Chapter 49: Shen Mansion

Shen Mansion
An Mei's words touched An Shu's heart, "I have the same experience. My mother never allows me to eat spicy food. Even when I was outside, she would often send letters asking my maidservant to watch over me..."
"But it's okay, my cousin from my maternal family also loves spicy food. She must have prepared some for me when she knew I was coming today." An Shu held onto both An Mei and An Cheng, "My cousin will be happy to see you two, as well as Zheng gege..."
"I wonder if the clay figurines that I promised last time have been made... Next time, I'll ask Brother Zheng to make one for each of you!"
Brother Zheng... Ancheng glanced at Anshu. She had heard this name several times before.
Compared to the harmonious atmosphere between sisters, the atmosphere between brothers is a bit...strange.
Anzhou sits alone on one side, avoiding Anhao, while listening with interest to Anhao's chatter about Anchun.
"Eighth brother, although your health is not good, you cannot neglect your studies. Even though you will go to school and the teacher will surely teach you well, there are many students in the school, and the teacher may not be able to cover everything. You have to take responsibility for yourself as well..."
An Hao took out a list from his cuff, "This is a reading list I made for you, starting from easy to difficult, so you won't find it difficult to read and you can also learn some principles from them. And here are also some calligraphy books, they are all good ones, you can also study and learn from them."
"I have all these books with me. I will bring them to you later. Remember to read them one by one according to this order. If you have free time, I will test you on them. When it comes to reading, the most important thing is to avoid laziness. Keep in mind..."
Even if it's not about Anzhou, Anzhou, who is just watching the excitement, can't stand it anymore. "Alright alright, third brother, eighth brother hasn't even started studying yet, and you're already complaining about hating school..."
"Brother Chun, just ignore him and stick to your own schedule. He is even stricter than a teacher..." Anzhou turned his head and muttered to himself, "I haven't seen my father handle his son like this!"
An Hao also got used to An Zhou's behavior of taking the list and giving it to An Chun, instructing him, "Take good care of it and remember what Third Brother said, don't learn from Second Brother." He didn't care about the disdainful look from An Zhou.
However, at least I didn't go on and on.
At the side gate of the Shen Mansion, a servant had been waiting. When he saw the An family carriage approaching from afar, he ran back to inform, "Madam is back, get ready!"
Ancheng felt that the sound outside the carriage was getting quieter and the speed was slowing down. Anshu quietly opened a small gap in the curtain with her hand and immediately closed it again. She turned around and looked at Ancheng and Anmei, reminding them, "We are almost there."
Before long, the carriage came to a steady stop. The maidservant got on the carriage and helped Anshu, Ancheng, and Anmei put on their veils. Then they got off the carriage, where a green mud sedan chair was waiting.
The members of the An family got on the sedan chair one by one. The servant carried them to the second gate, where they changed to a few more maidservants to carry the sedan chair all the way to the inner gate. They put it down and a maidservant came over, lifted the sedan curtain, and said, "Miss, it's time to get off the sedan chair."
As Ancheng stepped out of the sedan, she saw that the trees and flowers, along with the gallery arrangement, were different from that of the An family. The atmosphere was less scholarly and more towards opulence and grandeur, exquisite and magnificent.
Anshu came over and held Ancheng's hand, while Anmei, held by her jade hairpin, followed beside them. Anshu seemed to be very familiar with the maid who came over to greet them and smiled, "Sister Shaoyao, why is it you who came to greet us?"
The servant girl was petite and had fair skin. She smiled and replied, "Today is the day when the county lord's long-awaited granddaughter arrives. I am the cleverest servant girl, so I hurriedly came here to take the lead!"
"Peony Sister's words are so sweet, she praises herself and praises us, it's hard not to recognize her..." An Shu followed Shen Shi into the house with familiarity, while Peony followed behind them, chatting and laughing."
Ancheng estimated that being able to do this much, she had acted as a face-saving servant in front of her grandmother.
Entering the inner room, there was already an old lady sitting above. Upon seeing her, Shenshi immediately kneeled down and said, "Daughter has returned."
The people behind hurriedly knelt down, and the scene was similar to when they returned to An's family, only this time the Shen family was more sincere.
An Cheng was pushed forward by An Shu from behind and was embraced by the Feng'an County Mistress. The Feng'an County Mistress held onto An Cheng and cried for a while. After Shen wiped away her tears, she took out a handkerchief and rubbed her red eyes while smiling, saying, "My sister lost control, please don't mind, Second Sister-in-law."
The woman sitting opposite me, wearing a bright red coat with embroidered butterflies and flowers, chuckled and said, "Why are you talking about this? Haven't we been crying and laughing together since we were young? It feels like we've grown apart in these past six years."
Then he waved at An Cheng, "Come on, child, let your uncle see you."
He carefully examined An Cheng, smiled at the Shen family, and said, "I think this child's eyes look most like you." He handed a box to An Cheng and said, "A small toy, take it home and play with it."
Ancheng looked at her second mother-in-law in front of her. She had long known that her second mother-in-law came from a noble family and her maiden name was Pang. Whenever the Shen family mentioned their maternal grandmother's household, they would always mention her, so it seemed that the two had a good relationship.
Pang Shi released An Cheng and instructed the two maidservants behind him to hand the prepared items to the maidservant who was following An Mei and An Chun, saying, "I don't know what you all like, so I made some preparations based on my estimation."

"Wen Jie, Zhang Ge, and Qing Kuang Lou are all waiting."
Princess Feng'an laughed and said, "That's right. Children, go and play. But why haven't they come to greet their cousin and cousin? It's a bit rude..."
Pang smiled and said, "Don't even mention those two kids. It's truly hilarious to talk about them. Just yesterday, I told Shu and Haoge that they would come over today, and those two couldn't sit still."
“At one time, I called someone to marinate the deer meat and roe deer meat for grilling. At another time, I asked someone to buy cakes from Wufu Zhai. At another time, I had someone clean up Qingkuang Building for entertainment. Last night, I secretly took out the ice skates. It took a lot of persuasion before I finally put them back...”
"The result is good. I was up late last night and couldn't get up this morning."
"Zheng Ge'er is fine. His second uncle dragged him to the martial arts field and at least he got up, but Wen Jie'er was late."
"I was thinking, why not just ask her to go to the vacant building and prepare? It saves time, and the younger generation can get to know each other by chatting and laughing together, which is better than introducing them one by one!"
Feng'an County Lord listened to her and nodded, "That's true. Let the younger ones go and play. Let's have a good conversation together. Besides, her younger brother heard that she's back and is rushing home. He's here now, making the kids even more constrained."
"Peony, take the children to the open pavilion and don't come back. Take care of them there."
"Yes." Peony came out with a smile, "I will go now."