In the hall of Wu Mansion.
Mr. Li and Ms. Yang were sitting side by side.
Below are several juniors. Sitting at the west end are Fan and Qi Niang. Sitting at the east end are Zhang, who married Zhang Dun not long ago, and Zhang, who gave Qi Niang's handkerchief to Zhang Dun.
After everyone chatted for a while, Yang looked at Shi Qi Niang and smiled at Li Shi: "Your Qi Niang looks really great."
Mrs. Li smiled faintly and said, "It doesn't matter how good she looks, but she has a bad temper and lacks discipline. Last time I heard, she even bumped into her in-laws."
Yang smiled and said: "There is no conflict. Seventeenth mother is outspoken, which is in line with my temper. She is now at the age of discussing marriage."
Mrs. Li smiled and said: "After the New Year, you will be fifteen, and you can get married. But my master said there is no rush, so he will take his time. It doesn't matter how outstanding he is, as long as he is a young and talented person, even if his family is poor. It doesn’t hurt to have some.”
Yang's eyes narrowed.
Zhang Heng had been a guest at her house that day and told her that the Wu House seemed to be planning to negotiate a marriage for her concubine. At that time, they invited many unmarried young talents to the house, and Zhang Yue was one of them. one.
Hearing this, Yang couldn't help but think about it.
I thought it would be great if I could help my nephew and see if I could resolve the conflict between the two families.
It happened that the Wu Mansion invited her to come to the house to reminisce about old times. She had been in poor health before, so she declined half-heartedly, but the Wu Mansion actually invited her twice more and even asked Zhang Dexiang's granddaughter to come over, so she Only then was he convinced of the sincerity of the Wu family, so he brought his wife here to show that he was serious about it.
Yang looked at Qi Niang repeatedly, but saw that she was sitting cautiously aside, saying nothing and being very polite.
Seeing her looking at her, Qi Niang looked a little apologetic.
Yang thought to herself, this girl is quite nice.
But because she is a concubine, she doesn’t want any dowry, so she just wants to find a descendant of the Han family? If it becomes prosperous in the future, it will also help the Wu family to get help from the temple in the future.
It's not unreasonable to have such a crush on the third brother.
Yang thought so.
But it seems that this girl really has no choice. I just wonder if her temper will be bad. If she gets married and relies on her family background... In this way, it will harm the third brother.
Thinking of this, Mrs. Yang smiled and said: "If you are from a poor family, you can still produce a noble son these days. As for the future, to use Ma Shaobao's words, it is not something we and other women know."
When Lu Yijian was young, his father Lu Mengheng served as the county magistrate in Fuzhou. Minister Ma Liang met Lu Yijian and was surprised to marry his daughter to him.
His wife Liu Shi said angrily: "Do you really want to marry your daughter to the son of a county magistrate?"
Ma Liang said with disdain: "That's not what you know."
As soon as these words came out, Mrs. Li's smile faded, and Mrs. Fan from the side interjected: "It's not that Ma Shaobao's daughter can't get married, but that she really likes Mr. Lu's talents."
Yang said as she glanced at Shiqi Niang, but saw that the other party's smile remained the same as before, without any hint of embarrassment.
Yang smiled and said: "That's the truth. Didn't my parents also fall in love with my father-in-law at the beginning, but now he is also a feudal official."
At this point, everyone laughed.
The atmosphere has improved a lot. The Li family originally fell in love with Wu Chong, who had been in officialdom for twenty years. Now he is worshiped as the transshipment envoy to the west of Beijing and has become a high official in the border area. This also confirms Li's original vision.
Yang thought to herself, but to be more careful, although the Wu family has become prosperous and wealthy in recent years, they have been slow to educate their children in their careers, and they have acquired many habits of wealth, at least they were from a scholarly family at the beginning, and all their daughters were educated. Be extremely virtuous and intelligent.
I can rest assured that these seventeen mothers are definitely not the domineering daughters of high families, otherwise the three prime ministers like Ouyang, Xia, Lu and Wen would not marry them.
Such a woman takes it easy for wealth and honor to appear to her like a floating cloud, but she is afraid that being good at dancing will encourage her husband to fight for power and position.
Seeing this, Yang had a rough impression of Qi Niang.
She looked at Mrs. Li, then at Seventeen Niang, and thought to herself, no matter how low-key and restrained this woman may be on the outside, the ambition in her eyes cannot be concealed.
This follows her nominal mother Li. Mrs. Yang does not dislike ambition in women, but it depends on who she marries.
Everyone talked again and then went to the banquet.
Yang walked up to Seventeenth Niang, held her hand and said with a smile: "As the saying goes, three generations of good women prosper, and Seventeenth Niang will definitely be a virtuous wife in the future."
The Seventeenth Mother was startled when she heard this, and then she bowed in shock and said, "My in-laws are overly praised."
After the banquet, Mrs. Li was drinking fragrant tea and saw Mrs. Fan coming and said, "Have you all gone back?"
"Yes, they are all sent out. One of their cars broke down, so I asked Liu Quan to drive the car and send them off on their behalf."
"Very good." Li took another sip of tea with approval.
Mrs. Li said to the left and right again: "You guys retreat first."
The old ladies serving in the room bowed and said yes, and then all of them withdrew.
Fan said: "Mother, Mrs. Zhang's words are that she wants to make decisions for Mr. Zhang Sanlang, but my daughter-in-law knows that Mr. Zhang Sanlang is not on good terms with his brother."
Li said: "I don't know, but I have asked about it. The eldest husband of the Zhang family is still respectful to her. Sanlang ignores the second husband, but still obeys the eldest son's words. In other words, she can still say Someone you can talk to. You won’t be able to get around it in the future anyway. Even if we don’t let people get things done, that’s it, but we can’t let people do bad things.”
