In the next few days, Lian Man'er's family was busy. Until the fifteenth day of the first month, the Shen family sent someone to send an invitation, inviting Lian Man'er's family to the Shen Mansion for a banquet in the evening.

The little guy who stayed behind by Golang to deliver the invitation said a conversation, and then Shen Liu had just come back from outside last night. At today's dinner, the Shen family also invited many relatives and friends and high-grade eunuchs in the city. The banquet of the Shen family naturally also invited the troupe and the juggling troupe. And after the feast, a lantern viewing was also arranged.

The Shangyuan Festival Lantern Festival in Fucheng is from the fourth day of the first month to the eighteenth day of the first month, and the fifteenth day of the first month is the most lively. And on the Phoenix Tower of the Shen family, you can watch the lanterns of the entire Fucheng very well.

The dinner party on Shangyuan Night, as well as the lantern watching after that, is the annual practice of the Shen family, and it can be said to be a major event. Therefore, even if he was very busy with military affairs outside, Shen Liu, who held the actual power of the Shen family and was the next head of the Shen family, had to rush back on this day.

He had to show his face at the feast.

The little guy who came to deliver the invitation left a sentence in shíhòu, who was leaving. It is said that the Lian Man'er family is invited to shíhòu early yīdiǎn.

In the evening, even Man'er's family was dressed and took a carriage to Shen's mansion. During the Shangyuan Festival, every household in the city hung up lanterns. Some are bought from the shop, and some are skillfully hand-made, and they seem to be shouting to see whose lanterns are the latest and most beautiful. Therefore, you don't need to go to the light market, you can see a lot of lanterns.

If it is getting late today, there will be those who are anxious to light the lanterns. Therefore, along the way, even Man'er lifted the curtain and looked out. Today's weather. It was extremely cold, and Lian Man'er sat in the car and could see the breath exhaled by pedestrians on the road instantly turning into white mist. But no matter how cold the weather is. It does not affect people's enthusiasm for watching the lights and the festive atmosphere of the festival.

Lian Man'er's family deliberately set off from home in advance because of the little girl's instructions. But before they arrived at the Shen Mansion, there were more and more pedestrians on the road, big girls and little daughters-in-law in groups, and there were husband and wife holding several dolls in their arms.

Those are naturally because of the urging of children, or they are themselves quick tempers. I went out early to see the lights.

Once a year, no one wants to miss this opportunity.

“…… It's more lively than the lantern festival in our county......" Lian Man'er put down the curtain and said to Zhang with a smile.

"Of course. This is the city of the house. Zhang also smiled and said, "It's too late this year, and it's not very convenient for your sister to have a body." Wait for next year. Let's take your sister. Call all your Wu family aunts and sisters-in-law, and come to the city to see the lights. …… And your grandma and grandpa. …… I remember that little shíhòu heard your grandmother tell me that she and your grandfather, the young shíhòu, had been to Fucheng once......"

The mother and daughter were talking, and as the voices of people outside became more and more lively, the carriage finally came to the front of Shen's house. I saw that some horses were tied to the tethered horse stone outside the gate, and many stewards and servants were wearing brand new clothes and waiting for guests outside the gate.

Zhang and Lian Man'er's carriage was outside the gate. It was separated from the carriage of Lian Shouxin, Gorou, and Xiaoqi. The carriages of the masters went to the East Corner Gate, and the carriages of Lian Man'er and the Zhang family were introduced to the West Corner Gate.

The Shen family's dinner. The male guests were arranged directly on the Phoenix Tower, and the banquet for the female guests was arranged in the warm pavilion of the West Garden. Lian Man'er's carriage entered the West Corner Gate, walked along the bluestone-paved passage for a while, and finally stopped in front of a hanging flower gate. Xiaoxi and Xiaoqing, who followed to serve, got out of the car first, and then moved the footstool and asked Zhang and Lian Man'er to get out of the car.

During this meeting, the housekeeper lady of the Shen family who was in charge of welcoming guests had already come forward with the little girls, smiling and saying goodbye, while helping the arms of the Zhang family and Lian Man'er.

A little girl led the way in front, and a long pink ball with a face, the housekeeper lady in a crow-blue cotton gown accompanied her in Pángbiān, while Xiaoxi and Xiaoqing followed behind with Zhang's and Lian Man'er's clothes bags.

The lady in charge is very good at talking, and she accompanies Zhang's all the way to talk, and responds to all kinds of words. She claimed that her husband's surname was Wang, and she followed the eldest wife of the Shen family to serve.

Aunt Wang led Zhang and Lian Man'er into the West Garden, but did not go to the warm pavilion, but came to the front of a delicate small courtyard.

Lian Man'er looked around, it was winter now, and only the pines and cypresses were still green. However, looking at the scenery around here, it is enough to imagine how the flowers and trees in this courtyard are sparse in spring and summer.

“…… A few days ago, Mrs. Lian contracted some cold, and it was difficult to see guests, and Mrs. Lian missed it. The eldest lady has been chattering for the past two days. Thankfully, the past two days have gotten better. …… It will take a while before the table starts, and the eldest lady said to come and rest for a while. It is said that Mrs. Lian and Miss Lian have arrived, so please come here to meet and talk. Aunt Wang explained.

