In the blink of an eye, it was his birthday, in the afternoon, Li Yanqing did not ride a horse, but hired an ox cart to go to the alum house banquet, he was wearing a scholar's scarf today, wearing a light blue brocade straight jacket, cleaned up very concise and refreshing, but also looked talented. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

"It's not easy to be a petty official! I can actually get an invitation card from Alum Tower, and the people who go to the Alum Tower for a banquet today are either rich or expensive, and they all have their own wide carts, and they hire ox carts like petty officials, I'm afraid there are very few! ”

The coachman's face was full of envy, and he continued with great interest: "In the past two days, the entire Bianjing has been talking about the Zheng family's treats, petty officials, what is the origin of the Zheng family, and the imperial relatives of Bianjing actually give face?" ”

"I don't know!"

"It is said to be related to the crown prince, and there are rumors outside that say so."

Li Yanqing smiled and didn't say anything, I'm afraid only he knows the real reason for the Zheng family's invitation this time, if there is no Zhao Kai's trip to Jiangnan, the prince will probably continue to keep a low profile, Zhao Kai's trip to Jiangnan was rewarded by the Son of Heaven, and the prince finally couldn't sit still.

This alum building banquet is just the Zheng family's money, the prince is just a treat, Zhao Huan is buying people's hearts like this, not afraid of attracting the displeasure of the Son of Heaven?

Li Yanqing felt that this planner had not seen through the situation, at this time, not fighting is fighting, and the prince was so eager to show a sense of insecurity, which would only make the Son of Heaven feel that the move of letting King Jia go to Jiangnan was the right move.

The ox cart approached the alum tower and was stopped by several attendants, and the coachman said: "Little official, I'm afraid I won't be able to get in this car, so let's go here!" It's a short walk away. ”

Li Yanqing grabbed a handful of money and gave it to him, and the coachman left with a thousand thanks.

Li Yanqing held a folding fan borrowed from Tang Huai, which was also a popular ornament for the literati of the Great Song Dynasty, which was no longer imported from Japan, and the Song Dynasty itself also made a large number of them, and the price dropped a lot, and the money could always buy a good silk folding fan.

The family is a little more well-off, and almost everyone has a hand, Li Yanqing doesn't like folding fans very much, but he follows the local customs, he is a scribe today, and he must have the dress of a scribe.

The four corners of the alum tower are hung with corner lights, hanging high around the eaves, palace lamps are hung everywhere, and the front steps of the gate are full of guests, and most of the male guests are dressed relatively simply.

But the women are dressed up one by one, floating and green, and they are rich, for them, tonight's banquet is not only as simple as going to the banquet, but also a beauty competition.

The gate was full of people, laughter, and horse-drawn carriages.

Today, for the Zheng Mansion to entertain guests, Alum Tower also spent a lot of thought, and the door has been changed with door gods, couplets, listings, and new oil peach charms, which are completely new.

From the main gate, the instrument gate, the hall, the warm pavilion, the inner three doors, the Bingyi door and the inner vertical door, until the main hall, the main entrance is wide open. The big vermilion candles on both sides of the stairs, once lit, are like two golden dragons.

There are invited officials on both sides of the street outside the alum building to maintain order, only by the invitation can you get close to the alum building, there are already a lot of cars parked on both sides of the gate, some low-status groom sedan chair guests get together to chat, and then someone will send them snacks and supper.

Li Yanqing walked to the door, only to see several Zheng family children under the leadership of Zheng Rongtai's father Zheng Sheng standing in front of the door to greet the guests, Zheng Rongtai was also among them, they were all obese and looked quite interesting, but the weather was hot, and after standing for a short time, everyone was sweating profusely.

At this time, Zheng Rongtai saw Li Yanqing and hurriedly stepped forward to greet him, "Lao Li, why are you here now?" ”

"I want to see if rouge boxes are popular?"

"Of course it's welcome, believe it or not, if I tell others, you are the proprietor of Baoyan Zhai, and I guarantee that a large group of women will surround you and ask you what jade fat is?" Zheng Rongtai smiled ambiguously, not knowing where he thought.

Li Yanqing stretched out his hand and knocked on his head, "If you dare to talk nonsense, I guarantee that you will grow fatter than a pig in two days!" ”

"Don't dare! Can't! ”

At this time, a family member came over with a gift bag wrapped in silk, Zheng Rongtai handed it to Li Yanqing and said with a smile: "This is a gift for guests, you are a male guest, there is no rouge box and agarwood, only a set of four treasures of the study, don't underestimate it, this set is worth thirty times, and the pen holder inside is a good mutton fat jade." ”

"I can't take it, or you can give it to me another day!"

"It's okay, I'll let the family send it to your store."

Zheng Rongtai commanded the family, and the family hurriedly ran to greet the ox cart, at this time, Li Yanqing took out a congratulatory instrument, handed it to Zheng Rongtai and said with a smile: "This is a little bit of my heart, please accept it!" ”

"What is this?"

