Secrets of Yuqing Palace

When the brother and sister arrived at the carriage of Prince Wen's Mansion, Amur's other maid, Yaduo, had already gotten off the car and was waiting.

She knelt and bowed, "Princess Wanyu, how is Prince Mujin?"

"The princess is already waiting in the carriage for you and the prince to get on. Please follow me, my two masters."

Wanyu nodded, "Lead the way."

Seeing the brother and sister get on the carriage of Prince Wen's Mansion, the man standing by the window of the restaurant withdrew his gaze calmly.

"Tell the people below to prepare."

"Yes, Master!"

In the carriage of Prince Wen's Mansion, Amur saw the brother and sister bending over to come in, his face full of joy.

"You are here, come and sit down."

Seeing her, Mu Jin politely greeted her: "Brother greets Sister Amur."

"Brother Mu Jin, long time no see."

"How is Sister Amur doing now that she's here? My third brother and sister both got to see her last time, but I missed out. I feel really bad."

"So, knowing that my third sister and my elder sister had an appointment to go to Xiangshan to see the scenery today, I shamelessly followed my third sister here."

"Sister, you won't think your brother is an eyesore, right?"

Amur tapped him on the head.

"What nonsense are you talking about? I'm so happy to see Mu Jin today."

After a brief greeting between the three of them, Amur told the coachman of Prince Wen's Mansion to drive out of the city.

Aunt Zhangjia was still sitting outside, side by side with the coachman.

Dolan stayed in the car, ready to pour tea and water for the three masters.

Two teams of carriages left the city one after another. The guards of Prince Wen's Mansion and the guards of Guwaljia Mansion loyally guarded on both sides of the carriages.

The carriage was extremely lively at this time.

Wanyu opened the wooden box that Aunt Zhang Jia had prepared in advance.

Inside were some things she had prepared to help her pass the time on the road today.

Originally, she thought she could play Go, Gobang and Flying Chess with Mu Jin in the car.

I didn't expect this guy to come over and ride in the carriage of Prince Wen's Mansion.

Since there were three of them, she thought for a moment and took out a square cloth bag that was slightly larger than a purse from the box.

"Third sister, what's in your bag?"

Wanyu took the things out of the cloth bag and placed them on the low table in the middle of the carriage.

"Leaf brand? But it's so square, it doesn't look like it."

"This isn't really leaf cards. This is a new card game that I, your third sister, came up with."

"As for the name, I haven't decided yet."

"You can think about it together and give this card a name."

Mu Jin and Amur both looked at her curiously.

In fact, this is the poker of later generations, but due to the limitations of the times, Wanyu still made some changes in appearance.

Although Arabic numerals are no longer inappropriate nowadays because of Johann Adam Schall von Bell and Ferdinand Verbiest, Wanyu still replaced the numbers with uppercase Chinese characters.

Moreover, JQK and the big and small kings have all been greatly changed by her.

Although Wanyu is a Manchu aunt who has learned a lot, she has not learned foreign languages, so she would not make such a mistake.

To be cautious, she replaced JQK and the big and small kings according to the current professional class levels of "scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans".

Merchant corresponds to J, worker corresponds to Q, farmer corresponds to K, and scholar corresponds to king.

As for the scholar-official class, Wanyu used "upper official" to correspond to the king and "lower official" to correspond to the lesser king.

No wonder she's too cautious.

It was indeed the Qing Dynasty that implemented cruel literary inquisition.

She was unwilling to risk the lives of her entire family or even her entire clan because of a small card game.

Therefore, any possibility of having any connection with the ruling class is eliminated.

Otherwise, it would be like playing poker in later generations, where four identical cards are considered bombs and even the jokers are helpless.

If you are used by someone with ulterior motives, who knows if the emperor will be petty and think that you are plotting rebellion and execute all nine generations of your family!

Not only that, she also changed the original four suits of clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades.

It was directly changed to plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum among the Four Gentlemen.

They are all famous flowers that symbolize noble virtues, making the small game look more elegant.

