Chapter 41: Luck

The Xiao Bai River is located on the southern outskirts of Baihe Town. When the Ren family’s carriage arrived, the warm shed on the bank had already been set up the day before, enclosing a vast space to isolate idle people.

When Ren Yaoqi and the other women got off the carriage, they saw that there were many people watching the event outside. There were also some half-grown children dragging a small flat-bottomed cart made of wooden boards with thick hemp ropes, running back and forth on the unenclosed ice surface, or whistling back and forth in their homemade ice skates, laughing and joking.

The Ren family’s housekeeper thought they were too noisy and sent family members to chase them away several times, but as soon as they left the other children ran back and could not be chased away. In the end, it was the Ren family’s Eldest Young Master Ren Yiyin who said that today’s visit to the house was meant to be fun, and it would be better to be lively, so they gave up.

Today, in addition to the Fifth Master Ren Shimao and the Fifth Madam Lin, the rest are the Ren family juniors. The Fifth Master and his wife said before they traveled that they had something to do first and would not go with them, so for the time being, the Eldest Young Master Ren Yiyin and the Eldest Young Madam Zhao took the lead.

Ren Yaoqi and all the sisters of the Ren family followed Zhao to the warming shed, and once they were seated, they saw another group of people walk in, and it was the Han family’s lady who doesn’t go out easily.

Ren Yaoqi looked out and saw Han Yunqian, the young master of the Han family, laughing and joking with Ren Yiyin and Qiu Yun as they walked towards the house.

“Huh? This is?” Ren Yaoying, the seventh young lady of the East Mansion, asked in confusion as she looked at the Han family young lady walking towards them, she had not seen Han You before.

Ren Yaoyin smiled and said, “This is Miss Han family, her elder brother and third cousin they are fellow students of Yunyang Academy, so cousin has sent a post to Han family.”

Han You smiled and came forward to meet her, and the Eldest Young Madam Zhao arranged for her to sit down beside Ren Yaoyin and Ren Yaoqi.

“I was worried that you wouldn’t be able to come that day when I heard cousin discussing with big brother about sending a post to the Han family, but fortunately you came.” Ren Yaoyin smiled kindly at Han You.

Han You’s eyes were bright as she looked around, and when she heard Ren Yaoyin’s words she said in a shy whisper, “When I received your post last month, my mother happened to be sick, so.. this time it was my mother and brother who convinced my grandmother that I should come.”

Han You’s explanation was somewhat inconsistent, but they had heard about Han You’s situation before, so they knew what was going on, and they couldn’t help but feel a little more sympathy for her.

Although Han You is a bit shy because she rarely goes out, she is gentle and knows how to be polite, so several sisters of the Ren family did not reject her after they came in contact with her.

Everyone sat and drank tea and ate snacks, but the competition outside hadn’t started for a long time. Madam Zhao explained that they had to wait for the fifth master and fifth wife to come.

After waiting for a long time, the Eldest Young Master Ren Yiyin sent someone back to look for the Fifth Master and Lin while announcing the start of the competition.

At this time, Yun Wenfang, Han Yunqian, Qiu Yun, and Ren Yijian, the Fifth Young Master of the Ren family, came out in unlined clothes, and several women were putting leggings and ice shoes on their legs.

The ice crawlers were made of iron and tied to the feet with straps.

“Fifth Brother, are they going to play?” The Eldest Young Madam Zhao was taken aback, and looked at the sisters of the Ren family. Obviously she didn’t know the relationship before.

Several of the Ren sisters looked at each other, but it was Miss Han who said, “When we were on the road I heard from Duke Qiu and brother that several of them were each bringing a team of houseguests.”

Sure enough the crowd saw that they had four different colored belts tied around their waists.

Several of the young masters of the Ren family had played this before, but never personally on the field of play. But it was just a hoot to watch.

Madam Zhao was a little anxious when she heard the words. The Fifth Madam and the Fifth Master didn’t come, so she and the young master are in charge here. She was very afraid that if something happened, she would not be able to explain to Old Madam Ren and Eldest Madam. So she hurriedly got up and went to discuss with Eldest Young Master Ren Yiyan.

Ren Yaoyu curled her lips and complained: “Sister-in-law is just cowardly and dare not make decisions about everything. If my mother was present, there would be no need for such trouble.'”

Ren Yaoyin frowned, and defended her sister-in-law softly: “Sister-in-law is also worried about the safety of her cousin and the others. I heard that someone broke their neck because of the ice play competition last year.”

The Eldest Young Madam, Zhao, also came from a famous family, with a gentle temperament and a well-behaved manner. On the second day of her wedding with the young master Ren Yiyan, she went to serve tea to the elders of the Ren family. Because it was raining outside and the road was slippery, Ren Yiyan inadvertently helped her up the steps in front of everyone, and she almost fell down from the steps, blushing for a whole day, half a month embarrassed to leave the room.

