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Chapter 76 - Preparing Gifts
This is the first time that Nangong Hang has participated in such formal social activities, so some nervousness is inevitable. Nangong Yue with the experience of the previous life, these things have long been known, immediately smiled and proposed: "Big sister, I remember you are good at embroidery, and I just learned about making incense. Why don't you personally embroider an incense sachet and put in a calming incense made by me and give it to the Jiang family girl, what do you think?”
Nangong Hang's eyes suddenly lit up, slightly excited to catch Nangong Yue's hands, said with surprise: "Yue Jie Er, your idea is good! Whether it's the sachet or the incense, it's all handmade by us, and it represents our wishes without being too generous!"
As she said, she could not help but look at Nangong Yue with a subtle look, and there was a hint of astringency in her heart. This third younger sister of hers seems to have recently become enlightened, more and more outstanding. But soon she reprimanded herself in her heart: Grandmother was right, she and the third younger sister represent the Nangong family, whole for glory and honour, she should feel happy for the third younger sister.
Nangong Yue looked at Nangong Hang with a smile, and saw the other party's thoughts. Her older sister is beautiful and intelligent, but her mind is too narrow. Perhaps this is what made her go further and further off in her previous life, and eventually led to a disaster for the family and for herself ......
Nangong Yue's eyes flicker slightly, but as if nothing happened, she said: "Unfortunately, my hands are clumsy, I can only do some incense according to the book, the delicate work of embroidery will have to bother my older sister ......"
At this time, Nangong Hang had already recovered and laughed: "Good idea! Yue Jie Er, let's do it together. But the gifts for the Jiang family's second and third girls need to be different from the ones for the Jiang family's eldest girl, so how about we make a few more beaded flowers ourselves?"
"It's still you, older sister, who is considerate!"
After deciding on the gift to give, Nangong Hang was relieved, the two discussed the shape and colour of the incense sachet, as well as the material of the beads and flowers, and unknowingly talked about the embroidery work.
"Our sisters' embroidery work is still a bit lacking. Ping Biaogu is an extraordinary embroiderer, perhaps we ......" Nangong Hang seems to have thought of something, halfway through saying, and suddenly choked.
Nangong Yue could not help but curiously asked: "Big sister, but what is wrong?
Nangong Hang frowned and hesitated for a long time before saying tentatively, "Yue jie Er, do you feel that Ping Biaogu has been a bit strange lately?"
Could it be that Nangong Hang had noticed something?In her heart, Nangong Yue found it interesting, but on the surface she pretended not to understand and asked, "Big sister, what happened to Ping Biaogu ?"
Nangong Hang looked little strange and hesitantly said: "A few days ago, I went to Rong'an Hall to pay my respects to my grandmother and stopped by to talk to Ping Biaogu to relieve my boredom, and I happened to see Ping Biaogu embroidering a lotus purse......" After a pause, she then said, "Originally it is normal for a girl to embroider a purse to practise embroidery, but ...... but when I was in Rong'an Hall this morning, I saw the purse hanging on the Fourth Uncle and the one Ping Biaogu embroidered a few days ago was very similar ......" said that, She is ashamed to say anymore, her face is red.
When Nangong Yue heard this, she couldn't help thinking of the pair of beautiful Hetian white jade bracelets on Su Qingping's wrist. Could it be that the bracelet and purse are the tokens of love between Su Qingping and the fourth uncle?
Nangong Yue sarcastically mouth corner hook, like nothing to Nangong Hang said: "elder sister, Ping Biaogu is a family boudoir girl, and how will be with, with ......" she made the appearance of can't bear to say, quickly bring the topic over, "perhaps that the pouch is similar by coincidence."
Nangong Hang opened her mouth, wanting to say something but stopped. If it weren't for the fact that Ping Biaogu's surname is Su, she would have reported the matter to her grandmother. But Ping Biaogu's surname is Su. And if this matter is not handled properly, it will make her grandmother think that she despises the Su family and will only make her grandmother dislike her.
Maybe it really is a coincidence, right?
******************
On the day of the Flower Banquet, the House prepared a carriage for the two girls, and sent them to the En Guo Gong Mansion on time, along with a few personal maids.
As soon as they got off the carriage at the En Guo Gong Mansion, two pretty maids in green clothes came over to show them the way and led them all the way to the flower hall.
There is a mahogany square table in the hall, a variety of fruits are served on the table with a white porcelain plate, all kinds of bonsai and vases are placed on the flower table in the corner, and the bright octagonal glass lamp illuminates the hall even more brightly. .
Duke En's wife and Duke En's son's wife are both present. The former is in her sixties, wearing a bean green flowered cloth with immortal crane pattern, wearing a red jewel encrusted frontal headband on her head, sitting on a mahogany circle chair with a smile on her face at the moment. The second seat next to her is the wife of the son. She seems to be in her thirties, wearing a rose-red dress, the corners of her mouth smiling, seems to be very kind. There are four maids in green clothes serving beside her.
"Greetings, Madam, Madam Shizi!" Nangong SHang and Nangong Yue greeted them together.
The two ladies spent some time talking to each other, and then ordered the maid to take them to the garden.
The garden of the En Guo Gong House is really extraordinary, the water pavilion, Taihu Lake stone piled up into a rockery, caves, pools, a variety of flowers ...... looking dazzling.
At this time the garden is still a little empty, the girls of other houses obviously have not yet arrived. Only in the water pavilion are sitting three girls who look a bit similar.
