Prequel to the Red Chamber: I Am the Second Wife

"Second Grandma is back." Following the little girl's voice, Zili stepped into the Rongguo Mansion in the capital for the first time.Mother Jia didn't live in the main hall of Rongxi Hall. She moved to a large courtyard on the west side under the pretext of being old and sleeping lightly.Surrounded by girls and women, Zili went to greet Jia Mu.

"But I'm back, you've been pregnant and you've worked hard all the way, Biyu supported your second grandma, you don't have to talk about such hypocrisy since you're a fertile person." Although Jiamu said that, Zili had already bowed down.When Jia Mu saw Zili's attitude was still cautious, a smile appeared on her face. "Sit down and talk, you can be regarded as a distant guest and have a body again. I haven't seen you in the past few years and I miss you all the time. Although Zheng'er is my own son, I can't help but be a son. You are just young. When I was young, I was ambitious and wanted to go out. But I still worry all day long as a mother. It’s good for you to make a name for yourself, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t like it. I love Zheng’er and you the most. It’s easy to come back and want to be an official. Why bother? Are you going to suffer outside? Zhu'er is fine, why don't you bring him back." Hearing what Jiamu said, Zili was still smiling, but he was complaining in his heart.If Jia Zheng had been asked to come back to serve as an official at home in the past, it might have been somewhat true. Now that even Jia Daishan is squatting at home, Jia's mother really needs to shake off what she says before listening to it.

"Second master is also thinking about his wife and master when he is outside. I was pregnant, and my father and grandfather told people that the journey is far away, and we know that our filial piety does not need to come here. But the second master said that although he can't come in person at my house The old lady bowed her head and cried a few times before her death, but she couldn't come back because of the emperor's responsibility to appease the people, so she asked me to come here. One is to fulfill the etiquette of being a son-in-law, and the other is to take the opportunity to see the master and wife The more he thought about going out, the more he felt the kindness of the master and wife to him, but it was a pity that he couldn't serve him day and night, and he felt more and more guilty. Please don't worry about us being young and reckless, master and wife, just look at Zhuer's face " Zili used Jia Zheng as a shield, and his words were so secretive that Jia's mother seemed to feel guilty when she heard Zili's words, and the anger in her heart dissipated.

"Don't say that, there are no parents and children in the world who care about it. When I saw you today, I suddenly remembered Min'er. She married in the capital, and our family is still in Jinling. Mother and daughter can't see each other. Waiting to come to the capital I'm still secretly happy, but I often see mother and daughter together. Unexpectedly, son-in-law Lin is going to go to the outside. I've been bored for the past few days, and I feel sorry for this matter, but you just came back." Jia's mother was very happy. She can understand her mood, and she can always find something in life that makes her happy.

That's what Zili thought of being an official. Maybe Lin Ruhai would return to the capital in a few years. At that time, the words that we could still be together made Jia's mother happy, and Jia's mother slowly became happy again after hearing this.Zili didn't see Mrs. Zhang coming, so he asked: "I don't know how my sister-in-law is. There is nothing good over there. I came in a hurry and didn't prepare anything. It's just that I have a few good foods over there, and some Satin porcelain tea, I have already ordered someone to order it for my wife and sister-in-law. Although the items are limited, it is the intention of my second master and me. There are other things in it. I only have one good poria cocos powder for snacks every day. It would be the best. I also asked Hu'er and Lian'er to take a golden Buddha with me."

Just as the girls had brought the presents, Mother Jia saw the richness of the presents and benefited more and more: "It's hard for you and Zheng'er to be thoughtful. Speaking of me, Zheng'er's filial piety is the most pious. You My sister-in-law is probably not free recently, and Hu'er has not been well for the past few days. I was worried that she would not be able to take care of her, so I took Lian'er and put her next to me. Why don't you see Lian'er?" Mother Jia asked the nanny to come out to visit her aunt with Jia Lian in her arms.

