First Concubine

Chapter 17: Taking Power by Clever Strategy (4)

Shui Linglong got up early and found out that it was snowing heavily outside. This year's snow came late, but also came fiercely. The snow fell like goose feathers one after another. The brackets and cornices, the main red walls, the beautiful branches and jade trees... were all covered in silver.

Liu Lu served Shui Linglong and put on a lake blue plain brocade short coat and a white embroidered blue shadow grass skirt. After a period of conditioning, her face was much rosier than when she first entered the house. Liu Lu knelt down and leaned out. The long fingers dyed with bright red cardamom smoothed the wrinkles on the skirt and said with a smile: "Miss, I think you are getting more and more beautiful!"

Shui Linglong looked down and said, "You must be seventeen when Liulukai blooms during the Chinese New Year. Have your parents told you about someone? If you have someone you like, please tell me and I will give you a dowry."

A trace of panic flashed in Liu Lu's eyes: "No, my family said that the marriage will happen as it happens."

In fact, her mother said, "Liu Lu, you are so handsome, why hasn't mother found a partner for you? Don't you want you to follow your master and become a successful person so that you can help your younger brother in the future?" But she was married to Prince Zhuge. Really unhappy.

At this time, Ye Mao rushed in with a face of surprise: "Miss! His Highness the Crown Prince has sent someone to deliver a gift!"

Three pieces of Ruan Yanluo and a box of luminous pearls. There are not many things, but everything is exquisite and precious. The Ruan Yanluo is delicate and soft, like light smoke slowly spreading on the sparkling blue waves. The color of the whole room is instantly taken away, as if in a dreamland. Needless to say, the Night Pearl is more translucent and radiant than the Mermaid Tears sent by Leng Yixuan. Remembering that she still owed him two thousand taels of silver and that he had no relationship with her, she felt uncomfortable accepting such a heavy gift.

Shui Linglong blinked: "Is there Shui Lingxi?"

Ye Mao shook his head: "No, only you, the eldest lady, have it."

Shui Linglong frowned, what did Yunli mean?

 After a while, Zhi Fan also opened the curtain and came in: "Miss! The prize from Ruixue Villa has arrived."

 When I opened the brocade box, I saw it was actually a contract!

Shui Linglong couldn't help but laugh. Ruixue Villa was one of Xun Feng's most important properties, yet he promised her 50% of the shares in one go. In his memory, Xun Feng had never been so generous to anyone. She had to admire Xun Feng's ability. She was still thinking about doing business last night, and this morning Xun Feng came to her doorstep with shares. If Xun Feng wanted to please someone, no one could refuse him. He was really a... very powerful opponent. Woolen cloth.

Shui Linglong asked Ye Mao to keep the contract. Ruan Yanluo gave one to each of Shui Lingqing and Shui Lingyu, and kept one for himself. After simply eating some porridge and steamed buns, Shui Linglong got up and went to Fushouyuan to pay her respects. Shui Linglong is now the popular person in front of the old lady, and the servants of Fushouyuan treat her with great respect. The woman who was guarding the door saw her coming from a distance, and hurriedly bowed to greet her, and said with a flattering smile: "The eldest lady is here, the snow is really heavy, come in and warm yourself up."

 Compared with the first time she stepped into Fushou Yuan, where she stood in the cold wind for two quarters of an hour without anyone paying any attention to her, this kind of treatment was really gratifying. Shui Linglong smiled gently and said, "Thank you so much, Mom Xin!"

 She is a rough lady, how can she afford to be called "Mom"? The eldest lady is approachable and gives her face. Xin's mother rolled her eyes and pointed at a crabapple tree in the side yard.

Shui Linglong looked around and was surprised to find Shui Lingxi kneeling on the bluestone ground next to the crabapple tree. Ruixue was pressing the fruit on the branch, hanging heavily above her head, as if it was about to fall at any time. Although she was wearing clothes and hats , but also slightly thin. Her petite body is wrapped in a cloak made of sapphire blue satin and white rabbit fur. Her bare face without makeup looks particularly fair and clean. She has an oval face, black eyebrows and starry eyes, and long Her eyelashes were slightly curled, and there were still unmelted snowflakes on them, which showed that she had been kneeling for a long time.

Xin's mother whispered: "The old lady thinks it's an eyesore, so I asked her to get out of the way. It turns out she's kneeling in front of the door."

 She directly used "she" instead of "Second Miss", and her disdain for Shui Lingxi could not be concealed in her words. Shui Linglong lowered her eyes and pondered for a moment, then walked over and smiled slightly: "Second sister, be careful not to hurt yourself by kneeling."

Shui Lingxi quietly stared at the one-foot territory in front of her and said calmly: "Thank you for your concern, eldest sister, but Lingxi made a mistake and wants to kneel down until grandma forgives me."

Shui Linglong raised her hand to brush away a few snowflakes from Shui Lingxi's shoulders: "If I had known this, why did I do it in the first place?"

Shui Lingxi shook her hand and said, "Yesterday is gone, but tomorrow will come again."

Shui Linglong smiled: "Then I wish the second sister a bright and glorious tomorrow."

After saying that, she walked away. The cold wind blew her green hair, and the elegant fragrance of lily of the valley floated in the snow.

Shui Lingxi's forehead was dripping with big beads of sweat, but her nails dug into her palms. After all... she couldn't calm down!

