diskusbooks Chapter 143 The Ritual Between Husband and Wife
Chapter 143 The Ritual Between Husband and Wife
An Ge nodded and led everyone into the house.
Qiao Qingqiao looked around. Although it was a farmhouse, it was very clean.
The east and west wing rooms were also tidied up neatly. Qingqiao looked at the leftover food on the table and found that it was even better than the food at the Qiao family's house.
Thirty taels of silver a month was enough for Qiao Antai and An Ge to live a comfortable life.
She couldn't help but realize that her brother was actually living a better life outside the Qiao family than he had while he was there.
This made her somewhat annoyed; why hadn't she planned to bring her brother out sooner?
If it weren't for his older sister, his brother's life wouldn't be so carefree and comfortable now.
She looked at Qiao Qingshu with tears welling up in her eyes and said...
"Big sister, I...I misunderstood you before."
Qiao Qingshu was also looking around at the furnishings and necessary items in the room. She nodded and said to Qingqiao,
"Now you understand my good intentions? Are you still going to cry?"
Qingqiao lowered her head, her face flushing slightly with embarrassment.
Qiao Qingshu turned to An Ge deftly and gave her instructions.
"Buy some more furniture for the house, and get a few more cotton-padded coats, one for you and one for Taige. Also, fill the storage room in the backyard with charcoal. I'll give you another thirty taels. This year's Spring Festival is going to be very cold."
An Ge simply nodded in agreement, her heart and mind filled with thoughts of Qiao Qingshu.
She regarded Qiao Qingshu as her second parent; if it weren't for Qiao Qingshu, how could she be living such a good life now?
She only needed to take care of Qiao Antai's daily needs, and she was quite idle the rest of the time. She never dreamed that she could live such a good life.
She even wanted to kneel down and kowtow to Qiao Qingshu, but she was shy and did not reveal her inner passion.
She just stared at Qiao Qingshu with starry eyes, and whatever the young lady said was law, as if it were a royal decree.
After leaving Qiao Antai's farmhouse, the two sisters returned home under the cover of night.
On the return journey in the carriage, Qiao Qingqiao looked at her older sister with admiration.
"Big sister, you are really amazing. You seem to be able to do anything."
Qiao Qingshu kept her eyes slightly closed and moved her lips.
"Impressive? There's more to come, just wait and see."
Qiao Qingqiao smiled and stared at her older sister, finding her more and more likable.
The carriage arrived at the Qiao residence before dawn.
Qiao Qingqiao and Qiao Qingshu quietly returned to their rooms, and everything happened silently, unnoticed by anyone.
These past few days, Qiao Qingshu has been busy managing the Spring Festival preparations, and the entire Qiao family is busily making preparations.
Qingqiao wrote the couplets herself, Aunt He cut paper-cuts for the windows, and every courtyard was decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations.
Qiao Qingshu was directing the servants to hang lanterns in the courtyard when she heard loud laughter coming from the doorway.
Turning her head, she saw her father striding towards her with a beaming smile.
Hahahaha!
Laughing unrestrainedly and exaggeratedly, Qiao Qingshu's lips twitched slightly as she smiled and stepped forward to strike up a conversation.
"Father, what's wrong? Why are you so happy?"
Qiao Jizhou clapped his hands with a smile and said,
"Good girl! It has to be you! The deer antler and lingzhi you asked me to give to Prime Minister Lin were such a delight to him. He kept them for me to drink several cups of wine with, and even invited me to his residence during the New Year to drink tea and play cards with his confidants!"
"Shu'er, you are truly my lucky star! I am so blessed to have you!"
After saying that, he took out a jade bracelet from his pocket and put it into Qiao Qingshu's hand.
"This is a gift from your father, please accept it."
After saying this, Qiao Jizhou stroked his beard, chuckled, pocketed some silver, and went out again to drink and meet friends.
Qiao Qingshu watched her father's retreating figure, then dropped the bracelet from her hand and threw it on the ground.
The jade bracelet struck the bluestone slab with a crisp sound and shattered into several pieces.