Soon several maids came in, surrounded by a nanny holding a child.Zili looked at Jia Lian in the nanny's arms, and suddenly remembered that although Wang Zisheng went to Fujian to be an official, he still often communicated with Zili by letter, but a few days ago he wrote a letter saying that he was worth a lot of money, and named him Xifeng. After ordering the presents, I should especially ask Wang's family that although the family style doesn't put much emphasis on the imperial examination background, they still pay attention to reading. Zili asked Wang Zisheng to raise the child well in the future, and asked her to study.Seeing the nanny come in with Jia Lian in her arms today, Zili's heart skipped a beat. If Wang Xifeng hadn't married Jia Lian, would her life be happier?

As soon as Zili lost his mind, the nanny had already brought Jia Lian to her eyes, "Brother Lian, please greet Auntie." The nanny hugged Jia Lian who was still babbling and knelt down for Zili. She was born very well, with a pair of phoenix eyes slightly upturned, and a straight nose, but unfortunately her face was red, as if she had been covered too much.It was already the end of spring, but Jia Lian was still wearing a thin silk cotton jacket, and the nanny was wrapped in a quilt. Jia Lian's face, which was supposed to be as white as jade, was still flying with two red spots.Zili reached out and held Jia Lian's hand, which was also sweaty. Jia Lian looked at the aunt in front of him curiously. Children are the most sensitive. He immediately sensed the kindness in Zili's eyes, and smiled at Zili.

"What a complete child, let me hug you." Zili took it over and Jia Lian hugged her in his arms and said casually, "Oh, why is Lian'er still wearing thin cotton clothes in this weather? We adults are all wearing single clothes, and children are still wearing thin clothes." Get colder." Zili threw away the quilt on Jia Lian without waiting for the nanny to speak.Jia Lian was even happier when the previous layer of confinement was removed.He put his arms around Zili's neck and stretched out his hand to grab the hairpin on her head. The nanny looked at Zili's actions and was secretly dissatisfied: "The weather is not good recently. The weather in the capital is hot and cold from morning to night. Brother Lian The body is hot, and it is easier to catch a cold if you suddenly go to the quilt."

"You are really stupid. Since you knew that Lian'er was hot, you still walked over under the sun wrapped in a quilt. It was clear that you were lazy, but you prevaricated by saying that you were out of breath. Since you knew it, you still refused to correct it, and said Humph, in your eyes, I'm an outsider who doesn't deserve to control you." Zili is not in the mood to be a philanthropist, and she has too many worries when she returns to the capital this time, so she has no time or thought to play Tai Chi with the Jia family.

The nanny was taken into consideration, and her face suddenly became ugly.She had been proud of being Jia Lian's nanny for a while, but these few days Jia Hu was ill, and Zhang's thoughts were all on her eldest son, and she was negligent towards Jia Lian.Although Jia Mu took Jia Lian over, she didn't know how to take care of her herself. Every day, the nanny came to greet her with her arms.The nanny started to be lazy because no one restrained her. At this time, the children grew up the fastest, and the clothes they had prepared before were too small. The nanny was too lazy to urge the girls to make new clothes, and kept fooling around with the thick clothes.Suddenly being picked out by Zili, he immediately became angry from embarrassment.In the end, he was ashamed by Zili's few words, so he just bowed his head and remained silent.

Although Jia's mother protects her shortcomings, she is a very shrewd person. Jia's mother glanced at the child in Zili's arms, her face was gloomy: "I am getting old, and I want to leave my family to you at ease. Useful! It’s also my usual negligence. Poor Lian’er hasn’t learned how to speak yet, so I can only rub it with you.” Seeing Mother Jia’s anger, the nanny immediately knelt down and kowtowed, begging for mercy: “Madam, please forgive me. My heart ate shit. I didn't rush to change my brother's clothes because the weather was still cold."

