Coming back from the Great Wuxiang Temple did not take two days to celebrate the New Year, the ancient New Year was more lively than the previous life, whether rich or not, the adults and children in the courtyard have new clothes to wear, and the people under them have more than a monthly money as a year-end reward.

And Zhou Xiaofu didn't say anything after the jewelry he rewarded last time, after all, a bucket of rice to raise grace, bear rice to raise hatred, appropriate rewards will bring people happy, too much will make some people who are not grateful in their bones take it for granted.

The dinner party of the Chinese New Year's Eve was spent on the patriarch's side, in fact, there are three branches of the Zhou family, which are divided from the previous generation, and the ones who came out are the patriarchs, and the next is Zhou Yaozu's side, and then there is a team although the officialdom is poor, except for a son who made a seven-pinzhi county in another county, or donated, the others are in business, but God is also fair, although this one does not have official luck, but there is financial luck. The business is doing very well, specializing in the rice and grain business, and has its own rice and grain shops in various state capitals across the country.

However, Zhou Yaozu never put this branch in his eyes, after all, Shinong Industry and Commerce, the word Shang is in the end, in this era, merchants are born is looked down upon, many times Zhou Yaozu has given advice to the third branch to make less shops, so that the smell of copper will affect the reputation of other children in the family, but this one is supported by the patriarch, no matter what he says, it is useless.

Especially at the thirtieth dinner, I don't know who the old lady Zhou was angry at the dinner table, as soon as he got out of the patriarch's house, his face was black, and when he arrived in the courtyard, when everyone asked him to return to the courtyard, he told the old lady to let Ming'er enter the palace on the first day of the new year to ask the queen mother to bring all the undecided sisters in the house.

Hearing this news, in addition to Zhou Xiaoxuan and Zhou Xiaoxi's faces being a little happy, Zhou Xiaofu and the two sisters in the second room were expressionless, and this week the old man obviously wanted to rely on the relatives of several girls in the house to improve their status.

I really don't know what to think, is it possible that the granddaughter's marriage, the happiness of the granddaughter's life is more important than face, and after the dinner, each courtyard has to keep the New Year, and Zhou Xiaofu, who was in a heavy mood, went directly to their courtyard with the two sisters.

As soon as she entered the door, the house was already burning warm, Zhou Xiaofu saw that several mothers-in-law and maids who took care of the two sisters in the yard were all happy, yes, this is the Chinese New Year, so she beckoned Cuihua to reward the prepared tubes, and several mothers-in-law knew that Zhou Xiaofu had a very good relationship with the two sisters, but she didn't expect to receive a reward from Miss Four during the New Year, and she was immediately very happy.

After arriving at the house together, Zhou Xiaofu took off the big coat and asked Cuihua to hang it up, found a place to sit down, and told Cuihua to go back to the tea jar in the bedroom to get some Pu'er tea that she put in last time.

Zhou Xiaolan listened to Zhou Xiaofu's arrangement without words, but sat quietly on the chair, without a trace of a smile on his face, which was quiet and worrying.

Zhou Xiaofu didn't say anything, just looked at her quietly.

Zhou Xiaobin said to them happily: "Fourth sister, you can enter the palace with my sister tomorrow, I haven't been in the palace since I was so old, only the wife can go, and at most one person at a time, the palace doesn't know if it's fun or not, we were all young before, and the old lady didn't let me take it, for fear of chaos, I finally let it go this year." ”

Zhou Xiaofu smiled and looked at the boundless Zhou Xiaobin, she was really helpless, such a heartless and innocent girl would grow in such a big house, I really don't know if it is God's love, this is to hope that she can have such a sister to protect her after marriage, otherwise where is the courtyard easy to mix.

Zhou Xiaofu's yard is not far from the yard of the two sisters, Cuihua came soon with tea, Zhou Xiaofu took the tea and sent Cuihua back, on the twenty-ninth day, Lan's mother and Ziling went to Zhuangzi together, and Zhou Xiaofu also prepared some cloth polished rice and a few boxes of beads to bring to Wang Zhuangtou and Li Zhuangtou.

A maid in her yard made a table of dishes in her yard by herself, and the money for the meal was also rewarded by Zhou Xiaofu, so let them eat together for the New Year, and the meeting was almost open, so Zhou Xiaofu hurriedly sent Cuihua back.

Zhou Xiaofu carried the small copper kettle brought in by Qingmei, took three tea bowls, first washed the tea leaves, and brewed tea, after all, Pu'er's ripe tea is old tea, and the water temperature needs to be higher when brewing.

Only then did Qingmei help bring the tea cup over, Zhou Xiaobin saw Zhou Xiaofu making tea in person, and he was also curious, and when he opened the lid and saw that the tea soup had turned dark red, he immediately asked curiously: "Fourth sister, what kind of tea is this, why is it this color." ”

Zhou Xiaofu blew and took a sip, adult Pu'er, a stream of oily tea soup poured into his throat, and then he looked up and said: "This tea is called Pu'er, it is produced in southern Yunnan, and it was given by my maternal grandfather's aunt. ”

In fact, Zhou Xiaofu is not lying, when she went to her grandfather's house a while ago, her aunt gave her a lot of Pu'er tea, which was also fermented and ripe Pu'er, but the craftsmanship of the era was worse, and the year was far less good than those without her space, and her cousin Ma Haishan heard that she could lose weight and was drinking it for a long time.

