At dinner time, the main hall of the Yi family banquet is brightly lit, and the mahogany round table placed in the main hall is carved for more than one year, which has been carved for more than one year, with lotus leaves and lotus flowers, and a carp pattern, which means that there is more than one year of life in a rich life. The large round table can accommodate more than 15 people to sit down, and a few maids on the left and right stand aside with their heads bowed and waiting, and the main seat is sitting on the old lady Yi Kangwen and Mrs. Yi Mo. Originally, according to the rules of the Li Dynasty, Mrs. Hou Jiang should be seated in the main seat, because she has the highest status; However, she said that she was a junior and should be a nephew, so she sat under Mo's head.

"Thank you for taking care of you, I've been disturbed these days, and I've thanked you for the tea instead of wine." Mrs. Hou Jiang raised her glass and expressed her gratitude to the Yi family.

In the words of modern people, some people will feel that in this case, it is not enough for the other party to bring tea and wine to face, but in the ancient Li Dynasty, women rarely drank alcohol on weekdays, let alone banquets, and they were afraid of drinking too much and losing their ugliness, so there was nothing wrong with Jiang's actions.

"Mrs. Hou is polite! In the past, when my husband went to Tongzhou, it was Lord Jiang and Mrs. Jiang who arranged food, clothing, housing and transportation properly; If you really talk about it in detail, our poor and remote country is not as good as in Tongzhou, but we treat Mrs. Hou poorly. "As the main person in charge of this hospitality, Lin will definitely open his mouth to answer.

Yi Xihu was whispering to his father Yi Kangwen at this time, and when he heard this, he raised his head and choked: "Neiko is right, every time I go to Tongzhou to report on my work, I will send someone to help take care of everything, and I am ashamed to say that I can't go to this time because of Lord Jiang's birthday." ”

The county officials of the Li Dynasty need to go to the subordinate Zhizhou every year to report on their work, and this kind of report is mainly to report the development process and results of the past year, just like Yi Xiangxiang used to work in the company and write a year-end summary at the end of the year.

"Master Yi doesn't have to mind, Lord Yi is naturally a major official as a parent official, my father has mentioned in front of me many times that Lord Yi is dutiful as an official, he is a good official, and my father also admires talents like Lord Yi very much." This time, Jiang Shi did not say kind words, her father Jiang did praise Yi Xihu.

Jiang still remembers his father's original words: Don't look at Yi Xihu is only a county official now, a talent like him, even if he can't be a marquis in the future, he will at least be a position above the third grade; Although you are Mrs. Hou, and there is a daughter in the palace to mediate, this Yi Xihu is good if you can not offend.

Jiang didn't care about it originally, but since he came into contact with the Yi family, he did feel that although the number of owners of this big house was small, it was indeed much more polite than these two rooms; Needless to say, the second room, after she came back, she had already heard the report of the little girl next to her son, and the eldest lady of the second room had visited the garden countless times with her son.

Thinking like this, Jiang Shi glanced at Yi Ruonan, the girl is handsome, her appearance is not the beauty of the country, but she is also delicate and lovely, but she does not have the style of a young lady, and what she does is not considered to be in the eyes of the princes of the family. Not to mention that Yi Ruonan's identity is too low, even if she has a good background and family background, she can't look down on this girl.

Yi Ruonan naturally didn't know that she had been crossed in Mrs. Hou's heart, and she was worried that Meng Qihan would leave Yifu tomorrow, her efforts in the past few days had been in vain, and her relationship with Meng Qihan had made no progress.

In fact, although Yi Xiangxiang doesn't like Yi Ruonan, she also sympathizes with her, thinking that although this big sister is approaching Meng Qihan with a purpose, who doesn't love the young man? is still a good son who has been plated with local tyrant gold. It's just that this is not the right household, even if you can really eliminate all difficulties and marry in the past, after this goes, the people in the back house are deceitful, and they fight for life and death, but it is not as simple as continuing to eliminate all difficulties, but to work hard. I haven't played anymore this time, and I'm really tired and tired.

Yi Xiangxiang couldn't have imagined that she would be "tired and tired" in the future! At this moment, she looked at the people at the table in the business of mutual praise, and the boys of the junior also expressed respect and gratitude to each other, which was really boring. The Yi family practiced for Mrs. Hou's mother and son this time, because it was not as large as the day of the merger, and the men and women did not sit separately.

Yi Xiangxiang was stunned for a while, and found that everyone was still talking on their own, and had to move; I saw her sneaking up to Lin's side and secretly pulling her mother's sleeve, hinting that she should quickly turn the topic to the dishes.

