Xia Houshu watched his father ride away before returning to Songya Hall to pay his respects to Zhong Yuqing.
Zhong Yuqing had almost finished washing up and was choosing a hairpin. When she saw Xia Houshu coming in, she raised her eyes slightly and said, "I just heard from Hongluo that you were here, but you didn't come in. Qingfang also said that you should go see your father off."
Yes, this is rare. What did your father tell you?"
Xia Houshu looked at the graceful Zhong Yuqing in the mirror and said with a smile: "Father cares about his mother the most, so he naturally teaches his daughter to listen to her mother more and take care of her mother's worries."
Zhong Yuqing turned to look at her and seemed to be in a good mood, but she said, "When did you learn to be glib from your second brother?"
"Mother has wronged me!" Xia Houshu kept shouting, "Father really told me that. If you don't believe it, why don't you ask your father yourself?"
"At such a young age, I don't have a proper appearance." Zhong Yuqing said this, but she was very happy in her heart. She looked at herself in the mirror, and she always felt that the gold and sapphire-dotted emerald flower hairpin on her head looked weird.
Then he took it off and put it in the dowry. He turned to Xia Houshu and said, "Your aunt is coming today. Come and pick up a hairpin for me."
The aunt Zhong Yuqing refers to is Xiahou Mei, the sister of Xia Houyuan's mother. She is a well-known female figure in the Yue Kingdom. Even though she has been married for many years, people in the palace will silently show awe whenever her name is mentioned.
In the eyes of outsiders, the Xiahou family values men because they rely on them to fight on the battlefield, make contributions, and shine on the family lintel. In fact, they also treasure their daughters. Especially before Xiahou Mei was born, the Yue Kingdom had no girls born for two consecutive generations.
Already.
As the eldest daughter and the only girl of her generation, Xiahou Mei has enjoyed the most privileged treatment since she was a child. She has exquisite food, clothing, housing and transportation, and is served by more than a dozen maids and women. Under the pampering, Xiahou Mei's temperament is inevitably arrogant.
A little older, and always treat people and things with a bit of arrogance that looks down on all living beings.
When Xiahou Mei was born, her father Xia Houxun betrothed her to Xu Shangyu, the eldest son of the Rong'an Hou Mansion.
Both her mother-in-law's family and her mother's family are determined to have a hand in everything and show off the status of the legitimate daughter of the Duke's family.
Xia Houxun and his wife felt that they were ashamed of her in their marriage and could not be scolded; the Rong'an Marquis Mansion was afraid of the power of the Duke of Yue, so they tolerated it in every possible way. As time went by, Xia Houxun became even more unscrupulous.
When Zhong Yuqing first married into the Duke of Yue's palace, Xia Houmei thought that Prince Gong's palace was in decline, so he wanted to take advantage of this new sister-in-law. She was in the Xu family, but she was always concerned about the affairs of her mother's family. Not only did she have an informant in Yue
The Duke's Mansion monitors Zhong Yuqing's every move, and returns to her parents' home every now and then, antagonizing Zhong Yuqing at every turn, and using various words to incite embarrassment to Zhong Yuqing. However, Zhong Yuqing seems quiet and polite, but she is not a vegetarian, and not only exposes her in front of everyone many times
Her sinister intentions made her speechless and gave up the idea of her continuing to interfere in the internal affairs of her parents' family.
Xia Houmei stumbled several times with Zhong Yuqing, and became a stranger inside and outside. She felt very unhappy, so she went to her mother, Mrs. Lin, to turn a deaf ear to her, and tried to cure Zhong Yuqing through Mrs. Lin. Mrs. Lin was an understanding person.
But she had nothing to do with her spoiled daughter, and she didn't want to offend her eldest daughter-in-law and Prince Gong's palace, so she simply handed over the stewardship of the Duke of Yue's palace to Zhong Yuqing, while she hid in the Yihe Hall to eat fast and chant Buddha's pictures.
quiet.
Xiahou Mei suffered a loss and restrained herself from blatantly interfering in her family's affairs. But privately, she always competed with Zhong Yuqing, and then turned her attention to the second and third wives of the Xiahou family who came in one after another, trying to pull her away.
