At night, in the small building of Lu Mansion's inner residence, two young ladies hid outside the door with their bare feet and eavesdropped. They kept covering their mouths and snickering, and they were very happy to hear it.
In the room, Mrs. Xu is teaching Lu Xiu the art of the room. Lu Xiu will get married tomorrow. According to tradition, the mother must explain the art of the room to her daughter in detail the night before the wedding.
Lu Xiu's mother had died of illness long ago, so this responsibility fell on Mrs. Xu's shoulders.
In fact, Lu Xiu also has an aunt, and her husband is a doctorate from Yuezhou Prefecture, which is very close to Lin'an. However, her husband happened to be sick, so she left home a little late, so she could only arrive on the day of the wedding, and had to rush back to take care of her husband the next day.
There were no antibiotics in the Song Dynasty, and if a slight illness was not treated in time, it would cause serious consequences such as death. Therefore, if a family member got seriously ill, the whole family would be in danger.
Mrs. Xu was Lu Jin's concubine in the fifth year of Zhenghe. She was originally a tea concubine in Fanlou in Bianliang. Most of the young and beautiful tea concubines, singers and dancers in Fanlou were prostitutes rather than prostitutes. Their endings were almost
They all married into wealthy families or became concubines in official families.
Mrs. Xu was Lu Jin's favorite tea concubine. Every time she came to drink tea, she would order tea. After a long time, he got rid of Mrs. Xu's humble status and took her as his concubine. The next year, Mrs. Xu
She gave birth to a daughter, Lu Wen.
In the sixth year of Xuanhe, Lu Jin's wife Pei died of illness. At that time, Lu Yihao wanted to marry his son to a widow from a well-born family, but soon the Jingkang disaster broke out, and the Lu family began to live in exile.
It was not until the third year of Jianyan's reign that the whole family fled to Lin'an. Mrs. Xu's persistence and meticulous care of her family finally gained the recognition of her father, Lu Yihao, and Lu Yihao took the decision. Lu Jin officially restored Mrs. Xu's life.
"It will hurt a little at first and there will be a little blood, but don't be afraid."
Mrs. Xu had already reached the key point. Not only Lu Xiu was blushing, but the two young ladies outside were also blushing. Yu Lian was a bit thin-skinned and was embarrassed to listen any more, so she turned around and ran away. Yu Ying
But he kept his eyes wide open and listened intently, for fear of missing a word.
It wasn't until Mrs. Xu's talk was so explicit that she felt embarrassed and excused herself to pour water to avoid the embarrassment. Then Yu Ying ran away like a thief.
When they returned to bed, Yu Lian quit, insisting that Yu Ying tell her the part that she had not heard. Yu Ying added jealousy to her words and was so excited that the two of them laughed while lying on their pillows.
That night, not only Lu Xiu couldn't sleep, but also Yu Lian and Yu Ying were tossing and turning, having trouble falling asleep. It wasn't until the fourth watch that everyone was too sleepy and fell asleep.
At dawn the next day, Yu Lian and Yu Ying got up. They had a lot to do today, and from now on, they would always accompany Lu Xiu.
Lu Xiu originally had a personal maid, Chuntao, who had gone home with her parents the day before yesterday.
There is a reason for this. The Song Dynasty was not the Han and Tang Dynasties. The maids in the Song Dynasty were not sold into slavery. They just signed an employment contract and worked as maids in wealthy families until they reached the age of marriage. Then they went home to marry.
The monthly salary for a maid is not cheap. A rough maid earns 30 cents a day, and an ordinary maid earns 50 cents a day. If she is pretty and fair-skinned, in a big city, she will pay a hundred cents a day. Lord.
The family also takes care of food, accommodation and clothing, and earns more than an ordinary bartender.
If Chuntao married with Lu Xiu, she would be called a dowry maid. Most of the dowry maids would be the maids of the general house, that is, they would live outside the master's bedroom. The master's sexual intercourse was often difficult to avoid, so most of the maids of the general house would eventually become
Concubine.
But not all parents of handmaids are willing to let their daughters become other people's concubines. In fact, most parents in the Song Dynasty are not willing. Concubines are lifelong slaves, and only women with low status are willing to marry as concubines in order to get rid of their low status.
People also hope that their daughters can get married and become wives.
It is precisely because of this unspoken rule that Chuntao's parents did not want their daughter to be married, so they took their daughter away and found a new maid in the head of the household.
Yu Lian and Yu Ying hid under Chen Qing's wings because their parents died and they were homeless. There were too many tigers and wolves who coveted them outside.