The Lin family was listening to the Mo family and the Huang family say something to convey to Mrs. Jiang, telling her to pay attention to her body and not to work too hard. Seeing her little daughter coming over and making small movements, she was very helpless, so she could only say, "How about Mrs. Hou try this dish?" To tell you the truth, I am going to open a restaurant in this century-old county, many of these dishes are the main items on the menu, and I want you to help you taste them and see how they taste. ”

"Oh? The eldest lady still does business? Mrs. Hou was a little surprised. The Li Dynasty does not restrict the operation of shops for the families of officials, but most of the official eunuchs are more inclined to rent grange orchards and the like, after all, this merchant is stained with copper after all; Some eunuchs or families are very high-ranking and disdain to do business.

"Isn't this also idleness! I don't really understand the economic reform of my husband's monarch Zhang Bainian County, but even if there is such a thing as the introduction of merchants, I have to take a good lead as a dependent. Lin knew where Jiang's doubts were, but she didn't care, she was affected by what her daughter said, "Money can make ghosts grind", and she didn't care if the copper stinks or not.

"This relationship is good, Lord Yi is really blessed to marry such a wife with IKEA and IKEA; And the old lady and the old lady are also blessed, having such a sensible daughter-in-law! Jiang said with a smile.

"Blessed and blessed, isn't your mother also blessed!" Old Mrs. Yi Mo also said with a smile, but Old Mrs. Yi didn't speak, just stroked her beard and nodded with satisfaction.

Smiling Tiger! Yi Xiangxiang complained about Yi Kangwen in her heart, and made a grimace at him, but the latter was not annoyed, but smiled even more.

"I don't dare to say it, but it's okay to try it." Jiang Shi is very face-saving, she tasted almost all the dishes, except for the duck meat in the old duck soup is a bit old, and she is very satisfied with the other dishes.

Now Yi Xiangxiang can rest assured, she just ate some creative dishes that she "transplanted" from modern times, and she also thinks it's okay, but I'm afraid that these ancients can't get used to eating this kind of thing.

"This smoked fish tastes good, charred on the outside and tender on the inside, and extremely mellow." Jiang didn't just talk about it, she asked her subordinates to take the dishes after she finished speaking.

Yi Xiangxiang saw Jiang calling her mother-in-law to pick up the dishes, and knew that this Mrs. Hou was indeed quite satisfied with the dishes, after all, according to the rules and etiquette of these people, the same dish at the banquet would not be sandwiched twice. Speaking of which, she felt that this kind of carved round table in ancient times was not very convenient, and suddenly missed the modern glass turntable, and did not know how the carpentry skills of this world were.

"If you're satisfied, this smoked fish is marinated in a secret sauce, if you like it, I'll ask the cook to write down the recipe for you to take away." Lin said to Jiang with a smile.

"I think this is feasible, and in the future, we chefs will be able to cook smoked fish, and my mother will be able to eat this flavor even in Kyoto!" Meng Qihan was afraid that his mother would refuse, so he hurriedly opened his mouth to be the first to arrive, because he also thought that this smoked fish tasted good.

Jiang Shi had already laughed: "Look at my son, he is greedy and tight." The people at the table also laughed when they heard the words, and the young man, who had been slightly red from drinking, even turned his neck red.

The guests at the banquet were happy, but Yi Ruonan had already gone to his brother's side to beg for food.

Until the end of the banquet, when everyone was full of wine and food, Yi Xiangxiang also ate her little belly bulging. The feast was indeed very merry, and even a few of the boys drank some wine and were mixed with their servants and returned to their own courtyards. Yi Luochuan didn't drink much, and was stirred by Yi Xiangxiang to feed him halfway, so he patronized and served her. At this time, the brother and sister walked in the garden to eat, Yi Luochuan took his sister's hand and walked step by step, the slight aroma of wine on his body mixed with the fragrance of flowers in the garden, which smelled very good. Yi Xiangxiang already had the recipe for the new spice in her mind, and thought that the combination of this wine and flowers must be intoxicating enough.

"Will my brother still study when he comes back for a while?" Yi Xiangxiang asked Yi Luochuan, who still studied hard every day after dinner, which made her a student like her who didn't like to study very admired.

"If I smell alcohol today, I won't read it; You will go back and rest early in a while, and you will get up tomorrow morning to see off Mrs. Hou and the prince. Yi Luochuan knew that his sister was a little precocious, but she was also a child and very willful, so he specially explained.

"Okay...... Yi Xiangxiang replied, taking her brother's hand and continuing to walk forward.

Yi Xiangxiang cherishes the present very much, she has no brothers and sisters before, and she hopes to have an older brother. When she was a child, her parents worked outside, and she lived in the countryside with her grandmother, most of the children in the countryside were tanned, but only she was very white, which was probably related to her grandmother's perennial honey drink; But children are rejected, and she was often bullied as a child, and at that time she wished that she had an older brother who could protect her. Later, her grandmother passed away in old age, and she followed her parents to the city, but because they had been separated for too long in the past, the relationship with her parents was not deep; Later, her parents also left, and she was left alone, so her temperament became more and more cold.

