(This is Xiaomeng's long comment plus update, thank you for your long comment! Meh!)
As soon as Zheng Shizi arrived at the flower hall in the front yard, he saw two young men in green shirts and Confucian robes sitting and waiting. Pinshu.com ()
He walked over quickly, and the two young men immediately stood up to greet him.
"My son."
"Hey, you two seniors, don't be too polite, just call me Tiancheng, sit down quickly."
There are two men in green shirts and Confucian robes, one is handsome and handsome, who else is not Xiao Bojian, the other has a square face and thick eyebrows, looks mature, is Qi Minhe who lives with Xiao Bojian.
Qi Minhe is from a large family in the south of the Yangtze River, with deep roots in the family. Both of them were top students in the Imperial College. Now they are around 20, which is the time for young people to show their ambitions.
Qi Minhe saw Zheng Shizi carefully carrying a food box in his hand, and asked strangely: "What is Tiancheng holding in his hand?"
Zheng Shizi smiled, invited the two to sit at the table, and asked the servant girl to bring the tea set to make tea.
Carefully put the food box on the table, "This is a snack from Jing'anbo Mansion."
Qi Minhe was born in a wealthy family, he never tires of food, he is extremely particular about food, and he has been studying in Guozijian for more than three years, so he has a thorough research on the delicious food in Shengjing City. The dim sum in Jing'an Bo Mansion has long been famous, but he has never had the chance to taste it, so he is very pleasantly surprised to hear it now.
Xiao Bojian was stunned for a moment, Jing'an uncle's house...is Chu Lian's husband's house. The young man with Chu Lian that he saw in the British government that day flashed through his mind.
With straight eyebrows, cold demeanor, and cold thin lips, he just stood between him and Chu Lian, took Chu Lian's hand and left, so that he could never see her again.
Zheng Shizi noticed that Xiao Bojian was in a daze, "Brother Xiao Xue?"
"Well, today I've got Tiancheng's light."
Zheng Shizi smiled heartily, and opened the cold food box. The food box was specially stuffed with thick brocade cloth to keep the heat out and keep the inside cool.
When Zheng Shizi saw the dim sum inside, he was taken aback, "This..."
"Tiancheng, what's wrong?"
Zheng Shizi brought out the snacks in the food box in shock, "Look."
Rao has eaten many dim sum, even the dim sum in Ouchi Imperial Palace, but he has never seen such a beautiful and unique dim sum.
Xiao Bojian and Qi Minhe were also dumbfounded.
Qi Minhe said in admiration: "No wonder people say that the dim sum in Uncle Jing'an's Mansion is a must in the noble family, and it is really extraordinary when I saw it today."
The transparent dessert like water drops held by the lotus leaves is trembling, really like new lotus dewdrops, full of elegance and interest.
Zheng Shizi frowned slightly.
Seeing that his expression was different, Qi Minhe asked doubtfully, "Tiancheng?"
Zheng Shizi raised his head and glanced at the two of them, "To be honest, two seniors, I have eaten the dim sum in Jing'an House many times, and it is indeed as delicious as the rumors, but it has always been a few fixed styles. This is the first time even I have seen this kind of dim sum.”
As he spoke, Zheng Shizi recalled what his grandmother said casually when she gave him the snacks. The grandmother said that this snack was made by the new daughter-in-law of Jing'anbo Mansion.
Thinking of this, Zheng Shizi hurriedly asked his valet to go to the old lady in the backyard to find out.
"Oh? Could it be that the dim sum in Jing'an House has changed?" Qi Minhe laughed.
"Grandmother told me that this dim sum was made by the third grandma in Jing'anbo Mansion."
Xiao Bojian froze, the other two didn't notice it, but Qi Minhe joked: "The third grandma of the Jing'an uncle's mansion, huh? Isn't this the granddaughter of the old Yingying?"
Then he turned to look at Xiao Bojian, "Bojian, the old Yingying is your teacher, have you seen this handy third grandma in the Yingying's mansion?"
Xiao Bojian's body stiffened for a moment, and then he said with a normal expression: "Although I temporarily live in the Duke's mansion, foreigners can enter the backyard of the Duke's mansion at will. Tiancheng is not kidding."
He has a magnanimous face, and he is very good-looking, it is difficult to make people suspicious. Qi Minhe hurriedly apologized, "I was the one who was abrupt."
The three of them chatted and looked at the servant girl making tea, and the young servant who went to ask the old lady of Zheng Guogong's mansion also came back.
"How?" Zheng Shizi asked.
The servant bowed slightly, and replied respectfully: "Back to your lord, the cook who was good at making dim sum in the Jing'an House died in the kitchen water two days ago, and the dim sum brought back by the old lady today is indeed from the Jing'an House." The third grandma made it. And she also told that it is called Xinxuan cake."
Zheng Shizi was a little surprised. It's a pity that such a cook would be gone if she said nothing. But a cook, in these aristocratic families, is simply a servant, and if she is gone, she will be gone.
Zheng Shizi didn't say anything, and waved the boy to go down.
"Come on, let's not talk about it. I heard that it's not good to keep this snack for a long time. Let's try it, two senior brothers."
They took small silver spoons and tasted each, both Zheng Shizi and Qi Minhe's eyes lit up, praising the taste.
This cool and smooth Shingen cake is paired with sencha, which has a special taste.