Before coming here, Zhao Shi had already introduced the Duke Enguo mansion carefully to the two of them. There are three girls in the mansion: Jiang Yixi, the eldest Di daughter, is thirteen years old, and the other two Shu daughters, Jiang Yiyun and Jiang Yiyou, are eleven years old and ten years old respectively. One of the three sisters is elegant, one is bright, and the other is cute, and each has its own merits.
As soon as they saw Nangong Yue and Nangong Hang arrive, the three Jiang girls immediately got up to welcome them, naturally led by Jiang Yixi.
Looking at this Jiang eldest Miss ...... Nangong Yue some sighs in heart , Jiang eldest Miss as the eldest Di guniang of the En Guo Gong House, who does not envy. But who knows that in her previous life, Miss Jiang was later ordered by the emperor to marry Beidi. That time how many people sympathized with her, and how many people gloated over the misfortune. But they did not think that this Miss Jiang would eventually become a country Queen in Beidi, under one person and above all! Although Duke Enguo's mansion has fallen, she is the only one who can stand still and have a piece of sky of her own...
"You are the two girls from the Nangong Mansion, right?" Jiang Yixi saluted decently and introduced herself, "My name is Jiang Yixi, this is my second sister Jiang Yiyun, and my third sister Jiang Yiyou."
Nangong Yue and Nangong Chen also introduced themselves, and then gave them the gifts they had prepared.
The gift given to Jiang Yixi is a small round embroidered pouch which is the most popular style among the ladies nowadays. It is not only small in style, easy to wear and look beautiful, but also carries a unique sense of femininity. Nangong Hang heard that the first daughter of the En Guo Gong Mansion loves peony, specially embroidered a delicate red peony on the small embroidery bag, and outlined with gold thread on the side, it looks even more delicate and beautiful, obviously it has spent a lot of thought.
For Jiang Yiyun and Jiang Yiyou are a pair of handmade bead flowers. The beads are made of glazed beads, and the master was specially invited to carve and colour the patterns on the body of each bead. Each process is done extremely meticulously, so the appearance looks exceptionally exquisite and delicate.
The three girls of the En Guo Gong Mansion were very fond of it, and even their original polite smiles became more natural.
Jiang Yixi smiled with surprise, "Two Nangong girls, the gift is very unique, thank you very much."
"You like it is good."
After that, the five girls wearing sachets and bead flowers were one more topic, and the conversation became more lively.
After that, the girls from other houses also arrived one after another,
Each girl was obviously well-dressed, all wearing red and green, with exquisite makeup and luxurious accessories. All of a sudden, the whole garden was filled with talking and laughing.
Seeing that Nangong Hang and Nangong Yue had come early, a yellow-shirted girl laughed and said: "The two guniangs from Nangong House are here so early, it looks like we are late." This girl's surname is Zhang, a young lady from the Huaihua General's residence, her boudoir name is Yuzhang.
The En Guo Gong House did not invite many people to this flower party,
But all the people invited are the daughters of ministers of the third rank or above. And like the Nangong House, which has no real power from the third-ranking ministers are not many people respected, so they are not afraid, and talk a little more casually
Nangong Hang was stunned, she did not expect to be attacked when she arrived, but she recovered after a moment, and laughed as if nothing had happened: "No, it's just that the Nangong Mansion is closer to the En Guo Gong Mansion.”
The yellow-shirted girl, Zhang Yuzhang, quickly choked. Once, the Nangong family was one of the most prominent noble families and thus the location of the residence in the royal capital Wangdu was excellent, and all the people living nearby were royalty and noblemen from famous families. The Nangong Mansion is only one street away from the En Guo Gong Mansion, which is indeed much closer than most of them, so there is no excuse for Nangong Hang and Nangong Yue to come earlier than them.
Her face was a little unhappy, and she was about to make another comment when she saw a very decent maid come quickly, giving a salute to Jiang Yixi and others, and reported, "Eldest Miss, County Lord Mingyue is here!"
A sentence is like a stone stirred up a thousand waves, Ming Yue County Lord Qu Jia Yue is daughter of the emperor's cousin Ping Yang Marquis and Consort Liu's sister. Not only is the status honourable, but also loved by the Emperor. Naturally, she is the target of the noble girls in the royal city who are happy to interact with and to be fawning over.
And Nangong Hang was also a little sophisticated at heart. Can't help but remember that not long ago she met with the County Lord in the Bailong Temple…..That is definitely not very pleasant. But her upbringing allowed her to hide all the uneasiness and apprehension, not to say anything.
Soon, a girl as beautiful as a peony blooming came towards the garden under the guidance of a maid. She was dressed in a floor-length smoky plum blossom dress, covered with a dark flower embroidered gold silk butterfly veil, her three thousand black hair was pulled into a double maiden , decorated with red jadeite dripping beads and hibiscus bead flowers, her neck was covered with a red gold coiled chi dragon necklace, her ears were decorated with ruby pearl earrings, and her wrist was covered with a ruby twisted silk bracelet.
Nangong Hang looked at the other party carefully, although at first glance, the other party seems to be very different from the appearance of the young man that day, but as long as you look closely, you will find that the two are indeed the same person. Whether in male or female attire, this county princess is exceptionally eye-catching. This kind of beauty, and has that kind of distinguished family lineage, is indeed called the first beauty in the Wangdu.
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