On the day of the spring banquet in the palace, the Weiguo Mansion on the other side of the door naturally came the earliest, because the Guan Sui Garden will be hosted by the prince to receive male guests today, Yijing went to Rongxi Hall early in the morning, and personally welcomed the elders and sisters of the mother's family in, although watching Sanniang change the plain clothes of the past year, and finally restored her bright and fresh dress, thinking that she should have come out of the haze of Aunt Cui's death, and she didn't care too much at first.

After talking for a while, some guests came one after another, and the female concubines of the clan such as Yichen naturally had to greet Xiao Xie and help entertain the guests, and they didn't have much leisure to pay attention to her third sister.

The flower garden of the inner house of the king of Chu occupies a very spacious area, from the east flower garden of the corner door of the back courtyard of the Guan Sui Garden to the north, it is connected with the back road of the Rongxi Hall, and the west flower garden is also connected with each other, naturally there is a long corridor along the lake that runs through, the pavilion and the pavilion are winding and quiet, all kinds of fragrant flowers and green plants are scattered, the scenery is broad and very elegant.

The luncheon in the back house did not take long, and when the banquet table was removed, everyone first went to the theater set up in Beiyuan with the old princess to sit and listen to the play, while tasting tea and gossiping.

Xiao Xie is very busy entertaining visitors from all over the world, Jiang Yue has always been like a decoration, only sitting next to Mrs. Jianning Hou - this is also a helpless thing, most of the noblewomen in Kyoto regard Jiang Yue as a laughing stock at this time, and the attitude of coping with it is very obvious, even if Jiang Yue wants to be good at dancing with long sleeves, people don't appreciate it. The main task of the beautiful scene today is to entertain the princess of Jinyuan, although the stage is lively at this time, but seeing the spring in the inner garden, the flowers are full of flowers, many young daughters-in-law and little ladies have been unable to hold back, showing carelessness, and those who admire the princess of Jinyuan, or jealousy, or curiosity, because there is no restraint on the palace banquet, they all cherish the opportunity to get in close contact with the princess, since they came here, they compete to sit around the princess and gossip, or listen to gossip, and their minds are not on the stage for a long time.

In fact, the spring banquet in various prefectures, although few are not allowed to listen to the traditional program of the opera, but most of the people who love this are only the old princess, the old princess and other elders, such as the Huang family, Mrs. Wei and other older daughters-in-law to accompany the older daughters-in-law, the little daughter-in-law and the eldest girls probably just sit for a while, they will go to the garden to enjoy the scenery, or find a pavilion with like-minded people to taste tea, or take a boat tour of the lake under the arrangement of the main family.

The Chu Wangfu and the Weiguo Mansion have the same horse farm, and the project of bowing on the invitation has long been written, and it is also the only project that the female dependents and male guests participate in today, many little ladies have the permission of the elders in the family, and they have prepared riding clothes and sticks, such as Su Lian and Pingle are especially good at this skill, and even the mounts have been prepared early, and they have taken to the horse farm of the Chu Wangfu.

Yijing naturally couldn't hold back everyone's eyes, and first sent the spring twilight back to Guan Sui Yuan to ask, when will the banquet over there be dispersed - the male guests must drink at every banquet, and the time spent at the banquet is much longer than that of the female dependents.

The host's family is sitting in one place for the time being, and there is no other arrangement, and the guests will naturally not take the lead in getting up arbitrarily, Xiao Xie's originally had some arrangements, but she was busy entertaining the ladies of the clan at this time, and she didn't realize that because Princess Jin Yuan was here, some of the guests were much earlier than the ordinary "heart horse".

Yichen also found that the exchanges between the people present gradually increased, most people's minds were not on the stage, seeing that Xiao Xie's was busy, Jiang Yue couldn't count on it, thinking that although he was a guest, one was Yijing's eldest sister, and the other was also a clan wife, "anti-guest" was also reasonable, so he said to Yijing: "You arrange to go, here I will help the general's wife entertain, don't worry." ”

Yijing naturally did not be polite with the eldest sister, thanked, or the prophet understood Xiao Xie's voice, and instructed several stewards headed by the Shan family to arrange them one by one, once the free activities began, everywhere could not be separated from the servants and maids on duty, and there was an accident if the greeting was not good, and then the old princess was informed.

