Madam Hou

Chapter 30

It was supposed to be a time when a pair of unmarried men and women gazed at each other and confided in each other's heart, but they were interrupted by this sudden attack, which made Lin Shizi forget what he originally wanted to say.Lin Fengqi complained a little to his own younger brother in his heart: Dear, if you don't bring such a thing, can you pounce later!
The third young master Lin was spoiled by Mrs. Lin Hou a little lawlessly since he was a child, and he lacked the ability to observe words and expressions. He was completely immersed in the excitement of seeing his brother, and did not feel his little brother's complaints. After Luan Zha yelled a few times, he jumped off his back, took his brother's hand and pointed at Yin Niang, and said, "Brother, look, Mother found you a young wife while you were away, but sister-in-law is so young. , not as old as me."

Lin Fengqi looked in the direction his younger brother was pointing at, and Yinniang bowed her head in a shy manner in response to the situation. Lin Fengqi wanted to say something, but now Mrs. Lin Hou only saw her son in a dusty body, and forgot for a while. To give this unmarried young couple a chance to talk about love, he pulled his youngest son and said, "Okay, don't bother your brother." After speaking, he turned to Lin Fengqi: "It's been a long journey, so I'm afraid I'll be exhausted." , go back to your yard to freshen up, I will let Qingwu and Fangzhou take care of you, after washing up, take a good rest, and when it is time for dinner, I will send someone to ask you to eat in the front yard."

Then Lin Fengqi was pushed back to her own Mude Hall by Mrs. Lin Hou. When it was time for dinner, Lin Fengqi was snatched by her uncles and brothers to toast and asked about fighting Japanese pirates. Talked to his unmarried little wife.

There are three great joys in a man's life: getting promoted, getting rich and dying of his wife. Whether the last one is a joy in life remains to be verified, but the first two are really good things.Lin Fengqi was promoted, although he was only a military officer in the middle class, but he couldn't bear the fact that he was young, and he was earned through solid military exploits. His future was as bright as snowflakes.All the people in the capital packed up their gifts and sent out greeting cards, ready to come to celebrate.

Mrs. Lin Hou also felt that it was time to celebrate. Since the last Marquis passed away, the Yongning Hou Mansion has not been so crowded for a long time.So on the second day, I ordered people to open [-] seats in the front and back yards of their own homes, and invited people who had made good friends in the capital and those who planned to make good friends in the future to celebrate.Lin Fengqi, as the main character, of course has to go to the front yard to accompany the drink, and Yinniang is a female family member who can only be in the inner courtyard, helping Mrs. Linhou receive some ladies who came with the wife in charge. If someone compliments and jokes, she will show her shy.

In the next few days, Lin Fengqi will go out to meet friends or visit some elders.He is the eldest son of the Hou family, and it is inevitable to make friends with some wealthy children in the capital. Most of his friends will be helped by someone in case something happens in the future. Everyone in the wealthy and noble families knows this.After all, he has been away from Beijing for more than a year, and some of his former friends may be unfamiliar, but now that he is back, he will naturally pick up these relationships.There are also some elders who used to be friends with the old master, and of course they need to visit often when they come back.

So after all the big and small entertainments, by the time Lin Fengqi was free, it was already six or seven days later.During these six or seven days, it's not that Lin Fengqi didn't have the chance to meet Yinniang, but most of them met from afar, Yinniang bowed her head and then went about their business.

The night was dark, and there was a semicircular moon in the sky, and the moonlight sprinkled on the ground, making the surroundings hazy.

Lin Fengqi was walking in the back garden of his home, without any maids and servants by his side, holding the leaves that he had just torn from the tree, playing boredly.

The Marquis of Yongning covers an area of ​​[-] mu. There are more than a dozen large and small courtyards. The courtyards are scattered according to the scenery. There are Congjingyuan, Qinyaxuan and Xiaoyuelou courtyards between it and Qingheyuan.The Mude Hall where Lin Fengqi lives is in the northeast corner of Yongninghou Mansion, which is the largest courtyard besides Tangrong Courtyard, while Jingxiang Courtyard is in the east and west corners of Yongninghou Mansion, separated from Mude Hall by a plum blossom forest and a snow Meiyuan.

Passing through the plum blossom grove, you can see that the lights in the Jingxiang courtyard are still on, and there are a few vague conversations coming from inside.Lin Fengqi walked to the wall, tiptoed to the wall, jumped onto the wall, grabbed a branch protruding from the apricot tree planted in the yard, and climbed onto the tree.