What she brought today is her own space, which was collected in a big tea shop when she was doing tasks before, because for several years, everything in the green tea shop in the tea shop has been broken, but a large number of pu'er is good, because the pu'er tea itself is more and more agarwood the longer it gets, so she put it away.

Zhou Xiaolan, who was originally in contemplation, also took a small sip of the tea bowl, and suddenly felt that the greasy in his mouth was gone all of a sudden, and said with a faint smile: "The fourth sister will enjoy it, I like this tea, remember to send me some." ”

When Zhou Xiaofu saw Zhou Xiaolan, who was in a bad mood, she knew that she wanted tea, and she smiled and promised to give it.

The three of them drank tea and brewed it a few more times, but they didn't speak, and then Zhou Xiaobin felt that something was wrong with his sister and fourth sister, so he asked curiously: "Sister, what's wrong with you and the fourth sister, why are you not happy?" ”

Zhou Xiaolan glanced at Zhou Xiaofu helplessly, looked at her innocent sister, raised her hand and rubbed her temples, and said after a while: "What's good about entering the palace, there are many rules in the palace, and if you don't pay attention to it, you will fall into the way." ”

Zhou Xiaobin wondered: "When the time comes, it will be good for you to be with your fourth sister and follow your grandmother, what are you afraid of." ”

In fact, Zhou Xiaofu knew that Zhou Xiaolan was not angry because of entering the palace, but because of the behavior of his grandfather Zhou Yaozu, for the so-called family honor, in order to climb to a higher level, unscrupulous means, even if he sacrificed the happiness of his granddaughter, all of a sudden let all the granddaughters who were engaged enter the palace, it was like sparrows, caught one by one, it didn't matter if this person was suitable or not, what his character was, as long as it was from the royal family, as long as it was from the upper family that could help, this was enough, what did such relatives want him to do, It's really tiring.

Zhou Xiaofu knows her psychological irritability, being born in such a family is a helpless thing, her own fate can't be decided by herself, and she feels very powerless.

Zhou Xiaofu got up and sat next to Zhou Xiaolan, reached out and patted her shoulder, and said softly: "Don't be afraid, things are not as terrible as you think, everything will not happen as he wishes, and he is not a god?" ”

Zhou Xiaolan glanced at her fourth sister with deep eyes, that is, she can understand her troubles at the moment, in fact, what kind of person she marries, this person she thinks is almost the same, no need to be how big the family is, no need to be rich, as long as the population is simple and harmonious, but once the marriage has a purpose, it makes itself meaningless, what is the difference between this transaction.

The time is almost up, Zhou Xiaofu finished drinking tea, put on a big hat, and planned to go back alone, but Zhou Xiaolan stopped and asked Qingmei to go back with her, there are too many people in this house, and it is better for the girl who has not left the cabinet to act alone.

On the second day, he entered the palace.

All the female dependents in the whole house, except for Zhou Xiaobin, there are a total of four old ladies with orders, plus four sisters, a total of eight female dependents, and the old lady is the leader of the man and the three old men who entered the palace together to ask for peace.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, all officials above the fifth grade have to enter the palace to ask for peace, and women with orders can bring a daughter into the palace together, to put it bluntly, it is to pay New Year's greetings to the emperor, but there is no palace banquet to use, and you can go back one after another after the meeting.

Although I got up early in the morning, I saw a long queue at the gate of the palace.

Zhou Yaozu took his sons to the palace gate next to him and went directly to the main hall, while the old lady and several ladies and sisters got off the carriage and began to line up to enter the palace.

Because the female dependents entered the palace to ask the queen mother for peace, it was the backyard of the palace, and the guards were originally strict, so it had to go through two checks, and the female dependents had a special palace mother to conduct a body search, of course, for some imperial concubines or super ladies will pass by, and then the queen mother plans to see people first will be brought in by the queen mother's side of the palace maid in advance.

Zhou Xiaofu and the ladies of the Zhou Mansion stood there while queuing up and carefully looked around with their mental power, after all, it was the first time they came to the palace of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, and they were really a little curious.

The palace gate is a big red gate five meters high, built extremely solemn atmosphere, symbolizing the supremacy of imperial power, there is a table at the door, sitting three beautiful men dressed as eunuchs holding a pen to record the names and families of all the people who enter.

Finally it was Zhou Xiaofu's turn to let them go, the mother who checked didn't know how to simply check it and let it go, Zhou Xiaofu looked at the He family in front of him with a somewhat smug look, I'm afraid that I would give some benefits, but it's okay, I don't like others to touch it.

As soon as you enter the palace gate, you will be greeted by a high palace wall, like a bird's cage.