【New Red Mansion】Perfect World

After lunch, Pin'er was afraid that everyone would feel sleepy during lunch break, so she arranged for everyone to go to the tea room for tea. This time, it was arranged by Madam Li, who brewed the German flower tea she brought last time, and Shui Rong sent someone to bring tea and fruit dishes. The tea table was re-arranged with a floral lace tea cloth, which matched the tea set that Madam Li gave her, making it look particularly beautiful.

Lotus root powder and osmanthus sugar cake, honey bayberry, peanut crisps, candied fruit snacks, honey cakes, butterfly crisps, various cream cakes, and the chocolate with liquor filling ordered that day.

Various Chinese and Western plates were used to arrange the food according to its type, filling the entire table.

Wu Qing quietly asked Pin'er for leave to go to Baoyu's new house to give gifts. Pin'er told her to go quickly and come back quickly, so Wu Qing went out.

When we found Baoyu's new courtyard, it was very quiet, with only the occasional chirping of birds in a few quaint bird cages hanging under the corridor.

Wu Qing didn't dare to disturb him and called Baoyu.

"Baoyu, I'm at the door of your new house, and I've brought you a gift."

"That's great, I'll ask someone to pick you up."

"Okay." After saying that, Wu Qing hung up the phone.

Who knew that Baoyu was surrounded by several maids painting a fan at this time. His hands were full of gouache and he couldn't free his hands, so he sent Xiren to pick up Wu Qing. When Xiren saw Wu Qing, her face turned bad. She said in a very distant tone: "Are you Baoyu's classmate? Come in with me."

Seeing Xiren's cold attitude, Wu Qing declined and said, "I won't go in and disturb you. This is a gift for him. You can just take it to him for me." Then she handed a handbag to Xiren.

Xiren simply did not give in, she just took the bag and closed the gate. Then she walked along the open courtyard to the inner room, passed a large patch of banana leaves, lowered her head and secretly opened the bag to look through it, and saw a pair of silk pillowcases embroidered with the word treasure. She was angry, but she concealed her emotions in an instant.

After passing a green crabapple tree that looked like an umbrella, I immediately closed the door after entering the main house. The air conditioner was on, and a slight chill came over me. The whole house was set up with several exquisite red sandalwood carved antique shelves, dividing the room into different areas, and various rare treasures were placed on them. After going through several places, I finally arrived at the tea room. On both sides of a long three-meter-long table, the maids sat together, each holding a fan and a fine brush, and were painting with gouache.

Jia Baoyu raised his head from the fan and saw that Xiren was the only one who came back, so he asked, "Where is Wu Qing? Why did you come back alone?"

"Your classmate asked me to bring in the gift, but she said she had something else to do and couldn't come in." Xiren said lightly, then put the handbag aside, went back to sit next to Baoyu, and picked up the half-painted fan to paint.

Baoyu stared at the handbag in a daze, wondering why she didn't come in since she was here. What a strange person, was she angry again? Just as he was thinking about asking someone to bring the bag over to him for a look, he was about to speak when Xiren changed the subject: "Can you help me see how to paint this fan?" She pretended to be stupid and wanted Baoyu to help her paint.

In fact, Baoyu doesn't like Xiren very much. As a maid, she is very professional, diligent, hardworking, good at her job, and has a set of management skills.

But she has an obvious problem, which is pretending. This is also what Baoyu discovered after returning to this life. She likes to pretend to be stupid, capable, and kind...

For example, if it's something she's not good at, she'll pretend to be dumb, but she may not be that dumb.

For example, when a stranger comes, she immediately starts to pretend to be capable. To be honest, she is capable. Why is she pretending? Because there is a big contrast between before and after, and it is obvious that she is acting. It feels like she has suddenly become a different person.

There is also pretending to be kind: before, there was a new maid who did something wrong, and Xiren first stood up to help her, but later she found someone to replace the maid. To be honest, it is understandable to replace everyone around her with her own people or people she is used to, but pretending to be kind is a bit obvious.

Unlike Wu Qing, she is very real, which is what Baoyu feels when he comes back in this life. No longer being his maid, she is more free and easy, not trying to please him deliberately, nor showing any intimacy, and that kind of ambiguous feeling makes Baoyu unable to stop.

*

At this time, the living room of Tanchun's new house was very lively. The furniture in the house was also dark brown, but the style was completely different from that of Lin Pin'er's house. There was only one area in the whole room, a bright and large living room. Furniture was placed on the wall, and it was square and regular. There were bookshelves or antique shelves. They were all floor-to-ceiling, and warm lights were installed in the grid, which looked elegant and classy.

The whole room was like a spacious library. The sofa was a long sofa with black oil leather, which could seat about five or six people. Three of them were placed in a circle with a large round brown coffee table in the middle.

The large French window on one side was changed into a folding window that could be fully opened, and it was now wide open. The other two French windows were installed with gauze curtains, on which various poems were printed in cursive script.

Why is it so lively? It turns out that Tanchun joined the school's debate club two years ago. She went to the best middle school in Beijing, and she got in because of her good grades. Speaking of grades, Tanchun can be said to be a child prodigy, and she has a wide range of interests. She was able to read and recite the Constitution in the sixth grade, and the books she often read were reference books such as the Civil Code and the Enterprise Law. Most of the guests invited today are classmates from the school's debate club, and each of them is an elite student.

After lunch, the students agreed to have a debate. Today's debate topic is: Is money the root of all evil? Then they divided into two sides, the pros and cons, and sat on the left and right sofas facing each other. The rest of the people sat on the sofa in the middle to vote as judges.

Tanchun is the second debater on the affirmative side and sits on the sofa on the left.

Tanchun's performance was brilliant. Her words were sharp, cutting straight to the heart of the issue like a sharp blade, and each of her opinions was powerful. Her mind was as quick as lightning, and she could instantly catch the opponent's loopholes and give a powerful counterattack. Her arguments were detailed and well-cited, as if a treasure trove of knowledge had been opened, building an indestructible fortress for her position. Her confident demeanor shone brightly on the field, and her every move showed the demeanor of a debater, adding endless brilliance to this debate.

During the break, the secretary brought a few new maids to quickly replace the tea for everyone and offered fruit snacks. After a few students who went to the bathroom came back, everyone started the second half of the debate competition.

Shishu loved listening to their debates the most. She felt that Tanchun was shining when she was debating, and she admired her silently.