In Jingxiang courtyard, Yinniang was sitting in front of the embroidery shed of the embroidery room, the windows were not closed, candles were lit on all sides of the embroidery room, making the room brightly illuminated.Behind Yinniang, Li Meme pointed softly: "Ms. has improved her stitches recently, and the color matching is also good-looking, but the stitches need to be finer and smoother to look good."

As soon as Li Meme finished speaking, he suddenly heard a "click" sound outside, as if a dead branch was breaking. Li Meme's ears moved, and he looked out the window, and saw the apricot tree in the yard. On the top, a skirt of navy blue men's clothing was exposed.Li Meme didn't understand anything, and said to Yin Niang tactfully: "Miss, I will practice first, and I will go to the next room to drink some water."

Yin Niang naturally also heard that voice, she lowered her head and said in embarrassment: "Yes."

After Li Memo left, Lin Fengqi jumped down from the tree, clapped his hands and walked out of the window of the embroidery room.Speaking of which, the young masters of the Lin family seem to be particularly keen on climbing the wall to see beauties. At the beginning, the second young master Lin climbed the wall to visit Yanniang, and since then he has been fascinated to the point where he has not recovered from his lovesickness.Now Young Master Lin also climbed from the wall to the tree and then jumped down to meet his fiancée.

Lin Fengqi leaned against the window, looking at half of the lotus flowers embroidered in the brocade on the embroidery shed inside, knowingly asked: "Hey, are you embroidering?" After asking, he looked at the crooked embroidered lotus, which looked like a lotus that had been bitten by insects, Frowning, he said in disgust, "The embroidery is so ugly, I won't dare to wear the purse you embroidered in the future, I'll be laughed to death."

Yin Niang's excitement and shyness at seeing her fiancé disappeared in an instant, and she puffed her cheeks and said angrily, "You don't care, who will embroider your purse." Just throw it at him.

Lin Fengqi flicked his body and caught the flying object. After catching it, he found that it was a pair of embroidery scissors. He couldn't help saying: "Hey, you want to murder your husband. Where did you learn all the precepts?"

Yinniang cowardly said: "Who, who told you to be cheap." The words she said were always a little guilty, and the momentum was less than half.She was out of breath and took something casually and threw it over, but she didn't know it was scissors.No matter what, she knew that she would depend on him for the rest of her life, and if she really hurt him, it would be a shame.

"I'm not wrong, the embroidery is ugly."

Yin Niang argued: "I just learned it, and I will be able to embroider beautifully in the future."

But Lin Fengqi thought he was generous and waved his hands: "Forget it, you can't embroider well, anyway, there are maids around, I'm afraid I don't have a purse to wear."

Yin Niang didn't want to discuss with him the problem of her bad embroidery, so she changed the subject and asked him, "Why are you here?"

"I couldn't sleep at night, so I went for a stroll in the garden, and then I came here after I was strolling around. I saw that the lights here were on, so I came to see you."

"Then you're done reading, go back to sleep."

Lin Fengqi's head went black, what an untimely remark!When ordinary people hear him say this, even if they don't say "I hate it, what's so interesting.", they should be moved.Why did she directly issue an order to evict the guest when she arrived.

"That's right, I'm going back." The words were spoken, but the person didn't move.The two of them stared at each other for a while, and the surroundings were quiet and silent, and no one said anything for a while.Originally, the two of them were not familiar, no matter how familiar they were, they still felt a little uncomfortable.

The atmosphere was momentarily awkward.But the moonlight was dim, and there were bright red lanterns every few meters above the promenade. The flames in the lanterns were dancing, and the leaves of the apricot tree in the yard rustled in the night wind.A man and a woman, one sitting in the window, the other leaning against the window, the man is handsome, the woman is pretty, looking at each other, this embarrassing atmosphere is mixed with a little bit of ambiguity and warmth.

The two of them stared like this for a long time, until they stood in front of the window of another house, and Li Mo, who was looking through the crack of the window to observe the couple, couldn't stand it anymore, closed the window and went back to the embroidery room, Standing outside the door coughed heavily.

When the two heard the voice, they knew that Li Momo, who went to "drink water" next door, had come back, and they both looked away in embarrassment.Lin Fengqi cleared his throat and said uncomfortably: "It's getting late, I have to go back."

Yin Niang nodded: "Oh."