Zheng Rongtai hurriedly pulled Li Yanqing aside, "Didn't I tell you about it?" My guests don't need to give gifts, this is not a kind word, the others have not given gifts, just you give gifts alone, what should they do with their face? ”

"How can there be a reason to come empty-handed for a birthday? It's just that I gave Ling Zu a little heart, and it has nothing to do with the others. ”

Zheng Rongtai repeatedly pushed and conceded, but Li Yanqing still refused, Zheng Rongtai had to accept it and handed it to the recorder next to him, "100,000 yuan for birthday gifts!" ”

Of course, the guests will not carry money to celebrate their birthdays, they usually give gift lists, and someone will send gifts afterwards, Li Yanqing gave a birthday gift is not much, it is enough for a hundred yuan, of course, this is also related to everyone's friendship with the Zheng family and the intention of giving gifts.

If it's just a simple birthday gift, then a hundred times is no more and no less, and it can just be handled.

The banquet was held in three halls, namely Spring White Peach, Summer Hibiscus and Autumn Red Leaves, with 1,200 small tables arranged in three large semicircles.

Each small table is equipped with a few, several on the stove bottle three things, burning the best lily incense, this incense is made of ambergris, dipterocarp, huo incense, cloves, wood incense, nail incense, frankincense, musk, rosin and other more than a dozen kinds of good incense combination, and finally form a strange fragrance.

There are also small bonsai that are eight inches long and three inches high, dotted with mountain stones, all of which are fresh flowers.

There are also Fusang lacquer tea trays with assorted small teacups of the official kiln, and there are several small bottles of various official kilns next to them, all of which are filled with seasonal flowers, and the glazed colored spike lamps of the three and five are hung on the beams on both sides, and there is an inverted hanging lotus leaf in front of each seat. The inside and outside of the eaves are embroidered or painted or silk or paper of various colors of sheep's horns, glass, filament lanterns are hung.

Some early arrivals picked their own seats according to the rules of men and women, or enjoyed the acacia soup, auspicious fruits, and ruyi cakes on the table, or gathered together to be especially lively, and several men did not know what to say, and suddenly burst into laughter, and glanced ambiguously at the dozens of female prostitutes in the garden.

The female guests also gathered together, laughing and talking about tonight's banquet, looking at each other's dresses, sniffing each other's aromas, thinking about each other's hairstyles, in short, competing with everything.

The wife of General Gao Shen of the Left Guard was the first to arrive, her surname was Pan, and her maiden family was the descendant of the founding father Pan Mei.

Mrs. Pan is worthy of being behind the door, tall and plump, a full moon-like face is covered with fat powder, she is very fond of rose water, she has to use a bottle every time, the strong fragrance not only successfully covers her body odor, but also attracts a group of men dozens of steps away, men look around, looking for the source of this strong fragrance.

Mrs. Pan naturally likes to participate in various banquets, perhaps having a second-class destiny in her body makes her a little more confident. She was born to listen to compliments, and whenever someone complimented her on her youthful beauty, she was always overjoyed, completely forgetting that she already had a three-year-old grandson.

At this time, she was crowded in the middle of a group of women talking about the hottest topic of the day, generally speaking, women talk about young talents, who has not yet married in the office, who has a successful blind date in the office, and so on.

Mrs. Pan also has her thoughts, her youngest daughter is fifteen years old this year, although she is still young, it is time to pay a little attention to the young talents who are not married.

On the one hand, the Sui and Tang dynasties were greatly influenced by nomadic peoples such as Xianbei, and the Xianbei people had a short lifespan, and the average woman had to get married at the age of twelve.

But the Song Dynasty was different, the status of Song women was generally higher, the influence of nomads was very small, and more attention was paid to women's physiological bearing, women were generally married between the ages of sixteen and twenty, and the most common among the people at the age of eighteen or nineteen, and the higher the status of women, the later they married.

There is another more important reason, that is, the imperial examination system has a great impact on marriage, not only scholars generally marry later, but women are also affected.

In the Song Dynasty, if you want to be an official, you must be admitted to the Jinshi, and the powerful people want to marry their daughters to the Jinshi, but there are so many Jinshi, where it is easy to marry, so every time the imperial examination is released, the list on Jinchi Road to catch the son-in-law has become a great scene in Bianjing.

For example, when Song Renzong, Xu Yan, a bachelor of Hanlin, first met Ouyang Xiu, and he was "surprised at first sight", thinking that "the son should be famous and famous in the world", and when Ouyang Xiu ascended to the top, Xu Yan immediately took his wife as a wife.

Another example is the time of Song Shenzong, Cai Bian Dengke, and Prime Minister Wang Anshi immediately recruited him as his fast son-in-law.

Like the black yarn hat market, the Jinshi son-in-law market is also in short supply, and the supply is in short supply, so there are very few people who can grab a good son-in-law.

There is only one way: wait.

In order to let her daughter live a good life with a husband and a wife, she doesn't care about waiting for two more years, waiting last year, waiting this year, just waiting for a year, waiting left and right, and waiting for youth is gone, so there are a lot of leftover women in the Song Dynasty, and unmarried daughters in their twenties abound, and in the end they have to pay a huge amount of dowry, and they can barely find a person who is the right person to marry their daughter.

Song women's worries about marrying have become a major social problem, and the allusion of 'the emperor's daughter is not worried about marrying' comes from this, of course, the emperor can choose the best Jinshi for his daughter first, and the ministers can only wait.

Of course, there are other reasons that lead to the late marriage of Song women, such as the high dowry requirements in the Song Dynasty, which caused ordinary families to take a long time to raise money, etc.

However, today, the women in the alum building have one more topic, that is, the first public appearance of the skin cleansing product 'jade fat'.