Do you know: I am Xu Jiazi

Chapter 442: No Thief Can Steal the Door of Five Women [Thank you! Goodbye! 36k more to go]

Early afternoon (after 3 p.m.)
Imperial Palace of the Great Zhou Dynasty
The emperor walked into the Queen's Palace with his hands behind his back, followed by the eunuchs and female officials.

The empress, who was standing by to greet him, bowed to the emperor and said, "Your Majesty, have you finished arranging the Qingming Festival?"

As he said this, he took the teacup from the female official beside him and handed it to the emperor.

The emperor nodded and took the teacup. He drank a sip of tea and said, "I heard that the Chai family has entered the palace?"

"Yes, Madam Chai told me that Jing'er went to the Chai family. She thought something was wrong with what happened to Miss Zheng Zheng, so she came to the palace to talk about it."

"What did you say?"

The Queen looked at the Emperor holding the teacup and whispered, "Madam Chai said that she hopes Your Majesty can send someone to investigate the affair between the Gao family father and son."

Zhao Meifeng sent Gao Yunqing to inform the emperor of Xu Zaijing's affairs, and the emperor was naturally aware of it.

Listening to the Queen's words, the Emperor handed over the teacup with one hand and pursed his beard with the other hand and said, "Madam Chai, do you suspect that the Gao family has leaked Zheng Zheng's whereabouts?"

"Mrs. Chai has such suspicions, and she also said that the woman who caused the Gao family father and son to have this scandal back then had unknown origins, and it is hard to say where she was sent from!"

After the queen finished speaking, she looked at the stunned emperor and did not continue speaking.

After a moment, the emperor sneered: "Oh, the Gao family's daughter married so far away. In this case, the Gao family should investigate."

"Someone! Send a letter to Dengzhou and ask the Imperial City Division to investigate."

"Yes."

Looking at the eunuch who turned around to deliver the imperial edict,
The emperor still sat on the chair with an expressionless face.

As they had been married for many years, the empress knew that the emperor was thinking at this moment. The empress did not disturb the emperor too much, but gently placed the refilled teacup next to the emperor.

The eunuchs and ladies serving in the palace also slowed down their breathing.
After a long silence,
The emperor took a deep breath and said, "I remember that Chen Xian from the Ministry of Revenue mentioned the money for supporting the temples in Northern Liao before."

The queen nodded and said, "Minister Chen did say this. Northern Liao worships Buddhism, and some large Buddhist temples can mint their own coins for offerings. These coins can also be circulated in Northern Liao."

The emperor sneered, "It seems that the Imperial City Bureau's guess is correct. The gold and silver that Prince Yan hid before did not only come from the people's money and blood."

"Speaking of which, a few days ago, the ministers in the court suggested that we should attack Northern Liao. Today, I think what they said is not unreasonable."

Hearing the emperor's words, the queen looked a little doubtful and said, "Your Majesty, now that Bai Gao has settled down, it is not a good idea to start a war again."

The emperor nodded.

evening,

Bianjing,

Zhu Zhai,

Ni Qiqiu, who had returned from her mother's home in Xiaoya Lane, entered the inner courtyard with her maid.
Looking at the mother-in-law who was walking in the yard, Ni Qiqiu walked over with a smile: "Mother-in-law, my daughter-in-law is back."

Aunt Xu Zaijing smiled and said to Xu: "How is the decoration of the house going?"

"With the help of relatives from the Sun family, the arrangements are almost complete."

Zhu Xu nodded: "That's good, Qiu'er, come with me and write a letter to my hometown in Xiangzhou!"

Ni Qi Qiu hurried over and helped his mother-in-law into the house.

The maid helped spread the letter paper on the table, and Ni Qiqiu was very skilled in grinding ink. While grinding the ink, she said, "Mother-in-law, what's the matter?"

Zhu Xu said, "Just now your cousin's wife came to the Marquis's mansion and said that the mansion needed some strong men who knew martial arts."

Seeing Ni Qiqiu's expression, Zhu Xu continued, "There are things on the farm that need to be looked after day and night, and the men still have to work during the day, so there must be trustworthy people taking turns to guard."

"My daughter-in-law understands."

As he spoke, Ni Qi Qiu picked up the brush, dipped it in ink and started writing.

"Make it clear in the letter. The Marquis's Mansion and our family will send money to Zhujiabao, and we can hire people to do the work in the fields."

"Yes."

This day in late February,

The 105th day since last winter solstice,

It is the Cold Food Festival.
Most fifteen-year-old girls in the capital had their coming-of-age ceremony on this day.

