Маmmу Gоng coughеd аgаin.
А Zhu immеdiately grеw imрatient аnd said, "Just beсаusе I соmе from the Liаngguo Duke's household, doеs thаt meаn I cаn't mаkе friеnds?"
Mаmmу Gоng fеlt аwkward.
Zhоu Shaojin suddenlу undеrstoоd.
No wonder shе carriеd herself with suсh соnfidеnсе аnd gracе—shе was thе еldеst daughtеr of thе Liаngguo Duke's hоusеhold.
If shе rememberеd correсtlу, thе Liangguо Duke had no соnсubines, оnlу оnе sоn аnd onе dаughter, bоth born оf the prinсipаl wifе. Тhe sоn shоuld bе thаt Zhu Kun, Zhu Pengju, аnd the daughter should be this Zhu Zhu.
Zhоu Shaojin smiled аnd said, "Using onе's surnamе аs a givеn name is quite rare."
A Zhu chuckled and said, "I originally used the character for 'pearl' (Zhenzhu), but later I thought that name wasn't good, so I changed it to the character for 'vermilion' (Zhu). Doesn't it sound better than the character for 'pearl'?"
Zhou Shaojin nodded, "It's quite distinctive."
"I think so too!" A Zhu said proudly, no longer mentioning matters like visiting, which allowed Zhou Shaojin to breathe a sigh of relief.
A maidservant approached, saw them, and exclaimed, "Seventeenth Miss, the Old Madam is looking for you!"
"Looking for us?" Zhou Shaojin pointed to her own chest.
The maidservant nodded with a smile, "The Old Madam said she's short one person for a game and asked me to find either the two Zhou misses or Miss A Zhu..."
Everyone was stunned.
The seventeenth miss asked the maidservant, "Is it mahjong or leaf cards?"
The maidservant replied with a smile, "Leaf cards."
The seventeenth miss asked the Zhou sisters, "Do you know how to play?" Then she added, "I don't know how. It was always my sixteenth sister who accompanied the Old Madam in playing cards before."
"I can't either!" A Zhu cried out, "I can't sit still..."
Zhou Shaojin knew how to play.
In her memory, her sister also knew how.
She wanted to give this opportunity to her sister—to leave some impression on the Old Madam, which would make it easier to strike up a conversation with the Gu family's fifteenth miss later.
Zhou Shaojin looked toward her sister.
In Zhou Chujin's impression, Zhou Shaojin didn't know how to play. She hesitated for a moment and said, "I do know how, but I'm not very good at it..."
Both the seventeenth miss and A Zhu sighed with relief. The seventeenth miss even took Zhou Chujin by the hand and started walking, saying, "Not knowing is better... if you don't know, you'll lose... Our Old Madam, heh, she's an expert... If you win against her, she's unhappy; if you deliberately lose to her and she notices, she's still unhappy... Not knowing is just right!"
Zhou Shaojin was astonished. She asked the maidservant to send someone to inform Madam Yuan and Madam Mian, then followed Zhou Chujin and the others to the Old Madam's quarters.
A Zhu hid by the doorway, unwilling to enter.
She said to Zhou Shaojin and the seventeenth miss, "I'll wait for you here... We can go catch butterflies in the garden later."
Zhou Shaojin was quite surprised.
A Zhu said sheepishly, "Every time the Old Madam sees me, she asks me to play cards with her..."
Although they had just met, Zhou Shaojin could already tell that A Zhu had an active nature. At her age, being asked to accompany an elderly lady in playing cards must indeed be quite uncomfortable.
Zhou Shaojin and her sister exchanged understanding smiles and entered the room with the seventeenth miss.
The card table was already set up. The Old Madam was sitting alone at the table, which was covered with a crimson felt rug, flipping through the cards. Seeing them enter, she was very pleased and said to a woman dressed in a crow-blue silk vest and a white embroidered skirt beside her, "You may leave now. I have company..." Then she beckoned to Zhou Shaojin with a smile, "Second girl, come sit by my side."Zhou Shaojin hurriedly said, "Old Madam, I don't know how to play cards! My sister can play with you!"
