Chapter 221: The Flower-Appreciating Party
Yet, that way she felt, she wouldn’t chaff Susu again. Courtesy was what kept an intimate friendship long-lasting. The two girls, hand in hand, chatted a little and entered the garden directly.
This party was held in the garden of the Lan Mansion, so the host was surely a Lan lady.
Lan Ruomeng, as the eldest daughter of the Lan family, a pure-blood lady, though with an indifferent character, received the guests with modesty and manners.
She didn’t act like Princess Yuhe to make her appearance only after everyone showed up, but waited in the lobby to greet every guest.
All the ladies or young lords invited to the party were co-selected by several big families. Mo Qianxue was the only one who had been invited personally by Lan Ruomeng on the Peach-Blossom Party the other day.
Therefore, when Mo Qianxue came to the lobby, Lan Ruomeng hurried over and welcomed her with a sincere smile on her face and in her eyes.
Lan Ruomeng wasn’t one of those snobbish ladies, and she acted in this way only because she admired Mo Qianxue’s talent which had been displayed at the Peach-Blossom Party through the two poems Mo Qianxue composed, which to Lan Ruomeng were masterpieces from heaven!
Admiration and snobbery were two completely different things.
Mo Qianxue certainly could discern it, and on account of Lan Ruomeng’s sincerity, she began to take her as a friend.
More people showed up in this party than in the Peach-Blossom Party.
The previous one was held by the imperial family with imaginably strict rules! In addition, there had been a threshold to that party. Therefore, although that one sounded more beautiful, the air was different because this party hosted by the Lan family was open to the public!
The commoners were also permitted to come in as long as they were brought by the lords.
Of course, the situation was the same for a woman of humble origin, and she had to be able to bear with the mocking and ridicule of the ladies!
Nevertheless, the humble origins referred to here were only relative to the great families. They couldn’t be too humble since they could befriend with or were related to those noble ladies or lords. The families just had a less profound history or influence.
The two Mo girls had been thinking over this recently and brought it up several times to ask Mo Qianxue to take them in. However, their manner disgusted nanny Mo and she turned them down with a snap.
When Mo Qianxue arrived, she became the most honorable guest to Lan Ruomeng.
She asked her sisters to entertain the rest of the guests, and she herself accompany Mo Qianxue and Junzhu Susu to take a tour in the garden, watching the flowers and chatting.
This Hundred-Flower Party, though invited unmarried ladies in principle, some married women with a high status also came to join in the fun.
The three girls were enjoying the flowers and the beautiful scenery and talking about poems, when a splendid team of ladies and madams passed by them.
The jewelries they wore all over them shone dazzlingly and tinkled and jingled as they marched on in a grand manner leaving a breeze of fragrance.
The look and demeanor were truly impressive, no lesser than Princess Yuhe! Mo Qianxue wondered and asked randomly, “Who are these ladies? What a grand team of them!”
Seeing Mo Qianxue’s confusion between her brows, Lan Ruomeng explained gently, “Those are Ning people. Don’t you know them, Qianxue?”
Should she?
Mo Qianxue looked at Lan Ruomeng still with confusion.
She had just arrived in the capital lately, and the life no more than a month here had already given her a hard time, fighting againt this one today and plotting against that one tomorrow. How could she have the time to visit the Ning or Zhang family?
Wait…the Ning family?
Mo Qianxue frowned slightly.
She took glance at her two friends, asking in a uncertain voice,
“Which Ning family?” Were they Ning Shaoqing’s families?
“Look at you! How many Ning families do you think there are in the capital?” The confused dumb look of Mo Qianxue instantly gave Susu a good mood!
This girl always chaffed her cleverly, and now she finally caught her in this cutely foolish look. How could she not be delighted?!
“Yes, right, in the capital, only the super family Ning dares to parade their splendor like this. Even the Su family had intentionally kept a low profile in the past few years. How…” Certainly, Lan Ruomeng knew better than the two.
Junzhu Susu was quite a lady bully in the capital and was spoiled by her parents who raised her to an unruly girl. There was no reason why she should bother to care those things. Mo Qianxue was even more so. She had arrived in the capital less than a month and even if she wanted to inquire more information, she didn’t have the means.
