Chapter 204: The Chamber of Content

The next day, Li Xiaonuan went to the main courtyard to ask for peace, then came out and sat in a sedan chair and went to the council of the council.

The council hall is said to be a hall, but it is actually a spacious courtyard, located at the junction of the front yard and the back yard, each with a moon gate and the front and back yards connected, and in front of the moon gate connected with the backyard, there are two mothers-in-law standing with their hands guarded.

Li Xiaonuan got off the sedan chair in front of the courtyard of the council hall, looked back at the two mothers-in-law standing in front of the moon gate leading to the inner courtyard, Lan Chu stepped forward, supported Li Xiaonuan, and reported in a low voice:

"This council hall has not been used for many years, usually this door is locked, last night when Zhu Qing and I came to clean up the house, temporarily took the key to open it, and locked the door again when I went back, these two mothers-in-law, I think they were sent this morning."

Li Xiaonuan nodded, entered the Hanging Flower Gate, and walked along the hand-copying tour to the main hall.

The courtyard is extremely spacious, with blue bricks in the middle spread Vientiane Shengping, and on the blue brick ground next to the verandah, there are chrysanthemums of various colors.

The courtyard was already full of housekeepers standing with their hands down, with Mama Qiu at the head, and Mama Zou and Mama Tian standing by the steps in front of the main house.

Li Xiaonuan paused, turned his head to look at Lan Chu, and asked with a smile:

"The flowers in the yard, did you watch people place them?"

"That's not it, I didn't have it when I left last night, I think it was only set up this morning."

"Well, is there a steward in this place?"

"Yes, because this place has not been opened for many years, it is usually managed by Zhang Xiangui's family, who leads the second gatekeeper."

"Call her."

Li Xiaonuan stood in the verandah and ordered, Lan Chu agreed, turned around and ordered the little girl who followed behind, the little girl rushed out, after a while, Zhang Xiangui's family followed the little girl, hurriedly ran out, knelt down and kowtowed, Li Xiaonuan looked her up and down a few times, this dignitary is about forty years old, the skin is dark, the face is honest, and the corners of the forehead are oozing sweat, looking extremely nervous.

Li Xiaonuan smiled and asked gently:

"This place, now you are in charge?"

"Back to the young lady, it is the slave who is in charge."

"Well, the flowers here are not good, remove these chrysanthemums, let people hang some vines and spider plants on this verandah, green and lush, look comfortable, on both sides of the steps of the main house, put two pots of larger iron trees, and ......"

Li Xiaonuan said slowly, while looking at Zhang Xiangui's family carefully, seeing her eyes sweeping the yard, her face hesitated and was embarrassed, paused, looked at her suspiciously, Zhang Xiangui's family hurriedly bent his knees and saluted, and said in embarrassment:

"Young lady Hui, the flowers in this yard were sent by Mama Zou early this morning, and the slave maid only took care of the messenger who watched the second door, because this yard has been empty, Mama Zou asked the slave and maid to come over every once in a while to clean and clean, this place is ......"

"I see, so that's the case, since that's the case......"

Li Xiaonuan hesitated for a moment, and then said:

"In this case, if you are allowed to take care of this place again, it will be difficult for you, and you will not have to come over to clean it in the future, I will send someone else."

Zhang Xiangui's family breathed a sigh of relief, and was about to bend his knees in response, subconsciously glanced at the courtyard, and then hesitated and paused, Li Xiaonuan stared at her, his eyes gradually became cold, Zhang Xiangui's family shuddered slightly, and hurriedly bent his knees and agreed to retreat.

Li Xiaonuan watched her go out of the door, turned her head to look at Lan Chu and commanded:

"You pick someone out to take care of this yard, and let people change the flowers and plants first."

Lan Chu bent his knees and agreed.

Li Xiaonuan unhurriedly walked along the verandah into the main hall.

There is no partition in the three main halls facing south, under the south window of the east chamber, there is a wide rosewood Luohan bed, on the west side of the Luohan bed, there is a red sandalwood high number, on which there are pen, ink, paper, inkstone, abacus and other things, and there is a round stool after a few high days, which is the place where the big girl keeps accounts and settles accounts.

In the west wing of the room, there is a row of rosewood cabinets against the wall, and a tea stove is placed near the door on the south side.

Li Xiaonuan stood at the door and looked at it a few times, slowly walked into the east chamber, and sat on the Luohan bed, Lan Chu took the girl and the mother-in-law, stood around with her hands down and waited to listen to the instructions, and the jade buckle took the two little girls to make tea and served it.

Li Xiaonuan took the tea and took a sip, slightly signaled to Lan Chu, Lan Chu bent his knees and agreed, lifted the curtain and walked out of the main door, stood under the eaves corridor, and greeted the housekeeper who was standing in the courtyard with a smile on his face, and said in a slow and clear voice:

"The young lady ordered, from today onwards, all the stewards come to respond to the two o'clock of the first day of the morning every day, if there is nothing to return that day, go back to the errand after the order, do not have to wait, the young lady Chen Zheng came to the council, where there is a license, only at this time."

Lan Chu paused, glanced at the housekeeper who was standing in the courtyard, and then said:

"The young lady instructed that all the grandmothers are old people in the house, and before reporting the accounts, they must settle the accounts and find out the old rules, and they must have a charter for everything. If you are all right, you can disperse. ”

Lan Chu bent his knees again, turned his head to look at Mama Qiu and the other three, smiled and said politely:

"The young lady invited the three grandmothers to come in and talk."

