Chapter Thirteen: Faith Moves Mountains, Family in the City

  The Lin family ancestors had also been enfeoffed as marquises, and by the time of Lin Ruhai's generation, it had already been five generations. At first, it was only three generations, but the emperor's benevolence and virtue added another generation, which was precisely the grandfather of Daiyu and Zhiyuan. The two brothers Lin Ruhai were devoted to reading books and taking imperial examinations, also wanting to continue to glorify their family's gate.

  The old house in Gusu was built by the Lin family over several generations, but after Lin Ruhai's father passed away and Lin Ruhai himself was appointed as the Salt Inspector, the whole family moved to their official residence in Yangzhou. Only a few elderly servants were left behind to take care of the old house in Suzhou, with Doudou, the trusted maid of Old Lady Lin and Lin Ruhai's wet nurse, being in charge. Over the years, Doudou and her family took care of the cleaning and maintenance of the old house from top to bottom. However, she would often send someone to Yangzhou to pay respects and report that the old house was too big for them to clean thoroughly with just a few scattered servants, so they begged Master and Mistress Lin to grant them some favor and dispatch a few more young maids to help out.

  Lin Ruhai thought of Du Pozi as his own, and couldn't bear to see her whole family overworked, so he called for a matchmaker, bought more than ten delicate and healthy little girls, and sent them back to the old mansion. In the blink of an eye, it was already a decade or two.

  Daiyu's sedan chair stopped at the gate, and outside Lin's old mansion, there were many carriages and horses coming and going on the street. There were often some small vendors' families on this street, carrying poles and hawking their wares along the street. At the corner of the street, there was a stall selling wontons, and as it was cold, several people had gathered around to eat something. One person said with a smile: "Look! The real master of Lin's old mansion has returned. I'm so dazed that I think the one riding on horseback is probably Young Master Lin?"

  The shopkeeper smiled and said, "Of course not! Haven't you heard the big news around here? Young Master Lin has now inherited the ancestral temple and is the only male heir of this branch of the Lin family. And that old master from Yangzhou has passed away, so he's going to move back into the old Lin residence!"

  Someone else said, "This is a proper reason. I've never seen any respectable young master and widowed mother living outside, while the slaves have become the masters of the old mansion! What does that old saying say? The beginning and end are reversed!"

  A few people chatted and laughed, waiting to see what the Lin family would do next.

  Daiyu got out of the sedan chair and looked up to see the signboard of the Lin family's old mansion hanging straight above her. It seemed to have just been repainted, and the large gates on either side had also been freshly washed, revealing bright and shiny paint.

  As soon as they entered the gate, Zhiyan came up to ask Daiyu: "Sister, our old house has been built for many years and no one has taken good care of it. It's a bit dilapidated. Let's take a sedan chair to the inner courtyard."

  Having said that, the two old women brought a sedan chair to take Daiyu away. Seeing that she was the only one in the sedan chair and that Dihua Gege was accompanying her on foot, while the two aunts and the maids were following behind, Daiyu knew that once they arrived at the old house, the aunts would not be able to move about freely as they had in Yangzhou helping Father with household chores. Now that Brother was in charge, he would arrange for someone to manage the household affairs.

  Zhiyuan started decorating three months ago, just when Lin Ruhai had handed over the deed of the Lin family's ancestral home to him. The Lin family's mansion was one of the best in all of Suzhou, and Daiyu, sitting in her sedan chair, curiously lifted a corner of the curtain to look at the scenery outside.

  Zhiyuan smiled and helped lift the entire bamboo curtain to the top of the sedan chair: "This is our home, there are no outsiders, sister just look."

