After court, Wenren Luoshui and Yunjian went to the Begonia Garden with the three princes.
As soon as they entered the Begonia Garden's main hall, Yunjian spotted her eldest niece, her second niece, and their friend.
Beside Yunjian's two nieces stood a cute young girl whose smile revealed a pair of little dimples.
According to their introductions, she was the legitimate daughter of Vice Director Li.
The Begonia Garden had only been open for a few days, but business was already booming.
Whether people came to buy medicinal wine or to watch plays and enjoy beauty treatments,
large crowds arrived every day.
On the second day after opening, we had our staff set up a reservation system.
Wenren Luoshui and Yunjian had both reserved places for their families. Whenever their relatives came, they could present their specially made tokens to enter the private box reserved for them.
Smiling, Yunjian asked her two nieces whether they wanted to sit with the adults or stay together with their friend.
They were close to Yunjian, and after asking Miss Li Huairou's opinion, everyone went to the private box to watch the play together.
Besides the separate men's and women's sections, the Begonia Garden also had areas open to both.
Our party entered the private box, and the voices from the stage outside carried clearly to our ears.
Today's play was an adaptation of Miss Plain Porridge's story.
Although netizens in the modern world had roasted this story mercilessly, here, as soon as it appeared, the people of this era, starved for entertainment, hailed it as a classic.
Some scholars even went out after watching it and proclaimed that Miss Plain Porridge's decision to abandon her family for love made her a true warrior of pure love.
Originally, the story ended with the male and female leads bringing down the heroine's adoptive parents, but then we learned how those scholars were promoting it.
Wenren Luoshui and Yunjian simply turned the story's happy ending into a tragedy.
For instance, the heroine became malnourished from eating plain porridge for so long and died only a few years after getting together with the male lead.
For the sake of his deceased beloved, the male lead never remarried.
How could a happy ending leave as deep an impression as a tragedy? After its adaptation, the plain porridge story became even more widely celebrated in this era.
Although many men pointed at the male lead after watching the play and called him addled, asking why he would not leave descendants for his family, discussion meant popularity.
Seeing how much everyone loved the story, we simply divided the actors into three groups and had them perform it for twelve days straight.
If they loved watching it, we would let them get their fill in one go.
As soon as we sat down, a young server came over with a menu and asked what we wanted to drink.
Wenren Luoshui and Yunjian each ordered a cup of original milk tea, while the three princes, intrigued by the fries, each ordered a portion.
Yunjian's nieces ordered fruit tea.
Seeing that none of them were ordering snacks, the Second Prince assumed they were too embarrassed. With a grand wave of his hand, he declared that he would pay for everything today.
Yunjian pressed a hand to her forehead and answered somewhat helplessly.
"Once what we ordered arrives, then you can decide whether you want any other snacks."
The three princes were bewildered. Since when did people of their standing have to weigh this and consider that when ordering food?
Only when their fries arrived did they understand why we had not ordered anything to eat.
Five servers filed in carrying trays. The first two trays held the drinks they had ordered.
Each of the three servers behind them carried a porcelain bowl as big as a washbasin, piled almost to overflowing with golden, crispy fries.
Apart from the medicinal wine, the Begonia Garden's prices were very affordable compared with other high-end establishments in the capital.
Besides, these ingredients were not difficult for them to obtain. To make sure everyone got their money's worth, they made each full portion extremely generous.
Of course, anyone who felt unable to finish a full portion could order a half portion instead.
But the three princes had only just returned to the capital and were unfamiliar with the Begonia Garden. They assumed a portion here was much the same as what they normally understood a portion to be.
"Are you running a charity? A portion of fries is a whole basin?"
At the sight of the three enormous basins of fries, the Third Prince's shout nearly cracked his voice.
Yunjian said with a laugh, "Who knew the three of you would be so perfectly in sync and order three portions of fries?"
The Fifth Prince quietly raised his hand and asked in a small voice, "Um, could we return two portions?"
After thinking for a moment, he added, "If we can't return them, could we exchange them?"
Wenren Luoshui nodded and told the servers to take two portions away.
Li Huairou's maid came in from outside, a trace of anger still on her face.
"Miss, the eldest young master's attendant said he has taken a fancy to a jade pendant, but he doesn't have enough money on hand..."
Before the maid could finish, Li Huairou spoke in her gentle voice.
"If my brother wants it, just give him the silver."
The maid hesitated, wanting to say something. In the end, she stamped her foot, turned around, and reluctantly went back out.
My mistress is simply too accommodating. Everyone in the Li household is trying every possible way to get money out of her. I've hinted at it so many times, but she just won't listen. She even says we're all one family, so how can we talk as though we're two separate households?
[Salty Fish System: Host, host, there's some juicy gossip about Li Huairou.]
Hearing that there was gossip to be had, I pulled myself out of my thoughts and hurried off to discuss it with the system.
How so?
[Salty Fish System: Last month, Li Huairou's grandmother gave her a jade bangle that was supposedly a family heirloom. In reality, it was just a cheap street-stall trinket she'd been tricked into buying by an old friend, and she found it an eyesore to keep around. By giving it to Li Huairou as a family heirloom, she could both strengthen their grandmother-granddaughter bond and swindle her out of the property her mother left her.]
As Li Huairou drank her milk tea, she suddenly heard voices discussing her affairs. She looked around. Everyone was indeed chatting, but none of them were talking about her. Where had those voices come from?
Yunjian's brows drew together slightly. She's lived in that household for over a decade. Has she really never noticed what her family is after?
[Salty Fish System: Vice Director Li's entire family lives off their daughters-in-law's dowries. Li Yuanwailang's first wife was the daughter of a wealthy merchant in Chuanmo Commandery. During her pregnancy, the Li family arranged for the maids and older serving women to feed her huge quantities of all kinds of nourishing foods, which resulted in a difficult labor. She barely held on long enough to deliver the baby, only to die from massive blood loss.] [The maids and older serving women around her had long since been bought off by the Li family, so after Vice Director Li's first wife died, her dowry was divided up among them.]
Hah! What a man, full of cunning schemes!
Wenren Luoshui took a huge gulp of milk tea to suppress the fury in her heart.
Yunjian's expression was no better. Even with such excellent medical care in the modern world, childbirth was still extremely dangerous for women, let alone in ancient times.
And with the misfortune of marrying the wrong man on top of that, perhaps death was better than living such a life. At least it spared her some of the torment her in-laws would have put her through.