Cold fragrance and warm jade [Red Mansion Chai Dai]

The night is light and the lights are bright in the morning.

Zijuan sent Xiangling to the room, and sat with Xiangling for a long time. When Xiangling recovered, she told Daiyu about Xiangling's life experience one by one.

Xiangling cried once, and was going to thank Daiyu and her brother with red and swollen eyes.

Chongyu was playing chess with Mo Zongliang, when he saw Xiangling coming in, after listening to her thanks, he didn't say anything to her for now, let her go to Daiyu first.

Mo Zongliang kept secretly looking at Xiangling, wondering why Chongyu insisted on bringing this girl home.

After Xiangling left, he asked questions.

Chongyu smiled, and asked back: "If I say that I only sincerely pity her for her poor life, and intend to make her live better and have a good result in the future, third uncle, do you believe it or not?"

Mo Zongliang laughed loudly, no longer asked any more questions, and just continued to play chess.

When Daiyu saw Xiangling, the two of them couldn't help being emotional again. Thanks to Zijuan's consolation and Xueyan's jokes, their sentimentality gradually faded.

However, Daiyu couldn't help sighing, and asked anxiously: "Sister Ling, what are your plans in the future? I heard from Chongyu that there are still people in the Zhen family, at least they are uncles and brothers of your clan. If you want to go home, it is not impossible. .”

However, the relationship between these people and Xiangling is very distant, and Xiangling was kidnapped and sold since childhood. Even if some of them remember Xiangling, how much affection can they have for Xiangling?

Xiangling is also clear.

She shook her head and sighed: "If I go back, don't I still live under the fence?"

She paused for a moment, and then said: "It's better to be at the girl's house. Since the girl begged me from Xue's house, I will only belong to the girl from now on."

It was New Year's Eve in a blink of an eye.

There is a custom of sacrificing ancestors on this night, and often a few days in advance, the ancestral hall should be opened, cleaned up, the offering vessels should be packed, the gods should be invited, and the upper room should be cleaned to prepare the images of the offerings left behind.

The root of the Lin family is in Gusu, and the ancestral hall of the family is also in Gusu. There is only one ancestral hall in the capital, and the total is Daiyu's family.

The Lin family's ancestral hall had already been cleaned up early, and all kinds of preparations had been made.

During the sacrifice, there were only three people, Lin Ruhai, Lin Chongyu, and Lin Daiyu.

There must be an officiant and an accompanying sacrifice in the ancestral hall of a large family, and different sacrifices must be offered by different men.The Lin family is so young, so these rules cannot be rigidly changed.Therefore, Lin Ruhai presided over the sacrificial offerings, and Chongyu offered various sacrifices such as Shangjue and silk.

As Daiyu's daughter, she only needed to watch the ceremony, but Lin's family didn't have many people, so she had to do something.

In the end, Lin Ruhai held incense and bowed down, and Daiyu and Chongyu also knelt down.

Finally, after the ceremony was over, they each withdrew and returned to the main courtyard, where Daiyu and his brother saluted Lin Ruhai again.

The kitchen in Fuzhong is preparing dinner, and it will be ready without waiting for a long time, and will be sent up one by one.

After dinner, everyone was gathering to talk, when suddenly there was a sound of firecrackers outside.

With this sound, Daiyu was startled, and couldn't help crying out "Aiyo".

But that day, since the morning, there were sporadic firecrackers, so she didn't pay much attention to them. She just wanted to wait for the firecrackers to stop before talking, so that she could hear them clearly even if the volume was low.

Unexpectedly, the sound of firecrackers started to flow in an endless stream this time.The house's bell rang, and firecrackers went to that house, intertwined into one.

Daiyu has a weak temperament, and after hearing the sound of firecrackers for a while, she felt a little uncomfortable.

Lin Ruhai felt sorry for her daughter, but unfortunately now that her daughter is getting older, he is not suitable to be a father, just like her daughter was close when she was young, so she has to worry about it.

