…Although there were a few hiccups in the apprenticeship process, overall it went very smoothly.
At the dawn of the day after snow, with the fragrance of plum blossoms filling the courtyard, Lu He performed the entrance ceremony of kneeling three times and kowtowing nine times under the witness of the audience invited by Jiang Yashuang. He offered a cup of tea. Jiang Yashuang took it and took a sip. The disciple's identity was decided.
After officially accepting the disciple, Jiang Yashuang generously gave the disciple a set of the Four Treasures of the Study, and asked him to stand up and bring him to the table. The originally solemn apprenticeship ceremony suddenly turned into a lively banquet.
After the banquet was over, Jiang Yashuangfu took Lu He into the backyard to meet his master Qiu Yilan, and called his nephew and son to come over to greet him. After all this work, the master and apprentice returned to the study to talk.
"I'm afraid I won't be able to stay in Beijing for long. You also know about the war in Northern Xinjiang. If nothing unexpected happens, I will go there sooner or later." Jiang Yashuang said straight to the point, "So you have to seize the time while I am still in Beijing. , take care of all the people you need to know and move around with, after all, these people’s attitudes towards you will definitely be different when I’m in Beijing than when I’m not in Beijing!”
Lu He respectfully said yes.
"As for your homework, you don't have to be in a hurry now. With your talents, it will definitely be no problem to get the second grade. As for the first grade, only three people can take it. This depends on luck." Jiang Yashuang warned again, "The best in the world. Big, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you may catch up with the talented people who appear from nowhere! For example, your wife's brother Ruan Chunjun was only three years older than you when he entered the Imperial Academy. Even though he was not in the first rank, he was still extremely talented! !”
"Although the top one is glorious, in terms of subsequent achievements, it may not be higher than the second one. Therefore, I do not require you to be ranked in the top one in the future, but I hope that you will guard against arrogance and impetuosity, and lay a solid foundation for future success." The sun can be better than the blue..."
After teaching Lu He carefully, Jiang Yashuang let him go and said, "Go back and stay with your uncle for a few days. When you're done, pack your things and live here, so as not to waste time by running back and forth all the time. Besides, you live here, It will be more convenient when you go out! Now that you have officially become my disciples, your wife and brothers and sisters don’t need to be shy."
After seeing Lu He off, he returned to the backyard and asked Qiu Yilan, "Have you not heard from the Yi family in the past two days?"
"No." Qiu Yilan mumbled, "I'm wondering if you are waiting for us to say something first?"
"We didn't say anything to them, which obviously wasn't very positive." Jiang Yashuang said thoughtfully, "I guess they are planning to just let it go!"
Qiu Yilan said: "You said this, I was planning to call Lu He to ask about what happened in two days - now that he has a reputation, I think he won't refuse to talk anymore? Did the girl from the Yi family say something? What a distasteful thing to say? It makes me speechless when I think about it. Didn’t he say that brother-in-law Ninth had taken a liking to him first? Why didn’t he tell his daughter that he had to suffer the injustice for nothing? "
"Little girl!" Jiang Yashuang sneered. He was impatient to argue with two female juniors, especially his niece, but he was not happy that his carefully selected disciple was being despised, so he said cheerfully, "Since If they don’t like Lu He, let’s just forget about it! Even if Brother Ninth mentions it again in the future, I won’t pay attention.”
"What about his marriage?"
"You can look after him during the banquet!" Jiang Yashuang couldn't find a suitable candidate for a while, so she muttered, "Choose someone who has both talent and appearance, who is sensible, and whose parents and brothers are kind. Anyway, he is still young. It doesn’t matter if you delay it for a few years, it’s better to be short-lived than wasteful!”
"Yongfu descended at the beginning of April, and Chunxiao came out of the palace at the end of April. These two weddings alone are likely to be seen by girls all over the capital. I will pay attention to him then!" Qiu Yilan nodded.
Speaking of this, she suddenly remembered the question that Jin asked her before, and she was curious, so she asked her husband, "Have you given Jing Mu and Jingman any money?"
Jiang Yashuang was stunned: "No, what's wrong?"
