the evening, Steward Lin said that he would be able to reach the next town in another hour. Everyone thought that today was safe and sound, but they did not expect to meet bandits at this time.

More than a dozen tall, masked bandits held up big knives and blocked the main road. A bearded man in the lead shouted loudly, "Those who rob, keep all the money."

A dozen servants gathered in front of the carriage. Steward Lin came out to have a look at the situation. Although he was a little nervous, he still managed to calm down and said, "We can keep the money, but you have to make sure you don't hurt our lives."

He is not stupid. Although the number of people here is not much different from that of the other party, these servants are all used to being pampered in the Hou Mansion. Standing in a row is purely for bluffing. Incomparable, not to mention there are female relatives here, they should be more aware of current affairs.

(End of this chapter)