Although the eldest princess doesn't like to listen to the play, but on such an occasion, she is the identity of the elder, of course, she will not get together with the young daughter-in-law and the ladies, seeing that the granddaughter who is held in the palm of her hand seems to have the demeanor of a housewife, and is no more idle than the boudoir, a little distressed, but more relieved, so she said with a smile with the words of the old princess "go": "With us accompanying the old lady, Jing Yatou can rest assured, just entertain the guests." ”

Wait for the arrangements in place, Yijing invited Princess Jin Yuan to visit the garden together, the sixth, seventh, and eighth three golden flowers of the Guogong Mansion including Eleven Niang, Peng Lan and other Jin Yuan's supporters responded enthusiastically, and several young daughters-in-law such as Zhen Mansion Liao Shi were either friendly with Yijing, or also curious about many matters in Xiliang, all followed, and the group left the table, and the rest of the little ladies couldn't sit still, some followed the princess to enjoy the garden, and there were also daughters-in-law who did not want to join in the fun. Or climb the high pavilion to enjoy the scenery, or find another quiet place to talk in groups of three or five, or swim in the lake, or fish, and go to enjoy themselves.

Yijing accompanied the princess for a while, and when she arrived at an open pavilion in a cherry blossom forest, when she entered to rest, she noticed that Sanniang did not follow, and quietly pulled Siniang to ask.

"Today, the third sister has been talking with Concubine Ning and Concubine Bai, and when I came out, I asked her specifically, and she only said that she was already familiar with all parts of the Chu Palace, and she didn't want to hang out." Siniang said.

Yijing knew Sanniang's "heart" to the three princes in the past, and heard that she was in front of Concubine Ning's words, because she was really inseparable, and then she also thought that she specially told Guan Sui Yuan to pay attention to the access control, that is, she was worried that there were many people today, and invited male guests, in case someone with a heart took advantage of the banquet in the Chu Palace's mansion to make some "private meeting", there is a clear sky and gray crossing in the front garden, and there are two grandmothers Xie and Yang to manage it, so there should be no trouble.

Yi Jingcai was relieved, and listened to Princess Nanyang ask: "Princess, I heard that the nobles of Xiliang can't take concubines, is this really the case?" ”

As soon as these words came out, most of the young daughters-in-law present were bright-eyed, but more of them were still waiting to be married, even if there were open-minded people such as Peng Lan and Eleven Niang, it was a little embarrassing to touch this kind of topic in public, although they also wanted to know in their hearts, they all lowered their faces and avoided their eyes, pretending to turn a deaf ear, just like An Ran and other thin-skinned daughters had already blushed, and even Qi Niang turned her head to look at the scenery outside, staring at a butterfly.

Yijing sighed secretly, Princess Nanyang still had some restraint in front of Princess Kang, once she left the "elders", her reckless style was undoubtedly obvious, no wonder Pingle liked this sister-in-law the most.

Hearing Jin Yuan's affirmative reply, Princess Nanyang sighed: "Speaking of this alone, Xiliang is stronger than our Dalong, and it is legal and upright to be jealous and courteous, unlike Dalong, how many reckless women are suffocated by the word virtuous." ”

Jin Yuan saw that the ladies present were cramped, and realized a little hindsight that in the country of Dalong, the women of the boudoir should not touch such topics, and quietly shifted: "I think that the etiquette of the past dynasties, only from the former Ming Dynasty to the Eastern Ming Dynasty was particularly harsh on women, and since the founding of Dalong, the old system has been restored, and it is already considered enlightened compared to the Dongming." In this way, the topic of concubines is reversed to etiquette, and the daughters of the boudoir can also participate in the discussion, which really alleviates the embarrassment of the master of Yijing.

The princess was very appreciative, Chong Jin Yuan smiled enthusiastically, and was about to echo a few words, but she was preempted by someone.

This is the Shen Sanniang who made a blockbuster attempt at the Fanglin Banquet, although he won the top spot with a picture of a peony with a national color and fragrance, but was suppressed by the princess's painting skills.

She is the niece of Mrs. Qin's maiden family, a veritable lady of the family, always conceited, very despised for the rudeness of Xungui, and because of her jealousy and hatred for Jin Yuan, she didn't dare to make a time at the palace banquet that day, so it was easy to look forward to the spring banquet of the Chu Palace, and she didn't have many scruples - in the end, it was a private banquet, not a palace banquet, even if she was arguing with Jin Yuan, it was purely a difference of opinion, and it was not a faux pas, and Concubine Qin had always been dissatisfied with the Chu Palace, if she could use her own argument to suppress Jin Yuan at the palace spring banquet, and embarrass Princess Xiliang, others would talk about it, There are also those of the main Chu Wangfu.

Shen Sanniang hated to be ashamed, so she deliberately gathered a few supporters today and followed the princess and her party, just to provoke her.