"On the Lantern Festival, when I accompanied the Fourth Sister-in-law and the others to the palace, didn't I miss the Fourth Sister-in-law and the Queen?" Qiu Yilan said, "So I came back very early. When I arrived in front of the Fourth Sister-in-law's courtyard, I saw the Fifth Sister-in-law, and the Fifth Sister-in-law was so He asked me and said that he felt that Jingman’s expenses were not quite right recently and he thought we gave him money.”
"How is that possible?" Jiang Yashuang said, "Let's not mention that although the two of them would come to ask for advice every few days, in the end they were only giving advice for the sake of the fourth and fifth brothers. It was not my seriousness. Disciple, if I don’t practice Buddhism, how can I give them money? Even if they both have monthly income, their families don’t have enough food and clothing. At such a young age, it’s okay to give them more money. I was ruined, so I didn’t learn anything bad from it!”
"Don't you just steal things and sell them?" Qiu Yilan guessed, "Fifth sister-in-law didn't care much about Jingman before. Why is she so anxious to find people this time just because his expenses are higher? It's probably Is it because something is missing?”
Jiang Yashuang frowned: "It's only been a year since I came to Beijing. At this age... are you so bold?"
"Only those who are half-grown are ignorant!" Qiu Yilan said, "Anyway, Fifth Sister-in-law's intentions this time make people feel that something is wrong. But now that they live there, they can't go and check... I hope I guessed wrong!" Otherwise, we can bear it, but Sister-in-law Fourteen will be very angry!"
Jiang Yashuang thought it made sense when he heard the words, so he thought about it and paid attention.
It just so happened that the next day was the day when Jiang Jingmu and Jiang Jingman came to ask for homework. He paid special attention to the clothes of his two nephews and found that Jiang Jingman, who had always been slightly worse dressed than Jiang Jingmu in the past, was indeed extra neatly dressed today.
What made him frown was that when he called Jiang Jingman to his side and pointed out the errors in his homework, he actually smelled a faint fragrance of powder on his nephew who had not yet tied up his hair!
"Could it be that this child has been to the fireworks field at such a young age?" Jiang Yashuang was annoyed. She glanced at her nephew without saying anything, then ordered someone to follow him to see where he had gone. !
Two days later, the servants came to report: "Thirteenth Grandson, in the past two days..." They began to report Jiang Jingman's whereabouts one by one.
Jiang Yashuang listened while grading official papers at first, but soon she put down her pen with a sullen face and began to listen carefully - the dim sum shop, silk shop, and book shop at the beginning were all fine; the following classmates' homes, teahouses, and paintings were already a little bit... Something went wrong along the way; after the boat docked, Jiang Jingman and his classmates went to an antique shop and bought a pair of ginger-yellow flat peach vases from a famous kiln in the past. They pulled two feet of bright red brocade silk from the shop and wrapped them. Talking and laughing, we went into the alley across the street.
"Then what?"
"Mama Ju lives in that alley, and her daughter has always been very famous." The servant whispered without raising his head.
Although Jiang Yashuang has a decent style, he has a brother who is a master of romance. He can't understand some obscure words, so he immediately asked: "So, that person is a trap?"
"Exactly!"
Jiang Yashuang's face looked ugly, and after a while she said: "You go down first!"
He was dissatisfied with Jiang Jingman's qualifications and had no plans to formally accept him as a disciple. But after all, he is a cousin, and he cannot be watched running all the way without learning. Ordinarily, Jiang Yawan should be told about this kind of thing, and let Jiang Yawan discipline Jiang Jingman. Bu Yuesu is a substitute, and it is he who has given advice to Jiang Jingman many times. Because of their busy schedules, the uncle and nephew didn’t talk much, and they weren’t very familiar with each other.
But Jiang Jingman had just caused his concubine's mother to lose her child, and he was still rejected by his biological father. If he said it rashly, Jiang Yawan might get angry and drive him back to Kui County, which would ruin Jiang Jingman's future.
Although Jiang Jingman was said to be a bad student, Jiang Yashuang still didn't want him to end up staying in his hometown for the rest of his life.
