Passerby's daily life

Chapter 13
The happy third and fourth girls here couldn't sleep, while the angry eldest wife and second wife kept cursing in secret.The money deducted from the concubines every year is enough for their natal families to eat and drink.

The two wives' natal families were not rich, and they had no promising children and grandchildren. They all relied on their married daughters to make up for the money. I can't touch it at all. I have to save money for my private house and subsidize my mother's family. It's really a bit of oil to smear when mosquitoes fly by. The son, even the grandchildren.

He only wants to have money and have some reputation, but he doesn't know that a good wife will be prosperous for three generations, and a bad wife will be defeated for three generations. Fortunately, the two masters are not confused, and there is an old lady who understands everything.

After the four girls moved and packed up, it was the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, which was the day for offering sacrifices to the stove, sweeping dust and eating stove candies.

The Song family was rich, and it was even more lively on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. Outside, there were porridge handouts, cotton coats and copper coins. In the garden, not only did the servants receive rewards for two months, but also new clothes.

The old lady’s yard is full of New Year’s gifts from everywhere, not to mention those from the three masters, but also from the old lady’s natal family and the three aunts. s things.

Only then did Su Su know that the three aunts and concubines were the concubine of the former King Rong, and the Song family was King Rong's purse. It was already the end of the year when the Song family came, so along with the aunt's wife's annual ceremony, there was also an official from the Ministry of Rites holding an imperial decree and several eunuchs. After Xiao Jing returned to Beijing, the entire Song family fell into ecstasy.

There are two reasons: one is that the eldest aunt was conferred the title of concubine and became the lord of the first palace; the other is that the great master of the Song family was conferred the title of Shun'anbo by the sage. In the end, the Song family is no longer a family of merchants and nobility.

The old lady and the eldest lady have changed from business women to the old lady Shun'an Bo and Mrs. Shun Anbo with super-rank orders. Even the wife of the prefect of Yangzhou is just a respectful person who follows her husband's rank.

What followed were greeting cards and annual rites from officials from all over Yangzhou.

The empress concubine and the grand master are twins, and they are 30 years old now, and they have no heirs so far. Although the family has money, they really can't help much except money.Fortunately, the three masters in the mansion are really not incompetent.

In the future, the Song Mansion will be renamed the Shun'anbo Mansion. It's really just superficial. The annual salary adds up to only 100 taels of gold. King Rong's silver ranged from 10 taels to 50 taels, and he gave it for nearly 15 years. He rewarded the Song family with a third-class uncle, and the emperor really knew how to do business.

The Song family has jumped from a salt merchant to an uncle's mansion, and to the little maids below, it's just too much money, the monthly money is not low, and it hasn't increased this time.

The old lady has not changed her temperament since she became an old lady. She didn't like to go to various houses, and now she doesn't have to rush to curry favor with anyone. In Yangzhou, she is the highest-ranking wife.The official wives who are rarely seen on weekdays suddenly became regular visitors of Suian Hall. The old lady didn't want to see their fake faces, so she asked the big lady to greet them, but the old lady really loved her granddaughters, so she often Let a few girls come out and pay a visit.The girl who used to be a salt merchant is now the daughter of the Earl's mansion. Even a concubine has a bright future.

Moreover, everyone in Yangzhou knows that the Song family is not harsh on concubines. Back then, the two concubines married with a large dowry. Student, under the management of the Song family, he is now a county magistrate, and the third aunt's wife is also the magistrate's wife.

Now that her natal family has become honorable, the waists of the two concubines have become harder. When they return to their natal family in the second day of junior high, the annual ceremony is [-]% thicker than usual, which also makes the girls who see hope be more filial to the old lady.

In the first month of the first month, the Song family set up a banquet for seven days. It can be said that flowers were cooked with brocade fire, and it didn't stop until the first month came out.The old lady brought in her three sons and whispered for a long time, and the three masters became more low-key.The new emperor has just ascended the throne, and even the throne is not stable. If the Song family commits suicide, the emperor will not be able to spare a hand to help.

When the first lunar month came out, the old lady asked the old man to spend a lot of money to invite two nuns from the capital. give pointers.Another female gentleman was invited to teach the girls how to read and learn some piano, chess, calligraphy and painting.The old lady sighed in private: "The eldest daughter-in-law and the second daughter-in-law are going to kill the girls of the next generation of our Song family!" She only hoped that the mother and husband would have some tricks.

And the small study room in Suian Hall was also tidied up, and the little maids were allowed to learn a few words from Su Su when they had no errands.

The new female husband was originally a lady from a wealthy family, but her fiancé died of illness before she got through the door, and she was not married at the age of 20 because of the reputation of Kefu.As soon as the parents were gone, the brothers and sisters-in-law couldn't tolerate it, so they went to the rich and noble family to work as a female teacher.Knowing that there is a very studious little maid in the old lady's yard, she also invites Susu to go over to have a look. She is not a vain person, and after hearing about Susu's life experience, she likes Susu's temperament very much, so she also takes it with her. Show some books to Susu, it's a friend who forgets the year.