I only heard her say with a smile: "It is said that Princess Jin Yuan is erudite and well-read, and she is really worthy of her reputation, and she is familiar with the etiquette of the past dynasties, but the little girl is different from what the princess sees...... If you want to talk about the female fan, it belongs to the former Ming Dynasty and the Eastern Ming Dynasty to be considered neat and strict, and the women of the former family adhered to the etiquette, and in the Eastern Ming Dynasty, the arrogant daughter was far less than now. ”

After speaking, Shen Sanniang glanced at Ping Le pointedly, and her gaze passed over Jin Yuan.

Pingle was furious, although she "didn't learn and didn't know", she also understood that the four words were referring to her, and she was about to retort, but her arm was lightly pressed, followed by another person next to her, but it was Yijing who sat down next to her.

Shen Sanniang said in one go: "I think it's also because the customs of Xiliang and Dalong are different, although the people of Xiliang are deeply influenced by the culture and etiquette of the Han people, after all, there are still differences, which will cause the princess to think so." ”

At the beginning of the founding of Dalong, the family and the noble women had a fierce conflict in etiquette norms, which is really a disagreement that has always existed, and there is no need to argue, because it is obvious that the family has been assimilated by the nobles, that is, the first family Wei family, and no longer use the harsh teaching of the Dongming Dynasty to teach their daughters, not to mention these "rising stars", if they are really measured according to the Dongming girl's model, the current daughters of the family are afraid that most of them are not in line with etiquette and will be criticized by the world.

Jin Yuanben didn't want to pay attention to Shen Sanniang's provocation, but since the other party raised the level to the difference between the two countries, he insinuated that the people of Xiliang were rude and did not know etiquette, and as the princess of Xiliang, she couldn't swallow her anger.

The princess raised her bright eyes slightly, she just went to the private mansion for a banquet today, and did not dress up, but wore the narrow sleeved short jacket that the Xiliang nobles often wore to the banquet, the waist was tightly sealed, and the green silk was braided, which was very different from the dress of the Da Long lady, not as soft as the Fang Lin banquet, but showing the heroic and hearty bearing.

Wan Er smiled: "It seems that the little lady is well aware of the Dongming Rites, and she thinks that she abides by it, and dares to ask the little lady, I don't know if she can be confined to the inner house like the Dongming Boudoir and not see the outside man?" ”

Pingle was pressed on the chair by Yijing, and at this time he was already unbearable, and said in a loud voice: "Come on, I met Shen San a few days ago that you and that Lang Jun of the Lan family were riding horses in the western suburbs, and I could hear your laughter from twenty or thirty steps apart." ”

"It was originally with the permission of the elders, and the Shen and Lan families are also considered to be good families...... the person who argued for Shen Sanniang, who was suddenly discolored, was one of the supporters who came with him today, Yijing looked at the face of kindness, she should also be the daughter of the family, but she couldn't remember who her name was for a while, but she had no intention of interjecting, and believed that Jin Yuan would not be stumped by these shallow and proud women.

"I used to be curious for a while, and I read Dongming's adaptation of "The Legend of the Martyr", and the story in it is really terrifying." Jin Yuan talked eloquently: "Unlike before the pre-Ming Dynasty, the world pushed women to have virtues, chastity is only one of them, and motherhood, wisdom, benevolence and wisdom are the most important, since the pre-Ming Dynasty scholars pushed the science, followed the theory of 'preserving heavenly principles and destroying people's desires', in order to restrain virtue, and later gradually evolved to be strict with women's morality, thinking that 'starvation is a small matter, and failure to be a big thing', requiring women to be chaste and martyrdom, I really think it has reached the extreme and unkind. ”

"For example, the daughter of an official, who was still a naïve child, was later learned by her father because she received food from the male servant of the house, and ordered the young girl to be starved to death in order to be completely chaste; There is another woman, after marrying and did not meet her husband, her husband returned from afar, before he arrived home, he saw the beauty of the woman beside the road, so he admired and came forward to talk, which is the wife that his parents married for him. The woman didn't know her husband and avoided it angrily, but when she learned that the person she was talking to was her husband, she was ashamed and committed suicide, because she thought that she had misbehaved, which led others to feel light. ”

"Even because he was occasionally seen by a foreign man, he cut out his eyes and nose and mutilated himself; Traveling in an accident, he was rescued by a foreign man, and he cut himself off because ......he touched his arm" Jin Yuan shook his head: "This is the chaste martyr who pushed the blame in the Eastern Ming Dynasty, and the little lady asked herself if it was effective?" ”

Seeing Shen Sanniang and the others speechless, Pingle was very happy, and when would he wait if he didn't fall into the well, he sneered and asked: "Shen San, you have to abide by the Dongming boudoir religion, of course, you must focus on chastity, don't find any excuses for the good of the family and the permission of the elders, there are many tourists in the western suburbs, and many of them see your appearance, do you want to gouge out your eyes or cut your nose?" ”