A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 49: A Girl's Love Begins
Duqu.

Du Shiniang puts on yellow flowers in front of the mirror,

The maid Shuying helped her comb her hair. "Would you like a double-ring Wangxian bun?"

"I'm going to change my hair style today," Du Shiniang said, looking at herself in the mirror. "I'm going to comb my hair into a Chaoyun bun."

"Shi Niang, this Chaoyun bun is so troublesome, it has to be braided and twisted."

"Hurry up, don't waste time."

Shuying said this while her hands moved quickly. She divided her hair into strands, twisted them together, and finally folded them on top of her head, forming a stable and flexible Chaoyun bun, also known as the Chaoyun Shangxiang bun.

"Shuying, what kind of basket should I put in it?"

"Wearing a pair of hollow gilded silver hairpins,"

"What does it go with?"

"A golden comb and a basket full of real roses," Shuying was smart with her words, but she was also good at dressing up and quickly picked out a few headpieces for her to wear.

Du Shiniang looked at herself in the mirror.
"Wouldn't it be too extravagant and conspicuous? Replace the gilded hairpins with silver ones, and the gold comb with an ivory comb."

After changing, he looked at it carefully again.

"Pair it with a pair of beaded earrings."

In the early morning, the roses freshly picked from the back garden bloomed brightly, were wrapped around the chopstick-shaped ivory basket, and then inserted into the Chaoyun bun.

The more beautiful the flowers, the more beautiful the people.

Accessorize with a pair of silver hairpins, an ivory comb and a pair of pearl earrings.

People are more delicate than flowers.

"My wife is so beautiful."

Du Shiniang took out a lip balm box, which was a gift from Li Yi after he came back from Chang'an last time. She took out the lavender lipstick and applied it, which matched the roses in the box very well.

Shuying curled her lips beside him,
"This lip balm is far inferior to what Shi Niang usually uses."

Shi Niang just smiled softly at the mirror.

"What skirt should I wear with it? What do you think of a purple-green skirt with a crimson gauze skirt?"

"My wife's new red dress with grape and pomegranate pattern, with a light crimson gauze skirt over it, is also very nice."

"Bring it here quickly so I can try it."

The pomegranate skirt is made of eight pieces of solid color cloth cut together. The pomegranate red color is matched with a light crimson long skirt made of finely cut long strips of yarn and then spliced together.
After the upper body,
It immediately makes the originally bright pomegranate red dress look soft, delicate and graceful, less luxurious and more elegant.

Du Shiniang turned around and was very satisfied with her outfit.

"Madam, do you really want to go see Li Dalang dressed like this?"

"I haven't been to my sixth aunt's house for a long time. The weather is nice today, so I'll go for a walk."

Shuying curled her lips, "My lady, you can't even fool a three-year-old child with your words. Are you really in love with Li Dalang? What's so good about Li Dalang? He's just a young Taoist priest who just returned to secular life and is just a village chief."

Du Shiniang said, "Li Lang is very talented. His Majesty has appointed him as the Crown Prince's official."

"But that man is too ungrateful. He didn't seize such a good opportunity and even resigned and returned home. How could he have any future?

You are the daughter of the Jingzhao Du family. Even if you look down on Wei Erlang, you can't fall for Li Dalang, who sells tofu.

You must not be impulsive."

Shuying tried to dissuade him earnestly, "Neither the old lady nor Alang would agree."

"You and he are not a good match."

Du Shiniang frowned.
"I just went to visit my sixth aunt."

North Hall,

Mrs. Guo drank bird's nest soup and listened to the report from the housekeeper.

"Shi Niang said she would go to Guozhuang, Yusu Township to visit Liu Niang."

Mrs. Guo put down the spoon, her face serious. "This little girl is getting more and more outrageous. That Li Yi is just a farmer."

After some thought, Guo asked someone to call her illegitimate son Du Sanlang.

"Tell me everything you know about Li Yi from Yusu Township."

Du Sanlang was startled by the look on her face, but he didn't dare to disobey the old lady in charge, so he immediately spilled the beans and told her everything.

