When you walked into the gate, you saw a three-meter-high red building in front of you. It was majestic and spectacular, with green tiles flying in the sun, and it shone with gem-like luster in the sun. Although the Song Dynasty was also very strict, it was tolerant on the other side and was not very concerned about usurpation. There were many high-rise buildings in the mansions of the powerful. Although this colorful building in the Cao Mansion was spectacular, it was far inferior to the Liuhe Hall in the Caijing Mansion. The Liuhe Hall was four or nine feet high, and people walked under it, looking like ant.

Although Cao's mansion has nominal access to two courtyards, the buildings are densely packed with thousands of rooms. The alleys in the mansion are crisscrossed and connected in all directions. If no one leads the way, it is easy to get lost. Today's banquet is placed in the atrium, which is located downstairs of colorful buildings, divided into the main hall in the building and the deputy hall outside the building, with hundreds of banquets placed.

Li Yanqing is a junior, and has no prominent family background, nor is he a high-ranking official in the court. Of course, he can only sit in the deputy hall. The deputy hall is divided into two areas, east and west, with forty seats each. It is mainly considered that men and women are divided into two areas, but they are actually connected together. Only women sit in the west and men sit in the east, so that they can look at each other, making it easier to choose a good son-in-law, or those with love can convey their feelings.

The people of Song Dynasty were relatively tolerant of marriage. As long as they were in the same circle, if they were in love and told each other about their parents, they would often achieve the right result. For young men and women, outings or various festival gatherings were opportunities for men and women to communicate and cultivate feelings.

However, such a family banquet is often the time when parents look at their son-in-law, or the parents look at their daughter-in-law, or the parents meet with both parents. As long as the conditions are not too bad, everyone will generally be happy and return with satisfaction.

"Yanqing, your seat is here. It's still early to leave the seat. Even if you walk around in the mansion, you can go in as long as the door is not locked!"

Cao Sheng found his seat for Li Yanqing. He was too busy, so he said goodbye first.

Li Yanqing sat down in front of his seat. The popular Eight Immortals Table in the Song Dynasty, with eight people sitting on one table, and there were only four people sitting in the main hall. Li Yanqing sat down in front of his seat, with his name on the sign in front.

It's still early now, and there are basically no one in the seats, only a few old men sit together and chat, while others are maids or servants who are busy placing tableware.

Li Yanqing stood up and walked east along the main road. He just saw a large garden on the east side, with many young people there.

Li Yanqing has also been renting a house these days, so he is more interested in houses. A small official like him can only rent a house of three or five acres at most. Compared with the huge house of the Cao Mansion of 300 acres, it is simply a world. The Cao Mansion cannot be compared with powerful ministers such as Cai Jing and Wang Fu, and it cannot be compared with the royal palaces of the royal family. Just from the residence, Li Yanqing felt his insignificance.

The architectural style of the Song Dynasty was different from that of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty emphasized simplicity and vastness. The architecture of the Song Dynasty had two characteristics: one was the most exquisite and beautiful to show the new and unique appearance, and the second was the pursuit of gardening. The architectural style of the Song Dynasty could be vaguely seen from the Canglang Pavilion in Suzhou.

Li Yanqing walked eastward and saw that the houses on both sides were covered with gold nailed beads, green tiles filled with eaves, red and pink mud walls on all sides, and carved railings and jade buildings on both sides, just like a fairy's cave.

After walking through a nine-curved bridge, he entered the large garden in the atrium. This large garden covers an area of ​​about twenty acres. The Cao family introduced a small river from the Jinshui River, meandered through the entire mansion and poured into the Jinshui River again. However, the mansion was full of spiritual energy because of the river. The banks of the river were green and the weeping willows were lush. In spring and summer, various precious flowers and trees were colorful. Although it is August now, the golden osmanthus is blooming in great prosperity, and the entire mansion is filled with the rich fragrance of osmanthus.

