Seeing that the auspicious time is coming.
The wives of other mansions avoided to the side halls next door, and the birthday gifts of these mansions had already been presented in the front yard.
Xiao Ni and others who originally entertained girls from other provinces in the side hall also came to the open hall, and all the relatives of the palace were waiting to pay respects to King Zhennan on his birthday.
After a while, Nanny Luo respectfully led King Zhennan in.
King Zhennan was still wearing the scarlet silk robe, but his face was not as red as before.
Although the King of Zhennan was still smiling at the corner of his mouth at this moment, many people keenly noticed that his smile was a little stiff, and secretly exchanged glances with each other. The wives of the Xiao family vaguely guessed that it should be Aunt Niu. The matter of Dai Dongzhu disturbed his good mood.
But the Xiao family girls who were in the side hall before were at a loss, not knowing what was going on. Immediately, the witty servant girl went to inquire about it, and quietly came to report to her master.
After they knew about it, they all looked at each other in blank dismay. For a moment, the atmosphere in the open hall, which was supposed to be cheerful, became a little weird.
King Zhennan walked into the open hall with swift strides, Xiao Luan followed behind him, and several maidservants in Tsing Yi walked at the end.
After King Zhennan sat down on the upper chair, Xiao Luan waited beside him.
Afterwards, Nangong Yue, who had the highest status among the female family members, stepped forward first, and saluted her with blessings: "My daughter-in-law has paid my respects to my father! May my father be as blessed as the East Sea!"
Several maidservants beside her helped present birthday presents, a pair of purple wood ivory carved crane picture screens and a pair of shoes embroidered with the dark pattern of the word "Fu".
Afterwards, the side concubine Wei, several girls from the Xiao family, and relatives from the Xiao family's ancestral hall also came forward to celebrate the birthday, and the maid presented the birthday gift.
"My concubine wishes the lord a blessed and boundless life!"
"My daughter wishes my father a long life in heaven!"
"My niece wishes my uncle the present every year, every year today!"
"..."
There were waves of birthday celebrations in the open hall, one after another, the female family members presented elaborate birthday gifts one by one, and a maidservant in Tsing Yi sang and drank the gift list, the atmosphere looked very lively.
After more than half an hour, the women's relatives finally finished their birthday prayers and gifts.
Afterwards, King Zhennan said a few words briefly, and asked Nangong Yue to greet the guests, and then hurried away, it seemed that he was still not very interested.
After counting the birthday presents, the maidservants in green clothes carried them away with a concerted effort.
The birthday greetings were over, and those female family members who had avoided before returned to the open hall, and sat down in their original seats with a smile on their face.
After the nanny in charge asked Nangong Yue for instructions, she let out a loud voice to open the table, and the table was about to begin.
Immediately afterwards, from both sides of the open hall, maids dressed in blue and blue gowns filed in, each holding a tray full of dishes in their hands, walking lightly and steadily... After a while, a dish full of color, fragrance and taste came out one after another. Delicious dishes were placed in front of the guests.
The bowls, saucers, and cups that serve the dishes are all blue and white porcelain, which is quiet and fragrant, clean and elegant.
This dish is even richer than the previous small banquet in Bixiaotang. There are all kinds of delicacies from mountains and seas and seasonal vegetables from all over the world.
The tables for the wives were placed in the open hall, and the three tables for the girls were placed in the side hall. Xiao Fei hadn't finished chatting with Miss Zhou before, so she simply ordered the maid to arrange her and the girls from the Zhou family at the same table. , and by the way, let the girl on Tuesday and the girl on Wednesday get rich.
Xiao Fei and Miss Zhou Roujia were talking softly while eating.
"... Is the remnant notation a song for qin and flute ensemble?" Zhou Roujia asked in a low voice.
"That's right," Xiao Fei nodded, "My sister-in-law and I deduced from the remnants of the score that there are three piano and flute ensembles where the tunes of the piano and flute are slightly different. We have been thinking about it for a long time, but progress is still slow... However, the completed Some of them are fantastic!"
Zhou Roujia hesitated for a moment, then said: "Miss Xiao, I wonder if you can lend me a..."
Before she finished speaking, Zhou Rouhui, the Tuesday girl next to her, suddenly let out a low voice: "Ouch!"
Zhou Roujia subconsciously turned her head to look, Zhou Rouhui bit her lower lip with a bitter round face and exclaimed, "Big sister, I'm sorry!"
A small bowl of soup on the table was overturned, and half of the soup spilled out, and the soup flowed on the table... and some of it splashed onto Zhou Roujia's sleeves, and the honey-colored soup stained the verdant green fabric Especially eye-catching.
