Chapter 277: Lady Guo’s birthday (1)

As the night gets deeper, most people in Chang'an are already asleep. They can forget the fatigue and joy and anger of the day. They look for another world without any troubles in their dreams, but there are still people who find it difficult to fall asleep. If they are not arranged early, the troubles of the next day will double.

Cui Qiao and his wife are one of them. An overly fierce family earthquake in Tianbao once every six years affected Cui Qiao's career. He was transferred from Dali Temple Minister to the Right Prime Minister. This position was equivalent to the Secretary-General of the Shangshu Province. If it had been decades earlier, this position had great real power. The fashionable book of Emperor Tian was gradually overturned, and the Right Prime Minister of the Shangshu Province was exerted in a sense. However, since Li Longji ascended the throne, he strengthened the power of the prime minister. He originally only cared about the left and right prime ministers of the Menxia Province and the Zhongshu Province, and his hand began to reach into the Shangshu Province and directly controlled the six ministries. The Left and Right Prime Minister of the Shangshu Province became the true administrative secretary.

From the third rank to the lower rank of the fourth rank, and he was a free official, the most difficult thing to balance was Cui Qiao's wife. Although she was an old princess, her wife was noble, and other husbands were promoted, while her husband suddenly fell by two ranks. If she was unfair, she would have to make a sound. But her big voice was not only useless, but instead tortured Cui Qiao to exhaustion and made mistakes at work. Now, the seventh year of Tianbao evaluation has already come down. Cui Qiao was rated as the lower middle for her business laziness. If she did not make up for it, she would definitely be demoted or even released.

Mrs. Cui finally calmed down. For the sake of her husband's future, she decided to sacrifice herself and began to display her wife's diplomacy. She appeared in countless high-gate courtyards. Of course, she did not go to find her close friends, but to look for her old lovers when she was young.

Unfortunately, the old man was so ugly that the effect was a little worse. At this time, she heard rumors in the palace that this year, the lower court officials were rated as the lower middle school. The lower court officials were sent to Lingnan as local officials. Lingnan was a barren and smoky place. How could her delicate body withstand it? Mrs. Cui was shocked and went to ask her in-law Li Linfu again. Li Linfu naturally agreed to help, but Mrs. Cui also knew that Li Linfu agreed to help. At this time, Mrs. Guo State's request was sent to the mansion.

Tomorrow is Lady Guo's birthday, but the gifts have not been decided yet. If you give less, you are afraid that it will not work. If you give more, you will not be able to bear it. Mrs. Cui was in a dilemma. Seeing that the time for sleep was coming, she was anxious and grabbed Cui Qiao, who was hiding in the study and praising jade.

"Do you think it's better to give money directly, or to give some valuable pearls, jade or antique calligraphy and paintings?" Mrs. Cui was in a dilemma with two gift lists, one was 300 taels of gold, and the other was a number of famous calligraphy and paintings worth 300 taels of gold. When it comes to gold, you have to say a few words. The rule of Mrs. Guo State to receive gifts is to only receive gold, and 300 taels is the starting price. If you don't even think about entering the door if you are less than 300 taels.

Mrs. Cui originally received five hundred taels of gold, but in pain, it quietly changed to the starting price. 'Maybe it's not a big deal to change the evaluation for Lao Cui.' She comforted herself secretly.

When Cui Qiao heard the wife mention the word "Pearl and Jade", she immediately thought of the precious jade in her study, and her heart pounded. She didn't like her life.

"Well! When did you hear that woman collecting antique calligraphy and paintings? How could she have that kind of elegance? Her rule is that only gold, or diamond, she would not want anything except these two things."

"How do you know so clearly that you have given her a gift?" Mrs. Cui was like this. She claimed to be smart, but often couldn't grasp the essence of the problem. At this time, her voice became sharp, as if it was a failure alarm, "Say! Do you have an affair with her?"

She put her waist on her waist and her eyes widened, as if she was a member of the anti-pornography and anti-illegal group. She looked Cui Qiao up and down. She could not escape her professional eyes if her husband had any pores of that woman's makeup in her husband.