  The Lin Family Old House covers an area of about 30 mu, with mountains and rivers as the main part in the middle, which is the essence of the garden. The main buildings include Feiyan Hall, Linglong Pavilion, Look Mountain Building, Visit Plum Pavilion, Yunxiao Pavilion, Water Heart Pavilion, Jiuxie Corridor Bridge and so on. Various pavilions and kiosks are built by the water, with artificial hills and caves that are unique in craftsmanship. Every blade of grass and every tree has its own charm. Although it is now January in winter, there is still flowing water in the garden, Suzhou rarely sees snow all year round, so the river water never freezes all year round. Even if there is occasional snowfall, it will melt instantly.

  On both sides, the sedan chairs of Qing Song and Dai Yu kept passing by, adding a touch of green to the garden. The crowd walked along the riverbank, where the willows on both banks were bare and swaying in the wind. After walking for a while, Dai Yu arrived at her own courtyard.

  Daiyu was personally helped down from the carriage by Zhiyan, "Sister, this is the place your brother has chosen for you to live in, Visiting Plum Blossom Pavilion. Come and take a look."

  Daiyu saw that the courtyard had white walls and green tiles, with all kinds of plum trees planted everywhere, except for a stone staircase leading to the distant Plum Blossom Pavilion. As soon as she entered, there were doors and windows, and the furniture was carved with countless plum blossom patterns. The four screens were painted with many white plums, and on the wall hung Wang Meng's "Southern Branch Spring Early Picture", with dense flowers and branches, yet not chaotic, sparse and dense in order, with circles of flowers and dots of stamens.

  Daiyu had always liked plum blossoms and green bamboo, seeing the decorations in the house, all the furniture and bedding were new, she turned to Zhiyan and said: "Thank you brother, I like it here."

  "It's great, this Meiyuan Pavilion is famous because the garden is full of plum trees. In March, when all the flowers are in bloom, the fragrance of the plum blossoms can even be smelled on the streets outside the courtyard!"

  Zhiyuan led the two matrons to live in Ci Yun Tang by the waterside pavilion, which was farther away from the main house and not one of the Lin family's main buildings. However, it had a beautiful view and was also a good place for self-cultivation.

  The maid lifted Daiyu's trunks one by one into the warm room of Visiting Plum Pavilion, and Daiyu sat on a chair in the main room, watching everyone pack their luggage, but just then she started coughing.

  Xueyan hastily put down the things in her hands and began to rub Daiyu's back, "Miss, you haven't coughed for several days, how come you're uncomfortable now? Is it because this room is too cold?"

  Daiyu took the tea that Zijuan had brought and drank it: "No, haven't you seen those four braziers lit up here? They're all high-quality silver frost charcoal, not a hint of strange smell. It's just that I've been traveling for so long and haven't returned to Jiangnan in a while, so I'm a bit unaccustomed to the climate here." Zijuan also nodded in agreement: "Yes, miss, on this journey south, the weather has indeed gotten warmer, but it's still chilly. The quilt I slept under last night felt like it could be wrung out for water."

  "This Jiangnan weather is like this, you grew up in the north, and it's not used to it for a while." Daiyu said here, suddenly thought of Zi Juan was born at home, this time followed herself to the south, these days herself only thinking about her father's departure, but forgot to ask Zi Juan Chun Xian several what to do in the future? Is it back to Beijing? Or follow yourself?

  Daiyu was just about to ask when Zhiyuan led three slender and pretty maids back in, each wearing light purple skirts and moon-white outer garments. They were all young and beautiful. The three came before Daiyu, bowed their heads and greeted her: "Your maid Yanzhu (Bidi) (Chunlei) greets you, miss!"

  "Brother, what's this?" Daiyu saw these three maids and didn't think they were ordinary household-born girls. They were all about the same age as Zi Juan, but their eyebrows and eyes were even more beautiful.

  Zhiyuan said, "I was busy arranging for my aunt and almost forgot. These three are the maids I chose for my sister. Yanrong is seventeen this year and has excellent needlework skills. She studied with the embroiderers at Suzhou's Ruyi Hall for a few years. In the future, my sister can entrust her with the embroidery work in the house." Zhiyuan pointed to the one wearing a silver hairpin, "This is Bidi, sixteen years old, and she's good at cooking and making soup. Come with me."

