The twelfth lunar month of winter, when the New Year is approaching, is relatively leisurely for most people.
Common people, merchants and hawkers also saved some years to wait for the New Year. And the scholar-bureaucrats also began to arrange things that could be left behind until the end of the year, counting the days and waiting for the longest rest of the year.
But for a manager of a wealthy family like Wang Xifeng, it is completely the opposite. The rent and land collection from various places are put into the treasury and registered, preparations are made for the New Year's Eve festival, New Year's gifts and other matters.
It's easy to get through the New Year, and it's a more lively New Year. But Jia Mu, Mrs. Wang and others just enjoy themselves, and she is responsible for all the arrangements for welcoming and sending off. There is no need to detail the hard work and trouble during the process.
It wasn't until the New Year, on the eighteenth or ninth day of the first lunar month, that I felt free for the first time.
Early that morning, after Wang Xifeng paid his respects to Jia Mu and others, he secretly planned everything without forgetting or neglecting anything, and then went home to rest.
He leaned on the soft couch in the Nishiji Room, holding the big cat he had raised for many years and stroking its soft and thick hair, while letting the little maid massage it.
Speaking of which, Wang Xifeng is actually a person with relatively little love, and doesn’t really like cats, puppies, or small animals. At first, she raised this raccoon cat out of whim, but over the years, it can barely be regarded as one of her favorite things.
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Seeing her like this, Ping'er said: "It's rare for Second Grandma to be so free. No wonder Second Master often says that Second Grandma can't take any time off. If you think about it carefully these days, Second Grandma doesn't need to do many things herself. She can just leave it to her subordinates.
How can you be so happy without taking a break?"
When Wang Xifeng heard this, she didn't even open her eyelids, she just snorted slightly from her nose.
Ping'er didn't care at all. He turned around and continued to wipe the tea sets on the table. Before he could wipe one of them, he heard Wang Xifeng say: "Your Marquis is a man who doesn't know how to make money. He is the head of the family, and he is the head of the family."
The Marquis has his own power, but others see that he is reasonable but weak. If he gives an order, the people below him will rush to do it. How can I have a fate like him?
It’s not like you don’t know how difficult those people below are. Whenever I’m a little careless, someone will take advantage of the loopholes to find faults. The one with bad intentions will naturally speak up in front of the old lady and the madam. Even the brave one will
Even a little timid person can chew three miles on his back!"
Ping'er sighed slightly when she heard the words. She felt that what their second grandmother said was quite right. As a woman, their second grandmother's ability to be highly valued and powerful in the founding palace was inseparable from her dedicated spirit.
Open a relationship.
"Also, you have the nerve to mention your Marquis, for whom do I take care of the family affairs so wholeheartedly? Is it because I'm afraid that he will worry outside, and I don't want to let the little things at home distract him. It's good for him. Since worshiping his ancestors,
I came back once when I was visiting, but left after less than two days, and even after such a long time, I didn’t even send a letter home. He is also a stinky man with no conscience."
Hearing Wang Xifeng's resentful words, Ping'er smiled inwardly, but restrained himself from showing it. He only said: "The second master is a person who does big things, and he must have forgotten so many things in his hands. If the second grandma misses the second master,
Why don't you write a letter yourself and ask the boy at home to take it to the second master? If the second master sees the letter from the second grandma, he will definitely understand the second grandma's feelings and he will reply to the second grandma."
"Who misses him? I won't write..."
While the master and servant were chatting, suddenly a trusted servant woman came over and said with a smile: "Second Grandma, Xing'er is back..."
Before she finished speaking, she saw Wang Xifeng sitting up suddenly. The cat in her arms was frightened and jumped off the bed with a "meow~" and ran away. She didn't care, she opened her eyes and said: "Let him come in and answer!"
After a series of actions and words, she finally realized her regrets and showed her face, but she had no time to care. She waved the little girl who was doing the massage to go down, and she put on her cotton-padded jacket again and went out to the outer living room to meet Xing'er in person.
Now there are thirty or forty servants and senior attendants around Jia Lian, but Jia Lian doesn't like to show off when he is out unless necessary, and he has his own soldiers. Therefore, when he went to Tianjin Guards to work this time, except for the group of old boatmen,
He didn't bring many servants with him.
