In a blink of an eye, it was already the twelfth lunar month.
Seeing that it was about to snow, Yingbao prepared a large bag of medicine pills and brought two baskets of fruit, and personally delivered them to the palace.
After the items were delivered, Yingbao went home immediately without stopping.
This day was Mr. Wu's new house, and Yingbao prepared a gift and sent it together with her mother and brother.
Mr. Wu’s house is not far from the Jiang family, only three houses away.
At this moment, the entrance to Mr. Wu's house was extremely lively, with carriages and horses coming in an endless stream, all of them were officials who came to celebrate.
Mr. Wu is now the chief academician of the Imperial College, a fifth-rank official, and is eligible to enter the court to meet the emperor.
All his subordinates came to the housewarming this time, and even the Wen and Xiao families came to celebrate.
Mr. Wu didn't expect so many people to come, and he was a little overwhelmed.
Fortunately, his daughter Wu Jiang and son-in-law came to help, and his son Wu Shi also came out to entertain his colleagues, and the situation was barely manageable.
Yingbao and A Niang walked into the Wu family's house and saw that the house also had two entrances, similar to their own.
But the Wu family had no pond or pavilion or corridor, and there was nothing else in the yard except a newly built shed for entertaining guests.
This is not surprising. Although the Wu family is a scholarly family, it has fallen into decline. After Mr. Wu mourned his father's death twice, he never entered the official career again, so his expenses were a bit insufficient to make ends meet.
Although Mr. Wu's hometown had some land, the harvest was not high, so the old man simply gave all the land to the Wu family members and no longer managed it.
I've been an official for the past two years and have finally gotten more financially secure, but there's still a lot of gift-giving and exchange between colleagues.
After finally accumulating some personal belongings, he bought this house. With the remaining money, Mr. Wu planned to find a good marriage for his son.
"Please come this way." The Wu family's steward led Chunniang, her mother and her two children to the living room where the female relatives were staying.
Halfway through the journey, Yingbao suddenly felt someone was looking at her. When she looked up, she saw several people standing not far away. They were Xiao Chengjun and others.
He was tall and slender, and beside him was Chen Tiantian, who was wearing a face scarf.
At first glance, the two of them seemed to be a good match with their fluttering clothes.
Yingbao's eyes swept across Xiao Chengjun and met Chen Tiantian's.
The other person's eyes were full of gloom, as if he would turn into a wild beast and pounce on him and eat him alive in the next second.
Yingbao didn't want to pay attention to this person for the time being, so she walked towards the inner courtyard with A Niang's brother.
Luo Zhao saw the Jiang family coming from afar and hurried forward to greet them: "Aunt Jiang, Sister Yingbao, Brother Ajie."
Jiang Jie clasped his fists towards her: "Sister Zhao."
Luo Zhao returned the greeting and said with a smile: "I have been waiting for you for a long time, come with me, let's go inside and talk."
Jiang Jie: "I won't go. There are a few colleagues over there. I'll go take a look. I'll ask you to take care of my mother and sister."
"Okay, Brother Ajie, you go and do your work. I will take good care of Aunt and Sister Yingbao." Luo Zhao held Yingbao in one hand and Chunniang in the other and took them to their grandmother.
Chunniang and her daughter bowed to Old Madam Wu, greeted several old ladies, and sat down on the chairs nearby.
"Is this Editor Jiang's mother?" a lady in her forties asked with a smile.
Chunniang immediately replied, "Yes."
The lady then turned to Yingbao, who was sitting next to Chunniang, and asked, "So you are the female disciple that the emperor accepted when he was in hiding?"
Yingbao smiled and nodded: "Yes, I have been traveling with my brothers and sisters and following our master since we were young, and we have experienced life and death together."
The lady smiled, raised her orchid finger to pick up the lid of the tea bowl, flicked away the foam, and said in a contemptuous tone: "No wonder."
Madam Luo said, "Yingbao, you may not recognize her. This lady is Madam Shufei's mother, Madam Yao."