Lu Xiu also got up, and the two of them cleaned her up briefly. Today there will be several professional bridesmaids coming to dress her up.
Yu Ying yawned sleepily and said, "Girl, I heard that the wedding ceremony won't be until the afternoon. It's still very early. Why don't you squint a little longer!"
"You two, didn't you sleep all night last night? I heard you chattering and were so excited!"
Yu Lian and Yu Ying were startled, "Girl, can you hear it from next door?"
"This wooden board wall is not soundproof, and it is so quiet at night. I can hear what you are saying, but I can't hear exactly what you are saying, and you are still smiling so ambiguously."
In fact, Lu Xiu suspected that the two little girls were eavesdropping outside when Mrs. Xu was teaching her the art of Fangzhong. She had an intuition that the two of them were too quiet at that time, which was unreasonable, but she had no evidence.
It's hard to explain things clearly.
"We were laughing at Chuntao last night. She obviously wanted to marry a girl, but her parents didn't agree, so she had to cry and leave. We are glad that we have no parents and can make decisions for ourselves."
This was the content of their conversation last night, but it was by no means the main content. Those embarrassing words could not be heard by others.
At this moment, footsteps were heard from the other side of the stairs, and Li Mei walked upstairs.
"I guess you need help here, so come over and take a look!"
Li Mei also wore a precious white jade bracelet, which was of course given by Lu Xiu. Li Mei was her best friend and her second sister-in-law. Of course, Lu Xiu wanted to give her second sister-in-law a wedding gift.
Little did Lu Xiu know that her generous act inadvertently helped her father. Li Mei told her parents' family that this precious bracelet worth thousands of dollars was also a gift from the Lu family, which could save the Lu family's face.
Lu Xiu pulled Li Mei to sit down, "There's nothing to do now, just talk to me!"
She winked at the two young ladies, and they immediately ran to make tea and pour water.
"I saw a pile of boxes downstairs. Are they your dowry?" Li Mei asked with a smile.
"It's not the dowry, it's all my personal belongings, mainly books and clothes. There are thousands of books alone!"
Li Mei sighed, "I really envy you. My dowry is too meager. My family scraped everything together to give me five hundred guan. I expected to use the gift as a dowry, but my father used it to fill my second uncle's house."
It’s a dark hole.”
Uncle Li Mei's son was doing business in Mingzhou and rented a warehouse. As a result, his goods caught fire and burned the warehouse to the ground, along with other people's goods. In the end, a lawsuit was filed. Lu Yihao interceded and the warehouse was destroyed.
Don't pay for it, but you must pay for other people's valuable goods, which translates into three thousand guan.
The entire Li family was paying for this money, so that Li Mei's financial gifts were used by his father to fill the hole, which naturally seriously affected Li Mei's dowry.
Fortunately, the two families have been family friends for decades and are related, so the Lu family doesn't care much about Li Mei's dowry being too small.
"Speaking of which, your father has been an official for twenty years. The family shouldn't be in such a dilemma!"
Li Mei shook her head, "When you were born, your family was already in a very good situation, so you won't experience that kind of embarrassment. Let me tell you, my father worked as the Donggong Xuanzansheren for ten years, and that was when our family was at its poorest."
"Why?"
"At that time, we were renting a house in Bianliang. We rented a small courtyard. The monthly rent was three guan, which was the cheapest area. Then we hired a maid and a maid to do menial work, and the two of them only paid about 300 yuan a month.
It takes three pieces of money.
And my father's monthly salary is only ten guan, and Qingshui Yamen has no oil and water, and there is no land in my hometown, so I rely on my father's salary to live. After excluding the rent and the servant's wages, there is only four guan left for the whole family.
The monthly food and drink expenses were all paid for with four dollars, and my life was really embarrassing."
"This calculation is not enough!"
"Of course it wasn't enough. My mother had to fire the maid, and it only lasted ten years. Later, my father went to a local official, and life became a little easier. At least the rent was saved, and the staff allowance could be used to hire a maid, but there was no
How do you think I can save thousands of dollars in a few years? I don’t even have a wedding dress, and I will go to the store with your second brother to rent one in the afternoon."
Lu Xiu held her hand and smiled: "You are not allowed to go anywhere in the afternoon. I will give this dress to you later so that you can get married in style."
As they were talking, Mrs. Xu shouted from downstairs: "Xiu'er, the makeup girl is here, can you come up?"
"Please come up!"
Not long after, the sound of going upstairs was heard, and three young women with heavy makeup came up. They were the bridesmaids who professionally put makeup on the bride.