After finishing, the two still didn't move. After a while, Lin Fengqi suddenly thought of something, and said to Yiniang: "Oh, yes, I have something for you." After speaking, he took out a rectangular The sandalwood box was handed to Yinniang: "For you."

Yin Niang asked: "What is this?"

"Just take it for you, what's the fuss. I know you should be in the capital when I come back. Don't you girls just like these gadgets." At the time, the daughter of the pirate leader was such a sturdy girl, and she was pestering her every day. Seeing that he was going to give her these little things.

Yin Niang took the box.

Lin Fengqi said again: "I'm really leaving, you have to put this thing away, I carved it myself." After speaking, he jumped up, jumped onto the tree, and jumped out of the yard along the wall.

Yin Niang opened the box, and inside the box was a layer of brocade, and on top of the brocade lay a shell.According to the pattern, two lotus flowers were carved out of the shell. The lotus flowers are next to each other, a bit like they come from the same stem.

There was a creaking sound of the door opening, Yinniang hurriedly put the shell back into the box, closed the lid, hid it in her sleeve, and finished it properly.Li Meme came over and said to Yin Niang after getting closer, "It's late today, so let's practice here first, and the lady should go to bed early."

Yin Niang respectfully answered yes.

Once the seven-day holiday is over, Lin Fengqi has a job and needs to go to the military office every day to be on duty.Dayan's office is a seven-day break, that is, six days of work and one day off.

Yinniang, on the other hand, is studying from morning, noon and night to bedtime.

Sometimes when it's time for embroidery in the afternoon, Miss Lin Fengxuan will also come to Jingxiangyuan to embroider with Yin Niang.Lin Fengxuan was engaged to the concubine son of Mrs. Lin Hou's natal elder brother Fushanhou. It turned out that the marriage was delayed because Fushanhou's mansion was guarding the filial piety of the old Houye. Ten, and recently, Mrs. Lin Hou has been preparing a dowry for the concubine who grew up by her side.The wedding day is approaching, Lin Fengxuan doesn't go out much now, hiding at home to embroider wedding dresses.

Lin Fengxuan is very satisfied with this marriage. Her aunt was originally Mrs. Lin Hou's companion girl, and now she is married back to Fushan Hou's Mansion, where her aunt always has some relationship.Moreover, Fushanhou's mansion is rich. The concubine he married was the fourth son of Fushanhou. His mother was originally a maid named Qinger who Fushanhou had served since childhood. After giving birth to two sons-in-law, seeing that she was honest, he stopped her. Zitang gave birth to the fourth young master Tian.After Aunt Qing gave birth to her son, she didn't dare to be proud of her son, and she still devoted herself to serving Fushanhou and Fushanhou's wife, and was honest all her life.Although he was not favored, but with the love of serving the Marquis of Fushan since he was a child, and without the embarrassment of the mistress, life is not difficult.The Fourth Young Master Tian is the same as his mother, although he doesn't have much talent, but he is not a playboy himself.After she married, the son-in-law and daughter-in-law don't need to preside over the gift, they only need to flatter their mother-in-law, and they will live separately in the future. With the money from the division and her own dowry, the two of them can't live like the son-in-law of the Hou family. Compared with the daughter-in-law, but it won't be any worse.

Lin Fengxuan grew up beside Mrs. Lin Hou. She has a gentle and considerate temperament, neither the cowardice of Miss Lin nor the arrogance of Miss Lin.No matter what the reason is, Lin Fengxuan also takes good care of Yinniang, who is three years younger than herself and will soon become her sister-in-law. She will give advice on some situations in the Hou Mansion, such as the maidservant who is in charge of affairs, etc. .Yin Niang has a good impression of her, and also likes to be with her. When the two of them are sewing together, they will occasionally chat and play a little.

After half a month of hard practice, Yinniang finally embroidered her first purse, using light purple cloud silk to embroider wisteria patterns.Although the embroidery on the purse can't compare with that of Lin Fengxuan, who worked as a female worker with her, it is much better than when it was first started.

While Yinniang was sewing the last hole for her purse, Lin Fengxuan was sewing her dowry handkerchief beside her.When the bride meets the relatives of her husband's family for the first time, she needs to give a meeting gift, so what is the best gift for the meeting, of course, it is a female handmade by herself.Generally, shoes and socks are given to the elders, and purses or handkerchiefs are given to sisters of the same generation.The Fushan Marquis has a prosperous population, and there are many girls in this generation, so she needs to embroider a lot of handkerchiefs, purses and the like.