Mama Qiu agreed with a smile on her face and took the lead in entering the house.

The mother-in-law in the courtyard watched Mama Qiu and the three of them enter the house, you look at me, I look at you, stayed for a while, rubbed out of the courtyard gate, entered the moon gate, scattered in groups behind the rockery, under the eaves corridor, whispering, waiting for Mama Qiu and others to come out.

Mama Qiu entered the house, peeked at Li Xiaonuan who was sitting on the couch, bent her knees with Mama Zou and Mama Tian, and stood with her hands down and waited for Li Xiaonuan to speak.

Li Xiaonuan swept over the three of them and asked with a smile:

"Who is in charge of the family roster?"

"It's a slave."

Mama Tian bent her knees and replied respectfully, Li Xiaonuan looked at Mama Tian with a calm face and a hint of coldness and ordered:

"Make a copy and send it to me."

Mama Tian agreed, Li Xiaonuan looked at the three of them, and said lightly:

"It's nothing on the side, the rules of this matter, Gang Lanchu also said, you are all old mothers who understand the rules, everything is natural and proper, and it is better to be the same as good in the future."

Li Xiaonuan paused, picked up the cup, took two sips of tea, was silent for a moment, and said with a smile:

"The three grandmothers are all busy people, if there is nothing to do, go and be busy."

Mama Qiu pursed her lips and bent her knees to agree, Mama Zou looked at Mama Qiu with her eyes, and also followed with her bent knees, Mama Tian lowered her eyes, bent her knees indifferently and retreated, and the three of them retreated together.

Li Xiaonuan indifferently watched the three of them go out, pointed to the cup and ordered the jade button,

"Make another cup of tea, after drinking tea, our mission today will be fine."

Lan Chu laughed,

"The young lady can't be lazy, now the affairs of the family are entrusted to the young lady, and the house is up and down, but if there is a trace of inappropriateness, it is not the young lady's."

"It's okay, my mother said, let me learn first, since I learn first, I have to learn slowly."

Li Xiaonuan said lazily, Lan Chu frowned, looked at Mama Sun helplessly, Mama Sun looked at Li Xiaonuan, and said with a determined expression:

"The young lady is very open-minded, but there are not many people who are as open-minded as the young lady."

Li Xiaonuan frowned in annoyance, looked at Grandma Sun and complained:

"Mama has been blocking me these days"

Yu Kou came up with tea and said with a smile:

"Mama is reluctant to block the young lady, and the person who thinks about the young lady is thinking about how to enter our yard as an errand."

Zhu Qing hurriedly stepped forward and patted the jade button,

"You're talkative again"

"She's not talking too much, it's also called adding blockage and adding blockage to me"

Li Xiaonuan drank the tea and sighed, the jade buckle shrank back, stuck out the tip of his tongue, and didn't dare to answer again.

Li Xiaonuan drank the tea slowly, Lan Chu lifted the curtain and looked out, turned his head, and said helplessly:

"It's all gone."

Li Xiaonuan stretched her back disapprerovingly, got out of bed, put on a cloak, slowly walked out of the main hall door, walked out of the courtyard along the verandah, and went straight to the main courtyard to talk to the princess.

Mama Qiu and the three of them went out of the courtyard, as usual, Mama Tian went east, and Mama Zou followed Mama Qiu to the west, each going their own way.

The three of them went out of the Moon Gate, and within a few steps of walking, they were chased and surrounded by their mothers-in-law who knew each other.

Mama Tian was surrounded by seven or eight mothers-in-law, Mama Tian paused, turned her head to look at the subordinates around her, and frowned,

"Why don't you hurry up and order the library? Didn't the prince order yesterday to carefully sort out the various warehouses? Where is there any time to spare? Hurry up and disperse, do a good job, what do you care about? ”

Several mothers-in-law nodded in response, and hurriedly went back to their respective warehouses.

Mama Qiu and Mama Zou were surrounded by a bunch of mothers-in-law, and entered the inverted seat room next to them, and a mother-in-law had already found a stool to come over, wiped it diligently, and wiped it a few times with her sleeves.

"The stool is cold, it's all new cushions, and I haven't used it yet."

Mama Qiu and Mama Zou sat down, took the tea from the mother-in-law who didn't know which one, and drank a few sips, Mama Qiu swept the mother-in-law who was crowded next to her, and said with a reserved smile:

"Said to learn the director first, up and down in our house, thousands of people, in a day, big and small, I don't know how many things to give birth, she has to wait for her mother-in-law, how can she have much effort to take care of these trivial things? We are all on errands, and we all follow the old rules, who dares to go beyond the rules? On weekdays, it's just some routine chores, and everyone does it well, but they don't commit this and that every day."

The mothers-in-law listened attentively, exhaled for a long time, buzzed and discussed, Mama Qiu drank tea, and saw that everyone gradually stopped talking, before she continued:

"Although the princess said that she didn't care about it, but in the end, it was difficult for the princess to be at home in this mansion and watch people mess around? Let's just do the same thing as usual, just do things according to the old routine. ”

The surrounding mothers-in-law were gossiping and flattering, and it was lively for a while, Mama Qiu listened attentively, with a smile on her face, Mama Zou stood up with a smile, waved her hand and said:

"Okay, okay, let's all disperse, it's still the same as before, what's the matter, it's still the same as before, just go back and forth to Mama Qiu first, what we can do, we don't have to bother the masters anymore"

The mothers-in-law agreed up and down, and soon dispersed to their respective errands.