Daiyu of the Red Chamber raised a cat

Li Zhao made up his mind not to let Zhou Hang go to the battlefield. Zhou Hang could understand his thinking and actions intellectually, but he couldn't accept it psychologically for a while.However, he did not clash with Li Zhao again. Li Zhao did not let him go to the battlefield because the battlefield was full of murderous threats and he was afraid of danger. If he could prove that he had enough self-protection ability, his father would not object in this way.

Anyway, wars can't be fought in a short time. If I practice for another year or so, even those hidden guards with high martial arts skills and elusive shadows will not be my opponents, so it will be logical at that time.

Li Zhao asked about the household department again, Zhou Hang said: "Although I have been busy this month, I have achieved some results. Since the last time Zuo Shilang was caught by my ministers for whoring and embezzling, now it is really A lot of honesty, let the east dare not go west, obey orders, Wu Liang doesn't know that his confidants have turned against him." Speaking of this, he sighed with great regret, "It's really cheap, this old man Something! If it wasn't for confusing Wu Liang and Mr. Lin, with my temperament, such corrupt people would be taken to the prison of the Ministry of Criminal Justice immediately."

When he mentioned Lin Ruhai, Li Zhao remembered that he taught his son very well, and that dealing with court affairs, officials, and household affairs was hard these days, so he suddenly remembered something, and turned to Wei Xing'an, "Is there something wrong today?" Are two pieces of extremely tender venison stewed?"

Wei Xing'an hurriedly stepped forward and said, "The venison tastes good only when it's stewed, so it's been stewed early in the morning. It's probably two hours now, what about the venison?"

Li Zhaodao: "Send a piece to Lin Ruhai. He has worked hard these days, so just say what I said, and give him a boost."

Wei Xing'an answered "Yes" and stepped back.

Lin Ruhai was still on duty in the Ministry of Household Affairs. Although the six yamen sounded very high-end, the working conditions were actually not very good.Although officials of Lin Ruhai's level have their own independent offices, there is only a stove in the room, and it is still very cold in winter.Although it is not yet winter, the north wind has been blowing for several days, and it is dry and cold, even more severe than in winter.Thinking of Lin Ruhai wearing a big cloak today, it was still going to be cold, Zhou Hang said: "The weather is suddenly cold, and the household is very damp and cold. When I was there today, I felt the cold wind go straight to the bones. Since the father rewarded Mr. Lin Anyway, I have to send someone to go, and I might as well add a hand stove. Mr. Lin has to deal with a lot of paperwork every day, and if his hands are cold, he will tremble when writing."

Li Zhao felt relieved that his son respected his teacher, but also felt a little sour in his heart. This brat cared deeply about Lin Ruhai, and he had never seen him like this for his biological father.

However, His Majesty the Emperor is a bit jealous. After all, what Zhou Hang said is reasonable. Lin Ruhai has multiple jobs and has been busy with complementing each other recently.Although he was a little jealous, Li Zhao, the dignified Ninth Five-Year Lord, was not too fussy with a courtier, so he specially ordered Wei Xing'an to send Lin Ruhai the hand stove he usually used.

It is not uncommon for the emperor to give things to his ministers, but they are all taken out of the warehouse at random.Therefore, to be rewarded with a thing commonly used by the sage, the minister's face is quite bright, at least it proves that the emperor regards you as one of his own.

Although Lin Ruhai is a casual and unrestrained person, he is still a scholar-bureaucrat who has been educated in ethics and has a natural awe of imperial power. Seeing the emperor's confidant eunuchs sending venison and hand stoves with his own eyes, he still shed tears in his heart. There are also some steaming and surging emotions.Isn't the pursuit of a scholar-bureaucrat in his life to meet the sage and do a great job? Many scholar-bureaucrats search for a lifetime but may not be able to meet Bole who appreciates them. Lin Ruhai is lucky.

Just when Lin Ruhai felt moved by himself, Wei Xing'an took a step forward and said with a smile: "Lord Lin, the Holy Majesty said that you have worked hard, and I want you to make up your body and don't overwork yourself."

