No matter how many intrigues are hidden behind the scenes, at least on the surface, all parties involved are still harmonious and united--Zhou Qian and the two pavilion elders entered the palace together to face the saints, and then took a car home extremely intimately, such rumors soon spread in the officialdom of Beijing. And the content of their face spread soon after—even if Chongzhen repeatedly insisted on secrecy, it was useless. For the Ming Emperor, who lives in the Forbidden City, where the living area and the office area are mixed, and all of them rely on people to serve them, the palace is a big sieve, and they can never hide any news.

Shorthair was going to pay a tribute of thirty taels of silver to the imperial court, and there would be this amount every year in the future--rumors, it was inevitable that there would always be some distortions, and this news did not stir up much trouble in the capital. On the one hand, there has been too much news about Qionghai Town recently, and people are inevitably a little aesthetically fatigued. On the other hand, to say something that is not very respectful to the imperial court: the amount of 300,000 taels of silver, for those big families in the capital, although it cannot be said that they don't care, it is not a huge number. The mountains of goods in Guangqiong Market have long been estimated for them: it is not clear how much they are worth in the place of origin, but if it is calculated according to the market price in the capital, it must be more than one million. And just such a batch of goods, if it weren't for the fact that Shorthair insisted on slowly retailing and not wanting to engage in large wholesale, several big families in Beijing would have joined forces to eat them all.

What made the big families in the capital concerned was another thing - since Qian Qianyi, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty and Zhou Yanru, the heavenly official of the Ministry of Officials, also seemed to have successfully boarded the ship of Qionghai Town. This is a good thing, which shows that those Nanhai people are not as oily and salty as the legend says, and they still know the phrase "many friends and many roads" after all. Although those people have a bit of a high vision and a bit of unique taste: they flatter old guys like Xu Guangqi and Sun Chengzong in every way, but they raise their eyebrows at Wen Tiren, the old man in the court, countless people in the capital can't think of what the reason is, even Wen Tiren himself can't figure it out!

But in any case, Zhou Shoufu's success shows that this road can still be passed, so that's it! Chinese, what they are best at is to pull relationships, as long as it is not completely monolithic, a little gap, you can drill a thoroughfare - in this respect, the Ming Dynasty people 400 years ago are no different from the modern people 400 years later.

The first to feel the change was Hu Wen - the blind date group she was in charge of has become more and more popular recently. Every day, just sitting at home can receive a lot of invitation posts. However, Hu Wen's mind is still very clear-headed, and she is not in a hurry to expand the scope of communication, but diligently concentrates on completing the task first - then again, even if she wants to expand the front, it is useless, and the "raw materials" at hand are limited: a total of nine young men are willing to marry the Ming Dynasty, and the Xungui family has finally determined the last marriage family after some internal negotiations.

Well, this is not rigorous enough, it should be more accurate that the number of radishes and pits has been determined, but the specific radish should be planted in which pit, still needs to be carefully discussed.

――Hu Wen was mainly busy with this matter during this time.

The sun and moon are shining on the seat, and the front of the hall is dark and smoky.

-- This is the couplet hanging on the Rongxi Hall in the Rongxi Hall, the main hall of the Rongguo Mansion, in the famous work "Dream of the Red Chamber" that has been passed down through the ages in the early Qing Dynasty. It is used to highlight how prominent Jiafu, as the home of the century-old "Zhongming Ding Food", is indispensable.

Although the novel is fictional, because of its meticulous description and detailed evidence, it is often used by later generations as a model for the top aristocratic families of that era. And at this moment, Hu Wen will inevitably use the concept of Rongguo Mansion in "Dream of Red Mansions" to judge everything she sees in her eyes.

-- She is now sitting in the main hall of a Guogong Mansion: the Ming Dynasty Chengguo Mansion, since the first Dongping King Zhu Neng assisted the Ming Chengzu Jing to be rare, it has been passed down for 12 generations, more than 230 years. The "qualifications" are much older than the Rongguo Gong Jia family in the Dream of Red Mansions, and the wealth and power should be even more excessive.

But what Hu Wen saw in her eyes was not the case, the layout of the house was very large, and the majesty of the Guogong Mansion was not lacking. But in terms of furnishings and decorations, they were very simple, and even less splendid than the golden walls of the Earl's Court that she had visited recently. There are no ornaments such as gold tripod jade chimes, bronze glazed dishes, etc., and the whole room is dominated by dark tones, only two celadon plum vases in the corner, which are inserted with a few fresh red plums, which add a touch of color to the overall dark hall.

Including the seat, the height next to it, and the table screen in the hall are also old things, although they are polished and shiny, but the paint color is quite dull, and even occasionally mottled, obviously used for many years. When Hu Wen first came in, she still muttered a little in her heart, saying that this Chengguo Mansion should not be the same as the Jia Mansion in the later period of the "Red Mansion", and the inner bag is about to be exhausted, and there is only an empty shelf left, right? If that's the case, Wang Chen will inevitably have a headache in the future. Although they are not short of money, if they have a large family, poor relatives are also troublesome.

