Madam Hou

Chapter 8

There is a saying that goes: Poor in the downtown area has no close neighbors, but rich in the countryside has distant relatives.Although it is not very appropriate to use here, it is also applicable.

Since the news that the eldest daughter of the Chen family became the emperor's favorite concubine and the second daughter was about to become the wife of the Marquis of Yongning, the number of relatives in the Chen family suddenly increased.The three aunts, the seven aunts, the ten aunts, the ten aunts, and the twentieth cousins ​​who had never been in contact with each other in the early years, let alone the five clothes, I am afraid that the ten clothes will be released, but all of them brought gifts to recognize relatives, and they are very self-confident. They are familiar, and as soon as they meet, it's like going back to their mother's house to meet their own sisters, calling Mrs. Chen "sister" one by one.

Mrs. Chen has not yet realized the identity of the emperor's half-mother-in-law and the future mother-in-law of Yongning Hou Shizi. She just feels that all these guests have some status. Cheer up and socialize with a smiling face.

In the first few days of socializing with these wives, Mrs. Chen listened to them all praising her daughter and praising her for raising a daughter. Although she knew that they were suspected of deliberately exaggerating their words for flattery, who doesn't like to hear good words , and her daughter is really going to marry the prince, Mrs. Chen was a little flustered when she heard that, and happily accompanied those wives to socialize for a few days.But after three days, Mrs. Chen felt that she was too much to deal with, and her face was stiff with laughter when she accompanied the guests. When she returned to the house at night, she felt pain in her waist. It's not a long-sleeved material.Hearing the flattering words of many wives again, he became numb, and felt that there were no new sentence patterns, and only those few sentences were repeated, but they changed Renbihuamei into Renbihuajiao.

Mrs. Chen felt that it was very boring, and she was too lazy to deal with those ladies, so she simply closed the door and pretended to be sick to thank the guests.

But Mrs. Chen obviously underestimated the determination of the wives to have a good relationship with the favorite concubine and the mother of the future wife. The door of the Chen family could not stop the enthusiasm of the wives.There are a few more "relatives" who come to Chen's house in the name of visiting patients than before. The fire in the Chen's kitchen has not been extinguished all day, and the next cup of tea is often ready before the last one. bottomed out.

Mrs. Chen simply recovered from her illness, and opened ten seats in her flower hall, and posted a post directly to those wives who wanted to come to the door to get in touch, and gathered them together directly to socialize and it was over, lest they need another one. Come one by one.Mrs. Chen was born in a merchant, so she couldn't think of such an elegant term like "Flower Appreciation Party", and the name used is also simple, which is directly: My second daughter's birthday.Although the 13th birthday of the second daughter of the Chen family was just over last month.

On the day of Yinniang's birthday party, the door was full of customers, bustling, and some people who confiscated the posts also brought gifts to the door.The ten tables were not seated at all, and Mrs. Chen set up two tables in the yard outside the flower hall. Since her kitchen was too small to provide food for so many people, Mrs. Chen directly called the largest table in Linping County. The restaurant Fengxiangzhai delivered the noodles directly.

A table of 20 taels of silver is really a good meal in Linping County, and only the magistrate's family holds a banquet, which can be called such a good meal.Mrs. Chen suffered from a toothache when she paid the money, and she felt better when she saw the gifts from the ladies later on. The value of these gifts could always be worth the money she paid for the dinner.

Yin Niang greeted all the wives in the flower hall, and said sweetly, "Hello Auntie", "Hello Auntie", "Hello Cousin", "Hello Cousin Aunt", "Hello Cousin Sister-in-law" , and then scanned the meeting ceremony.

After all, she is an engaged person. It turns out that Mrs. Chen does not have so many rules, but Mrs. Chen has seen the rules of the noble ladies and wives of other families. Yin Niang is married to the Hou's mansion, so she thinks it is better to be more disciplined, so as not to be punished by others in the future. slap.After seeing the wives, Mrs. Chen sent Yin Niang back to the house.

Yin Niang felt that she was standing in the flower hall, being looked at by these certain relatives with glowing eyes like a mouse seeing a cat, or a monkey seeing a banana, flattering her from time to time, "Yin Niang really grows more and more juicy" "Yin Niang" The mother is really beautiful and cute, and the son is really talented and beautiful", "Looks like a flower", "I'm afraid this child was cast into the mortal world by a fairy in the sky", and I feel tired of it.

Hearing that Mrs. Chen asked her to go back, she touched the sweeping greeting gift in her purse, and felt happy, she lowered her head and answered "yes" in a shy manner, before exiting with wind on her skirt.

I don't know which lady is behind, looking at Yinniang who is retreating, she is wearing a silk jacket embroidered with a plum blossom pattern in a light yellow background, and a close-colored crepe on her lower body. The servant girls each wore a bead flower of purple crabapple flowers, and walked with their heads bowed, revealing half of their snow-white necks.He also thought of the delicate and well-behaved face he saw just now, with long eyelashes, two dimples when he smiled at people, and a waxy and sweet voice.Thinking of his own daughter again, he couldn't help saying with a seriousness, two envy and three compliments in his voice: "Such an exquisite person, only the nobles in the capital are lucky enough to hire him back."

Everyone also echoed with half-truth and half-false: "That's not the case."

Out of the flower hall, into the backyard, and wait until no one can see.Yin Niang put away her shy expression, leaving a curved mouth and a pair of shallow dimples under her oval face.Although he walked in a decent manner, he slipped one hand into the purse inside his sleeve to check the quality of the greetings one by one.

Qing Hua, who was following Yin Niang, was careful, saw Yin Niang's small movements at a glance, and couldn't help sighing in her heart: My master has committed the problem of being open to money again.

Yin Niang touched some pearls, jade, jadeite and so on in her purse, she was silently calculating how much it was worth, so naturally she didn't know what the blue and white flowers behind her were thinking.

Although these meeting gifts are not rare items, they are definitely worth a lot of money. The least valuable meeting gift among them is a hairpin in the shape of a glazed lotus flower with pendant beads. Although the glass hairpin is worthless, it is better than this glass hairpin The quality of the hairpin is good, the body of the hairpin has no impurities, and the lotus flower is carved exquisitely. Based on Yinniang's understanding of gemstones and jade pendants, this hairpin is worth at least ten taels of silver.The most valuable gift was a suet jade pendant from the magistrate's wife. It was pure white with no cracks and was round to the touch. This was definitely a good item in Linping County, and the market price should be more than 50 taels.

Yin Niang reckoned the approximate value of these meeting gifts, and thought happily in her heart that she might get another property.

As Yin Niang walked, her footsteps became more carefree.

Until she came to a wall in the yard where she lived, the shadow of a tree by the wall shook, and a person suddenly jumped down from it.Yin Niang exclaimed in shock, and almost threw out the purse that contained gifts in her sleeve.After calming down and taking a look, it turned out that it was the county magistrate of Linping County, Chen Dazhu's boss, and the eldest son of the Zhao family, named Zhao Chang.

(End of this chapter)