At the beginning of the year, the first month is busy, and the maids and maids don’t even have vacations. Susu, Ning Cui, Bisi, and Yang Liu are also sent around. It's not ready until the first month of the month.

Leaving others aside, the old lady looked at a pair of hand warmers in her hands, embroidered with eight treasures, wrapped branches, lotus patterns, and satin inlaid with white fox fur in autumn fragrance, and saw four little girls with red faces, embarrassed, and said with a smile: "It's hard for you to think of me." He said and tried on the hand warmer on the spot, it was very warm, the embroidery and color matching were good, and it would be just right to wear tomorrow.Turning her head to the smiling Hu Po behind her, she said, "Take two of the gadgets that came in from outside a few days ago, and give your four younger sisters two pieces, and give each of them two golden lockets."

The four of them were busy thanking the old lady, and the old lady smiled and said: "Hello, old lady, I would like to reward." Then she said to Pearl: "These days the big guys are busy too, you look at the arrangement, each person takes two days Leave, take turns to rest." The maid in the happy room thanked the old lady repeatedly.

At this time, Amber also came back with a box and four purses, "Simply allow the slaves to be lazy, and pretend to tell them to go back to the house together." She opened the box and showed it to the old lady, who glanced at it , smiled and said: "I know you are lazy, but don't be stingy. Give your sisters another bag of little pearls from your third master, string them for fun, and take a box of better ones for the four girls. , told the nurse and servant girl of Sixth Sister not to put it in her mouth when she was watching it."

Hearing this, Dongsong's second-class people pretended not to obey: "The old lady has a newcomer and forgets the old one, she just loves her sister and not us." The old lady pointed Dongsong's forehead and laughed and scolded: "What a good thing! I haven’t seen it before, and you earn that little stuff with your sisters! Come on, Hu Po, quickly get something to get rid of these shallow-sighted people.” Dong Song smiled like a flower: “We have seen a lot of good things, but the old man What people give is different!"

The four of Susu happily returned to the backyard with the rewards they had won, and when they arrived at their own room, Yang Liu was impatient, opened the red sandalwood box to take a look, took a breath, and shouted: "My dear, sister Hu Po got it wrong! "

The three of Susu and Susu also went over to look and were surprised. After a while, Ning Cui said: "Who is Sister Hupo, how could she get it wrong! And the old lady has seen it before." Although Susu felt that the old lady was really Generous, but not too surprised: "It should be true. The old lady said that sister Amber rewarded the things that came in from the outside. I helped sister Amber these days. If there are not ten boxes of such jewelry, there are eight boxes. It is more expensive than this." I don’t know how many precious ones are! This kind of thing is nothing.” Susu couldn’t say too much, but it also made the other three speechless.

Inside the red sandalwood box were eight pieces of jewellery, including four watery and translucent ice apple-green jadeite bracelets, two red gold auspicious cloud hairpins inlaid with rubies the size of lotus seeds, and two red gold magnolia flower hairpins inlaid with dozens of rice-sized sapphires. , there is another pack of pearls with holes of different sizes. Although they are not serious eastern pearls and southern pearls, they are round and shiny, and the colors are pink, light yellow, and off-white. There are almost a hundred pearls.

You must know that there is only one royal pearl farm in Dachu, but the technology will not be as advanced as modern times. Such round pearls, even a cultured pearl the size of a soybean, cost a few dollars. Such a bag of pearls is probably not worth 80 taels of silver. , let alone those pieces of jewelry.

And in the four purses, each contained two crabapple-style gold scorpions, each weighing six qian, and exchanged for silver, one gold scorpion was six taels of silver.But I made a muff, how can I reward so many things?
In private, Susu asked Hu Po secretly, and sister Hu Po tapped her nose vigorously with her long pink nails painted with impatiens juice, poking a red mark, "As long as you are so thoughtful, what is that idea worth, old lady Don't take it seriously. She knows who is sincere to her old man."

As he spoke, he stretched out his wrist, and on it was a blue ice jade bracelet like the sky, with a few strands of white flocs on it, like clouds in the sky. "This is a new award from the old lady. Every maid has it. I picked a blue one. Sister Pearl is a gold-threaded red jadeite. I picked a green one for emerald. A violet bracelet alone is worth 800 taels of silver."

While talking, Hu Po observed Su Su, seeing her cool eyes, not greedy or jealous, she loved Su Su even more in her heart, and took out two delicate small rings of red gold with white jade rings from the makeup box and gave them to her: "Take Let's go play, we will take whatever the old lady gives, as long as you serve the old lady well, I'm afraid you will have to save up a few boxes of those things when you go out."

Su Su blushed and ran away: "Sister Hupo is not serious, you are the first to go out." Huber talked about this with the old lady in private, and the old lady nodded: "It looks really good these days. I haven't seen her show off, but now it seems that she is acting cautiously, and you will teach her more in the future."

(End of this chapter)