"That's it. Mother is so thoughtful."
Li said: "What's more, I heard that after Ouyang Xueshi asked Dr. Chen (Chen Xiang) to teach Zhang Sanlangjun poetry and poetry, Mrs. Zhang's son even came to see Dr. Chen, and seemed to ask him to take care of him again and again. After all, Dr. Chen was also his original teacher."
Mrs. Fan suddenly said: "My daughter-in-law understands."
Li said: "Now we have to admit it first. We have to wait for the master to return to Beijing from Luoyang before making a decision, so as not to be hasty in the future and blame us for not making arrangements in advance."
Fan said: "My mother really thinks about everything first."
"It's too late. Who would have thought that the Zeng family would take a fancy to it first. Otherwise, I really want the master to come back to Beijing before talking about it."
Mrs. Fan also said: "My daughter-in-law is not willing to give in. But my daughter-in-law heard that the Zeng family came from a scholarly family, and Zeng Zigu's younger brothers were all highly motivated. When the family was in decline, his sisters worked as prostitutes at home to supplement their income." To support their family, I helped them raise money to go to Beijing to take the exam... I know they are all virtuous. I'm always afraid..."
Li said: "We can't make up our mind for the master on this matter. There were so many talented people coming to our house, but he only asked Mr. Zhang Sanlang to come and talk to him alone. He didn't even take a fancy to Liu Ji. But the master is a member of the family. My lord, he has been an official in the court for so many years, and he has a good eye for people, and no one can be as good as him when it comes to fortune-telling, so you all listen to his arrangements in this matter."
"But now that the imperial court is in turmoil due to the appointment of the crown prince, I originally thought that Prime Minister Wen returned to keep me in Beijing, but unexpectedly he suddenly paid homage to the transfer envoy to the west of Beijing, which delayed Zhang Sanlang's visit. "
Fan said: "That's right. So Zeng Zigu has taken a fancy to it, and he has taken the first look for us. Couldn't we also say that our father and mother's vision at the beginning was good? Anyway, our attitude is to pass it over first. As for whether it succeeds or not, we have to wait and see. Family fate. But I think Madam Zhang’s family seems to like Shiqi very much, and she seems to have fallen in love with her at first sight.”
Li Shi smiled slightly and said: "There is no reason why I fell in love with him at first glance. Who doesn't know how to say nice things? Now that his official is still at home, there is no guarantee that he will come to visit him in the future."
Fan said: "Mother, Mrs. Zhang has looked at Shi Qi repeatedly and looked at her many times. I don't think she is just being polite."
Li finally smiled and said: "Although I have little education in Seventeen, I have made some progress after being with her sisters for so many years. But Yang is not bad, and I think her daughter-in-law is also one of the best in a hundred."
Fan laughed softly upon hearing this.
Li Shi also said with a smile: "You usually think that I rarely praise Shi Qi, and even show partiality. Yes, parents always have biases. These children have a preference. Shi Qi is not my biological child, but our parents govern No matter who you are partial to in your heart, you will always have a bowl of water on your face. A harmonious family and everything will be prosperous. This is the long-term way to run a family."
Fan's face froze after hearing this, and she suddenly felt ashamed.
Li Shi seemed to have no intention of hitting Fan Shi with these words, and said instead: "But as for the Zeng family... Just use a few words. Zeng Gong is a scholar, and such a family will be able to confide in you when no one is around. , once someone starts to argue, he will stand aside aloofly."
Fan couldn't help but said: "Is it too much trouble for my mother to do this? My father has not yet decided whether he wants to be Shozaburo-kun."
Li said: "Do you know why I am like this?"
After thinking about it for a while, Fan suddenly realized that this is what Li just said about "parents should not be partial".
The end of the year is here in a blink of an eye, and the New Year is about to begin.
Some time before the Chinese New Year is the public examination of Taixue.
This time, the imperial court appointed a famous minister, Hu Su, to supervise the public examination of Taixue. It was rumored that Hu Su would be a tribute examiner in the spring of next year, so the students of Taixue were all pumping up their spirits to prepare for this big exam.
But Zhang Yue has been studying poetry and poetry from Chen Xiang these days.
The level of poetry and poetry has finally changed from "difficult to read" to "can be glimpsed". As for Chen Xiang, he also revealed to him that Zeng Gong invited him to his house as a guest.
Zhang Yue agreed immediately.
But after Zhang Yue agreed, Zeng Gong had no follow-up. Zhang Yue didn't know what went wrong.
Zhang Yue also asked Chen Xiang, but Chen Xiang looked unclear.
This made Zhang Yue feel melancholy. Among the eight great families of the Tang and Song Dynasties, who wouldn't want to see it so that they could brag with their descendants in the future?
However, Zeng Gong suddenly didn't call him, as if he was afraid of disturbing his public examination. It seemed that it was for his own good.
It is true that Zhang Yue is about to have a public examination now, so he has no time to distract himself from other things.
Now Zhang Yue, apart from the Imperial College and Chen Xiang's home, took time to go to Zizhai and hired a boy to sell the seals he usually carved there.
Later, someone asked him for the calligraphy, and Zhang Yue agreed, asking his clerk to write it down, and then he finished it and sent it to Shujizhai.
Calculating the income and expenditure to maintain a balance, excluding the cost of hiring people or renting a shop, I actually made a little less than I originally made from engraving and consignment.
However, Zhang Yue also knew that he had not put in enough energy yet. When the public examination was over, he would start the collection house and get on the right track.