There are various pavilions and towers on both sides of the river, and small gardens are distributed among them. At this time, it is the autumn weather. Young men and women are staying outdoors, gathering together and laughing happily. They are all from a meritorious family, they are familiar with each other and are easy to play together. They basically form their own circles. However, Li Yanqing does not know anyone, so they can only walk slowly and enjoy the scenery in the garden.

"Li Xian brother Li Yanqing!"

Li Yanqing stopped. He clearly heard someone calling him. When he turned around, he saw Cao Xingzheng running up panting.

"So it's Brother Cao!"

Li Yanqing stopped and smiled and said, "Brother Cao is commanding the vehicle outside?"

"I just received a new task, Uncle Qi asked me to accompany my brother."

"Your Seventh Uncle?"

"Didn't you enter the mansion with you just now?"

Only then did Li Yanqing realize that Cao Sheng was the seventh son of the old man. He couldn't help but smile and said, "Do you have seven uncles?"

"Just seven." Cao Xing scratched his head and sighed, "Hey! With seven uncles, it means there are a lot of younger brothers and sisters below."

Seeing that he was quite interesting, Li Yanqing asked with a smile: "I wonder if Brother Cao has any words to write a word about it?"

"Not yet! It will only happen after the tweet next year. You can call me Xiaosanlang. Everyone in the mansion calls me that."

"I don't have it either. Just call me Yanqing."

Li Yanqing looked at the young men and women in groups of three or three in the garden. He asked a little strangely: "There is something I don't know if I should ask. It seems that most of the banquets are young people. What's the reason?"

Cao Xing looked at him strangely and asked with a smile: "Has Yanqing got married?"

"I have a concubine at home, but I haven't married yet."

"Then you're right here. Our aristocratic families often gather, birthdays, festivals, etc. There will be such gatherings every six months. Everyone takes turns to join the club, called the Magpie Club. In fact, it is to create a chance for young men and women to meet. To put it more simply, it is a blind date meeting. Now you understand!"

Li Yanqing suddenly realized that no wonder he was a beautiful man and a beautiful woman. It turned out to be a blind date meeting.

Cao Xing said lightly: "The key to the reason why our aristocratic families can last for a hundred years is unity, and the basis of unity is marriage. Although we laughed at our magpie club outside, we know in our hearts that without marriage connection, the major aristocratic families have long been in chaos."

Li Yanqing understood that the Song Dynasty was in charge of civil servants. There was a powerful civil servant group in front of it, and then there were imperial power and foreign relatives groups. These meritorious families lived in the cracks. If they wanted to maintain their social status, they could only unite and form an influential group. Marriage was their inevitable choice. This was not the same as the aristocratic families of the Sui, Tang and Northern Wei, but the situation forced them to unite.

However, under the impact of the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty, the social class changed drastically. Whether it was the royal family, relatives, eunuchs or these meritorious families, they all declined. Only the civil servant group dominated, and Qin Hui was the helmsman of the civil servant group at that time.

Li Yanqing nodded, "I can understand!"

Seeing that he understood, Cao Xing was happy and smiled and said, "Actually, we are not that closed. Every household's first choice is Jinshi. If you can't get a Jinshi, you can only consider family and wealth. A young man like Yanqing, who is a Jinshi Tanhua and has no wife, come to attend this banquet. Why do I feel like a sheep entering the tiger's mouth?"

Li Yanqing also felt that there was a serious problem and quickly warned him in a low voice, "You are not allowed to promote that I am not married. I just come to the banquet and leave after eating and drinking, but I have no other thoughts."

"Don't worry! I will never go out to promote it."

Cao Xing's eyes narrowed into a slit. How could he publicize it? The Cao family should have the first to do such a good thing. He began to search quickly in his mind to see which sister could impress Li Yanqing?

"Where is Gao Chong and Brother Pan?" Li Yanqing suddenly remembered Cao Xing's two good friends.

"They... they don't know where they went?" Cao Xing was a little absent-minded. He was still considering which of the two sisters he chose in the end, which one is more suitable?

