The Overlord of the Red Mansion

Chapter 163 Lantern Festival

Jia Rong ignored the group of young women and old women and sat directly at the table where the girls were chatting.

Seeing that the atmosphere had returned to normal, Lin Daiyu joked, "How come the dumplings in the pot are boiling hot as soon as Brother Rong comes back?"

Jia Rong sat between Lin Daiyu and Shi Xiangyun and said with a smile, "The other pots of dumplings are all full, and I saw that there is still a lot of room in your bowls, so I rolled over."

Xue Baoqin, who was sitting opposite, smiled and said, "Someone must have scooped the white, round, sweet fruit from our bowl to somewhere else!"

Xue Baochai stood up from the next table and came over, tapping Baoqin on the head with a decorative fan in one hand.

Xue Baochai had a smile on her face and her voice was soft and sweet, making people feel friendly and moving.

"Master, the grandmas look so happy, but is there something good happening again?"

Jia Rong replied impatiently, "They are just looking for trouble. Since they followed me, their lives have been getting better and better, but now they are getting used to the good life and are beginning to annoy me. Look at them these days. Sometimes they fainted from anxiety, and sometimes they messed up the house like frightened pheasants."

Xue Baochai smiled and comforted him, saying, "Grandmothers, you are just concerned about the master and worry about the family. The master should not be angry about this."

Jia Rong said angrily, "They scare themselves all day long. They live a good life at home but they are still like this. If they were to work in the palace, they would be scared to death if they saw a high-ranking official being raided and beheaded every few days!"

Lin Daiyu comforted him, "Brother Rong, don't be angry. The Empress is coming these two days, so it's not wrong to be careful. It's also Brother Rong's fault that he has a bad memory and told the big things after waking up, which made the sisters very anxious."

Jia Rong smiled and said, "It's their business if they are anxious in the future. Don't pay attention to them. Anyway, I don't think I will have time to leave the capital. I'll talk to you about anything else when I come back. Don't let them ruin your mood all day."

Shi Xiangyun thought Jia Rong's words were very good, but she still said, "Brother, you can't say that to us sisters. We are all doing this for your own good."

Jia Rong shook his head. "You don't understand. Our family was not like this before. We were very relaxed back then. We didn't follow any rules. Yuanchun wouldn't ask about what I did. She was in charge of the internal affairs while I was in charge of the external affairs. But look at what she has done over the years."

Without waiting for others to speak, Jia Rong said directly: "She is used to taking care of the children all day long. The children have to listen to her no matter what she says, and the girls and the old women also have to listen to her. This is just like your sister Feng when she was in the west. After a while, she thought that everyone should listen to her. She always has to say something about how I am doing as an official outside."

"If he were a man serving as an official in the imperial court, he would have died a hundred times, and his wife and children would have died several times as well!"

"Now that the Empress and the Crown Prince and Crown Princess have come to visit us, I really don't understand why they are still so frightened. Do they have to go back to Nanjing to live a hard life for decades before they can fulfill their wishes? Then I won't keep them, so that they won't be frightened and blame me."

Although Jia Rong was talking normally, Jia Yuanchun and others were only sitting and chatting about seven or eight meters away, so how could they not hear it?

Xue Baochai comforted him, "Master, you are getting angrier and angrier. It's hard for us to respond. Today is the Lantern Festival. Since there is nothing going on at court and at home, why not have some fun?"

Jia Rong smiled and said, "Baochai is right. It just so happens that there were no fireworks yesterday. Those were the fireworks I prepared for Xiangyun. After dinner, we can set them off to make it more lively. Let's have a fireworks show!"

Lin Daiyu covered her mouth with her fan and asked, "Brother Rong, did you forget about this yesterday, or did you deliberately not bring it out?"

Xue Baochai complained, "You can't say that. Maybe the master has forgotten about it, or the things given to Sister Yun are not suitable for the Empress to use."

Jia Rong smiled and said, "Of course I did it on purpose."

Xue Baochai smiled awkwardly.

Jia Rong smiled at Lin Daiyu and said, "This year, Prince Xiao and many ministers and royal family members were killed in the explosion. I am afraid that something unexpected will happen when setting off the fireworks. We can just let the servants set them off later. If they explode, it's fine. If the fireworks exploded when the queen was here yesterday, your grandmother would have been scared and cried."

Shi Xiangyun raised her hand and grabbed Jia Rong's shoulder and shook it, "Brother, please don't talk about me like that. If you keep saying that, we'll get angry."

Xue Baochai walked over to the side and handed the fan in her hand to the maid who followed her. She picked up the wine pot with both hands and said, "Master, drink a cup of hot wine to warm yourself up. Don't say anything angry anymore."

Jia Rong smiled and said, "Sit down and talk. We can drink wine in the evening. I just remembered something."

Shi Xiangyun asked curiously, "Is there anything else you haven't said? Don't scare us!"

