Fortunate Life of the Rural Beauty

The next day, the temperature dropped suddenly, the wind was freezing and there was heavy snow. Overnight, the house, trees, and ground were all covered with a thick layer of snow. The little girl swept the snow from the yard to the side and made two snowmen with a giggle.

Chen Afu by the window was in a very heavy mood. If this snow keeps falling, not to mention until the end of January, the end of February, or even for the next eight or ten days, it will be a disaster. From the perspective of the Chu family who know the inside story, they don’t want Master Wu Zhi’s prediction to come true. In that case, not only would the Chu family face an unknown disaster, but also how many people would freeze to death and starve to death in the snowstorm.

It was noon on the 25th and it was still snowing heavily. Chen Afu was sitting on the kang doing needlework. Hearing the howling wind outside the window, she could only calm herself down by sewing. Sometimes she looked at the little clothes in her hands, and sometimes she looked at the two sleeping brothers. The two little brothers have grown a lot, and now they look more like the Chu family. To be more precise, he looks very much like Lord Chu. Chu Lingxuan looks very much like abbot Liao Chen, and the little girl Chu Hanyan also followed Chu Lingxuan and looked very similar to Liao Chen.

Mr. Chu Hou has never met these two little brothers before. If he saw that they looked like him, he would definitely like them, right? Listening to what Chu Lingxuan said, the Marquis of Chu had very complicated feelings towards the little girl Chu. He felt sorry for her, but he also didn't want to get close to her because she had Ma family blood. Therefore, I look forward to Chen Afu’s child even more.

Thinking of that pitiful little girl, Chen Afu missed her and Dabao uncomfortably. She rubbed her chest and thought about the two of them blankly for a while, then she heard someone coming to report that the servant of Princess Rongzhao's mansion was on the way to see the eldest grandma. The concierge had been notified long ago that if anyone from the Princess Mansion wanted to see Chen Afu, they must report it as quickly as possible.

After hearing this, Chen Afu hurriedly put down his needle and thread and asked the little girl to run to Anrong Hall to report to the third lady, while she lay down on the bed.

After a while, the chamberlain came. He glanced in from the door and said, On the order of Her Royal Highness the Princess, our family has come to ask Mrs. Chu to take her two brothers to pay their respects to Her Royal Highness the Princess and the Prince Consort.

The word please is particularly emphasized.

Grandma Li quickly said, Father-in-law, you have also seen that my eldest grandma fell ill on the second day after returning home due to hard work. How about taking eldest grandma to the princess's mansion?

The eunuch guessed that Mrs. Chu must be pretending to be ill. After thinking about it, she said, Her Royal Highness the Princess is kind and will not let her sick daughter-in-law set rules. However, he pointed at the two brothers on the kang and said, This The two gentlemen must go to visit their grandmother and grandfather. This is filial piety.

Of course Chen Afu did not dare to let the two children go to the princess's mansion alone, and said weakly, These two children can't live without me. I will get up and take the children to see Her Highness the Princess.

The chamberlain sarcastically said, It turns out that Mrs. Chu can get up, so why are she still lying in bed pretending to be sick? Hurry, hurry, hurry up. Your Highness the Princess is waiting to see her grandson, but she has been waiting for several days.

After hearing this, Nanny Li, Hong Fei, and Xia Yue went in to help Chen Afu dress with red eyes. Chen Afu couldn't stand firmly, so she needed two people to hold her up and one person to help her get dressed. Sister-in-law Xu and the two mothers found the clothes of the two brothers and dressed them. The two little brothers were sleeping soundly when they were woken up by someone tossing them, their little buttocks were pinched, and they howled at the top of their lungs.

As soon as Chen Afu was dragged to the door of the east side room, Mrs. Chu and Mr. Chu rushed over.

Mrs. Chu San was furious when she saw this situation. She pointed at the eunuch and shouted, Go slap me! This eunuch dared to frame Princess Rongzhao for injustice. He took his stepson and daughter-in-law to the princess's mansion like this. I don't know. How do people accuse a princess of being unkind and abusing her stepson and daughter-in-law.

After hearing this, a nun beside her stepped forward and slapped the eunuch twice, and cursed, You are so brave, you dare to ruin the reputation of Her Royal Highness.

After hearing this, Mr. Chu cursed loudly, How can this eunuch's reputation be so bad for Princess Rongzhao? Princess Rongzhao is inherently unkind. She has already killed one of Xuan'er's daughters-in-law, and now she is here to hurt her again. She wants to do it again. Make my two great-grandchildren stupid. No, I will go to the palace now and file a complaint. No matter how royal you are, you will not tolerate such a bully.

The eunuch was frightened when he heard this. He quickly knelt down and kowtowed to the third lady and said, Princess, please forgive me. Princess, please forgive me. I don't blame Her Highness. It's the servant who misunderstood and thought that Mrs. Chu was fine. The servant is here. Go back and report the truth to Her Highness the Princess.

Madam Chu San scolded, Did you make a mistake? I think you don't have eyes! Next time you dare to do this, I will poke your eyes out.

The eunuch kowtowed a few more times before running away.

As soon as the eunuch left, Mr. Chu happily teased his great-grandson, whom he had not seen for several days.

Chen Afulu left the old man and the third lady to have dinner at Zhuxuan and asked Hua’s mother to make hot pot. After that, he brought brothers Chu Lingzhi and Chu Lingwei over. The third master also came here directly after leaving the Yamen.

There were not many people, only six, and a few people could eat from one pot.

The hot pot has a strong flavor and is placed in the west room. The sky is full of snow and howling wildly, but inside the house is warm as spring, with constant chatter and laughter.

The old man ate happily for a while and sighed, If the second daughter-in-law can carry it clearly, our family will not be unable to have a reunion dinner.

The third lady smiled and said, Dad, then Mrs. Li is hopeless. Although the second uncle's temperament is a bit gloomy, he is a good person, and his children are also good. If we kick out the rat that spoiled the soup, , the family will be at peace, and we can get together to eat together every day.”

Although the third master felt that it was not good for his wife to talk about her brother and sister-in-law like this, he did not stop her and even laughed twice. Chen Afu also thought so, but it was even harder for her as a junior to say it out loud, so she also giggled a few times.

The old man said, It turned out that it was to let people see how much chaos our Marquis Mansion was caused by Rong Zhao. It was a strategy to mourn the soldiers, so many of Li's excessive practices were tolerated. After some things were resolved, Li would do it again. Hun, we really can’t keep her here.”

The heavy snow continued to fall until the 28th of the New Year without stopping. The surrounding areas of the capital and the north of the capital were hit by snowstorms, which destroyed many houses, froze many pigs and sheep to death, and killed many people.

The words of the old monk really come true. If it is true that the snow is strong at the end of the year and clears up at the end of the month as he said, and it has to wait until the end of January or the end of February for the weather to clear up, then we don't know how many people will freeze to death.

The emperor was so anxious that he convened the cabinet every day to discuss relief matters. The emperor also issued a decree that the ritual of entering the palace on the first day of the Lunar New Year to pay New Year greetings to the Emperor and the Queen Mother would be cancelled, and seals would be opened on the third day of the Lunar New Year in the affected areas.

On this day, another censor began to impeach Princess Rongzhao, saying that she had done too many immoral things, which made God angry, first causing birds to attack, and now causing snow disasters.

The emperor was angry and frightened, but it was a matter of royal dignity, so he withheld it. However, the Queen Mother still issued an edict, asking Rong Zhao to copy scriptures in the mansion and not to go anywhere. In fact, it was just a disguised form of restraint.