Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 742: Softness Overcomes Hardness
Hearing how rude the woman was, Yuquan and Li Mama, who had been following her, Jiuniang, and Wu, almost rushed forward at the same time, stopping the woman and the other three women. The other maids and palace servants only then reacted, and their actions of rushing forward were much more rude, without thinking, they tied the man's arms behind his back and forced him to kneel on the ground.
Mother Li turned around with great fear and knelt down to pay her respects, saying, "Empress Dowager, it's all because the people below didn't know what was going on. They didn't clear out all the strangers in the bridal chamber!"
The woman was Zhu Tingfang's biological aunt Qin. When she was taken down and forced to kneel on the ground, she felt ashamed and angry and wanted to curse. But when she heard Mother Li call her "Empress Dowager" and say that she was an outsider, she felt as if a basin of ice water was poured on her head and she almost froze to death!
She saw that the old woman in the lead was not young, but was dressed simply, and she didn't wear a royal crown like the Xiaozhu Qingyun Crown on her head. She was definitely not from a wealthy family. Plus, Wu, who was supporting people, was not as well dressed as her, and Jiu Niang was just one step behind her. She didn't see clearly, so she lost her mind in anger and didn't expect to offend the empress dowager!
Qin was so frightened that her soul flew out of her body. Her daughter-in-law and two daughters were so frightened that they huddled together, not to mention speaking. They dared not even move or raise their heads. They could not help but blame and even curse Qin in their hearts. She was used to being the boss at home, but she was so arrogant in the Duke of Zhao's mansion. Wasn't this asking for trouble?
"There is indeed no such thing as not recognizing relatives just because they are rich and powerful, but the prerequisite is that the so-called relatives must be sensible."
When the Queen Mother said this leisurely, Zhu Ying just heard the voice and came out of the main room. When she saw the scene in front of her, she was stunned at first, and then she rushed forward with joy. Seeing Jiu Niang smiling and making way for her, she nodded to Wu first, and then took the opportunity to hug the Queen Mother's arm and act coquettishly.
"Empress Dowager, it turns out you are here! This is a huge surprise. I have been in the palace before, but you didn't tell me in advance! You see, my brother's marriage has been talked about since it was decided, and even today, there are still old friends and relatives who are showing off! If they knew you were coming, who would dare to be so rude!"
As she spoke, she did not even look at Qin who was lying on the ground. She directly invited the Queen Mother into the room, but then looked at Wu who was standing beside her and said, "Aunt Wu, you haven't met my sister-in-law yet, right? We will be a family in the future, so why not meet her now? She is not like me who is explosive. She is gentle and quiet. Well, she just has a good temper, so she was bullied just now..."
Qin, her daughter-in-law and daughter, who were kneeling on the ground, were almost mad with anger. What does gentleness mean... Did Zhu Ying have any misunderstanding about the term gentleness? Just now, Zhang smiled on the surface and spoke in a gentle tone, but in fact, she was a woman with a black heart and black lungs!
After all, she is the daughter of Weinanbo, a rude and uncivilized northern barbarian!
However, no matter how many complaints they had, they dared not speak out, and could only watch the Queen Mother, Zhu Ying, and Wu disappear into the door. When the person who had just twisted their arms finally let go, the four of them finally straightened up and raised their heads, but what they saw was Jiu Niang's face with a faint smile.
They always thought that their aunt, Madam Deng, died early, which benefited Jiu Niang and Zhu Ying, who was now favored by the emperor. After experiencing what happened just now, they were even more furious. But Jiu Niang's next words blocked all their words.
"The Empress Dowager is here today to discuss family etiquette, not state etiquette. So even if you were rude just now, the Empress Dowager will forgive you for the sake of our relationship. The premise is that you know how to be a sensible relative. Dalang has a bright future, and he is well-known throughout the capital for his incorruptibility. Don't make the mistake of misleading him."
Seeing Qin's sudden change of color, she struggled to stand up, dragged her two unmarried daughters and fled away. Her daughter-in-law was stunned for a moment before hurriedly getting up and following her. Only then did Jiu Niang leisurely enter the house.
She was not worried that what she had just said would be heard by others and would spread to the ears of relevant people - she had been away from the mansion for so many years, and no one had stopped Zhu Tingfang and his brothers from visiting their biological mother, Madam Deng's family. However, those people were hopeless, not to mention Zhu Tingfang, even Zhu Er had long been disappointed with them, and they hardly even showed any affection to them.
Although the lady blamed her for being stubborn in the past, she no longer had any grudges against her. As for Zhu Jing... He still couldn't forget his first wife, Madam Deng, but that was out of affection for Madam Deng, not for the Deng family. If these people listened to what she said just now, it would be good, at least they could live a peaceful life in the future. If they didn't listen, the Deng family's path in the officialdom would be cut off.
