The Concubine's Survival Manual

Chapter 175

The third birthday of Shiro and Goro was very lively.Although there was no major extravagance, several close families also sent birthday gifts, and the eldest wife even came to visit the two little grandchildren in person.

"Why didn't you set a ranking yourself?" She was a little unhappy, "I want to use the word generation with my brothers!"

Qin Niangzi had no choice but to bring up Xu Fengjia's explanation, "The abbot of Guangfu Temple said that the fate of the two children is very hard, but they have to be suppressed in everything in order to grow up safely."

Ever since Wu Niangzi had an accident, the eldest wife has been fascinated by the theory of ghosts and gods. When she heard the meaning of gods and Buddhas, she stopped talking and clapped her palms together to recite a few times before she and Seventh Niangzi expressed their feelings.

"Having said that, I still think that the sooner the division between the brothers is decided, the better, lest the brothers who are direct relatives have two hearts because of the glory and wealth, and it's not worth it."

It seems that Xu Fengjia did go to Yang's house to explain the middle joint in person: the eldest wife did not blame Qiniangzi too much for the naming.

"Maybe the child is still young after all." Although Qin Niangzi didn't want to emphasize Shiro's late maturity, but the matter had come to this point, she had no choice but to bring up this reason. "Besides, Shiro is three years old, and he still can't speak freely..."

Seeing the eldest wife's expression, she added another sentence, "But he is sober, not stupid at all! I think this kid is just too showy."

Goro has already been able to express himself completely, and under the guidance of his adoptive mother, he even salutes the adults seriously, looking like an older child.

The eldest wife's face was immediately covered with a layer of worry. She looked thoughtfully at the two young masters playing outside, and then sighed slowly after a long time.

"It's fine to wait another two years. Fortunately, Goro is extremely smart."

The eldest lady stood up again and entered the small mourning hall for the fifth lady in the east wing.

She stared at the brightly colored portrait for a long time, and finally praised vaguely, "The portrait of Seventh Lady is well drawn, and it captures Xiao Wu's charm."

He lowered his head and wiped his tears again before looking around at the decorations around him.

Although there are not many objects in this small mourning hall, it is cleaned spotlessly. It can be seen that the incense candles on the altar table are often replaced, and there are not many traces of incense candles on the fresh fruits on the table.

Although this is all done by maids, and Qin Niangzi only needs one order, but remembering this one order, it is already very caring for the ancestors.

The eldest lady turned around, patted Qin Niangzi's hand lightly, and nearly shed tears again.

"Our mother is the only one who still misses your Fifth Sister in this world."

After speaking half a sentence, he wiped his tears again.

Seventh Lady looked at the eldest wife with mixed feelings in her heart.

I haven't seen her for more than a month, and the white hair on her sideburns has grown a bit. Speaking of it, she is only in her fifties, but she seems to be approaching her sixtieth age. Compared with the handsome old man, she is simply Like an old wife and young husband.

She sighed, and softly comforted the eldest lady, "Isn't there still Shiro and Goro..."

Just as he was speaking, the hurried footsteps of the two young masters came from outside, Goro dragged Shiro, and rushed into the mourning hall surrounded by the two maidservants, shouting, "Grandmother!"

This child is not afraid of life at all. Although the eldest wife doesn't meet him much, she already remembers that this is his grandmother, the person he wants to be close to.

The eldest lady turned her back and wiped her eye sockets, then forced a smile on her face again, and waved to her two grandsons, "Shiro and Goro found it!"

The two children snuggled up to the eldest wife, and Wulang pulled on the sleeves of Seventh Lady, pointed to the small portrait of Fifth Lady and asked her to look, "Mother!"

The eldest lady was very relieved, and she glanced at Qin Niangzi happily, and Qin Niangzi smiled and nodded, "Well, that's your mother."

She patted Goro's head as a compliment for his cleverness, and Goro cheered up again, clamoring for pine nut candy, as if that was his deserved reward.Seeing that Qin Niangzi had reservations on her face, she cleverly asked the eldest wife, "Grandmother, pine nut sugar."