Xiangling, on the other hand, has been by Daiyu's side for the past two days.When she came to the Lin family, her status was no higher than that of an ordinary girl. She was called a servant, but she actually meant to be half a master.Now Lin's family gossips, so she can sit beside Daiyu.

Seeing that Daiyu's complexion was slightly unwell today, she hugged Daiyu.

Seeing this, Lin Ruhai nodded secretly.When he heard that Chongyu asked Xue's family for Xiangling, he felt that Chongyu was messing around.After seeing Xiangling's appearance, it's okay to say, she behaves gentle and quiet, but she can keep her daughter company, so she doesn't ask much about Daiyu's siblings and Xiangling.

The firecrackers at the end of the year can resound throughout the night.

Although the Lin family always only put a little emphasis on the festive scene because of Daiyu's weak temperament, but other families outside the Lin family are not like this.

Although the Lin family occupies quite a lot of land, how could it not be noisy with all the noises in the city?So there was no silence for a moment.

Daiyu recently ate the medicinal diet specially prepared by Mo Zongliang, and her health improved slightly.However, these need to be taken for a long time, and the short-term effect is not very effective. She usually lays down early, but it is just practicing according to the breathing method taught by Guo Sixi to nourish her spirit.

Firstly, there was constant noise tonight, and secondly, it was the New Year's Eve, so she didn't want to sleep.

On the next day, the first day of the first lunar month, Lin Ruhai changed into his official uniform and prepared to go to the palace to congratulate him.Genius remembered it in a second :(

After he returned to Beijing, although he stayed at home to take care of himself, this was a holiday specially approved by the emperor. After all, he had an official position, and he would be preparing to return to take real power after the next year. Naturally, he was indispensable for the New Year's Day celebration.

After he left, only Daiyu and his brother were left at home.

On the first day of the first lunar month, it is not allowed to sleep late, nor is it allowed to take a nap. Chongyu worried that Daiyu didn't sleep last night and would be sleepy during the day, so he played around with Daiyu.

He took a rectangular wooden box to Daiyu's room, and proudly pointed it at Daiyu: "Sister, guess what it is?"

Daiyu glanced at it, made a rough calculation in her heart, and said with a smile, "I can't guess. What new thing did you find?"

Chongyu laughed, sat down opposite Daiyu, and was about to open the wooden box.

Then I heard Daiyu say: "If I have to guess, I'll just guess the chess pieces!"

Chongyu was stunned, the hand that opened the box froze.

Daiyu shook her hand in front of his eyes with a smile, then pulled the wooden box over, mocking Chongyu and said: "Aren't you just going to stay? You forgot that you watched me play Go with Sister Ling two days ago, and said Show me some other interesting chess things another day?"

As she spoke, she opened the wooden box.

It's just that this time the person who was dumbfounded became her.

There should be chess inside, but it is not the usual Go or Xiangqi.

Daiyu thought about all the chess she had played or heard about in books, but she still didn't know what it was.

There are not many chess pieces inside, a total of sixteen pieces, and one dice.There is also a piece of silk cloth, probably used as a chessboard.Daiyu unfolded it and saw that on the natural color of silk cloth, there are four other colors, which are divided into small grids.

The distribution of grids is not as square as that of ordinary checkerboard grids. Instead, there is a square with four small grids at each of the four corners, and these four small grids are connected to a pattern with twelve sides.The four longest sides of the twelve sides have lines extending from the middle, and the four lines meet in the center, but it is a circular pattern that is also divided into four colors.

Seeing that she was also in a daze, Chongyu laughed again: "My good sister, don't you recognize her?"

Daiyu made a gesture to pinch him, but he dodged it with a smile, and then explained to Daiyu one by one how to play the chess pieces.

Daiyu only heard him say that he was idle on weekdays, and watched many kinds of migratory birds migrate and fly every year, so she came up with a chess piece called flying chess.

