Shuning smoothed out the last wrinkle, ironed her newly made clothes, and exhaled.

It has been more than ten days since I returned to the Earl's Palace in the capital, and as soon as I enter June, the weather becomes hotter and hotter. Although she had spent a few years in the scorching heat of Guangdong, she still felt a little unbearable, so she asked her mother for half a horse of potato yarn to make herself a thin robe. If it was usual, she would not dare to wear such dark clothes as a little girl, but now she is mourning, so it is normal to wear it like this, and the little girl Su Xin walked over: "The girl is ironed?" Let's put it on and try it out, right? Shuning nodded, and walked behind the screen with her clothes.

This frangipani is actually Thursday Lin's daughter, and she has been waiting for Shuning on the boat on the way back to Beijing, and Tong thinks she is quite smart, so he simply let her be her daughter's close. Her original name was Zhou Sulan, because she was a little heavy with Zhou Yinlan, and she liked frangipani, so Shuning renamed her frangipani.

After changing her clothes, she walked over to the dressing mirror to take a look. Well, it basically fits, the left and right shoulder sleeves are symmetrical, and the black silk trim is also very symmetrical, although there is no waist (because there is no technology yet), but it is very comfortable to wear, loose and cool.

Frangipani helped her tidy up the hem of her clothes, and helped her re-comb her hair, coiled up two small buns behind her ears, and the rest of her hair was braided into a big braid hanging down the back of her head, which was very cool!

Shu Ning nodded with satisfaction, then sat on the soft chair under the window to read, Su Xin took a cup of tea, and said: "I just passed by the front of the wife's room, and I heard Aunt Wang say that Mr. Su and the others have already entered the house, and the things from the Huo comprador side have also arrived, and now the luggage is being unloaded, and it will be sent in a while." ”

It turned out that the big luggage had already arrived, and it was about the same time to come. Shuning nodded. said: "Later, you go and watch them move, and my boxes of books and miscellaneous things will be taken back one by one." Don't let people get mixed up. ”

Frangipani nodded knowingly and was about to step back. But I heard someone outside shouting, "Are the three girls in the house?" "It turned out to be Wanning's Yahuan Yanyun.

Speaking of which, on the day she first returned home, Shuning only saw Wanning in a hurry, thinking that her etiquette had arrived last week, and her demeanor was also a little more gentle. Nothing else is impressive, but her appearance is still as beautiful as it was back then. Later, after more contact, I found that her scheming seemed to be much deeper, and she began to understand how to entertain all kinds of people in the house, know how to talk in words, and also know how to be hostile to others Words and deeds, and more importantly, know how to say the word "rules" to people.

Shu Ning saw her changes, and her heart was a little calmer. Presumably, this eldest sister Wanning won't cause any more trouble without knowing the sky and the earth and affect her family, right? However, given her past achievements, it is for the sake of insurance. Shuning decided that it was better not to get too close to her, so she just maintained a normal cousin relationship. Didn't get close to her. There was no deliberate distancing. Since Wan Ning spends most of her time with the old lady, so far. It's still safe.

Yanyun came to invite Shuning to the water pavilion in the back garden to copy the scriptures. Because the old lady spoke, the four sisters Fang Ning, Wan Ning, Shu Ning and Yuan Ning had to copy a few Buddhist scriptures every day, and then take them to the old man's spirit to burn them and pray for him excessively. Shuning thought she was practicing calligraphy, and there were ten and eight articles handed in every day, although it was not as much as Fang Ning's copy, but it made people unable to find faults.

Originally, the four sisters copied each in the room, and as soon as the weather was hot, they all ran to the water pavilion, and often bumped into each other, and they came and went, so they simply made an appointment to go there together.

When Shuning arrived at the Water Pavilion, Fang Ning and Yuan Ning were already there.

Fang Ning is sixteen years old this year, and she is in the mood for love, but she was a little plump back then, but now she is very thin. She was wearing a gray cloth robe, with no patterns on it, except for a silver hairpin on her head and a Buddhist bead on her wrist, there was no ornament on her body. His face is a little gray, his eyes are lowered and his eyebrows are lowered, and he rarely looks directly at people.

Yuan Ning is different. She was still wearing an egg-blue robe, but her hair was embroidered with dark patterns, her hair was tied into a chic braid with a cyan headband, and the white gauze flowers and silver jewelry made her more and more beautiful. The current Yuan Ning, although the knot is still unresolved, but when facing the other sisters, she has no anger in the past.