After thinking about it for a while, he told Qiu Yilan about the matter: "... When you have time, please ask Sister-in-law Five to come over and tell her about this matter!"
Qiu Yilan was a little worried that the Jin family would ignore it: "She rejected you before when you proposed clan education. After all, it's not her biological child. I'm afraid she won't take it seriously!"
"It's different." Jiang Yashuang reminded, "Although Zhan'er was gone at that time, Aunt Yue hadn't come in yet. Now Fifth Brother's thoughts are on Aunt Yue. How long has Fifth Sister been left out? Aunt Yue is so favored. , even if she has a son, will she give it to the fifth sister-in-law to raise? Why is she not willing to take care of her? If she doesn't understand this, tell her, she is past childbearing age Now, I don’t have any grandchildren, what will I do if I don’t watch out for Dian Man’er?”
Qiu Yilan thought about it and said, "Then I'll invite her tomorrow!"
As a result, early the next morning, Qiu Yilan didn't have time to go find the Jin family, so the Ruan Mansion sent someone to deliver Qiu Jinglan's autographed letter and report: "News has come from Shazhou, saying that the lady is pregnant!"
"How long?" Qiu Yilan was so happy when she heard the news that she didn't even bother to read the letter first. Due to the war in Western Xinjiang the year before last, Qiu Jinglan and Ou Qinglan's marriage was going to be delayed, but Ou Qinglan didn't want to cause trouble, so she took the initiative regardless of her face. Heading west, I rushed to Shazhou to hold a wedding with Qiu Jinglan. It had been two or three years since they got married. No good news was worrying. Now that the news was finally confirmed, Qiu Yilan was happy for her brother and sister-in-law. , "How is your sister-in-law's health? Can you bear the bitter cold in Shazhou?"
The visitor smiled and said: "It's been three months. Because of the war, I didn't ask anyone to come here until now." He also said that everything is fine with Ou Qinglan, "I think Princess Chunfu's daughter also gave birth in Shazhou, Madam I don’t plan to go back to Beijing for this.”
Qiu Yilan thought the same thing. Even the delicate Jiang Qizheng could give birth to a daughter in Shazhou, and the mother and daughter were safe, let alone Ou Qinglan who was born in northern Xinjiang
After feeling happy, he thought about it: "Have you told the Ou family this good news?"
"He's gone too. Madam also has a special letter for Prince Jing Bo." The visitor said, "But Mrs. Ou didn't say anything about it."
"I'll go talk to the old lady, or the Ou family can send someone to tell her." The mourning period for the Marquis of Jibei Mansion is still two months away, and the Ruan Mansion has no direct relationship with Madam Ou. Baba's visit Going to report it would be suspected of being flattery, which is not a crime.
Qiu Yilan asked about the situation in Shazhou in detail, and learned that the battle was still at a stalemate, with both sides winning and losing, and no one could take advantage of the other. I was afraid it would not end for a while, so she had nothing else to say to the visitor. He was rewarded with ten gold coins and sent back.
Only then did she have time to look for Jin, but unexpectedly she was in vain: "The young lady took people out early in the morning. She said she was feeling bored in the yard and wanted to go outside for a walk."
The servant who stayed behind reported this, "When I left, I didn't say when I would come back. Please forgive me, Madam Nineteenth Young Master!"
"It doesn't matter. I'm looking for the fifth sister-in-law. It's nothing urgent. I just thought about the fifth sister-in-law coming here for a long time. Because I was busy, I never had a good chat with the fifth sister-in-law!" Qiu Yilan said with a smile, "Wait for the fifth sister-in-law. When my sister-in-law comes back, just tell her I’ve been here!”
"yes!"
They didn't meet each other this time. Qiu Yilan thought that she would just go out tomorrow and the day after. When she returned to her yard, she put the matter aside for the time being and concentrated on spending time with her nephew, son, and daughter.
Little did she know that she would not have such a chance.
Because in the afternoon of that day, news came from outside the house that Mrs. Jin and her maid chartered a small boat for a trip to Jing Lake, but the boat capsized midway, and neither the master nor the servants were able to rescue him!