The eldest wife's heart was about to melt, how could she be willing to refuse, stood up and let Goro hold her hand, and beckoned to hug Shiro, "Brother Shou, come with me?"

Shiro was named Heshou, and Goro was named Hefu. They are not elegant names, but they seem to entrust the unfinished regrets of their biological mother, Wu Niangzi, so the elders do not have much objection.

Shiro looked at the eldest lady, then at Gu Yu who was standing at the door of the house and dared not come in, then hid under the skirt of Seventh Lady, blinked timidly, and ignored the invitation of the eldest lady.

After all, this child is much more afraid of giving birth than Goro.

Qin Niangzi patted Shiro's head and settled the eldest wife, "Mother go back and sit down first, I will bring Shiro over later."

When the eldest wife left the house with Goro in her arms, she patted Shiro on the shoulder, and asked Shiro gently, "Do you want Shiro to eat pine nut candy?"

Shiro took a deep breath before nodding his head, but he still didn't move. He just leaned against Seventh Lady's leg, pointed at Fifth Lady's portrait timidly, and asked Seventh Lady, "Mom?"

"Well, this is Shiro's mother." Seventh Lady repeated patiently, "It's also Seventh Aunt's older sister, the daughter of my grandmother."

Although children may not understand these complicated nouns now, they can still give him a little impression.

Shiro shook his head, pointing to the embroidery on Qiniangzi's skirt, and then to the delicate little portrait, "Painting?"

Seventh Lady was stunned for a moment.

This kid is so smart!I'm only a little over two years old, and I already understand the logical difference here.

"This is a portrait of Si Lang's mother." She explained to Shi Lang softly, "Si Lang's mother is not a painting, this painting is about her."

She hugged Shiro with difficulty and let him watch the fifth lady in the painting up close.This small portrait was covered with green tulle to prevent it from being yellowed by the smoke, and Qin Niangzi even lifted the tulle to let Shiro see the face of the person in the painting clearly.

With his thumb in his mouth, Shi Lang carefully looked at Wu Niangzi in the painting, and then at Qin Niangzi, as if he was struggling to express something with his expression. Seeing that Qi Niangzi didn't respond, he pondered for a while, and then spoke vaguely and slowly. ask.

"But mother... where is it?"

This was the first time that Qiniangzi heard Shiro ask questions on his own initiative, but she didn't expect it to be so logical and orderly.

She was a little happy at once, but also half sad, she couldn't help but glance at Gu Yu, as if she was looking for an appropriate answer.But what was harvested from Gu Yu's face was also a loss.

Does such a young child not understand death at all?
Seventh Lady pondered for a moment, and could only answer softly, "Silang's mother has gone far away, Seventh Aunt will help her take care of you."

Silang's white and tender face was suddenly covered with a shadow, "Damn it!"

He turned sideways unhappily, and leaned half of his body towards the door, "I want my brother."

Seventh Lady had no choice but to let go of her hand and let Bisha fall, covering Fifth Lady's smiling face.

She turned around and sent Shiro to Gu Yu's arms, and asked her to take Shiro to the nursery to find Goro to have fun. Then she turned around again, walked to the alcove, and carefully examined the small portrait she had drawn.

How can a painting replace the role of mother?

The two children may still not understand the feeling of losing their mother, but when they are a few years older and understand human affairs, they will always understand that it is impossible for the five ladies in the painting to provide them with family affection.

She lowered her eyes and sighed silently.

When the eldest wife is gone, the adoptive ladies and Gu Yuchun equinox will be called to talk.

"From now on, Shiro will pretend not to understand anything when he points with his finger." She ordered with a serious face, "This child in the Dongli room this morning, the child has already spoken very clearly. It can be seen that he is not good at it. People also understand what he means, so they are even more lazy to say it.”

It was rare for her to put her face down and speak, and the servants were a little scared.Grain Rain and Vernal Equinox are even more trembling, and they are in a hurry to respond.Only Chu Yangniang seemed to feel the need to defend herself, so she whispered to Qin Niangzi, "Silang has a stubborn temper..."

"He has a stubborn temper and doesn't like to talk. As an adult, can he let his temper go?" Seventh Lady raised her voice a little bit, seeing that Chu Yangniang didn't dare to say anything, she just stared at her sensibly, then waved her hand and said , "Let's all go down."