Yuan Ning looked up and saw Shu Ning coming in, pulled the corners of her mouth and said, "Actually, even the third sister is here, but the one who made an appointment has not yet arrived." Shuning smiled, walked over to look, and found that Fang Ning had already copied two articles, and sighed: "Big sister, your hands and feet are so fast, you alone are enough to top the three of us." ”

Fang Ning smiled slightly: "I'm used to copying, so naturally I write quickly, in fact, the two of you are not slow." Yuan Ning said: "When the eldest sister lives outside, she eats fasting and recites Buddha every day, and takes copying scriptures as a success class, and she is about to become a sister-in-law, how can we compare with her?" ”

Shuning turned around to look at Fang Ning, and saw that she continued to copy indifferently, so she changed the subject and said, "Which one should I copy today?" Yuan Ningzheng regretted a little that she had just spoken, and said busily: "Today, my eldest sister and I are copying the "Dizang Sutra", and the third sister is also copying this, right?" Shuning nodded, and sat down to copy

The three girls sat in the cool water pavilion and copied Buddhist scriptures. It didn't take long for Shuning to feel calm and not feel hot at all. She wrote steadily on the hairpin, and in a moment, she had already written a few lines. Yuan Ning looked at it with some envy and said, "The third sister really deserves to have practiced calligraphy since she was a child, look at these few lines of words, it looks like they are printed in a book." Shuning tilted her head and smiled, and continued to copy.

But the calm scene was quickly shattered, and Wan Ning came.

She was wearing a white lotus-patterned slim thin silk robe, wearing a jasper ring on her chest, and only a white gauze flower on her head. Shuning was about to greet her, but she heard Yuan Ning next to her sneer: "Second sister asked people to invite us, but she only came over for a long time, she must be very busy, right?" It's really hard for you, so busy, and you have to do these little things, presumably Marfa will feel very relieved in the spirit of the sky, right? ”

Wan Ning smiled: "Grandma Fang Cai refuses to drink medicine, I want to coax her to drink, it's too late, but there is nothing embarrassing, this is our filial piety as a granddaughter The latest chapter of the modern version of the immortal. "Then I went to look at the scriptures that were written next to me." So much has already been written? Then I'm going to have to work harder, so I don't lose to you. Then he sat down and began to copy.

Yuan Ning pursed her lips and stopped talking. It's just that she's starting to get a little irritated. Copy two lines and make a mistake. I wanted to change it, but the more pasty it became, the more ugly it became, so I simply crumpled the piece of paper into a ball and threw it to the side, and a little girl had already taken it away. She changed a piece of paper. I started copying again, and I easily copied most of the page, and I made a mistake, and as soon as the fire came up, I threw away the pen.

Shuning sat next to her, she lost the pen, others didn't do anything, but the splashed ink fell on the paper in front of Shuning. Yuan Ning felt a little guilty and hurriedly said, "I'm sorry." Didn't stain my sister's clothes, did you? ”

Shuning waved her hand, put the piece of paper aside, and wrote another one. Fortunately, I only wrote four or five words just now. Otherwise, it will be wasted.

Yuan Ning was a little surprised and asked, "Why didn't the third sister lose the paper?" Horizontal and vertical are useless. Shuning said: "How can it be useless? I took it back and used a bamboo knife to cut off the ink-stained part. You can continue to use it. This is a good rice paper. There's still such a big piece empty, don't waste it. ”

Yuan Ning was surprised: "I didn't expect the third sister to be so frugal. I heard Ama Eniang say. The third uncle and three aunts are in Guangdong, and they can get a lot of silver every year, just the annual gift sent back to the house every year, there are two or three thousand taels, and there are at least tens of thousands of taels left by their own families. If you are so rich, why be stingy with this bit of paper? ”

No way? Actually remembered by that shrewd couple? Such "rumors" must be resolutely clarified, lest they be calculated!

