Do You Know?: I, the Little Cabinet Elder, Regent of the World

Since you don't allow your husband to take a concubine and you enjoy so many benefits, you at least have to be able to maintain appearances, right?

Especially in terms of character.

If you enjoy so many benefits, but your reputation outside is still not good, wouldn't that be unworthy of your position and make you a laughingstock for no reason?

Therefore, in order to ensure that their virtue matched their position, all the women of the Hai family, without exception, were people who cared a great deal about their reputation.

Aside from the somewhat harsh rule against husbands taking concubines, in every other aspect, whether as a daughter-in-law or a mother-in-law, she had no complaints.

There is almost no such thing as a "wicked mother-in-law named Hai".

In other words, if a woman had a mother-in-law from the Jiangning Hai family, she would at most serve her for one or two years.

For a woman, this is already a very rare and good mother-in-law!

Jiang Zhao's mother was the eldest daughter of the Hai family, so Sheng Hualan naturally didn't need to worry about serving her mother-in-law.

Secondly, Jiang Zhao is very capable and has a smooth career path!

Officials often move between several places.

Once they go to other places, fathers and sons, mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law may not even see each other once a year.

There wasn't even a chance to serve tea!

This is why women from prominent families often prefer to find a "successful" husband.

If the husband becomes successful, it means he will be spared the hardship of "serving tea".

The saying goes that a local official is more powerful than a distant one; for a new bride, her mother-in-law is that "local official."

Being spared the hassle of serving tea is undoubtedly very tempting.

However, considering the importance of matching social status, it is extremely difficult for a woman from a prestigious family to find a husband who comes from the same social class and is also successful.

Good fortune, luck, upbringing, and appearance—all must be excellent!

Sheng Hualan is undoubtedly a person with extremely good fortune.

Not only did she marry into a wealthy family, but her husband also became a successful man!

Sheng Hualan was sensible and intelligent from a young age, and naturally she knew the ins and outs of serving tea.

At this moment, Sheng Hualan, wrapped in the quilt, couldn't help but feel a sense of joy and relief.

Serving tea is truly the thing a bride fears most, bar none.

Even the most normal person would go crazy if they were tormented and tortured every day!

Jiang Zhao nodded and stroked his wife's face.

"No rush, it's only early morning, let's rest a bit more!"

Sheng Hualan's clear eyes flickered slightly, and she gently wrapped her arms around her husband's neck, pressing them against his chest.

When a girl reaches the age of marriage, what she looks forward to most is getting married, and what she fears most is also getting married.

It's just that some people are looking forward to it, while others are afraid of it.

In the past, she was also very worried about getting married.

If you marry poorly, you'll truly suffer for the rest of your life.

Fortunately, Heaven took pity on her and allowed her to marry one of the best husbands in the world!

Having just become a wife, Sheng Hualan's worries had vanished, and she was filled with anticipation.

My mother-in-law is a good mother-in-law, and my husband is a good husband!

This is the life she truly dreamed of after getting married!

The young couple cuddled for a quarter of an hour.

"My lord, let me help you change your clothes!" Sheng Hualan felt a sweet warmth in her heart and endured some strange pain as she got up.

"Okay!" Jiang Zhao nodded, his eyes glancing at his wife's fair skin.

It's so moisturizing!

Sheng Hualan gently helped her husband change his clothes. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw plum blossoms on the white cloth, and her face flushed.

Before long, the couple had changed their clothes.

Jiang Zhao patted his wife's head tenderly and said thoughtfully, "No rush. It's still dark, and it will be cold if we go out. Let's wash up and eat something later, and then go out at six-quarters past dawn."

Today, besides offering tea to our parents, we also need to burn incense to worship our ancestors, transcribe our wives' names into the family genealogy, and meet with the clan elders. Without eating something, we'll inevitably get a little hungry.

“Yes!” Sheng Hualan nodded repeatedly.

With her husband's support, she felt less anxious and more at ease.

Chapter 35 Entering the Genealogy

The main courtyard of the Jiang residence.

Jiang Zhong and Hai Xirui occupied the main seats, while Jiang Zhao and Sheng Hualan occupied the left and right seats respectively. Below them were their two younger brothers, Jiang Xiao and Jiang Xu.

Besides, my second and third uncles were seated at the right head and right second seats, respectively.

Jiang Zhao's second and third uncles are his father Jiang Zhong's two younger brothers.

My father Jiang Zhong's generation had three sons and five daughters, some of whom married into other families, and others went on to take the imperial examinations.

My second uncle was a scholar who passed the imperial examinations. He was a judge, one of the deputy prefects, and held the rank of seventh grade. He was a low-ranking official but had great power.

My third uncle was also a scholar who passed the imperial examinations. He served as the magistrate of a county, a seventh-rank official, and a very powerful county magistrate.

However, due to the issue of official titles and ranks in the imperial examinations, the upper limit for the two of them was only a sixth-rank official position. The fifth-rank official position was a major hurdle, and it was very difficult for someone who had not passed the imperial examinations to climb up to that level.

Besides the two uncles, there were nearly ten elderly men below, all around fifty years old.

Among these dozen or so elderly men, some were Jiang Zhao's uncles, and others were his great-uncles.

In terms of kinship, some of them were passed down from the generation of my grandfather, Jiang Zhi.

My grandfather, Jiang Zhi, had several brothers, and these brothers had children. These children were of the same generation as my father, Jiang Zhong, and were cousins.

Some of them were passed down from the area of ​​his great-grandfather Jiang Yuan. Jiang Yuan's brothers all had children, and these children were cousins ​​of his grandfather Jiang Zhi. Several of his grandfather's cousins ​​also had children, who were of the same generation as his father Jiang Zhong.