Madam Zhao has been married for two years, and her stomach has not moved, which made her more cautious in the Ren family. Fortunately, Ren Yiyan has a gentle temperament, and the husband and wife have always been in harmony.

After a while, Madam Zhao came back a little frustrated. Apparently the young masters over there refused to listen to the persuasion and insisted on playing.

Ren Yijian was still wearing his outfit, ran over, winked and cupped his hands, and said, “Sisters-in-law and sisters, when you give the lottery later, you must look for my red waistband! Be generous, and the Ren family will accept it. It’s just me.”

Said that Ren Yijian walked around triumphantly in front of everyone, so that everyone could clearly see the red belt around his waist.

Qiu Yun laughed at him from the side: “It’s good to admit defeat if you are inferior to others. If you do what you do, most of the people sitting here today are from the Ren family.”

Everyone couldn’t help laughing, Yijian blushed, made a grimace and ran away.

Qiu Yun blinked at Yun Wenfang: “Should we follow the example of that kid and climb up the relationship? Otherwise, what should we do if no one cheers us later?”

Yun Wenfang glanced in the direction of the women’s family members, and then turned his eyes away from Ren Yaoqi after a slight pause. He twitched at the corner of his mouth and joked, “Okay, you still want to cry like him if you lose?”

Qiu Yun smiled, remembering that he had teased Ren Yijian before when he lost to him in chess when he was a child, and he was crying and shameless.

Outside, the sound of a gong was heard, it was the start of the game. Several people are heading outside. There were already four teams on the ice, eight people on each team.

First is the “grab and wait”, this competition is not divided into teams. After the drums sounded three times, all of them sped back and forth on the river with their ice skates on, and the first one to arrive won.

Hearing the cheers from outside, the people in the warming shed couldn’t sit still and flocked to the entrance of the shed to watch. Today there are no elders present, even Madam Zhao felt much more relaxed, and was dragged away by Ren Yaoyu.

Ren Yaoyin saw that Han You was also eager to see it, so she took the initiative to invite her along. The two asked Ren Yaoqi if she wanted to go outside to see it, and Ren Yaoqi shook her head: “You guys go first, I’ll sit for a while.”

Seeing that Ren Yaohua didn’t leave either, Ren Yaoqi smiled and asked, “Isn’t Third Sister going to take a look? The housekeeper has already sent some strong men from the mine to surround the outside, and there are also many maids guarding outside the warming shed, so no one can enter.”

Ren Yaohua was not very good at getting along with others, so the sisters of the Ren family went out in twos and threes and no one greeted her.

Ren Yaohua didn’t know what she was thinking, and raised her head upon hearing this. Before he had time to reply, he heard the sound of gongs and drums outside, and then several maidservants shuttled back and forth, each holding a basket, looking for everyone to beg for a lottery. They wear red, yellow, blue, and blue belts around their waists, representing the teams of the four young masters.

Under the leadership of Ren Yiyan and Mrs. Zhao, everyone donated money and cheered.

Ren Yaoqi turned her head and instructed Xue Li, “Take 10 cents of silver to the little maid with the red belt.” Then she asked Ren Yaohua, “What about the third sister? Who do you want to choose?”

Ren Yaohua instructed her maid Wu Jing, “Give the red belt to the fifth brother.”

Xue Li and Wu Jing both went happily.

When Ren Yaoqi saw the other two maids behind her poking their heads in the air, she smiled and said, “You go too. There are Xiang Qin and the girls here to serve.” The maids can also give some color, just as a good luck.

Xiang Qin was Ren Yaohua’s maid, but the maids around Ren Yaoqi were playful and retreated happily upon hearing the words.

“You’re indulging them too much!” Ren Yaohua couldn’t bear to look at them and frowned.

Ren Yaoqi smiled, the maids around her were still the ones given by Concubine Fang for the time being, and they were more jumpy, so most of them would have to be replaced later.

At this time, a maid wearing a blue belt came over here, held the bamboo basket in her hand and bowed upright, her eyes swept over Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua, then looked at Ren Yaoqi and said with a smile, “Slave servant is here to ask for a prize for Young Master Yun.”

Ren Yaoqi was slightly stunned, who and how much to give is voluntary, how come there are those who take the initiative to ask for it?

Ren Yaohua looked at the maid and then frowned at Ren Yaoqi.

Ren Yaoqi smiled: “The maids around me are all watching the fun, I’ll have someone send them to you for the next game. Which courtyard are you from? How come I haven’t seen you before?”

The servant girl pursed her lips and said with a smile: “The servant girl was sent by my old lady to serve my young master, not from Ren’s mansion, that’s why Fifth Young Lady doesn’t recognize the servant girl.”

After thinking about it, the maid added: “The colorful head is just for good luck, it doesn’t matter how much money you give, it’s the same for the Fifth Young Lady.”

Before she finished speaking, Ren Yaohua said with a sullen face, “Even if you are not our Ren family’s maid, has the house not taught you the rules? The master’s bounty needs you to dictate!”