The next day, Jiang Changning changed into plain clothes, took some silk and gold, and followed Prince Jin to the Baling Palace to pay his respects.
When we arrived outside the Baling Palace, we saw that all the festive items for the New Year had been replaced by white cloth and white lanterns.
The servant guarding the door also had a white mourning cloth tied around his waist.
Prince Jin and Jiang Changning got off the carriage, and the servant announced: "Prince Jin and Princess Jin are here to pay their respects!"
The Crown Prince and the Second Young Master of Baling came out to greet him, exchanged greetings, and led him to the mourning hall to burn incense.
After the ceremony and burning incense, Prince Jin stayed in the hall, while Jiang Changning was invited to the inner hall by the Crown Princess.
Although the Baling Palace was handling a funeral, everything was in order and there was no sign of panic at all. This shows the ability of the Crown Prince's wife as a housekeeper.
But no matter how capable a person is, there will always be mistakes.
While the Crown Princess was adding fuel to the fire, Jiang came up to Jiang Changning and said, "Sister Wang is so busy. I sent invitations to the mansion several times, but Sister Wang never had time to see me. I miss Sister Wang so much."
Jiang Changning also admired Jiang's thick skin. It was not possible to be tactful with such a person. "You and I are not familiar with each other. There is nothing to see."
"What you said, Sister Wang, is so polite. If we meet more often, we will become familiar with each other."
"Princess Baling passed away. You should have closed the door and refused to see visitors. You should have stayed at home to observe mourning. This is against the rules, and you will be punished according to the family rules of our ancestors."
Before Jiang could say anything, the Crown Prince's wife came back after refueling, "Sister-in-law, the little girl is crying, go and take a look."
The little girl is the eldest daughter of Jiang and the second young master, and she has just turned one year old.
"She's crying again. All she does is cry all day long. She's already one year old, but she can't even speak clearly. You can just raise a pig and slaughter it for food. I don't know what's the point of raising her." Jiang left cursing.
The Crown Prince's Consort apologized to Jiang Changning on behalf of Jiang, "My sister-in-law is not very clear-headed. Please ignore her, my dear sister-in-law. What she said was unpleasant to hear. I should scold her and give her a lecture."
Jiang Changning smiled and said, "It's really hard for you to have such a brother-in-law."
The Crown Princess smiled bitterly, it was not difficult for her.
My mother-in-law is frail and sickly and cannot manage the household. As a sister-in-law, she didn't interfere too much in her brother-in-law's marriage, so her brother-in-law married such a thing. It's really worrying.
The Prince of Jin and his wife stayed in the Palace of Prince Baling for a cup of tea and then said goodbye and left.
The Crown Prince and his wife escorted the two out, and a servant's announcement came from outside the door, "Prince Yu and his wife are here to pay their respects."
"Cousin Prince Jin and cousin-in-law." Prince Yu bowed in greeting.
"Prince Yu's cousin, sister-in-law." Prince Jin could still bow.
Jiang Changning and Zhao Xifang bent their knees slightly, looked up for a moment, glanced at each other, and then looked away at the same time.
After passing each other, Zhao Xifang suddenly turned around and looked at Jiang Changning's slender back. She would definitely find something against her.
When they reached the door, King Jin said politely, "Please stay."
“Slow down.” The Prince of Baling was about to go in to greet the Prince of Yu and his wife, but stopped as he was told.
After getting on the carriage, King Jin said with a smile, "Since we are out now, how about we go treasure hunting?"
"What treasure are you looking for? Gambling on stones?" Jiang Changning asked.
King Jin was surprised, "Ningning also knows about gambling on stones?"
"You talk as if I'm so ignorant. When I was seven years old, I went to gamble on jadeite with my father. I spent one hundred taels of silver to win a piece of top-quality jadeite." Jiang Changning raised his eyebrows complacently.
King Jin laughed, thinking that his father-in-law, whom he had never met, loved his daughter to the extreme, since he could let a seven-year-old girl spend one hundred taels of silver to gamble on stones.