Shuning smiled and said, "This is nothing, where did the second uncle and second aunt hear the rumors?" Most of the things that my Ama Eniang sends back every year are antiques or something, but in fact, they are all gifts from others, and we don't need to pay for them. The jewelry I sent this year was more expensive, but it was bought cheaply because a Western merchant who was in the jewelry business in India sold the stock at a low price. Thinking that it could be used at home, I sent it back. Although our family has silver, it is not as much as tens of thousands of taels, and we have always been frugal in our daily use. Wan Ning interjected at this time: "This is the end of the day, fourth sister, you should learn from the third sister, don't always waste money." ”

Yuan Ning sneered: "It's really surprising to hear this from the mouth of the second sister. Ignoring Wanning, she asked Shuning, "Third sister, don't lie to me, right?" I just passed through the second gate, and I saw that the people in your house were unloading the luggage on the car, and there were dozens of boxes. And what are those? ”

Shuning said: "That's the big luggage that our family uses in Guangdong, miscellaneous places, winter coats and quilts or something, some boxes are filled with vases, ornaments and books, calligraphy and paintings, etc., some people give land, and some buy their own land." These things are said to be valuable, but in fact, they are useless except for giving them away and looking good at home. Is it possible to sell it for money? What do others think is wrong with our family? ”

Yuan Ning was a little interested: "So that's the case, I thought there would be something rare." ”

"Rarely, I have a set of glass-fired snuff bottles with Western paintings painted on them, which I got from a merchant at the behest of my mother. If the fourth sister is interested, when I pack up my things, please come and see. ”

"Forget it, snuff bottles are a strange thing." Yuan Ning pouted.

Of course, it was a story of constellations from Greek mythology, although it was a little different from what she knew. I think back then, she was also fascinated by horoscope books. Therefore, as soon as he saw this set of things, he immediately bought it from Huo Comprador. In fact, Huo Comprador just thought the painting was interesting, and did not think that the glassware was valuable, so the bid was very low.

However, Yuan Ning naturally didn't know about these things, but Wan Ning was a little interested: "What are the paintings on it?" Is it a Bible story? "It's just ordinary objects, but the way it is painted is really special, and it is completely different from ours." "Oh."

The scene cooled down, and Shuning continued to bury her head in copying. Less than an hour later, the old lady sent a little girl to urge, and Wanning went back. Shuning counted the copied scriptures, and there were more than a dozen, so she asked someone to put them away and quit and go back to the room.

Her boxes had already been delivered, opened and checked, and nothing had been missed. Shuning quietly breathed a sigh of relief, and went to the backyard porch to see the Qiao who had just arrived

Qiaoyun was talking to the other maids with a big belly, and when she saw Shuning coming, she was about to get up, but Shuning hurriedly supported her, pulled her to sit down, and asked some questions about the road carefully, and saw that her mother and son were safe, so she was relieved. The second sister-in-law walked over with a smile and said, "Qiaoyun, Mrs. has spoken, and has already prepared a new house for your little two, you will go back to the new house to live in a while, and when the child is full of moon, and then come back on a business trip, Fang Cai Changgui has already received silver and medicinal materials for you to replenish your body, and Mrs. said that you are inconvenient, so you don't need to kowtow." Qiao Yun happily agreed, and he was going to thank the Tong family, saying that it would be better not to kowtow and salute. The second sister-in-law had to take her there.

Shuning was about to go to his brother Duanning to see if his things were complete, but unexpectedly saw him standing at the gate of the courtyard talking to Shunning, and Shunning was still looking at the inner courtyard from time to time. Shu Ning thought of Qiao Yun and was a little worried. After a while, Shunning went back with some disappointment, and Duan Ning looked back and saw his sister and smiled slightly. I am the dividing line where time flies

In the blink of an eye, in July, the old lord's 100 days have passed, and the eldest uncle Jin Bao and the fourth uncle Rong Bao are busy explaining their family affairs, preparing to return to the military department and the palace on a business trip. Xingbao asked someone to set up a car, and planned to go out to inspect various industries. But Zhang Bao was leisurely drinking tea and reading books in the study, chatting with his wife, and teasing his youngest son, and his little life was very beautiful.

As soon as the hour arrived, I heard a commotion at the front door, and some people rushed in, shouting "The holy decree has arrived" and running inside. In a few moments, the whole house was shaken.

Nala had already instructed the housekeeper in the palace to welcome the eunuch who had delivered the decree into the hall, put good tea and waited, and asked someone to set up an incense table. Several people in the room were dressed in formal dresses, not only the Shuning sisters were neatly dressed, but even the youngest Xianning and Qingning's eldest daughter Xuerui, who was less than a year old, were all dressed up and carried out, and the whole family knelt in the front yard, waiting for someone to read the holy decree.