It was already 2:15 in the afternoon when we arrived at the foot of Puci Temple Mountain. The mountain was high and the road was narrow, so it was no longer possible to continue riding in the carriage, so we all got off and switched to sedan chairs.
Today, apart from Wei An, the Wei family girls only brought out Wei Yubo. She quickly walked forward and helped Wei An to support Old Madam Wei. She carefully helped Old Madam Wei onto the sedan chair, then turned around and smiled at Wei An: "Seventh sister, can I sit with you?"
It was obvious that Nanny Cui had taught her very well. After such a period of time, the cautiousness and dullness that were originally only seen in Wei Yupo as an unfavored concubine's daughter had completely disappeared. She was also extremely calm when talking and laughing, much better than the timid look she had in the past.
Since she had spoken, Wei An would not refuse her courtesy. He nodded slightly and stepped onto the sedan chair.
Sitting on a high place and enjoying the scenery is always a pleasant experience. Wei Yupo smiled happily, holding the handle of the chair beside her and looking at Wei An, with a sincere and innocent look: "Seventh sister, I have never been to Puci Temple!" Her face was a little red because of excitement: "I heard that Puci Temple is very effective!"
In fact, most of the famous temples in the capital city, there are almost no nunneries filled with nuns that are presentable. However, Puci Nunnery is an exception. It is the first nunnery with a lot of worshippers.
This is probably because the fertility-giving Guanyin deity in Puci Temple is very effective.
Wei Yupo was rarely so cheerful, and Wei An didn't want to spoil her fun, so he talked to her for a while, and before they knew it, they had arrived at the mountain gate.
Master Jingci was already waiting outside. When she saw them, she immediately greeted them with a smile and clasped her hands together before bowing respectfully to Old Madam Wei.
Old Madam Wei laughed, helped Wei An get off the sedan chair, and asked her as she walked inside, "Have Madam Chen and the others arrived?"
Master Jingci glanced at Wei An again. The last time Old Lady Wei came, she had shown some intimacy towards Wei An, but not as close as she is now. This Princess Shouning is really lucky. She got everything without knowing it.
When she heard Mrs. Wei's question, she came back to her senses and smiled, "I came a moment before you. Madam Chen caught a cold last night and she seems to be feeling unwell. She told us to wait for you here and she went to the back to change her clothes."
Old Mrs. Wei nodded, and went to the small courtyard arranged in the back to wash and rest, before going to the front to meet Mrs. Chen.
Madam Chen had been waiting for a long time. When she saw Old Madam Wei, she hurried over to greet her: "It's really my fault that I didn't come to greet you personally."
Before bringing her daughter to see him officially, she had met Wei Jie several times. Wei Jie was straightforward and handsome, and what was rare was that he did not have the dandy air that boys from noble families had. After several contacts, she was already very satisfied with him. Now her attitude towards Mrs. Wei was even more enthusiastic, and she asked with a smile on her face: "Did the second and third sons of the mansion escort you here together? Was the journey smooth?"
She waited for Old Lady Wei to agree, then ordered someone to prepare vegetarian food, and whispered to Old Lady Wei: "Today we are holding a ceremony for our deceased mother-in-law, and we have invited close relatives and friends. I feel relieved that the old lady can come."
After that, he smiled at Wei An and Wei Yupo and said, "Both the princess and the eleventh lady are here, that's great. The late grapes in the backyard of Puci Temple are still there, piled up layer by layer, almost crushing the grape racks. Mianmian is clamoring to learn how to make wine from you, princess... She's waiting for you now."
The smile on Wei Yupo's face froze.
Wei An knows everything, like a freak. Not only is she good at making incense and throwing pots, but her needlework skills are also top-notch. It seems that there is nothing wrong with her.
She felt a little depressed, but smiled innocently: "I was thinking of learning from you. The last few jars of tea brewed by Seventh Sister were sweeter than what I had in Nanchang. Mianmian liked it, too."
Mrs. Chen's smile deepened. These two were Wei Jie's sisters. Not to mention Wei An, Wei Yupo also seemed to be someone who was easy to get along with. If her daughter really got married, at least the two sisters-in-law who were not getting married so soon would not make her suffer any grievances.
After a while, a little nun came in and said that Mrs. Peng had also arrived.
Old Madam Wei raised her eyebrows and looked at Madam Chen.
Mrs. Chen never said before that someone from the Peng family would come.
They said they were inviting a close family, but in fact, apart from the Wei family, there was only one family that was ready to act as a matchmaker. It was just that they had agreed beforehand that if everything went well, the wife of Qian Shiyun would be the matchmaker, or Mrs. Mei... ...
Mrs. Chen felt a little helpless and whispered to Mrs. Wei: "I went to the palace to have an audience yesterday. Mrs. Peng was there too. When she heard that we were holding a ritual for our deceased mother today, she said she wanted to come too..."
Since we are all in the palace and they want to send us gifts, there is no reason to just refuse them.
Old Mrs. Wei frowned and was about to speak when Mrs. Peng came in.
As soon as she entered the house, Madam Peng had someone bring up five-treasure incense and candles as well as several volumes of Buddhist scriptures. She smiled and said to Madam Wei and Madam Chen, "These are the Buddhist scriptures that Awei hand-copied when we held a ritual at home a few days ago. They are a little gift from her. Please don't dislike them, madam."
She knew that the Chen family was planning to marry into the Wei family - Wei Yangqing was very close to Master Peng and had already revealed this in words.
And since she was also planning to marry into the Wei family, she naturally had to be more friendly to Madam Chen. Therefore, when she entered the palace to meet Concubine De yesterday and paid her respects to the Queen first, she took advantage of the situation and asked Madam Chen to agree to her coming to the ceremony.
"You're too kind. I'm so happy, how dare I complain?" Madam Chen asked the maid beside her to take over, and she smiled and praised. After talking for a while, Master Jinghe came in and said that the nunnery in front had already prepared it, and asked Madam Chen and others to go over and burn incense and pay their respects.
Mrs. Chen agreed and asked Wei An and others to go to the back to look for Chen Mianmian.
Peng Lingwei acted very close to Wei An. When Wei Yupo walked on Wei An's left, she put her arm around Wei An's right arm and smiled softly at her, "Want to make wine? That's great. Every year we don't have any wine suitable for us to drink. We buy wine from outside. We do have Jinhua wine and lotus leaf wine, but for some reason, the taste is always wrong, so our father and brothers don't let us drink it."
Wei Yupo followed behind them, as quiet as if she didn't exist.
Wei An listened to her with a smile, but his eyes were always cold - the arrival of the Peng family was an accident.