Unfortunately, Cui Qiao had been tested for a long time. He glanced at the big bed and smiled bitterly: "Madam, don't you know the secret disease of being a husband?"

As she said that, Mrs. Cui felt relieved when she thought of her husband's silver-like wax gun tip, and turned the topic to the main business. She licked her dry lips and said a little unwillingly: "Then give gold! I plan to give three hundred taels, I think it's enough, what do you think?"

Humph! Three hundred taels, it’s too little to put the woman in between, not to mention that she wanted to modify the evaluation that the Ministry of Personnel had reported, but she felt that it was enough, and it would be useless to say that it was not enough! She simply wanted to make herself agree with her wise decision.

However, Cui Qiao himself wanted to become an official in Lingnan. With his current official title, it is very likely that he would go to Guangzhou to be the governor. As long as he made political achievements, he would have the capital to climb up. In addition, there was a more important reason. He knew that the woman in front of him would definitely not follow him. In this way, he would really escape.

He touched his chin and thought for a while, "Well! Three hundred taels of gold, I think it should be enough."

Mrs. Cui suddenly felt happy, her fat body turned around lightly, walked out quickly, and walked to the door, she laughed sweetly, "Then you go to sleep first! I'll go to your study to see if there is anything worth three hundred taels of gold. Let's go to the counter shop tomorrow."

Cui Qiao's heart suddenly felt like he fell into a cold cave, and even his blood was frozen.

The eastern sky gradually became dyed red, and Chaoyang seemed to know what day it was, so he also stuck out his head with fun. The weather was sunny and it was a good time to go out for business. Chang'an City began to become lively early.

Today is Yang Huahua, no! This name is too rustic. She has long abandoned it in public. She is now Lady Guoguo. Today is the day her new house is completed and her birthday at the age of 28. Many people have some impression of it. It seems that she was 28 years old last year, but what does it matter? It’s a woman! The key is that she only celebrates once a year, which is the important thing.

Yang Huahua woke up early in the morning, and the maid had already opened the thick curtain tent. The wall to the east was empty. When she pulled the opening tent, she could walk to the terrace outside. The spring breeze was cool and there was a hint of chill. A large area of ​​sunlight shone in and painted a layer of gold in the room. This was the effect she wanted. Her bedroom was called the Golden Pavilion, which was made of gold, as the name suggests. In fact, the walls of the tower were covered with gold foil, and were inlaid with jewels. From a distance, it looked golden and magnificent. This was not counted. It was easy to slip on rainy days. She used copper coins to spread the surrounding area to prevent slipping. The entire tower cost 100,000 yuan, which was more than 20,000 yuan more than the golden building of Wang Yuanbao, a rich man in Chang'an, and it was the highest in Chang'an.

Yang Huahua was in a bad mood last night. She slept alone and the boy who was summoned to accompany her was driven away by her before she even entered the curtain. The reason was that the housekeeper cried last night and said he was kind to send the invitation, but was humiliated by the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue and almost lost his life. Although he knew that he was a little exaggerating, Li Qing still did not buy her account, which is certain.

It has been three years since the proposal to Li Qing in the fifth year of Tianbao. In the past three years, Li Qing has been indifferent and silently doing things. They seem to be people from two paths, each walking their own paths and having nothing to do with each other.

But the excuse Yang Huahua asked herself: Who asked him to reject me, so I wanted to find another man to retaliate against him, but over time, even she herself did not believe this excuse. Li Qing, who was originally hidden in her heart, gradually disappeared, as if she had put it in the wrong place, not in her heart, but in her stomach, it was corroded by gastric juice.

As for the statement that you only want to marry two men is just a means of hype. Applying a sacred halo on yourself is like a layer of virgin film, raising the appetite of those suitors, maybe you or him.