So, early this morning, Sun, her two daughters-in-law and the maids were busy preparing the clothes to be worn and the gifts to be given for the coming-of-age ceremony.

At the gate of Yongyihou Mansion,
Where the lanterns were hung in the past,

Today, two slender willow branches are fixed.
On the drooping willow branches were strung a string of swallow-shaped pancakes inlaid with red dates that had been steamed yesterday.

The cook in the marquis's mansion is very skillful. She embedded the red dates in the dough so that a little bit of them could be seen. After being steamed, the exposed red dates looked like the eyes of a swallow.

The morning breeze blows,

The willow branches holding the pancakes swayed gently in the wind.

"tatter"

There was the sound of horse hooves coming from the side door of the mansion.
After a while,
A majestic and handsome black horse stepped out from the door.
The young man on horseback looked at Liu Zhi at the door and Zai Zhang beside him and said, "Brother, I didn't notice it when I came back yesterday. This Zi Tui Yan at the door of our house is really vivid."

Zai Zhang who followed out smiled.

Xu Zaijing rode his horse forward a few steps, and came to a place not far from the willow branches to take a closer look.

Before he could even take a few glances, Xu Zaijing hurriedly tugged on the reins of the little black colt and shouted, "Go away, you can't eat this. This is used to commemorate the ancient Jie Zitui!"

"唏伦~"

The horse opened its mouth but didn't get any noodles, and the little black colt, which was pulled aside by its owner, snorted.

Xu Zaijing and his party left Quyuan Street.
After turning onto the street and walking for a while,

I rode my horse to the bridge over the Bianjing Grand Canal.

Xu Zaijing rode on his horse and smiled slightly as he watched the canal become busy again with boats competing for the flow.

After getting off the bridge,

The land that was burned down by the fire has now been rebuilt into a new house, surrounded by bamboo scaffolding, and no one knows what it is used for.

Along the way,
There are many shops and doors along the street with Na Zitui Yan hanging on their doors.

The skills of each housewife or cook are different, so the appearances of the dough-made Zitui Yan are also varied.

As we approach Jiying Lane,
It was already bright, and there were shops on the roadside with banners reading "Wang's Paper Horse".

There are origami pavilions and houses placed in front of the store, which look very exquisite. Although it is morning, people still pay for them from time to time.

After all, Qingming Festival is in two days, and the prices of things in this paper horse shop will change on that day.

Arrived at the school,

Changbai, who was studying in the same room, greeted him.
Xu Zaijing and his brother also sat down and started their day's study.

Sun rise,

The three Lan positions in the school are still vacant.

Zhuang Xuejiu hasn't come yet.

Qi Heng looked at Minglan's position, then turned back to Changfeng and said, "Brother Feng, why didn't the three sisters of the Sheng family come today?"

Chang Feng yawned, propped himself up with his hands, looked at Gu Tingye and Zai Zhang who were also looking at him, and said, "Today, a relative's sister is coming of age, and they all went to watch the ceremony."

Everyone nodded,

At this time,

Footsteps were heard, and Zhuang Xuejiu walked in leisurely with his hands behind his back and a folding fan in his hand.

After the scholar sat down, he talked about the article with everyone for more than an hour.
It's time (after ten o'clock in the morning)

When everyone went to the Sheng family yard outside the school to relax and take a walk,
Just then, they saw Sheng Hong, who had just come out of court, walking in the yard with Sheng Wei in official uniform. Sheng Hong had a serious expression on his face, and Sheng Wei's face didn't look good either.

"Brother Wei, Sun's son also won the title of scholar, but after I took the exam, I felt..."

Xu Zaijing's keen hearing allowed him to vaguely hear what Sheng Hong and Sheng Wei said.

Seeing people walking,
Sheng Hong and Sheng Wei both smiled and nodded to Xu Zaijing and others who saluted.

Subsequently,

Everyone returned to the school.

When the class continued, Mr. Zhuang was asked to leave by Sheng Hong.

Xu Zaijing and others in the school looked outside curiously. They couldn't hear clearly what was said, but they saw Sheng Hong talking in a low voice with a smile on his face, and Zhuang Xuejiu nodded with a smile.

Finally, I could vaguely hear Zhuang Xuejiao say in a clear voice: "Since Lord Sheng said that the child needs guidance, I will naturally do my best to help him if I have time."

Sheng Hong bowed.

Xingguofang,
British government,

Today, many expensive carriages were parked in front of Zhang's house.
Inside the courtyard, fragrant clothes and hairpins gleamed like clouds.

The Duchess of England looked at her little daughter standing in the middle of the crowd with great satisfaction.

