si-mexico Chapter 323 Annual Gift
Chapter 323 Annual Gift
During the Chinese New Year, relatives and friends exchange gifts.
In the past few days, quite a few people have come to our mansion to deliver New Year's gifts. These matters have been handled by Uncle Zhong, including receiving and managing the gifts and preparing return gifts.
Xiao Han usually doesn't bother with these details; he just glances at them when Uncle Zhong hands over the bill.
Today was no exception; during Xiao Han's meal, Uncle Zhong received two more groups of guests who came to the Prince's Mansion to deliver gifts.
One of the gifts was sent by Lord Mo of the Court of State Ceremonial, and the other was sent by a messenger from Nangong Ming's residence.
In addition to the gift sent to the Prince's Mansion, the Nangong Ming family sent two other gifts to Long Chuqing.
After the gifts sent to the Prince's Mansion are registered, they will be sent directly to the storeroom. Uncle Zhong will then prepare corresponding return gifts according to the gift list and send them to the respective mansions.
After seeing off the guests who came to deliver gifts, Uncle Zhong brought the gift for Long Chuqing to Qiushui Pavilion.
Xiao Han had already finished his lunch.
"Chu Qing, can I try?"
He found Long Chuqing's pill-making process quite amusing, so he suggested that he try it himself.
Seeing his eager look, Long Chuqing had no choice but to give up her seat.
"Okay, my hands are getting a little sore, you can play with them for a while."
The steps to make pills are actually very simple. Just roll the medicine paste into a strip, put it into another mold, cover it with the other half of the mold, and roll it back and forth. The medicine paste will gradually turn into a round pill as it rolls.
Whether a pill is easy to roll depends on the consistency of the paste. If the paste is too thick, it will stick to the mold and cannot be rolled out. If it is too dry, it will be loose and cannot be rolled into shape.
Long Chuqing has a good grasp of the amount and proportion of the medicinal paste, which is not too dry or sticky, and the pills are very smooth to knead, so it doesn't take much effort to knead them.
After washing his hands, Xiao Han took over the work from Long Chuqing. He had watched Long Chuqing make pills before, and had watched it twice just now. He had memorized the steps and techniques, and the first batch of pills was made quite perfectly.
"Not bad!" Long Chuqing stood to the side and watched Xiao Han finish the mold. He praised, "I declare that you have graduated. The rest of the work is yours. I will go and make some more medicinal mud in a while."
Xiao Han smiled and said, "Alright, I'd be happy to help."
Long Chuqing sat down and drank a cup of tea first.
After finishing jarring the ointment, Ziguang and Granny Lin went to the small kitchen to continue brewing the medicine.
Qingying and Qingtong sat in the place where Granny Lin had been before, grinding medicine powder.
At this moment, Uncle Zhong arrived at Qiushui Pavilion with Long Chuqing's gifts.
"Your Highness, Miss Long," Uncle Zhong called out as he entered.
"Your Highness, the Nangong family sent New Year's gifts today, two of which are for Miss Long, so I brought them over."
"For me?" Long Chuqing held up his teacup, looking at the gifts the servant was carrying.
Xiao Han also stopped what he was doing and looked up.
Uncle Zhong looked at Long Chuqing, then pointed to a gift box in a servant's hand. "Miss Long, this is a New Year's gift from the Nangong family."
Uncle Zhong shifted his gaze to the hands of the other two servants: "These two are gifts sent to you by the Cheng family on Shunyang Street."
According to the messenger from the Nangong family who delivered the gifts, the Cheng family did not know the young lady's address, so they entrusted the Nangong family to send the gifts along with the gifts. Please take a look.
Because Long Chuqing saved the life of the Second Young Master Cheng, the Third Master Cheng's family has always been grateful to her.
With the year-end approaching, the Cheng family thought of her when preparing gifts. Since they did not know where Long Chuqing lived, they could only ask Nangong Ming to help deliver the gifts.
Long Chuqing was somewhat surprised, not expecting the Cheng family to send her New Year's gifts.
She had already received a considerable amount of medical fees from Master Cheng, and the matter was settled long ago. She never expected that he would still remember her and send her gifts.
She put down her teacup, got up and walked to Uncle Zhong's side. Uncle Zhong gestured to the servants to open the gift box.
The gifts sent by the Cheng family consisted of precious medicinal materials, including ambergris, ginseng, deer antler, snow lotus, cordyceps, and twenty bolts of silk.
Master Cheng also has investments in the silk and cloth business, so he specially selected some fine brocades to send over this time.
The gifts sent by Master Cheng were very valuable, with so many kinds of precious medicinal herbs alone. She really felt unworthy of them.
The gifts prepared by the Nangong family for the Prince's residence included top-quality tea and aged wine, as well as some ancient calligraphy and paintings collected in the south.
The Nangong family sent Long Chuqing a gift box.
Upon opening it, I found a box of plump, white South China Sea pearls. Each pearl was perfectly round and full, with a bright and flawless luster.
This box of pearls is worth a fortune by today's market price, and collecting so many high-quality South China Sea pearls is no easy feat.
There was also a letter inside the box.
"Huh... there's another letter."
Long Chuqing took the letter, opened it, and read it. The signature on it was Madam Nangong.
The letter began with New Year's greetings, expressing apologies for the intrusion and hoping it was not a bother. It then expressed her hope that she could visit again, apologizing for the poor hospitality last time and promising to treat her well next time. The letter also indicated that she looked forward to seeing her again and ended with some words of concern.
Long Chuqing whispered, "So this box of pearls was a gift from Madam Nangong."
The day before yesterday, Second Master Cheng brought New Year's gifts to the Nangong residence and asked Nangong Ming to pass them on to Long Chuqing.
Upon learning this, Lady Nangong prepared this box of pearls and had it sent over.
Upon hearing that there was a letter inside the gift box, Xiao Han immediately stopped what he was doing, and his expression changed slightly.
There was even a letter.
Did Nangong Ming write a letter to Chu Qing?
There are things that need to be said in a letter.
Xiao Han wanted to immediately put down the medicine-making tools in his hand and go to Long Chuqing's side to check the contents of the letter.
But considering that this was Chu Qing's privacy, he couldn't just openly go over and take a look.
At this moment, his mind was no longer on making the pills; his eyes kept glancing at the letter.
After Long Chuqing put down the letter, Xiao Han couldn't help but ask, "Chuqing, did Nangong Ming write this letter to you? What did he write?"
Long Chuqing looked at Xiao Han and said, "This letter was not written by Nangong Ming, but by his mother, Madam Nangong. It only contained some New Year's greetings and words of concern."
Long Chuqing picked up a pearl from the box. "This gift was also given by Madam Nangong."
Lady Nangong?
Did Nangong Ming's mother meet Chu Qing? She even wrote her a letter and sent her gifts.
Xiao Han asked, "Have you met Madam Nangong?"
“Yes, before I went to see the Second Young Master Cheng last time, I went to the Nangong residence for a while. That’s when I met Madam Nangong.” Long Chuqing said, “She was very hospitable and kept trying to get me to stay for a meal. But I was in a hurry to get to the Cheng residence, so I declined her offer and left after sitting for a while.”
"Oh, I see!" Xiao Han replied.