The stage has already been set up in the garden, and the guests gather here after the main feast. Unlike Kyoto, where every inch of land is expensive, there are many vacant land in Bainian County, so although Yixi Lake is only a county official, the mansion where he lives is still quite large; Of course, this mansion still exceeds the rules to some extent, but all the officials in the Li Dynasty who are far away from the Tiangao Emperor, and many mansions are against the rules, which has become a kind of default. Besides, this mansion in Bainian County is still left by the previous dynasty a hundred years ago, even if someone wants to say anything about it, it will not hurt Yixi's official reputation.

The reason why Centennial County is called Centennial County is also related to the countless old things in this county. West Street is a very historical ancient street, Yi Xihu also under the suggestion of Yi Xiangxiang to reorganize the ancient street into one of the tourist areas of merchants, there is no lack of carved traces of calligraphy on the carved wall on the side of the street, many literati and ink writers come here to appreciate, which also makes the cultural knowledge of the century-old county get more publicity.

There is a small lake in the middle of Yifu Garden, which originally had no name, these days because Yi Ruonan often paints and writes poems by the lake, Yi Xihu, who is an uncle at breakfast one day, in order to praise her studious and progressive, she was willing to give her the right to name the lake; So this small lake in Yifu has a name, called Luoxia Lake, named after the sunset shining on the lake at night, shining.

The name Luoxia Lake is not very popular with Mrs. Yi, the old man is old, and there are certain taboos about words such as death and fall; However, her son actually allowed Yi Ruonan to take the name, and she didn't have much to say. It's just that since then, the people in the Ci'an Church have not been happy to call this small lake Luoxia Lake, but still call it "the lake of the garden" as before.

At this time, both sides of Luoxia Lake are hung with plain yarn curtains, which are simple and light but elegant; Tables and chairs were placed in an orderly manner on both sides of the shore, and an oval table was placed between every two rosewood chisel Fushou Wenquan chairs, with some snacks and melons and fruits on them, to entertain guests. The male and female guests sat across the lake, and the stage had been set up in front of the seats, not to mention how majestic it was, but it took a lot of effort to look at it. Mrs. Jiang and Mrs. Yi sat in the middle of the first row, and the latter invited Jiang to order a play.

None of the people present had the dignity of Mrs. Hou's Jiang, so she naturally ordered the first scene.

"Then let's sing a piece of "Chrysanthemum Story"!" Jiang pinched the play book and didn't shirk Na Qiao, pointing to the name of the opera on the book and said. So after a while, babbling on the stage sang "Chrysanthemum Story".

Yi Xiangxiang didn't hate opera in modern times, but when she came to this ancient time, she really listened to it a lot and was tired. Let's just say that this chrysanthemum story, she has watched the whole film no less than five times! No interest at all! And every time she hears the word "chrysanthemum", she plays it, but she didn't expect the ancients to be so simple in choosing a name.

That's right, the story of chrysanthemums is about chrysanthemums, this story, it's about a talented man, who loves chrysanthemums for his vassal elegance. During the Chengkang period of the Li Dynasty, there was indeed a "chrysanthemum wind", as long as it was a talent, he went out and said that he liked the nobility of chrysanthemums, and later the chrysanthemums were fried to a high price, and even talented people sold their sons and daughters in order to buy chrysanthemums to raise! At that time, Emperor Cheng Kangdi denounced this phenomenon and found someone to write this chrysanthemum story, and the end of the story is that the scholar who loves chrysanthemums put his whole life on chrysanthemums, and no one is left alone, but in the end it is too late to regret it; On the other hand, there is another character, that is, a scholar who does not like flowers, although his talent is average, but he is serious about his studies, and finally he is the marquis and pays homage to the prime minister.

This opera, adapted from the realistic version, gradually took root in the careful sowing of Emperor Cheng Kandi, and then resounded through the land of the Lichao with lightning speed; So since Cheng Kangnian's "Chrysanthemum Story" became popular, in addition to the real people who love chrysanthemums, no one deliberately uses chrysanthemums to flaunt their nobility. So this opera has slowly been handed down, and it has evolved into a story of the elders in the family to inspire their children, and the big truth it wants to express is that as long as you don't spend your time on the sideways, but work hard to learn knowledge, then you will eventually have a successful day.

Yi Xiangxiang felt that Cheng Kandi was also a talent, and if he ordered to suppress Aiju's preferences, it might also make those literati rebel; With such an opera, it not only solves the crisis but also promotes correct values, but he really deserves to be an emperor, and his brain is easy to use.

Yi Xiangxiang turned her head to look, and at this time, the scene on the stage was singing about the scholarly genius who was going to sell his daughter in order to buy chrysanthemums, and saw a woman pulling him and begging him not to sell his daughter, but the talented man still ruthlessly shook off the woman's hand...... The servants were very conscientious, singing emotionally, and the performance was tear-jerking, and there were already many ladies wiping their tears with handkerchiefs during the banquet.

