Chapter 8 The Flower Banquet (I)

　　Liu Chang walks over with a fresh spirit, and from afar, he sees Peony and Yu'er standing under the corridor, with different heights, thin and fat rings, each with its own style, which is really eye-catching, so he can't help but be in a good mood, and a smile appears on his face. 　　Yu'er's eyes were sharp and she was the first to see Liu Chang, seeing that he was wearing a jade crown, scarlet round-necked gown with flowers, green silk cloud shoes, a silver scented bag with bird and flower pattern and a jade pendant tapestry around his waist, making him look like a jade tree with a windy appearance, and handsome and elegant, and she couldn't help but be full of admiration, and she bowed down and saluted, saying, "Concubine, I've met the master of the house." Seeing that Peony was still in a daze, she gently pulled her sleeve, and Peony woke up as if in a dream, and woodenly bowed to Liu Chang, "Long live your husband." 　　Liu Chang absentmindedly waved his hand towards Yu'er, and looked at Peony and faintly said, "This appearance today is not a disgrace to me." 　　Peony woodenly skimmed her eyes at the floor tiles. Jag! Jag! 　　Yu'er's eyes beat back and forth between the two of them in thought, picking up Jiao Niang and smiling, "Jiao Niang quickly greet father." 　　Jiao Niang is still not able to speak well, her sleepy eyes fuzzy as she hangs on to Yu'er's neck, frowning and deflating her mouth as she looks at Liu Chang, a look of resignation on her face, but she just doesn't call out to anyone. 　　Liu Chang was not happy in his heart, and poked Jiao Niang's face as he walked by: "This crying look, I don't know who I learned it from, early in the morning, it's bad luck to look at it." While saying this, she glanced at Peony, who only pretended not to see. 　　Yu'er was so sad that she hugged Jiao Niang tightly in pain. 　　Mrs. Qi's voice rang out from the curtain, "All come in." 　　Seeing Peony's outfit, Mrs. Qi also brightened up and laughed, "That's right, this is what my Liu family daughter-in-law should look like!" Turning back to Liu Chang, she said, "Zishu, I just said to Daniang yesterday that I would ask Dr. Zhu to come to give her a look in a few days, prescribe a formula to regulate her body, and hurry up to give birth to a first grandchild for me." 　　Liu Chang sniffed faintly "hmm", did not say good, also did not say bad. But Mrs. Qi knew that his attitude was equivalent to agreeing, and could not help but be in a good mood, "A husband and wife of one heart and one mind can break the gold, Dan Niang is the first time to manage such a banquet, Zishu you have to protect her a little bit, she does not understand you teach her well, do not cause her to be angry again." 　　Liu Chang gave another "hmm" sound, absentmindedly stroking Qier's head twice as she leaned over and lay on his knee. 　　Biwu, who had been listening under the curtain for a long time, lifted the curtain and walked in, smilingly placed the food box on the table, greeted everyone and said, "Is Mrs. Qi having her meal at this moment?" 　　Mrs. Qi coldly swept her a glance: "Why did you not do what I said yesterday?" 　　Biwu was taken aback, thinking that Peony had sued her, she glared at Peony indignantly, and crouched down to curtsy with a great deal of aggression and said, "The servant girl went to the young lady's place first, but she saw that the hour was late, and the young lady had not yet freshened up. The maidservant was afraid that I would not be able to serve the lady, so I reported to the young lady and rushed over to serve the lady first." 　　Her words sounded delicate, the hour is late, Peony has not yet combed and was not afraid of serving Mrs. Qi, it is clear that she is deliberately slow. Mrs. Qi laughed coldly: "Coquettish words! According to the rules you should wait for your young lady to freshen up is, I have someone here to serve, which want you to do more? You can't even do your part properly, how dare you take the liberty to do more? I think you're bullying the young lady's goodness and not taking her seriously!" 　　Biwu wanted to cry but didn't dare to cry, while looking at Liu Chang with her eyes, she said, "The slave girl knows that she is wrong, and never dares to do so again." 　　Liu Chang just looked at the tea bowl in his hand, and did not speak out to help her plead for mercy as usual. 　　Peony coughed lowly and laughed: "Mother, don't be angry, it's not a big deal, daughter-in-law did promise Biwu to come over first." 　　Mrs. Qi sighed: "That's all, since your young lady pleaded for you, I have to give your young lady face. But you don't know the rules for a long time, today you will be punished for not being allowed to attend the banquet, and learn the rules by my side!" 　　"Ah?" Biwu never thought it would end up like this, thinking that in order to attend this banquet, in order to give Peony a good look, she got up at 5 o'clock and dressed up carefully, but now she got such an ending, she hated to cry, and looked at Peony with a more sorrowful and angry look in her eyes. This cunning and vicious woman, she was afraid that she would steal the limelight at the banquet, she knew that Mrs. Qi said that she could not do it at all, but she also deliberately set up this trap for herself to jump, she hated herself for being blinded by the lard at that time, and how did she fall into this thief's trap! 　　Then look at Yu'er, the corner of Yu'er's mouth all turned up, a face of gloating. Biwu was so aggravated that she hated Peony in an instant. 　　Peony received Biwu's vicious gaze and was somewhat baffled. According to the story, she had already been kind enough, right? She had never scolded anyone, had never counted anyone, and all she had ever asked for was the word "peace and quiet". She is not willing to serve themselves, busy to please Mrs. Qi, let her come, she is not smart, ate Mrs. Qi's hanging out on their own gas out? Which has this kind of reasoning, at the moment nonchalantly glared back. 　　Liu Chang happened to see, coldly grunted, secretly thought that the original Peony's blandness is pretending, still jealous of the inner nuisance, this trick is called to catch the indulgence. Since she likes to pretend, she will pretend, and in the end, she will have to beg herself! 　　