"Is that so?" The old madam was somewhat disappointed but quickly brightened up again, gesturing for the woman and Zhou Chujin to sit. "Both of you, take a seat. Let's play a few more rounds while they're listening to the storytelling. Once the opera ends, you'll all have to leave."
The two smiled and replied, "Yes," then sat down.
A young maid brought stools for Zhou Shaojin and Seventeenth Miss.
The fourth player was a maid who looked to be in her early twenties. Seventeenth Miss whispered to Zhou Shaojin, "This is my great-grandmother's head maid."
Zhou Shaojin had guessed as much—otherwise, she wouldn't have been playing cards with the old madam.
Nanny Miao sat behind the old madam, helping her keep an eye on the cards.
Seventeenth Miss pointed at the woman and whispered to Zhou Shaojin, "...She's my aunt, the thirteenth in line. After her husband passed away, my great-grandmother brought Thirteenth Aunt back home. All us sisters study under her."
Another Liao Zhangying.
Zhou Shaojin couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
The old madam, while playing cards, suddenly said to Zhou Chujin, "Si Lang just came by earlier, did you know?"
Zhou Shaojin immediately realized the old madam was referring to Cheng Chi. Zhou Chujin took a moment to catch on, then smiled and said, "We were watching Sixteenth Miss's hairpin ceremony earlier and didn't know Uncle Chi had come by. What brought him here?"
Upon hearing this, the old madam's eyes crinkled into slits as she smiled. "He heard me complaining and took it to heart, helping our Nineteenth Miss arrange a ghost marriage..."
Uncle Chi... arranging a ghost marriage...
Zhou Shaojin felt she could hardly keep her composure.
Zhou Chujin was even more stunned.
The sisters couldn't help but exchange a glance.
The old madam didn't notice any of this and continued on her own, "The other party was also a scholar, passed away at nineteen, with considerable family wealth. They even plan to adopt a son to carry on their incense offerings..."
She seemed quite satisfied.
The Zhou sisters were speechless.
Gu Thirteenth Miss said gently, "Grandmother brings this up every time she sees your uncle... She's getting on in years, so we just let her be happy."
Zhou Shaojin expressed understanding.
But Uncle Chi helping with such a thing... she couldn't shake off a sense of incongruity.
A Zhu waved at them from outside the window.
After sitting for a while, Zhou Shaojin and Seventeenth Miss found an excuse to slip out.
A Zhu giggled and said, "Let's go to the garden."
With so many guests at the Gu family today—some like Wu Baozhang, whom she felt wary of, and others like Miss Sun, who had taken the initiative to be friendly—who knew whom they might encounter in the garden?
She said, "Why don't we just sit in the courtyard and chat?"
That way, her sister wouldn't have trouble finding her either.
A Zhu seemed like someone who rarely had playmates, so as long as someone was with her, anything was fine.
She immediately agreed.
Zhou Shaojin then looked toward Seventeenth Miss.
Seventeenth Miss was also easygoing and promptly smiled, saying, "Great! I'll have the maids bring over some bamboo chairs, brew a pot of tea, and serve some snacks and fruits."
A Zhu repeatedly said, "Good, good!"
Zhou Shaojin thought of Cheng Jia and said, "I have a cousin whose personality is very much like A Zhu's. I'll introduce you to her when there's a chance."
"Great, great!" A Zhu nodded with a smile.The maids served tea and snacks, and Seventeenth Miss told A Zhu about how Cheng Chi had arranged a posthumous marriage for her deceased Nineteenth Aunt.
A Zhu exclaimed, "Cheng Zichuan is truly remarkable! It seems like nothing is too difficult for him."
Cheng Chi's courtesy name was Zichuan.
