Chapter 31: Younger Royal Family
Chapter 31: Younger Royal Family
In the blink of an eye, it is the beginning of winter.
Starting from this day, Zhu Shenzhui got up early and practiced boxing and kicking as usual. After practicing, he washed up and changed into the red woven gold bear uniform that he only wore twice a year.
Zhang helped find this outfit yesterday, and then ironed it carefully and hung it up overnight.
The costume was very beautiful, with bright red fabric and golden bear embroidery, which made Zhu Shenzhu look very heroic. After he put it on, Zhang helped Zhu Shenzhu tie up his hair and put on a three-beam crown with silver flowers and a ribbon carved with a plate. With this outfit, he looked completely different from before.
When Zhu Shencui had dressed up, he lifted his sleeves and turned around. Zhang was watching him in a daze. She thought back to when she got married, her husband also wore the same clothes. Now things have changed. Her husband has passed away for quite some time. But Zhu Shencui, who was still young at that time, has grown up to be as tall as her husband. Especially when she wore this clothes, it was as if her husband had come alive from her memory.
"Sister-in-law, is there anything wrong with the back of this dress? Sister-in-law?" Turning around, Zhu Shenzhu looked around and asked Zhang casually.
After asking, Zhang didn't answer. Zhu Shenzui thought she didn't hear clearly, so he asked again.
Zhang came back to her senses. She looked behind Zhu Shenzhui and reached out to wipe the slightly wrinkled area on his back. When she withdrew her hand, she quietly wiped the corners of her eyes and said with a smile, "It's fine. Uncle looks really good in this outfit."
"Haha, it's just a show-off. Sorry to bother you, sister-in-law..." Zhu Shenzhui turned around and bowed to Zhang. Zhang slightly avoided him and said, "It's getting late. It might not be appropriate to go late. Uncle, you should go earlier."
"Then I'll go first and come back when I'm done." Zhu Shenzhui responded, said this to Zhang and walked towards the door.
Looking at Zhu Shenzhui's departing back, Zhang watched silently, her eyes gradually becoming moist again.
After leaving home, Zhu Shenzhui walked slowly towards the general's mansion.
The general's mansion was not far from his home, and it would only take less than half an hour to walk there.
Along the way, Zhu Shenzhui met several royal family members who were also going to the general's mansion. Although they did not interact much on weekdays, they were relatives after all. In addition, today was a different day, so they naturally greeted each other when they met, and then traveled together.
They soon arrived at the General's Mansion. Today the General's Mansion was much more lively than usual. After all, it was an important day for the royal family to worship their ancestors.
The old steward of the general's mansion brought people to greet them at the door. When Zhu Shenzhui arrived, the old steward hurriedly stepped forward to salute, and then introduced the identities of Zhu Shenzhui and others to a young man wearing royal family clothes behind him.
This young man is Zhu Minfan’s grandson Zhu Shenye. Although he is only a few years younger than Zhu Shencui, according to the family tree, he is Zhu Shencui’s great-nephew.
Although Zhu Shenzhui's title was not high, his seniority was not low. When he saw Zhu Shenzhui, Zhu Shenye hurried forward to greet him and bowed. Zhu Shenzhui was not arrogant and returned the greeting according to etiquette. The two sides exchanged a few meaningless words at the door and were then invited into the mansion.
After entering the mansion, he first went to see the auxiliary general Zhu Minfan. Zhu Minfan was also wearing casual clothes today, but his casual clothes were different from Zhu Shenzhu's. His casual clothes were bright red with gold-woven tigers and leopards, the crown had five beams, and the belt had gold-decorated flowers. This was the clothing of the middle and upper-level royal family members. It would be even more different when one reached the level of a prince.
General Fengguo Zhu Minfan was nearly fifty years old. According to his age, he could be Zhu Shencui's father, but in terms of seniority, he was Zhu Shencui's nephew.
When meeting Zhu Shenzui, the chubby old man was quite polite and called Zhu Shenzui "sixth uncle". Zhu Shenzui was not arrogant and performed the greetings according to the rules first, then exchanged a few words with him. This is basically the case for everyone in such clan occasions, maintaining decency on the surface and being the same as usual. Except for those of the Zhu family, there is basically no difference between them and outsiders.
Zhu Shenzui went through the same process as ordinary members of the royal family, and was then taken to a seat by the servants of the general's mansion.
Today's seats are arranged according to the rules of the royal family, and the order of seats is nothing more than a matter of title and seniority.
The imperial clan is different from ordinary clans in that the title comes first and the seniority comes last. Therefore, Zhu Shenzhui, a clan member with a higher seniority among the same clan, has a low title, so his position is neither front nor back, and he was just given a middle seat.
He sat down and looked at the hustle and bustle of the mansion. There were at least a hundred members of the royal family coming to the general's mansion today, and not all of them were present yet.
