Uncle Lai in the Red Chamber

Chapter 53 Inside and Outside the Palace
The rooster sings the whole world.

The soft light of the morning sun penetrates into the house through the window screens. On the high table in the house, on the two candlesticks engraved with the word "Happy", the red candles have long been burned out, leaving only tears of different shapes clinging to the candlesticks, as if telling The beauty of last night.

Lai Shangrong looked at Second Sister You, who was still ruthlessly twisted on her body even though she fell asleep in her arms, her hair was messy, and she looked more and more powdery, crisp, and charming. Thinking of the sudden rain and wind last night, he felt pity, and leaned over to kiss her Delicate cheeks.

Second Sister You is gentle and affectionate, responsive to all requests. In addition, both of them experienced a great joy and tragedy yesterday and needed to relax their spirits, so Lai Shangrong no longer had the compassion of the past.

He gently opened the jade legs wrapped around his waist, and tiptoed up and out of bed.I forgot to tell Qingwen to come and serve me last night, so I can only dress myself now.

Thinking of the fact that Second Sister You has no maids to marry her, it is indeed a bit inconvenient. It seems that she has to choose a few servants from home. Otherwise, it would be like yesterday, and it would be too unfair to do everything by herself.

Lai Shangrong came to the courtyard in high spirits, and Qingwen was already waiting outside the hall.

"uncle!"

"Aunt You will send breakfast to the house soon, so don't let her get up. I'll talk to my parents!"

"Hey!" Qingwen obviously thought of her own experience, her eyes flickered and her head lowered.

"I'll go to the kitchen to bring breakfast to the uncle!"

"Uh!...Wait a minute! If you have time in the afternoon, I will measure my aunt's body and give her a few outfits..."

Looking at Qingwen hiding her face and running away, Lai Shangrong smiled knowingly.

As soon as I arrived at my parents' courtyard after breakfast, I saw Third Sister You, supporting Second Sister You, meandering after me.

"I just told Qingwen not to let you get up, why did you come here?"

"I haven't offered tea to the second elder yet!"

Since he was already here, there was no reason to stop him. He took over Third Sister You’s errand and took Second Sister You to his parents’ courtyard.

After finishing the process of kowtowing and serving tea, I heard the announcement from the front yard.

"The second wife of Rong Mansion sent a maid, saying she is here to serve my aunt!"

Lai Da said doubtfully: "That's strange. Yesterday I was still wondering why the second wife didn't add insult to injury. She couldn't have foreseen the situation, right?"

Lai Shangrong didn't take it seriously. It wouldn't be a bad thing if he didn't add insult to injury. In the morning, he felt that there was no one around to serve Second Sister You, so someone gave him a pillow when he felt sleepy.

However, there were many maids in Mrs. Wang's house, and he didn't know who sent them. He remembered that Caixia or Caiyun was interested in Jia Huan, and even stole the rose dew in Mrs. Wang's house to give to him. If these two people still had to find a way to evade, but Don't bring those bad things from Rong Mansion to your own home.

Thinking of this, he said: "I'll take my second sister to have a look!"

When I came to the front yard, I saw two little maids standing in the yard. They looked very similar. The younger one was about fourteen or fifteen years old, and the older one was sixteen or seventeen years old. It was Jin Chuan, the eldest maid next to Mrs. Wang. .

Jin Chuan smiled solemnly at Lai Shangrong and said, "Uncle Lai! Yesterday, my wife saw that there was no one around to serve Aunt You, so she specially asked my sister to come and serve her."

Um?Jade bracelet?

This arrangement is not bad. It seems that the jade bracelet is also in the supplementary book. As long as she does her best, it will be a meritorious deed to save her poor sister when the time comes.

Since it is not Caixia or Caiyun, there is no need to refuse.

But Mrs. Wang is a bit stingy too. It would be less interesting if they don't send flowers to the counterfeit twin sisters together.

He turned to Second Sister You and said, "Are you satisfied with this girl?"

Yuchai hurriedly stepped forward and gave a slight blessing to Second Sister You: "Slave Yuchai will serve my aunt with all my heart!"

While speaking, he secretly glanced at Lai Shangrong.