In terms of kinship, it is still within three generations.

However, it is relatively far away.

More than ten respected, capable, and virtuous elders were selected from the older generation of the Jiang clan from the same branch of the family. They are the so-called clan elders.

The Jiang clan of Huaizuo is a large clan with a well-established lineage.

These dozen or so elderly men all held official positions to varying degrees, with most being eighth-rank officials and a few ninth-rank officials. They were all of the type who held low positions but high power.

This time, more than ten elders gathered together, but it was to meet Sheng Hualan.

Jiang Zhao is the eldest son, and Sheng Hualan is the matriarch of the clan; she cannot be ignored.

The advantage of being a shrewd person is that they can recognize their own position.

The ten elders were all very clear that Jiang Zhao was the key figure in the prosperity of the Jiang family, so they all kept a very humble attitude.

In the second seat on the left, Sheng Hualan sat upright, looking somewhat nervous for no apparent reason.

In fact, the Sheng family also has clan elders.

However, compared to the Jiang family, where clan elders held real power and each performed their duties, the Sheng family's clan elders rarely held real power, and the Sheng family's business was not particularly extensive. Whether the family prospered or not depended entirely on the father, Sheng Hong, supporting it single-handedly. As a result, those clan elders inevitably felt like they were just going through the motions without doing any real work.

Jiang Zhong nodded to the head of the table.

"let's start!"

After she finished speaking, a maid brought over two cups of tea. Sheng Hualan took the tea from the maid, walked to Hai Xirui's side, and respectfully handed the tea to her.

"Daughter-in-law greets Mother!"

Hai Xirui smiled gently and gladly accepted the tea.

Sheng Hualan was a daughter-in-law that she specially chose for her son.

Previously, she had had several conversations and contacts with Sheng Hualan under the guise of hosting banquets.

They have examined his character, conduct, and upbringing.

However, Sheng Hualan herself was unaware of this.

Jiang Zhao stood up, took the remaining cup of tea from the plate, and presented it to his father.

Jiang Zhong stroked his beard and smiled, nodding in satisfaction.

If the bride's tea ceremony for her mother-in-law shows signs of changing its meaning, then the son's tea ceremony for his father is purely a formality, meant to keep the bride from feeling lonely and anxious.

Father and son see each other all the time, so who would be short of a cup of tea?

Therefore, even when both husband and wife are serving tea together, the actual protagonist is the bride, not the husband.

Jiang Zhong and Hai Xirui took a symbolic sip of tea, exchanged a glance, and Hai Xirui spoke first.

“Hua Lan, the Sheng family is a scholarly family. Your mother, Madam Wang, came from the Wang family of Lanxi. You were raised by the only daughter of the Marquis of Yongyi since childhood, so your upbringing is excellent.”

“In the future, Zhao’er will serve as an official in various places, and you will have to work hard to manage him and not slack off.”

Upon hearing those words, Sheng Hualan breathed a sigh of relief, and her tension instantly subsided by seventy percent.

Whether the mother-in-law intends to make things difficult can be easily discerned from a single sentence.

"Kua" means "to praise" or "to compliment," and it means "to be satisfied."

Conversely, whether it's half praise and half blame, or entirely blame, it's still unsatisfactory.

Hai Xirui's words were mainly praise, with instruction but no admonition, which was a very "clean" temple greeting.

That is, not taking the opportunity to smuggle in personal agendas, not taking the opportunity to suppress the bride, and not showing off one's power.

"As the matriarch, you must remember to shoulder the responsibility of continuing the family line," Hai Xirui added.

"I will remember Mother's teachings!" Sheng Hualan replied respectfully with dignified bearing.

To ensure the continuation of the family line, this was the primary responsibility of the matriarch.

"Husband and wife are one, each should perform their own duties!" Jiang Zhong symbolically went through the temple audience ceremony.

Unless it's a power struggle between a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, there's not much to admonish about in this kind of situation.

"Your daughter-in-law will keep this in mind." Sheng Hualan felt relieved and bowed again.

She never expected her in-laws to be so easy to talk to, and they managed to get through the temple visit ceremony in just a few words.

As far as she knows, some less-than-ideal in-laws can even lecture her for an entire morning.

Is this the Jiang family tradition?

After the newlyweds offered tea and the elders accepted it and gave their instructions, the temple visit ceremony was officially completed.

Jiang Zhao and Sheng Hualan sat down again.

Jiang Zhong, the head of the group, stroked his beard, nodded, and stood up, saying, "Let's go to the ancestral hall!"

Before the words were finished, more than ten elders stood up one after another.

Jiang Zhong and Hai Xirui exchanged a glance and strode out, with Jiang Zhao and Sheng Hualan following closely behind.

Following them were Jiang Xiao, Jiang Xu, and more than ten other elders, arranged in order.

A group of more than ten people headed to the ancestral hall together.

The Jiang Clan Ancestral Hall has an exquisitely carved plaque inscribed with the four characters "Ancestral Virtue Endures".

The candles burned, and the ancestral tablets were arranged one by one.

The memorial tablet was clean and bright, clearly indicating that it was frequently wiped down.

In fact, this is indeed the case.

These memorial tablets are usually wiped clean every few days. Elders often come to wipe them on their own initiative, and occasionally Jiang Zhong, Hai Xirui, Jiang Xiao and Jiang Xu will wipe them.

The smoke from the incense mingled, and the incense burning brightly, never ceasing.

The ancestral halls of any large clan are never short of incense offerings, let alone the one where Jiang Zhao recently passed the imperial examination with top honors, making the incense burning even more intensely in the ancestral hall.

Inside the ancestral hall, a nanmu wood offering table had already been set up, with an incense burner and a book with the four characters "Jiang Clan Genealogy" written on it.