Red Mansion Huacai

Chapter 54: Preparing a banquet, Li Wan felt a strange desire to repay Xing’s wish for a spring visit

Li Weijian was wearing a moon-white spring shirt to welcome him out. From a distance, he saw Li Wan leading Jia Lan through the door.

I haven't seen her for many days. The eldest sister Li Wan is wearing a light blue bamboo cloth jacket, a moon-white stand-up collared jacket, and a cloth skirt of the same color. Except for a few hairpins and silk flowers on her head, she looks so plain that people pity her.

Li Weijian smiled and greeted them, leading Li Wan and Jia Lan into the house.It was still early at this moment, so Li Weijian sent three maids, Hong Yu, Xiu Ying and Xiang Ling, to the kitchen to urge the dishes to be served.

Qingwen served the tea, and Li Weijian said with a smile: "I came to the capital for a while, and I thought that I had never had a good conversation with my eldest sister, so I just organized a banquet. Today, we siblings have a good time chatting. Son."

Brother Lang was still young and had long been taken aside by the maids and mothers to play mischief. Li Wan said with a smile: "Why do my family have to be such a heretic? The kitchen is also used to flattering others and putting others down, brother Jian." Socializing is expensive, so you have to save some money.”

"Ha," Li Weijian said, "Eldest sister is indeed wrong. Don't you think it has been spread throughout the house that I, Li Weijian, have already become successful?"

Li Wan Surong quickly asked: "I was about to ask Brother Jian. In the past two days, there have been a lot of rumors that Brother Jian has become successful... What is this situation?"

"It's a long story..." Li Weijian immediately explained his plans for the rest of the month.

Li Wan listened attentively. He first heard that Li Weijian was spending a large amount of money on building water pumps and digging wells, and he couldn't help but feel worried. Then he heard that Li Weijian was making sweet water, which won the favor of the saint. He allocated a tenth of the stock to Li Wan. I couldn't help but feel refreshed.

As the old saying goes, an eldest brother is like a father and an eldest sister is like a mother. At this moment, Li Wan looked at Li Weijian with a bit of relief and admiration in his eyes.

Li Weijian was immediately made uncomfortable by the sight of his eldest brother, and said awkwardly: "Why do eldest sisters look at me like this?"

Li Wan smiled and said: "My brother has become successful, why can't I see him?"

Li Weijian was speechless for a while. After thinking about it, he simply took out the deed from his pocket and gently pushed it in front of Li Wan.

"Sister, wait and see."

"This is -" Li Wan picked it up and looked at it carefully, and his face suddenly became serious: "——Brother Jian, what are you talking about? I can't have this!"

"Don't worry," Li Weijian said: "——This stock is for Lang Ge'er, and the eldest sister is just in charge of it temporarily. As an uncle, I have to buy some family property for Lang Ge'er."

"That's too much -"

Li Weijian interrupted: "If you don't bring it with you in life or death, why do you care, big sister? Besides, this is just a penny, and I still have nine points left in my hand. I don't care about the others, I only care about it. That day, my eldest sister took care of me with all my clothes on, so what happened to me giving some stock to Lang Geer?"

"This -" Li Wan bit his lower lip lightly, hesitating.

Since Jia Zhu's death, people in Li Wan's courtyard have either died or dispersed, and Mrs. Wang, her mother-in-law, always looks at her with a cold face.It's not easy for the old lady to pity her orphaned and widowed mother. I'm afraid this life will become even more difficult.

Although Li Wan has a soft temper, he is smart.Although the situation in the DPRK is half-understood, looking at the internal situation of the Rongguo Mansion, one knows that this society is probably going to prosper and then decline.

The family that inherited wealth in the capital died after three generations, and now the Jia family has passed four generations. How can this world continue to prosper for a long time?
Therefore, Li Wan quietly accumulated his family fortune, for himself and for Lang Geer, so that he could have some money to defend himself when the building was about to collapse in the future.

On weekdays, Li Wan was extremely frugal, and he only picked up cheap and meaningful things when welcoming or sending things off.When Li Weijian entered the capital, Li Wan's attitude was naturally different.

After raising her son by her side for a year, she regarded Li Weijian as her own brother.Because he was extremely generous, he sent 200 taels of silver that day.

When word of this incident spread, Wang Xifeng said something strange, saying that Li Wan was far away from home and had never regarded him as a member of the Jia family.

Li Wan didn't care after hearing this. She and Wang Xifeng were just acquaintances.

I never expected that Brother Jingjian would end up with such a fortune in his spare time!
Now, even a share of the stock is being given away for free.The nice thing was for Brother Lan, but Li Wan didn't know that this was clearly Li Weijian's act of repaying his kindness?
Li Wan naturally wanted this family fortune, but after thinking about it, he still wanted to refuse.

"Brother Jian——" She pushed the deed back.

Without waiting for him to say anything further, Li Weijian stood up, leaned forward, reached across the table and pushed the deed, and because of the eagerness on his face, he actually thrust the document directly into Li Wan's hand.