The Queen Mother also heard the Nine-Niang's admonition to the women outside, but at this moment, she was too lazy to pay attention to it. Because at this moment, she saw Zhang coming forward and bowing.
Although Weinan Earl Zhang Kang was promoted by the previous Emperor Ruizong, and the Emperor always trusted him, the Zhang family members were not active in the harem. In addition, Zhang was a concubine's daughter, so although she summoned her once after Zhu Tingfang's marriage was arranged, she did not ask too many questions. After all, children and grandchildren have their own blessings, and since everyone in the Zhu family recognized it, she had no intention of interfering too much.
However, after experiencing the death of the deposed empress and the "death news" of the eldest and second princes, she only had one son left, but she had a full house of grandchildren. While she was sad, she couldn't help but decide to go out of the palace to take a look in person today.
For her, this kind of impromptu action was very rare, and even she herself felt a little ridiculous when she got off the car at the Duke of Zhao's mansion. She always accused the emperor of wearing white dragon fish clothes and mixing with the people, but today she was even more excessive than the emperor!
The Queen Mother nodded slightly, and when Zhang, who was wearing a bright red dress, stood up, she looked at her for a moment and asked a few questions casually. This was different from the last time she summoned someone. Zhang was obviously cautious and reserved that time, but this time she seemed to be generous and open, as if being in the presence of many people gave her more confidence.
Even when talking about the Qin family who just fled in disgrace, Zhang seemed very calm: "It's just because the gap between the two families is getting bigger and bigger, and my uncle has suffered setbacks in the officialdom, so he was angry and came to pick a fight. This is human nature. I didn't suffer any loss, not to mention that my sister is helping me wholeheartedly."
Zhu Ying smiled with her eyes curved. "Forget about these people. Previously, my sister-in-law faced two talented women who ran to the study and asked her to comment on their poems. That was really interesting."
"She told them very seriously that she couldn't write poetry. When they mocked her, she said that before marriage, when she was still in the boudoir, she could of course play the piano, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, wine and tea, but now that she was married, she should take care of the daily necessities of life first."
"But in her dowry, there was a set of "Complete Tang Poems" that she had copied by hand since she was a child. It was personally commissioned by Grandpa Taizu and compiled by the Imperial Academy of Poets. She asked them if they wanted to read it. The two of them were confident that there was no Tang poem they had not read. As a result, the eldest sister-in-law recited a very obscure poem and left them speechless! The eldest sister-in-law had lied to me before that she was not well-educated... What a lie!"
Hearing this, even the Queen Mother couldn't help but be surprised: "The Complete Tang Poems that Emperor Taizu had compiled? I heard that there are more than 40,000 poems and millions of words. Did you really copy it by hand?"
"In fact, I didn't copy all of them," Zhang smiled embarrassedly. "My father was born in the north, and later surrendered to the late Emperor Ruizong. He didn't have the opportunity to read any books. Later, he was in charge of the Military Equipment Bureau, which meant reading some books on military strategies. He heard that Grandpa Taizu once claimed that the most beautiful poems in the world were those of the Tang Dynasty, so he simply spent a huge amount of money to buy a set of 900 volumes of "Complete Tang Poems" and hid them in the library at home."
"That's not all. He also made us copy word for word from the age of six. We had to copy as much as we could, but we would get rewards if we copied more. Boys would get weapons, and girls would get beautiful clothes and jewelry. As a result, everyone copied enthusiastically."
"But one or two days is easy, one or two months is also easy, but persisting for one or two years is difficult. Later, my brothers and sisters secretly asked servants to copy or sent them out for outsiders to copy. As a result, my father found out and beat them half to death. No one dared to cheat anymore."
"So, over the years, I was the only one who persisted. I just thought of it as learning to read and studying, and it was good enough to change up my life. However, I only copied 200 volumes, less than a quarter. But by copying books, I was lucky enough to memorize some very unpopular poems, but I just memorized them without understanding their meanings."
Although Zhang was being modest, the Queen Mother knew very well what the so-called two hundred volumes meant. Because that meant tens of thousands of poems! The Complete Tang Poems were not all short and sharp five-character and seven-character quatrains. In addition to regulated verse and Yuefu poems, there were also longer ancient poems with hundreds of words. If hundreds of volumes were copied, how many words would have to be copied every day? At least hundreds or even thousands of words!
Jiu Niang couldn't help but take a deep breath, but she only heard Zhang's bitter smile and said, "My father told us that real scholarly families often let their children copy books from a young age to train them. This is better than hiring a teacher to teach us. I foolishly believed him, but later he said proudly that there were many children in the family, so copying books would save them from trouble."
