The incident in the flower hall was eventually known to the host family, and soon spread throughout the entire mansion.
The men in the front yard were talking about this, and the women in the back yard were no less excited. The one who was arguing with Jiang Miao was the second son of Duke Cheng'en, who had always been loved by Duke Cheng'en and his wife. When his mother heard about this, her face turned cold on the spot.
"What a sharp tongue you have. You don't spare any mercy at all. My son just said something casually, but you are so aggressive. What's the reason? Madam Pei, is this how you teach them in the Duke Zhongguo Mansion?" Lady Wang, the wife of Duke Cheng'en, directly questioned Pei Che's second aunt, now the wife of the Duke Zhongguo.
Second Aunt Pei was watching the joke from the side. Wang, who was the empress's in-laws, never looked down on the ladies, especially her, who was born a concubine. She liked to belittle others openly or covertly. In addition, it was probably because she blamed the empress's lack of favor on Concubine Xian, and she took the blame on her sister.
"Madam Wang, you're joking. It's not my turn to educate my nephew. He was brought up by our old lady. My niece-in-law is indeed a little impatient, but I didn't think there was anything wrong with what she said." Although she didn't like Pei Che and Jiang Miao, the meat was rotten in the pot, and she would not help outsiders deal with her own family outside.
Wang Shi saw that she brought up the old lady, so she couldn't say anything. Even if there was an argument, she shouldn't say anything bad about the old lords of the various mansions. So, she pointed the finger at Jiang Miao and said, "Everyone knows that your nephew's wife is a shabby merchant. I don't know if birds of a feather flock together, and they are all the same kind of people."
Her contemptuous look and harsh words made Aunt Pei very angry. She said he should just talk about him, why did he have to mock her as well
"Even if he comes from a merchant family, it won't prevent the emperor from personally decreeing their marriage. This kind of legitimate marriage is always better than those without a matchmaker." She chuckled and no longer avoided the topic in her words.
This time it was Mrs. Wang's turn to be angry. She had snatched this marriage from her cousin, which was indeed a bit unfair at the time. She had been very taboo about this matter all these years. Later, the Wang family had a queen, and others did not dare to advance in front of her. She did not expect that Pei Li would dare to say such a thing today!
Second Aunt Pei seemed quite comfortable under her vicious gaze. This verbal dispute was without any basis and Wang Liushi could not do anything to her.
The backyard was in a tit-for-tat situation, but the front yard had already calmed down because the Marquis of Xinyang and the gentlemen who were invited to judge had come over. In order to settle the matter peacefully, the Marquis of Xinyang did not mention the unpleasantness just now, but directly announced their views on the poem.
Pei Che's poem received the highest evaluation, but the best one was written by someone else. Jiang Miao listened to the man slowly reciting his poem amid the praise of the crowd, and felt that this poem sounded better than Pei Che's.
Pei Che himself did not feel unhappy about the result, but when Jiang Miao turned his gaze over, he lowered his head and looked sad, with a slightly furrowed brow, which was really heartbreaking.
"Well, don't take it too seriously," Jiang Miao came over and carefully comforted him, "One of you prepared carefully, and the other performed on the spot. It's normal to have a gap. Next time something like this happens, we will find out the questions in advance and be fully prepared. We will definitely surpass them."
Pei Che smiled "forcibly": "A Miao, don't worry, I won't mind."
He forced himself to smile and said that he didn't care, but how could Jiang Miao believe him? So, he spoke more gently, fearing that he would hurt Pei Che's fragile heart.
While they were talking, Su Jin had been standing nearby, looking at Pei Che with a puzzled look in his eyes. From what he knew about A Che, he was not the kind of person who would feel sorry for himself just because he lost a competition. But why was he so... so fragile today
Su Jin considered it again and again, and finally used the word fragile, because he couldn't think of any other word to explain Pei Che's appearance. If he was born in modern times, he would understand what it meant to be swayed by sentimentality.
After the last item was finished, everyone counted the overall evaluation of each group. Pei Che's group had a total of seven people, and they got four top and four middle, because Pei Che participated in two items. And this result also made them win the third place in this Mid-Autumn Poetry Festival.
Marquis Xinyang was still very generous, but there were no other poor people present except Jiang Miao, and they showed no interest in the prize. What they cared about was their reputation.