But actually, without Lan Ruomeng’s explanation, Mo Qianxue understood the implication of it.
Now the Emperor was collecting proofs against the great families and ready to give a disciplinary stab.
The great families were an existence beyond the imperial power, a reason enough to keep the Emperor to stand on his defenses!
But at this point of time, the Ning females not only refused to be low-keyed but remained a high profile, something, if seen by people of malicious intentions and spread with colored details, that would lead to a marvelous result!
Mo Qianxue understood it, but she didn’t choose to step in.
Ning Shaoqing wouldn’t have the interest in the business of the females living in the inner yards…
“People have their own preferences in acting.” Mo Qianxue made this nonchalant comment and turned away first.
Anyway, the inner yards of the Ning Mansion weren’t her business yet.
Nonetheless, that being said, she couldn’t help thinking over it. Supposedly, Ning Shaoqing should have a rough idea of the ostentatious manner of the Ning females.
Ning Shaoqing was capable of preventing them, but he didn’t and just allowed the situation to worsen and watched it with a cold eye, completely hands-off. She was afraid there must be a reason.
She…better also stayed out of it.
Everyone was chatting around with their friends or other guests of similar status, and the time passed fast. After the tour around the garden, the party officially started.
Since ancient time, flower-appreciating parties came with poems in praise of flowers.
Since the main guests were unmarried ladies and young lords, the host was naturally the most honorable eldest unmarried daughter of the Lan family.
Looking at Lan Ruomeng who was making an organized clear speech with a graceful smile, Mo Qianxue had to acknowledge the ancients’ wisdom and excellent cultivation, which was far beyond the later generations.
Lan Ruomeng was quite young, even younger than Mo Qianxue, but wasn’t a bit intimidated making a speech on the stage.
This made Mo Qianxue think about what the modern girls in their early teens did. Probably in primary or middle school?
While in this age, the girls of the same age were capable of share some burden for the family. That was really respectable.
The party proceeded following the conceivable pattern with poems and songs chanted and sung in turns. A good performer would make his/her make, while the ill performers were remembered by others and crossed off the list of further contact.
The stage was lively, but Mo Qianxue and Susu enjoyed each other’s company independently, sitting at a table far from the stage and chatting.
Mo Qianxue wanted to know what was going on between Junzhu Susu and Su Qi.
The chaffing she had made when Susu got off the carriage was merely a feel-out.
If they claimed that last time in the restaurant was their first encounter and Susu fell in love with him at first sight, she wouldn’t believe it at all events!
That would be too absurd. Junzhu Susu wasn’t the kind of girl who fell in love with a man at first sight without having a word with him.
Therefore, Mo Qianxue was quite sure that there must be something unknown between Susu and Su Qi. Her guess was that the two had known each other before or a marriage had been made by the two families when they were still children?
Don’t blame her for thinking in a melodramatic way. Wasn’t this a popular plot in a novel?
She fell in love with him at fist sight when she was little and couldn’t ever since get him out of her mind. Or they were born to be a quarrelsome couple who hated each other when they were little children but when they turned adult and had the first taste of crush, they put each other in the heart.
How beautiful!
It was nothing like what had happened between she and Ning Shaoqing in that she traveled time to become his luck wife and suffered all kinds of grievances and hardships…
Although it wasn’t unfair to say that she wasn’t enjoying everything, there was certain regret in the end!
However, if she hadn’t traveled time to take Mo Qianxue’s body, she couldn’t have met Ning Shaoqing and started the love journey of common thick and thin…
Right. When she thought it through, she found it merely another kind of melodrama.
The melodramatic beginning, the melodramatic meeting and falling for each other, and the melodramatic commitment.
Her thought of train at once traveled to the sky when came into her mind Ning Shaoqing’s dark deep eyes staring lovingly at her and the passionate letters and poems he had written her!
Time-travelling wasn’t terrifying. Nor were the all sorts of hardships. The most terrifying thing was walking down the path of life but never meeting a beloved one who also loved you in return. That would be the biggest regret in life!
She was happy because there was a man called Ning Shaoqing appearing in her life and staying with her ever since, and standing by her side regardless of wind or rain until the sun and rainbow came out again.