Jia Rong smiled and said, "It's just a trivial matter at home. Yinglian, is Qingwen celebrating the festival at your mother's house today?"

Yinglian replied, "Yes, we are talking about celebrating the festival in the front yard at night. I will also go back early later."

Although she was a maid, Yinglian had a lot of freedom.

Jia Rong nodded and said, "Go back and tell Qingwen first that although I am angry, it will be fine after a while. I am no longer angry with her now. Let her eat and sleep without worry. I have a lot of things to do these days. Let her come back to serve me after the first month of the year is over."

Yinglian nodded happily, "Yes, I'll talk to her right away."

Jia Rong stopped her and said, "Wait a minute, I never blamed her for her mouth. Her temper is nothing. I'm angry because she's stupid. Her bastard cousin has always taken advantage of her. I've already driven him away, but she still ran away during the New Year's Day!"

"Now that three princes have died and there is so much chaos outside, and I have been so busy for three days and three nights without a good sleep, she still has the mind to go out and visit relatives! Moreover, they are all my people, and she went out without my consent! Even your grandmother can't act so nonsense!"

"Explain to her why I sent her to the embroidery room as a manager. If she does such stupid things again, I won't want her anymore!"

Yinglian said respectfully, "Yes, Master!"

Yinglian quickly went out to pass on the message. Xue Baochai, who was sitting nearby, said, "The master is kind-hearted. It is Qingwen who is wrong. Even if she is a maid from the Xue family, the Lin family, or the Shi family, she should not do such an unruly thing, let alone a wealthy family like the Duke's Mansion."

Jia Rong smiled and said, "We don't have many rules in our family. We just live a relaxed life. In other families, men and women sit at different tables!"

Everyone laughed, and Xue Baoqin said, "So the master also knew this!"

Jia Rong smiled and said, "Of course I know. I know things better than you do! It's mainly because it's too chaotic outside, and I'm afraid you'll get into trouble and suffer. That's why I'm strict with her so that she and you can be more careful in the future."

"I'm not joking. You know a lot about the situation outside. Even a prince can't say he is absolutely safe, let alone you girls?"

Wang Xifeng walked over and said, "Master is right. Girls should keep themselves clean. You can't go wrong if you listen to Master!"

Jia Rong said, "Let's not talk about these troublesome and trivial things. Let's have some fun. Whoever won the last time at your table, come up with a question. We won't drink today. If you can't answer it, you can sing or dance, or tell a joke. If you can't answer it, you will be fined."

Xing Xiuyan talked about the winner of the last drinking and poetry writing contest.

"It's Baoqin."

Shi Xiangyun was a little unconvinced, and said to Xue Baoqin: "You come up with the questions!"

Xue Baoqin raised her eyebrows, "I'm going to go out, but it's not for you. With the third place winner here, why would it be your turn to make a fool of yourself?"

Shi Xiangyun looked at her unconvinced, but did not refute.

Xue Baoqin looked at Jia Rong and said with a smile, "It's a waste of talent to ask the third place winner to make drinking games. It's meaningless to just put one sentence together."

Feng Jie stood nearby and said with a smile, "I think you girls are bored. There are so many people at this festival, it would be better if you all have some fun together. Why don't you recite poems one after another, one table after another? We are a family of officials, who wouldn't be able to say a word?"

Seeing Wang Xifeng actually wanted to play this game, Lin Daiyu joked, "Sister Feng wants to play this game too? Are you telling jokes or giving money to have some fun?" Wang Xifeng smiled and said, "Sister Daiyu, you asked a good question. My Qiaojie has also been studying for a few days. Let her speak for me first."

Shi Xiangyun said, "She has only studied for a few days, how can she know this?"

Wang Xifeng said with a smile: "If you say something wrong, take out her lucky money and admit your mistake!"

Xue Baochai laughed and said, "What a cruel mother you are! You even scheme against the children's New Year's money!"

Wang Xifeng twisted her body and said, "This is my daughter. If you have the ability, you can give birth to one too and have fun with it!"

Everyone soon started laughing, and then quickly sat down and started playing a poetry chain game in which adults, the elderly, men, women, and children all participated.

Yuanyang was the host. She had a loud and pleasant voice, clear pronunciation, and was friendly and knew how to smooth things over.

"Our rules are not so rigid. We can either match the last word of the previous sentence or the meaning of the couplets. This is to prevent the previous person from coming up with a tricky poem that the next person can't follow."

Yuanyang formulated rules mainly to prevent the girls from raising the difficulty and making it difficult for the old ladies and children to continue the conversation and causing the atmosphere to become awkward.

Jia Yuanchun smiled and said, "Okay, I'll let Jia Ben take my place here."

Qin Keqing smiled and said, "Then I'll let my son do it for me. If he can't answer, I'll deduct his New Year's money."

