Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 264: Plum Blossom Embroidery

After the Cold Clothes Festival ancestor worship ceremony at the Jia clan ancestral hall was over, Jia Cong went to Daiyu's room.

Although Grandmother Jia regarded Daiyu as the apple of her eye, her favor towards her was even greater than that towards her own granddaughters such as Yingchun, Tanchun and Xichun.

But no matter how much she loved Daiyu, she was still a relative outside the boudoir and was always excluded from the Jia family's ancestor worship ceremonies.

Unless she marries into the Jia family that day...

And every time the Jia family held a memorial ceremony for their ancestors, everyone in the garden would leave, leaving only her alone in the room, feeling extremely lonely.

She once joked to Jia Cong that during the first two years after she came to the Jia Mansion, she was still young, homesick, and sensitive, and she would always cry whenever she encountered such a situation.

It was a rare thing that she could talk about these things with Jia Cong frankly.
Thanks to Jia Cong's understanding and care in recent years, Daiyu has gradually opened up her heart and is no longer as sad and tearful as before.

However, when Daiyu talked about this matter, although she treated it as an anecdote from her childhood, Jia Cong could still hear the loneliness and regret in her words.

In fact, if you think about it carefully, it is human nature.

Every time the Jia family held a memorial ceremony for their ancestors, Daiyu inevitably felt more and more like an outsider.

During the spring and autumn sacrifices, under normal circumstances, the Sanchun sisters would go to the Jia clan ancestral temple to worship their ancestors. She should also go to the Lin clan ancestral temple to worship her ancestors and express her feelings and memories.

This is how people live in this world, connected by blood and family ties, but she has been wandering alone for many years.

……

Precisely for this reason, the Jia family's ancestor worship ceremony is perhaps the most complicated and delicate period for the sensitive and thoughtful Daiyu.

Call it understanding or sympathy, Jia Cong felt that someone should go see her and talk to her at this time.

If he were in this position, he would also hope that someone would treat him well in this way.

Sometimes even Jia Cong felt puzzled. Since Lin Ruhai had lost his wife, he should have loved his only daughter more.

How could he send her thousands of miles to her grandmother and not see her for several years, and only take Daiyu back to Yangzhou when he was seriously ill and on his deathbed?

Thinking about what happened before and after, it always seemed a little unreasonable, but he would not be stupid enough to ask Daiyu this question, so as not to make her sad.

When I entered Daiyu's room, I saw her flipping through a book out of boredom, looking a little absent-minded. Her beautiful brows were slightly furrowed, and she seemed to be full of worries.

Seeing Jia Cong come in, his slightly frowned brows slightly relaxed and he smiled, "Third brother, you are busy with the ancestor worship."

"Isn't it? It's the same thing. I'll come to see you when I'm done."

Daiyu smiled slightly. The new ancestral hall was clearly in the courtyard on the east side. It was not convenient for her third brother to come to her place, but she was happy after all.

She took out something from her dressing box and handed it to him with a smile: "I know that my second sister made clothes for you, and my third sister made shoes for you, so I can't make those for you.

I'll give you this as a holiday gift."

Zijuan said, "Third Master, our daughter is weak, and the old lady doesn't let her do needlework, fearing that it will drain her energy. The daughter hasn't done needlework for a long time.

This was made by the girl after working hard for several days. Look how good her embroidery is. Our girl is from Suzhou, and I didn’t know she had this skill before.”

Hearing Zijuan's constant praise for her, Daiyu blushed and interrupted her: "Go and make a cup of tea for Third Brother..."

……

Qingzhizhai.

When Jia Cong came back, he found Yingchun, Tanchun and Baochai were all there.

He smiled and said, "How come you all came here so neatly today? It seems like you were invited by invitation."

Tanchun said, "Third brother has been very busy these days. I heard that he runs back and forth every day, leaving early and returning late, and we can hardly see him.

Today is finally the Winter Clothes Festival, so of course I have to come to Qingzhizhai to hang out and chat."

Baochai smiled and said, "I heard that Brother Cong will go to the nine borders to do imperial business at the end of the year. These places are desolate and cold, much colder than the capital.

Keeping warm on a daily basis is the most important thing. I have a bearskin coat here, which my brother got from outside last year. He said it was a tribute from the country of Oros.

This cloak is made of top-quality bear fur, and is extremely warm. But if you put it on for a while, you will start sweating, and we cannot wear it here.