Wanyu thought to herself, "Hmm! Even with this change, it still looks like a game a lady would play."

The two looked at the cards on the table with curiosity, and Wanyu taught them the differences between these cards and leaf cards.

As she spoke, she showed the cards in her hand. The pattern of each card attracted the attention of everyone present.

"This playing card is very different from the leaf cards we often see. Ordinary leaf cards have patterns of flowers, birds, fish and insects painted on them."

"This type of playing cards has four suits: plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum. Each suit has a face value ranging from 1 to Nong, for a total of thirteen cards."

"After ten, it's Shang. You can interpret people as 11 o'clock."

"After business comes work, which can be interpreted as 12 o'clock."

"Based on this calculation, the agricultural hour is 13 o'clock."

"The biggest card in this deck is the 'Shi' card, but the value of the upper doctor is higher than that of the lower doctor."

"There are thirteen cards in each of the four suits, for a total of fifty-two cards. Add the two "Shi" cards, and the whole deck has fifty-four cards."

She asked, "So, can you understand?"

The two of them found it very interesting, looked at her with shining eyes, and nodded.

Aren't they just playing cards of four suits, with face values ​​ranging from one to ten, plus three cards for merchants, industrialists, and farmers, and two cards for scholars?

simple!

However, since it was the first time they heard of this kind of cards, they were both full of curiosity.

Mu Jin looked up and asked her.

"Sister, how do you play this kind of cards?"

Seeing that he was anxious, Wanyu simply shuffled the cards and taught them the simplest way to play poker.

After a few rounds, the two gradually became familiar with the way of playing poker, from being unfamiliar at first to gradually getting into the groove.

As the two became more proficient, Wanyu's joy in bullying the newbie also disappeared.

However, when playing poker, the fun of the back-and-forth competition far outweighs the pleasure of bullying the weak.

Therefore, laughter and joy rose and fell in the carriage, occasionally mixed with the frustration of the losers and the pride of the winners.

Dolan was also happy when he saw his master smiling.

Usually in the Prince's Mansion, the master is alone most of the time and is actually lonely.

I feel so happy only when I am in Guwalja Prefecture.

She waited quietly in the car, and whenever the teacup next to a master was empty, she would go up and add a cup of hot tea.

The main feature is caring service!

Although playing poker was fun, the three of them didn't play for too long.

They are all children of big families and understand that playing with things will lead to loss of ambition.

Usually they are very restrained and will not indulge too much in any pastime or entertainment.

Mu Jin put the playing cards away and put them back into the bag that his third sister had taken out.

Then put the bag back into the box.

"Third sister, what do you think of naming this deck of cards 'Gentleman's Cards'?"

Amur smiled and asked, "The Four Gentlemen of Plum, Orchid, Bamboo and Chrysanthemum?"

"Yes, the suit on this card is the Four Gentlemen."

"I think the name 'Junzi Brand' is very appropriate."

Wanyu nodded in agreement, "Okay, if you all think it's good, then I have no objection."

Then he turned to look at Amur beside him.

"Sister Amur, we haven't played together for a long time."

"I brought my zither with me today, as we're still a while away from Xiangshan."

"How about we play a few songs together today?"

Amur smiled tacitly and said, "Sister and I are in tune with each other, so I brought my zither too."

They were born in the same year, but Amur is a few months older than Wanyu.

When she was a child, she often lived in Guwaljia Prefecture, so she grew up with the sisters Wanlin and Wanyu.

When they were in Guwaljia Prefecture, the sisters Wanlin and Wanyu studied with a female teacher, and she also followed them.

After all, when she married Shi Liha, she would be considered the eldest daughter-in-law of the second house, so the Guwaljia family would have high expectations of her.

Not only can she learn with her sisters, but she can also learn more skills to stand on her own, so she studies very seriously.

When learning musical instruments, she and Wanlin both chose to learn the piano, while Wanyu chose to learn the zheng.

Wanyu prefers the brighter and crisper tone of the zheng.