【New Red Mansion】Perfect World

Before nine o'clock, Wang Xifeng brought Jia Pu (Qiaojie) to find Lin Pin'er.

Qiaojie wore a pink Winnie the Pooh sweater and pants with a white down vest. She held an exquisite square box in each hand.

"Hello, Aunt Pin." Qiaojie greeted Lin Pin'er. They had met several times at the Jia family's family dinners, but they didn't know each other very well.

Qiao Jie looked at Shui Rong again, and then said, "Hello, uncle."

"Hello."

Shui Rong was happy. Their family was small. Even among distant relatives, there were few girls this old. Being called uncle was a novelty, and it felt like her heart was melted. Although Jia Lan had called him that before, he was more like a friend to him. Jia Lan was more mature in his thinking, and he didn't seem like a junior, but more like a younger brother.

Shui Rong was still in a daze, but Qiao Jie had already opened the box in her hand. It turned out to be a set of handmade doll gift boxes.

"This is the doll in my collection that looks most like Aunt Pin'er. I'm giving it to you!" Qiaojie handed it to Lin Pin'er with both hands.

Pin'er hurriedly thanked him, then took the box. Inside the box was not only a doll with thin eyebrows and big eyes, but also many small boxes containing the doll's accessories, including necklaces, earrings, and hair accessories, all in the ancient style of the Qing Dynasty.

"Wow, so beautiful." Pin'er praised it endlessly, her joy was beyond words.

Xiangyun heard the noise in the living room and rushed over from the kitchen. She stayed in bed for a while and got up late, holding a plate of biscuits in her hands. Seeing that it was Qiaojie, she quickly handed the biscuits on the plate to Qiaojie.

Qiaojie took the plate directly, and then handed another box in her hand to Shi Xiangyun: "Aunt Yun, this is a gift for you."

"Wow, I'm so happy. As soon as I open my eyes, I get a gift." Xiangyun didn't care about much else. She just opened the box and looked inside. It was also a doll, but with a new hairstyle and fashionable clothes.

Pin'er leaned over to look at her: "Your doll looks a lot like you."

Wang Xifeng often came here and was familiar with the place. Seeing that Qiaojie wanted to eat biscuits, she took her to wash her hands, and only let her eat the biscuits on the plate after she came back and sat down.

Pin'er dressed up her doll in a short while. The doll she just took out was wearing an ordinary lining suit. There were more than a dozen sets of clothes under the doll, all packed in plastic paper. She chose a white and pink embroidered flag dress. There was a matching flag head in the box next to it that was sucked on with a magnet. Then she picked a pair of earrings from the small grid and put them on her. Finally, she found the flower pot shoes and took them out to put on the doll.

"I can play with this doll all day long." Pin'er said happily.

Shui Rong thought to herself: I was negligent and I really didn't buy her this kind of doll that can change clothes. This should be her first time to play with this kind of doll.

Pin'er didn't know how to thank her now: "Thank you, but I don't know what to give you in return."

"The pen that Aunt Pin gave me last time is very good. I have always treasured it." Qiaojie was indeed well taught by Wang Xifeng. She did not need any adults to remind her about her words and deeds.

After Xiangyun had packed up, they set off towards Tanchun's courtyard. Wang Xifeng only saw them off to the door and then went to work in the main building.

It was Pin'er's first time taking care of a child, so she must have been nervous, so she was careful about everything.

As expected, Tanchun's place was suitable for holding meetings. In the spacious living room, three long sofas could easily seat the twelve of them (today, the two sisters Li Wen and Li Qi were added). Except for Baochai who was busy with the housewarming in her own yard, everyone else had arrived.

Tanchun first asked the servant to serve tea to everyone. She used small and medium-sized mugs with large ears to serve tea. Pin'er had discovered this when she visited late at night last time, but she had no intention of appreciating it that night.

When we looked at it today, everyone's teacup had a different pattern, with different forms of calligraphy printed on it. The cup in Pin'er's hand was printed with Zhang Xu's cursive script.

The cup that Shui Rong was holding was printed with Yan Zhenqing's running script. The font was truly dignified and majestic, and exuded a sense of righteousness.

