After hearing this, Zhou Shaojin hurried to write to her father with the good news. Thinking that tomorrow they would be inviting Cheng Jing and Cheng Wei’s families over for a meal, which would be a perfect opportunity to celebrate for Cheng Chi, she discussed with Old Madam Guo: “Should we invite theater performers to put on a performance, and a female storyteller to tell some stories?”

Old Madam Guo enjoyed listening to female storytellers, while Cheng Jing and the others all enjoyed watching opera.

“Excellent!” When people encounter happy events, their spirits soar. Old Madam Guo readily agreed and said, “Invite the Zheng Family Ladies to tell stories.”

The Zheng Family Ladies were three sisters. The eldest and second sister were both blind and told stories together, while the third sister didn’t tell stories but took care of her two sisters’ daily needs and was responsible for escorting them to storytelling engagements. All three sisters were in their early thirties and unmarried. They were quite famous in the capital. They had been introduced by someone like Lady Peng from the Office of the Commandant.

Zhou Shaojin quickly sent someone to deliver an invitation card, fearing that if they were late, the Zheng Family Ladies would have already accepted another engagement.

As it turned out, they were indeed a bit late—the Zheng Family Ladies had already accepted an engagement for the birthday of the eldest daughter of the Fourth Prince’s residence. They negotiated with Nanny Shang who had come to invite them: “Could we visit your residence the day after tomorrow instead? We’ll just keep the old madam company with some ancient tales.”

The implication was that they wouldn’t charge.

Zhou Shaojin knew that these wandering performers had difficult circumstances and feared that one wrong answer might offend someone, so they were often accommodating and yielding. Moreover, the third Zheng sister had already promised someone else. So she took it upon herself to say: “Then please have them come the day after tomorrow to tell stories—since Mother is so happy, we’ll have two days of festivities.”

Nanny Shang agreed with a smile.

Zhou Shaojin went to tell Old Madam Guo: “…Two days of opera performances and storytelling. It’s been a long time since our household has been this lively.”

Now that Old Madam Guo had the long-awaited Yun Ge’er, everything and everywhere made her think of Yun Ge’er. Hearing this, she said with a smile: “That’s good too. Otherwise, with storytelling in the inner courtyard and opera in the outer courtyard, it might frighten our Yun Ge’er.”

Zhou Shaojin smiled with pursed lips.

However, the next day, the three Zheng ladies came early in the morning. With them came a very respectably dressed matron from the Fourth Prince’s residence. She introduced herself as the Fourth Prince Consort’s wet nurse. After respectfully paying her respects to Old Madam Guo, she said with a smile: “Our Fourth Prince Consort didn’t know that this year you had invited the Zheng Family Ladies to tell stories. She says the princess is still young and doesn’t dare accept such courtesy from you, so today she’s still letting the Zheng Family Ladies come tell stories for you. This way, the princess can also benefit from your good fortune.”

The entire household was dumbfounded.

Where in the world was there precedent for the imperial family to yield to subjects?

Hearing this, Cheng Jing quickly had Cheng Xu go express their thanks: “Outer vassals must not associate with inner ministers. By the same logic, we subjects shouldn’t get too close to any particular prince. Just pretend I haven’t arrived yet. Go on our behalf to the Fourth Prince’s residence and express our thanks to the Fourth Prince.”

After all, Cheng Xu had a father who served as a Cabinet minister. No matter how naive he might be, the people he encountered daily were all at the very pinnacle of the current court. As soon as his father spoke, he understood his father’s intention. He nodded and hurried into the inner chamber.

Old Madam Guo was very grateful and didn’t push back and forth with the people from the Fourth Prince’s residence. Instead, she prepared generous gifts and asked the matron to take them back: “…Today we have guests and can’t get away. After we finish our business here in a few days, I will personally go to thank the Prince Consort for her kindness.”

The matron clearly also had some insight and knew that Old Madam Guo was merely being polite. She quickly said: “I wouldn’t dare accept your thanks. When I left, our Prince Consort instructed me that you are an elder. If anyone should be paying visits, it should be our Prince Consort coming to visit you.”