Second Sister You secretly rejoiced when she heard that she was a maid from Rong Mansion.I didn't expect that the person I was marrying was not the Duke's Mansion, but it was better than the Duke's Mansion. Yesterday I rushed to give her money, but today I will give it to a maid, and I feel that I made the right choice to be a concubine.

However, she didn't know how to deal with it. She was afraid that she would show cowardice in front of the maids of the Duke's Mansion and lose Lai Shangrong's face, so she just nodded to him.

After all, Yuchai had just arrived, so Lai Shangrong took over the deed and handed her over to Qingwen, temporarily getting her acquainted with her.

I had breakfast with Sister You, and when it was already ten o'clock, the old man ran over in a hurry.

"This morning's court should have ended long ago. Why hasn't the messenger arrived yet? Has the Emperor forgotten?"

When it comes to his own family's future, Lai Da cannot help but worry about gains and losses.

However, he guessed wrong, and the morning court was not over yet.

On the Golden Palace.

Emperor Zhenglong felt a little discouraged as he looked at the red-faced ministers who were quarreling with His Highness.

In the early court today, Jia Zheng reported in front of the officials that he had successfully completed the emperor's instructions, improved the papermaking technique, and greatly reduced the cost of papermaking.

Immediately afterwards, King Zhongshun proposed to build a papermaking workshop in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in accordance with the emperor's wishes. However, he met with great resistance. Some ministers also proposed to announce the improved formula to the world for the benefit of all people.

He also said that the Ministry of Internal Affairs set up a papermaking workshop to compete for profits between the royal family and the people.

Although Lai Shangrong said that glass can be made, it is too illusory and cannot be seen or touched; secondly, even if it can be made, it will not happen overnight. Now is the time to spend money. Papermaking is very profitable, so how can we give up so easily.

In fact, Emperor Zhenglong was prepared for this situation, and he didn't care about the opposition. Even the emperor couldn't have everything go smoothly. As long as the two sides stick to their opinions and restrain each other, he can naturally come out to settle it.

But he never expected that Jia Zheng would be pushed out, but this guy had no eyesight at all, started a fight with him, and said a lot of vile words.

If others could only be regarded as one of those dissenting voices, Jia Zheng could be regarded as a contributor to the improvement of papermaking technology. Those Qingliu who pushed him out also saw this and were a little unable to stand down for a while.

I couldn't help but regret that I had done something unnecessary and that I had hurt myself in the foot.

"This matter will be discussed later! Retreat!"

Returning to the imperial study, he ordered Xia Shouzhong:

"Go to Lai's family to pass the decree, let Lai Shangrong enter the palace, and then tell Tian to enter the palace."

…………

Inside Lixiangyuan!

Xue Pan started making trouble in the yard early in the morning.

"Yesterday I said I wouldn't leave, but you dragged me back here. What does Brother Lai think of me? I usually say that I don't make serious friends, but now it's easy to meet one or two people who are really capable and compatible. I was disturbed by you guys!"

Yesterday, Aunt Xue heard that Jia She and Jia Zhen went to Lai's house to interrogate the crime, and dragged Xue Pansheng back. He was not convinced and angry at first, but this morning the wind changed, and he had nowhere to vent his anger.

Baochai hurriedly advised: "Brother, please don't shout. It's quiet. We are staying here as guests. The eldest master of the house and the eldest brother Dongfu Zhen have come to ask questions. Why do you still stay here and let people talk about us? Besides, you are not a good person." You are surrounded by bad friends, and that Lai Shangrong has made enemies with you. Mom is also afraid that you will be deceived by him and say something careless and offend your relatives! "

"Brother Lai ever lied to me? Last time I offended him, instead of taking revenge, he gave Pan You'an to me. I even wanted to groom him a girl, but he refused."

Seeing that he was talking openly in front of Baochai, Aunt Xue said anxiously: "Please calm down! All the mistakes you made are my fault. Prepare more gifts later, and we won't stop you in the future."

After hearing this, Xue Pan said angrily: "After I slipped away yesterday, how can I have the honor to call you brother?"

After saying that, he ignored Aunt Xue and Baochai and went back to the room in anger.

(End of this chapter)