Cheng Chi and Madam Guo looked normal, only Zhou Shaojin privately sighed to Chunwan: "I guess the Hangzhou branch heard that Madam Guo praised the two osmanthus trees in the Ningbo branch, so they moved them here specially. In this season, I don't know if these two osmanthus trees will survive."
Chun Wan opened his eyes wide and said, "What if I can't live?"
Zhou Shaojin thought for a moment and said, "Maybe we can transplant two more similar ones. We don't know them anyway."
The Spring Festival Gala was shocking.
A maid invited Zhou Shaojin to have dinner in the main hall.
Zhou Shaojin changed into a pink jacket with a grass green bud edge, combed her hair into two buns, wore a South Pearl headband, and went to the main hall.
Old Madam Guo had changed her clothes. Her gray hair was neatly tied into a bun, and she wore a pair of red gold-filled mutton-fat jade double peach hairpins. She wore an autumn-scented silk jacket with a crane holding a ganoderma lucidum. Her face was ruddy and she looked very energetic. She was talking to a woman in her forties who was wearing a parrot-green cocoon silk jacket.
Seeing Zhou Shaojin, Mrs. Guo smiled and waved at her, pointing at the woman and said to her, "This is Mrs. Wang, the wife of the second manager of the Hangzhou branch. I'm afraid we will have to trouble Mrs. Wang for our food, clothing, housing and transportation in the next few days."
They were staying here temporarily and were unfamiliar with the place. The Hangzhou branch would have sent someone who was familiar with the surroundings to entertain them, just like the Ningbo branch. Zhou Shaojin did not expect that the Hangzhou branch would actually send the wife of the second manager.
She smiled and bowed to Mrs. Wang, addressing her respectfully as "Mrs. Wang".
Mrs. Wang quickly turned away and said "I dare not" repeatedly, and a hint of surprise and curiosity flashed in her eyes when she looked at Zhou Shaojin.
Zhou Shaojin pretended not to see it. After paying his respects to Madam Guo, he stood behind her politely.
Mrs. Wang smiled and said, "The dinner is ready. Do you want to serve it now or wait until the fourth master comes back?"
Madam Guo asked Zhou Shaojin, "Are you hungry?"
Zhou Shaojin smiled and shook his head, saying, "I ate a lot of snacks in the afternoon, and I'm still full now!"
Madam Guo smiled and said, "That's good. We'll wait for Silang to come back before serving the meal. As soon as he comes, he will be surrounded by several shopkeepers who have rushed over after hearing the news. We don't know when he will be able to finish his conversation!"
Zhou Shaojin smiled and said, "Business is more important! How about I accompany you for a walk in the yard? When I came in, I saw that there seemed to be a rockery pond behind the yard. We can go over there and take a look."
Mrs. Guo had slept on the boat for the whole afternoon and was in good spirits. Upon hearing this, she smiled and said to Mrs. Wang, "Mrs. Wang, how about we go out for a walk together?"
Mrs. Wang was naturally happy to accompany him.
The group went to the back of the yard.
Taihu stones were piled up to form a rockery, on the top of which was a red-painted hexagonal pavilion. Next to the rockery was a pond, with a few lotus plants and a pair of mandarin ducks swimming leisurely in the lake.
Zhou Shaojin stared at the mandarin duck.
Old Madam Guo laughed and said, "No wonder you're curious. We have two cranes in our house, but no one has mandarin ducks. Is this your first time seeing one?"
Are there cranes raised in Jiuru Lane
It was the first time Zhou Shaojin heard of it.
She nodded shyly and said, "I heard someone say that if one mandarin duck dies, the other will definitely survive. I don't know if it's true or not."
"It's true!" Mrs. Wang laughed. "There were two pairs of mandarin ducks in this pond before, but one died and the other starved to death. Now there is only this pair of mandarin ducks left."
As they were talking, a group of koi swam over.
Mrs. Wang broke off some branches to tease the koi.