After walking around the garden, Li Yanqing was a little bored, so he asked with a smile: "Is there any fun games here?"

Cao Xing's eyes rolled, and he suddenly remembered something and said with a smile: "There is a game that suits you very well, come with me!"

Cao Xing took him towards the back house, "Is this going to the back house?" Li Yanqing saw that the direction was a little wrong.

"If you don't go to the Houzhai, you won't be able to enter the Houzhai. Let's go to Wentang!"

Li Yanqing vaguely guessed that it must be related to reading.

When we were about to arrive at the back house, we saw a group of noble ladies walking out of a forest of blooming osmanthus flowers, talking and laughing towards them.

"Oops!"

Cao Xing suddenly saw his mother. He didn't dare to avoid it, so he had to stand by the roadside with his teeth.

Cao Xing's mother, Pan, is the eldest daughter-in-law of the Cao family. Her main task today is to accompany a group of noble ladies. At this time, she saw her son on the roadside and smiled at the ladies and said, "My little sandalwood is in front!"

"Oh! After not seeing each other for half a year, Xiaosanlang has become more and more handsome. I heard that he has been engaged to the Shi family's youngest daughter?"

"I got engaged at the beginning of the year and officially got married after the New Year."

"What a pity! I think Xiaosanlang and my daughter are more compatible." The ladies were praising Cao Xing in a sarcasm.

Pan was happy when he heard this, and walked up to ask his son, "Why is San'er here?"

"Report to my mother, Uncle Qi asked the child to accompany the distinguished guest."

‘Distinguished Guest!’ Pan was slightly stunned and looked up at Li Yanqing next to him. Seeing that he was very young, he didn’t know which yamen he was, so he couldn’t call him the word ‘Distinguished Guest’.

"This yanei is"

Li Yanqing was pretending to appreciate the osmanthus, but the elders paid attention to him, so he had to bite the bullet and bow and salute, "Sister Li Yanqing, please see my aunt!"

"So it's you!" A sharp voice suddenly came from the noble lady.

Li Yanqing knew the bad thing. He saw Gao Shen’s wife just now, so he pretended to turn his head to see the osmanthus, but now he is still recognized by others.

He raised his head and saw Mrs. Gao staring at him with wide eyes and looking at him in surprise. He had to smile bitterly and bow and salute, "See Mrs.

Mrs. Gao had always liked Li Yanqing very much, but Li Yanqing's blind date was stupid and failed. Later, after Mrs. Gao found out the truth, she was extremely annoyed by Li Yanqing, but her daughter and son-in-law were rescued by Li Yanqing in Tangyin County, which made her full of gratitude for Li Yanqing. Her emotions for Li Yanqing were very complicated, annoyed, regretful, grateful, disappointed, and all kinds of emotions were mixed together.

When Cao Xing's mother saw that her aunt knew Li Yanqing, she asked with a smile: "Second aunt knows this Li Yanei?"

"How come I didn't know him? He was a Jinshi Tanhualang who was the imperial examination last year." Mrs. Gao said angrily.

The noble lady suddenly exclaimed, the young man was actually a Jinshi Tanhualang, and several noble ladies immediately surrounded Li Yanqing and asked, "Has Li Tanhua married?"

Cao Xing was very anxious. Without waiting for Li Yanqing to speak, he pulled Li Yanqing out of the siege of the noble lady and said repeatedly: "We have something urgent to do, aunts, sorry!"

He didn't bother to say hello to his mother, and pulled Li Yanqing and ran away, "Run quickly! I'm saving your life."

"Why is this little Sanlang so anxious that he doesn't understand any politeness. I will teach him a lesson and let him accompany everyone." Cao Xing's mother couldn't help but feel a little anxious and quickly apologized to everyone.

Mrs. Gao looked at Li Yanqing's back, but said meaningfully: "I guess this Li Tanhua has not married yet. Xiao Sanlang is afraid that we will steal the son-in-law!"

'brush!'
Chapter completed!