A man is just a toy. Yang Huahua really wants money. Only money is the most real and reliable thing. Her other hobby is to be a matchmaker, as if she wants her own regrets of failure to make up for all the regrets of her failure. Therefore, the marriage of the royal family and the marriage of princes and ministers must be approved by her. At the beginning, the son of the Si Xue King ignored her warning and married the woman she disliked without authorization. Yang Huahua was furious and ran to Li Longji to file a lawsuit. The next day, the son of the Si Xue King, who had just married, was deposed, divorced the bride, and punished the Si Xue King for ten years of worship. In this way, no one dared to disobey the words of the Lady of Guo State.

Of course, Yang Huahua is not such a rude and unreasonable person. If she is willing to pay some handling fees to her symbolically, her life will still be dull and happy, and the handling fees are not much, just one thousand taels of gold at a time. In this way, she can organically integrate the two hobbies together, Yang Huahua will naturally be even more enjoyable.

But recently she suddenly became interested in another "marriage". In her eyes, the glorious East Palace with golden walls seemed to be a noble lady. She had just become widowed and should find her a careful and considerate husband. She was interested in King Qing, because King Qing was generous and willing to spend money to please her. This was also the unanimous opinion of the Yang family. Except for the imperial concubine in the palace, she did not like to care about such things.

Today is the thirty years of Yanghuahua.

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No! On her 28th birthday, in order to save some pension money for herself, she decided to hold it grandly. Without the capital, Li Longji allocated 50,000 yuan to spend it for her. In addition, all the equipment and items, including the expenses of the restaurant, were all covered by King Qing, and she only needed some money for Yang Huahua.

However, Shu Xinyi's birthday was covered with a shadow by a temporary thought of her. Yesterday, Li Qing came back from Suzhou and injured Yang Qi. This incident caused a sensation in Chang'an and reminded Yang Huahua of the only man who had rejected her.

"He has to see his glory and he has to regret it." Yang Huahua immediately decided to give Li Qing the last invitation, but Li Qing seemed a little unhappy, which made Yang Huahua feel disappointed and a little angry.

"Mom! Do you think my clothes look good?"

The nine-year-old son Pei Huidong ran upstairs, interrupting her thoughts and diluting her anger. Yang Huahua smiled and squatted down and pulled her clothes for her son, "Why are you so excited to wear a new dress like a girl?"

"The master said today is my mother's birthday, and I want to kowtow to her."

After saying that, Pei Hui knelt down and kowtowed twice to Yang Huahua.

"You kid..."

Yang Huahua hugged him in her arms lovingly, wiped a hole in the corner of her eyes for him, and shaved his nose with a smile and said, "Little monkey, haven't washed his face!"

Pei Hui twisted in his mother's arms embarrassedly and said, "Mom, the master wants me to kowtow and then go back to write a piece of writing, and then come over again."

"Mom is going to the front too."

Yang Huahua took her son's hand and walked down the Golden Pavilion. When she saw a maid running hurriedly. She knew that a guest had already delivered a gift to her door, she touched her son's head and smiled and said, "Go! Listen to your master's words carefully. There are many people today, so don't come here."

Yang Huahua's new house is located in Xuanyangfang, covering an area of ​​100,000 yuan. It was built by Li Longji for her with 300,000 jin of money. It used a thousand-year-old giant wood transported from Hongzhou, and was built with all the gold bricks of Suzhou and bluestone in Chizhou. There were nearly a hundred buildings of all sizes, carved beams and painted pillars, and it was extremely luxurious and desirable.

According to the rules, the morning is the time for gifts for each government, and guests will be sent to the palace to have a banquet in the late afternoon. It is still early in the morning, but Xuanyangfang has already started to stir up. Teams of Yulin soldiers appeared on the streets of Xuanyangfang. They drove out beggars and banned vendors. Today, the markets in Xuanyangfang are not allowed to open, and every household is not allowed to go out in the door. The doors are also closed, and all those who come in can only pass by invitations.

But that's it. On the way from Xuanyangfang Gate to Yanghuahua House, there were endless carriages. These were all from various prefectures to give gifts. The small box of light sandalwood filled with gold ingots or diamonds collected from various places.