When Xu Fengjia came back that night, she discussed with Xu Fengjia. "The children are already three years old. I think about the enlightenment master. You should pay attention to it. When you are four years old, you can also be enlightened. When you are seven years old, you can seriously invite your husband to come back to study. For martial arts, you see Arranging... I think it's about this age."

Xu Fengjia's expression changed, "The children are also three years old!"

There are many children in Daqin who are enlightened at the age of four. Ninth brother is enlightened at the age of four. When he started to study in private schools at the age of seven, he has already memorized Zhongyong University very fluently.Seventh Lady's arrangement is quite satisfactory.

He pondered for a moment, and then asked Seventh Lady, "You can send a letter to Sun's house to ask the second sister, the youngest son of her family has reached the age of entering a private school, if Mr. Kaimeng is good, please come here, so that we don't have to bother to go Looking for it. It’s nothing to sit in an empty hall for a year.”

This method of handling coincided with that of Qin Niangzi. She hummed casually, picked up a chopstick of crispy fish for Xu Fengjia, and asked him, "How do you like Jiangnan cuisine? If you are not used to it, we will eat it tomorrow." Invite a master master from the North to come and open fire on both sides...Second sister's birthday is coming up, so I'll just ask casually when I'm making arrangements to give gifts."

Xu Fengjia found it very strange, "Since when have you cared about my taste?"

Seventh Lady gave him a blank look, and said in a low voice, "I'm not a wooden person, don't I know how to care for others?"

She added another sentence before Xu Fengjia said, "I didn't care about you before because——you are not worthy!" At the end of the sentence, it was blurred by a series of chuckles.

Xu Fengjia sneered, tapped Seventh Lady's forehead with her chopsticks, and lowered her voice to tease, "Tonight you will know whether I am worthy or not."

When the husband and wife ate, although there was no one to serve them, there were always people walking around in the Xici room. Suddenly, Qiniang's cheeks became red, she lowered her head and dared not look at Xu Fengjia, so as not to arouse his interest again, she just said in a low voice, "No, my childhood is here, you have to wait for a few days..."

Ever since the two of them started talking, Qin Niangzi never avoided the matter of Zhou Gong again.

Xu Fengjia flicked her tongue, sighed impatiently, and said softly, "Then you're still here to recruit me?"

He didn't wait for Qiniangzi to answer, and raised his voice, "I can eat your Suzhou cuisine well, but Huaiyang cuisine is always delicious with shredded chicken and crystal meat, but I haven't seen your cook cook it. "

"That's all restaurant food, and we don't eat that much at home." Qin Niangzi replied, watching Li Xia enter the room: she found that Xu Fengjia's hearing is very sensitive. "What? Didn't you go down to eat too?"

Li Xia glanced at Xu Fengjia with a look of embarrassment on his face. After thinking for a while, he returned to Qiniangzi, "It was Shiro who was making a fuss and refused to sleep...it made Goro cry too."

Both Xu Fengjia and Qiniangzi put down their chopsticks: Shiro and Goro seldom make noise, and it's even rarer to hear that Shiro loses his temper.

Seventh Lady frowned and listened to Li Xia's explanation.

"I heard from Gu Yu that Shiro didn't like to talk much at first, and he used his fingers for everything. This afternoon..." She gave Xu Fengjia a careful look. "Young Madam told us that from now on, we have to pretend not to understand what Shiro wants to ask for with his finger. When Shiro wanted to play, no one dared to step forward to help him, and in the end it was Goro who took it for him. Yes. Shiro became unhappy, and when he went to bed at night, he asked Mistress Chu to coax her to sleep, so he pointed at Mistress Chu, Mistress Chu pretended not to understand, but went out of the house instead, and Shiro burst into tears, making a fuss. Refuse to sleep!"

Listening carefully at this time, Qin Niangzi also heard that the East Wing was indeed not as quiet as usual.

Her brow furrowed even tighter.

These two adoptive mothers are really not easy-going lamps - there is not a single person in Mingdetang.