Yi Xiangxiang has relatives in her heart, not to mention selling women for chrysanthemums, this world respects men, and scumbag fathers are blooming everywhere. Her father is a rare good man, upright, and the backyard is clean, Yi Xiangxiang is embarrassed by her father without a scumbag, but she can't stop her from marrying a scumbag in the future, and the uncontrolled future is really melancholy.

Yi Xiangxiang sat at the end of the seat, mainly because she wanted to be lazy, afraid that the Lin family would stare at her. There was a small wooden fence around Luoxia Lake, and she moved the rosewood chisel Fushouwen circle chair to the edge of the lake, and sat very comfortably on the cushions. If you want to talk about these ancient chairs, her favorite is the circle chair, the circle back is connected to the armrest, from high to low, and the arm can be leaned on the circle-shaped armrest, which is very comfortable. Yi Xiangxiang was feeding the fish in the lake with fish food, and said in her mouth: "Rhubarb, don't rob Xiaohong, you see that Xiaohong is hungry and thin!" And you Xiaobai, do you know that eating so much will cause indigestion at night? All the words she said were the lessons that Lin persuaded her to eat less on weekdays, and she used them to deal with fish at this time.

The female guests love to play, the male guests don't necessarily like to watch these things, and the old men on the other side of Luoxia Lake are still pouring wine, continuing to praise each other unfinished at the banquet. What "Centennial County has today, thanks to the ...... of Lord Yi", what "Second Master Yi has good demeanor and good taste......", what "Li Yuanwai's spirit has been getting better and better recently, is the business profitable again?" "How else to say that the people in this small place who blow the sky are small places, others listen to the drama and drink tea, and these people listen to the drama and eat wine and shoot horses!

At the end of the men's seat, there were some boys of the same age, including the three Yiluochuan brothers. At this time, the man in brocade who was sitting beside Yi Luochuan looked older than several boys, about the year of the dancing elephant, this man with a fluttering demeanor and talent was Meng Qihan, the son of the Marquis of Changping, who returned to Tongzhou with his mother, Mrs. Jiang of the Marquis of Changping, to celebrate his grandfather's birthday, so now he naturally came to Yifu with him. Originally, he could sit at the top, but he didn't want to exchange glasses with a group of middle-aged men, so he excused himself and said that he could talk to Yi Luochuan and didn't like to watch the show, so he got down and sat next to the latter.

Although it is a prevarication, Meng Qihan does admire several boys in Yifu; is not very old, but they are all mature and steady, and they are polite to others, especially Yi Luochuan, the eldest son of Yi Xihu, who is even more eloquent when it comes to learning.

Yi Luochuan is the sister-in-law of the county official Yi Xihu, and now the son of the hundred-year-old county is also a little higher in his status, not to mention that the prince can talk to him by name, that is, it stands to reason that among the peers present, he is the only one who is most qualified to entertain Meng Qihan, and the others can only accompany him. But seriously, it can't be said that there is no hospitality, after all, it is the first acquaintance, after chatting about the books I read, after talking about the few happy things, a few people who have no life experience naturally have nothing to talk about, so a few boys in the small corner watched the play, in a daze.

Yi Luochuan didn't watch the play or was in a daze, the wind blew the thin veil on the other side of the lake, and he couldn't help laughing when he was watching his sister take the fish to make fun. Meng Qihan, who was closest to him, heard the voice, looked in the direction of Yi Luochuan's eyes, and saw a little girl with pink carvings feeding the fish, still babbling something in her mouth.

"Who is this girl?" Meng Qihan looked at Yi Xiangxiang's movements very interestingly, so he asked Yi Luochuan.

"That's in the lower house, it's very naughty!" Yi Luochuan smiled helplessly.

"I see it's cute tight, can Brother Chuan introduce me?" In the conversation just now, Meng Qihan and Yi Luochuan had already called themselves brothers, but in order to respect the Hou Mansion, Yi Luochuan still called Meng Qihan "the prince".

"Naturally, it's okay, please come with me." Yi Luochuan got up and took Meng Qihan from the opposite side of the stage in the lake to the back of Yi Xiangxiang, who was just a child now, so naturally he couldn't talk about avoiding suspicion.

Yi Luochuan came over with someone, Yi Xiangxiang naturally didn't know, so as soon as Meng Qihan got closer, he heard Yi Xiangxiang threatening the fish raw: "Rhubarb, if you are robbing, I will let Miaoqin scoop you up and stew you to drink!" ”

Meng Qihan laughed and said, "Little sister, goldfish is an ornamental fish, and it can't be used for cooking, and goldfish meat is not delicious." ”

Yi Xiangxiang heard the sound, and turned around to see her brother standing behind her with a little boy in brocade, she handed the fish food jar carved with a pastel fish algae picture in her hand to Miaoqin, and stretched out her hand to Yi Luochuan to hug her.

