Chapter 222 Visiting Ping'er but Meeting Miaoyu
It is not yet the end of the first month of the lunar year, so the scenery of this villa is inevitably a bit monotonous, so it is not worth elaborating on.
They found their way to the "Lixiang Courtyard", where more than a dozen young girls were laughing and making noises. When they saw Jia Baoyu leading Sun Shaozong in, they all came forward to greet him with "Master Bao, Master Bao" and surrounded him, carefully saying some auspicious words.
There was only a slender woman among them. She just stepped forward and bowed roughly, then hid far away in a corner.
There was nothing wrong with this, but Jia Baoyu was the first to point at her and said, "I recognize this one. Her singing voice is excellent. Even the queen has praised her before! Her name seems to be... Lingguaner, yes, Lingguan!"
As he said this, he waved his hand and said, "Lingguan, please sing a song for Brother Sun Er, so that he can listen too!"
The female actor kept by this family was actually lower in status than the servant who gave birth to a child. It was reasonable for Jia Baoyu to order her to sing for the guests.
Unexpectedly, the young official twisted his body and said with a bit of temper: "My voice is hoarse, I can't sing!"
How come that cute voice sounds like it’s hoarse?
And when has Baoyu ever been treated like this before?
Especially in front of outsiders, so her baby face immediately turned red.
If it were someone else, even if he didn't kick her in the heart, he would at least say a few words out of anger. However, when Jia Baoyu saw the woman with a brighter appearance, he lost some of his blood - at a best level, he was sympathetic to women, at a worst level, he had countless "kneeling girls".
Especially since Lingguan's eyebrows, eyes, and facial features were somewhat similar to Lin Daiyu, he was even more at a loss as to how to respond.
There was an older actor nearby who hurriedly came up and whispered, "Master Bao, don't bother with him. Just wait a little while. When Master Qiang comes and asks her to sing, she must sing!"
After hearing this, Jia Baoyu was puzzled and asked where Jia Qiang had gone.
Sun Shaozong was listening in, but he realized that these words were actually accusing Lingguan of being spoiled by her unusual relationship with Jia Qiang and not even taking a serious master like Jia Baoyu seriously.
Tsk~
Even this small family-run opera troupe is not free from open and secret struggles!
Fortunately, Sun Shaozong didn't have to listen to her singing today, and he didn't bother to care about the calculations between a group of little girls, so he said casually: "If she doesn't want to sing, forget it, just pick a few people to sing a piece, let me see what's missing, that's enough ."
After hearing this, Jia Baoyu hurriedly gave the same instructions.
The leading actor then asked the sisters to start rehearsing. Although they were without costumes and props, their movements and gestures were more charming. They were indeed much more pleasing to the eye than the Sun family's makeshift troupe.
But this does not mean that Jiang Yuhan was not a good teacher. It can only be said that when Rongguo Mansion first bought people, they bought them according to the actors, while the little maids of the Sun family valued their figure and color.
Ultimately, it’s because of different aptitudes.
When Jia Baoyu was told of this conclusion, he was at a loss and could only comfort him, "Don't worry, second brother. Learning opera is a long and painstaking process. Maybe after enough time, your maids will suddenly become enlightened."
“That’s all we can hope for.”
After listening to the opera, the two men saw that Jia Qiang was still nowhere to be seen, so they left the Lixiang Courtyard on their own. Sun Shaozong had originally been thinking about escaping by peeing halfway so that he could go and see what Ping'er had to say to him.
Before he could come up with a plan, a servant came hurriedly towards him and whispered something to Baoyu.
But Jia Baoyu stamped his feet and said angrily, "Has this dog really rebelled? I didn't bother with him because of our past friendship, but he just started making trouble!"
The three words "dog slave" were not referring to someone else, but Mingyan, the most favored servant around Jia Baoyu.
In order to avoid getting hurt, Lai Da revealed all the servants and maids around Jia Baoyu who had embezzled the money for building the villa. Among them, Mingyan was the one who was most deeply involved.
According to the usual practice of dealing with others, he should have been severely punished and then directly expelled from the Rongguo Mansion.
But Jia Baoyu, taking into account their past friendship, only demoted him to the woodshed to do menial work as a servant.
However, Mingyan was used to the free and easy life with Baoyu, so how could she be patient with the hard work of chopping wood and fetching water all day?
So he would come to Baoyu every now and then to cry and beg him to reinstate him, which only made Baoyu very annoyed.
Baoyu was not in the courtyard today, but he came to the door again and insisted on not giving in. And somehow, he started to quarrel with Qingwen, the head maid, causing chaos in the courtyard, making it a complete mess.
Qingwen and Xiren were the apple of Jia Baoyu's eye in the room. Now, when he heard that Mingyan dared to quarrel with Qingwen, Baoyu was naturally very angry.
After briefly explaining the cause and effect to Sun Shaozong, he smiled and said, "Brother, please don't be in a hurry to leave. After I take care of the household affairs, Xiangwu will invite you to have a drink. By the way, you can also listen to the inside story of the treason case."
Sun Shaozong also laughed and said, "I'm afraid treating me to a drink is just a byproduct, right?"
Then he threw his sleeves and said, "You go quickly, I'll just wander around here."
Jia Baoyu had no suspicion and solemnly apologized, then hurriedly followed the boy.
However, after Sun Shaozong watched him go away, he pretended to be nonchalant, walked around a few times, and after making sure that there was no one else nearby, he found his way to the foot of the remote hillside.
Seeing that the gate at the top of the hill was half open and seeing that there was someone inside, Sun Shaozong hurried into the yard.
After entering the room, he saw a graceful figure with her back to him, and he was about to call out Ping'er's name.
However, when the words were on the tip of his tongue, he suddenly felt something was wrong, because the woman's long sleeves were fluttering, and it was clearly a patchwork dress!
Not Ping'er? !
At this time, the woman also heard the noise. She looked back in confusion and met Sun Shaozong's eyes. She exclaimed in surprise and stepped back a few steps. She folded her hands in front of her chest. Her face , was now full of vigilance.
"It's you! You...what do you want to do?!"
It turned out that the woman in the patchwork clothes was Miaoyu, a nun who practiced Buddhism with her hair uncut.
Sun Shaozong had already begun to think of retreating when he realized it wasn't Ping'er, but when he saw her defensive look, he turned around and left the courtyard without saying a word.
"Hey~ Don't leave yet!"
I don't know what Miaoyu was thinking. When she saw him turn around to rescue her, she actually chased after him and shouted.
Sun Shaozong didn't want to pay any attention to her, but as soon as he walked out of the courtyard gate, he saw a figure hurriedly coming. He saw that it had already reached the bottom of the slope. Who else could it be but Qiao Ping'er?
Oops!
If Miaoyu were to chase out and see Ping'er, there might be some misunderstandings, and then...
Sun Shaozong's mind raced, and he quickly gestured to Ping'er to leave quickly. He turned back to the courtyard and asked loudly, "Why did you call me?"
