Zhou Shaojin hurried to tell his father the good news, and thought about inviting Cheng Jing and Cheng Wei's families to dinner tomorrow to celebrate Cheng Chi's birthday. He discussed with Mrs. Guo, "Do you want actors to perform in the hall, or a female teacher to tell a story?"
Mrs. Guo likes to listen to storytelling by female teachers, and Cheng Jing and others like to listen to operas.
"Okay!" Mrs. Guo agreed happily, and said, "Invite the lady from the Zheng family to tell the story."
The Zheng family has three sisters. The eldest and second sisters are blind and tell stories together. The third sister can't tell stories, so she takes care of the daily life of the two sisters and is responsible for taking the sisters out to tell stories. The three sisters are all in their early thirties and are not married. They are very famous in the capital. They were introduced by Mrs. Peng from the military department.
Zhou Shaojin hurriedly sent someone to invite the bride, fearing that it would be too late and the lady from the Zheng family would accept the invitation from another family.
In the end, it was still a little late. Madam Zheng had already agreed to celebrate the birthday of the eldest daughter of the Fourth Prince's mansion, so she discussed with Nanny Shang who had come to invite her: "Can we visit the mansion the day after tomorrow? Just think of it as chatting with the old lady about the past."
The implication is that no money is required.
Zhou Shaojin knew that people like them who traveled around the world were in a difficult situation. They were afraid of offending others with a bad answer, so they were more tolerant. Besides, the third wife of the Zheng family had already promised others, so she made the decision: "Then let's ask them to tell stories the day after tomorrow - it's rare that mother is so happy, so we can have two days of fun."
Nanny Shang agreed with a smile.
Zhou Shaojin went to tell Mrs. Guo: "… Singing in heaven and talking about heavenly books. Our family hasn't been so lively for a long time."
Mrs. Guo now had her long-awaited Yun'er, and she thought of Yun'er in everything she did. Upon hearing this, she smiled and said, "That's good. Otherwise, the storytelling in the inner courtyard and the opera in the outer courtyard will scare our Yun'er."
Zhou Shaojin pursed his lips and smiled.
The next day, Madam Zheng and her two companions came early in the morning, along with a well-dressed nanny from the Fourth Prince's mansion. She claimed to be the Fourth Prince's wife's wet nurse. After respectfully paying her respects to Old Madam Guo, she smiled and said, "My Fourth Prince's wife didn't know that it was the Old Madam who invited Madam Zheng to tell stories today. She said that the princess was still young and didn't deserve such courtesy from the Old Madam. So today, we asked Madam Zheng to tell stories to the Old Madam, so that the princess could enjoy the Old Madam's blessing."
The whole house was silent.
There is no reason in the world for a royal family to make concessions to their subjects.
After hearing this, Cheng Jing hurriedly asked Cheng Xu to go and express his gratitude: "Outer vassals are not allowed to make friends with inner ministers. Similarly, we ministers should not get too close to any prince. Just pretend that I haven't come yet and go to the Fourth Prince's mansion to express our gratitude to the Fourth Prince on our behalf."
After all, Cheng Xu had a father who was a cabinet minister. No matter how naive he was, he came into contact with the group of people standing at the top of the court every day. As soon as his father opened his mouth, he knew his father's intention, nodded, and hurried into the inner room.
Madam Guo was very grateful. She did not push and shove with the people from the Four Imperial Palaces. Instead, she prepared generous gifts for the maid to take back: "… I have guests at home today and cannot leave. When I am done with my work in a few days, I will go to thank the prince's wife for her kindness."
The nanny obviously had some experience and knew that Madam Guo was just being polite, so she said hurriedly, "I don't deserve your thanks. When I came here, my princess told me that the old lady is an elder, so if it's a visit, it should be my princess who comes to visit the old lady."
