The place chosen by Madam Wei Si was not far from where Li Xiaonan was reading. There was a small half-sided pavilion against the rockery. The opposite pavilion was connected to the Jiuqu Bridge, and both sides had a clear view.
Wan Qing stood outside the Xiaoxuan Pavilion with her hands lowered, and Yu Lan stood opposite Wan Qing. Both of them were on tenterhooks, their eyes squinting as they worried about their own, and neither of them even bothered to look at each other.
On the terrace facing the water, Lady Wei Si and Lady Pan Jiu were fishing with their poles.
Li Xiaonan arrived a moment late, and Mrs. Shi sat on the brocade couch leaning against the rockery, bowing slightly.
Li Xiaonan sat on the gooseneck chair on the side of Xuan Pavilion, twisted around and looked around, then looked back at Madam Shi.
"Sorry to bother you." Mrs. Shi was silent for a moment and lowered her eyes.
"Don't bother me, I'm not busy." Li Xiaonan looked at the skinny and gloomy Mrs. Shi, feeling a little sad.
There are too few opportunities for women in this era, especially noble ladies like them.
"Our family, including Prince Rui's Mansion, the Pan family, the Wei family, the Wen family, and the Fu family, have been intertwined with each other for generations since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and have been in-law-in-law. Prince Rui's Mansion, the Pan family, and the Wei family are even better connected." Mrs. Shi lowered her eyes and spoke softly.
"From the time I can remember, when I was in Prince Rui's palace, I was even as much as when I was in our family. Later, when I grew older, I often heard the second aunt and the princess joke that they wanted me to be the prince's wife. p>
"Later, he and I both grew up and were ignorant. Once, the crown prince traveled to the south of the Yangtze River and returned to the capital. He gave me a stack of handkerchiefs. I said I don't use external handkerchiefs, so why should I?
Give me this?"
Mrs. Shi's throat tightened, and she looked at the handkerchief in her hand. After a while, she lifted the handkerchief slightly, looked at Li Xiaonan and said, "Do you know what this handkerchief means?"
"There are silk threads both horizontally and vertically." Li Xiaonan smiled dryly, "This is what the flower-winding workers in the weaving mill sing most often. There are thousands of silk threads hanging vertically, and the silk threads are endless."
"Well, we got engaged after the Crown Prince was crowned twelve years old. Ever since I was sensible, I knew I wanted to marry him. Over the years, I have only had him in my eyes and in my heart, and I have thought of him wholeheartedly.
How to assist him, how to look at Prince Rui's palace, even!"
Mrs. Shi's words stopped suddenly, and for a moment, she said in a low voice: "What if I can't give birth to a son? How will I raise my children? If I have two or three sons, how will I arrange their future?
"Originally, Qin Tianjian had already set the wedding date. Last spring, I was supposed to marry into Prince Rui's palace, but he broke off the engagement. For no reason."
Li Xiaonan sighed.
Everything in the world arises and perishes due to causes and conditions. Nothing happens without a cause, it’s just that she doesn’t know the causes and conditions.
"My grandma advised me, my father advised me, my second aunt advised me, everyone advised me, but I once held pearls and jade, and now I am asked to grab a piece of gravel, not even a decent piece of gravel."
Mrs. Shi paused again. After a while, she looked at Li Xiaonan with a bitter look on her face, "If it were you in my place, wouldn't you just give in? How could you not give in?"
"Oh, people are different. If I were replaced, I would not be suitable for such a big and powerful palace. The princess would definitely look down on me, and I would also..."
Li Xiaonan hesitated for a moment, swallowed back the three words she didn't like, and changed her words: "I don't like marrying someone like the prince. In my eyes, the prince's only advantage is that he is good-looking. If it were me, it would be you...
…”
Li Xiaonan spread her hands and smiled dryly.
If it were her, she would have smashed the golden lock and sent the dragon back to the sea, which would have made her laugh to death several times.
Mrs. Shi stared at Li Xiaonan.
Li Xiaonan remembered Gu Yan's explanation and quickly turned around.
"People are different. I think you have to think about it carefully first. You want to marry the prince because everyone thinks so. Everyone has said this since you were a child. You have been told this over and over again before you want to marry.
Prince, I still want to get married, it comes from your heart.
"If you want to marry from the bottom of your heart, think about it again and see if you can figure out the reasons and put them in order. If you want to marry him, the first one is because he treats you well? Send you a veil.
Or something, is it because he is good-looking? Because his family is rich? Because he is generous? Because he is a prince and has a position and power, or something else.
"Emotions, what do you think? It's a matter of feelings, and that's a thing, right? No matter what you deal with, you must first clarify the cause and current situation, find the key points, and then outline the plan, director, etc., you must be much better than me.
."
Li Xiaonan tried her best to talk nonsense, trying to make the nonsense sound reasonable.