Only Xiao Bojian spoke bitterly, and a gloomy light flashed in the depths of his eyes.
Thinking of the woman who has now become the third grandma of Jing'an Bo's Mansion, she is delicate, gentle, bold and careful, if there is no such marriage, would she have washed her hands and made soup for him now
He will be the first person to taste this novel and delicious Xinxuan cake, and he will also be the one to show off his good wife in front of his classmates.
Under the cover of his wide sleeves, he clenched his fist tightly until his knuckles turned white.
But Chu Lian, who eats and sleeps well in Songtao Garden of Jing'anbo Mansion, doesn't know this.
Chu Lian, who had snacks with the maids and mothers in the afternoon, went back to the bedroom.
There is a small study next to her and He Sanlang's bedroom, which is used for her on weekdays. It is not a big place, but it is very convenient because it is adjacent to the bedroom.
In the afternoon, Chu Lian spends time in the small study room. On the bookshelves of the small study room are some books she brought from the British government, as well as books added by the Jing’anbo mansion. There are also some rubbings of famous calligraphers.
Although Chu Lian's handwriting in the original text is not very outstanding, there is also a handmade and delicate lower case with hairpin flowers.
Although Chu Lian didn't have any big ambitions, she also understood that she really couldn't do it right now. Even some of the traditional Chinese characters in the script are not fully recognizable... and I often even guessed.
So, in the afternoon, the maids were sent away, only Xi Yan was left guarding outside the small study, and he found a copybook to practice calligraphy in the small study.
After writing for an hour, I threw the practiced characters into a charcoal basin and burned them. Chu Lian has a good memory. After practicing for an hour, she has memorized a hundred words. She is quite satisfied with her progress.
After practicing the big characters, Chu Lian asked Xiyan to take out her money box and jewelry box, thinking about calculating her current net worth.
Nanny Gui was also watching.
First, it was on the public account. After marriage, the account books for the food and drink expenses of the third room were in the hands of Chu Lian, and the share would be drawn from the public account of Jing'anbo Mansion every month. The maid's mother-in-law's routine money will also be paid from the three-room public account.
At present, there is less than eighty taels of silver left in the public account. This is due to the fact that He Changdi was the only master in the third house before, and there were not many servants to serve him. It has been a few years.
Otherwise, according to the general situation, the money allocated in the public account should not be enough, and the masters need to make up for it themselves.
Chu Lian put down the account book and asked Xiyan to open the silver box that was usually kept. It was a big box with several layers, but only the first layer contained a few silver ingots, scattered silver nuggets and a few strings of copper coins.
Add up a total of more than fifty taels.
The rest of the money was the five hundred taels of silver bills given by sister-in-law Rong on the day of her marriage, one hundred taels of money was given to Nanny Gui, and she still had four hundred taels of money left.
When I was a girl in the British government, I didn't save any money, and my mother left early, so I don't have any money.
The total amount of silver on this body is more than four hundred and fifty taels.
There was nothing unusual on Chu Lian's face, but Nanny Gui and Xiyan beside her were full of forbearance.
The girl has long since lost her mother, and she is not favored in the Duke's mansion. The third wife, the step-wife who came in later, is holding on to the dowry of the third grandmother. The girl is weak, and the third master is not on the girl's side. Marrying to Uncle Jing'an's mansion is a big deal, and the ladies in the second room are jealous, so naturally they won't match the dowry to the sixth lady.
If it hadn't been for the Jing'an Mansion's posting, the dowry would have been a joke.
Poor Chu Lian, the money that a concubine daughter married is not as much as a favored concubine daughter.
After marrying, the third young master still treats the sixth young lady like this.
Luckily Miss Six saw it aside, otherwise she would have rushed here, and would have gotten sick from anger.
Chu Lian didn't care what the mothers and maids around her thought.
She took the last box.
This is her jewelry box, saved since childhood.
For more than ten years, there is only such a box. Seeing this, Chu Lian genuinely sympathized with the original owner.
After all, she is also a daughter of the Duke's family, but her clothes look too shabby. No wonder this girl became distorted and silently perverted later on.
Anyone in such an environment will have a change in character.
He took the close-fitting copper key to open the box.
This box is exquisitely made, with a total of ten layers, each layer is covered with copper edges, and intricate patterns are carved on it.
The bottom box is the jewelry she wore when she was just born. According to Nanny Gui, she wore it when she was one to three years old.
When I was a child, I didn't wear much jewelry. There were only a few pairs of red gold bracelets and anklets, some collars and gold beads, and after looking through them, I found some fine jade ornaments. It can be seen that when the original owner was born, he still had some weight in the Duke's mansion, after all, he was the third master's first child.
Looking at the second layer, it is jewelry worn after the age of three.
There are some more headgear, but it is obvious that these jewelry are not as exquisite as when they were young children. The more they get to the back, the less good-quality jewelry is. After reaching the age of ten, there is no gold jewelry for a year...
The jewelry in this box, because it was used in the past, is basically not wearable now. Chu Lian picked out a few commemorative jade ornaments to keep, and separated the gold and silver jewelry in this box, and gave them to Nanny Gui , Let her take it out and melt it, and beat it into gold and silver nuggets for future use.
After sorting it out like this, Chu Lian went to look at the jewelry box she was using now.