"First class Madam Cheng'en, servant Li Si'er, respectfully wish the Imperial Concubine a happy marriage."
Before today, Li Si'er had practiced etiquette for a long time because he was afraid of losing face in a big scene.
However, Li Si'er's etiquette was correct and his address was correct, but the bottom of the flowerpot he was wearing was tilted uncontrollably.
As a result, the standard polite gesture of squatting down and flicking the veil turned into an embarrassing gesture of sitting cross-legged on the ground.
Empress Tong held back her laughter and said with a smile: "Sister-in-law, come here and talk to me. We haven't seen each other for a while."
Li Si'er was so ashamed that his old face turned red. After getting up, he moved coquettishly in front of Empress Tong.
Empress Tong took Li Si'er's hand and said with a smile: "Sister-in-law, we are a family. Even if we are a little rude, it doesn't matter."
The aunt on the side also spoke up and said, "Third Madam, our queen has always treated Master Zhu as her own son. You are our queen's third sister-in-law and also Master Zhu's biological mother. Aren't you a close relative of your mother's family?"
The maids in the palace, both in and out of words, raised the jade pillar very high and always called it "Master Zhu".
Although Li Si'er is uneducated, he is not a fool either.
To put it bluntly, for Yuzhu’s sake, who among the people around Empress Tong would dare to embarrass Li Si’er?
There are two types of tigers. One is the paper tiger, which looks scary, but actually has all its teeth. For example, Tong Guoding.
The other kind is a real tiger that eats people without spitting out bones. For example, Mr. Zhu.
After opening up the conversation, the conversation between Empress Tong and Li Si'er went quite smoothly.
Because Yuzhu had warned Li Si'er in advance that no matter what his aunt asked, he must tell the truth without concealing anything.
Objectively speaking, when you reach the position of Empress Tong, what you eat, drink, and wear is not important at all. The key lies in a matter of mind.
In layman's terms, only by treating her with sincerity can Empress Tong feel like she's going home.
Besides, the imperial palace was the darkest and bloodiest place in the entire Qing Dynasty.
Empress Tong stayed in the palace for many years, and her mood must have been extremely heavy and depressed.
After returning to her parents' home, Empress Tong continued to face a series of lies. How did she feel? Do you still need to ask?
When she learned that Li Si'er had secretly prepared a betrothal gift of two hundred and fifty thousand taels for Xiao Xuanyu, Empress Tong couldn't help but laugh.
Smiling extremely happily!
What this person hates most after reaching a certain status is that others treat her as a fool and think she is smart.
Since Li Si'er didn't hide anything, Empress Tong also gave her enough face and talked with Li Si'er for a long time about common things.
After about two cups of tea, Xiuyun was led in.
"Nephew and wife, please kowtow to your aunt." Xiuyun neither knelt down to wave her handkerchief nor claimed to be a slave, but knelt down and kowtowed three times.
"Well, I have always regarded Zhu'er as my own son." Empress Tong felt extremely comfortable and waved frequently, calling Xiuyun over.
Empress Tong was in the middle, Li Si'er was on the left, and Xiuyun was on the right, forming an extremely luxurious chat lineup.
The three women present were all the most elite ladies in the entire Qing Dynasty, and they all had extremely close relationships with Yuzhu.
"Xiuyun, don't be too used to Zhu'er." Xiuyun understood Tong's hidden words immediately, but Li Si'er didn't.
"To tell you the truth, my father, there are very few men under our banner who are not involved in women's affairs. As long as my man doesn't find Mr. Longyang, no matter how many concubines he takes or how many women he raises, I will,
I can tolerate everything." Xiuyun's answer was unusually straightforward.
Empress Tong nodded, Yuzhu is good at everything, but he is so sexy!
However, if Yuzhu, who holds real power, is neither greedy for money nor lustful, the old emperor should find excuses to deal with him.
This person is always a unity of contradictions.
The old emperor was too suspicious. Since he wanted Yuzhu to be loyal to his emperor and filial piety, he also wanted to get a handle on Yuzhu.
To put it bluntly, if Yuzhu really couldn't find a highly moral person with big stains, how could the old emperor dare to reuse him?
It can be seen from this that the so-called rule of virtue is nothing more than lip service.
Whoever believes it is truly wise.
After chatting with Li Si'er and Xiuyun for an hour, Empress Tong, as if she just remembered, began to meet the wives of the Tong family one after another.
However, Li Si'er and Xiuyun were summoned alone.
The remaining wives of the Tong family were received in batches.
Be afraid of comparison in everything!
The brilliance of Empress Tong is that she didn't say anything, but everyone knew the fact: Although Yuzhu was only Empress Tong's nephew, he was better than his own son.
When the banquet started, the ladies of the old Tong family sat at a table of eight, like stars holding the moon, surrounding the table where Empress Tong was alone.
Huge screens were erected in succession, completely separating men and women.
After the dishes began to be served, Empress Tong was surprised to find that the dishes placed in front of her were all kinds of stir-fried dishes that were not seen in the palace.
Yuzhu was in charge of the imperial dining room, and once told Empress Tong in private that most of the dishes in the palace were tasteless and useless.
More importantly, the eunuchs and cooks were afraid of losing their heads and did not dare to serve the old emperor dishes whose origins could not be guaranteed.
To put it bluntly, despite the fact that the old emperor is the most powerful person in the world, he has never even seen many delicious dishes.
Refreshing cucumber sauce, chicken soup cooked overnight in a local stove, paired with duck blood and vermicelli, Tianjin's famous dish Lao Pao San, Bazhen Tofu, etc. are all dazzling.
Since it was a family banquet, other people's dishes were all the usual big fish and meat dishes, but Tong Niangniang's table was extraordinarily different.
After the meal, Empress Tong excused herself from eating and ordered Xiuyun to help her go to the garden to eat.
The eunuchs, maids and nuns of Jingren Palace consciously kept their distance.
As a result, the accompanying wives of the Tong family were naturally stopped ten feet away.
On the way, while sitting in the pavilion to rest and drink tea, Empress Tong dipped her hands in tea and wrote a few small words on the table.
After Xiuyun saw it clearly, Empress Tong wiped it with her hand. There were traces of words everywhere, weren't they all water marks?
Xiuyun was obviously extremely anxious, but it didn't show on her face at all.
It wasn't until Empress Tong returned to her room to rest that Xiuyun resigned.
Xiuyun did not move rashly until she entered her own main room, then she whispered to her confidant Jin Qiao.
"Quick, quick, hurry up and invite the master over."
"Yes." Jin Qiao had never seen Xiuyun lose his composure before, and he couldn't help but trembled in his heart, and hurriedly went out to find Yuzhu.
Yuzhu was pestered by his cousins. Everyone came forward with wine cups and toasted one cup after another.
While they were having a great time, the clever Jin Qiao pretended to trip over a stool and fell into Yuzhu's arms.