She woke up in this world, surrounded by her loving grandparents and parents, as well as her brother, such a perfect family is simply God is fulfilling her wishes, so even if the experience of her previous life has stereotyped her character, now she is trying to repay the love that her family has given her. It is because she cherishes the relationship and relationship with the Yi family that she is angry that the second room has destroyed this stability. She wants to do business and open a restaurant, she wants to move what she has learned in modern times that can be used, and she wants to become stronger, just hoping that she can have the ability to protect her family in such a place where the weak eat the strong.

It was a little cold in late autumn, but the moonlight was still as clear as promised; The brother and sister didn't speak anymore, they just held hands and walked step by step, and the mother-in-law and maids who followed were also quiet, and no one wanted to disturb this Qingning.

It wasn't until the Lin family sent someone to let the brother and sister go back to the house early to rest, for fear that they would catch a cold after walking in the garden, that the brother and sister separated. Yi Xiangxiang returned to her Yongle Residence, collapsed on the simple and elegant Luohan bed, hugged the quilt and didn't want to move. Le Qi walked in and saw that the young lady had buried herself under the quilt, and quickly dug it out for her.

"Miss, wash and warm up with hot water first, otherwise you will just get cold in the garden, and it will be easy to get sick when you sleep like this." Le Qi reaches out and holds Yi Xiangxiang on the edge of the bed, and then asks Fluttershy to bring the water over and wash Yi Xiangxiang's face.

Yi Xiangxiang is obedient and obedient, she can't get sick, Xile Building is about to open and keep an eye on the situation, but she is ready to spread it in a chain if it does well. While she was at the mercy of Le Qi, she asked, "What about Miaoqin?" ”

Yi Xiangxiang asked this question because Miaoqin took care of her close on weekdays, and Leqi assisted from the side, and because Leqi was mainly responsible for the discipline of the little girl and the like, and it was usually Miaoqin who was responsible for her daily life.

"Miaoqin just said that she was not feeling well, so she went back to the house to rest first." At this time, Le Qi had already helped Yi Xiangxiang scrub her hands and feet, put on clean underwear, and Yi Xiangxiang got into the quilt in one go.

"Okay, then you look at her more, and if you don't feel well, hurry up and find a doctor. Go down and rest, and blow out the lamps early today. Yi Xiangxiang yawned and sent the person down.

The two maids exit the inner room, and Fluttershy leaves the main courtyard with water, but Le Qi needs to be on duty all night so he blows the lamp and sleeps in the outer room of the main room. Yi Xiangxiang is still young after all, in case she wants to drink water and get up at night, it is impossible to leave no one around. Even if she is not a child, the ladies of the official eunuch families who have some conditions in the Li Dynasty will leave maids on night duty outside. Yi Xiangxiang used to keep vigil with Miaoqin and Leqi in turn, and today was supposed to be Miaoqin, but she changed days with Leqi because she was unwell.

Fluttershy comes out with the water and splashes it, puts the copper basin down, and turns to head towards the side courtyard of Yongle House. There is a row of houses in the side courtyard of Yongle Ju, which is the residence of the people under the maids of Yongle Ju, and the room in the middle of the side courtyard is where Mama Li rests. Mama Li has a husband and children, so she usually goes back to her own house in the outer courtyard, and sometimes she rests here when she has a lunch break or when it is inconvenient to go back on a rainy day. The room on the left of Mama Li is Miaoqin's residence, and on the right is the house of Leqi; They are the eldest girls of the young lady, and they all have their own separate rooms to rest.

Fluttershy didn't have a lantern, and when she left the main courtyard, she didn't bother to light the lantern when she saw that the moonlight was quite bright, but she didn't expect the clouds to cover the moonlight, so she had to walk to the side courtyard in half darkness. She walked up the stairs and prepared to turn left, the second-class maid's room was on the left and right sides, and she lived in the second room on the left with another second-class maid, Xiaoxi. Because she was a little sleepy, she wanted to go back to the house to rest quickly, but she didn't want to bump into someone as soon as she turned the corner.

"Eh!" Fluttershy exclaims, she didn't expect someone to come out of the room on the left, so she bumps into Miaoqin. Half of this exclamation was due to the pain of hitting the head, and half of it was completely frightened.

Fluttershy's exclamation catches the attention of the maids in the room, and they hear greetings from the room, "Fluttershy, what's wrong?" ”

"None...... It's okay, it's me who accidentally stepped on the air. Fluttershy can't say that she bumped into Miaoqin who was just about to go out, after all, Miaoqin said that she was uncomfortable and changed shifts with Leqi for the night, and now she said that she was afraid of causing a misunderstanding that Miaoqin was lazy or something. Of course, even if there is no such misunderstanding, it is really troublesome to explain, so she just found an excuse.