Lin Ruhai hurriedly cupped his hands and said: "Eunuch Wei has worked so hard to run here, please tell the sage, the sage is so sympathetic, the minister is grateful, and it is not enough to repay it with all your heart and soul." He took out a jade pendant from his sleeve and stuffed it close Wei Xing'an's hand.

This is also customary.Emperors have always rewarded their courtiers, and those who come to give rewards can benefit from the rewarded people.Even, if the rewarded person does not give it, they will take the initiative to ask for it, and when they go back, they will say that this person does not understand the rules and speak some unappealing gossip.

Although these eunuchs have low status and no real power, but they hang around in front of the emperor every day. This is a natural convenience and advantage. Sometimes it is enough to put eye drops on someone without a trace, which is enough for those who are arrogant and self-proclaimed. Ministers of different turbidity drink a pot.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, bureaucrats would rather lose some money than easily offend these internal prisons.

As the most favored chief servant around the emperor, there are simply too many fawners to count.This kind of money Wei Xing'an received a lot on weekdays, and he didn't have any psychological pressure. Generally, he would accept all comers without rejection.After all, it can also be said that although it cannot be said that there is a convention between the courtiers and the inner eunuchs, it is also a tacit and bad rule.

Since it is a bad rule, it means that it cannot be put on the table, but it is also a rule, and everyone does it like this, so it is not such a shameful thing.Even if the emperor knew about it, he wouldn't punish the minister or the inner prisoner for such a trivial matter.

But Lin Ruhai's jade pendant, Wei Xing'an, was a bit afraid to accept it. There was no other reason. Lin Ruhai is now the emperor's favored minister, and now he is in full swing. He has more face with the emperor than himself, not to mention that he is the future husband of His Highness the Crown Prince. People, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince also respects him very much, and he is not comparable to him as an internal eunuch.To put it bluntly, he, Wei Xing'an, is still in favor of Mr. Lin, how dare he take advantage of him?

Wei Xing'an hastily cupped his hands and declined, saying repeatedly: "If you can't make it, you can't..."

Wei Xing'an's resolute attitude made Lin Ruhai understand that if he didn't show great sincerity, he would not be able to send some things out today, so he smiled and said: "Some small things are not worth a lot. I don’t want to accept it, but I look down on me.”

Only then did Wei Xing'an say repeatedly: "Don't dare!" He put it away in his sleeve and thanked him endlessly.

Lin Ruhai held the hand stove in his arms, opened the food box, and the smell of venison came over his face.Although it was sent out from the inner palace, the journey was not short and it took a lot of time, but it was still steaming.The food box is naturally very exquisite and delicate, and it is twice the size of the ordinary food box. Take out the porcelain urn of the venison, and there is a hollow carving below it. The bubbling water vapor rises from the bottom of the carving.

It turns out that this food box has two layers, the lower layer is filled with a pot of boiling water, and the upper layer is the porcelain urn containing venison.Although the partitions separating the two floors are made of wood, they are hollowed out and carved in the shape of lotus flowers.The water vapor emitted by the boiling water in the lower layer can just transpire through the carved gaps, which has the effect of keeping the donkey meat in the upper layer warm. No wonder it is still steaming after walking such a long distance.

Although venison is delicious, it is not good to eat too much, not to mention that Lin Ruhai loves vegetarian food and does not like big fish and meat.The venison given by the emperor was quite large, Lin Ruhai only cut off a small piece of it, and ordered the rest to be shared among colleagues and subordinates.

Daiyu has been very busy these days. The twelfth day of the twelfth lunar month is the Longevity Day of the Supreme Emperor. Since it is the 65th birthday, the palace has been busy with arrangements.On the twelfth day of the twelfth lunar month, a grand banquet will be held. At that time, not only the courtiers will participate, but all the wives with imperial orders and the children of officials above the fourth rank will also enter the palace to attend the banquet. Daiyu will naturally be on the list .