Zhou Roujia couldn't help but frowned slightly. This new dress was specially made by her mother for her coming to the prince's birthday banquet. It was the first time she wore it. The soup stain should still be washable, right
"Big sister, it's all my fault that I was careless and splashed the soup on you! Big sister, don't be angry with me!" Zhou Rouhui spoke anxiously and quickly, looking at Zhou Roujia timidly, twisting her hands nervously handkerchief.
Zhou Rouhui's maid quickly knelt down and tried to wipe off the soup stains on her clothes with a handkerchief.
There was such a commotion at this table, not to mention the girl at the same table, the girls at the next two tables also put down their chopsticks and turned their heads to look over.
Zhou Roujia smiled slightly, her voice was as gentle as a spring breeze: "Second sister, what's the point, you and my sister, a piece of clothing is nothing more than a trivial matter."
The girls at the same table smiled, and went back to eating and chatting on their own.
Xiao Fei glanced at the girl on Tuesday, and said to Zhou Roujia: "Miss Zhou, why don't I let the servant girl take you to change clothes. We are not much different in stature, so I think you can wear my clothes."
Bai Zhou next to her walked forward with a smile, and said respectfully: "I'll trouble Miss Zhou to go with the servant."
Zhou Roujia also understood that the birthday banquet had just begun, and she would only stand out more in such soiled clothes, so she pondered for a while, then got up and thanked Xiao Fei: "Thank you, Miss Xiao."
The girl on Tuesday let out a long sigh of relief, patted her chest, and thanked Xiao Fei.
At the same time, the two servant girls immediately came up to clean up, sucked up the soup, and took away the overturned bowls. In the blink of an eye, everything was in order again.
No one noticed that Zhou Roujia's maid quietly retreated.
Seeing that all the girls had almost finished eating, Xiao Fei gestured to the maidservants serving at the side, and immediately two rows of maidservants walked into the side hall, and a group of people neatly collected some empty plates and bowls , another group of people served all kinds of snacks to the girls.
Rose rice cakes made in the shape of roses, golden horses rolling, carved plums arranged in the shape of plum blossoms, light purple honeydew rose taro, wine-scented egg flower wine stuffed dumplings...
The girls who thought they were already 80% full not only twitched their index fingers, but couldn't help but taste these exquisite and beautiful snacks one after another, and whispered comments from time to time.
It didn't take long before Bai Zhou led Zhou Roujia back to the banquet in the side hall. Miss Zhou changed into a brand-new azure blue woven gold hibiscus tunic flower cut silk beanie. This color perfectly matched her complexion, making her look skinny Light as snow, delicate and moist.
The two walked to Xiao Fei's side again, and Bai Zhou bowed his knees and said: "Miss, this servant is afraid that the soup will be stained for a long time and it will not be easy to wash, so I have sent Miss Zhou's clothes to the laundry room first, and wait for them to be washed and starched. , and send it to Miss Zhou to the General's Mansion."
Xiao Fei responded, calling Zhou Roujia to sit down, and let's have some snacks together.
By the time the banquet was over, it was already halfway through, and everyone moved to Dehe Building again.
The Dehe Building is a theater building built in the southwest corner of the inner courtyard of the palace. The old Zhennan Wang and his wife have no interest in watching theaters, so the location of the Dehe Building is a bit out of the way. On weekdays, the women in the mansion would rather watch the theater in the small garden Build a simple stage.
However, this kind of stage is only suitable for singing literary operas. If you want to watch martial arts operas, you still have to go to the theater.
After walking through several chasing corridors, bypassing a small lake, passing through several Ruyi gates, and going down a bluestone path, you will find Dehe Building.
Dehe Building is a two-story building. In the hall on the first floor, facing south is the stage. The front stage and the back stage are separated by purple hardwood carved partitions. Two-story corridors are built on three sides around it, and there are low carved railings beside them.
As soon as you enter the door, you can see a large plaque hanging above the stage, with three golden characters of "Dehe Building" written on it.
Under the guidance of the maids of the palace, all the female relatives went up the stairs on three sides to the corridor on the second floor. Armchairs and table tables were already arranged in the corridor for the guests to sit.
These seats were also arranged in advance according to their status and relatives, and the female relatives quickly took their seats.