After Mrs. Qi finished dealing with Biwu, she left Peony and Liu Chang to have breakfast with her. Peony thought about the people and things she was going to see later, and was a bit unable to eat, while Liu Chang didn't know what he was thinking about, and appeared to be absent-minded. Seeing this, Mrs. Qi disgruntledly kicked them out, "Go, go, go and go about your business." 　　Peony did not want to wait here for a moment longer and immediately got up to leave. Mrs. Qi called out to Liu Chang, "Zishu, I have something to tell you." 　　Peony didn't care about him, and affectionately took Yu'er's hand and headed out, "I haven't attended such a banquet for a long time, I'm a bit scared, I just want to watch the fun from the sidelines, you need to work harder." 　　In the past it was Biwu who made the most of the limelight, never imagined that she would have this opportunity now. Yu'er saw Biwu crying under the curtain, her heart was secretly happy, and thought of Mrs. Qi and Liu Chang's attitude towards Peony, I'm afraid that the young lady is going to turn over a new leaf. If the banquet is a success, the young lady will be happy, and the prince will also be happy, so he must grasp the opportunity and not let the young lady and the prince down. At that moment, she put her heart into it and talked to Peony about the arrangements of today's banquet: "The guests will come one after another only at the sixth hour, and it's just about enjoying the flowers and composing poems, watching the songs and dances, watching the hundreds of plays, and enjoying the banquet in the garden, and after that there will be a fight between the flowers and the grasses and the chickens and simulacra, so how to be happy and how to come, and there's nothing out of the ordinary about it." 　　Peony said, "What kind of people are coming?" 　　Yu'er laughed: "This is simple, just have someone go and ask Shixia for a list to find out." Said raised her hand and called her personal maid Green Waist over, "You go ask Shixia to ask for a list of today's guests, just say that the young lady wants to see it." 　　Green waist led the order to leave, Yu'er added: "The time is still early, young lady want to go back to the room to rest first? The maidservant sees that you didn't use much breakfast just now, so it's just right to go back and use some." 　　Peony laughed and said, "That's fine." The two of them went back to Peony's courtyard with smiles on their faces. Mrs. Lin was slightly surprised to see that the two of them were suddenly so affectionate after only half a day's work, but she didn't show it on her face and greeted her with a smile and said, "Is breakfast available for the young lady?" 　　Peony said, "Set it up." She also invited Yu'er to join her for breakfast, "There are no outsiders here, so you and I can use it together, so that you don't have to go back to your room to eat later, which will delay the time." 　　Yu'er excused herself for a break and ate standing up. 　　Just after the dishes were removed, Green Waist fetched the list over and offered it to Peony with both hands. At first glance, Peony saw the names of two people, one was Liu Chang's old lover, the newly widowed Qinghua county princess from a year ago, and the other was He Peony's cousin, Li Nympho. 　　The others were of no interest to Peony, so she casually threw the list on the table and walked out to the veranda to tease and shake it off. Mrs. Lin then brought Mrs. Li and Lanzhi, who had been appointed by Mrs. Qi, over to kowtow to Peony. 　　Seeing this, Yu'er retired, saying that she would come over later to wait on Peony and go to the garden together. 　　Peony let out a "hmmm" and casually glanced at Mrs. Li and Lanzhi, saying, "I don't have any rules here, the important thing is these pots of flowers, don't touch them." 　　Mother Li and Lanzhi both smiled, "Young Lady don't worry." 　　Peony nodded, no longer caring about them. She went back to her room and took a few paper bags that she had made for herself, and while the sun was still low, she walked to a few peonies that were about to blossom, picked the biggest and strongest buds, and carefully removed the petals, leaving only the stamens and pistils to self-pollinate and reproduce, and then tightened the paper bags, and instructed Kuan'er and Jie'er to pay more attention to them. 　　While Lin's mother and the others were not surprised by her behavior, Li's mother and Lanzhi were heartbroken and unimpressed by it. The heartache was that if such a peony was in full bloom and sold outside, it would be worth a few hundred dollars, but the young lady was so kind as to destroy several peonies at a time, which was really a waste of natural resources. 　　But the young lady was so mean that she destroyed several flowers at a time, which was really a waste. She didn't think so, but she thought that this was the peony's warning to them, was it a warning to them to be careful, or else they would end up like this peony flower? They had been instructed by Madam before they came here, so they were not afraid of this sickly, soft and unpleasant young lady. Therefore, the two of them were resistant to Peony as soon as they met each other. 　　Peony didn't know what was in their minds, and was only concerned about what she had to do. After inspecting the garden, she thought that although the color and flower type of these peonies were not good, if she could breed these varieties in the first two years, it would be enough to cover her expenses, but as for the other hybrid varieties, it would not be an overnight success, so she could not rush. 　　After inspecting the small garden, Peony beckoned Yu He to come over: "Later on, Mr. Li is also coming, so if you have time, go and tell him that there is something I want to discuss with him, and tell him to make sure he finds a chance to come and see me. When the time comes, you can think of a way to lure mama Lin away." 　　Yu He's eyes rolled a few times and laughed, "Well, Mr. Cousin is a good candidate." 　　Peony pinched her cheek and bared her teeth, "What nonsense! I'm on business."