Yin Niang picked out nine big and beautiful red beans from a pile of dried red beans in the bowl in front of her, and stuffed them into her purse one by one.Seeing this, Lin Fengxuan put down the needle and thread in her hand, walked up to Yinniang, smiled at her, and said, "Hey, your purse is really interesting to embroider. Other people's embroidered purses usually put some medicinal materials or jade pendants, but yours is for putting Red beans." After speaking, he took a red bean from the bowl, looked at it in front of his eyes, and then joked: "Red beans are born in the southern country, and a few branches will be sent in spring. May you pick more. This thing is the most lovesick. Red beans are also called lovesickness. Dou, needless to say, this purse must be for my big brother, right?"

Yin Niang blushed and argued, "Who said it was for him, it's for me to wear it myself."

"If it wasn't for my elder brother, then why are you blushing!"

"Who's blushing... yes, it's a little red, it's because the room is too stuffy and uncomfortable."

"Yes, yes, I know, our future sister-in-law blushes because the room is too stuffy, not because of my elder brother."

"Sister Xuan, if you tease me again, I will ignore you from now on."

The days passed by in a flash, and then came the Mid-Autumn Festival.Dayan's Mid-Autumn Festival has the custom of worshiping the moon, guessing lantern riddles and drinking chrysanthemum wine.

On the day of Mid-Autumn Festival, lanterns are hung in the backyards of every household.Mrs. Linhou thought that Mrs. Chen and Pingniang would be deserted during the festival in Yangjiaoer Hutong, so she sent someone to bring them into the Hou's mansion to celebrate the festival together.

In the evening, after having dinner in separate tables for men and women, the men went to the outer courtyard, and the female relatives moved to the back garden to watch the moon and guess lantern riddles together. Even Mrs. Lin Dong, who didn’t go out of the courtyard very much on weekdays, joined in to watch the moon. In the army.

In the back garden, someone had already hung the lanterns with written riddles on the branches. Everyone went to find the lantern riddles to guess at the specified time, and the one who guessed the most was a limited-edition glazed lantern produced by Haoyuefang as a prize.

After guessing the lantern riddles, the young ladies who had not left the court knelt down and made wishes to the moon in the back garden.

After making the wish, Lin Fengxuan opened her eyes and approached Yinniang who was kneeling next to her, and asked softly, "What wish did Yinniang make? It must be related to my elder brother, right?"

Although Lin Fengxuan spoke in a low voice, Lin Fengying, who was kneeling on the other side of her, heard it, stood up and snorted disdainfully: "You don't need to guess, of course she wants to marry into the Hou's mansion quickly, a country girl, Now that I have a chance to marry into the Marquis's Mansion, what should I do if I don't hurry up."

Her voice was loud enough, but she said it when Mrs. Lin Hou and Mrs. Chen walked over together. Mrs. Lin Hou's face turned red and white, and she was so angry that she wanted to swear. It's really embarrassing to throw home, such a stupid The girl should have strangled her when she was born.Aunt Li who was standing next to her was also frightened when she heard her daughter's words, and quickly knelt down in front of Mrs. Linhou, begging for mercy: "Madam, the third lady is young and ignorant, she speaks without restraint, please forgive her."

Mrs. Lin Hou said angrily: "Shut up, look at what stupid thing you gave birth to, it has completely embarrassed the Hou family."

Lin Fengying was a little scared when she saw Mrs. Lin Hou, and now she is even more afraid to speak, but she has always been favored by Lin Hou, and she feels that Lin Hou is backing her, so she doesn't want to say words of begging for mercy.

Mrs. Chen's complexion is also very ugly. She didn't ask for the marriage with the Hou's mansion at the beginning, but now she looks down on their family background. What does it mean?

Mrs. Lin Hou said all the words of apology from left to right, blaming herself for not teaching her daughter well, even this did not change Mrs. Chen's face much better.

This unpleasant experience ended with the confinement of Miss Lin San and the early departure of Mrs. Chen and Ping Niang.

Mrs. Lin Hou thought about what Mrs. Lin told her in the tone of a eldest sister-in-law after Mrs. Chen left, "it's your fault to raise and not teach your mother. Don't deliberately indulge their tempers just to flatter and kill concubine daughters. In the end, you still lose yourself." Face" was so angry that his heart and liver ached.How could she let such a thing be born in the first place.

(End of this chapter)