Like Zhao'er, this Xing'er was a follower of Jia Lian since he was a senior official. However, because he was not as clever and energetic as Zhao'er, he was not as favored as Zhao'er.
"My servant Xing'er comes to see the Second Grandma. May the Second Grandma be blessed with good health."
"It's great that your second master is out there. Why does he want you to come back?"
"If you go back to Second Grandma, everything is fine for Second Master. Second Master asked his servants to come back, firstly, with a letter, and secondly, because spring is about to begin, Second Master asked his servants to come back to get some lighter clothes."
Xing'er knelt on the bright ground, put his hand into his arms with a smile, squinted at it, took out a letter, and a little maid took it and presented it to Wang Xifeng.
Wang Xifeng took the letter but was not in a hurry to open it. Instead, she looked at Xing'er and said coldly: "If you have anything else in your arms, take it out."
She is so sharp-eyed, and Xing'er's sneaky movements cannot escape her notice.
"Hehe, it's nothing, I brought something for someone else..."
"Stop being careless and not telling the truth. Let me search it out and I'll give you a discount on your discipline leg."
Wang Xifeng only raised her eyes slightly, but she was so frightened that Xing'er didn't dare to take any chances, "Yes, yes, yes, go back to Second Grandma, what Second Master handed over to the servant are two letters. Second Master specially told me, one letter is for Second Grandma."
, and the other one is for Miss Lin, I don’t dare to deceive Second Mistress.”
While he was talking, the boy took out another letter from his arms and presented it to him with his head buried in his hands.
Looking at another letter presented by the maid, Wang Xifeng narrowed her eyes. Although she had a strong desire to open it and take a look, her rationality told her not to cause trouble. So she snorted coldly: "What did I think?
A shameful thing, hidden in a letter? Why, this is what your second master told you to do, so you can’t let me see it?"
"No, no, the second master didn't explain. It's the slave who is troublesome, the slave should be beaten, the slave should be beaten."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Seeing Xing'er pretending to slap herself left and right, Wang Xifeng sneered and said to the maid next to her: "Since it was your second master who specially told Miss Lin
Yes, Xiaohong, just go to the Xiaoxiang Pavilion. Remember, you must hand it over to Miss Lin personally and don’t let others see it, otherwise... humph."
Hearing the obviously dissatisfied words of his master and grandma, Xing'er felt very uneasy.
Of course, Jia Lian didn't say anything that Wang Xifeng couldn't see, but he had heard people say that women are petty and jealous. If the second mistress knew that the second master had even made a special trip to write a letter to Miss Lin, she would inevitably be unhappy, so he just thought not to let it happen.
Second Mistress saw it well, but who knew it would be self-defeating.
Although Wang Xifeng was unhappy, she was happy after receiving Jia Lian's letter home, and did not want to get angry with her slaves. She asked a few questions about Jia Lian's current situation and said, "You go down first. I will pack some of your second master's clothes later.
Just take it back with you."
After saying that, he waved his hand and let Xing'er go down.
After Xing'er left, Wang Xifeng opened Jia Lian's letter directly. When he saw the familiar Junyi fonts, a smile appeared on Mingyan's face, and then he put aside his other thoughts and concentrated on reading the content of the letter.
Speaking of which, Wang Xifeng’s cultural level is very low. This is actually not to blame for her. It’s just because the Wang family is not like the Jia family, which has an atmosphere for their daughters to learn and read from an early age. Naturally, she didn’t read too many books since she was a child. She only read "Girls"
She has briefly read books such as "Principles" and "Internal Training". But judging from her behavior, it is obvious that she has not read much into it.
But she is literate. At least she can read most commonly used words. This is also the basic requirement for all ladies. Otherwise, if she marries into her husband's family in the future and cannot even read the roster, how will she manage the family business?
Even in the past few years, because the sisters-in-law in the family, including her husband, are all educated people, she, a person with a very low level of education, hangs out with them all day long, and is often hit. Some good people even make fun of her as "a big girl who can't read a word"
Basket", this is obviously too much.
Knowing her shame and then being brave, she also secretly made up some homework, at least she didn't have to let others read to her anything long like when she first entered the school. She didn't want others to see such a scene again.
