Madam Hou

Chapter 121

The servant girl served the dishes in an orderly manner. There was a large round table that could accommodate more than ten people. It was filled with delicacies, and a pot of ginseng and chicken soup was placed in the middle of the table.A large white-bodied soup basin made in official kilns. The whole body of the soup basin is smooth and smooth without any pattern. A whole old hen is placed in the middle of the soup basin. Only unsliced ​​old wild ginseng, as well as wolfberry, red dates, turmeric, green onion and so on.

Lu Daliang looked at the table full of mountain delicacies, and then at the riches and honors around the room. Five maids stood behind their family one by one holding ivory chopsticks, and there were four other maids standing at the four corners of the flower hall. , bow your head respectfully.

Lu Dalian made no promises, he almost lost his hands.Beside her, her wife Da Zhong, her son Lu Wen, her daughter-in-law Xiao Zhong, and her daughter Qian Jie also looked amazed.
Da Zhong looked around with glowing eyes, then tugged at her husband's sleeve, and said in a sour voice: "My niece is living a really rich life!"

Seeing that Zhong's lack of discipline wanted to embarrass himself, Lu Daliang quickly shook off her hand and coughed, then moved his buttocks and sat upright, squinting his eyes to peek at the maid next to him, but the maid didn't seem to look at her at all. Seeing Zhong's actions, he still looked at them with a slight smile.

Caizhu stood beside her, smiling and said: "Uncle, uncle, wife, young master, grandma, and miss, please don't be polite. Although our wife is unable to meet you in person due to her illness, the lady has already told the servants Now, the servants must treat the distinguished guests well and make you feel at home. Tell the servants what uncles and gentlemen want to eat, and the servants will come and serve you dishes."

Da Zhong quickly said: "Your niece is too polite, they are all from my own family, so we can do it ourselves..."

Lu Daliang tugged Da Zhong's sleeve, gave her a warning look, and forbade her to speak again.

On the other side, Xiao Zhong scooped out a spoonful of thick rice soup from the bottom of the bowl with a spoon, then pulled the sleeve of the gentleman next to him excitedly, and said in surprise: "Master, Mr., look, there is still rice soup in it." Abalone, and... and bear's paws..."

Sister Qian glanced at her sister-in-law in distaste. She was brought up by the Da Zhong family as a "lady" since she was a child, and she has always described herself as a lady. I look down on my sister-in-law's petty appearance.

Sister Qian raised her eyes to look at Cai Zhu, and asked with a smile, "I don't know how my cousin is doing? I wonder if my sister can be accommodating and lead us to visit my cousin."

Cai Zhu smiled and said: "The doctor said that Madam has moved her fetus and needs to rest. It is best not to disturb Madam." Subtext, visits are avoided.

Lu Daliang said with a chuckle: "Children are important, children are important. My niece is pregnant with the eldest son of the Hou family. You should be careful. The next time we visit her, it will be the same."

After eating, Cai Zhu asked people to remove the table, and then said to Lu Daliang: "Uncle and grandpa probably haven't found a place to live when they came to Beijing. Our wife is very considerate and has already asked people to put her in Huaishu alley." A dowry house has been cleaned up, and the uncles and uncles and wives can live in it after a while."

Lu Daliang, Da Zhong's and the others were very disappointed, they thought they could live directly in the Hou Mansion.

Cai Zhu seemed to have seen through what they were thinking, and continued: "Madam would like to keep uncles and gentlemen to live in the Hou Mansion, but the Hou Mansion does not have a separate family, and the rules are too strict, Madam is pregnant, so it is inevitable that she will not take good care of her. Letting the uncles live in the mansion is afraid that the uncles will be wronged, so I thought it would be better to let the uncles live outside and feel at ease..."

Xiao Zhong hurriedly interrupted: "Don't be wronged, don't be wronged, living outside is better than living in the Hou's Mansion, you can just arrange a yard for us in the Hou's Mansion, we..." But before the words were finished, Her husband pulled his sleeves and winked desperately.Only then did Xiao Zhong feel that she was losing her composure, so she slowed down and said, "Uh... I mean, we live in the Hou Mansion so that we can be closer to cousin Yinniang, who is pregnant. When we need someone to accompany us, we can also talk to her from time to time to relieve her boredom."

You think you are a storyteller, who wants you to talk to relieve boredom.

