Sunlight casts mottled shadows on the landscape screen through the windows.
The small living room of the Ning family did not treat it negligently because it was small. It was still decorated with exquisite and precious gold and jade vessels, and the luxury was elegant and refined like a family of poetry and books.
Today's day is fine, and the charcoal fire of the hollow stove in the room is also burning very well. The noses of the two girls in winter clothes are dotted with a light layer of sweat, but this warmth like spring is not as comfortable as before. Instead, there is an inexplicable depression and anxiety.
Someone lifted the curtain and walked in, bringing in the winter wind from the courtyard. I don't know if it was the cool wind or someone who made the two girls cheer up and hurried forward.
The one who came in was also a girl, carrying a small copper kettle, and the girl in the room took it, and then took the cloisonné enamel teacup on the table beside it.
Although this series of actions did not make a sound, it broke the stagnant atmosphere in the room.
"Miss Jun, please have tea." The girl whispered softly, and walked over with tea in her hand, while looking at the person sitting on the chair.
This is a girl of fourteen or fifteen years old, with picturesque eyebrows and eyes, without makeup, and without the slightest embellishment of red hairpins and gold beads. She is wearing a starched and worn-out blue muslin dress.
But she didn't look shabby sitting in this luxurious living room, on the contrary, it made people feel like a Su Lan among thousands of flowers, elegant and elegant.
It's just that when the girl's eyes fell on the table, she felt as if she was stung by a bee, she lowered her gaze, and her expression became complicated.
On the mahogany table inlaid with emeralds is a white silk, which is particularly conspicuous among the red and emerald green.
At this time, an elderly woman by the window in the corridor was also looking at the white silk.
The Liuning clan in the north of Yangcheng not only has more than a dozen Hanlin families, but also controls nearly half of the coal kilns in Zezhou, so the windows of this small living room are not the common window paper, but glass from Nanyang.
There are only two companies that can use this kind of glass in Yangcheng and Zezhou.
The glass was a bit blurred, but the woman could still see the white silk and the girl.
This is not the first time she has seen this girl, in fact, this girl came once two days ago, but she did not put on this white silk at that time.
The girl stretched out her hand to take the tea and took a sip, her brows seemed to wrinkle and then she lowered it.
It seems to be just a woman's guess.
Through the colorful glass, the facial features are blurred, and it is impossible to see those subtle expressions clearly.
The woman only saw the girl put down the teacup. The reason why she thought so was because the tea served in the room at this time was only Yuqian Longjing.
Although the girl was dressed in shabby clothes, she came from another house in Zezhou that could use glass windows, Fang's Bank.
Her surname is Jun, and her mother's surname is Fang. She is the eldest lady of the Fang family. Although she married a poorer family, people in Zezhou still talk about the ostentation of getting married more than ten years later.
This kind of young lady is not used to drinking rough tea like Yuqian Longjing. At least the last time she came to the door, the tea served by the maids was Mingqian Longjing.
The woman looked at the room, and the girl who put down the teacup was sitting upright without the slightest impatience. The little girl standing beside her tugged at her sleeve with her hands.
"Give me a cup of tea, girl."
The woman heard soft voices coming from inside the house.
The girl immediately brought another cup of tea and handed it to the little girl, who happily took it and drank it all in one go.
"One more cup." The little girl also said.
Not as timid as the last time I came to visit, but with a bit of righteousness and a bit of complacency.
Probably think it can deter them.
A sneer flashed in the woman's eyes.
"Mother Song."
At the gate of the courtyard, a little girl waved at her and called her silently.
The woman then turned around and walked away from the window, and walked through a narrow passage into another courtyard. A row of maids stood under the corridor of the main house, chatting and laughing in low voices, and from behind the curtain embroidered with thick gold thread Come on for a laugh.
Seeing the woman coming, the joking girls greeted one after another.
"Mother Song."
They said inwardly, two maids opened the curtain, the woman stepped in, and the warm fragrance was blowing on her face, there were many people sitting or standing in the room, but all eyes and movements were around the middle-aged woman in the middle.
The woman was in her forties, with a beautiful face, long eyebrows, and a slight smile on her face, listening to the two women sitting in front of her.
The two women in front of her were younger than her, and they were generally dressed luxuriously.
Sitting at the generous table in the east second room were three teenage girls, all wearing red jackets and yellow skirts, beautiful in appearance, different from the low laughs in the outside room, they were quietly writing with a pen.
Mother Song didn't go up to speak immediately, but took the tea from the girl beside her and handed it over, standing beside the woman and listening to them with a smile on her face.
"Sister-in-law, Dongyue's stage is set up in front of the Earth Temple."
"The matter of hiring a theater troupe is something that the third sibling has to worry about, so I don't care about that."
"There are a lot of refugees this month, and the military chaos in the north is getting more and more serious. I will also prepare for the porridge."
"Second brother and second sister-in-law also sent someone back to talk about it."
When the sisters-in-law talked, the middle-aged women nodded with a smile.