"He said that children who were eight or nine years old and running around everywhere were hated by everyone and dogs, and they were the most mischievous. If you don't recognize a word when copying a book, just leave it blank, or just ask the teacher. But he never thought that when we were six or seven years old, we learned to read and write, and later we started copying poems. We didn't recognize more than half of the words in a poem, and the teachers we hired at home almost annoyed us to death. Therefore, the teacher in my family was the fastest to be replaced in the whole capital."
"Later, word got out and it became that our family was of barbarian origin and didn't know how to respect teachers."
When she said this, Zhang's expression was very calm, and she was not shy about her origin. After all, she remembered her father's words, that origin cannot be changed by a title, and instead of being humble and trying to please those who look down on her family, it is better to be open and clear, and if someone still associates with you without caring, then that person is truly worth making friends with.
At the end of her speech, she smiled, revealing that extremely playful dimple on her face: "So, my dowry has a lot more because of these books. It looks particularly beautiful, and it can be regarded as a pleasant surprise."
This finally amused the Queen Mother and Wu. The Queen Mother had heard that Zhang's dowry was quite large. At that time, the procession of delivering the dowry stretched for two miles. The onlookers said that they didn't expect Weinan Bo to be so rich. In addition, there were quite a few noble families who added to the dowry, which gave Zhang's family enough face. But she didn't expect that ten or twenty of the dowries were all the "Complete Tang Poems" that Zhang had copied since she was a child...
Mrs. Wu could not believe that the daughter of a noble earl, Zhang, would be so attentive. She could not help but sigh, "No wonder my wife... When Ah Shou's mother was still alive, she often said that if you work hard, you can grind an iron rod into a needle. Ah Shou is good at everything except his handwriting. It's also because I didn't encourage him enough. In the future, Yingying, you must encourage him to practice calligraphy more, even if it's just copying books."
Zhu Ying didn't expect Wu to go to that point. She suddenly thought of Zhang Shou. But she thought that Zhang Shou was indeed good in everything except his handwriting. So she hesitated for a moment, and finally whispered, "Ah Shou is too busy to practice calligraphy... At most, he can draft the writing and I can copy it, that's all."
Well, she can’t compare to Zhang Shou in other aspects, but her handwriting is more beautiful than his!
Zhang had heard that although Zhu Ying and Zhang Shou had only made an engagement, their relationship was as good as honey and they often went out together. She had always thought that the rumors were exaggerated, but now that Wu, the de facto mother-in-law, had said so, and Zhu Ying was still so partial to Zhang Shou, even she could not help but envy him.
Of course, the one who envied Zhang Shou was... To be so loved and favored by the most famous young lady in the capital , what more could one ask for?
"Yingying, you!" Even the Queen Mother couldn't help but point her finger at Zhu Ying, "Your mother-in-law has already said so, and you are still unwilling to let him get tired even a little bit. Let me tell you what is good."
Seeing Zhu Ying pursed her lips and smiled, but was unwilling to change her words, the Queen Mother was too lazy to force her, but she looked at Zhang with a little more admiration. Because Zhang had not publicized this matter before, and did not know that she, the Queen Mother, would come tonight, it was enough to see her inner talent, so she nodded and said: "Your father asked you to copy the book, although it was a bit tricky, but it was not easy for you to stick to it."
"I am here to watch the ceremony today as a relative and elder of the Zhu family, not as the queen mother to make decisions, so there are no valuable rewards, only gifts from elders."
At this point, she took off a bracelet from her wrist and motioned Zhang to stretch out her hand. When she stretched out her slender and well-proportioned right hand with some trepidation, she gently turned the smooth bracelet and patiently put it on her before she smiled.
"This is not something expensive, it's just an old thing that I've carried with me for many years and I'm used to wearing it. Your husband is a man with his own ideas, but he's not good at speaking to his family. I just hope you don't dislike his indifference. You know, softness can overcome hardness, just look at Yingying and you'll know." But Zhu Ying was the opposite. She used to be as hard as steel, but when she met Zhang Shou, she became as soft as silk!
Zhang felt both grateful and terrified, and quickly stepped back and saluted, saying, "Your Majesty, you are too kind. It takes ten years to be able to ride the same boat together, and a hundred years to be able to sleep on the same pillow together. I am able to marry into the Zhu family, the Duke of Zhao's mansion, which is known for its strict family traditions, as the eldest daughter-in-law, and my husband is young and promising. Those who are making things difficult for me are jealous and envious. As long as I am sincere to him, I will definitely live in harmony and happiness with my husband."