Although I have given orders not to allow the subordinates to respond to Shiro's gestures, but if I give an order, no matter how the subordinates do it, the result of the feedback may be completely opposite.

It seems that Chu Yangniang is not convinced that she wants to intervene in the children's education, so she gave her a belated slap in the face.

She glanced at Xu Fengjia, then sighed secretly. ——It can be considered that Chu Yangniang did it without a trace.

"Then let Mother Chu go back and coax her well..." she instructed Li Xia.

Just halfway through the words, Xu Fengjia hummed.

"Let him cry!" His brows were also wrinkled, making Lixia back several steps in fear, and looked towards Qiniangzi's side. "I got used to his temper at such a young age. How can I go to the battlefield when I grow up? Take Wulang to the next door to sleep, let him cry, and he will naturally fall asleep when he is tired from crying!"

Seven Lady couldn't help frowning, but she also nodded to Li Xia, indicating that she would do what Xu Fengjia wanted.

When Li Xia left the room, the room fell silent for a moment.

Seventh Lady picked up the chopsticks, picked some rose fermented bean curd and put it in her mouth, then Xu Fengjia asked her, "Are those two adoptive mothers being disrespectful to you because they nursed their children by themselves?"

She raised an eyebrow at Xu Fengjia in surprise.

This man is really keen, he can see so many things from this small detail.

It's not a big deal for Shi Lang to cry because of the change in the parenting policy, but Chu's adoptive mother chose to ask for instructions, obviously because she was dissatisfied with her intervention, so when something happened, she asked Qin Niangzi to face this problem.

She ignored Shiro's crying, because her stepmother was cruel, she wanted to take care of Shiro's crying, and asked Chu Yangniang to go back to comfort her, but she lost a trick.Qin Niangzi didn't expect Xu Fengjia to appreciate this kind of small things in the house.

"So I think, after the enlightenment next year, before the two children are five years old, the adoptive mothers will be sent away to take care of the elderly." She said slowly, without showing any anger. "In order not to be spoiled too shamelessly, it's also shameless."

This is also an unwritten rule of the big family. After the child is enlightened, the adoptive mother will gradually retire: Seventh Lady has no intention of embarrassing these two old things. Anyway, within a few years, everyone fell apart and suppressed Shiro for no reason. The people around Goro are easy to stir up disputes.

Xu Fengjia's brows were gloomy, and she seemed to be secretly angry, "Joke, even grandma doesn't dare to send you off at will, but let a few slaves make you angry!"

As soon as he slapped his chopsticks, he was about to call for someone, Qin Niang hurriedly pressed his hand, and said softly, "Don't be impulsive!"

She clasped the big rough hand, rubbed the tiger's mouth with her fingertips, and explained to Xu Fengjia comfortingly, "I didn't take this grievance to heart at all... It's only been a few months since I've been showing off, everyone, get together San, lest you offend them, and later they will gossip again, saying, 'If you have a stepmother, you will have a stepfather'."

Xu Fengjia's movements froze for a moment, and after a long while, he let out a long sigh and picked up the chopsticks again.

"At home and outside, there are so many things to worry about!" He made no effort to hide the irritability in his heart, "Be patient and bear it, and I don't know how long I will bear it!"

Seventh Lady pursed her lips and smiled.

"I can't bear it anymore? Let me tell you, only a hundred patience can become steel!" She wanted to let go of her hand and continue eating, but she didn't want Xu Fengjia to hold her catkin with her backhand, and rubbed it carefully with the belly of her thumb her palm.

This gesture was done by Qin Niangzi to appease, but by Xu Fengjia, it always contained a hint of teasing.

There was also a little smile in his eyes... It was like the swirling red in the glass water, so bright that Qin Niangzi dared not look directly at him.

"One more person to bear with me... It seems that it's not so unbearable!" He smiled and let go of his hand, "Eat and eat, there are still many things to do tomorrow."

Seventh Lady caressed her palm, then pressed her reddened cheeks, and only after a while did she softly respond.

"Yeah, there are still many things we need to do together..."

This sentence used to bring deep helplessness and compromise, but when it is said at this moment, it contains a little hope beyond all of this.

(End of this chapter)