The girls were all very excited, and a little girl wearing a pomegranate and red lotus-patterned gown said excitedly: "I heard that the Cheng family class is invited today, and the Cheng family class is now in Luoyue City, no, the most famous in southern Xinjiang. I heard that their young student Cheng Zisheng has both civil and military skills, from young students to Huadan, all of them are vivid, and his martial arts skills are unmatched. Everyone applauded... Last time my grandmother had her birthday, I also wanted to invite Cheng Jiaban went to the house to sing all day, who knew that Cheng Jiaban said that they had been booked by other houses in the past two months, and finally had to invite Man Tangchun to come over, hey, singing and singing is just babbling Those few episodes were very boring."
The girl in yellow beside her smiled and said, "That's it, finally, as you wished, today you can listen to Cheng Zisheng's opera!"
The little girl in the pomegranate red dress was overjoyed.
Another girl interjected: "Cheng Zisheng is indeed both talented and talented. Last year, I saw Cheng Zisheng sing in General Yao's mansion. It was really amazing..."
"..."
The girls talked one after another, and during the words, they sat down on the corridor on the second floor of the theater building.
Soon, with the sound of sonorous gongs and drums, a female general in military uniform and with heavy oil paint on her face appeared on the stage. As soon as she appeared, she played a wonderful long spear, which dazzled the guests and made their blood boil , they all applauded and applauded, and the atmosphere was heated up as soon as the scene started. The guests were all refreshed and concentrated on watching the play...
At the same time, a gold-plated playbook has been delivered to Nangong Yue. After Nangong Yue folded "Mulan Joins the Army" at will, it was handed over to Wei, followed by Mrs. Tian, Mrs. Xiao, and Mrs. Qiao...
By the time the opera excerpts were delivered to Madam Fang Sitai, it was already a stick of incense, and the stage below had begun to sing the second opera, which was "Mulan Joining the Army" by Nangong Yue.
Mrs. Fang Sitai looked at the playbook absently. Beside her sat a girl wearing a pink white butterfly and flower-cut silk gown. She was about fourteen or fifteen years old. Two deep pools.
It's just that even though she was smiling at the moment, there was a trace of anxiety in her eyes, she glanced quietly in Nangong Yue's direction, and looked around the theater quietly pretending to be curious.
Seeing Mrs. Fang Sitai staring at the playbook for a long time without moving, the girl in pink gently tugged on Mrs. Fang Sitai's sleeve, and coquettishly called: "Grandmother..."
Mrs. Fang Sitai glanced at her granddaughter, and said: "Sister Man, don't worry, wait for grandma to finish watching the excerpts... What drama do you want to see, grandma will help you order."
Fang Ziman's big eyes widened and her mouth pouted, looking innocent and weak. She rubbed the handkerchief and said, "Grandma, why don't you order some plays you like."
Mrs. Fang Sitai glanced down at the stage below, and said meaningfully: "Sister Man, grandma remembers that you like "The Jade Pillow", right? Grandma will help you order a discount."
Fang Ziman's eyes flashed, Bian Beiyu bit her lower lip lightly, and nodded, a faint blush appeared on her pretty face.
After Mrs. Fang Sitai ordered the play, she passed on the excerpts.
Downstairs on the stage, a few opera singers were singing to the high court, Mulan had already changed her hair, put on a heroic men's clothing, and bought a horse and saddle, trying to persuade her father to let her go out for him...
The girls all subconsciously squeezed their veils tightly, their beautiful eyes staring at each other for a moment.
Only Zhou Roujia seemed a little restless, adjusting her sitting posture from time to time, her eyes wandering.
At this moment, Xiao Fei felt dry in her mouth, and turned half of her body to get the teacup on the desk, but seeing that Zhou Roujia's expression was a little off, she asked softly, "Miss Zhou, what's wrong?"
A flash of hesitation flashed in Zhou Roujia's eyes, after hesitating for a moment, she finally made up her mind. She looked around and saw that no one was paying attention to them. She lowered her voice and said calmly: "Miss Xiao, the ring pendant I used to press the corner of the skirt is gone. Maybe it fell off when I changed clothes just now. Can you let Bo Zhou accompany me to look for it?"
When singing the first play just now, Zhou Roujia found that her ring pendant was missing. The master and servant panicked for a while, and the servant girl searched all over her, but she still couldn't find it.
The master and servant were almost terrified, and they were not in the mood to watch a play.
A girl's personal belongings can't be lost. If it is not handled properly, it will be used by someone with a heart, or it will fall into the hands of some men, it may be charged with the crime of giving and receiving secretly, and the reputation will be ruined. What's more, this jade pendant is Mrs. Zhou's dowry.
Xiao Fei was startled when she heard the words, and quickly comforted her: "Miss Zhou, don't panic, I'll ask Bai Zhou first..."
Xiao Fei hurriedly signaled Bai Zhou to listen, and asked her in a low voice if she had seen Zhou Roujia's ring.