An abandoned baby in Chang'an was adopted by Taoist Li of Wuji Temple. He worked as a Taoist priest for sixteen years and traveled around the world with the Taoist priest for six years. Not long after returning to secular life, he opened a tofu workshop and now runs a private school.
He was very good at writing in thin and sinewy script, and also wrote an enlightenment text, the Thousand Character Classic. He was recommended by the Imperial Censor Sun Fujia, and the emperor granted him the ninth rank of Prince's Official Calligrapher. However, he resigned the position and returned to his hometown to continue teaching.

Mrs. Guo was also surprised by what this young man did.

He is capable, talented, and good-looking.

No wonder Shi Niang was attracted to this country boy.
just,

After all, he is just a poor boy,
They are not even from a humble family, so how can they be compared with the aristocratic Jingzhao Du family?

Shi Niang is not San Lang's daughter Liu Niang.
Liu Niang was born to a maidservant, and her father San Lang was also born to a maidservant.
But Shi Niang is the daughter of her legitimate son, a true daughter of a noble family.

Even if he didn't marry Wei Erlang, he would marry other legitimate sons of famous families, including Yang, Pei, Xue, Liu, Cui, Lu, Li, Zheng, Wang, and Xiao.

"Is Li Dalang's house raising its beams today?"

"Madam, Li Yi has renovated the west courtyard and added a few rooms to the east courtyard. Today we're putting up the beams, and we're going to slaughter a pig and treat everyone to a meal as a reward for the craftsmen."

"You're invited too, right?"

Du Sanlang nodded in agreement.

"Send me a gift too,"

Mrs. Guo called the housekeeper and told her,

After a while, the housekeeper brought something.
Du Sanlang stared at those things with his eyes wide open.

On the table,
There were a few things that the housekeeper had brought.

A golden bowl with mandarin duck and lotus petal patterns looks like a blooming golden lotus from a distance, with mandarin ducks and honeysuckle engraved inside the lotus petals.

A six-curved silver plate, sunflower-shaped with six petals, has a shallow belly and a flat bottom. A tortoise shell is hammered into the center, with details engraved and gilded.

Two silver cups, eight-petal silver cups with ladies and hunting patterns.

The four gold and silver items are all extremely exquisite.

"The gold bowl weighs ten taels, the silver plate twelve taels, and the silver cup weighs two taels each. Please give them to Li Yi for me to congratulate him on his grand opening.

Please help me convey a message.

Gold flowers go with silver flowers, fish go with fish, shrimp go with shrimp, red doors go with red doors, bamboo doors go with bamboo doors; if the two families are not of the same social status, there can be no marriage."

Du Sanlang agreed with this statement. Li Yi was indeed not worthy of the Du family.

"These gold and silver items are too precious. Even a commoner like Li Yi can't use them."

The nobles were superstitious that using gold and silver as tableware would ensure immortality, and they liked to use gold and silver utensils. However, the imperial court decreed that for officials below the first rank, tableware could not be made of pure gold or pure jade, and for officials below the sixth rank, tableware could not be made of pure silver.

Gold and silver tableware also became a symbol of status.

The Du family was a marquisate, and their ancestors had even higher official titles, so they could use gold and silver utensils. Li Yi was just a commoner, so he had no right to use the gold and silver utensils, so he could only keep them as treasures.

This is what Guo intended.

To Li Yi, these pieces of gold and silver wares were worth a large sum of money, but they also reminded him that he was not worthy of Du Shiniang due to his social status.

These gold and silver items are a little compensation to him.

This can also be taken as a warning.
If Li Yi doesn't know what's good for him, he might be given gold and silver this time, but next time he might be attacked by the Du family.

These gold and silver items were worth no less than two hundred strings of cash. Old Madam Guo was still quite polite. This was because Li Yi was famous and had obtained such a prestigious official title as the Crown Prince's Attorney at the age of sixteen. Madam Guo left him a way out and did not want to offend this young man too much.

"By the way, I really like the dried bean curd sheets from Li Dalang's shop. You can order a hundred kilograms. We can also give them to relatives and friends. It can be regarded as a fresh local specialty of our Chang'an South City."

"Remember to pick up Shi Niang and come back early,"

(End of this chapter)