 In the Fushou Yuan, all the girls gathered together, laughing and chatting. I don’t know if they didn’t see Shui Lingxi kneeling outside, or if they all had collective selective amnesia.

“No, no, no, according to my maid, Aunt Zhou will definitely have two young masters in her pregnancy!”

 “Why not a man and a woman, a dragon and a phoenix?”

Aunt Lan and Shui Ling kept talking to each other, making the old lady very happy.

Shui Lingqing didn't know how to please people, so she just sat down next to Aunt Feng and held Aunt Feng's hand, very restrained.

In the morning, Changlexuan sent someone to tell her that Qin Fangyi had fallen ill. She was afraid that the old lady would not come to pay her respects if she was too sick. The old lady was so angry that she ordered her aunts and concubines to come to Fushouyuan and refused to pay her respects. She also They are not allowed to visit the doctor!

Aunt Lan is young and beautiful, and Shui Hangge often stays in her yard. She is the most nourishing of all women.

Aunt Zhou is now sorted out. Favoring and other things are just a cloud, and only children are the safest backers. She looked at Aunt Lan and smiled sincerely: "Sister Lan's good news should be coming soon. I hope that next autumn and winter, we can all give the old lady a grandchild."

Aunt Lan blushed, and she felt happy in her heart.

The old lady smiled kindly and said, "I don't have much hope either. I just want my grandson to be like sowing fruit, plowing in spring and harvesting in autumn."

 Everyone in the room burst into laughter again.

Aunt Feng also smiled, but she smiled very quietly. If you didn’t look carefully, you would barely notice her presence. But it was such an ordinary aunt who gave birth to two children.

They chatted and laughed for a while, gradually talking about court matters. Women in the capital are different from local women. Even street vendors pay more attention to current affairs than to rice, oil, salt, vinegar and tea.

At present, the one who has attracted everyone's attention is Guo Yan, the eldest son of Guo, who returned triumphantly from the battlefield in Mobei. The Guo family has been in the hairpin family for hundreds of years. It has produced two prime ministers, one Taifu, three first-rank generals, and more than twenty third-rank officials. Among the female relatives, there are two noble concubines, one crown prince, and three princes. The concubine was once extremely prominent, but later Prince Liu Heng forced the palace to rebel and was executed by Emperor Chen. The Guo family, the mother family of the crown prince, was also implicated and sadly withdrew from the ranks of the top ten families. Decades later, the head of the Leng family, Leng Qiukui, took the Guo family's legitimate daughter as his concubine. The Guo family gave birth to a shy and intelligent daughter, Leng Yun, who later became Queen Zhuang Min. Empress Zhuang Min was just a concubine, but she rose from a fifth-grade noble to the status of a noble concubine. She stayed in the harem and court for more than ten years. Both the Leng family and the Guo family benefited a lot from it, and the Guo family returned to The ranks of the top ten families, but later fell into crisis again because they offended the empress Sang Yue, and almost collapsed.

But now, Guo Yan has won the battle and has been awarded the title of mighty general. The emperor has decreed his marriage to the third princess, which means that the Guo family will rise again!

The old lady took a sip of tea and said, "Mr. Guo is celebrating her sixtieth birthday, and our house also received a message. I wonder if Minyu and Minhui will be back by then."

Aunt Feng looked at the drifting snow shadow outside the window and frowned: "The weather is bad, I'm afraid we will be delayed for a few more days on the road."

As they talked, they forgot about the time. It wasn't until Jade opened the curtain and came in to report that Shui Lingxi had fainted in the snow that everyone looked at the hourglass on the wall. It was astonishing that two hours had passed.

Shui Lingxi did deserve some punishment for violating the old lady's will, but now that everyone is fainting in the snow, what do you expect to do to her? After all, she was the legitimate daughter of the Shui family, so she would not be kicked out of the house because of one or two mistakes. If the Shui family really did this, the Prime Minister's Office would go crazy.

In the room, Shui Linglong was practicing the piano. She was playing a piece of music that they had never heard before. The starting sound was like the tinkling of spring water, soft and elegant; the high-pitched sound was like the rushing of a river and sea, and the atmosphere was booming; the ending sound was like a ring pendant. , just like the sunset, the beautiful woman is looking forward to her return.

Liu Lu lowered her head and her face turned red.

Ye Mao doesn’t understand music, so he just follows the rhythm of the piano and picks up the soles like crazy. He picked up two more pairs of shoes today than yesterday!

After the song ended, Zhi Fan put down the sewing in his hands and sighed: "It's a good idea to retreat in order to advance. It's just a matter of raising it high and putting it down gently. I thought that the old lady could more or less do it for the young lady." You asked for some justice, but you didn’t expect it...Oh! You let her escape in the end."

The delicate green-white fingertips gently stroked the strings, and smiled slightly, like a pear stained white with frost, beautiful and elegant, but with a breathtaking coolness: "Why are you anxious? Interesting days are ahead."

 Qin Fangyi was still ill, and Shui Lingxi was originally supposed to take care of the illness. But now that Shui Lingxi was ill, Qin Fangyi chose a person to take care of the illness from her concubine's daughter. Shui Linglong was the eldest daughter, so she should be the first to take her turn. Therefore, when Changlexuan sent someone to serve her, she readily agreed.

Zhifan couldn't help but feel worried: "Miss, Madam may not be really sick. Now that you're gone..."

 (End of this chapter)