Queen's New Clothes

Chapter 5 The Young Master Riding the Claret Horse
After visiting the garden, Su Xi and the others returned to the front hall.

Today the old lady went to Mingjue Temple to offer incense, but she couldn't come back for a while, so the Yin family treated her guests.Mrs. Yin sat in the main seat, and two women sat in the red sandalwood rose chair below. Among them, the woman wearing a gauze jacket covered with smoke and fire saw Su Xi, smiled and said kindly: "Young and young, come here and let me have a look. I haven't seen him for a month, but he seems to have grown a lot taller."

Su Xi walked up to the woman and obediently called out, "Mrs. Tang."

This is Tang Wan's mother, the wife of Lianghuai Salt Transport Envoy Tian.

Another woman in a crimson-purple gown with a double-breasted skirt and a silver-dotted blue Ruyibu rocker on her head put down the teacup in her hand, and said with a smile, "Sister Xi has become more and more beautiful. Her eyebrows, eyes, and nose are similar to those of Sister Yin's." It was carved out of the same mold, and when it grows up, it will be perfect and blessed." The person who spoke was Fu Yi's mother, Mei Shi.

Mei's is only half a month younger than Yin's, but she has insisted on calling Yin's "sister" all these years.

Mei is the niece of Yin's mother's natal family. Because the Mei family's family has fallen, Yin's mother sees that Mei is pitiful, so she takes her to live in Yin's residence.Mrs. Mei is a proud and proud master, even if she lives under the fence, her arrogance has not been buried.

Since Yin's father can become the chief assistant of the cabinet, he must be full of knowledge and talent.Therefore, the daughters who are taught are naturally not far behind.Yin Shi has been familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics with her father since she was a child. She is the most talented woman in Shangjing, and she has a beautiful appearance. At that time, I don't know how many princes of aristocratic families admired her.

Mei-shi grew up with Yin-shi since she was a child, and has been secretly competing with Yin-shi.In terms of family background, she is not as good as the Yin family, and in terms of appearance, she is not as good as the Yin family. The only thing that can be compared is talent.It's a pity that this is the case, the Mei family is still slightly inferior to the Yin family.

The Mei family has been oppressed by the Yin family for so many years, now that she has a daughter, there is finally one thing that can surpass the Yin family, how can she not feel elated?No matter how beautiful and talented the Yin family is, in the end, isn't her daughter better?Mrs. Mei sighed: "It's not like our sister Yi, who only knows how to lock herself in the study all day long, reading books day and night, sometimes even ignoring food, and making her body hungry and thin. You see, Where is the meat on this body? But she doesn't listen to what I say, it's really worrying." In and out of his words, he was showing off his daughter.

Fu Yi stood beside her and stopped her, "Mother..."

Mei didn't stop, patted Fu Yi's hand and continued: "According to me, you can read the book anytime, but you must not wear yourself down..."

Mrs. Tang stopped Mei's words, but remained silent.He just sighed: After all, he came from a small family, even if he became the wife of Duke Qing's son, his horizons may not be so broad.

Yin's was even more unmoved, she looked down and picked the floating leaves in the ink-colored tea cup, and said with a slight smile: "Isn't that right, the most important thing is to be healthy. I still remember that sister Mei put herself to death in order to endorse the book. You fell down from exhaustion and lay on the bed for a long time, and finally it was your father who invited a famous doctor to rescue you."

Mei Shi's complexion immediately changed.Of course she remembered this. At that time, Mr. Yin Ge assigned homework for the two of them, asking them to recite "The Doctrine of the Mean" within three days.Yin Wuxia was gifted and intelligent, and had the ability of photographic memory, so he could recite seven to eighty eight in one day, but Mei Shi worked harder, and it took three days of sleepless nights to barely finish the recitation.Three days later, Mei fell ill as expected.

Now that Yin Shi mentions it, it is undoubtedly a needle in Mei Shi's heart that is alive and kicking.

Mei's expression didn't slow down until the people from Duke Qing's Mansion left.

Su Xi stood beside Yin Shi, watched Mei Shi and Fu Yi get into the carriage, and was about to go back when she saw Fu Shaoyun riding the horse and taking two steps towards her.Fu Shaoyun rode on the horseback, looking more and more upright. He smiled at Su Xi and said, "Cousin Xi, today's roast sparrow is delicious, thank you for your hospitality."

Because of Yin's presence at the moment, he looked quite serious.

Su Xi said: "Cousin Shaoyun, you don't have to be polite."

Fu Shaoyun didn't say anything more, just smiled, and rode his horse to catch up with the carriage of Duke Qing's mansion ahead.