But this worry soon dissipated, as she inadvertently propped up the chair as she sat down—it looked like an ordinary chair with a backrest, and the structure of Ming-style furniture was relatively simple, far less complicated than that of Qing-style, let alone more ergonomic than later generations. Ming-style furniture is called simple and bright, and it is simple to say that it is straightforward - for example, the chair in front of me in the main hall of the Guogong Mansion is actually a square bench with a few straight through wooden stick shelves and a narrow back panel, without any curves, and it is not comfortable to lean on it - it is estimated that this kind of furniture does not think much about making people comfortable when making it, but it may be more intended to force users to maintain a good sitting posture.

Ming-style furniture is like this, Hu Wen has been more accustomed to it these days, and when she sits down, she gently pushes it, wanting to adjust her position slightly, so that she can sit more comfortably later. Unexpectedly, under this push, the seemingly thin back chair did not move at all, and it was terrifyingly heavy. The palm of the hand is also cool and hard to the touch, like jade - even if it is not rosewood, it must be the top mahogany, this kind of furniture is the older it is, the more valuable it is!

And not long after, when Hu Wen heard that this set of chairs was handed down with the house when the Guogong Mansion was first built, she was even more secretly frightened, and she couldn't even sit on it very steadily - not to mention that it was passed on to future generations, just now, the old mahogany furniture of more than 200 years, any one taken out is an antique!

It seems that this Chengguo Mansion is really "the meat of the bun is not on the folds", it looks very simple, in fact, any thing taken out can scare a person to death - Hu Wen chatted with the old lady opposite, and heard that the two blue and white porcelain plum vases in the corner were actually handed down from the Yuan Dynasty - Yuan blue and white! Later Christie's auctioned hundreds of millions of treasures, which are just two ordinary vases of flower arrangement.

In this Chengguo Mansion, it is not only the furniture that is low-key and connotative, but also the mutual understanding between the two sides gradually increases as the conversation deepens. So soon, Hu Wen was inadvertently frightened again - the old lady in front of her who was chatting with her, the wife of Zhu Chunchen, the contemporary Duke of Chengguo, she also had another identity - the daughter of Emperor Wanli of Mingshenzong, the princess of the Ming Dynasty, and the current Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen had to call her "aunt" when he saw her!

And her daughter, the young widow who is now talking to Wang Chen in the back garden, is actually a real cousin of the emperor, and in Europe, it is estimated that it will not be a problem to mix the name of a duchess. It's a pity that this is the Central Plains, and it is the Ming Dynasty where Cheng Zhu Lixue was popular, and the status of women is really low. Especially widowed women, in the eyes of the world, are simply worse than sinners - such a princess who is related to the Ming Emperor by blood would be imprisoned in a small building until death in real history, whether this is voluntary or not, it is too ridiculous.

But now, she has gotten rid of this miserable fate - the Chengguo Mansion has taken her back, so Hu Wen will visit with Wang Chen today. As for how to explain to the Yongkang Hou Mansion, it was said a long time ago that it was a problem to be solved by the Chengguo Mansion itself. Hu Wen and Wang Chen only came to see each other's daughter-in-law this time, as for her original identity as the daughter-in-law of the Xu family...... Whether it is Hu Wen or Wang Chen, it can be regarded as no such thing.

However, the experience of this girl's previous marriage still brought some benefits - the etiquette and religion were not so tightly guarded. If it was a young lady who had not yet left the cabinet, it would be absolutely impossible for the Zhu family to let her meet Wang Chen directly, let alone talk and communicate in person. But now it's not so strict, so at this time, Hu Wen will sit in the living room with the woman's parents and chat, and let the young lady take the male guest to visit the back garden, and find some topics of interest to both parties by the way...... For example, paintings, etc.

Of course, it was definitely not a separate meeting, and the girl behind the woman followed a lot. And they are blatantly making light bulbs, reporting the content of their conversations anytime and anywhere - for example, at this moment, Hu Wen saw a seven or eight-year-old girl running over in a hurry, looking a little familiar, as if it was the one who asked Wang Chen for painting in the Yongkang Marquis's mansion.

And as soon as she opened her mouth, it was really revealed that she really came from the Hou Mansion:

"Mrs. Madam, no! Our young lady ......"

The old lady who had always been kind and kind, talking to Hu Wen with a smile on the corner of her mouth, immediately looked back and glanced at the little girl, her expression did not change at all, and she still maintained the smiling face when she talked to Hu Wen just now. didn't say anything harsh, just glanced at it lightly, but even Hu Wen, who was sitting opposite and was just swept by the aftermath of her eyes, faintly felt the chill in her eyes, and for a moment, she seemed to be in ice water.

As soon as the little girl said something, she immediately knew that she had said the wrong thing, and quickly covered her mouth, and was even more frightened by this look, and trembled for a while, before she reluctantly said:

“…… It's our girl, and it seems that she has quarreled with that Mr. Wang. (To be continued.) )