"Eldest sister, if you keep pushing back, you don't regard me as your biological brother. Doesn't it mean that eldest sister wants me to kneel down and beg you?"

A pair of burning hands held his hands tightly. Li Wan was moved, his eyes were red, and he sighed and nodded: "Okay, okay, I'll just accept it. Brother Jian... you really have a future."

When Li Weijian saw that he no longer refused, a smile appeared on his face.Suddenly he grasped Li Wan's hands eagerly, feeling a little strange in his heart. Then he put his hands away with a smile without changing his expression, and said: "That's right. A family should not talk about two different things. I think Lan Ge'er is a smart person. Yes, I don’t know if I will be named on the gold list in the future, as my uncle, I still have to rely on Lange’er to support me.”

Li Wan nodded again, stood up and said, "Bring Brother Lan here."

The nanny hurriedly brought Jia Lan over. Li Wan said with red eyes, "Lan'er, please be filial to your uncle in the future. If you disobey me, I will not tolerate it as a mother!"

Li Weijian didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Sister, what are you doing? How old is Brother Lan?" Then he said to the nanny: "Don't scare Brother Lan, just take him down and play naughty."

After sitting down again, Li Weijian started chatting. Li Wan collected his thoughts and couldn't help but feel filled with emotion.

Since Jia Zhu passed away, the Li family only sent their elder brother to express condolences. After that, the mother occasionally received letters from home, but other than that, they had no contact with her.Her two older brothers were both children of her previous first wife. They were quite different in age, and they were not close to her.

Never would I have imagined that a moment of kindness in the boudoir that day would end up being the good thing of Brother Jian!

At this moment, several maids in Li Weijian's room came in with food boxes. They could only count eight dishes, but they were more exquisite.In addition to the Jinling flavor, there are also fresh hot spring vegetables such as leeks, garlic sprouts, Chinese cabbage, and cucumbers, which shows that Li Weijian has put a lot of thought into it.

When Li Wan asked, Li Weijian smiled and said that he saw someone selling hot spring vegetables in the afternoon yesterday, so he just bought half a cart and came back.Except for setting up this table, the rest is for adding food to each room.

"Brother Jian is really thoughtful." Li Wan praised without hesitation.

She tried several dishes one by one, and because she was in a good mood, she also drank a few cups of sweet-scented osmanthus wine.It was also because of this that the gaunt complexion gradually turned rosy.

Watching Li Weijian talking eloquently during the dinner, Li Wan only listened with a smile, and sometimes echoed.But he began to think randomly in his mind.That day Brother Jian was just around my waist, but he didn't expect it to be so big in a blink of an eye.If you are born with a Zhilan Yushu, you will be a head taller than you in two years.

At that time, she didn't know whose girl she would take advantage of... She suddenly felt reluctant to give up, thinking that if Brother Jian got married, he might never have the time to drink with each other like this again, right?
This banquet lasted from Shenshi to Youzheng.

Li Wan suddenly came over and saw that it was already dark outside, so he reluctantly took Jia Lan and left.

Maybe he was greedy, and Li Weijian was a little wanton at the moment.After seeing off Li Wan, he returned to the house and greeted him: "I just went to have a drink, but I didn't touch the food very much. Come here and have a few drinks with me."

In Qingwen's eyes, she didn't care about the master or the slaves the most. She came over to sit down with a smile and said, "Fourth master didn't tell me that I want to try it too. These fresh leafy vegetables are so delicious to look at." Xiu Ying followed closely. Afterwards, Da Lilie sat down and looked at the roast duck, her mouth watering: "This Fuzhong food is too lukewarm, but I haven't eaten roast duck in a long time." She has a pure temperament, and since Li Weijian has spoken, she will listen.

On the contrary, Xiangling and Hongyu were worried.Xiangling was a dull boy and hesitated to speak; Hongyu could only laugh and said: "I'm afraid the fourth master drank too much. There is no maid sitting with the master, which breaks the rules."

"I'll make an exception today. I won't make an exception next time." Li Weijian said nonchalantly.

After hearing what he said, Hongyu couldn't say anything else, so she had to drag Xiangling to the table.

Several maids tasted the green vegetables and found them very refreshing. They drank the thick wine, which was very sour and sweet.Qingwen had just listened for a long time, and now she asked: "Fourth Master, they say you are getting rich, how much money have you made?"

"Hard to say."

"Why can't you tell me?"

Li Weijian smiled and said: "It's hard to say since I didn't change hands and go out."

Qingwen thought about it: "Then... can it be a few thousand taels? I saw that Grandma's expression changed just now. I'm afraid it's only a few thousand taels, right?"

"Well, it's almost the same. If you go higher, guess what."

"Ten thousand taels?" Qingwen's expression suddenly changed, and then she said happily: "That's really a real fortune."

Several maids chattered, but Xiangling remained dumbfounded. She only glanced at Li Weijian from time to time, her eyes full of reverence.