"Okay, it's a good arrangement, you don't have to worry about it." She said everything.
The eldest lady of the Ning family is kind and charitable, filial to her parents-in-law and respect to her sister-in-law, everyone inside and outside praises her.
After saying this, the doctor turned to look at Mother Song.
"Meet someone?" she asked.
This endless sentence stopped the voices in the room.
Mother Song responded yes.
"Sister-in-law, why is the young lady from the Jun family here again? Didn't she just leave?" The woman next to her, Mrs. Ning San, hurriedly asked.
Madam Ning smiled and put down the teacup.
"I didn't leave. I found an inn on the street and made a suicide trick. Now I'm here again." She said.
Suicide
Third Madam Ning and Fourth Madam looked at each other.
"This is too much, don't the Fang family care?"
"Or the Fang family did it on purpose."
They frowned and said angrily.
Madam Ning shook her head.
"It's not intentional, or there is something embarrassing about it." She said.
The two siblings laughed.
"My sister-in-law always judges others with kindness." They sighed.
A girl who had been listening to the conversation with her ears up all the time suddenly turned her head.
"Mother, it's not uncommon for Jun Zhenzhen to do this kind of thing. She is also domineering in the Fang family. The eldest wife of the Fang family just said something to her, and she wanted to commit suicide and go to the government to sue her aunt for abuse." said loudly.
Those words surprised everyone in the room.
"Yanyan." Mrs. Ning said with a frown, discussing others' right and wrong behind their backs is not the good conduct that a lady should have.
This is Mrs. Ning's eldest daughter, Ning Yunyan, who is the seventeenth member of the Ning family.
"Auntie, Auntie, really, really, she insists on her status as an official lady, and especially looks down on her grandmother's family, and despises them as merchants."
"I also know that I have seen her laughing at her cousin with others at the banquet, and her cousin left the banquet crying."
The other two girls hurriedly followed suit.
The three girls chattered, but Mrs. Ning's gentle voice couldn't be suppressed, and the room became a mess.
This Miss Jun has only been in Yangcheng for half a year, and already everyone knows her reputation. This reputation is not a good one.
"The Fang family is just a vulgar merchant." Mrs. Ning San frowned and said, "Ms. Jun's father is also a scholar and a parent official. How did he raise such a daughter?"
It's all right to raise such a daughter, other people's daughters have nothing to do with their Ning family, but this Jun's daughter clamored to have a marriage contract with their Ning family as soon as she came.
"Is this engagement real?" Mrs. Ning Fourth couldn't help asking, "She really has an engagement with our Zhao'er? Or was it made by the old man? The old man never said such a big thing before his death."
Mrs. Ning sighed, looking helpless.
"I asked my mother, and my mother said that the old man and the old man of the Jun family met once." She said, "Fifteen years ago, the old man resigned from office and traveled all over the world. When he passed Runan, he became ill. The old man was very grateful to see the doctor and prescribe medicine to alleviate the symptoms. When he heard that old doctor Jun’s son had just got married, he casually said that he wanted to marry him. At that time, Zhao’er was only three years old.”
Thank you so much, let me just say it.
The meaning of these eight words was immediately understood by the two ladies in the room.
"Since the old man of the Jun family is a doctor, isn't it natural for people to see a doctor?" Mrs. Ning San said, "The old man is grateful and says nothing, so doesn't the old man know the duty of a doctor?"
It seems that he is also a person who is dedicated to climbing the dragon and the phoenix, otherwise he would really agree to this marriage without considering his own identity.
"Maybe the old lady was under coercion at that time." Mrs. Ning Fourth shook her head and said.
Otherwise, why did the old man never say anything about such a big matter of betrothing the eldest son of the house.
"Father didn't mention it, so I don't know what's going on." Mrs. Ning said, emphasizing this sentence, "The old lady insisted that there was no such thing, and I can't help it. When I asked, I explained it tactfully, but it seems that the young lady of the Jun family didn't listen at all. The old lady is not in good health, so I dare not let the trouble come to her. , I dare not be tyrannical to her..."
"Mother." Ning Yunyan, who had stopped writing and stood up to listen, immediately shouted, "She is pitiful, brother ten is not pitiful, should brother ten be unlucky? We didn't kill her parents, why? Just take ten brother's lifelong event to compensate her?"
"That's right, tenth brother, even the emperor praised Tian Zong's talent, how could he be dragged down by such a vulgar and ignorant person like Jun Zhenzhen." The other two girls immediately agreed.
The house was in chaos again.
Mrs. Ning seemed to have a headache from the noise, she stretched out her hand and pinched her forehead helplessly.
"But you can't just sit and watch this young lady of the Jun family commit suicide right in front of your eyes." She said.
"She threw the white silk on the table right now, clearly threatening." Mother Song interjected, "The last time I hanged myself at the inn, now maybe I'm going to hang myself in front of our house."
"She dares!" Mrs. Ning said with raised eyebrows.