The wind is gentle and the fun is endless

Slowly, Xiangyue and the ladies came to the central hall of the Shen Mansion. This hall was very large, and seemed to be specially prepared for banquets. There were five large round tables in the hall and three large round tables in the side hall. Lord Shen Zhongjun, Madam Shen, the eldest son, the second son, and the third daughter of the Shen family all invited the guests to take their seats. Soon after they sat down, the banquet began, and the guests were inevitably toasting and drinking.

After lunch, the host invited all the guests to listen to music in the garden, take a walk or admire the lotus flowers by the lake. Various fruits and snacks were placed in the pavilion in the garden for the guests to enjoy.

Huanhuan and Xu Qu were sitting in the pavilion, and soon Xu Xiangyue came over to invite her to take a boat to the lake to enjoy the lotus. Xiangyue persuaded her, "Sister-in-law, take listening to music as an example, it doesn't matter when you listen to it, but there are seasonal rules for enjoying the lotus, and now we have to take a boat to enjoy the lotus, the perspective is different from being far away on the shore, and this opportunity is rare."

Hearing Xiangyue say this, Huanhuan also thought that she should go and take a look, so she explained to Xu Qu and followed Xiangyue to the lake. When they reached the lake, two small boats had already left the shore, carrying giggling girls, and the largest boat was parked at the shore. Miss Shen San was waving at Xiangyue and Huanhuan at the stern of the boat, asking them to get on board quickly.

After getting on the boat and sitting down, Huanhuan found that the girl in green from Baoqin Pavilion was also on the boat. Since he already knew the girl's feelings, Huanhuan couldn't help but look at her a few more times and sized her up. The girl was thin, pale, with moth-like eyebrows and phoenix eyes, and thin lips tightly pursed, looking a little weak. Huanhuan found that the girl also glanced at Huanhuan from time to time, and her eyes looking at Huanhuan were a little complicated.

But soon, my attention was drawn to the beautiful scenery in the lake. In the lake, layers of green leaves were like open umbrellas, stretching out and connecting into one piece. Occasionally, there were rolling water drops on the leaves, round and rolling with the oars that were pushed into the water. When I opened the lotus leaves, I occasionally saw a few small fish playing in the water.

On the jade-like lotus leaves, some lotus flowers are just budding, but have already shown a graceful posture, standing upright on the leaves; some lotus flowers have only opened two or three petals, like lazy beauties, graceful and elegant; some lotus flowers are in full bloom, charming in color, elegant in posture, and quiet in quality. In short, in Huanhuan's opinion, the beauty of lotus flowers cannot be painted or written.

The girls were talking and laughing while playing. Some girls picked up lotus leaves and placed them on their heads to make umbrellas, or turned them upside down to make hats; some girls sat by the boat, put their bare feet in the water and paddled again and again; some girls scooped up a handful of green waves and sprinkled them on their companions, who smiled and splashed them back.

Wherever the cruise ship went, there were bursts of laughter and joy like silver bells. Some of the sounds even drowned out the songs sung by the actors on the shore, attracting the attention of the audience. Pedestrians walking on the shore also stopped to look, and those who were talking stopped talking to look into the lake. Everyone was infected by the joyful atmosphere and laughed knowingly along with the girls.

Xiangyue, who usually had a cold attitude, was now covering her mouth and smiling. She slowly gained some courage, walked to the edge of the boat, bent over and gently stroked a lotus flower. She liked it so much that she wanted to pick it, but also liked it so much that she was reluctant to pick it.

Huanhuan was so focused on admiring the flowers that she didn't notice that she was standing on a log used for supporting boats. Suddenly, the log rolled down from being stepped on. Huanhuan lost her balance and leaned forward. She tried hard to keep her balance and made several circles in the air with her hands. Finally, she stumbled and fell into the water with a splash.

The people who were close to Huanhuan were stunned by the sudden scene. Some people who were farther away heard the sound of water and looked over here in confusion. After a while, people finally came to their senses and realized that someone had fallen into the water. The girls who reacted shouted, "Someone has fallen into the water."

The laughter of the people on the boat in the distance was interrupted by the shouting. When they looked over here together with the people on the shore who heard the sound, they saw the usually cold and reserved beauty Xu Xiangyue stamping her feet anxiously beside the boat and shouting into the water, "Sister-in-law! Sister-in-law!" Miss Shen was paddling in the water with a paddle.

Two or three boatmen rowing on the boat jumped into the water one after another and quickly pulled the body out of the water.

She slowly pressed the edge of the boat with both hands, borrowed the help of the boatman behind her, and jumped onto the boat. There were a few messy seaweeds on her head, and her whole body was wet. Her clothes stuck to her body, and her hair stuck to her face. She coughed several times after spitting out a mouthful of water.

When Xu Qu strode to the shore after being notified, she slowly fell on the boat in such a miserable state, and Xiangyue pursed her lips and stayed by her side.

The ladies on the boat came to help him enthusiastically, smiling uncontrollably, saying, "Oh, how did you fall into the water..."; the well-intentioned ones frowned and tried to hold back their smiles; the polite ones forced themselves to laugh; the impolite ones put their hands on their stomachs and laughed until they bent over; some even couldn't help but whisper to each other, their ridicule was evident in their words. In short, Huanhuan had undoubtedly become the biggest joke on the boat and on the shore.