Bai Zhou couldn't hide his astonishment. Knowing that this matter was of great importance, he tried his best to think about it, and said in a low voice: "Miss, this servant doesn't remember much, but this servant is helping Miss Zhou to change her clothes in Qingran Residence." By that time, the ring pendant should no longer be there."
This time Zhennan Wang Dashou, there are many visitors, and those elderly ladies are more likely to get tired, so Nangong Yue specially asked people to clean up two small yards so that the guests could rest. One of them is Qingranju.
At that time, Bai Zhou took Zhou Roujia to Qingranju, and sent a second-class maid back to fetch Xiao Fei's clothes and change them for her.
In other words, Zhou Roujia's pendant probably fell off on the way from the side hall to Qingranju...
There are other guests here, and Xiao Fei couldn't leave as the host, so she had to order: "Bai Zhou, you follow Miss Zhou to look for it along the same route as last time."
Zhou Roujia looked at Xiao Fei gratefully, thanked her in a low voice, and went with Bai Zhou.
Soon, the other two girls of the Zhou family also noticed that the eldest sister was gone, and they looked at each other with a smile, with a hint of meaning on their faces.
"girl."
At this moment, Zhou Rouhui's personal servant girl called her softly. Zhou Rouhui quickly raised her head and glanced towards the north of the theater building. She seemed to have noticed something, her eyes lit up, she stood up gracefully, and walked along the corridor. …
After singing "Mulan Joins the Army" on the stage, "Havoc in Heaven" started again. The Monkey King, dressed in armor and glittering in gold, made his debut on the stage. Compared with the previous "Mulan Joining the Army", the style is much lighter and more lively.
The wives and the girls laughed lightly from time to time, Nangong Yue and Huamei and the maidservants also watched with relish, smiling happily.
"Shizifei..." Zhou, who was sitting at the next table, suddenly spoke to Nangong Yue.
"Sister-in-law." Nangong Yue turned her head to look at Mrs. Zhou, only to see Mrs. Qiao left the table at some time, and a young girl with a round face was sitting on Mrs. Qiao's chair. It was the girl on Tuesday.
Mrs. Zhou bravely introduced Miss Tuesday beside her, and said, "Concubine Shizi, this is sister Hui, my natal cousin, who always got along well with me when we were in the boudoir. My cousin is knowledgeable, filial and virtuous, Gentle and demure, and she knows everything about piano, chess, calligraphy and painting..." Zhou tried her best to use all the words she knew on Miss Tuesday, hoping to impress Nangong Yue.
The more Mrs. Zhou talked, the stiffer the face of Zhou Rouhui, the girl on Tuesday, became more rigid. She also knew that this cousin was not a flexible tongue and a quick mind, but she didn't want to be married for many years, and she still didn't make any progress. Mother is really trusting people!
The bitterness in Zhou's heart is unbearable, why would she want to get involved in this mess, but she married into Qiao's family for a few years and had nothing to do, and her mother-in-law, Mrs. Qiao, sneered and sarcastic every day, not to mention, half a month ago, her mother-in-law had already laid down the last one. An ultimatum, if there is still no news from him within half a year, the concubines and concubines in the house will be stopped.
Zhou's heart was flustered, so she went back to her mother's house to ask her mother and sister-in-law for advice. Unexpectedly, the second aunt of Dingyuan General's Mansion happened to be there that day, and asked her if the concubine was looking after the second son of Xiao recently. I vaguely heard Mrs. Qiao mention it, so I said it. The second aunt immediately asked her to help make peace with great interest, and see if she could marry cousin Hui into the palace.
Speaking of it, the Zhou family was born in the main family of the Zhou family, and the Dingyuan General's Mansion is actually a partial house. However, because Zhou's uncle and his father and son had made great achievements on the battlefield, and even that uncle died in battle because of it, this is why With the seal of General Dingyuan. As the girl of the same family, the Zhou family doesn't really want to rely on the Dingyuan General's Mansion, but the second aunt said that she can't write two "Zhou" characters in one stroke. If the two families can support her together, Mrs. Qiao would not dare Make things difficult for her.
Zhou Shi was really desperate, so he gritted his teeth and agreed.
Nangong Yue glanced at Zhou Rouhui. Although the Zhou family didn't mention marriage at all, Nangong Yue guessed what the Zhou family had planned after thinking about it for a while.
The matter of showing Xiao Luan to Xiang Xiang was deliberately revealed by others. In this way, while she was inquiring about the girl, if she cared about Xiao Luan having a concubine, she could express it in a subtle way.