Li Weijian sat back on the chair with a glass of wine in his hand, only looked at it with a smile and said nothing.At the moment, I just feel that these years are quiet and peaceful, and I just hope that it will last forever.

If you act recklessly today, you will have to put your tail between your legs and be a good person tomorrow. You must not be proud, let alone slack off.You must know that life is like sailing against the current. If you don't advance, you will retreat.

Now that he has the favor of a saint, he will not attract the covetous attention of powerful people from all over the world.It's just that the blue eyes also have a time limit. After a year or two, the saint forgot about it. If he didn't become stronger by then, cats and dogs would dare to pounce on him and bite him.

Li Weijian sighed and muttered: "We still have to make progress."

Qingwen heard it when she was close, turned around and joked with a smile: "Fourth Master, please take a rest. This thing is included in both houses, which one can be as progressive as Fourth Master? Fourth Master is still young, so he needs to take care of his body and bones."

Hongyu also said: "Yes, Fourth Master is not short of money now, so he must study harder. It's already March, and autumn is August, so there is not much time to prepare."

The silly girl Xiu Ying gnawed on the duck leg and said vaguely: "Together, I can only plant it!"

Several maids looked over and were immediately overjoyed. They all laughed and scolded: "After all, swallow it before you speak! Be careful before you choke!"

....................................

The next day was the first day of March.

Li Weijian is still young after all. He drank a lot of heavy wine yesterday and got up a little late today.He thought about running around for more than a month, but now he can be lazy?Because of this, a lazy mind arises.

Immediately, he called Xiu Ying and asked her to tell Wu Haiping that she didn't have to wait any longer. Then Shi Shiran let Qingwen and Xiangling wait on her and put on her clothes.

Lazy had just had breakfast and was thinking about what to do when a mother-in-law came over to inform him that Mrs. Xing, the eldest wife, was coming to visit later.

Li Weijian felt disgusted in his heart. He knew that the eldest man and his wife were a pair of idiots, and he was extremely unwilling to deal with them, but it was hard to turn them away.

So he quickly ordered a few maids to tidy up, and changed into green clothes. After waiting for a while, he heard the red jade announcement that the eldest lady was coming, and then Shi Shiran went out to welcome her.

Just when I arrived in the courtyard, I saw several maids and women walking in to welcome the spring, accompanied by half the old lady and the second girl. (Note [-])

Li Weijian hurried forward to greet him.After some pleasantries, Mrs.

Will Jia She praise him?Whoever wants to believe this nonsense can believe it.I'm afraid that the eldest master, Jia Shehun, didn't take Li Weijian seriously. He had already forgotten that he offended him with his words that day, right?

Li Weijian will only keep this small grudge in his heart. If there is another incident in the future, it will be no wonder that he, Li Weijian, resorted to tricks.

Because he smiled and said humbly: "The eldest man is too complimentary, eldest madam...Second young lady, please come to the room to speak."

The group of people entered the house, and the maid served them fragrant tea. The second girl Yingchun just sat with her with a shy face and her head hanging down, twisting the handkerchief with both hands, wishing to twist the water out of the handkerchief; The lady only said flattering words without any words.

First, I said that Li Weijian was born well, then he said he was talented and learned, and then he said he was very capable.

Even though she could never be flattered, Mrs. Xing's ability to flatter her was really bad. Fortunately, Li Weijian had some self-cultivation, otherwise she would have dug a cellar with her toes.

Che Zulu talked a lot, and when he came to the eldest lady, he said, "Brother Jian, I came to see you this time because I actually have something to ask for."

Li Weijian said: "Madam, you are very polite. If you have anything to do, just ask me. I will do whatever I can."

Mrs. , it was great a year ago.

I originally wanted to go and fulfill my vow in the first month of the year, but there were too many things to do, so I was delayed.Now that it was almost clear, the old man remembered it again and sent me and the second girl to fulfill his wish.But unfortunately, both people from Dongfu were injured, and Brother Lian has been busy these days.

I really couldn't find anyone to escort me. After much deliberation, I had no choice but to ask Brother Jian.Brother Jian, I wonder if you will be free tomorrow? "

After saying that, Mrs. Xing smiled and touched Yingchun with her elbow: "Second girl, in order to fulfill the wish of the eldest man, you also beg Brother Jian."

Yingchun raised her head shyly and met Li Weijian's sharp eyes. She immediately lowered her head and said softly: "Brother Jian...I...you..."

Si Qi behind him couldn't bear it anymore, looked at Li Weijian with a burning look, and said, "Fourth Master Jian, we girls have already spoken. If you have time, you might as well take a trip."

Note 32: Based on what Xing Dequan said and that Jia She only came up with the idea of ​​infertility after the death of Yingchun's mother, I have made a rough calculation.According to the calculation of Mrs. Xing's marriage at the age of eighteen, Yingchun is now fourteen, so she is unlikely to be over [-] years old. The maximum number is taken here.

(End of this chapter)