Lin Dong, who was behind him, was so frightened that she quickly squatted down and picked up the broken jade bracelet and put it into her handkerchief.
She said regretfully,
"Oh dear, what a pity to waste such a beautiful bracelet."
Qiao Qingshu stood to the side, a hint of disgust in her eyes.
This jade bracelet belonged to a prostitute that I saw in my father's study a few days ago.
That day, Qiao Qingshu looked the prostitute up and down, and the jade bracelet she was wearing was just like this.
She secretly sneered to herself, thinking that even a lowly prostitute's jade bracelet was of very poor quality.
Logically speaking, bracelets are always sold in pairs. It's unclear whether this prostitute named Chuntao didn't have the money to buy a pair or simply couldn't bear to wear one.
Wearing only one on the left hand is not only unsightly, but also lacks status; it would be better not to wear it at all.
Now Qiao Qingshu understood that she had misunderstood the prostitute Chun Tao.
This cheap item was actually given away by her own father, Qiao Jizhou, who was so stingy that he only gave her one.
The remaining one was sent to Qiao Qingshu.
Qiao Qingshu looked at the inferior jade bracelet and knew that it was worth at most seven or eight taels of silver.
It's one thing for her father to use this stuff to fool prostitutes who don't know its value.
Qiao Qingshu had seen all sorts of good things since she was a child. Her maternal grandfather, the old master of the Bai family, even gave her a jade pendant that had been bestowed upon her by the late Empress Dowager as a birthday gift.
How dare her father do that?
Try to fool her with this piece of junk.
She couldn't help but recall hearing her mother and her maid complain that her father actually kept a prostitute's undergarment in his clothes.
Later, when he returned drunk, his mother, Bai Chanzi, helped him wash up. She pulled out this dirty thing from her bosom, and his mother even cried about it.
Her father was able to marry such a beautiful woman as her mother, who was gentle, quiet, considerate, and good at managing the household, but her father, Qiao Jizhou, was not satisfied.
No wonder her mother later lost all hope in her father.
Remembering the good deeds her grandmother had done, Qiao Qingshu's anger grew even stronger.
If it weren't for her grandmother's schemes against her mother, Bai Chanzi, her mother would have married Qiao Jishen, the eldest son of the Qiao family, long ago.
What business is there of Qiao Jizhou now?
Back then, Uncle Qiao and Bai Chanzi met on the Qixi Festival, and Bai Chanzi's wallet was stolen.
Qiao Jishen witnessed this scene, immediately stepped forward, grabbed the thief, and retrieved the wallet.
Bai Chanzi fell in love with him almost at first sight, and now she heard his companions call him Qiao Lang.
Bai Chanzi quickly learned that he was the young master of the Qiao family of the Yongchang Marquis's mansion, and she almost fell in love with him immediately.
Bai Chanzi, the eldest daughter of the Bai family of the Duke's Mansion, who was pampered and loved by everyone, had a personality that was not pretentious at all. After she made up her mind, she wrote a letter to Qiao Jishen, expressing her love and stating that she wanted to marry him.
Who would have thought that the letter would be intercepted by Old Lady Qiao? She was jealous of Qiao Jishen's good fortune in winning the favor of the eldest daughter of the Bai family of the Duke's Mansion.
Madam Qiao, determined to obstruct the marriage, summoned Qiao Jizhou to write back. After exchanging letters several times, the two men understood each other's feelings, and Madam Qiao then took the letter to Qiao's home to propose marriage.
Bai Chanzi mistakenly believed that the person who wrote the letter was the same person she had met on the Qixi Festival, so she happily agreed.
Although Madam Bai felt that her daughter had married down a bit, she couldn't resist her daughter's affection, and Bai Chanzi even knelt down before Madam Bai.
The marriage was finally settled.
On their wedding night, Old Madam Qiao remained cautious and, under the pretext of visiting the new bride, went to the bridal chamber to get Bai Chanzi to drink several cups of wine.
Bai Chanzi was drunk before her veil was even lifted, and when she woke up again, it was already the next morning.
She and Qiao Jizhou have already gone through the wedding ceremony.