As soon as Yi Luochuan picked her up, he heard his sister ask in his ear, "Brother, who is this person?" Is it your classmate in the academy? I haven't seen it before. ”

"This is the prince of the Marquis of Changping!" Yi Luochuan explained his sister's confusion, and then saw his sister begging for a hug when he saw him coming, thinking that his sister was afraid of seeing the living, so he added: "The son of the world is a good person, Xiangxiang doesn't need to be afraid." ”

What is Yi Xiangxiang afraid of, she guessed that this may be the son of the Jiang family, after all, Centennial County can't find such a noble little son, just ask Yi Luochuan to confirm. If you want him to hug him, it's good to ask questions, so you can't ask it out in a big way! However, Yi Luochuan loved her, she knew it, so she nodded and said to Meng Qihan very boldly: "How can the prince know that goldfish is not delicious?" Have you eaten it? Or did the prince not eat grapes, but said that grapes were sour? ”

Meng Qihan was asked now, he really hadn't eaten goldfish, but he hadn't seen anyone else eat it! This little girl also uses the metaphor of grapes, which is really clever and funny.

"I told you, my sister, she's very naughty. Please also bear with the prince and don't blame him. Yi Luochuan couldn't help but smile a little more when he saw that there were others besides himself who could be frustrated in front of his sister; But after all, the person on the other side is the son of the world, so he also apologized.

Meng Qihan didn't care, he waved his hand and said that it was okay, and knocked Yi Xiangxiang's head with a fan with a smile.

Yi Xiangxiang hates being knocked on the head the most, it doesn't matter if her mother knocks it, an outsider knocks it too, but she can't take Meng Qihan what to do, so she can only bully her brother! I saw her pinching her brother's ears with her two little fat hands, and said, "I'm not naughty, my brother is naughty, my brother is the most naughty!" ”

Meng Qihan watched the Yi family brothers and sisters playing, very childlike, and envious in his heart, and told his mother that night that she would give birth to another sister, which made Mrs. Hou Jiang cry and laugh.

The highlight of the day of the Yi family merger, in addition to the sudden arrival of the Hou Mansion's distinguished guests, is naturally the eldest lady of the Yi Mansion, Yi Ruonan. After the servants finished singing, she took the stage to dance a phoenix prisoner, and her delicate face instantly became enchanting in a red dress, and the dance posture was also very graceful, and even the distinguished guest Jiang nodded frequently. However, praise is praise, Jiang doesn't like girls to show up like this, although there are also young ladies in Kyoto, but they are mainly qin, chess, calligraphy and painting, after all, she is a young lady of the family, how can she dance in public? Isn't that self-surrendering? So Yi Ruonan's move was in her heart, but she lost a lot of points.

Because he didn't feel pain, Yi Ruonan didn't find out that he had lifted a stone and hit his feet. However, Yi Xiangxiang felt that it didn't matter what the result was, what did it matter, a person like Mrs. Hou would not pay attention to the niece of a seventh-grade petty official at all.

Because he still had to go to the Centennial Temple, Jiang naturally took his son to live in the Yi family; Although it was only for a short stay of a few days, the Lin family still managed to pack up the best rooms for them to live in.

Such two rich and noble people are in the house, which naturally makes many people think; So just after the banquet, the Huang family brought his two daughters to visit, intending to get closer to the relationship with the Hou Mansion. However, Jiang Shi didn't catch a cold, and under the pretext that he was tired, he didn't even greet him with tea, so he sent people away. Originally, the Wang family in Cuiming Courtyard saw that the eldest lady had only brought her own daughter and was angrily patting the mahogany table, and when she heard that the Huang family was driven out in disguise, she was happy.

"I can't do it! I still want to curry favor with the Hou Mansion to climb the dragon and attach the phoenix, but this wishful thinking can't work! Wang was very relieved to drink flower tea, and smiled and talked bad things about the big lady with the little maid.

The Huang family, who returned to her yard, did not have the consciousness of being driven away and was very ashamed, first, she knew that the Jiang family was indeed in a hurry, so it may not be an excuse to say that she was tired; Second, if a noble lady doesn't take a little shelf, if she is transposed, she will definitely take Joe. She instructed her two daughters to show their faces in front of Mrs. Hou more and have sweet mouths; instructed his son Yi Hanchen to get closer to his son Meng Qihan.

"It's not like they won't leave for the rest of their lives, so what's the need to please them if they leave in a few days!" Yi Hanchen didn't care.