When I arrived at the place, I spent ten cents and bought a sign.
The sign reads: One Six.
Looking at the tall wooden box on the field, Jiang Changning frowned slightly and asked doubtfully: "Is there a treasure in this box?"
"Someone once found Huang Jucai's "Picture of Partridges on the Mountain" in the box, someone else got a palm leaf Burmese scripture, and someone else got a white porcelain carved bowl from the previous dynasty."
"The owner of the box, doesn't he know there are these treasures inside? He just sold them at such a low price."
“If you knew that, you wouldn’t sell it at a low price.” Prince Jin said with a smile.
"Who are the owners of these boxes?" Jiang Changning asked curiously.
"A group of people with no vision and no fortune." Prince Jin laughed.
Jiang Changning smiled and nodded, "Indeed."
This time, the owner of the treasure hunting site displayed a total of ten large boxes, which were about five feet seven inches high, five feet seven inches wide, and six feet five inches long.
A small window was opened, and you could see that the room was filled with things.
But at first glance, it doesn't seem to be worth much.
"This treasure hunt is similar to gambling on stones. It all depends on experience, eyesight, and a bit of luck," Jiang Changning commented.
A broker came up to the stage and knocked on the wooden box with a gavel. "For the first box, the base price is five taels of silver. Each increase in price must be no less than one tael of silver."
Jiang Changning raised his eyebrows. It also involves an auction.
There was a lull in the conversation, and then someone started bidding a price. Soon, the box was sold for twelve taels of silver.
No one raised the price. The agent asked several times. Seeing that no one raised the price, he asked, "Customer No. 20 bought this box. Can he inspect the goods now or take the box away?"
"Give me the lock, lock it and put it aside, I want to take another look." The man with card number 20 said with a wealthy look.
The broker knocked on another box and said, "For the second box, the base price is seven taels of silver. Each increase in price must be no less than one tael of silver. Start bidding."
Jiang Changning didn't rush to take a picture of the box, but kept observing.
Prince Jin stayed with her and did not urge her.
When it came to the seventh box, Jiang Changning seemed to see the scroll through the gap and whispered, "Yong Zhou, I want to take a picture of this box."
"Okay, let's bid." Prince Jin raised the sign and raised the price continuously.
The man who took the photo of the first box had been competing with Prince Jin. Not only did he glare at Prince Jin, he also kept looking at Jiang Changning.
King Jin didn't care about being glared at, and he didn't care about bidding against him either. Since it was a bidding, of course the highest bidder would win.
But when Jiang Changning was being looked at, Prince Jin became very unhappy and made a gesture.
"Fifty taels." Prince Jin raised his placard again to bid.
The man wanted to raise the price, but Cao Jiang, who walked up to him, grabbed his arm and said, "Brother, let's go out and talk."
"I'm not going. What are you. Uh-huh?" The man was covered with his mouth and dragged out.
The broker knew Cao Jiang and knew that he worked for the noble. Seeing the man being dragged away, he remained indifferent and continued to ask, "No one has raised the price yet? If no one raises the price, this box will belong to customer number 16."
Jiang Changning noticed it but did not try to dissuade him. The way the man looked at her was full of lust, which she did not like.
If there hadn't been guards around her to stop her, the man would have squeezed over and flirted with her.
The boxes were photographed, but the contents were not inspected on the spot, but transported back to the palace for inspection.
Move all the things out of the box and place them in the side hall.
Jiang Changning first looked at the scroll and unfolded it, which was painted with pine, bamboo and plum branches.
The ink brush painted the plum branches full of flowers and buds, intertwined and entwined with star-like pine needles and ink-like bamboo leaves.
They are slanted across the center of the picture, and the gray of the pine needles and the black of the ink bamboo set off the white of the plum blossoms.
The whole picture is beautiful in brushwork, clear, elegant and full of interest.
"Yong Zhou, come and see, I think I bought a treasure!" Jiang Changning shouted in surprise.
(End of this chapter)