But Jia's mother didn't believe the nanny's words: "Are you a dead person? Since you are called Lian'er's nanny, you should always be careful. In the future, when Lian'er grows up, you will work hard for an official butcher. But you don't Take the child to heart. Who gave you the guts! You say how she usually serves Lian'er! You have to tell the truth, and if you want to help her hide it, you will be ashamed if I find out. If you tell the truth, I know When you are with Lian'er, you also have to look at her face, even if she is an accomplice, if the main one takes the initiative to report, I will forgive her."

Seeing that the matter was getting serious, the girls looked at each other and knelt on the ground together: "Madam asked us before we dared to speak. Sister-in-law Wei used to be devoted to brother Lian. Only in the past month, she has not guarded brother Lian every night." My son, I was also impatient during the day, and ran out three or four times a day. A few times I didn't come back at night. Brother Lian's clothes are all arranged by her, and we can't make our own decisions."

One of the girls was clever, she thought to herself that sister-in-law Wei had lost her power in this situation, and since she had offended her, she couldn't give her a chance to bite back, so the girl said: "Sister-in-law Wei is still using Brother Lian to make clothes. I cut clothes out of the material for myself, and once I saw her coaxing Brother Lian to sleep, I ran out."

Mother Jia was furious when she heard this, she pointed at the nanny and scolded: "What a fool, I praised you because you are good. The house is in such a mess. Go and call the person from the night. How can a big living Come in and out casually?"

The girl didn't wait for the person from the previous night to reply and threw a big bomb: "The person from the previous night didn't know about this matter. The courtyard where brother Lian lives now is connected to the uncle's side, and sister-in-law Wei has a crime. Where's the key over there?"

When Jia Mu and Zili heard the girl's words, they suddenly understood half of it. Jia Amnesty's yard was separated from Jia Mu's, and the door had to be locked at night.Sister-in-law Wei has the key over there, which can only be given by Mrs. Zhang or Jia She, and Mrs. Zhang has no reason to give the key to Mrs. Wei, so Jia She is left.If Jia She felt sorry for his son, he didn't need to give the nanny the key to let her come over secretly to talk, it was clear that Sister-in-law Wei was having an affair with Jia She!Zili couldn't help but sigh for Mrs. Zhang, she was worried about Jia Hu's illness, but her husband was hanging out with the nanny.This trip to the capital was not for nothing, as soon as I entered the door, I heard a big gossip.Zili felt a little embarrassed, why something happened when she came back.She didn't think about anything else, she just felt that Jia Lian was wearing too much in this weather, and it would be more troublesome if she really caught a cold and had a weak resistance.Unexpectedly, such a play was brought out.This Jia She is really not taboo about meat and vegetables, he can do anything!

Fortunately, Jia Lian burst into tears at this time, and Zili hurriedly said to Jia's mother: "Since this one is not good, change it to a better one. Don't be angry, madam. Be careful that you will break your body. I like Lian'er very much. I’ll be here for a few days. When I come to the capital alone, I can’t let Zhu Er and his father go. Since my sister-in-law has a lot of things to do, I’ll help her share some of them.” Jia’s mother also felt that it was too ugly to make a fuss in front of Zili, She then asked someone to take Sister-in-law Wei down: "I'm confused. I'm getting weaker and weaker now. You've come back from a long distance and you're bothering me, and I feel sorry for myself."

It is said that Mother Jia sighed and shook her head: "Your sister-in-law is an honest person, but she has no sense of responsibility, and she doesn't persuade her husband to just follow him around."

"My sister-in-law used to take good care of me. She has been serving my wife at home all these years. I have done my best to help her take care of Lianer for a few days." Zili refused to answer Jia Mu's words, and went back to rest on the pretext of being tired.

Zili returned to the west courtyard, where it had been cleaned long ago, the girls saw Zili came back and came up to help her change her clothes, take a bath and rest.The next morning, Jia Lian's new nanny came over. Zili saw that it belonged to Zhao Sheng's family. She smiled and said, "I haven't seen you for a few years. I heard that you married Zhao Sheng and had a son." , I haven't congratulated you yet."

