Chapter 193

West of the Love Shenjing, Xinchun Street.

This was originally just an ordinary street in the West City of the Love Shenjing, but its popularity had grown quite a bit in the last two years.

Carriages and sedan chairs of wealthy merchants' female relatives often came and went, and the wives of official families also often came to this street to shop.

Tracing the source, it was because two years ago, a small incense shop called Xiuniang opened here, selling uniquely secret-recipe perfumes.

Although this incense shop only had a single storefront and the place was not large, the shopkeeper was extremely good at management, came up with many wonderful tricks, and added to the fact that it was a unique item, business was very prosperous.

Rumors in the streets said that the shopkeeper of the incense shop was an extremely beautiful woman, but she didn't show her face often, and very few people had seen her.

In the past two years, this prosperous incense shop had also been coveted by some local ruffians and scoundrels, but for some reason, those who caused trouble would, within a few days, be left with bruised noses and swollen faces at best, or broken hands and feet at worst.

Because no one had died, these local ruffians and scoundrels didn't dare to report it to the authorities, and the yamen runners who managed this area were too lazy to care; the ruffians who caused trouble were not good people anyway, so it didn't matter if a few died.

Any yamen runner patrolling the streets knew that those prosperous shops that had been operating for a long time often had noble patrons behind them, and some were even businesses owned by official or noble families.

Another person smiled and said, "Is the lady talking about the Chengshi Lang from the Rongguo Mansion, whose biological mother was posthumously granted a title?"

Inside a private room of the women's house, several wealthy merchants' female relatives were drinking tea and chatting.

The previous regulation that merchants could not wear silk and satin had long been abandoned by the government; the marketplace business was prosperous, and merchants lived much more decently than in the previous dynasty.

The Hongyuan Tea House, which had been operating for more than ten years on the street, originally had sluggish business and was difficult to maintain, but a few months ago, the boss seemed to have suddenly become enlightened, eyeing the trend of Xinchun Street in the last two years.

In this women's house, every table and chair, tea set, and snack was extremely exquisite; the price was not cheap, but business was actually quite good as soon as it opened.

The Love Shenjing was the largest city in the world, gathering countless wealthy merchants and tycoons; among the scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants, although merchants had a lower social status.

One of the women, dressed in simple clothes with a beautiful face, said, "Recently, a rare thing happened in the capital; I wonder if you have heard of it?"

So outsiders guessed that this Xiuniang Incense Shop also likely had some background.

"This Chengshi Lang is a strange person in the Love Shenjing; it is said that he looks like Pan An, which is rare in the world, and his talent is also astonishing, with poems he wrote being sung throughout Jiangnan, but his background is a bit bizarre."

Coupled with the fact that merchants had abundant silver, merchant families were also free from the many ritual constraints of official and noble families.

The women in the seats were always a bit ill-informed, so they asked curiously, "Is there any reason for this?"

If it were ordinary people without a foundation, if they earned so much silver, they would have long been eaten up by others.

He partitioned most of the tea house and opened a new Hongyuan Women's House, decorated it elegantly and exquisitely, and the kitchen maids, tea masters, and waiters were all women, only receiving female guests entering and leaving Xinchun Street.

After that, those who had covetous thoughts were just small-fry from the streets and dared not touch it easily again.

The streets had always been a place where wealth gathered; in the past year, several clothing, rouge, and hairpin shops had opened in the neighborhood of the Xiuniang Incense Shop, further driving the popularity of Xinchun Street.

But there were also people who knew the reason, just smiling without saying anything, only listening to others tell anecdotes and gossip; didn't women like these domestic trifles?

"Now, what rare thing in the Love Shenjing can compare to this one? It is being spread everywhere in the streets and alleys."

"Do you know why the posthumous title granted to his biological mother is being spread so fiercely?"

But the Great Zhou originated from the time of the division between the north and south of the Yangtze River; the old rules of the previous dynasty were mostly extinguished in the flames of war and chaotic times, and after being reborn from the ashes, its atmosphere was more enlightened than that of the previous Song dynasty.

Women in the inner chambers, lonely in their boudoirs, loved to discuss such anecdotes and stories of handsome talented men; this immediately aroused their interest in talking, and the atmosphere suddenly became ambiguous and enthusiastic.

Wealthy merchants' female relatives who shopped daily in the incense, rouge, and hairpin shops often went to the Hongyuan Women's House to sit and chat, which had become a new trend on Xinchun Street in the last few months.

The beautiful woman said, "Although this Chengshi Lang is a descendant of the Rongguo Mansion, his biological mother was of humble origin; it is said that she was a courtesan."

"The Old Qing Niangzi of the Rongguo Mansion was very disgusted with Chengshi Lang's biological mother, hating her for corrupting the family style of the Duke's mansion; even though the Emperor issued a decree posthumously granting her a title, she would not let her spirit tablet enter the ancestral hall..."