Sitting in his seat, Zhu Shenzhui drank tea by himself. In fact, there were quite a few clan members who behaved like him. Most of the clan members who came today did not have a good life. Although they all wore casual clothes and looked bright, there were actually many people who had no food to eat at home.
Zhu Shencui's tablemate was a member of the royal family in his thirties. Zhu Shencui not only knew this person but was also close to him. This person was called Zhu Minqi, and his title was one level higher than Zhu Shencui's, being the lieutenant of the state, but in terms of seniority he was Zhu Shencui's nephew.
He arrived a little later than Zhu Shenzhui, who had already been sitting there for a while when he sat down. When he saw Zhu Shenzhui, Zhu Minyu politely called him "Sixth Uncle", and Zhu Shenzhui quickly asked him to sit down. As soon as he sat down, Zhu Minyu's eyes involuntarily looked towards the snacks on the table and he couldn't move.
"There are not many people here now, so hurry up if you want to take it." Seeing his look, Zhu Shenzhui immediately understood. He turned slightly towards Zhu Minyu and said this to him in a low voice.
Zhu Minyu was stunned for a moment, but he quickly reacted. He first cast a grateful look at Zhu Shenzhui, then looked around, and seeing that no one was paying attention to them, he raised his sleeves and swept the table. In the blink of an eye, like magic, all the snacks that had just been placed on the fruit plate disappeared.
Afterwards, Zhu Minyu took the opportunity to tidy up his robe to hide the snacks stuffed in his sleeves. Only after he had done this did he breathe a sigh of relief and pretended to pick up the tea and take a sip.
Watching his little actions, Zhu Shenzhui secretly laughed in his heart, but at the same time he couldn't help feeling sad.
The royal family members have a hard life, especially those of low rank. Not to mention Zhu Minyu's actions, even Zhu Shenzhu had done the same thing before.
After his father and brother passed away, Zhu Shencui took up the burden of the family alone. If he had saved his face, his family would have starved to death. Even though Zhu Shencui led Wangjia Village to smuggle salt and had a good income from this business to support his family, he would still do similar things on weekdays. After all, everyone knows that the royal family has a hard life. If others have a hard life, but your family lives well, it will arouse suspicion.
This is also the reason why Zhu Shenzhu, who is now clearly capable of making money, still only gives Zhang a small amount of money intermittently, and even goes to the prefectural government office from time to time to ask for his salary, and even wants to take two sesame cakes home.
"But I haven't seen Sixth Uncle for some time. How have you been recently?" Zhu Minyu asked after taking a sip of tea.
"It's okay. The salary from the court is always not coming, and life is getting worse day by day. Fortunately, there are only three people in my family, so we can barely get by. But I'm afraid your family is not having a good time, right?"
Zhu Minyu sighed and shook his head. His life was not only difficult, but he was almost at the end of his rope.
Compared to Zhu Shenzhu's small family, Zhu Minyu's family is huge.
There are seven people in Zhu Minwei's family, including his mother, wife, children, and himself. The youngest son is only three years old, and the oldest is only twelve years old.
According to the current rules of the royal family, one must be fifteen years old to be eligible for royal family treatment. So among the several children, himself, his mother and his wife, only Zhu Minyu is eligible to receive a salary.
That would be fine, but the key problem is that the salaries of the royal family have not only been deducted, but often not paid. The salary they can get throughout the year is not enough to support their family. If Zhu Minyu had not sold the things left by his ancestors, his family would have starved to death. How could they still be sitting here?
Those snacks just now were just ordinary cakes, but even for Zhu Minyu's family, they hadn't tasted such things for a long time.
He hid it secretly, not because Zhu Minyu himself was greedy, but mainly for the sake of his own children. It was pitiful to say, as they were members of the royal family, their children could not even get enough food to eat since they were young, let alone these snacks.
As they were talking, two more members of the royal family came up. They were also at Zhu Shenzhui's table.
One of them was Zhu Minfeng, who was also Zhu Shencui's nephew and slightly older than Zhu Minqi. The other was Zhu Minfeng's nephew Zhu Qiuqi, who was also Zhu Shencui's great-nephew.
When they met Zhu Shenzui, Zhu Minfeng and Zhu Qiuqi first bowed and greeted him, one calling him Sixth Uncle and the other calling him Grandpa Uncle. They called Zhu Minqi Fifth Brother and Fifth Uncle, and after the greetings, they sat down next to each other with a smile.
As soon as he sat down, Zhu Qiuqi's eyes swept across the empty plate. He was stunned at first, then annoyed, and cursed. He raised his hand and called the manager of the general's mansion who was not far away. He pointed at the plate with an unhappy look and asked why there were no snacks in it. Where did the snacks go? They came here with great difficulty to worship their ancestors today, and the general's mansion treated them like this?
(End of this chapter)