Zhao Sheng's family used to be a girl who passed word around Zili, and when Jia Zheng took office, she stayed and married when she was old enough. "Greetings to Second Grandma. I was outside listening to Second Grandma come back and only wanted to come in to say hello to Grandma. Everything is fine outside, and thanks to the silver that Second Grandma rewarded me, I cured my father-in-law's illness. Now they Everyone in my family is very kind to me. Thanks to my second grandma, I gave birth to two sons, and the youngest son just came in to take care of Lian when he was just three months old."

Zili chatted with Zhao Sheng's family for a while, told her to feed Jia Lian well, then packed up and went back to Jia's mother to go back to her mother's house by car.

Lu Mingqian looked at Zili's face and said in a low voice: "Grandma should be more open. Birth, old age, sickness and death cannot be forced by manpower. It's the best policy to live a good life. Although grandma is kind, I don't think they will appreciate it. Although we didn't ask others to go out ten miles to welcome us back, we didn't even say a word there. Besides, the wife was angry as soon as I came back. I heard that the wife called the uncle over to reprimand him last night, and said that the uncle still behaved like that. Go and tell the old man. The old man over there went back angrily and had a fight with the grandma, and was angry at us for being troublesome. Why bother, we still have to go back, whether they are good or not has nothing to do with us. "

"I don't want to care about it either. If it was in the past, I wouldn't have said a word. But since I have children, I don't want to see children being bullied. That * is her own fault. She only wants to climb the dragon and the phoenix But he forgot his identity. You also know that children are most afraid of having a fever, so sickness is not just looking for trouble at this time of year. Well, I will remember your imperial decree and just pretend to be dumb.” Zili said helplessly that she was pregnant with The pregnancy hormone is disordered, and I can't control my reason.

While the master and servant were talking, they arrived at Wang's house, and when Zili arrived in the capital, the old lady's funeral was already over, and all the curtains in front of the door had been removed.The Wang family had long been there to greet her, and for a while Zili went in and kowtowed to the old lady's spirit and cried.Mrs. Tang hurriedly asked the girl to help her up: "Everyone has seen your filial piety. The old lady should be relieved that she is alive in heaven. You should rest after traveling all the way and you are pregnant."

Zili wiped his tears and said, "Everything is fine for me, and the road is going smoothly, and I'm fine. I'm just thinking about you, how is mother?" After talking, everyone sat down and chatted.

After drinking tea, Wang Ziteng's daughter-in-law stood up and said, "Sister, stay for dinner today. I'll ask the kitchen to cook your favorite dishes." Then she left.Only Madam Tang and Zili were left in the room, so Zili slowly explained the whole story.Mrs. Tang said worriedly: "If you don't tell me, I will guess a little bit. When the late emperor passed away, the capital was frightening to death. That situation is even more nervous than what is in the storytelling. Forget it, let's not talk about it now. Thinking about it, I still feel my heart beating violently. Concubine Dong Gui is afraid that there is more danger than good luck. The first emperor died and ordered his wife to enter the palace to mourn, but she has never seen Concubine Dong. The Queen Mother said that Concubine Dong Gui was too sad to get up. This is just a trick to deceive the eyes." Mrs. Tang lowered her voice and said in Zili's ear mysteriously: "I casually asked your father how Concubine Dong Gui was doing. But your father immediately changed his face and scolded me for talking too much. It seems that Concubine Dong Gui Either dead or under house arrest."

Zili left his mother after dinner and returned to Jia's house. She came back to see Jia's mother, who asked about the situation of Wang's house. "Everything is fine at home, and my grandfather is also in good health. My mother said that she should come to the house to thank her in person, but it is not suitable to go out right now." Jia's mother hurriedly said: "Your mother is too polite, the master's matter is thanks to the in-laws' help I should thank her." As he was talking, he suddenly saw Lai Da coming in to report: "Someone came from the palace, and they said there was a purpose."

Before he could say a word, he heard a burst of crying: "The elder brother is gone! The eldest grandma passed out from grief."