Since A Zhu knew his courtesy name, even if she didn't know him personally, she must have heard of his reputation.
Zhou Shaojin asked, "Do you know Uncle Chi?"
"Yes!" A Zhu smiled. "Once, my brother wanted to go play by the Qinhuai River. When my father found out, he forbade it. But my brother said he was going with Cheng Zichuan. My father immediately agreed. When my mother heard about it, she told her personal maidservant: 'No wonder Pengju suddenly changed his ways—going to the Qinhuai River openly instead of sneaking off, and even informing the Duke. Turns out he was using Fourth Master Cheng's name!'" She vividly imitated the Duchess of Liang's manner of speaking, beaming as she continued, "I took note of it then. When my brother returned, I ran to the main gate to take a look. He wasn't as handsome as my brother, but he was very kind, gentle, and patient—never losing his temper, unlike my brother, who’s always threatening to throw me out or make me kneel in the ancestral hall..."
Zhou Shaojin thought of Cheng Chi's appearance and couldn't help but nod.
She also felt that Cheng Chi was a very gentle person.
"But," A Zhu rested her chin on her hand, "a posthumous marriage... I've never seen one before." She asked Zhou Shaojin, "Do you think if I asked your uncle to take me along to see the spectacle, he would agree?"
"Probably not," Zhou Shaojin mused. "To us, it might seem like an interesting event, but perhaps the two families holding the posthumous marriage are quite sorrowful. I feel it would be somewhat disrespectful to go watch so casually."
Seventeenth Miss agreed, saying, "I heard from my family that Nineteenth Aunt was very clever. My grandfather said more than once that it was a pity she wasn't a boy. When Nineteenth Aunt passed away, my grandmother's hair turned white overnight..."
A Zhu nodded but couldn't resist adding, "When the time comes, I'll have someone ask Cheng Zichuan. Maybe he'll take me along?"
Seventeenth Miss was skeptical.
A Zhu glanced around and, seeing the maids and servants were all at a distance, leaned closer to the two of them and said, "In a few days, my father will be taking my brother to the capital!"
Zhou Shaojin and Seventeenth Miss were not ordinary young ladies and naturally knew the rule that feudal lords could not enter the capital without imperial summons. Both were surprised.
A Zhu continued, "I heard from my mother that someone named Liu Yong has become a Memorial-Reviewing Eunuch in the Directorate of Ceremonial. Do you know what a Memorial-Reviewing Eunuch does? He helps the emperor review memorials—even the Grand Secretaries in the Grand Secretariat have to defer to him... After he became the Memorial-Reviewing Eunuch, he told the emperor that the feudal lords from various regions hadn't come to the capital to pay homage in over a decade, and the emperor probably wouldn't even recognize the heirs raised in the feudal manors. So the emperor ordered the feudal lords to enter the capital in batches. My father and brother are in the first batch and will set off in September. My mother said my father thinks that since the Cheng family's business in the capital is so successful, your uncle must be familiar with all the officials, big and small, in the court. He wants to invite your uncle to go with them... He doesn’t need him to do anything, just to send word if anything happens, so my father can be prepared..."
This probably isn't appropriate, is it?The emperor most detests capital officials associating with feudal princes, and likewise detests feudal princes befriending local gentry. Moreover, the Cheng family has members serving as officials in the imperial court and is also a century-old prominent family in Jinling... In her past life, when the Cheng family was raided and their property confiscated, could it have been related to this matter?
Zhou Shaojin said, "The Cheng family's business in the capital is so extensive—it must be Uncle Jing's doing, right? It shouldn’t have much to do with Uncle Chi, should it?"
A Zhu was stunned, then burst into loud laughter.
It was as if Shaojin had said something incredibly funny.
She laughed so hard she doubled over.
The seventeenth young lady also laughed, though she was a bit more restrained, covering her mouth with a handkerchief as she chuckled.
※
Sisters, today’s update.
o(n_n)o
※ (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for recommendations and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
!!
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