There were carriages in front of the gate. These carriages were all for gifts, not the owner's special carriage. Despite this, each carriage was covered with gold and silver, which looked magnificent. Almost three people came to each carriage, one was a housekeeper, holding an invitation in the other, and two servants were directed to carry down heavy or light sandalwood boxes with the other. Yang Huahua thought very carefully about the details of the invitation design. In each invitation, there was a supporting envelope with the official's name and position, which was regarded as a sub-coupon, specially used to pack gift slips and passes for officials. The real invitation was of memorable significance, so naturally it could not be taken to the housekeeper everywhere.

"The gift is registered at the side door, please go here." The two families seemed to be traffic police, making a single gesture to guide the gift sender.

There were two long queues in front of the side door, with a tent sitting behind the two tables, sitting upright with a solemn expression, as if two judges who received deposits were listening to the trumpet's shouts, while carefully checking the names and amounts on the gift list, each stroke and stroke, without any mistakes.

"Zhang Yi, the minister of the school, has 1,500 taels of gold and 20 pearls." The emcee read aloud without any hesitation. This was Yang Huahua's special instructing to remind those who gave gifts to make up for it later.

‘One thousand five hundred taels of gold!’ As soon as the emcee's voice fell, it immediately attracted a buzzing sound. This gift was the heaviest one to date. “Everyone, you guys!” The two men pushed away everyone, and under the eyes of many surprised eyes, they carried a large red sandalwood box weighing 100 pounds into the yard.

"I'm afraid there's something big to ask for when I give such a heavy gift!" A housekeeper from a certain mansion said.

The person in front of him glanced back at him, sneered disdainfully, put on an air of a senior political observer, and raised his head and said slowly: "Don't you even understand this little thing?"

He glanced out of the corner of his eyes and saw everyone surrounding him, looking at him with a pious look on his face, looking forward to the answer, he couldn't help but feel extremely proud and slowly explained to everyone without any doubt, "Do you still remember the imperial examination case three years ago? At that time, the son of the Censor Zhang Yi committed the case, and Zhang Yi was demoted as a result, but last year he suddenly regained his post and was promoted to the minister of the disciple last month. This is actually the love that Lady Guo State told the emperor."

"Oh!" Everyone suddenly realized that giving gifts now is naturally a favor. They gave money in just a legitimate way without losing traces of bribery. They can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

"Cui Qiao, the right chief of the Shangshu, has three hundred taels of gold."

"His Royal Highness, 1,500 taels of gold and twenty diamonds."

The long team gradually shortened with the unfeeling reading of the master's ceremonies. One carriage after another that had given gifts began to turn back to the house. Two hours later, the square in front of the mansion was deserted again, and the sun was already west. At this time, several horses rushed from afar, and the first one was the general representative of the Yang family, Yang Guozhong. In addition to Yang Guozhong, the Yang family's influence in the court, there are three sisters, Mrs. Qin, Mrs. Han, Mrs. Guoguo, as well as Yang Qi, who worked in Dali Temple respectively, and Yang Shi, who worked as a doctor in the Ministry of War. These six people are collectively called the Yang family's six tigers, among which Yang Guozhong and Mrs. Guoguo have the greatest influence.

It's still early to leave the banquet, and Yang Guozhong did not come to celebrate his birthday. He had just come from Prince Qing's mansion and was full of anger. When Li Qing came back, he provoked their Yang family and smashed Yang Qi's legs to pieces. King Qing not only refused to let them take revenge, but also asked him to come to the door to apologize to Li Qing, but because his son fell into Li Qing's hands.

He came to the door to apologize Yang Guozhong, but he would never go, but he could use the opportunity of Yang Huahua's birthday to test Li Qing. If he was willing to reconcile and hand over the evidence of King Qing's crime, he could let him go once. If he didn't know how to advance and retreat and just acted recklessly, then Zhang Qiu Jianqiong would be his fate.
Chapter completed!