They worked as helpers. However, the first wife of the second wife, Mrs. Kuang, passed away within two years of their marriage. The second wife, Mrs. Zhang, was a virtuous man and did not like her troubles;
Don't like to talk to her.
Gradually, Xiahou Mei realized that she was becoming more and more disliked in her natal family, and her words were becoming less and less weighty, so she had to vent her anger on her husband, children and servants around her, making the Rong'an Hou family uneasy. New
Xu Shangyu, who succeeded the Marquis of Rong'an, organized a chat party with a group of friends in order to have some peace and quiet. They drank and composed poems all day long and became obsessed with Wushi San. They lived a wonderful life, but unexpectedly they were involved.
A conspiracy case was involved. Immediately afterwards, the Rong'an Hou Mansion was sealed off, and everyone was in danger. Xiahou Mei ran around but had no way to seek help, so he had to go back to his parents' home for help.
At that time, Zhong Yuqing was already in charge of the Duke of Yue's Palace. After hearing about the incident in the Rongan Hou Palace, Zhong Yuqing ignored the past suspicions, made inquiries and mediated in many ways, and used the power of Prince Gong's Palace to help Xu Shangyu clear the suspicion. Since then, Xiahou Mei was like
As if he was a different person, he would always go to the Duke of Yue's mansion three or four times a month. Each time he would come happily with gifts and leave with unfinished business. Especially after Xia Houhui's accident, Xiahou Mei felt the same way.
Zhong Yuqing also cared and commented, just like a pair of biological sisters.
When Xiahou Shu first returned to the Duke's Mansion of Yue Kingdom, he heard the comments about Xiahou Mei from people around him, and he also avoided this aunt. However, after many years, she was still glad that her aunt came to talk to her mother and explain.
To relieve her boredom. So she hurried over and glanced at the dozens of hairpins of different materials and colors in the makeup package. Finally, her eyes fell on a jade wishful hairpin, and she picked it out and gently rubbed it into Zhong Yuqing's hair.
He put a hairpin on his bun and explained: "The gold-inlaid sapphire-dotted emerald flower hairpin just now has the best style and craftsmanship, but it is too gorgeous, and it seems to be taking over the spotlight. This Ruyi hairpin is better, it is simple and elegant, and it looks even more elegant."
My mother has an extraordinary beauty and extraordinary bearing."
Zhong Yuqing looked in the mirror and was very satisfied with the hairpin her daughter chose, so she said, "Your aunt mentioned you when she came here last time. You should go back and tidy it up. Let's go see her later."
"I'm afraid I can't do it today." Xia Houshu said, "My second brother asked me to go to the lake."
"Yier came over early to say hello. He said he had something to do and wanted to go out first. He also said he had made an appointment with you to go out at noon. I was also surprised that he didn't have so many etiquette in the past. Why was he so attentive today? It turned out that he wanted to do it for you.
Excuse me." Zhong Yuqing seemed to understand. As she spoke, she looked out of the half-open window and said, "It's still early now, and your aunt also said she would come earlier. I think you also
Don't go back, have breakfast with me and wait for your aunt to come over."
Xia Houshu didn't expect that Xia Houyi would come early and tell them about their appointment to visit the lake. Now there was no reason to refuse.
The mother and daughter had breakfast together, and Zhong Yuqing went to the flower hall to arrange the affairs of the house for the day, while Xia Houshu listened and learned how to manage the house.
Xia Houshu was not interested in the matter of housekeeping. He just listened here and there, focusing on trivial matters such as kitchen dishes, garden repairs, and material purchases. After listening for a long time, she did not hear anything new and interesting.
When things happened, I even wanted to go back and take a nap.
After finally staying up for half an hour, Xia Houshu really felt a little drowsy. It wasn't until someone came to report that her aunt had arrived that she cheered up.
Xia Houmei brought a bunch of gifts as usual, and Nanny Lin beside her kept explaining to Qingfang who each gift was for and what its purpose was.
Xia Houmei greeted Zhong Yuqing, and immediately pulled Xia Houshu, who saluted her as a junior, and said in surprise: "Sure enough, it is a woman's eighteenth transformation. I haven't seen Shu'er for a long time, and she looks more and more charming."
Xia Houshu was quite dissatisfied with her aunt's remarks. She had only met her mother during the wedding ceremony two years ago, and she still held her mother's hand and lamented that time flies by and they are both old. It has only been a few months now, how can it be so...