Maybe because people often tease them like this, the koi are not afraid of strangers and play with the branches with their mouths open.
Mrs. Wang ordered the maid to pick a branch for Zhou Shaojin as well.
Zhou Shaojin thought this was something a maid could do, so he handed the branch to Chunwan.
Chunwan was very clever and imitated Mrs. Wang in teasing the koi.
Zhou Shaojin and Mrs. Guo just watched from the side.
Cheng Chi is back.
He smiled and asked, "What are you all doing here? I was wondering why there is no one in the hall!"
Zhou Shaojin stepped forward and saluted Cheng Chi.
Mrs. Guo smiled and said, "We are waiting for you to have dinner!"
Cheng Chi said, "I don't have a fixed schedule all day long. What are you waiting for me for? Are you afraid that I'll be hungry?" After that, he nodded to Mrs. Wang and said politely, "Thank you for your hard work these days, Mrs. Wang."
Mrs. Wang probably didn't expect Cheng Chi to treat her so politely. She was so excited that she couldn't speak clearly. "Thank you, Fourth Master. This is what I should do. I don't deserve Fourth Master's hard work." As she spoke, she asked hurriedly, "Shall we serve the meal now?"
Cheng Chi looked towards Mrs. Guo.
Madam Guo glanced at Zhou Shaojin and said, "Let's serve the meal. We had some snacks on the boat this afternoon."
Cheng Chi smiled and nodded, and asked Mrs. Wang to serve the meal.
Mrs. Wang hurried down to make arrangements.
When Cheng Chi and others started to eat, she went to the tea room and asked the maid to make tea. She looked up and saw a little girl wearing gold and silver jewelry but dressed as a maid. She looked unfamiliar, with a pair of sparkling eyes and a natural charm.
With such a character, eight out of ten times she is the maid serving Mrs. Guo.
She hurriedly smiled and stepped forward to ask, "What do you want, young lady?"
"Nothing." Pearl smiled, "The old lady has been on the boat most of the time these days. My second cousin was afraid that the old lady was not feeling well, so she let her use Laojunmei tea these days. She specially asked me to bring the tea leaves over and let the sisters in the tea room know."
Mrs. Wang said hurriedly, "Don't worry, we have taken note of it."
Pearl smiled, thanked him, and returned to the hall.
Cheng Chizheng was talking to Madam Guo and Zhou Shaojin about the plans for the next few days: "… The day after tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th. Let's go to the city tomorrow. There will be a temple fair at Lingyin Temple during the day on August 15th. Let's go there to have a look. At night, we will go to West Lake. I asked Qin Ziping to arrange a pleasure boat. We can drink and enjoy the moon in the pleasure boat. Then we will go to Qiantang River to watch the tide. We will set off for Jinling on August 20th."
When Zhou Shaojin heard this, he felt like there was a little rabbit in his heart.
Admiring the moon on a pleasure boat on West Lake... This was something she would never dare to dream of.
If she could really go, she felt that her rebirth would not be in vain.
Madam Guo smiled and nodded, saying, "This is the first time in my life that I have watched the moon at West Lake. It must be very interesting."
It can be seen that she is very satisfied with this arrangement.
Cheng Chi was naturally in a good mood when he saw his mother was satisfied. When he saw the little maid bringing in tea, he personally helped Madam Guo to sit down in the banquet room next door.
After drinking tea, Cheng Chi urged Zhou Shaojin and Mrs. Guo to rest: "We have to go shopping in the street early tomorrow morning."
Mrs. Guo followed her son's arrangements and said "OK" with a smile, then was helped back to the inner room by Zhou Shaojin.
Zhou Shaojin helped Madam Guo to wash and comb her hair, and then left the inner room.
The maids and servants had all gone to rest, and it was a little early for the night watch, so several old women gathered in the second room waiting for the sound of the night watch.
The yard was quiet.
Cheng Chi stood alone with his hands behind his back under the osmanthus tree in the middle of the yard.