"Then let's go and rest." There were words from the other maids in the house.

"Okay, I'll go." She spoke back into the room, and in a short time it was quiet. Then she turned around and asked Miaoqin, "Why hasn't Sister Miaoqin rested yet?" ”

"I can't sleep, I want to go for a walk in the garden." Miaoqin's slightly flustered expression makes Fluttershy think she's scared too, so she's a little embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, Sister Miaoqin, blame me for not lighting the lantern. Is my sister going to the garden? Then I'll accompany my sister! Fluttershy enthusiastically tells Miaoqin this to make up for her recklessness.

"No, you can go and rest first. I've worked hard today, and I'll have to work tomorrow. Miaoqin calms down and smiles and says to Fluttershy.

Miaoqin says this, and Fluttershy can't say anything more; She was a maid bought by Miss from the street, and she was not close to these children, and she knew that Miss was guarding her from exceeding the rules, so she no longer insisted. She shifted slightly, sideways to make way for Miaoqin.

Now the clouds dispersed, and the moon shone very brightly in the courtyard. Fluttershy sees Miaoqin wearing a pink corset skirt, and the lotus flower tattooed on the skirt comes to life in the moonlight, and slowly the lotus flower swings away from the courtyard, getting farther and farther away.

The lights have been turned off in Yongle Ju, but the main courtyard of the second room is still brightly lit, and Huang and Yi Ruonan are sitting on carved wreath chairs and talking.

"Mother, do you know that my aunt has a relationship with the Lin family?" Yi Ruonan held the embroidered handkerchief in his hand and twisted it lightly, showing his eyebrows slightly.

Huang also frowned and said, "I only know that her father is Lin Hai, and she is Lin Hai's concubine, but I never know that this Lin Hai is related to the Prime Minister's Mansion." When her daughter came over and said that the Lin family was from the Prime Minister's Mansion, she was startled, but she still felt a little surprised when she explained it clearly.

"I think if she had communicated with the Prime Minister's Mansion, we wouldn't have been kicked out of Kyoto." Yi Ruonan said thoughtfully.

"That's not true, there are many relatives in a high-ranking family like the Lin family, how can they sell a niece who has five suits to save face." The reason why the Huang family said this is also because the Lin family is not that kind of person, if he can really breathe, Yi Xihu will only be a county official now.

Yi Ruonan disagreed: "Mother, don't think of your aunt too simply, if your aunt is not a powerful person, how can my uncle's backyard be so clean now?" And you also heard it at the banquet tonight, my aunt is also preparing to open a restaurant! How could any woman in the Li Dynasty want to open a restaurant? is really going to open a shop, and it is also a silk silk and satin jewelry sachet! After we came from Kyoto, don't you see that everything now depends on the face of the big house, don't we all beg for a living under the big house? I don't believe that my aunt didn't want to suppress our hearts in the slightest. ”

Yi Ruonan's words also made the Huang family a little shaken, she didn't deal with this concubine much before, mainly because she was entangled in trivial matters at that time, but now that she gets along, she really feels that this sister-in-law is becoming more and more incomprehensible.

"Well, what you said makes sense, my mother will pay attention. Okay, you go back and rest, Shizi...... They will leave tomorrow, and now we have a familiar face in front of them, so if we have the opportunity to return to Kyoto in the future, we will continue to make friends. Don't take it too seriously, they don't have much time here to fully understand your good, our Nan'er, there will definitely be a better future in the future. Huang was afraid that his daughter would plant a knot in her heart because of Meng Qihan, so she opened her mouth to explain.

Yi Ruonan was a little unhappy at the dinner, and she was more or less moved by Meng Qihan. But what kind of person is she, although she was a little hit, but she didn't bear it, but she didn't care: "Don't worry about my mother, it's just a son of the Hou Mansion, and now she doesn't have any errands, and she has no real power to have anything worth remembering." ”

Although Yi Ruonan said five points because he didn't want to admit defeat and expressed his indifference, the other five points were also sincere. She is a person who grew up in Kyoto, although she has long sleeves and can bend and stretch, but her heart has always been high, and a prince like Meng Qihan who has not yet inherited it has no real power, but it is really not her first choice in her heart. As for the previous Xiao Fu low, it was just like what Huang said, not letting go of all opportunities. Since what is in front of her has not been completed, it means that better is still to come, she thinks.

If Yi Xiangxiang knew Yi Ruonan's thoughts, she would definitely praise the other party's freedom and ease, and by the way, ask where the confidence came from.