After Pei Che got the item, he handed it directly to Jiang Miao, who took it naturally and found that it was an inkstone with a boy holding a lotus carved on it. This inkstone was much more beautiful than the one he bought for Xiao Shitou before, and it felt warm and smooth to the touch.
"Isn't this expensive?" Jiang Miao asked Pei Che. He spent one tael of silver on the inkstone he bought for Xiao Shitou. He was so surprised that he wanted to go home and get a bowl to hold the inkstone. But considering that Xiao Shitou would take it to the private school every day, he still bought it. That one was worth one tael, and this one in his hand must be worth at least five taels.
Pei Che took a look at the inkstone and said, "This is a Duan inkstone. One should be worth at least this much." He stretched out two fingers to indicate.
Pei Che smiled and shook his head: "Two hundred taels, this is not much. If you come across a rare treasure, it will easily cost several thousand taels, and it will be priceless."
Jiang Miao opened his mouth slightly, but he couldn't close it because he was too surprised. Two hundred taels to buy an inkstone, isn't that a big rip-off? Although he knew that some things couldn't be measured by money, for an ordinary person like him, the value was not great, and he would never buy it anyway.
He unconsciously stroked the inkstone, and suddenly remembered that there were also several inkstones in the box of four treasures of the study that Pei Che gave to Xiao Shitou, so he hurriedly asked, "Are those inkstones you gave to Xiao Shitou also Duan inkstones?"
"no."
Before Jiang Miao could breathe a sigh of relief, Pei Che continued, "They are a few She inkstones. Although they are not as good as Duan inkstones, they are also rare and good inkstones."
Jiang Miao had a blank expression on his face. It seemed that the wealth he accumulated from his daily frugality was not as good as the stones in the small stone box. Human resources are really the cheapest! Whether in modern times or ancient times.
Jiang Miao put the Duan inkstone in his hand into Pei Che's hand and said, "Such a valuable thing, you should keep it yourself."
"Why is it so valuable? In my eyes, it is not as good as A Miao in the slightest." Pei Che stared at Jiang Miao and said tenderly.
Jiang Miao sighed: "Whether I sell it as a whole or in pieces, I can never be worth more than it." Who would spend hundreds of taels to buy a person
Pei Che was silent for a long time, and then he sighed helplessly. Usually, Miao seemed quite smart, but why was he like an old tree that would never bloom when it came to this matter? Pei Che thought, or maybe it was actually his own problem? He had no experience at all, and didn't know how the other party would react correctly when he said these words. It seemed that he should learn from others.
When I got home, it was still early. The two kids were playing shuttlecock in the yard, leaving chicken feathers all over the ground. Jiang Miao looked at the two people who had gathered around him and said, "After you've had enough fun, remember to clean up the chicken feathers, okay?"
The two kids nodded obediently, not daring to disobey Jiang Miao's words. They immediately put away the shuttlecocks, then ran to the yard, stuck their butts out and started to clean up the mess.
Jiang Miao had eaten a lot of snacks in the morning and didn't eat much at noon, so he was a little hungry now. At the moment, the big kitchen hadn't started cooking yet, so Jiang Miao asked someone to go over and get some ingredients to prepare for the small kitchen in the yard.
The man took out flour, mushrooms, pork and other things as Jiang Miao said. Jiang Miao quickly kneaded the dough and chopped the stuffing, and made some dumplings for himself. The dough for making dumpling skins does not need to be fermented, so it is much faster this way.
After a while, the fragrant mushroom and pork dumplings were ready. After taking them out of the water, the dumplings were plump and steaming. Jiang Miao put the large plate of dumplings on the tray, put the saucer he had just prepared on top, and took it out.
The three of them were in the study room at the moment. Pei Che was checking the homework of the two children. After smelling the aroma of dumplings, everyone was a little distracted. Pei Che worked hard to finish their homework, gave his own evaluation, and then sat down at the table. The two children did the same. They picked up the chopsticks prepared by Jiang Miao and started to eat voraciously, looking like they had not eaten lunch.
"Eat slowly, why are you in such a hurry?" Jiang Miao scolded, while picking up the teapot, pouring a glass of water for both of them and placing it on the table, and then he started eating.
The aroma of food filled the warm study. Compared to a dinner party at home, this moment felt more like a family reunion.
(End of this chapter)