There was another girl of about the same age as Zhang Jiawuniang, who was one of the daughters of Lu Fuma, the son-in-law of Duke Lian.

The old lady of the Duke of Lian was standing beside the lady of the Duke of Ying.

The two dukes' wives had a very good relationship. When the old lady of Duke Lian asked the Duchess of England to act as the go-between for Lu Zezong to be his sworn brother, it was the old lady of Duke Lian who asked the old lady of Duke Lian to act as the go-between.

Today, the daughters of both families will be coming of age.
In order to make it convenient for the ladies in the capital, they decided to hold the coming-of-age ceremony at the Zhang family.

The person who gave the fifth lady of the Zhang family a hairpin today was none other than Madam Zheng, the eldest wife of General Zheng Jun, who was both talented and virtuous, serious and good at managing the household.

The person who was assisting and holding the tray of hairpins was Gu Tingyi, the legitimate daughter of Ningyuan Marquis.

The one who gave the Lu family girl her hairpin was the Queen's adopted daughter, the Duke of Qi's eldest wife, Princess Pingning.
The sponsor who assisted was the Queen's niece, a noble lady from the Cao family who had previously attended Anmei's wedding.

Mrs. Sun, wife of Marquis Xu, brought her two daughters-in-law and the other ladies around her, all looking at the noble ladies in the room with smiles on their faces.

From time to time, he talked to Mrs. Bai and Mrs. Wu beside him.

Mrs. Wu covered her mouth with her hand, but said in a voice that everyone around could hear: "Tsk, tsk, this Jiaji has chosen a good host and guest. It's great! There will be countless good days in the future!"

Hearing this,

Zhang Jiawu Niang looked at Madam Zheng in front of her with a blush on her face.

Gu Tingyi on the side also laughed.

The two elders in the Zheng family are in poor health.
As Zheng Xiao's eldest sister-in-law, Madam Zheng took care of her parents-in-law and raised Zheng Xiao.
In the future, if a girl marries into the Zheng family, she will be said to be a sister-in-law to Madam Zheng, but in fact they can also be seen as mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.

Madam Zheng was well-known for her talent and virtue, and she was upright and never difficult to deal with. With Madam Zheng around, anyone who became her sister-in-law could almost live a comfortable life as a hands-off manager.

Princess Pingning is the eldest lady of the Duke's Mansion.

The Duke of Qi had no concubines.
After getting married, she had a son.
Life is comfortable without concubines causing trouble.
Sun smiled and agreed, "That's right, madam!"

Chai Zhengzheng, Rong Feiyan, Li Jia Wu Niang and other friends of Zhang Jia Wu Niang in Beijing who came to watch the ceremony also laughed.

Hearing the laughter, Zhang Jiawu Niang glared at them with a little embarrassment and anger.

His eyes were filled with a look of 'Sooner or later this day will come to you, just wait and see.'

While looking at the noble ladies around her, Zhang Jia Wu Niang would smile at Xu Hou's wife, Sun, from time to time, and then look at Chai Zhengzheng and Rong Feiyan after she finished smiling.

Seeing Chai Zhengzheng holding a handkerchief in front of her, waving her hands slightly to beg for mercy, Rong Feiyan lowered her head and did not dare to look at her. Only then did Zhang Jiawu Niang slightly raise her eyebrows with satisfaction.

The coming-of-age ceremony ended in laughter.

The ladies around began to return to their seats to drink tea.

Before Chai Zhengzheng could get far away, Zhang's Fifth Lady walked over wearing her new hairpin and said, "Zhengzheng, Jinming Lake will be open in a few days, let's go together then!"

Chai Zhengzheng was about to speak when he saw a nanny from the Lu family walking quickly towards the old lady of Duke Lian.

Then the nanny whispered a few words into the old lady's ear.

The old lady then went to the British Duchess,
When Zhang Jiawu Niang pulled Chai Zhengzheng and Gu Tingyi over, the old lady of Duke Lian had already left with her people.

Listening to the words of the ladies around me,
The three noble ladies then realized that they were marrying into the third branch of the Lu family. The princess, who was pregnant last year, was feeling unwell today and might give birth today.

The ladies were also talking in low voices.
Most of them were discussing whether the princess would give birth to girls this time like the previous six times.

You know, there is a saying in the Great Zhou Dynasty that "a thief cannot get past the door of five women".

It means that the thieves in the Great Zhou Dynasty would not patronize a house with five daughters.
It's because marrying off a daughter is too expensive.
The Lu family has six golden flowers
(End of this chapter)