She does not comment on whether the Dingyuan General's Mansion and the two houses are in compliance with the rules, but the Zhou family is not in her consideration, that is for sure.
Nangong Yue also pretended to be confused, and said with a faint smile: "Miss Zhou is indeed dignified, what do you like to do on weekdays?"
Seeing Nangong Yue's question, Zhou Rouhui bowed her body gracefully, and replied softly: "My concubine, in addition to piano, chess, calligraphy, painting and female celebrities, I also read some classics and history." Zhou Rouhui thought that the concubine belonged to the Nangong family The daughter of the prostitute, born in a scholarly family, and Miss Xiao is also a well-known talented woman, so she said so according to her liking.
"It's wise to study history." Nangong Yue seemed to praise, picked up the blue and white porcelain bell cup on the side, and took a sip of hot tea.
Zhou Rouhui thought that Nangong Yue would teach herself a few words, but she didn't want to, so she didn't want to continue.
Mrs. Zhou was a little cramped from beginning to end, raising her eyes to Mrs. Qiao's seat from time to time. She took advantage of her mother-in-law going downstairs to clean the room just now, and then quietly brought Zhou Rouhui to see Nangong Yue.
Counting the time, her mother-in-law would probably be back soon, and Zhou's heart was anxious and worried. If her mother-in-law came back, she didn't know how angry she would be if she saw that she meddled in these matters without her consent.
Seeing that Nangong Yue didn't speak anymore, Zhou Rouhui couldn't be too gracious to initiate a conversation, so she winked at Zhou Shi and signaled her to ask Nangong Yue to pick another topic.
But her winking eyes were thrown to the blind man, and the restless Zhou didn't receive it at all.
Out of the corner of Zhou's eyes, he caught a glimpse of a person in pea green clothes entering the theater building, his heart skipped a beat, and without thinking about it, he said to Zhou Rouhui: "Sister Hui, I think your sister is looking for you, maybe there is something wrong …”
Is this an order to evict yourself? ! Zhou Rouhui blushed with anger, but there was nothing she could do. In front of everyone's eyes, she couldn't have the cheek to insist on staying, so she could only leave resentfully, thinking: I must tell my mother about this when I return home. This cousin is so useless, she can't help at all!
Nangong Yue didn't take Zhou Rouhui's little thoughts to heart at all, and continued to watch the play.
After performing "Havoc in Heaven" and performing two or three martial arts performances in a row, the style of a certain play suddenly changed from martial arts to literary. Some wives and girls like to watch this graceful dance with long sleeves.
For a while, the theater building was much quieter, whether it was the sound of gongs, drums or applause, it was suppressed.
The play is called "The Story of the Jade Pillow". It is about a scholar who has been married to his wife for several years and has no heirs. So the scholar took two concubines at the discretion of his parents. In the next ten years, the concubine's room gave birth to three sons and three daughters for him. In the year of Ershun, the scholar was already full of children and grandchildren. On the day of Xiucai's 60th birthday, the mansion suddenly received a report from the residence, saying that Xiucai's eldest grandson won the first prize. He fell asleep on a jade pillow, with only his sixty-year-old wife beside him. Only then did Xiucai realize that everything that was beautiful in her dream just now was just a dream. The real him only married an old wife, and the old wife had nothing to do, so that the couple lived alone all their lives, and even if they died, no one would marry them. The old scholar burst into tears immediately, regretting his mistakes!
This is the last episode of "Jade Pillow". The opening scene is the 60th birthday of the old scholar. The descendants rushed to the mansion to celebrate the old scholar's birthday. The atmosphere is harmonious...
At this age, Mrs. Tian is no longer as lively as she was when she was young, and she was fascinated by listening to a literary play.
The opera singers on the stage sang wonderfully, and Mrs. Tian couldn't help clapping her hands and praised: "This Cheng's troupe really sings well. Although his family's martial arts opera is more famous, but as far as I am old, their literary opera is also better than that of 'Man Tang Chun'." Not bad."
"What Mrs. Tian said is true." Mrs. Yao nodded and said, "I also heard that 'Man Tang Chun' sing this "Jade Pillow". His singing skills are not as good as Cheng Zisheng's."
Ladies, you chatted enthusiastically with each other.
Looking at the lively scene where all the sons and grandsons of the old scholar paid his respects to him on the stage, Mrs. Fang Sitai seemed to be touched, and sighed: "The wife and concubines in the family are harmonious, and the descendants are prosperous, so that you can have both happiness and wealth."
As she said that, Mrs. Fang Sitai looked at Nangong Yue and asked deliberately: "Concubine Shizi, what do you think?"