CH 74

Chapter 74: Marriage

Ren Yaoqi returned to the main room with a heavy heart. Li was still sitting on Ren Yaohua’s bed, while Matron Zhou stood to the side to report matters. Probably because Li had explained to her to teach Ren Yaohua household matters, so today she reported more in detail.

“…The maids’ summer clothes are now being made, using the needlework team in the mansion, while the masters’ clothes have been handed over to Tan Ji’s tailor shop in Yunyang City. Originally the Fifth Madam was in charge of these matters. But recently she has been unwell and is not in a position to take charge of things, so the Eldest Madam has left the seasonal change of the family’s clothes to the Eldest Young Madam. It happened that the mansion purchased a batch of summer clothes in the autumn of the year before last. The material was excellent, but the masters might not like the colors, so they were used to make summer clothes for the maids.”

“Sister-in-law is a capable person and this will save the house a lot of money, right?” Ren Yaohua listened and turned her head to Li.

But Matron Zhou said, “Eldest Young Madam is extremely capable, but… she is still young and has less experience…”

Ren Yaohua listened to Matron Zhou as if she had something to say, and looked at her with some confusion, waiting for her to say more.

Matron Zhou whispered: “Eldest Young Madam has done this. The older maidservants in the mansion have nothing to say, but young maids used to follow their masters in selecting new seasonal materials for their clothes. The materials were not as good as the ones our mansion used. However, the colours and flowers were all in fashion back then, so they were still happy to wear them. Eldest Young Madam was well-intentioned, but in the end, she might not have been able to get a good deal. That’s the way people are. They take advantage of what they deserve, but if they feel they’ve suffered a little, they blame it on the person concerned.”

“If that’s the case, doesn’t she know that Eldest Aunt has been in charge of the household for so many years? Why didn’t she give a word of advice to Sister-in-law and instead let her do this?” Ren Yaohua was somewhat puzzled.

Matron Zhou glanced at Li at her words, if it were normal times she wouldn’t have said anything else, but now Ren Yaohua was not young and it would be too late if she didn’t teach some things later. This was why Li had asked her to tell Ren Yaohua about these household chores.

So she sighed and said, “No matter how good this mother-in-law is, she is not her biological mother after all.”

After a moment’s thought, Matron Zhou continued, “Eldest Madam doesn’t necessarily think less of Eldest Young Madam, but she also has her own considerations. It has always been the case that the firstborn son inherits the family business, and this Ren Family will eventually put the Eldest Young Master in charge. But now Eldest Master and Eldest Madam are still in their prime, Eldest Young Madam will have to live under Eldest Madam for many years to come. If the Eldest Young Madam is allowed to run the household smoothly at first, the elders may value the granddaughter-in-law, who is a generation removed, more than the daughter-in-law. When the mother-in-law is in charge later, she will have less authority over her daughter-in-law.”

Seeing that Ren Yaohua was a bit stunned, Matron Zhou spoke with some seriousness: “That’s why at the beginning, the mother-in-law always has to give the daughter-in-law a few downsides. Think about it, Eldest Young Madam does not do well this time, everyone from the Old Madam down to the maids and ladies will have something to say about her. When Eldest Madam steps in to protect and clean up her mess, what do you think will Eldest Young Madam’s do in the future?”

Ren Yaohua frowned: “In the future, Elder Sister-in-law will have more respect for Eldest Madam and dare not easily go against her advice?”

Matron Zhou nodded in satisfaction, “Eldest Madam only needs Eldest Young Madam to be obedient to herself as her mother-in-law. She does not need her to go beyond her mother-in-law to gain face in front of the Old Madam. If that is the case, she will naturally protect Eldest Young Madam and not let her suffer a great loss.”

Ren Yaohua could not help but be silent for a moment as she listened, sighing, “There are so many twists and turns within this mansion.”

Li covered her mouth with a smile and exchanged a glance with Matron Zhou, gently patting Ren Yaohua’s hand: “You should follow Matron Zhou slowly and learn something every day. When you get to… you will almost be ready to be a master.”

Ren Yaohua didn’t care about Li’s peculiarities today, but after hearing this sentence, she saw the expression on her face. Suddenly she realized something and could not help but blush slightly.

She opened her mouth long enough to ask, but in the end, she was too embarrassed to do so.

Ren Yaoqi stood quietly watching for a while. Li looked up and saw her, waving at her, “What are you doing standing there? Come over here too.”

Ren Yaoqi obediently walked over and sat with Ren Yaohua, listening to Matron Zhou as she continued to talk about household matters.

Afterwards, Li and Matron Zhou went out to deal with the affairs in the courtyard. Then Ren Yaohua asked Ren Yaoqi, “When you went out earlier, did Father mention anything?”

Ren Yaoqi saw Ren Yaohua’s forced natural face and knew that she must have guessed something, so she nodded: “Yes.”

Ren Yaohua bowed her head in silence for half a second, but still couldn’t help but ask, “Which family is it?”

Although the words were not straightforward, Ren Yaoqi still heard and understood what she was asking about.