Jia Lian's letter was quite long. Although it seemed that he was caring for her and the whole article was written in very popular language, there were still a few places where she couldn't read it smoothly. She wanted to ask Ping'er next to her, but she didn't want to.
This girl was worse than her, so I gave up.
Ping'er saw that Wang Xifeng had not spoken since she read the letter. She only had a smile on her face and occasionally sneered. It was obvious that the second master had written something in the letter to make the second mistress happy, so when Sister Feng saw the end, she laughed.
Asked: "What did the second master say to the second grandma? I see that the second grandma is happy."
"What can I do? I'm just asking about the situation at home, and..."
Wang Xifeng put the letter away and prepared to read it carefully when she had free time.
"And your second master said that today is Bao Yatou's birthday. Their family came all the way to Beijing. It was because they trusted and valued us that they allowed Bao Yatou to live in our house. He told me not to be disrespectful. What happened to Lin Yatou's birthday in the past years?
This should still be the case today. Huh, do you still need him to explain these things to me?
He also asked me to say hello to the precious girl on his behalf..."
Wang Xifeng spoke with a lower voice. From this incident, she heard that Jia Lian would not return to Beijing in a short time. Otherwise, given his temperament, he would probably rush back to celebrate Baochai's birthday today.
.
He has always loved these sisters.
Ping'er obviously heard the meaning, and didn't know what to say for a moment. After all, Wang Xifeng was not a worried person, so he quickly smiled and said: "Now that it's mentioned, you should go to the kitchen and take a look first." Well, let them be more prepared today. The old lady said that she wants to celebrate Bao Yatou's birthday in person."
After sending Ping'er away, Wang Xifeng thought for a while and sent someone to the west wing to call Xiang Ling and asked her to write a letter to Jia Lian, which was full of anecdotes between parents but read as a loving letter.
…
Xue family.
Baochai returned home early in the morning. She is a very filial person. It is said that children's birthdays are the mother's day of suffering, so although today is her birthday, the first thing she does is go home to visit Aunt Xue. .
After the mother and daughter sat in the room and talked for a while, they heard the noise in the yard outside - Xue Pan was about to go out.
"Today is your sister's birthday. If you don't say you are at peace at home, what are you going to do?"
Before Xue Pan went out, he came to say hello to Aunt Xue. As soon as he walked in, he was scolded by Aunt Xue, which made him unhappy.
"Are you still being unreasonable, mom? It's my sister's birthday. You're going to go to that house to have wine and watch a movie. Do you want me to stay at home alone?"
Aunt Xue was speechless for a while. Regardless of whether the Jia family did it out of face or love for Baochai, since they proposed to celebrate Baochai's birthday, they had no reason to refuse.
They all knew that Xue Pan had always been disliked by the Jia family because of his vulgar behavior and bad deeds, so naturally they would not bring Xue Pan to the Jia family.
Based on this calculation, Xue Pan's words are not unreasonable.
Seeing that Aunt Xue knew she was in the wrong, Xue Pan became even more aggressive: "It's my sister's birthday, and I, as the brother, can't toast her with a glass of wine in person. I'm already very unhappy. Am I still not allowed to have fun outside? I've already invited Feng Ziying. , Sun Shaozu and the others are having a drink in Jinxiangyuan today. It would be fine if mother didn’t stop me, but if she does, I have to talk to you!"
Aunt Xue had already compromised, but when she heard this, she suddenly became angry again, "Asshole, how can you just tell someone else's birthday about your sister? Why don't you wait there, you bastard... who is this Sun Shaozu?"
Xue Pantian's family hangs out all day long, and Aunt Xue is a little worried, for fear that he will associate with gangsters and cause trouble. She knows about Feng Ziying and others, and now that an unfamiliar name suddenly comes out of her son's mouth, she is naturally more concerned.
Xue Pan didn't care about Aunt Xue's scolding: "Oh, don't worry, the people I invite today are all my good brothers, no outsiders."
After saying that, Xue Pan didn't bother to explain to Aunt Xue. He bowed casually and ran away with a twist of his butt.
Aunt Xue couldn't call her, so she beat her chest and stamped her feet in vain.