At this time, the palace servants came in to report that Concubine Qi, Concubine Xi, Concubine Mao, and other noble people had come to pay their respects.
Ulanara nodded and ordered everyone to come in.
Concubine Qi was left in the Forbidden City for more than three months - she did not go to the Old Summer Palace. She was listless and lost weight. Her figure became slimmer and she looked much younger.
When she came in, Concubine Yu stood up and gave Concubine Qi the honorary position of being the queen's subordinate. Concubine Qi was not too polite, greeted the queen, and sat down directly.
Ulanara glanced at the expression on Concubine Yu's face and smiled without saying a word.
After Concubine Qi sat down, she looked at Concubine Xi rudely several times.
Xi Bi and Mao Bi stood in the same row to greet each other, followed by Li Guiren. Li Guiren first greeted the Queen, then turned to salute the empresses. After sitting down, he listened to the Queen and Concubine Qi, Yu
While the concubine was talking about her family, she glanced at the candies on the table and took them back.
Suddenly, the queen smiled and ordered: "My lord Li, just use some candies if you want!"
For a moment, everyone's focus fell on Li Guiren. Li Guiren almost choked - what day is it today? The aloof empress has never noticed her in the corner, but today she actually noticed her.
She is so kind and cheerful.
She quickly stood up and thanked her. Ulanara smiled with his lips pursed and his eyes just looked at her up and down.
…
In the Forbidden City, a series of winter solstice ceremonies have passed, and New Year's Eve is just around the corner.
The entire Forbidden City is so full of Chinese New Year flavor that it almost overflows.
As the folk saying goes, "it's the New Year after the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month." But in fact, in the Qing palace, this series of preparations started on the first day of the twelfth lunar month.
On the first day of the twelfth lunar month, Emperor Yongzheng went to the Qianqing Palace in person. Using a special brush engraved with blessing patterns, he wrote the words "blessing" and pasted them in the inner palace. Some of the words "blessing" were also given to princes, ministers and officials outside the border.
It's an unparalleled honor.
After receiving the word "blessing" from the imperial city, the feudal officials outside often looked in the direction of the capital and kowtowed to thank Longen.
Around the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month, the Imperial Heavenly Supervisor would choose an auspicious day and announce it to the world. The officials at all levels would seal the seal at the same time, and then choose an auspicious day to open the seal in the first month.
On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the tribute tribute from the Shengjing Household Office was sent to Kunning Palace, and the emperor and queen offered sacrifices to the Kitchen God respectively.
On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, a pair of huge "sky lanterns" and a pair of "wanshou lanterns" were erected on the Danbi in front of the Qianqing Palace, as well as matching tapestry lantern couplets - this is an old system used to celebrate the New Year in the Ming Dynasty.
One of the grandest events in the Qing Palace was approaching New Year's Eve.
The Wanshou lamp is very large, with a height of more than ten meters. The lamp pole is carved with clouds and dragons, and the lower end is inserted into the white marble base. The lamp is bright, guarded by a dedicated person, and cannot be extinguished. Especially at night, it looks like stars, which is really beautiful.
In the harem, each palace is also carefully decorated.
Here in Jiling, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month alone, Yinzhen ordered people to send twenty bonsais of precious stones from Yangxin Palace to Chengqian Palace.
The person in charge of delivering the bonsai was Xiao Chenzi, and he told Ji Ling in a low voice: The gem bonsai is precious after all, and was carefully crafted by the craftsmen of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the "Three Weavings" (Jiangning Weaving, Suzhou Weaving, and Hangzhou Weaving).
Except for the Queen's Kunning Palace, I have never heard of any concubine in the other palaces being rewarded with gemstones and bonsais by the emperor.
And one reward is a generous twenty basins.
Ji Ling looked at these twenty gem bonsais and once again deeply felt Yinzhen's preference for her.
The so-called gem bonsai is a bonsai made of gold, silver, jewelry, jade, coral, etc., with exquisite and clear colors, implying good luck.
To put it more bluntly, if you go up to pick a petal from any bonsai tree, and pick a leaf from it, they are all treasures...
Ji Ling saw among them a red coral bonsai with a gold-plated and enamel basin. It was made of a whole branch of red coral. It was placed on the ground, almost at the height of her waist. The branches were graceful and covered with pearls and jade, shaped into the shape of flowers and fruits.
With these twenty gem bonsais, the Chengqian Palace was decorated with lights and colorful decorations. When you walked in at night, it was like a fairyland.
During the New Year's Eve observance, the concubines needed to place candies, preserves, preserved fruits, fresh fruits, etc. At this time, all the eight jewelry boxes that had been rewarded by Jiuzhou Qingyan were taken out and placed with fruits.
The jewelry complements each other and shines brightly.
Finally, New Year's Eve arrived.
In the evening, although Kunning Palace was extremely busy, it still followed the old tradition and sent the candy boxes rewarded by the Queen to the concubines. The twelve eunuchs of Kunning Palace carried the huge candy boxes.
Above the palace, there are two copies for the lord of each palace and one for the side.
When they arrived at Chengqian Palace, since there was no side seat in the palace, only the concubine Chen lived in one palace. After Ji Ling thanked the queen of Zhonggong Palace for her kindness, she saw that there were dried lychees, dried white dates, and Wenshui raisins in the fruit box.
Southern jujube, Jianlian, Huangtang pear, etc., and candies such as honey lotus crush, periwinkle sugar, rose sugar, rehmannia glutinosa, almond hazelnut cake, etc., all tied with red gold shredded paper, a happy atmosphere.
After the person who had given the reward left, Ji Ling took a few pieces as a token gesture, and then rewarded everyone with the rest of the candy box.
Seeing the minions happily sharing the festive candies, Ji Ling turned around and told Qixi to take out all the purses she had prepared long ago - it was the end of the year, and it was time to give out year-end bonuses.
Xiao Fenzi and Xiao Dazi carried out a chair from the main hall and waited for Ji Ling to sit down in the courtyard.
The servants lined up in two rows and stood neatly in front of the concubines.
Ji Ling felt a little emotional when she looked at so many people in front of her - a year ago, in the twelfth lunar month, when she had just traveled through time, there were only four slaves around her, crowded into a low-lying and short penthouse.
Ji Ling touched her belly, breathed out lightly, looked at Qixi, nodded, and indicated that she could hand out the purses - after handing out the purses, it was time to go to the New Year's Eve banquet.
The purses given to the slaves have long been distinguished by color according to Ji Ling's instructions: the eunuchs are dark brown, the maids are apricot, and the nuns are purple.
She was supported by Bixue, and Qixi followed behind with a basket. When she came to a person, she took a corresponding purse from the basket and handed it to the master.
Ji Ling handed the purse to everyone with his own hands.
Ji Ling gave Qixi, Bixue, Xiaofenzi, Xiaodazi and Xiaoyangzi's purses to five people. Ji Ling asked Qixi to make simple tassels on the bottom for easy identification.
After a circle of people were handed out, Xiao Fenzi was the last one.
He took the purse and held the weight, knowing it in his heart.
Xiao Fenzi neatly kicked the purse into his arms. He couldn't express it too much on his face. He just knelt down and kowtowed deeply: "Slaves, thank you for your grace! Thank you for your reward!"
Ji Ling asked him to get up. Seeing that the people around him were looking at their wallets with joy, he took a slight step to the side. Xiao Fenzi followed, and heard his master say warmly: "Xiao Fenzi, please feel aggrieved for a while.
I know a lot about it."
This was said very nonsense, but Xiao Fenzi understood it completely.