“The Han Family. The elders have not yet decided on a candidate, though.” Ren Yaoqi looked at Ren Yaohua’s expression and said.

Ren Yaohua was stunned again.

Ren Yaoqi also stopped speaking, and there was silence between the two sisters.

After a long time, Ren Yaohua finally came back to her senses. Then she noticed that Ren Yaoqi looked a little strange, and could not help but think a little.

After another two days, the Han Family came to the door again, this time with Master Han, Madam Han, and the Han siblings. Master Han and Old Master Ren went to the outer courtyard, while Han Yunqian was called by Eldest Young Master to have tea.

The Ren Family knew the meaning of the Han Family’s visit and were all the more enthusiastic about it.

Old Madam sent someone over to ask Li and Ren Yaohua to go to the Ronghua courtyard, and Li hastily sent Ren Yaohua back to freshen up.

Ren Yaohua looked at her body: “I can meet the guests in these clothes.”

“This green looks uninspiring, you should wear red. The last dress in silver and red with silver threads and flowers was very good, go back and change it. The clothes are heavily coloured, so the gold hairpins on your head should be replaced with a pair of beaded tassels.” Li gave a detailed explanation, but in the end she was still not sure, so she said to Matron Zhou, “You should go and keep an eye on her.”

Ren Yaohua glanced at Ren Yaoqi, turned, and went out with Matron Zhou.

Li also called for the maids in the house to tidy up for her.

Ren Yaoqi saw Li combing her hair and walked over to her to pick out her hairpin.

Li stroked her head and explained, “I will go to your grandmother’s place with your sister, so stay in the courtyard and do your needlework properly.”

Ren Yaoqi nodded and handed the pair of and dignified hairpins in her hands, decorated in gold lace[1], longevity peach[2], grasshopper, and winter cherry, to Xi’er who was combing Li’s hair.

Not long afterward, Ren Yaohua returned.

She wore a silver-red and silver-threaded double-breasted jacket, a silver moonlight skirt, a lively double bun[3] decorated with beads and a tasseled hairpin with pearls on her head. She looked pretty and lovable.

Li looked her over, nodded, and led her to the Ronghua courtyard.

Ren Yaoqi watched them leave and then left the courtyard herself a few moments later.

She was still a bit uneasy and wanted to go to the Ronghua courtyard to have a look.

When she reached the corridor next to the garden, she saw a person standing on the rockery in the garden with an inadvertent glance.

Ren Yaoqi stopped in her tracks and after a pause, she walked slowly towards the garden.

In the season of early spring, the garden of the Ren Family gradually became full of vitality. The green spreads appeared all over the yard, some grass even grew occasionally in the rockery made of Taihu Lake stones[4]. The servants who were tidying up the yard originally wanted to pull out the weeds, but they were stopped by Ren Shimin. He said that it would be better to let them grow a bit more wild.

No one dared to comment on the Third Master’s taste, so some of the grass indeed grew wildly.

Ren Yaoqi’s steps were soft all the way. She came out casually, followed by only two personal maids, Ping Guo, and Sang Shen. The two maids didn’t dare to say anything, they just followed behind Ren Yaoqi in silence, walking with their heads down.

The man standing at the rockery was very alert, and he noticed Ren Yaoqi before she was approaching and turned his head.

He had a handsome face and quiet, deep eyes, with a quiet composure rarely seen in teenagers.

Han Yunqian looked at her quietly.

Ren Yaoqi wore a goose yellow plain jacket, and the long skirt of the same plain color on her lower body exposed the true purple embroidered skirt. The pale golden sunlight in early spring evenly sprinkled on her body, soft and warm, making the young girl’s fair skin seemingly fragile.

“Young Master Han.” Ren Yaoqi stopped five paces away from him and bent her knees in a curtsy.

Han Yunqian withdrew his gaze, lowered his eyes to return the salute, and called her Third Miss.

“Why is Young Master Han here alone?” Ren Yaoqi looked around and saw that apart from Han Yunqian, there was only a young servant not far away who saw her and ran over to curtsy.

“Brother Yiyan asked me to wait for him here, he just had something to do and went away for a while.” Han Yunqian returned gently and reasonably.

Ren Yaoqi’s eyes crossed over his shoulder to look at the rockery he had been staring at earlier.

She heard that because the Feng Shui layout of this house was very good, basically no major changes have been made to the house since the Ren Family moved in.

The Taihu Stone Rockery was probably more than a few years old. The jagged and oddly shaped stones had been piled up to look like various birds and animals, but Ren Yaoqi felt that an eagle-like stone at the top right of the rockery seemed to have one wing broken, and a one-winged eagle standing there always felt a bit strange.

“The Feng Shui here is extremely good, don’t you think so?” Han Yunqian also turned his head and looked at the false mountain with a smile, “Brother Yiyan said that this false mountain is right on top of one of the five elements and eight trigrams of the formation, whoever designs this must be an expert.”

Because the two of them had walked through the lantern formation last time, Han Yunqian knew that Ren Yaoqi understand this.

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[1] Gold Lace

[2] Longevity peach

[3] Double-bun hair

[4] Taihu Stone Rockery