Yingbao stood up and bowed: "It turns out to be Madam Yao. My apologies."
Madam Yao hummed softly, "I have heard from Concubine Shu about you. Seeing you today, I can see that you are indeed as beautiful as her reputation has said."
Yingbao still smiled: "Thank you for your praise, Madam. I am ashamed to accept it."
Madam Yao put down the tea bowl in her hand and asked gently, "I see you are not young anymore, are you married?"
“No.”
"Oh, what a coincidence! My mother's family has a nephew who is about your age and has good appearance." Madam Yao said with a smile, "I will call him over later so you can have a look at him."
The room fell silent, and everyone looked at Yingbao and Chunniang.
Chunniang had never seen such a scene, but she knew that Mrs. Yao's words were a little too extreme.
How can you propose to a girl directly without going through her parents? That's simply too much.
Chunniang said, "Madam, although my daughter is from a farming family, she also has parents and brothers. It is not appropriate for her to meet a man without their approval."
The room was quiet again.
Old Madam Wu was also very angry at Madam Yao's rude words, but she did not show it on her face. She said to Madam Yao, "Madam Yao, we cannot make the decision about Yingbao's marriage. Her master will worry about it for her." The implication was, "Stop dreaming."
Mrs. Luo saw that the situation was not right, so she smiled and tried to smooth things over: "Hey, it's boring to just sit there, why don't we play some cards?"
Luo Zhao immediately said, "I'll go get a deck of cards! Jin Chan, quickly set the table and let the ladies sit down."
The other ladies also said, "Okay, okay, I just happened to bring a prize, let's play a round."
Mrs. Yao wanted to explode, but was pulled to sit at the round table by several ladies and had to restrain herself temporarily.
Luo Zhao had already helped Chunniang up and went to another room.
This room was very warm and had a large kang. Luo Zhao asked Chunniang and Yingbao to sit on the kang and have a rest.
"Aunt Jiang, Sister Yingbao, you guys take a rest here first, I'll come and play with you when I come back."
Luo Zhao ordered the maid to find two decks of ivory cards and personally gave them to the ladies. Then he returned, climbed onto the kang, picked up a storybook and handed it to Ying Bao: "Sister Ying Bao, it's still early for the banquet outside. Let's read a book to amuse ourselves first."
Yingbao nodded, took the script handed to her by Luo Zhao, and flipped through it casually.
At this time, two children ran in, both of them were chubby.
One was about thirteen or fourteen years old, and the other was less than ten years old.
They stood by the kang, looking at Yingbao with their heads tilted.
The 13 or 14-year-old boy asked, "Are you Yingbao?"
Yingbao nodded: "Xiao Chengyu, what's the matter?"
Xiao Chengyu grinned: "Yingbao, do you still remember me?"
Yingbao was speechless: "Why don't I remember?" She had only seen one child this fat in her two lifetimes.
Xiao Chengyu scratched his forehead and asked, "Yingbao, do you know where Brother Wei Zhan went?"
Yingbao shook her head: "I don't know."
Xiao Chengyu was a little disappointed, but soon smiled and said, "Yingbao, can I go to your house to play?"
"No." Yingbao refused without hesitation.
Xiao Chengyu pouted: "Why?"
"Because my brother is on duty, there is no one at home to play with you." Even if Jiang Jie is at home, his family does not want to have anything to do with the Xiao family.
"I don't need anyone to accompany me. I just want to play with the kids." Xiao Chengyu said seriously.
Yingbao twitched her eyes and said unhappily, "Why did you go to my house when you were playing with the little boy?"
Xiao Chengyu scratched his head, stole a glance at Yingbao, and said, "Because... because I want to drink your fruit juice."
Yingbao was speechless.
But for Wei Zhan's sake, he finally nodded: "Okay, you can come tomorrow."
Xiao Chengyu cheered, his eyes narrowed into slits as he smiled.
The little kid at the side said eagerly, "Sister, I want to go to your house to play, too."