Zhou Shaojin was stunned, thought for a moment, and walked over quietly.
But before she got closer, Cheng Chi turned around.
He had handsome features and a stern expression. The moment he saw the person clearly, his stern expression immediately became warm and gentle, like ice and snow melting. "You just came out of the old lady's room? Is the old lady asleep?"
Zhou Shaojin suspected that he had seen it wrong.
She smiled and said, "The old lady should be asleep soon. Why is Uncle Chi standing here alone? But what's the matter?"
"Nothing." Cheng Chi said with a smile, "I just want to see these two osmanthus trees growing well and stand here for a while."
Zhou Shaojin burst out laughing and couldn't help but ask him with his head tilted: "Uncle Chi, do you really think these two osmanthus trees are growing well?"
These two osmanthus trees are used by others to curry favor with him.
She felt that Uncle Chi was not the kind of person who cared much about these things.
Uncle Chi must be thinking about something else!
Cheng Chi looked at her bright and sparkling eyes, which seemed to be reflecting the stars in the night sky, and couldn't help but laugh.
I didn't realize this little girl can be quite smart sometimes.
He said, "Would you like me to go shopping with you guys tomorrow?"
And then buy a bunch of useless stuff?!
Zhou Shaojin waved his hands repeatedly and said, "Didn't Uncle Chi say he had something to do? You can go and do your thing. With Mrs. Wang accompanying us, we will definitely be able to buy what we want."
Cheng Chi felt a little itchy when he heard this.
This girl always makes a fuss, which is quite funny. It's a pity that he really has something serious to do tomorrow, otherwise the day will pass quickly by just teasing this little girl.
He said goodbye to Zhou Shaojin with a smile.
Zhou Shaojin breathed a sigh of relief, and early the next morning he sent someone to ask Jiying if she could go to the street with them, and if not, whether he should bring her something.
Ji Ying said she wanted to sleep, and if it was convenient, asked Zhou Shaojin to bring her some Xiong Ji’s Jinhua biscuits.
Zhou Shaojin dressed up and took a sedan chair with Mrs. Guo to the famous Qinghefang in Hangzhou.
After getting off the sedan, I saw the streets crowded with people and waving signs. There were at least a hundred shops selling silk, ready-made clothes, rouge and powder... and even wigs. It was just like Cheng Chi said, "There is nothing you can't buy, only things you can't think of", there was everything.
Mrs. Wang asked, "What do you want to buy, old lady? I know a shop that I'm familiar with. I can just take you there."
Madam Guo smiled and said, "We'll just take a look around and take back anything we like. Just take us to a shop you're familiar with."
Mrs. Wang agreed and took them to a silk shop first.
The business of the shop was very good. Young girls and young wives were crowded in the shop, selecting ingredients. The shop was so big that there were more than a dozen shop assistants, and the shopkeeper dropped his half-worked abacus as soon as he saw Mrs. Wang, and walked forward, squeezing past the girls and young wives and leading them to the patio in the backyard.
The courtyard was paved with bluestone slabs, with bamboos planted in the four corners and grape vines in the middle. Under the grape vines were a black lacquered square table and an armchair. Before they sat down, a dignified little maid brought them tea and snacks.
Mrs. Wang briefly explained her purpose, and the shopkeeper personally brought two assistants to carry a large pile of cloth. She pointed to a piece of cloth with a golden embroidery and said, "This is from Jiaxing. It was woven on the loom of the Du family. It was ordered as a tribute this year. Our boss and Mr. Du of the Du family are old friends, so we brought a few pieces here just to take care of our old customers." She pointed to a piece of turquoise and said, "This is from Yangzhou. To be honest, in terms of weaving, if Hangzhou Prefecture is second, no one dares to claim to be first, but in terms of style, the new styles in Yangzhou are still better..."
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Sisters, today's extra update.
Today's update will be around 11pm.
O(∩_∩)O~
※(To be continued)