In the bitter cold places of the Nine Borders, it is just right for Brother Cong to take it there."

Jia Cong saw that the cloak was as black as ink, and the fur felt as smooth as silk and warm to the touch. It was a rare warm item. He thanked her immediately, "Thank you very much, Sister Bao."

Baochai smiled and said, "It's just a piece of clothing. Brother Cong, please stop talking nonsense."

Yingchun and Tanchun are blood sisters of Jia Cong with the same surname. They make clothes and shoes for Jia Cong without any scruples.

But Baochai and Daiyu are only relatives with different surnames, and they cannot do clothing and sewing for outsiders at will.

Jia Cong knew that girls like them, daughters of wealthy families, had been taught by their nannies since childhood, and had their minds set on the boundaries between men and women.

Although cousins ​​are always talking and laughing with each other, as they grow older, they are very careful about some rules and etiquette.

There were many gossipy servants in the garden, and it would be embarrassing for an unmarried woman if people gossiped about her.

……

What Baochai gave was just a ready-made piece of clothing, not something she had made herself, but it didn't matter.

She also specifically said that it was her brother who got it from outside and gave it to Jia Cong as a gift for the Cold Clothes Festival, and that was the reason why she was taking Jia Cong to the nine borders to endure the bitter cold.

It's thoughtful and appropriate, and there's nothing wrong with it.

Jia Cong understood to some extent that although Baochai was young, she had a sophisticated and thoughtful understanding of the world and human nature.

Most likely, she and her grew up with their widowed mother, and her brother Xue Pan is such a reckless person that he is not capable of anything.

She was born with talent and was unwilling to let her family be weak, so the girls in the boudoir were forced to set up their own households.

Daiyu's life was lonely, but she was unwilling to erase the smart and straightforward nature in her nature. If it showed to the outside world, she would appear to be aloof and conceited, and her life would naturally be difficult.

A person with outstanding talent like Baochai, who encounters a mediocre family background, strives to support herself and go with the flow. Although she wins a good reputation in the boudoir, her true self is obscured, which is actually not easy.

At this time, Baochai noticed that there was an exquisite sachet on Jia Cong's belt.

It is in the shape of a gold ingot, made of moon-white soft silk with a dark bamboo pattern, embroidered with a stone bridge and a bright moon as the background, and in the near distance is a red plum tree with sparse and slanting shadows.

The graphics are beautiful and the embroidery is elegant, which is very eye-catching.

Baochai smiled and said, "What an exquisite sachet! It is said that Qingwen is the best at sewing in Brother Cong's room. This must be Qingwen's handicraft.

Girls are most attentive to these exquisite objects. Tanchun, who was standing by, also saw the sachet on Jia Cong's body.

She only took a glance and knew that it could not have been done by Qingwen. Baochai was actually confused. Qingwen was the maid of the third brother, so how could she give a sachet to her master?

If the news reached the ears of the mistress and the old lady, they would be in big trouble. Moreover, the sachet was not only exquisitely embroidered, but the pattern was also quite poetic, which was beyond Qingwen's imagination.

Tanchun suddenly understood that in the first two years, Baoyu wanted to marry his third brother's maid Wu'er, but Sister Lin was not happy about it at that time and even protected Wu'er.

Most likely it was done by Sister Lin...

Among the sisters in the mansion, she is the closest relative from another family, and they grew up together in the garden...

Tanchun stared at the sachet on Jia Cong's waist in a daze.

Baochai saw that Jia Cong had a warm smile on his face, but did not speak, as if he did not want to talk more about this topic.

That's because Jia Cong knew very well that Daiyu was not like Yingchun and Tanchun, who dressed and sewed for him, which was somewhat taboo.

I made this sachet for myself as a holiday gift.

I still remember Daiyu's cute and smug expression at that time. She must have been very satisfied with her needlework.

He even tied it on his jade belt with great interest. Isn't this how jade pendants and sachets are used?

But he would not bring this up. It is better to be more cautious and prudent when it comes to things made by a girl herself.

Baochai was a smart person after all, and she understood what was going on at this moment. She felt a slight pain in her heart. Qingwen was his maid, and she could make clothes, shoes and socks for him, but how could she make sachets for him?

She recalled the day when she went to Daiyu's room and heard Jia Cong joking about his marriage proposal at the door. His words were full of care for Daiyu, how could she not hear it.

Naturally, I wondered who made this plum blossom sachet.

(End of this chapter)