Daiyu's status is so special, she will definitely attract attention at that time, and the empress dowager and concubines will definitely be summoned.Although it was not the first time for Daiyu to enter the palace, she still had to be prepared, after all, this time the battle was even bigger, with so many people staring at her, she couldn't make any mistake.

In addition to intensifying her court etiquette practice, Daiyu also had another more arduous task, which was to embroider the Longevity Picture.

On the birthday of the Supreme Emperor, all those present will offer birthday gifts.Of course, not everyone's gifts would be seen by the Supreme Emperor in person, and the gifts of ordinary officials were registered and put into storage before reaching the Supreme Emperor.The birthday gift that can really make the Supreme Emperor think, except for the direct descendants of the royal family, such as the prince, the emperor's grandson, etc., that is, some first- and second-rank court officials.

Therefore, in order to attract the attention of the Supreme Emperor, low-ranking officials often offer precious birthday gifts.They are not the ones who can leave a deep impression in front of the Supreme Emperor, and the Supreme Emperor will not take the initiative to ask which official gave what gift.Because there were too many presents, it was impossible to send all of them to the Supreme Emperor, and the close eunuchs often picked some of them to show the Supreme Emperor.

But how to choose?

The inner eunuchs are less educated, and their taste is naturally not high, and the more expensive they are, the better they think it is.

But Daiyu obviously can't do this.As the future daughter-in-law of the royal family and the fiancée of the crown prince, even if the emperor did not pay attention to her, it is impossible for the empress dowager, concubine, imperial concubine and others to pay attention to her.Therefore, her birthday gift should neither be too expensive nor too cheap, nor should it be without sincerity.

After thinking about it, Daiyu wanted to imitate the popular picture of a hundred years of life given to the elders by the younger generation in the folk.However, the Supreme Emperor and the emperor's subjects all called it "Long Live". It would be inappropriate to embroider only the picture of a hundred longevity, so the picture of Longevity should be embroidered.

This meaning is good, and there is a heart, no one can pick out the thorns.

Folks have the custom of elders embroidering a picture of a hundred birthdays to celebrate their birthdays.The so-called "Hundred Shou" is an image composed of one hundred "shou" characters in different shapes and fonts, such as round, square or long.Different fonts, such as Kai, Li, Zhuan, Xing, Cao, Oracle, Tadpole, Xingdou, Huo, Shu, Long, Feng, Jubao, etc., are embroidered into large and small "shou" characters, which look like Magnificent, meaningful, and with beautiful meanings, it is often the favorite gift of the elders.

Daiyu now wants to embroider the picture of longevity, which, as the name suggests, is a picture composed of 1 "longevity" characters.

The picture of longevity embroidered by Daiyu is about eight feet high and five feet wide. There is a big "Shou" character in the middle, and some small "Shou" characters are embroidered inside the big "Shou" character, and on the small "Shou" character are embroidered The smaller "Shou" characters are embroidered, and the two halves are also densely packed with countless "Shou" characters.

Although there are many, they are not chaotic, but very orderly, which makes people look very comfortable, and the hanging is also very atmospheric.

I knew that embroidering the Longevity Picture was a time-consuming and labor-intensive task, but the actual action was beyond Daiyu's imagination.

In less than two months, it is almost impossible for one person to complete a Longevity Map.If you let the maids embroider together, the speed can be much faster, but it's not good to let outsiders know, and I don't know what bad words will come out.

Therefore, Daiyu insisted on working overtime and embroidering even though she worked hard and tired.

Not to mention Zhou Hang, even the girls around him felt distressed seeing it.Several times Hui'er suggested that she secretly help Daiyu embroider, as for whether there will be any gossip.If they didn't talk about it, outsiders would naturally not know about it. Daiyu felt that this was inappropriate and she sternly refused.

The author has something to say:

Thank you dear reader "Yueyao Zi" and dear reader "wait and love" for the nutrient solution irrigated, this little sapling will grow stronger and stronger.