The women in the seats heard these words and couldn't help but feel indignant, all saying that this Jia family young master was truly a credit to his family, being able to rely on his own ability to win a title for his late mother.

Wasn't this the kind of son every woman in the world dreamed of? Whoever could raise such a son would be content even if they died!

After a flurry of chatter, the women's sympathy couldn't help but overflow, mostly sympathizing with the Du woman's misfortune and the secret tyranny of the Jia family's Old Qing Niangzi.

……

Love Shenjing, Ministry of Rites, Court of Imperial Entertainments.

In the hall of the Court, dozens of young and graceful dancing girls were practicing dance music, while the instructors on the side were shouting and pointing.

This May is the sixty-fifth birthday of the Retired Emperor, and Emperor Emperor Jia Zhao has already issued a decree that a grand birthday banquet will be held in the palace, where singing, dancing, and music will naturally be indispensable.

After New Year's Eve, the Court of Imperial Entertainments selected the most outstanding singing and dancing girls to begin practicing the singing, dancing, and music to be used at the palace birthday banquet.

At this time, the Western clock in the hall rang three times, and the dancing girls practicing dance stopped in unison; the instructor on the side actually did not stop them.

After a while, the sound of a pipa suddenly came from the private room on the second floor.

That was the music room of the pipa section of the Court of Imperial Entertainments, where pipa musicians practiced daily.

A clear and agile pipa sound came from the room.

Like cutting, urgent rain, like pearls falling on a jade plate, like the warbling of orioles under flowers, like flowing springs under ice, the clear sound and lingering charm made people's hearts wander and fly.

The clear, elegant, and beautiful sound of nature sang along with the melody:

"The luxury of the six dynasties, spring is gone, and there is no news. Vainly looking at the mountains and rivers, it is no longer the past..."

The sound of the strings was clear and beautiful, peerless in its elegance, piercing the heart, and lingering in the rafters.

The dancing girls and instructors in the hall who were practicing dance music were immersed in the moving, clear singing and beautiful music, as if intoxicated.

These dancing girls and instructors were much more proficient in their understanding of musical instruments and rhythm than ordinary people, and their vision was naturally not ordinary.

It was not the first time they had heard this "Man Jiang Hong" in the past few days, but every time they heard it, they still found it hard to suppress their amazement.

Because the pipa dance music was a highlight of the Retired Emperor's birthday banquet held in the palace in May.

To improve the training techniques of the pipa musicians in the Court of Imperial Entertainments, the Ministry of Rites specially hired Du Qingniang, the head musician of the Jinling Qingyin Pavilion, as the guest instructor for the pipa section of the Court.

The dancing girls and instructors in the hall all knew that at this time every day, this Qingniang would personally play the instrument and sing to demonstrate for the pipa musicians of the pipa section.

Every time this happened, everyone in the hall would stop what they were doing to listen to this rare and wonderful sound of nature in the world.

For these dancing and singing girls who had fallen into the lowly music register and were trapped by constraints all their lives, this was also a wonderful time they occasionally obtained amidst their busy lives.

And this Qingniang, who was famous in Jiangnan and known as the "Jade-Honored Pipa Sound of Nature," was indeed worthy of her reputation.

In the music room on the second floor, a song was finished.

A tall and graceful beauty, with her hair in a high bun, without any hairpins, wearing a green Daoist robe, had an extraordinary bearing in every move.

She put down the pipa and taught the playing techniques to the five or six pipa musicians present.

After finishing, she entered the inner room alone, where a young maid in green was already waiting.

"Lady, these are the records of street affairs just sent from various places."

The woman in the green robe took the stack of records from the maid, flipped through them one by one, and when she flipped to one of them, she stopped and read it carefully.

Her beautiful eyebrows slightly frowned, her eyes flashed, and after a moment, she took out a book with a gray-white cover from the drawer and handed it to the young maid in green.

"I have already organized this secret record; you add this matter to it and then submit it to the Director."

The young maid in green took the record that the woman in the green robe had read carefully.

It recorded what was circulating in the streets recently: Jia Cong's biological mother, Du Jinniang, of the Rongguo Mansion, was posthumously granted a Grade 5 title by the Emperor, but the Old Qing Niangzi of the Rongguo Mansion was disgusted by her background as a courtesan and blocked her spirit tablet from entering the ancestral hall.

After the young maid in green added it to the secret record, she left the room to handle the matter.

The woman in the green robe looked at the record on the desk and murmured thoughtfully, "Du Jinniang..."

Due to adjustments in working hours, daily updates are temporarily adjusted to after 5:00 PM.

Subsequent changes will be explained at the end of the chapter; thank you for your support, fellow readers.

(End of chapter)