Huang hated iron and said with no steel: "That's the son of the Marquis of Changping, his sister is now in the harem, if you have a good relationship with him and return to Kyoto in the future, wouldn't it be a big help?" ”

"That's right, but he doesn't talk to me much, at the banquet today, the third brother talked to him the most." Yi Hanchen was a little dissatisfied.

"If the mountain doesn't come, you will go to the mountain; Counting it carefully, your third brother's identity is not qualified to climb the Hou Mansion, but he also knows that pleasing the prince shows that it is beneficial and harmless to be good with the Hou Mansion! "Huang is bitter.

"What my mother said is reasonable, if I can be taken care of by the Hou Mansion in the future, it will be of great benefit to my future." Yi Hanchen also knew that his father was a dou who couldn't be helped, and if the second room wanted to prosper, he could only rely on him.

"It's good that Chen'er knows that it's powerful, not to mention that everything on the big house is stronger than us, just us, the Wang family in Cuiming Yuan is a difficult one to deal with, and Aunt Feng and her son are not fuel-efficient lamps, if we don't hurry up with the opportunity, we will always be stepped on by them in the future." Huang rubbed his temples and had a headache.

Yi Ruonan was sitting on the side embroidering a handkerchief, and when she saw Huang's movements, she stood up and pinched her shoulders and beat her back: "Mother doesn't have to think too much, I don't think that the uncle will always stay in Centennial County, and the official position will definitely go up; We are at least nominally a family now, and he will support Brother Chen no matter what he says in the future. ”

"The Yi family doesn't have any background in Kyoto, and no matter how tall they are, they can't go anywhere. In this county, there are not many dignitaries and dignitaries that we can come into contact with, and those who can seize the opportunity have to work hard. ”

Huang's words made the two sisters and brothers praise each other, and they were also secretly determined to get ahead; As for the youngest daughter, Yi Ruofu, she had already fallen asleep on the carved bed.

Some people think of ways to climb up, and some people wisely judge the situation and choose the position they should be in.

"Xi'er also met the prince of the Hou Mansion today?" In Rong Xi's courtyard, Aunt Feng asked Yi Hanxi, who was writing.

"I saw it, he was a delicate little boy, surrounded by servants, very noble. He can talk to the third brother more well, and he is not very enthusiastic with the second brother and me. It's probably because we're still young and don't have anything to socialize with. My aunt doesn't have to tell me to get close to him, the prince of the Hou Mansion disdains to associate with the concubine. Yi Hanxi knew what Aunt Feng was going to say and ask, and after putting down the sheep in his hand, he explained it clearly.

Aunt Feng was robbed before she could say anything, but she also knew that her son was an indisputable master, and she didn't care about these things; But despite this, what should be said is still to say: "I know that you have no intention of fighting, but I am afraid that you will not have someone to rely on in the future. ”

"Auntie, don't worry, I can earn my own industry by studying hard, and I will definitely have a good life in the future. Besides, there is nothing to fight for now, the second room is now an empty shelf, all of which are supported by the big house, what is the point of me fighting for these? I don't think the uncle will treat us harshly, now as long as we don't make trouble for him, he will ensure that we have food and clothing, and if I have a good life in the future, I will definitely repay him well. Yi Hanxi walked out from behind the book case and told Aunt Feng a few words.

Aunt Feng nodded, after coming to Bainian County, their life was much better than when they were in Kyoto before, and the Lin family, who was in charge, often asked them what they needed, which was very intimate. Speaking of which, the Dafang family is indeed a good person, but despite this, isn't the eldest lady Huang still planning for the future? She frowned and said: "Now it's not like in Kyoto in the past, now the eldest lady is changing her way every day to find trouble with Rongxi Academy, if we have a good relationship with the Hou Mansion, they won't have an extra layer of jealousy." ”

In the past, when I was in Kyoto, there were many warblers and swallows in the backyard, and the Huang family couldn't hold Yi Tangquan hostage, so they only dealt with those aunts who were beautiful and beautiful. When they came to Centennial County, these aunts were emptied of the opportunity, but now the Huang family has no hands and only deals with them.

"Auntie, I have just said that the prince of the Hou Mansion will not associate with the concubine. Don't talk about me, even the second brother can't please me, the Hou Mansion of Nuoda, everyone in Kyoto is attached, and it is just a face-saving relationship with our Yi family, so why should I be thankless? It's better not to show this face, so as not to dislike the eldest uncle. "Yi Hanxi can see it thoroughly.

Feng Shi sighed when he heard this, and said, "Okay, since you have a plan, my aunt can't say anything; You should practice calligraphy well, rest early after practice, and don't hurt yourself. ”

Feng got up and left Yi Hanxi's house, who sent her out the door. Yi Hanxi watched the moonlight in the courtyard shine on the flowers, and the light hit the petals shining, and he watched this scene with a calm heart.

If you can't compete with Haori, then you can only shine your own light.