It turned out that the eldest lady of the Shen family wanted to meet them before the banquet, and Lian Man'er naturally didn't know how to say shíme, so she followed Aunt Wang into the courtyard.

There are not many houses in the yard, and there are also verandahs around it, and there are many girls standing at the door of the upper room waiting, seeing that Aunt Wang came in with someone, someone passed the gift to the house, and there were two clever little girls who went down the steps to greet them.

"The eldest lady asked if the guest had arrived just now, but it happened that he would arrive at this time." A little girl said with a smile.

Lian Man'er and Zhang stepped into the door surrounded by everyone, and inside the door was a hall house, with some jade bonsai, celadon tea bottles, etc. placed on both sides, and facing the door was a four-leaf mahogany frame embroidered screen.

As soon as I entered the hall, I heard the sound of the corner of the house, and Lian Man'er followed the sound and looked over, and saw that behind the jade bonsai at the corner of the house, there was a table clock. The clock was more than three feet high, and the ding-dong sound just now was telling the time.

In this era, there are more advanced clocks and watches that have been introduced from the ocean through the merchant fleet, but they are still relatively rare, and they are mainly based on such relatively large table clocks, and there are also smaller pocket watches, which are even rarer, and they have to be bought with gold. And even if the average person has gold, they can't buy it.

There can be such an arrangement here, which can show that this is an important place for the Shen family. And Nénggòu's place to rest and entertain guests here is naturally not general.

The eldest wife of the Shen family should now be the oldest and the highest-ranking woman in the Shen family. All this, it is not qíguài.

Lian Man'er was thinking like this in her heart, and a little girl picked up the curtain of the east house and invited Zhang and Lian Man'er in.

It turned out that the eldest lady Shi was in the East House.

The mother and daughter entered the east room. The layout in the east house is the most common home layout in Liaodong Mansion. The window is a kang, under the kang against the wall, there are four Taishi chairs, and there is a low table in the middle of the two chairs, and there are vases, sputum boxes and other things on the low table. The furnishings and decorations in the house are exquisite, but most of them are mainly in stone blue, crow blue, dark blue and other tones.

There is a low table on the kang, and there is a stone blue silk backrest on each side of the low table, and the eldest lady Shi is sitting on the kang with a cup of ginseng tea in her hand.

When Zhang and Lian Man'er entered the house, they hurriedly attached themselves to the Shi family to say goodbye. The Shi family has a fate, and the grade is much higher than the Zhang family.

Seeing that Zhang and Lian Man'er were coming, Shi hurriedly put down the cup, got up from the kang, and supported Zhang with one hand, so that Zhang and Lian Man'er didn't have to be polite.

"I've been thinking about meeting you two for a long time, but I missed it. …… Sit down and talk. Shi said with a smile.

Zhang was asked to sit opposite Shi, and Lian Man'er sat next to Zhang's leg on the first chair under the kang. Then a little girl came in and sent fragrant tea and snacks.

Shi and Zhang spoke politely, and Lian Man'er couldn't help but look at Shi carefully.

Because Shi had stood up just now, Lian Man'er found that this was a slender and quite tall woman. Zhang's height is considered tall among women, but standing with Shi, Zhang's seems to be shorter than Shi's.

Shi's size is actually still méiyǒushíme, and what surprised Lian Man'er was her beauty.

Porcelain white skin, no flaws can be seen, and the palm-sized melon seed face is picturesque. This should be the figure walking down in the painting, Lian Man'er thought. And such a beauty, the most touching thing on her face is the pair of eyes.

It was a pair of Danfeng eyes, the corners of the eyes were slightly raised, and Lian Man'er was surprised to find that she seemed to have seen these eyes somewhere. Then, Lian Man'er laughed secretly in her heart. How could she not remember that, Shen Qian Shen Xiaopang didn't have a pair of eyes like this.

It's just that Shen Xiaopang's eyes are more narrow and long, and the méiyǒu pair are so bright.

Lian Man'er's heart moved slightly, and a thought crossed her heart, but it disappeared in an instant. Lian Man'er likes all good things, including beauty. In this era, she boasted that she had seen a lot of beauties.

Shen Liu, who was the first to amaze her, and many others she saw later, whether it was the daughters of the Zhuang family, or the girls, grandmothers, and wives of the big families. rúguǒ counts the emotional points, Lian Zhi'er and Zhang's are undoubtedly the most beautiful.

And rúguǒ is not an emotional point, only among women, Shi is undoubtedly the most beautiful woman Lian Man'er has ever seen.

Shi's age looks like she is no more than twenty years old, at most in her early thirties, but she wears an old silk gown, and her jet-black hair is also combed in a popular bun among women in their forties and fifties in Xiafucheng.

Looking at Shi's dress, dressing, and then looking at the old-colored decoration of this room, Lian Man'er seems to have some shíme.

This shíhòu, the topic between Shi and Zhang, shifted from the usual politeness to Lian Man'er.

"Is this Man'er? What a handsome girl! There are almost all the girls in our city who are about the same age, but none of them can compare to her appearance? …… Are you in your teens this year? As Shi spoke, his eyes fell on Lian Man'er. (To be continued)