The First Auxiliary Road from the Imperial Examination

Sheng Yuan saw for the first time how Da Chu Xungui's family celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival.

When she got up in the morning, she saw that the garden corridor in the courtyard was covered with lanterns.

The flowers that are usually pampered in the mansion appear in groups in every corner of the mansion.

Different patterns and different colors, but they all exude silent joy.

The maids and servants in the mansion still walked steadily and silently. They obviously came and went in a hurry, but when they looked at them from a distance, they felt a sense of busyness unique to festivals.

The sky on the day of Mid-Autumn Festival is also very blue and refreshing, the sun is shining gently on the golden chrysanthemums, and there are bursts of music and strings in the garden.

"Sister Yuan, be good, follow your sister later, don't run around by yourself!"

Sheng Xiangxun was told to take the children to worship the ancestors, so he took a girl by the hand and told the youngest one carefully.

Ever since His Majesty insisted on starting school at the Imperial College, and intentionally or unintentionally revealed his intention to hold women's imperial examinations, the Shengguo Duke's mansion's unique interest gene has been activated.

Originally, ancestor worship in the mansion was a matter for the prince, but Sheng Guogong had notified the children in the family and the clan houses a few months ago, saying that starting from the Mid-Autumn Festival, whenever the ancestral hall is opened, all children enrolled in the mansion and clan, regardless of gender, must participate.

Of course, although Sheng Guogong talked about the family, in fact, since the first generation of Sheng Guogong established his own branch, the Sheng clan land was arranged in the province adjacent to the capital, and the ancestral precepts were established, saying that his descendants should support the nobles and the shuzhi clans , usually only go to the ceremony to see relatives, do not depend on each other, and each bears the important affairs of ancestor worship.

In other words, although the Shengguo Mansion and the Sheng Clan are related, they are independent of each other. This not only avoids the future troubles of the Shengguo Mansion being dragged down by the clansmen, but also allows the Sheng Clan to persevere in self-improvement.

Therefore, there are no outsiders in the ancestor worship personnel of Duke Shengguo's mansion, and they all come from the fifth house in the mansion.

Therefore, as the real master of the entire mansion, no one objected to Sheng Guogong's order.

So, Sheng Yuan, who thought he could play easily in the morning, was taken away.

It was also at this time that she realized that the ancestral hall of Duke Sheng's mansion was not in Duke Sheng's mansion.

Passing through the back door of the large garden behind the mansion is an alley several feet wide, and the Wujin courtyard at the other end of the alley is where the ancestral hall is located.

"This is our ancestor's family property, and Dayan has it right away." Sheng An led his younger sister to walk in the line of young girls from the Sheng family, and introduced to his younger sister in a low voice.

Sheng Yuan raised her head in amazement, and looked at this even older house.

Probably because it was transformed into a house for the ancestral hall, the layout of the five courtyards is somewhat different.

The first courtyard is reserved for rest and turnover; the second courtyard is built into a small square, where ancestor worship ceremonies are held; the third and fourth courtyards are built into high hall rooms, the former houses statues and brief introductions of Sheng Guogongs, and the latter It is the ranking of the descendants of the Duke's family; as for the Wujin courtyard, it is arranged as Sheng's library, which contains the self-reported letters and life records of the Dukes of the past dynasties.

For such a house, there are more than fifty servants and guards just for cleaning.

"The mansion still has its own guards?" Sheng Yuan didn't expect the Duke's mansion to have its own armed forces, so he couldn't help being a little surprised.

"These guards are provided by the internal guards of the imperial army. They are regarded as the royal family's favor for the Duke of Shengguo. It was the same in the three dynasties of Yan, Chen and Chu." Seeing the little sister's curiosity, the hall sister Sheng Zhi couldn't help telling her with a smile.

That's it!

Sheng Yuan thought, no wonder the Duke of Sheng's government is so ostentatious!

That's right, with the emperor's confidant inner guards helping to take care of it, she would build the ancestral hall tall and majestic, after all, this is the emperor's card!

If you arrange the emperor's confidant, the inner guard, to take care of a small house, who are you looking down on?
"Eldest sister, have you taken your younger sisters to see the whole house? After you have seen it, go back to the third place. The old man is going to take us in to see our ancestors."

Fifth Uncle Sheng Xiangjun was the youngest of his generation, so he did most of the errands.

Now that Sheng Zhi was notified, he turned his head to see how the fruit offerings to his ancestors were arranged.

Seeing his busy feet hitting the back of his head, Sheng Yuan couldn't help shaking her head and sighing, sometimes ranking is very important, like her uncle and second uncle, who are now safely by the old man's side, all the errands are the fourth and fifth uncles.

As for her father... he must be hiding away!
As long as she has a thick skin, her grandfather can't control this son.

When Sheng Yuan was complaining, he walked quickly with his sisters to Sanjin's courtyard.

At this moment, the grandfather is just preparing to straighten out the formation of his descendants.

The ancestor worship process was basically carried out by Sheng Guogong leading everyone.

Sheng Yuan, who followed the trend, did the math, and she walked a total of 130 steps from the third to the fourth.

At the beginning, Sheng Guogong recited the speech in cadence, to the effect that he told his ancestors how prosperous Sheng Guogong's mansion is now and how bright the future is.

After the recitation is over, it's time for the descendants of Duke Sheng's mansion to bow down to their ancestors.

Sheng Yuan followed Sheng Guogong's orders, and his little head, which kowtowed and kowtowed, was a little dizzy.

She thought that it was almost done here, but she didn't expect that her grandfather had something to say.

"You brothers, get out of the way, the little girl in the mansion, Xiao Langjun, come here!" Sheng Guogong waved at his restless sons, and cheerfully called his grandchildren to him.

The eldest grandson and the eldest granddaughter stand on the left and right sides of him, and the other grandchildren stand behind the eldest brother and sister.

Standing behind the eighth cousin Sheng Jun, Sheng Yuan looked at the back of this gentle and quiet cousin, and couldn't help but sigh, three years older is different, not even two heads taller than her?
"Sister Yuan!"

Sheng Xiangxun bent his back, and while everyone was not paying attention, he quickly moved over and patted the little girl on the shoulder, and then backed away.

Just now he saw the old man telling his ancestors about the reason why the girl entered the ancestral hall with great emotion. He also painted cakes to show off to the ancestors, saying that the future generations of Sheng Guogong's mansion will produce capable ministers and scholars, and then he specially introduced the girls in the mansion. .

Seeing this, his first reaction was to look at the little girl.

Sure enough, his worry was not unreasonable, his little girl was naughty standing on tiptoe, trying to compare her height with her cousin!
Sheng Yuan was taken aback by her dad's unexpected slap on the chin. Before she could realize what was going on, her grandfather pronounced her name.

"Here!" Sheng Yuan responded in conditioned reflex.

Immediately, adults and children around laughed out loud.

Sheng Guogong also smiled, but then he tensed up, waved to Sheng Yuan, called to him, hugged her, and asked with a smile: "Sister Yuan, do you have the ambition to make contributions in the imperial court in the future?"

"Yes!" Sheng Yuan was very cunning, knowing that it's not good to play smart here, so she gave the answer her grandfather wanted in a very face-saving manner.