Chapter 56: Mr. Yang

The closer it gets to the end of the year.

The festive atmosphere is becoming stronger and stronger in every household and in the streets and alleys.

Every household started making cured meat.

For a moment, the entire city of Bianjing seemed to be filled with the aroma of bacon.

Sometimes when Yang Wenyuan stood in his mansion and looked outside, even if all he saw was a vast expanse of snow, he could still feel that the Spring Festival had arrived.

Little New Year's Eve.

The Hou Mansion was particularly busy that day.

At this time, other wealthy and powerful families were "holding banquets, sculpting snow lions, decorating snow mountains, gathering with friends and relatives, and drinking and singing."

But the Yang family is different. They are going to the martial arts arena today.

Yang Wenyuan got up early and went to the martial arts field with Yang Yuqing.

The reason I came to the martial arts training ground today was not for morning exercises, but to meet with the collateral relatives who lived near the training ground, as well as those who depended on the Yang family for their survival.

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve.

The Yang family is busy and has no time.

The day after tomorrow is New Year’s Day.

The Yang family had to go to the palace to pay New Year's greetings to the emperor in the morning, and then visit relatives of the nobles when they came back. They had no time to receive them, so they set the date for today.

Today, a temporary roof was built on an open space in the martial arts field, and underneath it was filled with people who had close ties with the Yang family.

At this moment, the cooks in the Hou Mansion were cooking in several large pots. The ingredients of today's dishes were very solid, and they were all meat dishes.

You can eat as much as you want and no one will laugh at you if you take it home.

This group of people is also divided into different classes.

The top circle consists of families who have sacrificed their children for the Yang family.

They sat in the middle of the crowd, all with smug looks on their faces, feeling superior to others.

The Yang family is most generous to this kind of people.

Basically every household can get a job as a manager in the marquis's mansion or on the farm owned by the mansion, which is equivalent to being a part of the mansion.

They can also occasionally show up in front of the Yang family's direct descendants, and are considered to be powerful figures among this group of people.

The next best is the Yang family's side branch.

Because of their blood relationship, they are naturally close to the Yang family, and the outstanding children in the family basically grew up with the direct descendants of the Yang family.

In addition, the Yang family has few members.

They are very close to the master and receive a lot of rewards from the master every year.

Therefore, even though they are doing nothing, no one dares to provoke them, and people around them treat them with respect.

Next came the families of the royal guards and the families employed by the Yang family.

The former has a slightly higher status.

After all, you never know when you will be able to ascend to become a "top family".

The latter is respectful and friendly to everyone around him.

Seeing Yang Wenyuan and Yang Yuqing arriving together, everyone present stood up and saluted.

Amid the sincere greetings of "My Lord!" and "Second Old Master", Yang Wenyuan walked to where the gifts were placed.

In the eyes of everyone, Yang Wenyuan was already a marquis, so Yang Yuqing was naturally promoted to "Second Old Master".

Yang Yuqing had seen this scene today since he was a child. He simply nodded, said "OK", and began to lead Yang Wenyuan to do things according to the fixed procedures.

There's nothing special about it. Just talk to the representatives of each circle, ask a few questions, and then comfort them. That's it.

Then comes the final part of today.

New Year's big giveaway!
On the other side of the shed, there was a large pile of gifts. This was the reward given to them by the Marquis' Mansion today.

Although there seem to be a lot of things, most of them are actually rice, flour, coal and other things that are not worth much.

However, this gift bestowed by the Marquis in person had a different weight in their eyes, and could be used as a source of boasting to others.

This is equivalent to the "identity card" given by the Marquis' Mansion.

This person is under the protection of the Marquis of Pingyang Mansion, so don't be ungrateful.

After the reception, Yang Wenyuan felt that his face was frozen from smiling.

After finally returning home, Yang Wenyuan was caught by Madam Chen again.

"Wenyuan, you have been studying hard recently. I heard from Rujin that your handwriting has improved. You will be the one to write the peach charms this year."

"No, aunt, I haven't mastered my handwriting yet!"

Yang Wenyuan was shocked. Asking him to write peach charms was equivalent to putting his own calligraphy on the facade of the mansion for people coming and going to "admire" it!

No, I don't! This question is too difficult, I can't do it!
Taofu is the predecessor of Spring Festival couplets.

However, peach charms are not written on paper, but on peach wood boards, hence the name "peach charms".

But obviously, Yang Wenyuan's objection was ineffective.

Mrs. Chen, who had been busy all morning, did not give Yang Wenyuan a chance to explain. She directly used her voting power to finalize her own bill, then turned around and went to take care of other places.

Yang Wenyuan looked helpless and could only go to the study to practice calligraphy before writing the peach charms.

But when he turned around, he saw Yang Rujin's mischievous look not far away. He made a face at him and then ran away with brisk steps.

Yang Wenyuan originally thought it was a slip of the tongue by Yang Ruijin.

After all, she has been close to Minglan recently, and the two of them might talk about her own calligraphy.

She had been practicing calligraphy for such a long time, and was seen by Minglan when she was in private school. At that time, she praised Yang Wenyuan's handwriting for being so good, saying that she had fallen far behind.

But seeing Yang Ruijin's sly smile like a little fox who had successfully stolen grapes, Yang Wenyuan now understood that he was being framed by treacherous officials and "taken to the execution ground by mistake."

Empress Dowager Chen, there are bad people among the masses!
As the dinner was approaching, Yang Wenyuan finally took out a "satisfactory" answer sheet and handed it to everyone.

Yang Yuqing didn't know the situation yet and took the peach charm handed to him by Yang Wenyuan.

When I looked up, I was stunned.

"Who did you ask to write this peach charm? The handwriting is so square, I've never seen it before!"

Yang Rujin immediately burst out laughing, pointed at the peach charm and said happily: "Father, this was written by Mr. Yang, it's very fresh."

"Mr. Yang?"

Yang Yuqing stretched out his strong hand and touched his head, "Is there such a family in Bianjing City? I have never heard of it!"

In previous years, the peach charms for the mansion were all written by famous calligraphers in Bian Jing. Yang Yuqing had a preconceived idea, and although he couldn't tell the style of the handwriting, he thought it was also the work of a master.

So even though Yang Yuqing subconsciously thought that the writing was weird, he couldn't appreciate calligraphy. He just thought that the works of masters should be good.

I guess this guy wouldn't dare to fool the Hou family and bring out a bad product.

Mrs. Chen next to her couldn't bear to see it anymore. She glared at Yang Rujin who was grinning from ear to ear, then looked at Yang Yuqing and said unhappily, "Don't think about it. Mrs. Yang is right in your face."

"Hmm? Was this written by Wenyuan?"

Yang Yuqing naturally would not suspect Yang Ruijin, and immediately locked onto the real owner, nodding and saying, "Well, although it is different from other schools, it looks pretty good. I think Wenyuan has really studied hard during this period."

Yang Wenyuan's handwriting is very formal.

I can only say that it is not ugly, but it has nothing to do with calligraphy, and it is difficult for Yang Yuqing to say a good word about it.

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(End of this chapter)