Twenty-one Invited
"The girl, I sent the silver over, but Auntie initially refused to accept it. Later, I told her that you had thought of a foolproof plan and were going to open a shop with Sixth Sister to make money, and only then did she accept it."
As the night fell, Qing Xing hastily entered the house, carefully closing the door behind her before turning to Jiu Si Er, who was sitting at the table reading a book.
"Hmph!" The ninth sister was amused.
It seems that this thoughtful little girl has taken the words she and Liu Si'er said to heart, and really thinks she should do business with Liu Si'er.
"Miss?" Qing Xing looked at her in confusion.
"It's nothing!" She quickly composed herself and asked again, "What else did Auntie say?"
"Nothing!" Qing Xiang shook her head, then paused and continued, "It's just that when I passed by earlier, Aunt Xu was crying, but she didn't say what it was about. And Auntie's face wasn't looking good either. I reckon it must be because Auntie scolded her for bothering Miss with the matter of Big Uncle. Ah, Auntie probably doesn't want to drag Miss into this."
After hearing these few words, Jiu Jie'er couldn't help but let out a silent sigh.
Her mother, who treated her as her own flesh and blood, naturally did not want her to suffer, but if she didn't look for her, who else could she look for?
She was incompetent, and for the time being, she couldn't solve this problem, so she needed more time. Therefore, let Qing Xiang take those few taels of silver over first, and have Aunt Xu send them to her uncle, paying some interest to ask for help.
Now I just hope that what I've planned can take effect soon and get through this difficult time as soon as possible.
Wanbaozhai, the largest and most famous department store in Beijing, was also what Madame Eldest wanted to give as a dowry to Sixth Sister. She thought that if there were any rumors or news, especially regarding the wax industry, the Jiang family would definitely find out.
If everything goes smoothly, the Chiang family will probably make a statement the day after tomorrow...
It turned out that Jiujielao's guess was correct, and after a day, the Jiang family reacted. However, the intensity of this reaction was beyond Jiujielao's expectation. The Jiang family had sent a horse-drawn carriage early in the morning to pick up Jiangshi, Shijie, and her.
The reason is to attend Yan family's big sister Yingniang's hairpinning ceremony.
In fact, this reason seems a bit far-fetched in Jiujie's eyes ——
Jiang Jingguo's elder sister, Jiang Fangliang's eldest daughter, was favored for her beauty, intelligence and stability, but she was not the biological daughter of Jiang Fangliang's wife Yan Baohua, rather a concubine.
Once again favored, status is also placed there, but now it's so grandly announced that this and the capping ceremony are over, ah, Item Zhuang dances with a sword.
But still not bad!
As one of the Eight Marshals, it goes without saying that this ceremony has a significance that extends far beyond her trivial skills, and serves a greater purpose.
She was still very happy, first because things were developing in the direction she had expected, and secondly, after being here for four years, she finally had the opportunity to step out of this cage and take a look at the outside world.
This is still the first time!
Those scenes where a thousand-gold missy cross-dresses and strolls around the streets are simply unrealistic.
Not to mention her, even San Jie and Liu Jie, the legitimate young ladies of these marquisates, can be counted on one hand the number of times they go out...
"Hey, our Ninth Sister is quite the neat freak, isn't she? Hehe... actually, I should've taken you out for a spin long ago. You're already thirteen after New Year's, aren't you?" Jiang said with a playful smile, covering her mouth with her sleeve as she gazed at her face filled with obvious joy and excitement.
The ninth sister immediately lowered her head and blushed.
She didn't conceal her true emotions and even exaggerated a bit, wearing new clothes, applying rouge, and bringing several pearl flowers.
Although this might be looked down upon by Jiang, it's still better than being remembered. These past two days, she felt that Jiang's gaze had become more meaningful, as if there was a hint of guilt in it...
"Around thirteen or fourteen, the bean flower blooms on the second month's first day. The spring wind blows along the Yangzhou road for ten miles, but it can't compare to rolling up the pearl curtain."
At that moment, the tenth sister, who had gone out and changed her clothes, came in and happened to hear what Jiang said. She glanced at the ninth sister, and with a slight curl of her delicate lips, she began to recite.
The poem of Du Mu in Tang Dynasty is also the origin of the phrase "bean flower age".
This dynasty is actually largely overlapping with the time and space where the ninth sister of the previous life was located. If we talk about differences, it started from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.
In this time and space, Emperor Chai Rong of Later Zhou did not die young, so naturally there was no Zhao Kuangyin or Great Song.
The Later Zhou lasted for several generations and was succeeded by this Great Yue. Now that the Great Yue has gone through three generations, it still enjoys a clean politics and prosperous country.
It's only natural that at this moment the young girl would start reciting Du Mu's poem, which isn't anything new. The reading materials in the boudoir have always been monotonous, but it can be seen that this little girl has put her heart into it.
However, alas, it is knowing one but not knowing two.
Du Mu's poem is a farewell poem given to a courtesan!
"Haven't you heard of it, Ninth Sister?" Seeing Ninth Sister's confusion, Tenth Sister immediately smiled and said, "This was written by Du Mu, a talented scholar of the Tang Dynasty."
"What's Du Mu? What's a talented scholar? My little sister will bully me, I don't understand these things, it can't be... is she making fun of my new clothes?"
Looking at the tenth sister's rather proud expression, and feeling the attention of Jiang Shi and Zhou Mama on one side, the ninth sister naturally did not miss this opportunity to show off her humility, with a pitiful and ashamed expression on her face.
"What's the matter?" The tenth sister had a bit of helplessness and disappointment on her face, "Thirteen years old is just the age of awakening to love, and this poem was written at that age. Ninth sister has many clever ideas, but this learning really makes me dare not flatter."
Upon hearing this, Jiu Jie hurriedly apologized to Shi Jie and put on a humble and eager-to-learn expression.
The tenth sister didn't hesitate and led her to look at the poem.
The two sisters walked away chatting and laughing, leaving only Zhou's mother and Jiang in the room, which suddenly fell silent.
"How is it?" Jiang asked Zhou Mama while picking up the tea cup on the kang table that Ma Gu had offered as a birthday gift and taking a light sip.
Zhou's mother shook her head, "It doesn't seem like someone with a lot of ulterior motives as Big Auntie said."
"But how did she come up with those wonderful ideas?"
"This... how to say it, this Ninth Sister's book learning is not good, and I heard that her embroidery is also very poor. Hmm, this is probably what they call 'each has their own strengths'."
"Hmm..." Jiang was amused, but soon after, his face suddenly turned cold and he said indignantly, "Hmph, this 'classic' mess isn't bad, if it weren't for this, my sister-in-law wouldn't even think of me."
"Ma'am, don't get angry and hurt your body. You know what kind of person your elder sister-in-law is!" Madam Zhou hastily comforted her.
"Never mind, it's time to go," Jiang said with a sigh, glancing at the sky outside. "You go and hurry up those two girls."
"Yes!" Mother Zhou responded and went...
……
Digression
The ninth sister has gone out, hehe, will there be a romantic encounter? Will the male lead come out? Pay attention and collect!