So many changes. But she couldn't say it out loud, so she had to smile.
Xiahou Mei did not let go of his hand, but continued: "If I had known you were at home today, I would have brought Ruoqian with me. You cousins haven't seen each other for a long time, so you should move around more."
Xu Ruoqian is the second son of Xiahou Mei and ranks eighth among his peers in the Xu family of the Marquis of Rongan. He usually likes to stay at home and study, and he is very knowledgeable about poetry and poetry. However, Xiahou Shu and he have different temperaments, so he usually
When we met, we just greeted each other, and there was no deep friendship.
Xia Houshu didn't quite understand what her aunt meant by asking her to walk more with Xu Ruoqian.
However, Zhong Yuqing reacted first and immediately smoothed things over by saying: "This kid Shu'er is getting older day by day, but he can't control his temper. He keeps messing around all day long without any formality. That kid Ruoqian is elegant and quiet, I'm afraid
The brother and sister can't get along even when they meet."
When you meet a close friend, a thousand cups of wine is too little, and half a sentence is too much to talk without speculation. Xia Houshu and Xu Ruoqian are the latter.
As expected, the daughter is Mo Ruomu!
Xia Houshu immediately looked at his mother gratefully.
Xiahou Mei didn't care. She smiled, changed the subject and said with great nostalgia: "When I looked at Shu'er, I remembered when I was young. Among the three girls of this generation in the house, I used to think that Qi'er
His temperament is like mine, but now it seems that Shu'er is the most like me, so I feel particularly kind to him."
The "Qier" in Xiahou Mei's mouth is Xiahou Qi, the eldest daughter born to Xiahou Tan and his deceased late wife Kuang. She is seven years older than Xia Houshu and married the year after she moved to Jinfeng City with her father.
He married Han Tingyu, the eldest son of the Lord of Jinfeng City, and now has two children. In addition, Xiahoutan and his step-sibling Zhang also have a younger daughter, Xiahouchun, who is only two years older than Xiahoushu.
Zhong Yuqing understood clearly and said: "The three girls are all similar to you in temperament. It's just that Shu'er has been hanging out in front of your eyes for the past two years, so you feel that she is the most like you."
After hearing this, Xiahou Mei seemed to think that was the case, so he let go of Xiahou Shu.
Xia Houshu breathed a sigh of relief and sat down next to his mother.
Xia Houmei took a sip of the tea brought by the female envoy, and then said with a sense of sadness: "To be honest, among the three girls, the eldest girl is the one I have watched since she was a child, and she is also the most caring. When her mother passed away, she
She started babbling and couldn't even walk. I felt really distressed when I saw her. This child had a really hard life. Fortunately, Mrs. Zhang was a kind-hearted person and she didn't treat her badly after entering the house and raised her very well.
Watching her grow up day by day, my heart is also happy. I originally planned to arrange a marriage for her in Beijing, so when her father went to Jinfeng City to take up his post, he wanted to keep her. Who knew that she would not agree to it no matter what?
Following the advice, I insisted on following him, and married Han Tingyu in less than a year. I have never been to Jinfeng City, but I heard that the climate there is not good. It is extremely hot in summer and extremely cold in winter, and it is located in two countries.
The border area is not very peaceful. If she is willing to listen to me, she will not marry so far away, and she can still move around. Nowadays, I only send boxing gifts and a few letters of greetings during the holidays every year. Alas, she is really a big girl
Don’t stay here.”
Zhong Yuqing's face had already turned unhappy when Xiahou Mei mentioned that Xia Houqi refused to stay in the capital. She waited patiently for Xiahou Mei to finish speaking, and then said unceremoniously: "How long has it been?
Why does the eldest sister mention it? Now the eldest daughter and her eldest uncle are in harmony, and they have both children, which is a beautiful thing in the world. Moreover, the eldest daughter is a kind and sensible child. She has also been tied up by two children in the past two years. After two years of waiting,
Now that your child has grown up, are you still afraid that the older girl won’t come back to see you?”
Xia Houmei felt very uncomfortable after hearing Zhong Yuqing's words, and stayed there for a long time without saying anything. This chapter has been completed!