Sending off the people from Duke Qing's and Tang's mansions, Yin returned to the Qiutang residence, changed the clothes of the previous guests, put on a lavender silk embroidered lotus pattern skirt, removed her head full of jewels, and let the maid Dan Wu Pulling a ponytail, he leaned on the pillow and closed his eyes to rest.

When Su Zhen came back from the outside, he saw that his wife was sleeping, so he didn't make a sound to disturb him, and went to the inner room to change his clothes. When he came out, he was holding a blanket with golden mandarin duck pattern in his hand.I saw Su Zhen, a heroic and stalwart man, covering Yin Shi lightly with a blanket, and before he took his hand away, Yin Shi on the couch opened his eyes.

Su Zhen smiled and said, "It woke you up."

Yin Shi sat up from the couch, but she was not asleep at first, and she heard footsteps as soon as Su Zhen came back.She said: "Today, people from Duke Qing's mansion came to the mansion."

When Su Zhen came back, he had already heard what the girl said, and he knew what Yin Shi was referring to, and also why she was upset, so he asked, "But what did Mei Shi tell you?"

"I didn't say anything, it was just to praise Miss Yi." It's not uncommon for Mrs. Mei to say a word or two to everyone who regards this daughter as a treasure.

When Mrs. Mei married Fu Ju, the son of the Duke of Qing, it was not because the matchmaker was marrying, but because Mrs. Mei had an affair with Fu Ju before Fu Ju welcomed her into the mansion.At that time, Duke Qing and Mrs. Duke Qing did not agree with Mei's entry, but Fu Ju was fascinated by Mei, and he would not marry unless she was the only one. , and finally welcomed into Duke Qing's mansion with the ceremony of being his wife.After these years, Duke Qing and Mrs. Qing would never have looked good towards Mei if it hadn't been for the fact that Mei's two children were not bad.

Only a very few people know about this matter, and the Yin family is one of the few people.

After all, when the Mei family lived in the Yin Mansion back then, many things could not be hidden.

Yin Shi said: "I see that Shaoyun is a good one, with a dignified appearance, polite advances and retreats, and a lot of care for young people, he is a good candidate for a good son-in-law." After finishing speaking, Yin Shi shook his head regretfully, and said: "It's just that with a mother like the Mei family, if you really marry into Duke Qing's mansion, life may not be easy."

When her daughter is ten years old, Dayan's girls can discuss marriage when they are twelve or three years old, so although it is a bit early for the Yin family to consider these things, it is not too far off the mark.

Su Zhen sat beside Yin Shi, holding Yin Shi's hand and whirled softly, comfortingly said: "You are still young, why bother to think about these things? I would like to keep her for a few more years, and let her marry off at the top. It's not too late." As he was talking, he suddenly thought of something, and smiled heavily: "Did my father-in-law think the same way back then? The longer my daughter stays, the more precious she becomes, and I almost set the wedding date on your double tenth year, but it made me anxious."

Yin stared at him, pulled out her hand, and said, "That's because our two families' marriages were both settled. How could it be the same as this?"

Yin's eyebrows are exquisite, and she is born with a pair of peach blossom eyes, which is very beautiful and a bit ostentatious.Especially at this time, the look of anger and reprimand is full of charm and demeanor. A woman in her 30s, whose appearance is still in her twenties, no wonder the elder Su Zhen has only seen her in his heart all these years, and has never looked at others more than once.

At that time, after Yin Wuxia got engaged to Su Zhen, it really made all the sons of the family feel sad and regretful.The sad thing is that the talented girl has her own name, but it's a pity that the person to marry is actually a martial artist. It's really not right for the beautiful Yin Wuxia and the tall and burly Su Zhen to stand together.People at the time thought that this marriage ruined Yin Wuxia, but in fact, only Yin Wuxia knew what it was like to live a life.Su Zhen seemed rough, but he treated her wholeheartedly, not only cared for her all these years, but also never made her suffer the slightest grievance.

Rough is a bit rough, but it is extraordinarily masculine, isn't it?
Su Zhen looked at his wife's smooth cheeks, couldn't help but bowed his head and kissed her, and said in a hoarse voice, "Anyway, it's too early for you to think about this. If you have the time, you might as well do something else..." Said As she stood, she placed her broad and warm palms on Yin's waist.

Yin's beautiful eyes widened, and her voice gradually lowered: "You..."

It's day and night.

Two days later, Tang Wan came to pick up Su Xi to go out.

Because Su Xi had greeted the Yin family in advance, the Yin family did not stop her, but she was still worried, so she arranged for Su Xi to have two other women, two maidservants and four servants.Su Xi got into the black lacquered carriage of the Tang Mansion and asked Tang Wan, "Sister Tang, where shall we go first?"

