Chunyu and Qin Caiyu were not good at refuting Zhou Mengya's meaning today, so they had to go to Lanting with her. After the group of them also came to the Lan Pavilion, the lotus feast really began.

Zhou Mengya, as the birthday star and banquet host, naturally needs to say a few words. After she said a few words, the ladies asked the maid to offer Zhou Mengya's birthday gift. Most of them are jewelry, and some are silk embroidery. It's just that when she came to Zhu Zhiyuan, although her father was only a county magistrate, she gave Zhou Mengya a set of jade heads and a string of agate bracelets.

"Miss Zhu is from an official family, and this shot is quite generous, but we merchants can't compare." Ma Guixiang said here, and asked the maid to bring a box, which was a begonia wood carved gilt box. When opened, inside was a fine cloud silk satin covered with something.

Ma Guixiang smiled softly, and then reached out and opened the piece of silk. I saw that the luster inside flashed, and what appeared in front of people were two half-sized night pearls, and the sunlight refracted to them was full of brilliance.

"Ah, this is the night pearl of Nanling, it's still a pair."

"yes, I guess it's worth a lot."

"This Miss Ma still says that she is not as good as Miss Zhu, but she is not modest!"

"It's ......"

Seeing that the night pearl came out and caused everyone to talk about it, she satisfied Ma Guixiang's vanity a little, but her seemingly modest smile squinted at Zhu Zhiyuan, with some provocation on her face. Although she Zhu Zhiyuan can barely be counted as an official lady, her family background is average, and how much money can a county order have.

“…… It's just two broken beads, what's the spirit. Zhu Zhiyuan snorted coldly. She hates these people who show off their money the most, but it's just a lowly merchant girl who really takes herself seriously. Although her family is not a wealthy family, it is an official family, and it is better than her, a merchant girl. Although the Zhou family is also a businessman, it is an official and merchant family, and his ancestors have also served as the governor of the Weaving Bureau, and Zhou Xu'an is very promising at a young age, and he will have a great future in the future, which is not comparable to ordinary rich businessmen.

After listening to Zhu Zhiyuan's words, Ma Guixiang wanted to refute and was gently pulled by her sister Ma Yuxiang, and then she remembered that although the Ma family is also a big family in the city, she can't stand the fact that the family is the daughter of the county order, and some things in her father's business still need the approval of the county order. I had to reluctantly stop talking, but glanced at the vacant seat where Zhou Mengya and the others were sitting, and sat down directly.

"Sister Mengya, who is this?" Ma Guixiang didn't recognize his life, and said with a smile. She looked at Chunyu's clothes and already knew that she should not be a young lady from a big family, but she just looked at Zhou Mengya and was very kind to her, so she had a good face. She is not like Zhu Zhiyuan, what does she do, she wants to marry into the Zhou family, she is not pleasing to anyone, even if she marries in, there will be nothing good.

"This is my best friend Chunyu, Chunyu, this is Miss Ma's cinnamon fragrance." Zhou Mengya was also afraid that Ma Guixiang would say something more, it would be too difficult for Chunyu.

This time, Ma Guixiang didn't say anything sarcastic, but just smiled and nodded to Chunyu, who also smiled and nodded.

"Miss Wednesday, you don't have anything to give for your birthday, I embroidered a pair of butterfly dance peonies for you, thank you for inviting me to the lotus banquet. My embroidery is general, don't dislike it. At this time, Liu Yiting, who had been sitting quietly in the corner, finally got up and walked over with the maid and said reads();.

"Where do you dare to dislike it, I see that your craftsmanship has caught up with those royal embroideries brought back by the eldest brother." Zhou Mengya said, Liuhua has already unfolded the butterfly dance peony with Liuying.

Chunyu and Qin Caiyu also came up to take a look, and saw that the embroidered silk was about four feet long and about two feet wide. It is embroidered with a prosperous peony, red, purple, moon white, layered large peony, and more than a dozen butterflies of various colors flying, either flying high in front or low on the side or spreading their wings...... The embroidery work is exquisite, and the picture is realistic, as if it can make people smell the elegant fragrance of peonies, and make people feel that the colorful butterflies are about to fly out.

"Oh, this embroiderer ......"

"It's really nice to embroider!"

"But no, my embroidery girl who makes clothes can't compare."

"But in the end, Miss, what's the use of embroidery."

This really caused a lot of discussion among the young ladies, but fortunately, Zhou Mengya said a few more words, only saying that the banquet was about to start, so she stopped talking about this. Zhou Mengya then let her sit beside her, and Chunyu and Qin Caiyu also sat down, and this banquet can be regarded as the real beginning.

Liuhua and Liuying also told the ladies present about the process of the banquet in detail, and everyone stopped talking about anything else for the time being. Some asked the maid to fetch some fruit drinks, and some young ladies took the maid over directly to watch and choose by themselves.

After these ladies ate and chatted for a while, Chunyu put a few jars of mulberry wine on the table with Liuhua and Liuying, poured them into the small wine jug first, and then poured a glass with the young ladies.

"Let's try this mulberry fruit wine, both sweet and not intoxicating, today's theme is mainly to appreciate the lotus, then we might as well get up and go to the verandah in the lake to make a reminder order. I'm tired of playing with the flower stick, but it's too noisy to beat the drum and urge the flowers, just a few days before the Zhou Mansion Le Ji, it's better to let her come to the zither to help the fun. Zhou Mengya came in a moment's interest, and said with a smile while holding a wine glass. Everyone naturally agreed, and when the woman played, there were fewer orders, except for dominoes, which were used to occupy flower lots, and they were tired of it for a long time, and now it's good to change to a new method.

After getting everyone's unanimous approval, Zhou Mengya instructed Liuying to ask her to invite Le Ji over. He took the lead and walked a few steps to the verandah, and Liuhua picked up the small wine jug and followed. Zhu Zhiyuan also got up with the wine glass, and her maid naturally followed with the wine jug. Then these ladies and maids also followed, and the warblers and swallows on the long verandah were not lively.

Chunyu and Qin Caiyu were reluctant to step forward, the two of them just got up and walked in the direction of the outside of the Lan Pavilion, and finally stood in front of the railing and watched.

After a while, Liu Hotaru brought Na Le Ji over, and I saw that she was about seventeen or eighteen years old, and she was born gorgeous and extraordinary, but did not give people a frivolous feeling, but was pleasing to the eye. She wore a crimson dress and hired Tingting's hugging qin to stand outside the Lan Pavilion, and after receiving the order, she sat there at the stone table, putting the qin in front of her and preparing.

Chunyu saw that although she was a slave and maid of Le Ji, she was down-to-earth and generous, and there was no discomfort at Le Ji, so she looked at it with some curiosity for a while. Na Le Ji also saw Chunyu and nodded to her with a smile, and Chunyu also nodded with a smile. At this time, her fourth aunt, Qin Caiyu, was once again used as a commentator and told Chunyu about Le Ji.

It turned out that this Le Ji's name was Changting, and she was originally a Qing singer on the Jianghuai generation painting boat, because once the eldest young master went there to talk about business, and saw that she was harassed by the gentlemen, so he did a small favor. This long pavilion begged Young Master Zhou to let him take her out of the sea of suffering, and Young Master Zhou thought that Zhou Mengya had one less musician to teach and it was inconvenient to invite a male musician, so he ransomed her body and brought her back. Chunyu couldn't help but laugh when he heard it, but he didn't expect that this young master Zhou, who was paralyzed, also had an opportunity to save the beauty of the ancient way.

At this time, Liu Yingying took a gorgeous handkerchief on the side, and just waited for a while to start and stop waving the silk.