On the day of leaving the North, Bai Mingxia met the steward of the Hua family who was already waiting outside the city, but Hua Zhi did not come.
Shen Qi's disappointment was too obvious, and Bai Mingxia could only shake his head. As far as he knew, when the Hua family went to cancel the engagement, the Shen family agreed without any hesitation. If they had known this would happen, they would not have been so happy.
The eldest daughter of the Hua family is a person who remembers both favors and grudges. He was just taking care of her for Pingyang's sake, and now she can make such a promise. If Shen Qi had accompanied her at the beginning, the two of them would have been happy.
What a pity.
Tightening the reins and turning the horse's head, Bai Mingxia looked back at the towering city wall, thinking about his mother's hesitation to speak and his father's silence when he left today, and felt sad. He was enlightened by his father himself, and his father taught him to be "faithful in words and sincere in actions", and he did it, but the person who taught him had forgotten it.
The more he thought about it, the more depressed he felt. Bai Mingxia didn't even say hello to Shen Qi and rode his horse away.
Shen Qi also put away his disappointment and rode his horse to chase after him. This time, he went to ask for forgiveness.
If it were a normal day, Hua Zhi would go and see them off, after all, they were going to visit someone from her Hua family. But that couldn't be done today, because today was the day for the vegetarian restaurant.
It did not use the various publicity methods of later generations, nor did it have a very high-sounding name, but it hung a vegetarian plaque to let people know that such a place existed.
For the opening banquet, Hua Zhi only sent people to send invitations to the Lu family, Sun family, Zhu family and Qin family.
The Lu family is a partner, the Zhu family is an in-law, the Sun family is the sixth prince's in-laws, and the Qin family is the grandmother's maternal family. These families are the ones among the many aristocratic families in Beijing that have clearly shown goodwill towards the Hua family so far.
Du Cheng was busy with the front work, so Hua Zhi didn't get involved. She just took a look and went to the kitchen.
In the tidy and bright kitchen, there were nearly a dozen people working in an orderly manner. Fu Dong buried her head in arranging the steamed dishes. After she finished, she looked up and found that the young lady was standing in front of her. She knelt down to greet her.
Hua Zhi pulled her up and didn't ask her how she was preparing. She just asked, "Have you adapted?"
Fu Dong nodded vigorously, his eyes shining, joy written all over his face.
She had decorated such a large kitchen by herself, and the young lady had promised to cook dishes according to her taste. She also said that it could earn her a lot of money. Apart from the fact that she felt a little regretful that she could not serve the young lady, she was really very happy.
"You can tell Du Cheng if you have anything to say, or tell me when you get back. Don't feel pressured. It's just a business deal. If it works out, that's great. If it doesn't, that's not a big deal. Miss, I have plenty of tricks."
Hua Zhi smiled in a gentle voice. The four maids grew up with her. Although they were master and servant, she actually treated them as family members more often. Even family members did not spend as much time with her as they did.
Among the four, Fu Dong is the one she is most concerned about. The others can stand on their own and will never suffer any loss if they are released, but Fu Dong is not like that. If she meets the wrong person, she will be bullied to death.
Although several of them expressed that they wanted to follow her and did not want to get married, she had already found a partner and there was no reason for them to live a boring life like this. She also did not want to marry them to servants. When the time was right, she would return their indentures to them and no longer let their children be servants. She would then find a reliable family for them to marry into. With her around, they would never suffer any harm.
Bao Xia walked in quickly, "Miss, the old lady of the Sun family is here."
"So early?" Hua Zhi was a little surprised. As she walked out, she asked, "Did you pick it up?"
“Not yet.”
The Sixth Prince set out from the Crown Prince's Palace. He was riding steadily on his horse, wearing new clothes that fit him well. Even his hair was tied up very neatly, and he looked very energetic.
Gu Yanxi was walking beside him. His current identity was the Sixth Prince’s personal bodyguard.
"Brother Yan Xi, Sister Hua... why did you invite the Sun family?"
"The Hua family and the Sun family have a history. They had to break up before because both families were important officials. Now is the right time to pick up the pieces." Gu Yanxi gave the obvious reason but did not tell Xiaoliu that Azhi was going to have a good ending with the Sun family. After all, Xiaoliu was the only child of the Sun family. If they did not agree to him staying in the Hua family, Azhi would not sincerely keep him. She always thought long-term.
If the Sun family no longer wants to associate with the Hua family because the family has fallen on hard times... Xiaoliu might not even be able to enter the Hua family's door.
Upon hearing this, the Sixth Prince put aside his worries and shared his joy with his brother, the Crown Prince, in high spirits, "Yesterday, Sister Hua combined the two classes in the clan school and taught them together."
Gu Yanxi looked at him.
The Sixth Prince's eyes were bright, full of youthful vigor. "Sister Hua told us about the sea. Sister Hua said there are countries on the other side of the sea, but they look different from us and speak different languages. Brother Yan Xi, have you seen them?"
"No." The Daqing Dynasty's ships could not go that far.
"Sister Hua also said that if we have the chance to meet them, we should not treat them as monsters, because we are just as different in their eyes as they are in ours."
These are words that Ah Zhi would say. Gu Yanxi looked at Xiao Liu with a face full of longing and couldn't help but think that this course should be added to the study room to let those princes know how big the world outside is and not always focus on that one position.
However, he couldn't invite a gentleman.
"Sister Hua said that she would take us to the farm when it was time to sow seeds so that we could know where our food came from. Oh, and Sister Hua also asked us to go to the market and write down the prices of everything on sale..."
Gu Yanxi didn't interrupt him and just listened to him calling "Sister Hua" all the time. He felt happy listening to him. The children taught by Azhi had different spirits and auras, just like Berlin and the children from the Ruhua family who seemed to have not been affected by the Hua family's confiscation and exile.
At this time, in the private room on the second floor of the restaurant, Hua Zhi met Old Madam Sun.
Hua Zhi couldn't bring herself to say the word "old lady" because this old lady looked too young. She was just a beautiful woman no matter how you looked at her.
So she just called her Madam Sun and performed the etiquette as a junior.
This is a test to test the Sun family's attitude towards the Hua family.
Madam Sun accepted her gift, then personally stepped forward to help her up, pulled her to sit next to her, and smiled and sighed, "I originally thought that I would never be able to get along so comfortably with the Hua family again in this life. I was quite surprised when I received your invitation. Did you build this place?"
Hua Zhi's smile immediately caught his eye, and her tone and expression were full of the respect of a younger generation to an elder, "Yes, it's a place that specializes in food. I'm greedy, so I'll make some of this."
"Everything is good if it is made to perfection." Madam Sun looked at this girl who was said to be very amazing by people in the capital. She didn't look that amazing at all now. However, if one could tell at a glance, she would not have been able to hide it for so many years.
PS: I have a business trip tomorrow, and besides the novel, I have three other jobs to do, so I really can't spare the time. I guess I can only update daily in the next few days. This is not a complaint, just a statement of fact.