Baoqin, who is usually low-key, now touches his son's head and asks him to take the challenge on his behalf.

Several little boys did not want to participate in this penalty game at all and were forcibly held in place by the mother who was showing off her son.

If Wang Xifeng's son was not still young, she would definitely let her son go to war.

Yuanyang looked at the old lady, "Then let's start from here, old lady. Listen carefully, let's start from the beginning."

"From the beginning..." The old lady thought carefully, and soon pointed her finger to the sky happily, "There is a blue sky above my head!"

After the old lady, the next person should be Lady Wang, but neither Lady Wang nor Lady Xing participated in this kind of game, so the next person came to Youshi's charge.

Yushi was the daughter of a eunuch and had read a lot of poetry, but she had forgotten it over the past decade or so.

It soon got stuck at Youshi for three or four seconds, and everyone was looking at this lady who had little presence.

Youshi was anxious. While she was annoyed that Wang Xifeng insisted on playing this game that everyone could participate in, she quickly thought of various poems that began with the word "tian".

"Got it!" Youshi breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile: "If the sky has feelings, it will also grow old!"

Yuanyang smiled and said, "That's right! It's just the master's turn now!"

Jia Rong smiled and said, "If the sky had feelings, it would also grow old. The right way in the world is vicissitudes. Daiyu will answer it. The latter part is too difficult for children. Wait until the girls finish answering it before giving it to the children, so that they don't have enough pocket money to be punished."

Lin Daiyu quickly thought about how to respond.

It's already a couplet, so naturally I can't continue with it, and I can't think of any couplet of the same level as "The righteous path of the world is vicissitudes of life."

"Sang... let me think about it, Brother Rong really knows how to make things difficult for others." Lin Daiyu became anxious and complained in a low voice with unspeakable resentment.

Wang Xifeng laughed and said, "Oh! Look! Finally I have found someone who can make things difficult for Sister Daiyu! Master must teach her a lesson!"

Everyone smiled and looked at the embarrassed Lin Daiyu.

Lin Daiyu said quickly: "The leaves of the mulberry tree grow green again and again, and I know that your complexion remains the same."

Jia Qiaojie quickly shouted: "I know this, my old friend left the Yellow Crane Tower!"

Wang Xifeng hugged Jia Qiaojie and said with a smile, "This doesn't count. It's not your turn to speak yet. If everyone talks nonsense, won't it be a mess?"

Jia Rong said, "She is Daiyu's apprentice, so it's normal for her to take it. Then let Yuanchun's apprentice take it next."

Jia Ben thought for a moment and said quickly, "Fireworks in March in Yangzhou."

The kid holding the zither beside him was scratching his head anxiously. It didn't make any sense. What state was it...

Yuanyang was good at controlling the situation. After looking at everyone's reactions, she smiled and said, "Grandma is right, now it's the turn of the young lady. Miss Shi, please~"

Shi Xiangyun smiled and said, "I have been back to Yangzhou for more than ten years. The painted bridge is blurred by the moon after the rain."

Yuanyang really didn't want to host this game for the girls. They always liked to raise the difficulty unlimitedly, eliminating those who couldn't keep up, and in the end two or three of them were fighting each other.

It's night, it's raining, and the beginning is still confusing. It's simply driving uneducated children crazy.

"Miss Baoqin, please~"

Xue Baoqin glanced at Shi Xiangyun, and then said to Yuanyang: "Before the rain, I first saw the stamens among the flowers, and after the rain, there are no flowers among the leaves."

Yuanyang smiled and nodded, then looked at Baoqin's son, "Sister Baoqin is here to pick you up. Do you know the poem that begins with the word 'flower'?"

The child quickly answered, "How many flowers have fallen?"

Xue Baoqin took over Shi Xiangyun's poem and reduced the difficulty by giving it to the children.

Soon the topic began to be passed among the girls and children. Yingchun, Tanchun, Xue Baochai, Xing Xiuyun, Miaoyu and others were very friendly and considerate of the children, and took over the common topics from the previous and next girls.

If you really can't answer the question, it's okay, just tell a joke or ask someone to answer it for you.

The maids in the Ning Mansion were all women from large families who were brought in during property confiscations. They all had a profound cultural background and were basically all liberal arts ladies.

After a while of fun, we had dinner and went to watch the fireworks together. We released small boats with lanterns in the pond. It was so lively until about three in the morning before we went back to sleep.

Jia Rong gave Lin Daiyu a beautiful lantern, and gave Xing Xiuyun and the Li sisters beautiful clothes. What he gave Shi Xiangyun was a gorgeous fireworks display and the best position to watch the fireworks.

After the Lantern Festival, the people from the west returned to Lai's house.

It is now the Jia Mansion of Jia Zheng and Jia Baoyu, and it is also the rented courtyard of Jia Rong.

(End of this chapter)