Caizhu looked down on them in her heart, but she didn't show it in her heart. She continued to smile and said: "You are Madam's distinguished guests. I have wronged you. How can Madam feel sorry? Besides, her in-laws are also in the capital. The natal family of your in-laws asked you to live outside the mansion because they wanted you to walk around with your in-laws." As he spoke, he pretended to look at the sky, and continued: "I think it's getting late, and the road is dark It’s not easy to go, why don’t I send my uncles and gentlemen out now, let the steward of the outer courtyard take you to the place where you live. In addition, we have notified the wife in-law, maybe the wife in-law has come, so it’s okay to ask the wife in-law to wait Not good, don’t you think so?”

After seeing Lu Daliang and his family away, Caizhu entered the inner courtyard.Yin Niang was sitting on the couch with two little maids helping her pinch her legs. As the month got older, she would often feel sore legs and feet, especially at night.

Seeing Caizhu come in, Yinniang asked, "Are they gone?"

"Yes." Caizhu replied: "Don't worry, ma'am, the table is top-notch, and the precious items such as abalone and ginseng are well-priced. It will definitely not make people feel that you treat your relatives poorly and prevent people from living in the house." That's because I'm afraid that my uncles and gentlemen won't feel comfortable living here, and it definitely doesn't mean I'm impatient to entertain relatives."

Caizhu thought about the meal that she had prepared tonight, it was a big expense, wild ginseng, abalone, bear's paw, sea cucumber, thinking of these things, she felt distressed.

Yin Niang laughed and said, "You are the only one who is narrow."

Qing Hua said indifferently: "Ma'am, it's just your kindness. When my wife and you were bullied by the master and Aunt Dou, the uncle didn't say to support the wife and you, but also took the opportunity to blackmail the wife's dowry. They succeeded. Now you don’t say you’re going to beat them out, but you still entertain them with delicious food and drink, and let them live in your dowry village.”

Yin Niang said: "I don't have good intentions, but I am afraid of people's words. If I beat them out regardless, you know that I treat them in the same way. Others don't know the inside story. Otherwise, we will only think that we will look down on our former relatives and treat them poorly when we are prosperous. Lord Hou wants fame when he is an official, the empress wants fame in the palace, and the Hou Mansion also wants fame. No matter how much I hate them, I can’t do whatever I want.”

Qing Hua lowered her head, although she felt that what Madam said made sense, she was still a little bit aggrieved.

Qingteng is more sensible than Qinghua, and she agrees with Yinniang's actions.But she was puzzled by another matter, and asked Yin Niang: "Uncle and his family are doing well in Linping County, why did they come to the capital?"

Yin Niang lowered her head and pondered, she also had doubts about this.After a while, she told Caizhu: "Help me find someone to find out, they must have caused some trouble to come here."

Caizhu knelt and said yes.

On the other side of the Huaishu alley, Mrs. Da Zhong took Mrs. Chen's hand, crying and said: "...Sister, you are all liars who killed thousands of dollars. They said they wanted to change the salt for us, but it turned out to be nothing. After taking our money, the person disappeared. It was 5 taels of silver. We sold the fields and the shop. Help us tell our nephew and son-in-law, let him bring back the liar who killed a thousand swords, cut him into pieces, and most importantly, get our money back... Woooooo...why are we so miserable ...."

Mrs. Chen felt distorted when she heard Da Zhong's crying, but she was an adopted cheap brother. She remembered clearly how their family treated her back then. She felt that they deserved it for being cheated. God opened his eyes and retribution.

Mrs. Chen withdrew her hand, wiped it with a handkerchief, and then said slowly: "Okay, if you have something to say, talk it out, what are you crying about. Also, you believe him when he says to change the salt, how can you be deceived?" You lied to me?" Wasn't it very smart when he blackmailed her?

Da Zhong covered her mouth with her handkerchief and continued to cry: "Sister, it's really not our fault, we didn't believe it at the beginning, but what he said was sincere, and he said that he was friends with Lord Yongning. We are Yinniang’s uncles and aunts who pull us to make a lot of money. Even so, we can’t believe it. We only gave him 100 taels at first, but later he really helped us exchange 1000 taels of salt for us. , the second time we gave him 1000 taels, and he exchanged 1 taels of silver for Yanyin. The third time, he asked us if we would like to make the next largest one. Thinking that earning more money could also win glory for his father, so he bought the family's fields and shop, sold a total of more than 4 taels of silver, and gave him all the 1 taels he earned before, but the man took the money The man ran away without a trace. We believed him only because he said he knew Lord Hou, otherwise, you know your elder brother's temperament, how could you be so easily deceived. "

Mrs. Chen hummed in her heart: no matter how much you talk about, it's just because the brocade silk touches people's hearts and because of your own greed.What to say to win glory for father, because he said he was a friend of Lord Yongning, he believed him, but it was all an excuse.

(End of this chapter)