Tang Wan is wearing a honey-colored bee-and-butterfly pattern short jacket today, with a pomegranate skirt underneath, very lively and pretty.She said: "Most of the East Street is a calligraphy and painting shop, let's go there first, I want to buy a set of pens for my second brother."

The carriage drove out of Ping'an Lane and headed towards Dongdajie.About two quarters of an hour later, the carriage arrived at East Street. Tang Wan and Su Xi put on their veiled hats and got off the carriage, looking at the painting and calligraphy shops.Tang Wan was picky and only wanted to look for the Cuihao brushes made by Mr. Wang Shoushanlao, but Mr. Wang Shoushan went there five years ago, and there are very few of his pens left in the world, let alone a complete set of Cuihao brushes.So Tang Wan and Su Xi walked for an hour, and almost finished browsing all the calligraphy and painting shops on East Street, but they still couldn't find a suitable pen.

The two came to the last house. After Tang Wan looked at all the pens brought by the shopkeeper, she shook her head in disappointment, and said to Su Xi, "Forget it, I think I should give you something else." While talking, she led Su Xi out Walking away, I saw Su Xi not moving, and staring aside.Confused, Tang Wan followed suit.

Over there, a waiter was selling Duan inkstone to a lady wearing a purple-gray crepe trimmed gown. Tang Wan took a look at the inkstone. It had emerald green stone eyes like eyes on it.The clerk talked wildly, the woman looked at it carefully for a moment, and asked for a price, the clerk held out three fingers.The woman thought for a while, and was about to ask the maid behind her to hand over the bank note. Su Xi really couldn't stand it anymore, and said: "Most of the stone eyes of the Duan inkstone are fine and clear, but the stone eyes of this inkstone are a little blurry, and the outline is unclear. Explain one or two?"

The faces of the clerk and the shopkeeper changed, and they looked at her one after another.

Su Xi was secretly glad that she was wearing a veiled hat at this time.

When the woman heard what Su Xi said, she really looked carefully at the turtle-shaped lotus-leaf inkstone again, slightly frowned, and said to the waiter: "Didn't my little brother say that this inkstone is undoubtedly genuine?"

The guy apologized again and again, and was angry and annoyed at the nosy girl next to him, but seeing that the other party was dressed in either rich or expensive clothes, and there were seven or eight servants behind him, it was not something they could afford, so he had to eat it The dumb loses.

After leaving the painting and calligraphy shop, Su Xi and Tang Wan were about to board the carriage, but the woman just stopped them.

The woman said to Su Xi: "Thank you for reminding me, Miss, so I can avoid buying a fake."

Su Xi said: "Madam, you don't need to thank me, I just can't understand this kind of behavior." A fake inkstone dares to sell for 3000 taels of silver, what's the difference between this and robbing it?
The woman untied the jade pendant with the pattern of double cranes and pearls on her waist, and presented it to Su Xi, saying, "My surname is Cen. In order to thank you for your kindness today, if you need anything, you can take this jade pendant and go to Lishu Hutong on West Street to look for me."

Behind Xiuchunju is Lishu Hutong, which is said to be the place where the boss of Xiuchunju lives.

Holding the jade pendant, Su Xi watched the lady get into the carriage before leaving with Tang Wan.

Tang Wan didn't take this little incident to heart, and picked out a set of pen trays with red twigs and lotus patterns for her second brother Tang Wei, and led Su Xi to the nearby Yuhe Building for a rest.At this time, it was still a while before noon, and there were not many guests in Yuhe Building, so Tang Wan asked for a private room on the second floor by the window, took off her hat, ordered tea and some snacks, waited for Xiaoer to leave , she remembered to ask Su Xi why he knew how to recognize the stone eyes of Duanyan.

Su Xi also took off her veil and hat, and said: "There is a Duan inkstone in my mother's study, which was handed down from the Kangsheng period of the previous dynasty. The stone eyes on it are clear and distinct, which is obviously different from the one held by that guy."

Tang Wan suddenly realized.

Not long after, Xiaoer served tea and cakes, and they chatted while drinking tea and snacks, and half an hour passed without knowing it.Tang Wan said: "I'm too tired today, let's look at the materials another day? After walking so much, my legs are sore."

Su Xi ran every day these days, so she didn't feel too tired, but since Tang Wan said so, she agreed.

The two were about to walk out of the private room when there was a burst of commotion on the street, and the quiet street just now suddenly became lively.Su Xi and Tang Wan looked at each other, and opened the window of the private room curiously.

I saw a group of carriages approaching from a distance. The carriages were made of high-quality boxwood, and hung with black embroidered gold and dark pattern curtains. One could tell at a glance that they were carriages ridden by people of status.

However, it was not these carriages that caused the sensation.

It's the young master riding a bay red horse in front of the carriage.

(End of this chapter)