Since they weren’t originally familiar with each other, Old Madam Guo exchanged a few polite pleasantries with her. While they were talking, Zhou Shaojin had whispered a few words to Nanny Shang, and Nanny Zhou had quietly left. Now she quietly returned, holding a box in her hands.

Old Madam Guo looked up at Zhou Shaojin, a trace of satisfaction flashing in her eyes. She picked up her tea cup and said: “We weren’t aware of the princess’s birthday beforehand. Please forgive me for not being able to go celebrate the princess’s birthday in person. Please trouble yourself to take these small items back to the princess as my birthday wishes.”

As she spoke, Nanny Shang quickly presented the box.

The matron was slightly taken aback, then smiled and expressed her thanks. After exchanging a few more words, she rose to take her leave.

Zhou Shaojin instructed Nanny Shang to follow and kowtow to the princess on their behalf.

Nanny Shang agreed with a smile and went to the Fourth Prince’s residence together with Cheng Xu.

Old Madam Guo’s brows furrowed together as she said in confusion: “Why would people from the Fourth Prince’s residence suddenly think to associate with our family?”

Anyone with eyes could see that the Fourth Prince’s residence was trying to curry favor with the Cheng family.

Lady Yuan said with a smile: “Perhaps they need something from the master?”

The imperial family had its own set of rules, but when it involved official matters, an unfavored Fourth Prince truly wasn’t as useful as Cheng Jing.

Learning that the people from the Fourth Prince’s residence had left, Cheng Jing hurried over. Hearing this, he couldn’t help but feel somewhat troubled and said: “I don’t know what it might be about… If he doesn’t say, we needn’t eagerly climb upward. If he truly has something, sooner or later it will come before me.”

Everyone nodded.

Although there was this small incident, it didn’t dampen everyone’s interest.

When the three married aunts of the Cheng family arrived with their husbands and children in tow, they had lunch with the men at one table and the women at another, then went to the central garden to watch the opera performance upstairs and downstairs.

The Rui Ge’er in Cheng Sheng’s family was still a baby just growing teeth, and Yun Ge’er in Zhou Shaojin’s family went without saying. Gu Ning from Cheng Zheng’s family was eleven this year, Gu Zhong was eight, and Abao and Aren were five and three respectively. Gu Ning was about to finish reading the “Doctrine of the Mean” and was learning essay composition from his father—he was a little adult. Gu Zhong and Abao could still play together somewhat, while Aren completely revolved around Gu Zhong and Abao. Rui Ge’er was single-mindedly trying to grab the red tassel on Yun Ge’er’s swaddling clothes. When not allowed to grab it, he cried heart-rendingly, and no matter how the maids and servants tried to coax him, they couldn’t calm him down. Fan Liushi quickly had someone find a piece of tassel for him to play with, but he refused, insisting on grabbing Yun Ge’er’s tassel, which caused Aren to come over and grab at it too.

The already sleeping Yun Ge’er was awakened.

He started crying loudly, his booming voice shocking all the little boys into silence. Gu Ning even ran over, clumsily shouting “Little Maternal Uncle” while trying to soothe Yun Ge’er not to cry, and scolding Yun Ge’er’s wet nurse at the same time: “Why haven’t you picked up Little Maternal Uncle and fed him?”

The wet nurse frantically went to feed Yun Ge’er.

After taking one mouthful, Yun Ge’er realized it wasn’t his mother, spat it out, and started crying again.

No matter how they tried to soothe him, nothing worked!

Gu Ning was drenched in sweat.

Gu Zhong and Abao watched the excitement from the side, while Aren learned from Gu Ning’s example and stroked Yun Ge’er’s little hand to comfort him.

Seeing Yun Ge’er crying, Rui Ge’er also started crying along.

The room was quite lively.

The maids, drenched in sweat, went to find Zhou Shaojin.

Zhou Shaojin held Yun Ge’er and coaxed him for a long time before he finally stopped crying with little sobs.

Rui Ge’er was carried by Cheng Sheng, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, to a side room separated by a courtyard. Only after he stopped crying there was he brought back.

Fan Liushi couldn’t help but wipe the sweat from her forehead.

But Old Madam Guo just laughed heartily and said to Lady Qiu: “A whole room full of boys. In a few more years, when they marry wives and have children, it’s going to be even livelier.”

