There was no conversation all night.
Xia Shang was in much better spirits when he got up in the morning.
It seemed that he got up a little late. Qin Huairou and Xiaoyue helped Xia Shang to dress.
After a while of busy work, he ate some rice porridge and sat in the living room of the east wing.
It turned out that the girl from the Liu family had been brought home for a while. After Xia Shang was ready, the servants went to notify him.
After a while, a young woman in red came to the door with the help of two little maids.
The clothes were simple and low-key, without too many decorations in red. Although she was heavily made up, there were not too many gold and silver hairpins on the decorations.
Because she was a concubine, there was no ritual music. She did not enter the house through the main door, but was sent directly to the east wing from the backyard. The only thing to do was to serve tea to the master and the lady and greet them. This kind of thing would be inevitable in the days to come.
Liu Ruyan lowered her head, seemed a little nervous and a little restrained, and her little hand holding the teacup was shaking a little.
She first came to Xia Shang, half-knelt on the ground, and respectfully offered: "Master, Wan'an."
"Master?!" Xia Shang choked, his eyebrows twisted like twists, "Call me Master!"
"There is no elder in the family, and a concubine is established, so you should call me Master." Liu Ruyan said lightly.
"Oh, if I ask you to call me Master, just call me Master! Master, Master is so ugly."
Xia Shang felt that this woman was a bit rigid and a bit irritable, so his tone became two points heavier.
Liu Ruyan had just arrived, and she was uneasy. When Xia Shang shouted, she was so scared that she almost spilled the tea. She kept saying yes: "Yes, yes, Master, from now on, I will call you Master. Master, please have tea."
Liu Ruyan was very scared. What if her husband didn't accept the tea?
Fortunately, Xia Shang took the teacup and took a sip.
Speaking of which, concubines in ancient times were quite pitiful. Although they were also masters, they were also servants and were always inferior to the main wife.
If it was a woman that he really liked, and he married her home, Xia Shang would definitely love her more if she suffered such unfair treatment. It was a pity that this woman had no feelings at all. He didn't know her, didn't know her, didn't like her... The negative emotions from many aspects overlapped together, so Xia Shang didn't have much feeling for this woman. He just dealt with her mechanically, and he didn't even look at her.
Qin Huairou liked her very much. She took the teacup from Liu Ruyan, took a sip, and responded with a smile: "Ruyan, we will be sisters and a family in the future."
"Yeah." Liu Ruyan responded shyly, looked at Qin Huairou gratefully, and looked at Xia Shang worriedly.
But she found that the man she had helped didn't even look at her, and she couldn't help but lock her beautiful eyebrows like smoke and clouds.
After a simple tea ceremony, Liu Ruyan followed the maid back to the new wing, waiting for the night to fall silently with a trace of worry and expectation.
Seeing the new sister leave, Qin Huairou restrained her solemnity, talked with Xia Shang for a few words, went back to her room, changed into plain clothes and prepared to go to the Guanyin Temple to fulfill her wish.
The lady had made up her mind, and Xia Shang knew that it was useless to persuade her, so he sent her all the way and invited her to the carriage out of the city.
This separation will last for a hundred days, more than three months. Xia Shang felt uncomfortable all over. How could he sleep peacefully without a warm person to hold him at night? Moreover, he had been in the Xia family for a long time and had long been accustomed to the days with Qin Huairou. He didn't know what it would be like at home after she left?
Xia Shang was reluctant to leave. Seeing that the carriage was about to depart, the pretty girl lifted the curtain to say goodbye to him. Although she knew that there would be no result, she still couldn't help but say: "Madam, why don't you go? A hundred days is a long time, and how can we live without someone to take care of everything at home?"
Qin Huairou knew it well. She knew that her husband was reluctant to leave her, but she wanted to say it in a decent way. She was amused and moved. She smiled back with a burning look: "Don't worry, my husband. I have handed over the housework to Xiaoyue and Yazhi. The new sister Ruyan is a smart and capable person and can help take care of it. But...but if my husband wants to, come to the Guanyin Temple to see, and I will feel at ease."
After several reluctant words, the carriage went farther and farther, until they could no longer see each other and went their own way.
Xia Shang returned to the main hall of the mansion and sat in the main seat. He looked from the door of the room to the door of the mansion and then to the long street in the distance.
Now the courtyard is bigger and the house is more decent and grand, but it always feels less popular and deserted.
It just happened to form a sharp contrast with the endless stream of pedestrians outside the door.
As soon as the lady left, Xia Shang felt a little empty in his heart, and he didn't know how to survive in the future.
After sitting for a while, Xia Shang got up and went back to the bedroom.
Qin Huairou's warmth was still lingering in the room. I don't know if it has been a long time since I felt it, but at this moment, Xia Shang felt particularly warm and heartwarming.
On Qin Huairou's dressing table, rouge and powder were placed neatly and meticulously, and the bronze mirror was polished as translucent as a mirror. This is definitely not something that Xiaoyue's maid can do. It must be Qin Huairou who did it herself.
Xia Shang came to the dressing table and didn't know what to do. He just wanted to take a closer look. But unexpectedly, this inadvertent glance made Xia Shang find a small note.
The small note was inconspicuous, placed in the corner of the dressing table, pressed by an unused water box, with a corner exposed.
It looked like it was something Qin Huairou had forgotten.
When he opened it, he saw a verdict written on the note.
The poem said: "Rein the horse and whip it, half worry and half disaster. Just like a house burned by fire, rain from the sky turned it into ashes."
Seeing this poem, Xia Shang frowned, vaguely feeling that it was not a good thing, and hurriedly found Xiaoyue to ask her if she knew where the verdict came from.
Xiaoyue didn't understand the meaning of the poem, but knew that the lady had asked for it from the Guanyin Temple.
Xia Shang asked again: "How many times have you and the lady gone to the Guanyin Temple?"
Xiaoyue was a little confused, thinking that she had made some mistakes, and answered hesitantly: "One... once."
"Did the lady do anything strange afterwards?"
Xiaoyue thought about it and shook her head.
Xia Shang breathed a sigh of relief and was about to ask Xiaoyue to leave. Unexpectedly, Xiaoyue's eyes lit up as if she remembered something, and hurriedly said: "Lady went out a few times after that, and she rented a car every time, and went out for a day at a time, and didn't want Xiaoyue to follow. I don't know if this counts as..."
Xia Shang frowned again: "Leave first, let me think about it carefully."
Xiaoyue left in a daze, not knowing what happened.
Xia Shang stayed in the room in a daze, looking at the verdict on the paper. In fact, there was nothing wrong, but it was just one of the solutions to the divination in the Guanyin Temple. Qin Huairou was not the only one who got this verdict, it had existed since ancient times.
But Xia Shang felt uncomfortable.
After thinking about it, Xia Shang decided to take a peek at the secrets of heaven to see if the lady's fasting for 100 days had anything to do with this verdict.
Xia Shang arranged the hexagrams for half a day and finally got the hexagram.
It is said that "blessings and disasters are not God's will, but good times will make your wife suffer."