Daiyu listened carefully to what he said about the rules, and after a little thought, she realized that the rules were quite perfect.

Flying chess can be played by up to four people, so Daiyu simply called Zijuan and Xiangling over to play together.

Xueyan was staring at it greedily, Zijuan was about to sit down, but got up again, and pushed Xueyan up: "Since this is a new game that the uncle thought up, I just listened to the rules, and I don't quite understand it." , might as well let this girl replace me!"

Xueyan thanked Zicuckoo overjoyed.

The four of them sat down.

In the first round, everyone asked Chongyu to throw the dice first, and Chongyu was not polite, grabbed it, shook it, and threw it on the silk cloth.

Unexpectedly, he threw out a 1 o'clock, and Daiyu was so happy that she drew circles on her face to shame him.

Chongyu smiled and pointed at the dice: "Let's see how many points you can throw?"

Daiyu picked up the dice, shook it in the palm of her hand, and let it fall into the silk cloth as soon as she released her hands.

It's 5 points, not a small number, but it's still not enough to reach the 6 points where the chess pieces take off.

Next was Xiangling, who also threw a 3 point.

Xueyan took the dice with a smile, shook it, and joked with everyone: "The girl, the uncle, and sister Xiangling didn't throw it at 6 o'clock. In my opinion, I probably can't throw it either. I still have to wait for the next one." wheel."

As she spoke, the dice had fallen and rolled a few times on the chessboard, and the roll became slower and slower.Seeing that it was about to stop at "4", it rolled again, and the last upward point was exactly "6".

Xueyan was stunned, and immediately became happy, and turned her head to ask Zijuan for credit with a smile: "Sister Zijuan, look, you gave me this position, but you gave me a good luck!"

Daiyu then laughed: "This is a good way to get cheap! Zijuan, what do you think?"

Zijuan smiled and gave Xueyan a nudge: "You little thing is really good at making fun, so much to say, why don't you throw it again?"

Xueyan threw it casually again, this time it was only 2 o'clock, but it was the first of the four to take the chess piece off.

There is not much calculation to play with this kind of chess pieces, it is nothing more than throwing dice according to luck, so it is very interesting to play and joke.

Daiyu stayed up all night, she was a little sleepy at first, laughed and laughed for a while, and drank a few cups of hot tea one after another, she no longer felt sleepy.

Ru Hai came back from the palace and heard that the two sons and daughters were having fun, so he didn't make trouble with them and let them play.

He went to sit in the study, silently thinking about today's congratulations.

On New Year's Day, the Supreme Emperor is alive and in good health, so he must attend.The emperor wants to attend even more.

Most noble dukes have a closer relationship with the Supreme Emperor. Since the new emperor ascended the throne, he has also rewarded these nobles, and there is naturally harmony on the surface.

And there is the prince of the East Palace, whose biological mother is the aunt of the current king of Beijing County, so that the lords of the empire for many generations are not aware of the crisis. in the dream.

Lin Ruhai's court congratulations this time has shown that he will be able to enter the court in the next year and then take real power. Therefore, when he came out of the palace, he also met many colleagues, or the nobles he met in the past, and received many verbal invitations. I'm afraid that in the near future, the official invitation will be sent to Fuchu.

Follow the trend, that's what it is.

No matter how small the Lin family is, with Chongyu's talent gradually spreading among the younger generation, and Lin Ruhai still being favored, who would think that the Lin family is in decline?

Many thoughts flashed by, and what made Lin Ruhai worry about it was the matter of going to Jia's mansion with Daiyu sister and brother tomorrow.

The second day of the first lunar month was originally the day when a married daughter returned to her natal home.Now that Jia Min passed away, Mrs. Jia had specially told him years ago that she would bring her two children back on this day.

Jia Jiabaoyu was already a bit like a thorn, piercing Lin Ruhai's heart with no seriousness.