Everyone looked around and indeed saw a room full of boys. Thinking of the scene Old Madam Guo described, they all laughed.

Lady Yuan laughed along a few times before her expression began to stiffen somewhat.

Min Jia watched coldly and quietly took a few steps back to avoid having her anger burn onto herself again.

A few days ago, when Cheng Zheng and Cheng Xiao returned to their natal home and talked about Yun Ge’er’s hundredth-day celebration, they felt that since Yun Ge’er was the first child of the Third Branch and the Cheng family hadn’t had new additions for over ten years, and since Cheng Chi wasn’t present for Yun Ge’er’s third-day and full-month celebrations—and because the weather was too hot and Zhou Shaojin, fearing that her young brother Zhou Zongjin’s constitution was too weak to withstand it, had specifically instructed Lady Li not to bring the child over (though Lady Li had agreed, she sent word that she would definitely attend the hundredth-day celebration)—all these factors combined meant Yun Ge’er’s hundredth-day celebration would be held grandly. The congratulatory gifts for this celebration required careful consideration. If they were too modest, they would become the laughingstock of others, with people saying the two households weren’t harmonious. If too lavish, it would seem the married Cheng aunts were overshadowing Zhou Shaojin’s natal family, appearing improper. This was originally a good thing, but as they talked, the conversation turned to the topic of offspring. Then Lady Yuan subjected Min Jia to another round of cold mockery and sarcasm. If it weren’t for the two sisters-in-law Cheng Zheng and Cheng Xiao smoothing things over, she wouldn’t have been able to restrain herself from confronting Lady Yuan.

It wasn’t that Min Jia feared conflict with Lady Yuan. She simply didn’t want to quarrel with Lady Yuan in front of relatives—at home, angering Lady Yuan behind other people’s backs was one thing, but if Lady Yuan scolded her in front of so many elders and juniors, if she dared talk back even once, she would definitely be branded with the reputation of “unfilial.”

She wasn’t that foolish.

Thinking of this, Min Jia’s eyes darted around and she saw Zhou Shaojin standing in a corner giving instructions to that housekeeper woman called Biyu.

After pondering for a moment, she walked over and said with a smile: “Fourth Aunt, is Yun Ge’er all right?”

“He just has a big temper.” Speaking of her son, Zhou Shaojin’s face was full of smiles. “Just humor him and coax him a bit. But Fourth Master says that a big temper in a boy isn’t a bad thing. However, having everyone humor him won’t do—I’m afraid in a few days he’ll need to be disciplined.”

As she spoke, a tender look flashed in her eyes, making her appear even more gentle.

Min Jia was quite surprised and said: “You won’t intervene? Yun Ge’er is so small, and Fourth Uncle is a man—what if the child gets hurt?”

“He won’t.” Zhou Shaojin answered without thinking, her mind filling with the image of Cheng Chi holding Yun Ge’er.

In just these two short days, he had already learned to hold him quite skillfully.

Moreover, she didn’t know if it was natural father-son affinity, but Yun Ge’er really enjoyed being held by Cheng Chi.

“Not teaching a son is the father’s fault.” Zhou Shaojin’s smile deepened. “Fourth Master teaching Yun Ge’er is natural and right. What do I have to worry about?”

Min Jia remained silent.

From childhood, she had been taught that women could hold up half the sky and should also take responsibility for household matters.

Min Jia looked at Zhou Shaojin with complicated feelings.

Wasn’t Zhou Shaojin afraid that relying too much on Cheng Chi would make him grow to dislike her?

Min Jia looked at Zhou Shaojin with incomprehension.

Cheng Sheng walked over and asked Min Jia in a low voice: “I heard that Cousin Nuo has been keeping a mistress outside. Is it true?”

Zhou Shaojin was greatly shocked.

In her previous life, Cheng Nuo hadn’t married Wu Baozhang and hadn’t kept a mistress either. What was happening in this life? Once things changed, everything changed.

She said urgently: “What exactly is this about? She came looking for the old madam before, and the old madam didn’t see her—was it because of this matter?”

Min Jia didn’t answer directly but instead asked Cheng Sheng: “How did you find out?”