They were not familiar with each other to begin with, and Madam Guo exchanged a few polite words with her. While they were talking just now, Zhou Shaojin whispered a few words to Nanny Shang. Nanny Zhou walked out quietly, and at this moment she walked in quietly again, holding a box in her hand.
Madam Guo looked up at Zhou Shaojin, a trace of relief flashed in her eyes, and she held the teacup and said, "I didn't know the princess' birthday at first. I'm sorry I can't go to celebrate the princess' birthday. I'll trouble you to take this little thing back to congratulate the princess."
As she spoke, Nanny Shang hurriedly picked up the box.
The nanny was slightly stunned, smiled, thanked, said a few more words, then stood up and left.
Zhou Shaojin ordered Nanny Shang to go over and kowtow to the princess on their behalf.
Nanny Shang agreed with a smile and went to the Fourth Prince's Mansion with Cheng Xu.
Madam Guo frowned and asked in confusion, "Why would someone from the Fourth Prince's Mansion want to associate with our family?"
Anyone with a discerning eye could tell that the Fourth Prince’s Mansion was trying to show goodwill to the Cheng family.
Yuan smiled and said, "Maybe you have something to ask of me, Master?"
The royal family has its own set of rules, but when it comes to officialdom, he, an unpopular fourth prince, is no match for Cheng Jing.
Knowing that the people from the Fourth Prince's Mansion had left, Cheng Jing rushed over. Hearing this, he couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed and said, "I don't know what it is... If he doesn't tell us, we don't have to rush to climb up. If he really has something to do, he will find me sooner or later."
Everyone nodded.
Despite this little episode, it did not ruin everyone's interest.
When the three married aunts of the Cheng family came with their husbands and children, they had lunch together, one for the men and one for the women, and then went to the garden in the middle of the road to listen to a meeting upstairs and downstairs.
Rui'er from Cheng Sheng's family is still a baby who has just grown teeth, not to mention Yun'er from Zhou Shaojin's family. Gu Ning from Cheng Zheng's family is eleven years old this year, Gu Zhong is eight years old, Abao and A'ren are five and three years old respectively. Gu Ning has finished reading "The Doctrine of the Mean" and is learning craftsmanship from his father. He is a little adult now. Gu Zhong and Abao can still barely play together, but A'ren just revolves around Gu Zhong and Abao. Rui'er is determined to pull the red tassels on Yun'er's swaddling clothes, and will cry loudly if he is not allowed to do so. The maids and old women can't coax him into crying. Fan Liushi hurriedly asks someone to find a piece of tassel for him to play with, but he refuses and insists on pulling Yun'er's tassels, which attracts A'ren to come over and pull as well.
Yun Ge'er, who had fallen asleep, was woken up.
He cried loudly, and his resonant voice silenced all the other boys. Gu Ning ran over and clumsily called out "little cousin" to coax Yun Ge'er to stop crying, while scolding Yun Ge'er's nurse: "Why don't you pick up little cousin and feed him?"
The wet nurse went to feed Yun'er in a panic.
Yun'er took a sip and found out that it was not his mother, so he spit it out and started crying again.
No matter how much I coax him, he won't be comforted!
Gu Ning was sweating profusely.
Gu Zhong and A Bao watched the fun from the side, while A Ren followed Gu Ning's example and touched Yun Ge'er's little hand to comfort him.
When Rui Ge'er saw Yun Ge'er crying, he also started crying.
The room is very lively.
The maid went to find Zhou Shaojin with sweat all over her forehead.
Zhou Shaojin held Yun'er and coaxed him for a long time before he stopped sobbing.
Cheng Sheng, who had rushed over after hearing the news, took Rui Ge'er to a room across the courtyard from here and coaxed him into stopping crying before bringing him over.
Mrs. Fan Liu couldn't help but wipe the sweat from her forehead.
Mrs. Guo laughed and said to Mrs. Qiu, "In a few years, these boys in this house will get married and have children. It will be a lively life."