The boat soon reached the shore, and Mrs. Xie, Lord Shen Zhongjun and his wife, and Xu's second aunt and uncle also arrived at the shore. Xu Xiangyue helped Huan Huan stand up, and Xu Qu boarded the boat, took Huan Huan's left arm from Xu Xiangyue's hand, bent over, picked up Huan Huan horizontally, and carried Huan Huan off the boat.

When they turned around, they slowly caught a glimpse of the green figure. The girl in green was biting her lower lip and twisting the handkerchief in her hand back and forth with her fingers.

Before coming here, Madam Shen had already ordered the servants to quickly fetch a cloak. Now she, Madam Xie and Madam Shen II gathered around and said, "Oh, we are not good enough to entertain you. Madam Xu was frightened."

Mrs. Xie and Mrs. Shen also asked Huanhuan with concern whether she was injured and how she felt.

Huanhuan felt very embarrassed. She put one hand around Xu Qu's neck and clenched her other hand tightly. She buried her face half in Xu Qu's arms and said, "Mother, Second Aunt, don't worry. I'm not injured. It's okay. Ah--A-choo!"

Although it was the Dragon Boat Festival, the lake water was still very cold. When the breeze blew from the shore, I couldn't help shivering and sneezing.

At this time, Madam Shen took the cloak handed over by the servant, slowly put it on, and said, "Madam Xu, please come to our guest room to rest for a while. We will find you some clothes to change and give you a hot bath."

Huanhuan was too embarrassed to do that. She was anxious to go back to Xu's house and said, "Thank you, Madam Shen, for your kindness. It's not necessary."

So Madam Xie said goodbye to Madam Shen, "Madam Shen, we have been bothering you for a long time today. We will take our leave first. Thank you and Lord Shen for your hospitality."

Mrs. Shen said, "I hope you can forgive me for the poor hospitality."

Mrs. Xie replied, "You are too polite. You have other guests to entertain. Don't let us spoil everyone's fun."

Afterwards, just like when they came, Mrs. Xie and Xu Xiangyue took one carriage, and Xu Qu and Huanhuan took another carriage, and they went back to the Xu Mansion.

Along the way, Huanhuan kept sneezing and shivering from the cold. Xu Qu saw this and thought: We have to hurry back to Xu Mansion. So Xu Qu decisively ordered the driver to stop the carriage, and briefly explained to Mrs. Xie and Xiangyue, and then wanted to ride back to Xu Mansion first. He untied the carriage and asked the driver to wait there while he sent Youcheng back on horseback to meet the driver and the carriage. Then he and Huanhuan got on the horse, and the two of them galloped to Xu Mansion.

After returning to the Xu residence, Xu Qu held Huan Huan horizontally and strode into Xin Garden. When passing by the small pond behind the bamboo and rocks, Huan Huan struggled for a moment, and then stopped strangely. Huan Huan jumped out of Xu Qu's arms, walked to the edge of the pond, opened her tightly clenched hands, and took out a small green crab. She put the small crab into the pond, muttering, "Be good, or I'll raise you and turn you into a hairy crab to eat."

Xu Qu opened his mouth in surprise. This is... He didn't forget to pick up a small crab even after falling into the water! Feng Huanhuan, you are really great!

Xu Qu raised his eyebrows, his eyes darkened, he strode forward, picked her up forcefully, and slowly walked towards the bedroom.

Seeing Xiaoyu and Qingxing coming from afar, Xiaoyu opened her round eyes wide and asked in surprise, "Miss, what's wrong?"

Xu Qu didn't have time to answer, and quickly said to Qing Xing, "Young Madam has fallen into the water and needs a hot bath. Go and prepare it."

Upon hearing this, Qingxing immediately called out Xiaohong and Xiaoju, and the three of them hurried to the backyard to prepare bath water for Huanhuan.

Xu Qu carried Huanhuan into the bedroom, gently placed her on the couch, and went to the closet to get a set of clean clothes for himself and Huanhuan. After handing Huanhuan's dry clothes to Huanhuan, Xu Qu also wanted to change his own clothes that were wet from holding Huanhuan, but he hesitated for a moment, thought for a moment, picked up his dry clothes, left the bedroom, and went to the east wing to change clothes.

Xiaoyu followed them into the bedroom and thought that her son-in-law was not willing to change clothes in front of her, so she didn't think much about it. She quickly helped Huanhuan take off her cloak, took off her wet clothes, and quickly changed her into dry clothes. Seeing that Huanhuan kept sneezing, Xiaoyu turned around and went out to make a pot of tea for Huanhuan and brought it in.

Huanhuan sipped her tea, and Xiaoyu took a cloak and put it on her. After a while, Qingxing, Xiaohong and Xiaoju came in to prepare the bath water, and Qingxing and Xiaoyu gave Huanhuan a hot bath together.

Xiaoyu scooped up some warm water and washed her hair with it. Then she sneezed again. Xiaoyu said with a little bit of annoyance, "Miss, why are you so careless? You are not a child who doesn't know anything. If you play so much that you become a drowned dog, wouldn't it make people laugh at you?"

In the mist, he sniffed slowly and said, "I stepped on a log. Someone rolled the log under my feet, and then I slipped and fell off the boat."

Qing Xing heard this and asked, "Young Madam, is it possible that someone is deliberately doing something bad?"

He sneezed again slowly, rubbed his nose with his hand, and said in a nasal voice, "I don't know about that."

Afraid that Huanhuan would catch a cold again, Qingxing and Xiaoyu quickly helped Huanhuan take a bath, and then Huanhuan covered herself with a warm quilt and fell into a deep sleep.