She has always felt that love is like a breathtaking scenery during travel. You never know where you will encounter it. Maybe you look up through the car window, maybe you turn a corner, and you find yourself standing in a fantasy scene.
, but in a blink of an eye, the light and shadow changed, and the wonder disappeared.
When you see something and encounter it, feel it wholeheartedly. When the scenery disappears, move forward calmly. There is no need to feel sad or regretful. Beautiful scenery is like delicious food. After seeing it and eating it, it will become a part of you and make yourself better.
The same is true for feelings.
Mrs. Shi's brows gradually furrowed, she stayed there for a while, and murmured: "I have never thought about this, why do I need to think about it?"
"Then what do you usually don't want to do?" Li Xiaonan scratched her head a little.
She is very good at persuading girlfriends who are lovelorn. For example, if you don’t let go of the old, don’t let the new come. For example, if you are heartbroken, it is best to make money. Focus on work and make money quickly. For example, every man who leaves you does it because he is not worthy of your future...<
/p>
But time and space are very different now, and the only career of noble ladies like them is to care for their husbands and raise their children.
"The prince has a bad temper. The princess told me since I was a child: Just watch carefully. If the prince is impatient, you should persuade him. Later, when something happened, they would ask me to persuade the prince. Aniang said, you
You have to be careful and don’t always wait for the princess to give you advice. I usually think about him."
Mrs. Shi's voice was very low, so Li Xiaonan leaned forward and strained her ears to hear clearly.
"He went to the Hanlin Academy to listen to a lecture. After listening for half a quarter of an hour, he said that it was pedantic. I wanted to find an opportunity to persuade him. He was impatient and liked to ride across the street. He always said that he wanted to raise troops... I was thinking of him.
I'm worried about his moral character and whether I can persuade him."
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Li Xiaonan raised her eyebrows when she heard this, "Then do you often persuade him?"
"This is what a wife should do." After a pause, Mrs. Shi looked dejected.
It's a deal, she has always been his unmarried wife, but he broke off the engagement.
"I think this is what a mother should do, and it has to be done when the child is young, before the age of five, six, seven or eight." Li Xiaonan only hesitated for a moment and said it rudely.
Mrs. Shi was stunned.
"This is no different from sewing up your brother's clothes and forcing him to wear socks to sleep.
"What's wrong with him not listening to Hanlin's lectures? Couldn't it be that Hanlin's lectures are boring? What if they are really pedantic? Isn't it a waste of life to listen to their nonsense?
"He rode his horse across the street and trampled people to death? He kicked a whole street to pieces? If nothing happened, and he had this ability, why couldn't he ride his horse across the street?
"There is also the matter of raising troops. This matter is even more difficult to discuss. What do you advise him to do?"
"As a prince and the crown prince's companion, how can he not respect the Imperial Academy? He has never stepped on anyone while riding a horse across the street, but how can he be so unstable as a prince? This is detrimental to his reputation! How can he do evil things to soldiers?
Want to raise troops?" Madam Shi leaned forward and spoke very fast.
"You!" Li Xiaonan sighed, "Last time the fourth lady said you punished your brother like that, I should have thought of it.
"What you want to be a good wife is to frame your husband within your standards. If you think the standard man should be steady, serious and unsmiling, if your husband loves to laugh, you must find ways to force him to be serious and not allowed to laugh.
What do you think a good man looks like? You should do everything you can to transform your husband into the good man you think he is.
"Maybe the prince saw it, so he broke off the engagement."
When Li Xiaonan said the last sentence, she raised her hand and clapped it on her mouth.
What a bad mouth she has!
Mrs. Shi pursed her lips tightly and looked directly at Li Xiaonan. For a while, she said word by word: "The Crown Prince is an important minister of the imperial court, he is not an ordinary man."
"Well, as husbands, is there any difference between important court officials and ordinary men? In short, they are all forced into your standards by you, oh!" Li Xiaonan let out an ooh, then laughed, "As for the important officials of the imperial court, what do you want?
Express your political ambitions through the Crown Prince?
"You are such a smart person, and you probably have lofty ideals. I think if you have any ambitions, you can do it yourself. There is no need to use the method of manipulating men. It is too troublesome and gets half the result with half the effort. It would be better to just do it yourself.
”
Mrs. Shi was angry and anxious. She pointed at Li Xiaonan with her finger and was shaking so hard that she could not speak.
"That's not what I meant. I really think that if you want to do it, you can do it by yourself. There is no difference between women and men. We are all human beings. Everyone has ambitions. A handsome guy who is drunk and has power over the world.
"No, no, that, I mean, I don't have that ability, I just want to be the richest man.
"You don't look good. It must be because of the strong wind. I'm leaving first. Don't take it seriously. I only talk nonsense. Just think of me as farting."
As Li Xiaonan spoke, she stepped back to the entrance of the pavilion, turned around and ran away.
She felt she had to find a place to hide from the limelight.