When everyone looked over, they realized that there were indeed a room full of kids. Thinking of the scene described by Mrs. Guo, they all started laughing.
Yuan laughed a few times and then her expression began to become a little stiff.
Min Jia looked at her with a sneer and quietly took a few steps back to prevent her anger from reaching her again.
A few days ago, Cheng Zheng and Cheng Xiao went back to their parents' home and talked about Yun'er's hundred-day ceremony. They felt that Yun'er was the first child of the third wife, and the Cheng family had not had a baby for more than ten years. Cheng Chi was not there for Yun'er's third-day bath and full moon. In addition, because the weather was too hot, Zhou Shaojin was afraid that his younger brother Zhou Zongjin was too weak to bear it, so he specifically told Li not to bring the child over. Although Li agreed, she wrote to say that Yun'er's hundred-day ceremony would definitely come. All these factors added up, Yun'er was very worried. The hundred-day ceremony will be a grand one, and the gift for the ceremony needs to be carefully discussed. If it is too light, it will become a laughing stock and people will say that the two families are not in harmony. If it is too heavy, there is a fear that Cheng Zheng and other married aunts will suppress Zhou Shaojin's family and it will seem not heavy enough. This was originally a good thing, but after all the talk, it came to the issue of offspring. Then Yuan was sarcastic to Min Jia again. If it weren't for Cheng Zheng and Cheng Xiao, the two nuns, to smooth things over for her, she would have been unable to resist and contradicted Yuan.
Min Jia was not afraid of having conflicts with Yuan, she just didn't want to quarrel with Yuan in front of relatives. At home, it was one thing for her to be angry with Yuan behind other people's backs, but if Yuan scolded her in front of so many elders and juniors, if she dared to say anything back, she would definitely be labeled as "unfilial".
She's not that stupid.
Thinking of this, Min Jia's eyes turned and she saw Zhou Shaojin standing in the corner giving instructions to the housekeeper named Biyu.
She thought for a moment, walked over, and said with a smile, "Aunt Four, is Brother Yun okay?"
"He just has a bad temper." Zhou Shaojin smiled as he talked about his son. "Just go along with him and coax him. But the Fourth Master said that it's not a bad thing for a boy to have a bad temper, but you can't expect everyone to go along with him. I'm afraid he'll have to be taught a lesson in a few days."
As she spoke, a tender look flashed in her eyes, making her look even more graceful.
Min Jia was very surprised and asked, "You don't care? Yun'er is so young, and Fourth Uncle is a man. What if the child gets hurt?"
"He won't." Zhou Shaojin answered without thinking, and the image of Cheng Chi holding Yun Ge'er appeared in his mind.
But in just two days, he had already learned how to hold the baby properly.
And I don’t know if it’s the nature of father and son, but Yun’er really likes Cheng Chi holding her.
"It's the father's fault if a man is not well educated." Zhou Shaojin's smile became even stronger. "It's only natural for the Fourth Master to teach Yun'er. Why should I be worried?"
Min Jia said nothing.
The education she received since childhood was that women can hold up half the sky and women also have responsibilities for household affairs.
Min Jia looked at Zhou Shaojin with mixed feelings.
Isn’t Zhou Shaojin afraid that Cheng Chi will dislike him because he relies too much on him
Min Jia looked at Zhou Shaojin in confusion.
Cheng Sheng came over and asked Min Jia in a low voice: "I heard that Brother Nuo has a mistress outside. Is it true?"
Zhou Shaojin was shocked.
In his previous life, Cheng Nuo did not marry Wu Baozhang, nor did he have a concubine. What happened in this life? Once it changed, everything changed.
She asked anxiously, "What on earth is going on? The last time she came to see the old lady, the old lady didn't see her. Is it because of this matter?"
Min Jia did not give a direct answer, but asked Cheng Sheng: "How did you know?"
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Dear friends, today’s update.
O(∩_∩)O~
※(To be continued)