Just as Empress Xu was opening the treasury, the Empress Dowager had the same idea.
She also learned that her eldest grandson and only son had died at the hands of Zhou Yunxin and that bastard child. The old lady was so enraged that she fainted on the spot.
After a flurry of activity in Cining Palace to revive the Empress Dowager, apart from issuing an order to halve the allowances of Consort Zhou and the Ninth Prince and confine the Ninth Prince with Consort Zhou, the Empress Dowager went to rummage through the treasury.
She wanted to find some nice things to send to Yue Fuguang.
Yue Fuguang had no idea that she was about to be showered with gifts. She was sitting in the yard of the Old Lady Yu, waiting for dinner.
After the incident in the Yu Mansion where Yue Fuguang was treated differently, suppressed and neglected by her biological parents, the head of the family, Yu Chongshan, and the Old Lady Yu realized that they and their wife had been too neglectful of their grandchildren, especially their granddaughters.
They always thought that the children's parents might love their children more than they, the grandparents, and take better care of them.
The Yu family was not short of money. It was no problem to dote on a few children. There had never been any problems before.
Even the concubine - born daughters in their family lived better than those in other families, and the daughters - in - law were not the kind of stepmothers who would mistreat concubine - born daughters.
They were a family of civil officials. As long as the children in the family wanted to make progress, whether they were born of the legitimate or concubine wives, they had the same educational resources.
Who would have thought that among a family of normal people, there would be such strange parents in the third branch!
They didn't love their own daughter but loved someone else's child. That "someone else" could even be considered an enemy. Yet they actually raised that child well. It was really absurd!
So Yu Chongshan decided that on the first and fifteenth days of each month, all the masters in the Yu Mansion, as long as they were at home, had to attend the semi - monthly family banquet.
In Yue Fuguang's words, it was a family gathering.
These several gatherings had gradually made her familiar with the sisters in the mansion.
Among the sisters, except for the second sister, Yu Ningxuan, who was with her second uncle in his post and had never been seen, the other sisters seemed to get along well with Yue Fuguang on the surface.
Of course, the relationship between the eighth miss, Yu Ningrong, and Yue Fuguang was just a superficial one. Their relationship was not as good as that between Yue Fuguang and the second sister who was far away in the south and still often wrote letters to her.
Yu Ningrong was the same age as Yue Fuguang and was not very good at hiding her likes and dislikes. Although she knew that Yue Fuguang was highly regarded by the whole family, she just couldn't like this so - called sister who outshone her in every way.
She had her own pride and would not flatter Yue Fuguang, this mysterious person, like the third, fourth, fifth and ninth sisters, who were all concubine - born daughters.
Facing their daughter's awkwardness, the couple of the fourth branch were very helpless. Their silly daughter didn't hug the golden thigh of this little immortal, but instead kept competing with her. What could they do?
They thought, having an immortal sister in the family would make so many people envious!
But their daughter didn't cherish it.
They had hinted to her many times, but she didn't listen. They could only urge the boys in the family to get along well with this sister of theirs.
Yue Fuguang didn't care about Yu Ningrong's attitude. She wasn't gold or jewels, so it was impossible for everyone to like her.
She wouldn't think that just because the other was younger, she, as an adult, didn't need to care about it and try to resolve the conflict to have a touching sisterly reconciliation.
For siblings, if they could get along, they would; if not, they could just be like distant relatives.
Anyway, she was very busy. She didn't even have much contact with her three nominal brothers and one sister, let alone a sister from another branch.
It was completely unnecessary. She always thought that getting along between people depended on a gut feeling. Maybe she and Yu Ningrong were just not fated to get along well. There was really no need to force a sisterly relationship.
She thought the current situation was fine. As long as the other didn't trip her up, Yue Fuguang could forgive the little tricks Yu Ningrong had played on her when she first came to the Yu Mansion.
She treated her sisters and brothers equally and wouldn't deliberately be nice or mean to anyone. If there was a difference, it must be because the other person was also nice to her.
Just like Yu Ningxuan of the second branch. Although they had never met, when Yue Fuguang first came back, she still received letters and gifts from her. At that time, she was still the little - favored adopted seventh miss in the Yu Mansion.
In the past two or three months, they had exchanged letters several times, and their relationship had become better and better. Moreover, she learned from the letters that Uncle Yu, Yu Shuchun, would return to the capital for a report on his duties before the new year.
Thinking of the prefecture where Uncle Yu was... she seemed to have forgotten an important thing!
Emperor Mingxi had transferred him to the Ministry of Revenue and appointed him as the vice - minister, which was actually a half - level promotion, and from a local position to a central one.
Anyone with eyes could see that because of Yue Fuguang, Emperor Mingxi was going to reuse the Yu family.
Yue Fuguang calculated that there were still two months until the Chinese New Year. The fourth sister and the others would come back before the new year, and they would set off at the latest in a month.
Set off in a month...
No wonder the old master and the old lady had been so happy these days, with smiles on their faces all the time, and the servants in the second - branch courtyard had started to clean and renovate it.
It was because Uncle Yu and his family were coming back, and they wouldn't leave again after they returned. The only son who was away from home was coming back, so the two old people were naturally very happy. They were also extremely nice to Yue Fuguang, the biggest contributor.
Should she tell the old master to let Uncle Yu set off a few days earlier?
"Fuguang, try this quickly. This is a dish cooked by the cook with the newly - made wok at home. Is it called stir - fried food? Try it and see if it suits your taste."
In the Great Yan Dynasty at this time, stir - fried food hadn't appeared yet, and most of the pots used were copper and pottery pots.
After attending several family dinners, Yue Fuguang finally couldn't stand the various stewed and boiled dishes every time and put forward her request. She wanted to eat stir - fried food.
There was an iron wok in her small kitchen, and she usually ate stir - fried food. But it wasn't appropriate to bring the food from her small kitchen to the family dinners. It was okay once or twice, but if it happened too often, what about the old people's face?
So Yue Fuguang drew a blueprint of the iron wok and also gave various seasonings, explaining that they were gifts from a friend.
As soon as she said that, the men in the Yu family automatically filled in the gaps for her.
Yu Chongshan said, "Fuguang, did that overseas wealthy merchant friend who sent you the carriage shock absorber last time give you these things?
These overseas things are not cheap. Do you still have enough money?"
Saying that, he took out a small box from his body. When Yue Fuguang opened it, she saw that there were all one - hundred - tael and fifty - tael silver notes, adding up to a total of three thousand taels.
[Master, your grandfather in this life is quite generous. The way he gives you pocket money is quite similar to your grandfather in your previous life.]
Yue Fuguang nodded. She had also learned about the purchasing power of money in this world. Ordinary fine rice cost more than thirty wen per catty. This stack of silver notes was enough for an ordinary ten - person family to live without worrying about food and drink for a lifetime.
She said, "After the Emperor's birthday festival, isn't it the old master's birthday? Remember to find a nice gift for him for me."
Hearing this, Yu Chongshan felt very pleased. He didn't expect that the granddaughter who had only come back not long ago still remembered an old man's birthday.
Yu Chongshan, who originally didn't plan to hold a birthday celebration, suddenly had a strong desire to throw a grand one.