  He led Daiyu to the back window, on one side of the backyard was the servants' quarters where the old woman and maids lived, and on the other side was a small two-room house. "I had someone set up a small kitchen, from now on, boiling water and making soup can be done by the maids here, it's more convenient than having to carry hot water all the way back and having it turn cold. It's okay when the weather is warm, but if it's always like this, using cold water won't be good for your health, sister."

  The purple quail on the side heard it and took the opportunity to say: "Young master, the young lady just had a relapse of her old illness!"

  "Orchid, don't talk nonsense, I'm fine. Brother, I'm not seriously ill, just a bit of a sore throat." Daiyu didn't want to worry her brother again, he was already tired enough, and she felt it would be too much for him to worry about these things as well.

  But Zhiyuan immediately got angry and said, "I'll call the doctor right away, sister quickly go back to your room and rest."

  "It's okay, brother, you've brought me a little sister, haven't you? And we haven't even talked about this one yet!"

  Zhiyuan listened, and could only smile helplessly, but in her heart she had already made up her mind to find a good doctor for Daiyu, apart from that congenital illness. "This is the youngest one, called Chun Lian, 14 years old."

  That little girl, upon hearing her young master call out her name, turned to Daiyu with a big smile on her face and instantly won over her affection. Chun Lian, although about the same age as Daiyu, had a lively and cheerful personality that made her well-liked by everyone in the Lin household.

  "This little girl is quite lively, fortunately she recognizes a few characters and can help out a bit." The three of them were all carefully selected by Zhiyuan, of course they weren't as simple as he said, it should be said that each person has their own unique skills.

  Daiyu thought back to the day she came to Beijing, in order not to trouble her maternal grandparents' household, she only brought a maid named Xueyan and Wang's wife, one was too young and the other was too old, neither of them could be used. It wasn't until her grandmother gave her Zi Juan as her senior maid that things got better, later on, she also gave her several younger maids. Now, only Zi Juan, Xueyan and Chun Xian are useful. The others are just a bunch of useless people.

  "Brother, I..." Daiyu's heart was filled with an indescribable mix of emotions - both bitter and sweet, with a hint of sadness. The bitterness came from the fact that in all these years, she had no one to think about her at all times, not even her own grandmother. In the Jia household, there were already whispers and gossip about her being an outsider, an adopted granddaughter. If she didn't know how to conduct herself properly, she would only invite more dislike from others. The sweetness came from the fact that her brother could think of her in such a way, treating her not like a cousin, but like his own sister. The sourness was... why hadn't she met Dizhi earlier? If she had, she wouldn't be so lonely now...

  Zhiyuan saw Daiyu's eyes turn red and knew that this little girl had started to feel sad again, so he hurriedly said: "Good sister, don't cry quickly, our Lin family's good days are still ahead, wait until the future when brother finds a famous doctor for you, we'll get rid of this illness, brother will take you on a tour of Jiangnan's famous scenic spots, us siblings will be happy and joyful, that won't disappoint second uncle's expectations for us, what do you say?"

  In the evening, the brother and sister had dinner at Linglong Pavilion. They discussed the ancestral worship for the next day and the burial of Lin Ruhai, which took up most of the day. It wasn't until Bixie came to deliver bird's nest to Daiyu that Zhiyuan sent her back to Visiting Plum Pavilion.

  Jinghe: ⊙﹏⊙ Why doesn't anyone give me a recommendation vote? I seem to need it ~~ Thicken my skin and ask for votes ~~ Everyone's votes are my motivation ~~ Let me enter the top ten of the newcomer week potential list ~~ My ranking has slipped down！！！555555555, pity me ~~ Wishing everyone a happy Lantern Festival! When eating sweet dumplings, think of poor Jinghe ~~ ^_^