Then I looked at the cup in Qiaojie's hand. It seemed a little smaller than her cup, and the surface of the cup was printed with Tang Dynasty calligraphy.

Before Pin'er could appreciate the cup carefully, Li Wan cleared her throat and announced the start of the formal meeting:

"The main reason we gathered here today is for our Family Art Research Club. Although we have only held two events before, the results were very good. So the leaders of the family decided to corporate this event. As the president, my idea is to make this event a regular weekend event and link it with public welfare and charity. We will consider soliciting sponsorship and even setting up a fund to ensure that our activities go smoothly and get better and better. What do you think?"

Li Wan's words should have been written down and recited, but her voice was a little trembling and her breath was not stable, and it can be seen that she was very nervous. After Pin'er learned vocal music and received more guidance from vocal teachers, she became sensitive to voices and could perceive the emotions behind the voices.

Pin'er was still digesting the meaning of her words, and Baoyu and the others didn't understand either. Li Wen, Li Qi, and Tanchun, on the other hand, were the first to applaud and agree with this proposal.

Pin'er looked at Xichun, then at Yingchun. It seemed that they were just as confused as she was. As for Tanchun and the others: if they didn't know the content of the meeting in advance, then they had perfect understanding.

Shui Rong narrowed his eyes and slowly leaned back on the sofa. He came here today with some guesses, but now he understood everything: was this event going to make money?

Seeing that everyone was confused and not in high spirits, Li Wan started by praising Wang Baoyu: "Baoyu, do you have any ideas? Let's discuss it now."

Baoyu thought for a moment and said, "I have no objection to holding activities on schedule every weekend, but we need to brainstorm on the content of the activities."

Tanchun quickly answered, "It's still up to whoever is the host to come up with the content of the event. We'd better come up with a registration method, but don't have an open registration threshold, otherwise anyone can come, which is both chaotic and ineffective. It's better to set up registration tickets, but don't make them too expensive, just charge the cost, so that people who are willing to come must be interested in the event. Otherwise, it's not a long-term solution to ask our ancestors to sponsor materials and prizes for every event. What do you think?"

Pin'er then spoke: "Sister Tanchun is right. We can have some fun on our own and the old ancestor will be happy to join us. There's nothing wrong with preparing prizes. But if we do this for a long time, it's not appropriate for grandma to give out prizes every time. But if we charge admission tickets as you said, we have to consider how much is appropriate. If it's too expensive, we're afraid it will scare them away, and if it's too cheap, we won't be able to recover the cost. Sister-in-law should find a specialist to calculate it."

Li Wan saw the opportunity and tried to win over Lin Pin'er, saying, "Our Pin'er has run her own business before, and she is more thoughtful than I thought. Why not let her help us calculate costs and manage accounts?"

Shui Rong was anxious. Was he going to drag Pin'er into the game? Just as he was about to speak, Pin'er spoke first:

"I can't handle the accounting. The finances of my own store are handled by others. I'm not an expert and I haven't learned this. You should choose someone else. I've already delayed my piano practice by playing with you guys. I can't do it again."

Li Wan was about to persuade Lin Pin'er again, but Shui Rong spoke up instead: "I have a suggestion: Didn't we say before that whoever is the host will come up with the content of the event? Why don't the host calculate the cost by themselves, report the calculated cost to the eldest sister-in-law, and then the club will decide. Because we are the first club, let me share my experience: for example, some recyclable balloons, colorful flags, and other equipment can be classified as reusable in the club, so there is no need to add a sum every time, and some consumables or prizes will be recorded as costs. The club should properly keep the recyclable materials, purchase them all at once, and let the eldest sister-in-law put them in the warehouse, and then apply for and receive them when they are needed."

Shui Rong's words combined Wang Xifeng's management ideas with Lin Pin'er's previous suggestion of splitting up the family. He hoped that Lin Pin'er would not join the game, so he proposed such a compromise.

Tanchun was the first to applaud: "Brother Shuirong's suggestion is the best. This way, we can have a small company here, and divide each courtyard into departments. We just need to divide the positions into who will manage the goods, who will be responsible for planning and publicity, and who will be responsible for soliciting sponsorship..."